Far away from the known world, off the coast of Asia, is a small island nation called Verimina. No one outside of this island knows it exists, for no one who has ever mistakenly traveled to it has ever returned. It is full of lush forests that contain wildlife not yet documented in any of our science books. There are high peaks that look over the clear blue water that thrashes mercilessly against the glistening rocks, and the island is filled with the strangest people ever to walk the Earth.
For one, their skin color is that of a pearl, perfect ivory in the dark, yet in the light they seem iridescent. All of them have eyes that look as if they were made to mimic the playful, dancing flames of a fire, except the young girl who rules this nation. Her eyes are the color of the ocean that surrounds her little island; her name is Stella, and she is said to be the most beautiful girl the world has ever known.
Her skin is flawless, like all other Veriminans, but hers shines even on the darkest of nights. Her hair is pure ebony, and it falls in ever so light curls down to her waist. When the sun hits it just right, people can see streaks of dark purple and blue shimmering throughout her luscious mane. She is tall and has a perfect hour glass shape; her head is the shape of a heart, with high cheek bones and amazingly arched eyebrows. Anyone who is within the same room as her can feel the pulsing aura that surrounds her; they can see the almost visible pure white light of power radiating from inside her. Whoever hears her speak can feel her velvety voice wrapping around them, comforted by its warmth, yet wary by its firmness.
Stella is loved by her all her people, adored by all the men and envied by all the women. Her life is perfect; she gets anything and everything she wants, and she has the power to make her will the law, so it seems she has no reason to be in the black mood she’s always in.
She never smiles, never laughs, and is never happy. Anyone outside of this island would wonder why she was like this, for surely anyone else in her position would be the happiest person to ever live. But, this is not the case, for her past is riddled with pain, anger, and tears. . .
Her past is not permitted to be spoken of on the island by any other person then her. The only reason she ever speaks of it is when an unlucky traveler is brought before her by the people who patrol the beaches of the island. You see, Verimina is surrounded by a very thick fog that is impossible to see through, hence the reason no one outside the island knows about it. Sometimes throughout the years, people will wonder through the fog on boats accidentally and crash onto the beaches of the island. How they are not able to miss the huge mass of fog in the middle of the ocean is unknown, but somehow they don’t and either end up on the beaches of Verimina or killed by the vicious creatures that also surround the island nation.
This, however, doesn’t happen very often, and other then the small disturbances from the outside world, life on Verimina is very peaceful. Of course, the inhabitants don’t have any choice but to remain calm because this is how Stella prefers it. And as you know, Stella gets everything she wants.


“I’ll be fine, Dad! I’m just going out for a little ride on the boat. I’ll be back before dinner,” the young girl says to her over protective father.
He looks over his daughter.
How did she grow so mature on the inside, yet look like this innocent, vulnerable, 18 year old on the outside, he wonders.
“Alright, Katherine, you have one hour to go ride around in the boat.” He reaches into his jeans pocket for his keys, and then stops before holding them out to her. “Please go easy on her. I’ve had that boat for 20 years, and I’d like to have her for 20 more.”
Katherine grabs the key ring from her dad. “Don’t worry,” she says as she runs down the dock from their vacation house on the beach, “I won’t go near any cliffs or reefs.”
Katherine’s family has been vacationing in Japan every summer since she can remember. As a child she would love running around the yard of the small house they owned right on the beach and then listening to the sounds of the ocean every night before she fell asleep. When she was about 13 she started going out on the family boat, the Aphrodite, with her father and older brother, Daniel. Every morning before dawn they would wake up and pack a lunch of sandwiches and fruit, and then they would walk down the small dock that stood right in their back yard to the boat. Once inside, her dad would start the boat and drive them around the island nation, stopping every now and then so they could hike up the mountains and walk through the different cities and villages.
Her father was the CEO of a major communications company back home in Atlanta, Georgia, and spoke fluent Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and Spanish. Therefore, he was able to speak to the different people they met on their travels around the island. Katherine’s mother was unemployed and much uninvolved in Katherine and Daniel’s lives. Her children considered themselves lucky if their mother spoke to them once during the day. She spent most of her time out spending her husband’s money on manicures, designer clothes, spas, and other things that seemed pretty pointless to her kids.
But they were ok because their father, though very busy with work at times, was very close with his kids and made up for his wife’s negligence.
This summer, Katherine was to turn 19, and she was going to be going back to college in the fall. She was studying to be a veterinarian, much to her father’s dislike. In his dreams when his kids were younger, he had always seen them being business partners working with his company. Daniel, however, was an intern at his father’s company, and was unable to vacation to Japan with his family this summer. When his father offered to have his schedule altered, Daniel argued and said that he has been to Japan for 25 years, his entire life, and he was okay with missing this one summer.
Katherine was in the boat and starting it as she thought back on past summer vacations she had here, wishing her brother had come with. When they were younger, Katherine and Daniel had been very close. They had to be, with their father at work and their mother never paying attention to them. As they grew older they grew more protective of each other and when her older brother wasn’t around, Katherine felt somewhat vulnerable; even though she knew she was safe and was very confident in herself.
Katherine has always had an adventurous attitude and was as fearless as she was beautiful. She had curly, auburn colored hair that reached halfway down her back, and sun kissed skin that glowed no matter where she went. Her eyes were grey, the color of clouds on a rainy day, almond shaped, and she had a smile that could melt all the snow on Mt. Everest.
Her adventurous and fearless attitude, though, were what would get her into trouble on this fine June day.
When she saw the mass of swirling grey fog in the distance, she became curious and directed the Aphrodite closer.
“What in the world is that? I’ve never seen anything like it, and surely if I had, I would’ve remembered. It’s so strange, like stallions leaping, turning, and chasing each other in the wind,” she said to herself as she neared the grey mass.
It seemed though, that the closer she got to the mass, the harder it was to see it. In fact, it became hard to see anything at all! When she realized she’d probably made a mistake by journeying closer to the fog, she tried to turn the boat around and directing it back to the house, but she didn’t know where anything was. She couldn’t even see the steering wheel anymore.
Then she felt the boat rock, as if something huge brushed up against the side. At first she thought it was just her imagination, her subconscious creating it out of the fear that she felt, but when the boat jerked to the left, she knew it wasn’t anything her mind created.
Something was in the water, and it was enormous. She could tell by the way the boat was rocking and wrenching in the water.
All the sudden, there was a big splashing noise, and she felt the boat literally jump out of the water. She screamed and the Aphrodite hit the water again, making water pour all over Katherine.
Salt water found its way down her throat, burning her inside, and she started coughing and trying to spit it out. The temperature had dropped and she stood there shivering, not knowing what was going to happen to her.
As if that weren’t enough, she then heard a god-awful howl coming from the water. It was like nothing she’d ever heard before; no animal she knew of could make such a nerve grinding, painful sound as this. It was like nails scratching a chalkboard and the horror of a ghost’s wail combined. And it wasn’t coming from just one spot, it sounded like it was everywhere, filling her whole world with ear bleeding pain.
Just as suddenly as it happened though, it stopped. She looked around and saw that the fog was thinning, and she could see a stretch of white sand in the distance. She was still shivering from both the cold water that clung to her clothes and out of fear, so she couldn’t move towards the steering wheel to direct it safely onto the beach. When she reached the beach, the boat lurched forward and sent her flying onto the floor of it.
When she got up, she realized that it was warm again, and that the Aphrodite had found its way through the fog and to land. She knew right away though that she was not on Japan, for she had been around the island many times before and this stretch of land was very unfamiliar.
Beyond the sparkling white sand was a vast tropical rainforest, filled with all sorts of birds and wildlife that she couldn’t see, but she could hear. She couldn’t see much else past the luscious, green trees, but she could see smoke rising in this distance.
There must be people over there. I’ll find my way to them, hope they speak English, and try to get this whole mess figured out.
She had just stepped off the boat when she saw two of them. At the time she didn’t know they were Veriminans, all she knew was that they were so exotic, unique, and beautiful in their own way.
They were running towards her and the Aphrodite, and their steps were so lithe and graceful it was as if she were seeing them move in slow motion.
Who are these people? There skin is so pale it’s almost translucent, yet it shines in the sun . . . and their eyes! They look like orange lilies in full bloom! I must be dreaming! This isn’t possible. . .
As they drew closer to her, Katherine found that all she could do was stand in that spot, with the sand scorching her feet and the sun beating down on her back. They finally stood in front of her, and she could only guess that they were both male. One had long curly blond hair that fell down to his broad shoulders. He towered over Katherine and his companion who had short, straight brown hair.
“What is your name?” the one with the blond hair asked. Katherine was surprised to hear his perfect English spoken with an inimitable accent, sounding a little British.
When she could finally find her words she answered the strange, handsome man. “I’m Katherine. W-Who are you? Where am I?”
“Be calm,” he said. His voice was enticing, and she found herself relaxing, almost as if it were by force. She stopped questioning them and stood there almost without a thought at all. “I am Remises, and this is my friend Oberon. Do not be afraid. Come, we will take you to our city where all your questions will be answered by the Lady.”
He smiled at her, and she felt her body move forward and walk with the strange men who she just met on the beach on the land beyond the fog.
As they walked through the forest in the direction of the smoke, Katherine couldn’t help but feel ridiculous walking with these men who were so graceful as she stumbled over every fallen branch in her path. She tried to control herself and walk casually, but there was something about being in the presence of these people that just made her feel like her head wasn’t in control of her body.
“So, um, Remises and Oberon, huh? Not exactly common names, though you aren’t exactly common men either.” She felt her face heat up at the embarrassment of what she just said, but they didn’t seem to be angry. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, Katherine would say they were amused by the comment.
“Do not worry,” Oberon said to her once he saw her ashamed look, “Others who have found their way to our island have said worse things to us. There is no need to be so shy and embarrassed.” His voice had the same unique accent that Remises had, and when he smiled at her, she felt her heart melt. “Our names are names that were given to people high in power, as are all the names of our people. Remises was an Egyptian pharaoh, and Oberon was the King of the Fairies.”
The mention of fairies brought Katherine back down to Earth. It felt a little odd to her for a moment, for here she was, on an island surrounded by fog with people who were so pale they shined in the sun with orange eyes taking her to a woman they called “the Lady”, and the mention of fairies was the thing that seemed odd.
“Fairies? Surely you must be joking?”
This stopped the men. Remises turned around and had this look on his face that said if he could have made her burst into flames, he would have. In fact, his eyes had turned from the bright orange of a lily to the death orange of a raging fire, and she could actually feel her body temperature rise. Oberon, on the other hand, looked more disappointed then angry. He rested a thin hand on Remises’ shoulder, and that seemed to cool him down a bit.
“What do you mean, Katherine?” Remises asked her in a very strained voice.
She found that she was too scared to speak, and Oberon sensed this.
“Tell me, madam,” Oberon started, “Have you ever heard of a man by the name William Shakespeare?”
That broke her spell of speechlessness to the point where she felt like laughing. “Of course I’ve heard of him! He’s the most famous playwright in the world!”
“So then, can you name some of his plays?”
“Yeah! Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello. I can name more, but those are the first that came to my mind.”
Remises scoffed and turned away from her.
“Come on, Oberon, there’s no use wasting our time like this. The Lady would like to speak with her, you know.”
“Be still, Remises,” Oberon said with command and power in his voice. Katherine could then tell that even though Remises was scarier then Oberon, it was Oberon who was in control between the two. Remises turned back, crossed his arms, and stood there like he’d been carved of stone; as if he were made to stare Katherine down. Oberon turned back to her. “There is one in specific I would like you to recall. Have you ever heard of A Midsummer Night’s Dream?”
“I’ve heard of it. That’s the one with the four people wondering through the forest with fairies right?”
He smiled again. “That’s the one. You see, Shakespeare wasn’t just a playwright, he was also a historian. He wrote three different types of plays: tragedies, comedies, and histories. But, his historic plays weren’t the only ones that were based off of something that really happened.”
“Right. Like Julius Caesar, it was a tragedy. Some of the things in the play didn’t really happen, but it was based off a true story. And Antony and Cleopatra, also a tragedy, they were both real people in love.”
Katherine’s sub consciousness was the only part of her that felt it strange that she was in the middle of a rainforest talking about Shakespearian plays with a complete stranger. The part of her mind that she was conscious of was just thinking things like “Wow, he is really cute!”, and “I love Shakespearian plays!” To her, it seemed completely natural to be talking to him about this.
“You are correct, the Lady will be pleased to know how knowledgeable you are, my dear.”
Katherine blushed. “Thanks, but really I just pay attention in class. I’m not that smart you know.”
“Let me continue. What most people don’t know is that all of Shakespeare’s plays are based off of something that really happened. The story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is real, as are all the characters that were in it.”
All she could do was drop her jaw. “Come again?”
“King Oberon and his Queen, Titania, were real fairies. Puck was a real boy of mischief, and those four people wondering through the forest were real, too. Every single one of his plays was real, no matter how unbelievable it might seem.”
“I’m sorry, but this is just too much,” Katherine whispered. She went to go sit on something that she thought was a log, but when she sat on it, it made a weird noise and sprouted two legs and a tail. She screamed when it bumped her off and ran toward the beach. “What was that thing?!”
Both of them looked at her as if she were the one with orange eyes and ivory skin. Oberon reached down to help her off the ground and lead her to a fallen tree trunk. She waved her hand in front of it to make sure it wasn’t going to sprout wings or anything before she sat down.
“It was a stumpfry,” Remises said as though he were trying to keep from bursting out laughing.
“What in the world was that?!”
“Well, it’s something that just knocked you on your butt,” he replied with a snide grin that made it almost impossible for her to be mad at him because it made him look super hot. He sat down on the ground in front of her and Oberon sat next to her. “We can take a quick rest, but you know She can’t be kept waiting. She’ll send the guards out soon.”
Katherine barely paid attention to what he was saying because her mind was on the fact that Oberon was sitting next to her. He was so close that she could feel the raw energy that was pulsing in the air around him. She was looking at Remises to make it seem like she was paying attention to him, but it was really because she was afraid to look at Oberon, for fear that he might be able to see through her eyes and read her mind when they’re this close.
“I agree, friend, but I would just like to explain this to her because entering the City of Verimina without this basic knowledge wouldn’t be wise. That’s why the others were,” he hesitated and looked at Katherine, “Obmutescere.”
“Intelligo. Oportet festinare.”
Oberon nodded then turned back to Katherine.
“What did you guys just say?”
Oberon smiled a little nervously. “It was nothing, just something that we needed to say to each other privately. Forget about it.”
All the sudden, she felt a huge wave of calmness washed over her, and she felt that as it pulled back, the conversation between Remises and Oberon was slowly drifting away from her memory. In a couple of seconds, she couldn’t even remember what she had been thinking about.
“So, as I was saying, Shakespeare was given a piece of information that only a very few humans were ever allowed to know, and that was what inspired him to write his plays. They were all true, the information he was given told him everything he wrote was true, but when he was entrusted with the knowledge he had to promise he wouldn’t tell a living soul about it, so he had to classify his different stories to make sure there was no doubt that anything like fairies were real.
The information was only entrusted to a very select few that showed the capability of being able to truly understand it; in fact, only five humans in the world were ever allowed to know of it: William Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vince, and Dante Alighieri. Each of these men are some of the most famous men in all history because of their talent. If you asked anyone these days about these men, no doubt they would say they were true geniuses, but they wouldn’t know how these men became so enlightened. Well, here on Verimina, that is the name of our nation, we do know their secrets.
Dante, he was famous for his poems and books. One of his more famous writings was the Divine Comedy in which he wrote that he went down to Hell and saw the nine different circles of it. He was guided by the Roman poet Virgil, and he described Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Some historians doubt that he really went through this experience, but we know he did.
I know you know Shakespeare, so I won’t go into him that much. All I will say is that he had more insight on the world then anyone outside our small nation will ever give him credit to. He was incredibly gifted, no doubt of it, but without a little help, he wouldn’t be the most famous playwright in history.
You must know Leonardo da Vince; he’s the greatest artist that ever lived. Some might say Michelangelo was, but his knowledge of the way things work in the world was far less superior to that of da Vince’s. He was greatly talented, and not just in the arts. He was also an astounding mathematician and scientist; he created the blueprints of the first flying machine as you probably know.
Einstein was no doubt one of the most brilliant men in all of history, even though some might argue believe it or not. But, yet again, we know something that no other people on Earth know about him. He, like the others, was given a special piece of knowledge.”
Katherine held her hand up in frustration. “Okay, before you go any further, what are you trying to do?! Give me a whole school lesson?! I thought you were just trying to teach me the basic information for whatever reason, I don’t know! But this isn’t basic info on any level of learning! I mean, I already knew most of the stuff you said, except the crap about ‘they were given knowledge no one else in the world was given’. A) What is it that they knew, and b) you only named four people and you said that five people were given this ‘knowledge’! What are you talking about?! And you better tell me now, because otherwise, I’m not leaving this spot! You can go tell ‘the Lady’ that I couldn’t care less about her need to speak to me!” She then crossed her arms and legs to emphasize her point.
Oberon and Remises looked at each other, and then started bursting out laughing. Katherine knew why; all three knew that it would only take one of these men to be able to drag her the rest of the way to the city. Still, though, she knew she’d gotten her point across because as soon as they stopped laughing, it was Remises that spoke.
“Okay, Oberon purposely left out the fifth person because the Lady explains that to everyone before. . . ” he stopped there and looked at Oberon as though he needed help because he didn’t know what to say.
“Before?” Katherine prompted.
“Before she decides what to do with them: either let them become a member of our civilization or not,” Oberon said quickly.
This was good enough for her, but she still had one more question. Well, actually she had about a thousand more questions, but she knew she didn’t have enough time to voice all of them.
“So what is this ‘knowledge’?”
“It is a prophecy,” Remises said simply.
She sat there quietly, and all of the sudden, the shock of where she was and what was happening finally caught up with her and buffeted her right in the face with such a force she actually flinched. She fought for breath and felt Oberon’s hand rest firmly on her back, cold as ice. She turned to look into his eyes, those brilliant eyes, and she felt a little air escape into her lungs.
“Madam Katherine, are you well?” Oberon asked with true concern.
Once she could breathe normally, she brushed his hand off of her back and stood up. She started backing slowly away from them both, shaking her head.
“Am I well? Am I well?! NO! No I am not well! I’m on and island in the middle of the ocean that is surrounded by fog with freaks like you trying to take me to ‘the Lady’, all the while telling me stuff about famous people in history knowing some prophecy! At first I was going along with it, but when you started talking about fairies, I started suspecting you were insane, and now I’m sure of it. And to top all of that off, my boat was attacked by some thing and it crashed onto the beach so I can’t get home and I was supposed to be there a while ago! So you know what?! Just stay away from me, and I’ll go try to make a boat of some sort to get me the hell off this island asylum!”
She turned to walk back towards the beach, but she felt a hand grab her elbow with a weird mixture of softness and firmness. She looked back to see that Oberon had moved behind her with lightning fast speed and was now looking at her with sad eyes.
“Please, we will help you. I will do anything I have to to make sure you will be comfortable and not harmed. As soon as She is done with you, no matter what her decision may be, I will arrange for you to be given one of our fishing boats so you can travel wherever you may wish. But please, my lady, do not leave us now.”
She could almost feel this force pushing her towards him; and she was sure he felt it too, for he momentarily had a surprised look in his eyes. Her mind was almost completely changed, but then Remises spoke.
“And it’s not like you have any other type of protection, and you definitely need it. So what do you say?”
That was it.
“I’ll take my chances with the stumpfry!”
With that, she ripped her arm out of Oberon’s grip and walked back towards the beach as if she were a model on the catwalk.
Part of her was hoping that Oberon would run after her and plead with her one more time to stay; she was sure that if he had, she would have done anything he asked of her. But a bigger part of her wanted to get away from all of this and forget it all, even the strange feeling she got whenever Oberon was near her. Her mind knew she needed to get away, but her heart felt that if she left she’d never feel those strong feelings again.
She’d found her way to the beach and stood there looking at the crystal clear water that expanded before her. She saw her boat, or at least what was left of it, and broke down into tears. How was she going to get home? Even if she somehow managed to create a make-shift raft, how would she be able to navigate through the fog that loomed in the distance? What about all the strange creatures in the water and on the island? If the raft she made wasn’t big enough, she was sure there would be some type of animal in that water that could swallow it whole.
She hardly paid attention to the sound in the distance that somewhat resembled a bell, but when she heard the sound of feet pounding in the forest behind her, she turned around to see at least two dozen men running towards her. They had the same strange, unique physical features that Oberon and Remises had: they were all pale beyond belief, and their eyes were bright orange.
She froze there not knowing what to do, and the strange men surrounded her. She searched their faces to find Oberon or Remises, but neither was in this crowd.
“Woman, stand your ground and speak your name!” the man before her said. He was absolutely stunning, and Katherine felt all the breath in her body leave her. His hair was the color of the midnight sky, and it fell in ringlets around his face that reminded her of statues of Greek gods. His voice, though, scared her. It wasn’t like Oberon’s, kind but firm, or Remises, sarcastic but gentle. His voice was just filled with raw power that grated against her nerves, making her skin itch.
“Look, just because I am a woman doesn’t mean you can shout orders at me and just except me to do them. I don’t even know you, but you should know that I’ve had the worst day of my life and I just want to go home! So if you all would just excuse me, I’ll be on my way then.”
She turned to go down the beach, but the men on that side withdrew long knives from sheathes on their sides that she hadn’t even seen. They held the tips of their knives inches away from her skin, and she felt waves of heat radiating from each one. She backed up and turned back to the man obviously in charge.
“Alright, what are you going to do to me? Take me to ‘the Lady’? Because I really don’t have time for this,” Katherine said with all the strength she could muster, which really wasn’t a lot at this point.
The man glared at her. “How did you know about our Lady?”
She hesitated before she said anything. The way he asked the question made her feel nervous, like she wasn’t supposed to know about anything or anyone on the island. She quickly fastened a lie in her head.
“I’ve been here for a while and I have been able to observe your little civilization for some time. I know a lot of things. Now listen to me, I am tired, hungry, frustrated and very much in need of a shower! So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go home!”
God I hope these guys can’t read my mind or else I’d be DEAD!
He stared at her for a long time, then turned and whispered something to the man next to him. Katherine couldn’t tell whether or not they bought her lie, but when he spoke, her heart dropped and buried itself in the sand at her feet.
“Madam, we know what you speak of is false. Our ‘little civilization’ is very technologically advanced, and when your boat passed through the fog, we were alarmed.” He took a step closer to her, and now he was inches from her face. As he spoke, she could smell his sweet breath; it smelled like a fresh, spring rain. But, she knew she couldn’t get caught up in his smell, because even though the words had a sweet aroma, they were spoken with ice and cut through her security. “Tell me now. How did you know?”
She was scared. That’s all there was to it. This man, his voice, those weapons, they terrified her. But she had a feeling in her gut that told her she mustn’t tell them that she had already met Oberon and Remises. She couldn’t explain it; she just knew she shouldn’t say anything.
So with new found courage, that she had no idea where she found from, Katherine said, “You’ll have to kill me before I tell you anything.”
He smiled at her. It wasn’t filled with kindness or even humor. To call it a smile at all seemed unthinkable, but it was the only way to describe the expression on his face. It was cold, dark, and made him ever so gorgeous!
“That can be arranged.”
He turned to his men and gave a signal, and then two of them grabbed a hold of her arms and pulled her towards the forest.
“Wait! What are you doing?! Get your hands off of me!”
Katherine was ignored, and the men just walked on, not saying anything. At times, to Katherine, it seemed like they weren’t even paying attention to where they were going; it was as if they were in a trance. Their eyes were glossy and the lids of them seemed heavy. All of them stared straight ahead the entire walk. Katherine tried to fight to get out of the men’s hold, but their hands wouldn’t budge. They all just walked through the trees, not even seeing where they were going.
Within minutes, a small city was in Katherine’s view.
It wasn’t like any city she’d ever seen before. It kind of reminded her of pictures of Aztec cities, but the style was different. In the center of the city was a giant step pyramid that kissed the clouds in the sky. It was open at the top, but she couldn’t see much of what was inside from where she was on the ground. There were different levels on the pyramid that had small little buildings connected to it. Just about every inch of the whole pyramid was covered in blue, purple, green, and orange paint.
The rest of the city was basically centered on one main street that led from the breaking of the forest to the pyramid, then to a harbor behind the pyramid. The other buildings ranged from one to two stories, and they were plain colored like sand. She could see small openings in the buildings that she guessed were windows, and bigger openings with pieces of cloth over them that were supposed to be doorways.
I thought he said they were “technologically advanced”. This place has less technology then a place where monks stay.
All of the men except the leader and the two men holding her disappeared in the hectic street of the small city; there were many people there, she had to admit. They were all the strange pale color, and from what she could see, they all had orange eyes, and were all unlawfully gorgeous. She didn’t see where any of the guards went, she hardly noticed they left because she was being taken to the pyramid.
“Eam auferam,” the leader said when they reached the base of the pyramid. “Ibis.”
The men who had held onto Katherine let go, turned around, and walked down the street, vanishing from sight in the throng of strange people. She was left alone with this terrifying man who grabbed a hold of her arm with a tight grip, one that she was sure would leave bruises, and half dragged her up the steps of the tall pyramid.
“Ouch! Hey, It’s not as if I can get away, you people are very fast! Could you please let go of my arm?” she shouted in protest.
He smiled and chuckled a bit, but he did let go.
“I am sorry, madam, force of habit. Not all people are as calm and willing as you are.”
His voice had taken a one-eighty degree turn from the harsh one she heard on the beach. Now it was light, airy almost; it made him sound like he was singing a ballad.
“When we reach the top, I’ll look at your arm to make sure there aren’t any marks.”
She was completely bewildered. Why was he being so nice to her all of the sudden?
They were both quiet for a while, and it wasn’t until they had reached the halfway point of the pyramid that he finally spoke again.
“My name, by the way, is Arthur. I am the head guard of our island.”
She didn’t really know how to respond to that, so Katherine merely smiled to show that she had heard what he said.
They continued walking up the steps for a second and then Katherine said, “Why are you being so nice to me all of the sudden, Arthur?”
He almost stopped walking as if he were completely stunned that she had asked such a stupid question. He looked at her, and he had the same look that seemed to have been plastered onto Remises’ face.
“We are in the presence of the Lady; can you not feel the good aura that surrounds this place? Does it not make you feel happier and make you want to do nothing but nice things?”
She stopped walking and tried to make sense of what he was saying. She did feel something in the air that was pushing to affect her, but it wasn’t good. There was something malevolent in the atmosphere; it made her want to run out of the place and back to the safety of the trees. It seemed that if she looked to the farthest edges of the city she could almost see a thin veil; a ripple around the city that was keeping an immortal spirit confined to this small city. In fact, the closer she and Arthur got to the top, the more she felt like it was the source of the ripple in the fabric of the universe.
To please Arthur though, who seemed to be growing irritated that she hadn’t answered him, she said, “I definitely feel something in the air.”
He seemed happy with this reply and was silent until they reached the top. When the couple got there, Katherine gasped.
She was in the entrance of a large, rectangular, open room with a ceiling supported by four poles that stood in the four corners of the room. There was a small fountain in the center of the room that had a sculpture of a woman. She was naked and held a pitcher of water that was tipped over and out of which water poured like a waterfall, glistening in the now setting sun. She saw animal skin rugs on the floor, or at least she thought they were animal skins. One was bright green with hair that was a little like that of a sheep, but was the size of a full grown alligator. There was another that was black with bright blue cow spots, and many more unusual rugs that somehow seemed to tie the whole room together. On top of some of these rugs were pieces of furniture, some made out of rock and some out of wood. There was a large wooden podium to her right that faced the northern part of the city and the forest from which she had traveled through. Next to that was a stone bed with more strange furs used as sheets. On her left, there was a sitting area made of three wooden love seats surrounding an open fire pit. There was a fire blazing, but the smoke wasn’t spreading into the room, it was escaping though a big whole in the ceiling directly above the pit. Though all of this was quite baffling, none of it was as captivating as the woman sitting on a throne made of gold in the center of the room.
She was absolutely stunning; the most beautiful woman Katherine had ever seen, probably in the entire world! She had long, wavy black hair that sparkled in the setting sun. Her eyes, unlike the rest of the people in the city, were as blue as the ocean. Her skin was pale like everyone else’s, but hers was like a pearl. The very air around her appeared to turn silver and it seemed as if energy radiated from her very soul.
Arthur kneeled down at the entrance and pulled Katherine down with him with great force.
“Rise,” the woman said. Her voice was soft, firm, warm, and cold…it seemed to contradict all laws nature made about how striking a voice could be.
Arthur rose to his feet and didn’t have to worry about pulling Katherine up with him, for she was already there. She wanted to get closer to the exotic beauty across the room, almost as if it were a force pulling her closer.
“You have done well, my love,” she said to Arthur. “You may leave her with me now.”
“As you wish my Lady.”
With that, he turned and left without so much of a glance at Katherine. Not that it broke her heart or anything; she was glad to be rid of the forceful man. She turned to face the woman and looked her directly in the eyes.
Instant connection. Katherine was forced, practically against her will, to stay starring at her.
“Katherine, welcome to my island.”
Before Katherine could even think about asking how she knew what her name was, the woman held her hand up.
“I know just about everything there is to know in the world; your name is hardly a challenge for me. By the way, I am your age; you need not keep considering me a woman. I don’t need to read your mind to know that you are thinking of me as such. My name is Stella. You may speak now.”
“U-u-uh…” she stuttered.
She couldn’t say anything! It was all happening so fast; it was like she was caught in a tornado. It took her a few minutes to touch back down to Earth. Lucky for her, Stella was patient. She sat there like she was carved out of marble and kept the eye contact with Katherine.
When she found her words she asked the most meaningless question she could, “I thought the people on this island were named after people from history that were in positions of high power? I’ve never heard of a powerful woman named Stella.”
Stella gave a bereaved smile. Even though she was sad, it lit the entire room up brighter than the sun could have.
“Ah, well, there is a story about that. I tell all the travelers that story, but I never jump right into it, but you are different. I know that. You are less patient than others before you. Alright, come and sit with me by the fire.”
She pointed to the seats by the fire place and got up to walk over to them. As she was walking, she totally captivated Katherine, because it wasn’t like she was walking at all. It seemed more like she was floating.
When they sat down, Katherine in the chair opposite Stella, she opened her mouth and began talking.
“Katherine, before we go any farther, I know who you saw before you came here. Would you like to tell me what really happened?”
Katherine sat there and stared. She just stared and stared at Stella, totally amazed and terrified at the same time. She knew what Stella was talking about; she wanted Katherine to tell her about her experience with Remises and Oberon, but she knew that they were in trouble. She had this sixth sense that when she told Stella what happened, she would never be able to see Oberon again. The thought knocked the wind out of her lungs and she couldn’t talk.
“Speak Katherine.”
Her voice was like a rope that pulled words out of Katherine’s mouth.
“I met Oberon and Remises. They were taking me to you, but they let me go, well, no, not really let me go. I got away from them. That’s when Arthur and his men came and got me.”
Stella sat back in her chair.
“I see,” she said. She then turned towards the entrance of the room where a couple steps down stood Stella’s lady in waiting. “Oberon et adduc Remises mihi quando dabit verbum!” she called to her servant.
She replied, “Ut voles, sic erit.”
Stella turned back to Katherine. “We speak Latin here.”
“Oh, ok. So, um, you were going to tell me a story?”
Stella’s face hardened as she thought of the painful story she was going to tell, the same one she’s been retelling for a long time.
“I know you are confused now, Katherine, after all that has happened to you, but after I tell you this story, everything will make sense. I promise.
“It all started a long time ago, when I was born. I lived in a small village, you see, right on this island. There was a legend in my village called the Flos Turpis, or the Ugly Flower. It stated that there would be a couple who would have a child for the wrong reasons. Born of them would be a girl and that girl would be so ugly her own mother would not look upon her face. As she grew, though, each year on her birthday she would become more and more beautiful. On her eighteenth birthday, she would become the most beautiful woman ever, but her price to pay was that she would stay eighteen forever.
“Well, you know how legends go: not everybody believed in it, least of all my parents. My father was the leader of the village. He and my mom wanted a son, not to love and cherish, but to make sure the family continued to be head of the village. That was not the right reason to have a child. So, my mom became pregnant and had me. I was a girl though, and although they wanted a boy, they couldn’t get rid of me for fear of being looked down upon by the villagers. My mother named me Diecti, from the Latin word deiecti , which means “disappointed”.
“Not only was I a girl, but I was such an ugly child! My parents were so ashamed of me, I was never allowed out of the house, so I became so pale, my skin was like a pearl by the time I was one. No one stopped to think about the legend of the Ugly Flower until my fifth birthday. My hair had grown down to my waist, and it was the most beautiful hair in the entire village. It was black like everyone else’s, but people said it seemed like my parents had weaved stars into it. They started calling me Stellarum Virgo, Girl of the Stars.
“After that, year after year I became more and more gorgeous, and people knew I was the Ugly Flower. I also started to notice when I was thirteen, that when I looked a person in the eye, I could make them do whatever I wanted and as soon as they were done they forgot everything they did for me.
“People were drawn to me. I was the Pale Beauty, the Lady of Dreams, the Celestial Empress, and people adored me. My parents were all the sudden proud to be called such, and took me everywhere with them so other parents could envy at them. It seemed I was the talk of the world. Not only this world, but the next.
“Well, when I turned eighteen, a strange man came to our village. It wasn’t really that uncommon; ever since I was ten people had come from all over the world to marvel my beauty. Men came to ask for my hand, but my father wouldn’t allow it.” At this, she smiled that same sad smile. “He never wanted to let me go. He wanted to keep me under his watchful eye forever, or at least as long as he lived.
“But this man was different from all the rest. The other men never had an effect on me. I mean, my father doesn’t know it, but I slept with a couple of them, some pleasurable, others not so much. But I never truly felt something for any man until he came to our village. He claimed he was there on business, that he came from a neighboring island and thought it was time to open up trade. That was the first thing that drew me to him. He never once asked to speak with me, to see me, for my hand. No, I had to ask to speak with him. He was handsome, which was also something that caught my eye. He had shoulder length brown hair and deep brown eyes. He was tall, fit, and tan. I’d never seen a more gorgeous man in my life…
“I asked my father if I might have a word with the newcomer, he stayed on our island for a couple of weeks to work out the trading plans, under the pretense that when my father passed on I would like to know that everything would be running just as smoothly as it was when he was there. He agreed, thought he didn’t have much of a choice. I looked him in the eyes and told him to let me speak with the man.
“I went to go find him. He was in a hut on the far side of the village. I walked in and found him meditating in front of an altar. He didn’t look at me, but he called my name and asked me to sit with him. I did as he asked and when I sat, he turned to me and said, ‘I am not who I appear to be, princess.’
“Somehow in my heart I knew that I had known his words were true from the moment I met him, but at that moment I just wanted to listen to him speak. His voice was so smooth…it put the same spell on me as mine does on you. He then said to me, ‘My name is Decus, the God of Beauty. I have heard of you, my dear, and wanted to see if the rumors were true.’
“For some reason, I wasn’t speechless. The news didn’t shock me, and I was able to talk with him as if he were just an ordinary person.
“‘What rumors?’” I asked him.
“He said, ‘Rumors of your striking appearance, the rumors that said you made the sun turn green with envy and the moon hide in shame. My love, you are all these things and more. I would be honored if you allowed me to show my true self to you.’
“Well, what really could I say? A god was offering to show me who he really was, what he really looked like. I nodded my head and he told me that I would have to look away for a moment. When I turned my head away, there was a bright flash of light a loud pop! sound. He told me I could see him, and when I looked at him, for the first time in my life I was speechless.
“He was beautiful, more beautiful than me or any other being to grace the Earth. His hair was long and had the same dark brown color, but it fell in waves like the ocean, and his eyes were no longer brown, but a brilliant orange. I compared them to the orange of a full bloomed lily. He was pale-silver like the moon, and his smile stole all the breath out of my body.
“‘Well, what do you think, princess?’ he asked me.
“I couldn’t speak, even now as I recall on those moments it is hard to put into words the sheer beauty that he possessed…”
Her eyes dropped from Katherine’s and focused on the fire, as if it were replaying the scenes from that night within the dancing flames.
“He was beautiful on the outside, but on the inside he was twisted and evil…
“I told him that he was beautiful, and he smiled at me with a crooked smile that I both feared and adored. He asked me if he could have me, and I thought he meant to marry me. I was honored, a god wanted to marry me! I couldn’t say no to such an offer. But that’s not what he meant. I said yes, and to this very day, after so many years, I say it was the biggest mistake I’d ever made.
“He grabbed my hand and threw me onto the pile of straw that was his bed. I knew he had muscles and that he was a god, but his strength surprised me still.
Her eyes started tearing up and she looked into her lap, seemingly afraid to look up either from fear of Katherine seeing her cry, or from shame.
“I still didn’t realize what was happening,” she said as her voice started to shake a little.
“He…he raped me. It wasn’t consensual; I didn’t want to do it! I would be looked down upon for having sex with a god if I wasn’t married to him! I kept trying to get up and call for help, but he just kept pushing down on me harder and harder…he told me that he put a charm around the hut so that no one would be able to hear how loud I screamed…and I screamed. I screamed so loud my throat was on fire; he actually put a spell on my mouth that kept me from being able to open it. He said my voice didn’t sound pleasant when I screamed and it almost made him dislike me. Almost he emphasized.
“When he was through with me, he told me that my beauty would be known only to this island. He wanted to keep me to himself…he didn’t want any other man to be able to steal me from him…so he sent a plague over our livestock and crops…everyone starved to death but me because I can’t die!
“I sat there and watched my friends and my family die because I couldn’t do anything but just sit and stare at them! Children, babies, all died within the first week. Adults and the elderly died the second and the third! Decus made sure that my parents stayed alive for five weeks as a punishment for treating me so horribly for the first five years of my life!
“I begged and pleaded to him to keep everyone alive, but he was a jealous and greedy god and wouldn’t listen to me. When my parents died, Decus came to me and took me in his arms. I was too weak to reject him and he said to me, ‘I understand that you hate me now, but soon this will all make sense. You are pregnant with four children, two boys and two girls. When they are born, they will share characteristics of both you and me. They will help you build a nation so grand, but no one outside of this island will know of it.’
“That’s why there is a cloud of fog obscuring our island, so that no one outside of it would ever know of its existence. He then told me that there was a certain scroll of infinite knowledge that only People of Promise were shown. He said that there were great men before and would be more great men after me that would know of this knowledge, and he gave it to me. That is how I have come to know everything over time. The scroll was called Datori Intelligentiae, or Giver of Knowledge. Once I was down reading it, I gave it back to Decus. He comes to visit me from time to time to see how the city is going. I never have sex with him anymore, and he has come to respect that I probably never will.
“So, there is my sad life story. Don’t look so shocked, my dear, haven’t you learned in your time here that not everything is as it seems? I figured that lesson was learned when you tried to sit on the stumpfry.”
Katherine sat there and held on to her every word. It was amazing how calm she felt given the circumstances she noticed. But being in the presence of Stella, and thinking about Oberon as well, as released a calming sort of spell over her; she felt that nothing could surprise her at the moment.
She still had many questions to ask this Celestial Wo-Girl (she recalled Stella did not like to be thought of as a woman), but there was one that was eating away at her patience.
“What will you do with Oberon?”
Stella looked surprised at first, and then she stared into Katherine’s eyes fiercely for a moment. It was as if she could actually see Katherine’s thoughts through her eyes, and after a couple of seconds, she relaxed her face.
“Well, this is something new. You’ve Imprinted with my Oberon, haven’t you?”
Before Katherine could even think to ask the question, Stella said, “Imprinting, basically, is love at first sight. But it’s much more powerful and much darker. You will soon come to realize that everything he feels, you feel, be it pain or pleasure. You won’t be able to stop thinking about him, and he won’t stop thinking about you. It’s a fast growing love, but it soon becomes a cancer for your whole life will be nothing but him. You’ll end up dying because you’ll be separated from him for more than an hour; your heart will literally break.”
Katherine couldn’t take the prophecy of what was to come. Had the Imprinting already begun? She thought of never being able to return home again, just because of some huge mistake! There had to be a way to make sure the foretelling wouldn’t come true.
“How do I stop this process?” she asked Stella frantically.
She gave another sad, hardened smile.
“The only way to stop you and him from dying is by either killing one of you, or making sure you’re never separated. I will have to kill him for crimes against me.”
Katherine felt a pang in her chest and she lost all the air and common sense in her body.
“What?! No! What did he do?! Please don’t kill him! You can’t!”
Stella’s lovely face instantly hardened into anger. Her eyes became dilated, her skin turned red, and the silvery light that burned brightly around her turned raging orange. A wind started up around the outside of the building, quickly gaining force.
“Who are you to tell me what to do?! I am the Empress of this island, not you! I will do what I want to do and no one can stop me! I was kind to you; I didn’t have you killed off like many of the others because I saw something in you! And now, you take advantage of my kindness!”
She looked Katherine directly in the eyes.
“Go home! My people will arrange a ship for you. You will forget everything about your trip here! You will be sent home with this Imprint, and we shall torture Oberon every day you are gone! You will feel his pain! And when you kill yourself out of pain and sorrow, he will die with you! I will have rid of the two people on this island who dare threaten my authority! Remises will go unpunished because at least he tried to follow my orders! Maid! Take care of this girl!”


“Katherine! Katherine! Oh my God! You’re alive!”
She looked up into the sun and saw her father’s face. She felt hot sand on her back and heard the calming waves of the ocean to her left.
“Mom?” she was able to get out, but it took a lot of effort. She tried to sit up, but her father wouldn’t let her.
“No, no, stay here and catch your breath. Thank God you’re ok. Where have you been? It’s been three days since you left! Where’s the boat?”
Katherine groaned as she tried to remember what happened, but it was all like a distant dream. . .
“There was a swirling fog on the water . . . I tried to steer the boat towards it, but the closer I got to it, the harder it was to see it . . . I . . . I don’t remember anything else. . .”
“Well, look at what the tide brought in! My darling daughter Kathleen!” she heard her mother yell from up the beach.
“Her name is Katherine, Donna! And it’s not the time to be stupid and careless! Go call an ambulance! We need to get her to the hospital!” Her father turned back to her. “Don’t worry honey, everything is going to be-”
He was interrupted midsentence by Katherine’s screams of agonizing pain. She started writhing on the beach, sand flying up in her father’s face as he tried to steady her and ask her what was wrong. She couldn’t answer though, for the pain was too great for words.
Little did she and her father know that miles away, a man named Oberon was being whipped on his bare back, feeling the exact pain that Katherine was feeling.
The sand started turning red with blood as wounds started opening on her back. Sand entered the wounds and the salt burned her on the inside, stinging like a thousand bee stings. Tears rolled down her face as she could actually feel the hot whip lashing against her back; she couldn’t count how many times it hit her.
The world started to darken and black out.
Katherine later awoke in a hospital bed in a white room with no windows. There was a brown chair off in a corner, a small television set on a shelf above her, and a counter with a sink to her right. Her father was standing to her left, looking down at her face. Once he saw her eyes open, he called for a doctor and told them she was awake.
The next few hours flew by as Katherine was in some sort a trance. Nobody would tell her what was happening, her own father wouldn’t say much other than assure her that everything would be alright. All throughout this time, Katherine sat in her white room on her white bed trying to remember the events of the past few days, but she couldn’t for the life of her.
Nothing made sense to her.
Two days after she had woken up in the hospital she felt her heart start to hurt. Her body became paralyzed and she couldn’t call for help or press the “Call” button on the remote next to her bed. Her heart felt like it was on fire, and though she was paralyzed, she still felt the pain.
I’m having a heart attack, was all she could think.
A loud beeping noise started sounding as one of the machines she was hooked up to said her heart rate was dangerously increasing.
Doctors and nurses rushed into her room shouting orders and putting needles in her arm. One doctor tried pressing some buttons on the machine to see what was wrong, but he couldn’t figure anything out.
Katherine started falling into a deep sleep that she somehow knew she wouldn’t wake up from, but she tried fighting it. Then, like the rush of a wave, everything came back to her. Verimina, a stumpfry, evil sea creatures, Arthur, Remises, the small city, the Celestial Woman Stella. . .and Oberon.
A face flashed in her mind and spoke words to her. It was the face of a beautiful, pale woman with ebony hair that looked as if stars were weaved into it, and eyes blue as the ocean.
“Your suffering in this life is over Katherine, but I will make sure it will not be the end. You will learn to respect those above you.”
The world started to blackout until a small circle of light was all she could see. She saw the face of a man dying. He had pale skin, orange eyes, and short, straight brown hair.
She was able to whisper one word before she died, and no one is entirely certain what it was, but some swear to this day that she said “Oberon” and let go of her last breath.
But what was so important about a character in a Shakespearian play?

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Texte: Photo was copyrighted from irishpsychics.net
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.06.2011

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