shining with magic mystery — ✨

❝ Sacrifice. That’s what we do for the people we love. ❞

❝ I don’t want soft and subtle. I want rough, wild heartache. I want sin. I want you. ❞

❝ I’m carving a space inside you — can you feel it? ❞

❝ Does it hurt to know that I enjoy seeing you like this? ❞

❝ The blood on my teeth begins to taste like religion, like the way you look at me. ❞

❝ I say I want you inside me and you split me open with a knife. ❞

❝ Love is a scar. ❞

❝ I confuse instinct for desire — isn’t bite also touch? ❞

❝ Because you want to die for love, you always have. ❞

❝ If you are intolerable, then let me be the one to tolerate you. ❞

❝ Nothing ever ends poetically. It ends and we turn it into poetry. ❞

❝ All that blood was never once beautiful, it was just red. ❞

❝ Give me poison apples so you never leave my tongue. ❞

❝ Give me shards of glass, sharper than any thorn, so you’ll always be in my grasp. ❞

❝ I threw a punch just to touch his face. ❞

❝ The enormity of my desire disgusts me. ❞

❝ I want to take you home and rough you up and get my hands inside you, drive my body into yours like a crash test car. ❞

❝ The blood is rare and as sweet as cherry wine. ❞

❝ I have never known closeness like this. ❞

❝ Whatever I’ve done, I’ve done it for love. ❞

❝ I love you so much I’m going to let you kill me. ❞

❝ You cut me apart and I said it was creation. I can still feel the knife. ❞

❝ I kissed your scars even after you hurt me. ❞

❝ The way she shows me I’m hers and she is mine — open hand or closed fist, oh, would be fine ❞

❝ Bite me: sign my death with your teeth. ❞

❝ Desire is a promise. ❞ / ❝ Desire is a knife. ❞

❝ Sorry about the blood in your mouth. I wish it was mine. ❞

❝ It is a monstrous love and it makes monsters of us all. ❞

❝ I never understood desire until I felt your hands around my throat. ❞

❝ Whether you come as a lover or an executioner, I am ready to receive you. ❞

❝ Show me your thorns and I’ll show you hands ready to bleed. ❞

❝ I would love to be ruined if it means I am sacred enough to be kept close. ❞

❝ I don’t know how to love someone without swallowing them. ❞

❝ If you are a knife, give me the blade. Some things are worth spilling blood for. ❞

❝ The same sin binds us. ❞

❝ To be loved is to be consumed. ❞

❝ I need your teeth in me, slow and vicious. Tell me my armor is just skin and bones. Only bones. ❞

❝ Want me down to the marrow. ❞

❝ In loving me you hold a knife to my throat. In loving you, I tell you where to cut. ❞

❝ Stay away from the ones you love too much. These are the ones who will kill you. ❞

❝ All that matters is that you want to hurt me. All that matters is you want me. ❞

❝ I had a dream last night that you and I were painfully connected. ❞

❝ I’d probably still adore you with your hands around my neck. ❞

❝ We’re what we swore we’d not become. ❞

❝ Some things you do for money, some you only do for love. ❞

❝ You are the knife I turn inside myself. ❞

This is part four of a many part series of lines and dialogue taken from The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Feel free to change pronouns or anything else to better suit your needs.

Do you really think me so tempting no man could resist me?

I could not sleep…how is it you ask me what I am doing here when you yourself are not in your bed?

I was restless when all around me slept - I think perhaps the moon has gotten into my blood.

I think faith is an illusion, and the truth is that we die as the beasts die, and are no more ever - like grass cut down, and last year’s snow.

You are so little - I had forgotten how little you are - I could break you with my two hands.

Sometimes it seems to me that you are one of the few things in my life which is all good.

So here we are again…it seems we have been here before…and this time I will cut off the head of any that interrupt us.

Almost you frighten me, when I would keep myself from sin, and yet I have looked on you with lust and wickedness, knowing it was wrong.

You are - you are a contemptible fool, _____! You are not even worth cursing!

I am not worthy that you should love me so well.

Dare you offer insult to my mother?

Go from here, lest my babe be born deformed because I have looked on your vile face.

You must not be so quick to assign blame to others. If there is fault, it must be your own.

Come, dear love, this is folly.

Perhaps I should seek to be a priest among the Christians,who, I have heard, teach their priests the secret  of living without women.

It is strange. I had known you were wise and a priestess, but somehow I had never thought you were beautiful.

Tell me – where have you been? I would not ask, but that whatever it is, it lies heavy on your heart.

Why do you think I am any more happy or contented than you?

I do not know how I shall live if you go away.

I would not lead you into sin.

We have sinned already, you and I.

Is it true that you know all manner of charms and spells for fertility?

I am not your confessor! I have not accused you!

I would have you bear this in mind – charms often work as you would not that they would do.

But if I am older, then I will need to know more about women than I did when I was a baby, will I not?

Oh, stay, if you want to, but turn your back. I’ll not have you staring at me, sir Impudence!

Look at his sweet face, like one of those angels, he is.

Perhaps if you knocked your head open, you could shove some sense inside it. For sure, it will never grow there on its own.

Aye, say it! Mock me with my birth, you – I do not know my father’s name, but I know who fathered you, and between the two I would rather be in my situation!

Is that man fit to rule who would forswear his oath for a woman’s sake?

Speak the truth to me: how long have you had the Sight?

The truth is, I suppose, that her wits are not in the right place.

Is it true that I – I am the son of the High King?

Dear child, never be ashamed to love.

I do not admire his taste. I would sooner be housed in the stable with the other donkeys!

I am not the keeper of your conscience. 

Don’t be more of a fool than you must.

Oh, ______ , in God’s name, what a ninny you are!

What can we do, short of murdering the guilty pair?

You are wise in charms and spells, cannot you give me a charm that will turn ______ ’s eye from ______ to me?

I think that if he married me, he would come to see that I am no less worthy of love than  ______.

I do not think women have ever much happiness in marriage – only young girls think so, and I am not so young.

Are your charms and spells all moonlight rubbish, then?

You despise me, do you not?

Say that again, and wife or no, love or no, I will kill you!

And what of the king stag when the young stag is grown.

Let it be so. You shall make the Great Marriage with the land and with me in her name.

I am no traitor - it pains me that you think me so, when you have given me so much.

You are as beautiful to me, my dearest, as the day when we were first bedded.

You think everyone is wrong but you, don’t you.

My mother says that little ones should not contradict grown-ups, and you look as if you were not so much older than I. You aren’t much bigger, are you?

If I were older, I would be one of the Companions and my father would make me a knight and I would ride with them!

You who have had so many lovers, have you ever known what it is to love?

Happy? In that place of evil sorcery?

I am not such a good girl, though. I sin all the time. I am always doing wicked things.

Why am I being sent away, then?

I do not think I am ugly, but you must decide for yourself whether I am good or evil.

Won’t you come and tell me goodbye tomorrow? I thought I would be with you here.

Never name that well from which you will not drink!

Ask, and if I can give, it is yours.

I longed for the clean air of the fells, and the gulls’ cry, and your face.

But most women are fools, so that I prefer not to trouble myself making play with those who expect me to treat them as something very special, or pay heed to what they say.

You have spoilt me for foolish women.

It is easy to love him. And while all worship him thus, I have no possible task.

Then, their love of him must somehow be made less.

Oh, I am weary of ______ …. even  ______ has fallen under their spell. Do not begin to defend them to me.

I am weary. I am weary and sick of fighting.

I would rather love him, as all men do.

Call no man happy until he is dead.

So I will be drunk. So let it be. I drink to death and to dishonor.

All my life my mother spoke of him as if he were a king or a saint, quite beyond mortal men.

No doubt your mother told you I am an evil sorceress.

And are you a sorceress, then, lady?

I think that being made a king must be a little like being made a priest. They are both sworn to serve man and God and to do what is right.

But you did slay a dragon, did you not?

I would not have minded if you were truly my brother.

Have you come to court to be one of my Companions?

I felt I might well see my rival.

Will you give me a token to bear into the lists?

Why, lady, you had better take back your favor! Would you have your honor so easily disposed of as that?

My lady, may I wear your token into battle?

______ seems enchanted by you.

Do you think I have need of charms or spells?

Perhaps he is glad that I have a lover who will not tempt me to leave him.

Do you think I care what that rabble think of me?

You bore yourself most bravely.

What would you that I should see, my mother?

And then – what then? Must I kill him?

I do not think fear of the priests, or of God’s wrath, or anything else will ever keep mankind from committing sins.

Error is useless and evil must be paid for, sooner or later.

Will you play your harp for me?

Are you a magician, _____? I sometime feel helpless, that you are working your magic on me.

Tell me more of yourself, I want to know everything about you.

I am no more than a man, and certainly not less than one.

I am a man of flesh and blood, and I love you.

You play with me as if I were a lapdog and expect me to be tame as a gelded pony.

Do you think because I am a cripple I am less than a man?

I wanted you to kiss me, but then you were so fierce, and I was frightened.

I cannot live without you. I must have you or die.

Will you not have some pity on me, beloved?

Say that you love me!

I love you. You know that I do.

Say that you will give me all your love.

You are so young and beautiful, and I am so twisted and ugly, I cannot believe you care for me.

Even now I think that I am dreaming, that you have for some reason roused me like this that you might make fun of the beast grovelling at your feet like a dog…

_____, will you come to my bed?

I know men like to boast of their conquest of maidens. How do I know that you will not brag out it?

I would dare anything to be with you, my love.

Nothing about you could frighten me, my love.

On your oath! You are mine?

Wait! You swear it! You are mine! Say it!

I am yours! I swear!

What will become of him?

How is it that you are so untouched by time?

Believe me, I love you beyond all else on this earth.

Say you so, that the land where an old king rules can only be a land which fades?

But you do not know all the vows I have made.

What more do you foresee?

Do you think I am dealing in sorcery at my age?

For God’s sake, lower your voice! Such things should not even be whispered in this place!

Here’s a riddle for you - when a man will not mind his property, what’s to be done by those who have an interest in it?

Does _____ kiss you like that?

Are you jealous of _____? Was it not you who told me to gain their confidence?

Already _____ has had more than enough of what is mine.

I account to no man on this earth for what I do with what is mine – yes, mine and not yours. 

Am I to help you by betraying a woman who has taken the right the Goddess has given to all women, to choose what man she will?

I’ll have nothing to do with betraying her.

You’ll do what I command you!

Command me? Not in a thousand years!

I cannot bear to say farewell to you here, must it be this way?

Your heart was always with _____, my dearest. 

■ i already have some of you that i need to message back but, give this a like, and i'll toss a lady of the lake your way once i finish my quick guide for plotting.

↬   OF  FAIRYTALES,  FOLKLORE  AND  FAEKIND.

scenarios  inspired  by  various  settings,  encounters  &  magic  tucked  between  pages,  fashioned  by  the  author.

+   feel  free  to  change  pronouns  /  roles  !

FAIRYTALES.

‘  let  me  guess,  you  thought  a  true  love’s  kiss  would  help  you.  ’

‘  you  will  always  follow  the  trail  in  the  wood,  and  it  will  guide  you  on  the  same  path,  to  the  same  cottage,  the  same  witch.  it  will  always  be  your  undoing.  ’

‘  i  have  never  seen  a  more  tragic  creature.  how  might  i  help  you  ?  ’

‘  you  must  take  this  knife  and  plunge  it  into  his  /  her  /  their  heart.  ’

‘  forget  yourself.  that  is  how  you  break  your  curse.  ’

‘  remove  this  thorn  from  my  hand,  and  you  will  be  rewarded.  ’

‘  i’m  tired  of  being  a  prince.  i  think  i  would  actually  enjoy  being  a  frog.  ’

‘  tell  me  of  the  beast,  and  i  will  hunt  it  for  you.  ’

‘  mice  are  never  just  mice,  and  pumpkins  are  rarely  just  pumpkins.  ’

‘  i  don’t  think  breaking  a  spell  should  be  this  simple.  ’

‘  i  never  thought  i’d  return  here,  to  the  site  where  it  all  began.  ’

‘  are  you  an  orphan  ?  it’s  just  that  they’re  always  finding  themselves  in  magical  predicaments.  ’

‘  the  mirror  speaks  falsely  in  your  ear.  it  is  your  true  curse.  ’

‘  my  heart  feels  uneasy,  although  i  am  free.  is  it  supposed  to  ?  ’

‘  i’m  sorry,  it’s  just  that  i  thought  this  is  the  part  of  the  quest  where  the  animals  ought  to  start  talking  to  me.  ’

‘  of  course  i  plan  on  going  to  the  ball.  why  wouldn’t  i  ?  ’

‘  jealousy  has  made  more  witches  out  of  women  than  adam’s  rib.  ’

‘  where  has  choosing  goodheartedness  and  having  golden  hair  ever  gotten  you  ?  ’

 ‘  are  you  a  helpful  wizard,  or  the  kind  that  sits  in  a  tower  reading  moldy  books  ?  ’

‘  i’m  dreadfully  bored.  who  knew  waiting  for  a  prince  was  so  strenuous  ?  ’

‘  we  all  have  towers  we  must  leave,  and  magic  that  will  try  to  thwart  us.  ’

‘  i’m  afraid  for  the  clock  to  strike.  the  hour  will  ring  in  the  place  of  my  heartbeat  when  we  must  be  parted.  ’

‘  i  had  no  idea  carpets  could  fly.  or  pigs  for  that  matter.  ’  

‘  what  would  happen  if  the  knight  did  not  arrive  to  the  castle,  and  the  dragon  made  a  den  of  it  and  a  hoard  of  its  people  and  prize  of  its  princess  ?  ’

‘  i  sometimes  think  i  was  switched  out  at  birth,  like  a  lizard  in  a  bird’s  nest.  i  belong  somewhere  else.  ’

‘   in  another  kingdom  exists  a  throne  and  a  crown  that  is  mine  by  right.  ’

‘  if  i  did  not  wake  up  one  day,  i  would  still  be  waiting  on  a spinning  wheel,  dutifully  bored.  ’  

‘  something  in  me  knows  you  are  here  for  my  heart.  ’

FOLKLORE.

‘  in  all  the  myths  i’ve  heard,  it’s  never  been  worthwhile  to  approach  strange  sights.  it’s  best  to  turn  around  and  pretend  you  never  saw  them.  ’

‘  nothing  is  folklore  until  it  exists  longer  than  consciousness  remembers,  and  lives  in  spite  of  it.  ’

‘  i’ve  heard  your  name  before,  in  songs  and  lengthy  ballads.  ’

‘  whatever  has  led  you  here  to  me,  there  is  destiny  in  its  making.  ’

‘  the  beast  returns  every  century  or  so,  and  tries  to  devour  us.  it  will  come  again  before  long.  ’

‘  a  pretty  face  is  not  nothing.  it  earns  you  a  hearth  and  a  kind  hand,  after  all.  ’

‘  their  lips  are  red  as  blood,  and  their  teeth  carve  ruin  into  throats.  ’

‘  aren’t  dragons  supposed  to  breathe  fire  and  make  a  fuss  about  having  their  treasure  found  ?  ’

‘  someday  you  will  become  a  pilgrim,  a  saint,  or  a  favored  story,  while  i  will  be  a  voice  on  the  wind.  ’

‘  the  stories  say  brides  don’t  live  to  the  light  before  demons  devour  them.  why  should  i  become  one  ?  ’

‘  there  was  another  girl  like  you  once,  in  a  small  town  like  this  one.  i  can’t  remember  if  she  became  the  monster  or  died  trying  to  escape  it.  ’

‘  remember  to  festoon  the  hearth  with  garlic,  or  rosemary,  or  one  of  those  mundane  herbs  that  keep  evil  out.  ’

‘  that  sounds  like  nothing  but  a  tall  tale,  but  i’m  certain  smaller  minds  would  eat  it  up.  ’

‘  to  cross  this  bridge,  you’ll  have  to  pay  a  heavy  toll.  ’

‘  don’t  stray  too  far  from  the  path  set  before  you,  or  something  interesting  might  happen.  ’

‘  i’ve  passed  that  yard  of  crops  a  million  times,  but  the  crow  never  moved  from  its  post  until  this  morning.  ’

‘   it  is  as  though  ancient  fears  are  still  in  us  like  scars  or  stitches.  ’

‘  graveyards  aren’t  where  you  find  ghosts.  look  for  them  in  places  that  feel  like  memories  you  shouldn’t  have.  ’

‘  stories  reap  princes  from  peasants  as  if  their  skins  were  crops  in  the  ground.  ’

‘  what  form  does  your  fear  take  ?  surely  not  that  of  a  bear  or  a  lion.  such  things  are  too  assuring.  ’

‘  i  found  myself  where  everything  was  too  familiar  to  be  real.  ’

‘  in  safe  beds  on  cold  dark  nights,  we  learn  to  face  the  monsters  in  our  own  minds.  ’

FAEKIND.

‘  you’re  not  to  partake  in  a  fairy  feast.  don’t  you  know  it’s  the  food  that  will  devour  you  ?  ’

‘  i’m  sorry  you  did  not  read  the  eyes  of  the  trees  before  finding  yourself  here.  ’

‘  i  wish  to  go  back.  i  want  to  forget  everything.  ’

‘  you  think  that  believing  in  us  is  enough  to  protect  you  ?  that  it  will  kill  us  if  you  forget,  and  we  prey  upon  your  unknowing  ?  ’

‘  step  around  the  ring  three  times,  like  a  backwards  clock.  that’s  how  you  get  to  fairyland.  ’  

‘  i’ve  never  heard  such  sweet  music  before.  ’

‘  where  the  trees  begin  to  twist  and  groan  in  their  roots,  remember  you  must  not  make  a  right  turn.  ’

‘  i  didn’t  feel  like  i’d  stepped  into  another  world,  but  like  it  stepped  into  me.  i  knew  i  was  there  and  forgot  i’d  left  anything  behind.  ’

‘  how  amusing.  a  human  !  ’

‘  would  you  be  my  bride  if  i  were  to  take  you  into  the  ground  ?  ’

‘  i  know  of  tunnels  you  might  take,  the  burrows  of  trolls  and  rabbits.  ’

‘  don’t  take  anything  from  this  realm,  none  of  it  is  worth  the  price  of  keeping.  ’

‘  there  are  courts  by  many  titles  in  the  lands  beyond  the  veil,  all  of  them  other.  ’

‘  names  are  not  like  currency  here;  they  are  more  precious  than  diamonds  and  legacies.  ’

‘  did  you  think  all  of  us  looked  like  goblins  ?  ’

‘  getting  here  is  easy,  but  getting  home  is  quite  the  trick.  ’

‘  i  shall  give  you  a  riddle,  and  it  will  puzzle  you  until  you  know  the  answer  but  forget  your  own  soul.  ’

‘  a  bloodline  is  nothing  when  you’ve  outlived  civilizations.  ’

‘  refusing  my  hospitality  is  like  human  sin,  and  it  will  bring  worse  upon  you.  ’

‘  everything  here  is  and  isn’t,  and  things  are  and  aren’t.  ’

‘  on  lonely  nights  i  stare  into  the  trees,  and  a  strange  face  leers  back.  ’

‘  the  thrones  here  are  made  of  bones  and  blood,  and  built  upon  decay.  ’

‘  a  third  time  is  not  a  charm,  but  a  bargain.  it  says  that  you  want  something  enough  to  wager  your  sense.  ’

FOR WHEN LANCELOT AND ELAINE ARE NOT NIMUE’S PARENTS:

Dyonas is a simple man who enjoys simple things. He is also a man who is both incredibly lucky and exceedingly charming. A king only in name, Dyonas has no subjects save for those who are like him in spirit. A little wild and a little fond of being lost. His ‘kingdom’ was carved out for him by his mother, the forest goddess Diane. He has a modest castle where those of his ilk can stay as long as they participate in his famous hunts and earn their keep but there are no towns or cities, only the wild creatures of the forest. His is an untamed wilderness that is as spirited and free as he is. Though often left alone by his contemporaries, when asked to join this war or that battle, he has a certain talent for always choosing the winning side.