Ūnicornis
By Skye Garcia
()
About this ebook
“We are as real as anything, which is to say, not very. As real as you, which is – not very. And Unicorns are, naturally, as real as us all – which is not very. The Unicorn will not be found, no. It will find you, if you are real enough to be found...”
When the devious and power hungry Lucerna invents an entity known as the Deus Curo, she is surprised and pleased to gain a dedicated following. Only she underestimates the power of belief, and gradually her creation spirals out of her control. In the meantime, Quinn Payne is sent on a quest to find the "evil" unicorn, and Lucerna never guessed that her downfall was living with her in her own house...
Skye Garcia
I live in a fantasy world and I write home about it.
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Ūnicornis - Skye Garcia
Ūnicornis
By Skye Garcia
Copyright © 2015 Skye Garcia
Smashwords Edition
Chapter 1
Lucerna was dreaming. A small circle of dry land was all she had to stand on. The ocean of night sky swept in, and she was afraid it would wash her away. The waves lapped ever further towards her; she could see the stars chasing through the collapsing bubbles. Even the moon was out there, a silver glimmer tossed on the galactical tide. If I could only destroy the sky, she thought, then it couldn’t wash me away.
"Nothing to fear… nothing to fear…" sighed the starry waves. Lucerna panicked. She couldn’t trust the sea, it was lying. Of course there was something to fear, she would drown! Then she looked up into the atmosphere, and noticed that the ground was a landscape of flame. I will drown, or I will burn, she thought desperately. And then she tripped over something. She crouched down to pick it up. A lamp. A glowing lamp, and written around the top were the words: so turn water to silver and fire to gold, lies to truth and new to old.
Lucerna lifted the lamp. The beam shone out, a ray of darkness with a shadow of light. The sky-water smoked away, and plunged into the land above, quenching the fire. Left alone in a misty grey fog, Lucerna held the lamp ahead of her and walked across the desertion. The ground was metal, but at least she hadn’t been swept away. And now there was nothing to sweep her away…
Lucerna woke abruptly, soft grey light reaching through the window to snare her out of sleep. The images were still replaying in her mind, and the misty early morning was eerily like the dreamscape she had just left.
Lilian!
she screamed to her serving girl. The timid, round-faced Lilian opened the door and asked tremulously if everything was all right.
Fetch me some breakfast, and send for my horse. I am going to the town at once.
Lilian decided that action spoke louder than words and saw to the request.
When Lucerna arrived in the town of Stellaria, she had written out her dream on a roll of parchment and went to the stone hall of the dream counsel. They greeted her with enthusiasm, because most of their customers turned up with vague, doubtful recollections of their dreams and a moth-eaten dream catcher and expected it to be untangled for them.
It was in the interest of the dream counsellors to give positive feedback, knowing that most people wanted to hear good news and would be more likely to return if they heard what they wanted to hear. And they wanted to hear that their dreams meant they would have health, wealth, and happiness in abundance forever. In truth, the dream counsel were also working on a narrow time frame, because to really analyze what any of the stuff meant would take a long while, longer than most customers’ patience. The result was a brief, incorrect, and censored analysis that sounded wise, professional, and full of incredible future prospects.
As is human nature, people usually took this with a pinch of sugar rather than salt, and swore by it as the gospel truth. They would leave with their untangled dream catcher and the promise of success, fortune, adventure, and life long contentment. It was mostly a placebo effect, but sometimes they were right by accident.
This time was no exception. Lucerna wanted to believe this dramatic dream she had had was an omen of extraordinary and wonderful things for her. So she was very pleased when the counsellors told her It is a foretelling of great upheaval. You are likely to discover a misdeed or lie and be the first to tell the truth of it. You will have a chance to make great riches and have a good influence on people. You may become a leader and shine the truth like a lamp, guiding others where they are afraid to walk.
Lucerna trotted back on her lovely black horse with an air of self-importance. The morning had simply confirmed her innate sense of entitlement and she felt determined to make herself powerful. Of course, she thought. I’m not stupid, like Lilian. I was meant for better things than that.
Her mother and father had been merchants who had left her the estate she now lived on, and she was very comfortable staying there. She did not, however, like the idea that if any trouble occurred there was a possibility she might have to downsize, and imagine living on twenty acres instead of sixty! If any trouble occurred, she might not even be able to afford a servant. Imagine having to wash clothes yourself! It couldn’t be countenanced.
Whatever made her powerful would also have to make her rich, and vice versa, because it was more secure to have both. She thought and thought and then, in one swoop of utter brilliance, the idea fell into place.
***
The book was published. It had taken her quite a long time to write it, and she was impatient to get it into the scope of general reading so that she could execute her plan. She pondered on how to begin the whole process, and decided that going back to the dream counsel and presenting the book to them was a good way of exposing it to customers and therefore potential candidates for her plan.
She visited the stone hall again with the same air of smugness she had left with last time, and when she stated she had a business proposition rather than another stupid dream to interpret about the end of the world and stuff, they were all ears. Within reason. Dream interpretation did get boring after not very long.
They went through the book and listened to Lucerna’s idea with glee, because they were business oriented themselves, after all, and they could see this might get them more money than ever before if they said the right things.
They said as many of the right things as they could – would Lucerna like to use the dream counsel hall for these meetings she planned? Would she like to send them more books so they could sell them? Perhaps they could explain it all persuasively to their customers? And perhaps, given all this brilliant marketing they were going to do for her, they might get a small percentage of the profits?
Lucerna agreed.
The following week, Lucerna began the first meeting at the stone hall. Quite a lot of people turned up. Stellaria was a notoriously tedious place to live, due to the general attitude of those who lived there and a somewhat isolated landscape. So they tended to take any line that was thrown just to make things more interesting.
Most of them had bought books, and were all rather impressed by Lucerna, dressed convincingly in a long cream coloured robe and reading chapters from the book with great authority. She was tall and imposing, and the audience happily donated their cash at the end under the impression that it was necessary to keep this Deity, the Deus Curo, happy too. They were told that the Deus would look after them and help them to achieve things, if they were dedicated and paid up, but that they might be left out or even punished slightly if they didn’t. They had to place their donations in front of a large eye painted on the wall of the hall; it had been there for ages anyway, but it was a great symbol to hijack. This eye, said Lucerna, would watch them all the time. It would be seen exactly who was dedicated or not.
And this is not new, friends,
Lucerna reminded. This is an ancient truth that has been forgotten and denied for many years. If we are to save ourselves from the power of the Deus, we must give generously.
Lucerna privately laughed at how non-ancient six months was. But they didn’t need to know that.
The more a follower should give, the more they will receive. But if they should fail to give, and revolt against the true word of the Deus, they will experience the terror of the Deus.
This surprisingly successful first meeting was enough to inspire the dream counsellors to convert the hall to accommodate the dedicated followers of this highly profitable belief system. They embellished the painted eye with the words ‘Deus Curo’ and Lucerna hired the counsellors as marketers. She gave them half the payout, which seemed a lot to them, but Lucerna was happy – they had to share and she didn’t.
The second meeting had markedly more people than the last; it seemed families and the community at large were delighted to latch on to this scheme to give them something to define themselves by. They solemnly nodded in agreement of nearly everything Lucerna had to say. Because it was nice for them to believe in something, especially something that would purportedly reward them later.
For the word of the Deus Curo is the one way, the only way. It is the life, the death, the ascension. To achieve ascension you must put aside all other ideals and temptations and devote your belief purely to the Deus Curo.
The audience were only too willing, because they had nothing else they believed in anyway.
Between the meetings, Lucerna would talk to the former dream counsellors about what they should do next to make this venture sustainable.
They will not believe blindly forever,
said one. We must prove it to them.
Another said critically, "but we cannot really stage fantastical happenings. Whatever can we do to convince them?"
Lucerna spoke up sharply. You are both right. But I have a solution. We have ample opportunity for convincing – two words: punishment, and reward.
The rest of them were silent.
Lucerna walked around the Hall.
Say,
she began thoughtfully, say somebody might contribute something particularly valuable,
she paused to place five gold coins on the table, and separated four from one. "The usual