Out From the Cloisture’s Cell
By Staff Writer: Paganus Greybeard
We open on a Monastery. Not a real, physical Monastery, but a
‘Monastery of the Mind’. A quiet, studious greybearded Magus-Monk
is sitting quietly scribbling in his tiny, bare and spare cell. High
overhead a fire-raven circles. Below the raven a ghostly figure is half-seen waiting
at the gates of the Monastery. The raven lands and shape-changes to a
human Witch. The Witch pauses at the gate of the Monastery to speak to
the ghostly figure - one of her associates. The Witch then walks up to the
gate of the Monastery and the gate opens. She walks into the courtyard
and looks around. She finds the cloisture where the cells are located.
She walks down the long, silent hallway till she comes to the solid oak
door of the Monk’s cell.
“Paganus Greybeard!”
The puzzled Magus-Monk looks up from his scribbling. He thought
he had heard something.
“Paganus!”
Puzzled he gets up and goes to the closed and locked door of his
monastic cell.
“Yes?”
“Paganus Greybeard! Come on out of there!”
The Magus-Monk stands there in total consternation.
“Come on out of there. There is a whole, new and exciting world
out here you are missing.”
The Magus-Monk steps closer to the door.
“M’Lady Mistress - Is that you?”
The Monk hears a soft laugh.
“Whom else, Paganus? You did conjure the raven - did you not?”
The Monk stands at his cell’s door. He looks back at his table, chair,
single dim candle and his papers and inkwell and pen. There is also a
bare cot, and a trunk at the end of the cot. There is a closet with only a
few things on hangers and a staff and sword. It’s an otherwise empty
Monks cell. He turns back to the door, unbolts it and swings it open.
The Mistress Witch steps into the cell and looks around.
She sniffs.
“Cold. Damp. Drafty. Dark.”
The Monk shrugs.
“It’s a Monk’s Cloisture, M’Lady….”
The Witch turns to the Monk.
“You deserve so much more. Come with me. We can do so
much - together….”
The Monk looks around the cell.
“Works for me, M’Lady….”
Together the Witch and Magus-Monk walk down the hallway out of
the cloisture into the courtyard of the Monastery. The Monk stops and
looks back.
“I forgot to -”
The witch shakes her head.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s under control.”
The Monk takes one last look back, pauses as he almost sees
something that is almost there. The Witch sees this and nods.
Together they walk towards the
Monastery’s front gate.
Back in the Monk’s cell a form slowly takes shape. The appartition slowly
looks around the cell. The Spirit sniffs and snorts.
“Pathetic…..”
The Spirit steps over to the where the Monk had been seated and writing.
The Spirit leans over to read the scrawled scribblings of the Magus-Monk.
“Hmnnnnn - not bad. Not bad at all. But nobody does this by written hand
anymore….”
The Spirit steps back from the Monk’s table and again looks
around the cell.
“This place just won’t do. Won’t do at all…..”
“Not for this Magus. Not for this Paganus…..”
Spirit pulls out an ancient whistle and blows it.
A face appears out of the ether.
“Yo?”
“Get the crew together. We have a re-build job.”
Second spirit glances around the cell. His eyes open wide as he realizes
where he is and whose cell this is.
“Paganus?”
The first Spirit nods as the second Spirit pops out. Although he is gone
we can still hear the second Spirit.
“About bloody, damn time. Was beginning to wonder if we’d ever
get the call…..”
First Spirit sits down at the Monk’s table and sighs.
“You and me both……”
Spirit starts reading the Monk’s writings. Slowly the Spirit’s
form changes to that of a slightly older, greyer version of the Magus-Monk.
Spirit reads then fowns. Spirit pauses in thought for a moment. Then the Spirit snaps his
fingers. A large wooden mug appears and hover in mid-air besides the Spirit.
The Spirit reaches for the mug then takes a long draught.
“Ahhh - that’s better. Writing always was thirsty work…..”
He sets the mug down and picks up the quillpen, dips it into the inkwell
and continues the writing……
He looks up - as if directly at the reader -
“Now then, where were we?…..
The Paganus keeps on writing…..