In the final days before Astin, lately prince of Felis and son of the sky goddess, came into his full heritage he took a lover. While it is not unusual that such a thing to occur, for the prince was said to be beautiful to all, his lover was most unusual. Astin has spoken little of her except to say that she cried bright, red, metal tears. Astin was tall and well suited, through practice, to life in the extreme heat of the deep deserts of Felis so often was gone from the court of the Sun with only a bag of water and a staff for his company. He traveled for the joy of it and to see what he had not seen before. It is said that the prince of the Sun was always most happy when his eyes were open wide with curiosity.
It was late into the year and soon the time of dangerous rains would begin so the prince turned his eyes towards home and the Court of the Sun. He traveled even during the scorching days after he passed through the town of Armat and became aware of the date. It was the celebration day of his mother’s birth soon and he would never miss such a thing even if mighty powers prevented it. so it was one night that he had to stop as even his endurance gave out. The light of the moon(s) showed him a small oasis and as he refilled his water and took some rest he saw that on the flat, hard, sands down below a shallow cliff of sandstone lay a strange light with some form to it.
Once down the sandstone cliffs the prince of the sun approached the strange place with eyes wide and full of respect for the mysteries. He saw a glowing area of ground that looked as if it had once been a great mosaic polished by the sun and moon, now broken by the ravages of time. While part of the thing glowed the broken areas seemed to draw down even the light of the moon into a blackness that was far beyond the veil of night. The deepest curiosity filled him then and he walked around it several times noticing that the land around this broken mosaic was blighted and filled with the most dangerous things that the desert had to give. Finally the prince, through intuition, had the right of it he came around again on the cliff side of the thing and with a prayer to his beloved mother, he stepped on to it and walked between the broken spaces. Light dimmed coming only from the lines of force that held together this once marvelous pattern. Here as he was between the spaces he felt the cold void that held the stars and felt the pull of the dark well. The very ground challenged his feline balance with the pull of the dark well and the unsteady earth. Finally in one last breath of effort he emerged from the other side of the Broken Pattern, its imprint touching the heritage of his blood.
After that he braved the climb of the low cliffs and slept sure that his mother or grandmother had heard his prayers, the water of the pool calming his spirits and its coolness curing his thirst. He woke to the sun but felt a desire to stay and see how he had changed. He was aware of the constant nearness or the dark well and the crack in the universe that issued from it. He found that he was more sensitive to things that were magical and just beyond his perception. It was frustrating and inviting at the same time. He told himself that he would learn to see in other ways to experience the whole of the universe. How the young prince learned this thing is a story for another time.
So as the sun rose to its highest, hottest, point the prince rested and dreamed. A dream that called his name. So persistent was the dream and the strength of the one that called that he awoke to the most dangerous heat of the day. His spirit called to him to go and so some kind thing and so in confusion he came to look over the broken pattern in the light of day. A voice called again from the inpenerable darkness of the dark well. So strong was the call that he gathered his few things and climbed down the cliffs with his eyes wide with curiosity. He came to the edge of the former Great Work and with the daring of youth walked into the Dark Well.
The world spun. The prince was broken and reformed so it was that he came to the bottom of the Well more and less than he was before. The sun had a quality of coolness and activity to it that he had not seen before. It was the color of mercury that was heated to a bright color. So it was a pale gray that gave off a light the reflected off of clouds of silvery colors. He stood on suddenly weary legs and looked around at the half lit world that he had come to. Everywhere there were pieces of metal in many forms; liquid, a strange pungent air that he took into his lungs, pieces of it shattered by cold or stress and many other across the dangerous broken hills of the land.
"Welcome prince of the Sun. I have called you from a very long way to this place that is a place of metallic shadows. Was your journey a fair one?"
He retrieved his water skin and his few pieces of drawing material and looked around one more time. This time he saw who addressed him from the dark. It was definitely a woman, a tall one of a graceful figure, " Well no, it was not really. I have entered into the one of the shattered places of the Broken Mosaic. I can only assume that this is a place of peril. You are a graceful looking woman of some beauty. You do not need to hide in the shadows from me. Come out so that we may walk under your strange sun."
With the smile of one who knew she would surprize, she stepped forth from the deep purple of the shadows. The pale mercury-colored sun reflected off of her; a tall, beautiful woman of silver and steel. Her eyes were of molten gold and the smile she gave him offered the promise of sharp knives.
The prince Astin was without words.
"Are you surprised, prince of two realms?" she reached out her hand to him.
He took her hand and it was cool and supple. They walked under the mercury sun with drifting clouds of metal gray. The land of the Bright Lady was stark and had its own dangers. In among the dangers there was beauty as well. Tall copper cliffs scoured and shaped by wind heavy with metal dust that shaped all before it.
She talked of her half realm and how she had come to life when some sorcerer had fallen to his death in the dark well. His blood and psychic powers had somehow soaked in to the hard land and she had come forth. Since then she had been largely alone except when another would fall victim to the Broken Mosaic and another of them would arise from the death. She seldom saw the others that were like her as they were all fiercely territorial beings. As the night came they sought some shelter near a river whose water was not molten but tasted heavily of the coppery taste of blood.
After some talk and sharing of their tales they were lovers his soft, warm, body underneath her hard, cool, one. As they walked the heights of passion she bit him and drew some of his blood to her. Never has she been so alive as with this prince of the sun! When the lovemaking was over and they talked she crushed a small fragile flower of gold and floated it on the water of the river.
"You will be brave and your warrior’s art will carry you far from here."
He smiled a smile that kindled the spirits of over a hundred women, "Oh, madam, you have mistaken me. I am no warrior. A lover of women, only."
She hung her head and shook her head, "You will be."
That night he slept beside steel and felt the safety of it. In the morning he rose and made to go, explaining why he must go.
She smiled at him and then a strange wind blew across them. When he looked at her again she held in her hands bright, red bits of metal, " Take these, my tears, that you will remember me and someday be my path to freedom. If some of the gods of the half realms are kind."
He took the red tears from her and began a long climb up the Dark Well and came out seeing more of the universe than he had intended on this journey home. Later when he looked upon the tears they were different than they had been slowly becoming something. By the time that he had arrived at the Court of the Sun, not a moment to soon, they had become a dozen daggers with a bright red stone in the center of the blade.
Astin later discovered that once they are uncovered or drawn that they become hungry for blood. If handled and no blood is forthcoming they will turn in the hand of the user and cause small hurts. This is the way of a gift of women of the Dark Well.