Pierrot's Song

Prologue

PrologueIn the Creator’s great book there are infinite stories, and on every page there is much to learn. Listen now to this tale, for it is important everyone remembers. More important than we ever understood, when this began. Then, we didn’t realise how much had been forgotten. As we journeyed on, we understood more, but there were secrets upon secrets. Our enemies were cloaked in shadow, the outcome less than clear.

This is not my tale. My part in all of this has been small. But important in its own way, I suppose. No doubt the Creator brought me to Mina for a reason. Weavers of tales know their craft. They do not place a character in a Tale if they have no part to play. And we are all part of a great Tale in the end, though we may not always see our purpose. As a storyteller I had caught glimpses of forgotten stories for many years. In truth, I had become obsessed with finding what had been lost. When I met Mina, I could not have said what drew me to her so powerfully, but I sensed a connection to what I was seeking.

Mina was the one who brought long-hidden secrets into the light. Gifts such as hers are rarely seen. Luka would say she shines like the moon. When she weaves a tale, it comes alive, and you are drawn into it. She can hold an audience in utter thrall. I never met another with such ability to transform the world.

But she did not act alone.

Mina’s beginnings did not hint at what she would achieve. Growing up in the small coastal town of Andon, she knew little of the world, but that didn’t stop her wanting to travel in search of her brother, missing ten years. He had gone away with a troupe of travelling players when she was a child and had never come home. So Mina decided she too would apprentice with a player troupe, in hopes of finding some clue to her brother’s whereabouts. But her mother Olivia had warned her the players might be dangerous, making her wary about asking them directly if they had any knowledge of her brother.

Mina found out much later the reason for Olivia’s fear was her suspicion the players had been involved somehow in causing Uncle Tonio’s madness, for it had come upon him after a confrontation with players years before. Those events that left him mad sent ripples across many lives. Olivia was burned and permanently injured in a fire that left Tonio’s player wife dead. The role of the players in so much destruction was unclear, but Mina took on her family’s mistrust and carried it with her as she began a new life.

As Mina travelled with the players, she learned their art and the secret behind it. They drew stories from stolen dreams to perform on stage, and donned characters like a cloak, from souls they harvested in a realm close to our own. In this place, Tarya, Mina found she could do what nobody else could. She travelled further than anyone ever had through its many places and even brought parts of Tarya into the real world. But with everything she learned she became increasingly uneasy. Finally, she understood why. What the players harvested in Tarya, dreams and souls, left people physically ill—or even worse, mad—in the real world. She was not able to leave such a discovery unanswered. She left the player troupe and was planning to ask for the help of the governing body of all artisans, the Council of Muses. But before she could, events overtook her, and she ended up fleeing for her life.

I joined Mina on her journey then, and as a practicing storyteller I was able to train her in the art of Tale Telling. Finally, she found her brother, who was as mad as his uncle had been. She was going to take him home, but her mentor from the players, Uberto, caught up with her. During their confrontation Uberto was drawn into the River, one of the places Mina had discovered in Tarya. The result was that the spirit of Harlequin, his player character, left him, and we all saw how he aged instantly, as though decades descended upon him in a heartbeat. Yet Uberto was happy after this, for he was free of the influence of another who had been controlling him whenever he donned the Harlequin character. He and his family returned to Aurea and disbanded his player troupe. Some of the troupe joined Mina, travelling the country of Litonya to right the wrongs done by players.

Mina worked hard to learn how to restore stolen dreams, healing many people. Another player, Lisette, and I helped her with the healings, though it taxed us all unbearably. Worse, Mina was pursued by all the player troupes in the land, who were angry that their playing no longer worked. For when Mina healed people, she robbed the players of the dreams that fuelled their performances. Roberto, once a member of Uberto’s troupe, and now apparently the leader of all troupes, caught her and stabbed her. Only Luka was with her when it happened. The wound was so bad he thought she would die, but she healed herself, and in the process learned how to heal others without becoming dangerously depleted of energy.

After Mina was healed, she travelled with Luka back to her hometown of Andon, where we had all planned to reunite, return her unfortunate brother to the care of his family, and plan our next steps. On the road Luka admitted to Mina that he had feelings for her. He knew, he told me later, that his timing could have been better since Dario, for whom she had complicated feelings because of first love and possible betrayal, had recently been rendered mad by the players. But love makes us fools. Mina gently rebuffed Luka’s declaration.

When Luka and Mina reached Andon, the next stage of our journey seemed clear—to travel back to the royal city of Aurea, to talk with the Council of Muses and seek their help in stopping the players’ destruction of peoples’ lives. But our plans were dashed when Jal, another player from Uberto’s troupe, arrived in Andon. He had just escaped from the Council after making a terrible discovery. Not only were the Council aware the players tore souls from people to create onstage characters, but they were doing the same thing themselves, for reasons no one understood. Souls’ Rest, a place that housed Aurea’s unfortunates, was filled with artisans whose mental hold on the world had slipped.

At this point I came up with a new plan. The origin stories of Litonya spoke of seven muses who helped the great Creator and inspired artisans to great heights of creativity. I had long been researching older versions of the stories of the Creator and the muses that hinted at a different past to the one spoken about in the official Tales of Tarya. I surmised that the true story of the muses might be different to the tales we were instructed to tell.

Something had been hidden from our collective memory, and I wanted to know what, and why. As I learned of the terrible misuse of Tarya that was occurring, instinct told me uncovering these lost secrets could be the key to defeating the Council of Muses and the players, before more were harmed. By sharing what I knew, I set a course that led us to finally uncover the shadow that lay over all our lives.

Our journey diverted away from the bright, golden royal city of Aurea. Instead, we went in search of the dark, hidden hollows of the Fureys, a terrible mountain range sheltering the unspeakable monsters of our childhood fears.

Now you will learn what we uncovered, and what we wrought. We acted from the noblest of intentions. No more disappearances or damage. No more grief. Healing for those who had lost so much. We did not foresee what the cost would be, or who it was that would pay.