Of Wizards and Norns, Page 2

the great sisterhood of the Norns, and even came across the young and talented boy, Zoltan.

  “This lad is going to be nothing but trouble,” he advised the Norns. But they were too taken in by the lovely boy’s charms to pay the old fellow any heed.

  Throughout time, Buonarroti has run into a unique spirit from the other side, known to us as Nivian, or the Lady of the Lake. She is a spirit who is able to take the form of a beautiful human female, using water as a medium to, like Buonarroti, travel through time and space. Whenever a sailor spies what he thinks is a human female rising from the water, and finds nothing when he goes to the place where he thought he saw her, one can be assured it was Nivian whom he saw. It was Nivian who found the sword Excalibur, and discovered the magic charm that made the wielder of the sword unconquerable in battle. She also added a charm that ensured that, though no army could conquer the wielder of Excalibur, other powers (love, jealousy, envy) could and would. The powers from the other side are ever so fond of these ironies.

  The myths of the world are filled with images of lovely, seductive women who inhabit the shores and shallows of streams, lakes, and even the ocean itself—sirens, the Lorelei, mermaids, and the like. When they really want to gain something by nefarious means, they bathe naked in the shallows, singing an enchanting melody that catches the ear of some poor, bumbling man. If the poor fellow follows the tune to the shore, and looks upon the enchanting lady—well, no mere mortal has the power to resist her.

  Nivian is one such seductress who haunts the domain of still waters. She longs to be able to take human form, and rule the world of men, but fortunately, Buonarroti has (so far) been able to foil her plans. The author advises any man, young or old, who hears a seductive song near a body of water, to turn and go the other way, no matter how tempting it might be to find the source.

  The relationship between Buonarroti and Nivian has always been marked by jealousy and tension, as each possesses power unavailable to the other. It is even said that, in some way, they are in love with one another, though what form that love takes is unknown to us. Nivian has tried many times, over the millennia, to use Buonarroti to gain a foothold in the world of reality, but Buonarroti was always able to spot her schemes and foil them. Finally, in a fit of pique, she lured him into a magic cave of ice and glass, telling him he could view any place or time on earth through the mirrors that lined the walls. In this she told the truth, and while Buonarroti amused himself by viewing the future and the past, she locked him in. The magic cave neutralized Buonarroti’s power to travel through time and space, leaving him to the terrible agony of being able to watch human events unfold anywhere on the planet, but being unable to take part in them.

  The Lady of the Lake then devised a plan to take control of the world of men. She arose one day from the still waters of a lake and walked across the water to the shore. In her own realm, Nivian’s magic is potent, but in our reality, her magic begins to wane quite rapidly until she becomes a mere mortal woman. She then must return to the water and her own realm to regain her powers. (The reader may recall the time Nivian fell in love with a mortal man and lived a full lifetime with him, but that is another story.)

  On this day, however, Nivian met an unfortunate soul who had been fathered by an incubus, not on a mortal woman, but on a tiny green mantis. The little creature spoke to her in his tiny, buzzing insect-voice, begging her to transform him into a mortal man.

  It was then that Nivian realized that men were untrustworthy and hence poor means of gaining control of their world. No wonder her schemes had always failed! The green mantis, named Belvedere, could command much more reliable subjects—the world of insects. For insects, as is well documented, do not suffer from egotistical delusions, but instead unquestioningly follow their leader. Nivian promised Belvedere that she would one day turn him into a man, if he would but command his insect legions on her behalf. He agreed immediately, and Nivian focused her rapidly-waning magic powers on a colony of ants, the most disciplined and most feared army in nature. Nivian transformed the colony of ants into a magnificent army of green women (most ants being female), killing the queen-ant and ordering the green women to be totally loyal to Belvedere, their new king.

  The effort drained Nivian of all her magic, such that she could not even walk back across the water, but instead had to wade in from the shore to return to her watery realm. Exhausted completely by the effort of her greatest magic spell, she slipped beneath the still surface of the water and slept for one year.

  In that year, the Green Women, working in perfect harmony like the ants from which they were made, conquered all the Western Isles. The armies of men stood no chance against them, so perfectly coordinated were their attacks. The Green Women took the capital city and installed their diminutive king on the throne. Though the native Aniyu knew of the king, none had ever actually seen him.

  After their final victory, the Mantidae warriors held a grand triumph, marching through the city with the deposed king bound, stripped of his clothes, kneeling upon a wooden cart drawn by asses. Most of the defeated citizens stood sullenly, though many of them cheered lustily, hoping to gain favor with the new rulers. When the wooden cart reached the town square, a green woman leaped effortlessly onto it, grabbed the king’s hair, and beheaded him with a single stroke of her short-sword. The green women roared in triumph as the warrior held the head aloft before mounting it on a pike and setting it before the castle gate.

  After their celebration, the green warriors set to work, using the fabulous wealth of the Western Isles to build ships and weapons, in preparation for an invasion of the lands across the sea. The Aniyu, helpless in face of the might of the green women, helped them build their martial forces, sometimes with enthusiasm, but usually with sullenness. A few daring and hungry patriots remained, however, hiding in the woods, moving constantly from camp to camp, hoping one day to discover some way to defeat the green women and the fearsome king whom none had ever seen.