Location: Monthaven
Timeline: Sixth Age, Year 52, Early Spring
The Grand Gesture
“Oh, Alyssa, I hope this works. It seems crazy but I guess Tiffania is right: if Lynsy never sees me then how will she ever know if she likes me?”
Emcorae’s thoughts were a transparent mix of compelled romance and tactical stupidity. The plan, devised by his new accomplice, was to abandon all pretense of stealth and walk openly onto the Finch estate in broad daylight—a clear violation of the first rule of covert engagements: never take unnecessary risks!
Tiffania assured him the guards would be absent and, more crucially, promised that Lynsy would be watching from her bedroom window, overseeing the courtyard.
Agggh, surely I will get caught. Oh well, here goes!
Emcorae hopped over the eastern wall. He paused only long enough to stand up straight and walk purposefully toward his supposed destiny. The day itself was sickeningly beautiful: bright mid-spring sun, fragrant breezes, chirping birds, buzzing bees, and the insistent audible flow of the Suskil River. The setting was screaming for an adventure, yet all it got was a lovesick stalker.
Well, Alyssa, I’ve prayed to you so many, many times these past weeks; now is the moment of truth. Please answer my prayers – please let Lynsy Finch see in me all that she has been searching for, please let her see her heart’s desire.
He walked across the garden lawns, dressed in simple, soft leather and linen, presenting himself as non-threatening. Instead of a weapon, he carried a small basket of potato crispies, Lynsy’s favorite, made by some local farmhand named Middlesworth. Remembering them from his youth, Emcorae had been compulsively snacking on the gift all the way over.
I’d better stop eating these dang things or there won’t be any left for Lynsy!
He reached the stone bench where he had left his prior tokens and then covertly scanned the second-floor windows, searching for the pre-arranged signal.
Oh, my god, there she is!
He saw Lynsy seated in a chair, with Tiffania standing behind her, brushing her hair. Lynsy must have also seen him, walking across her lawn carrying the basket, because she quickly rose and moved to the window for a better look. Emcorae noted her light green robe, short enough to show her legs and cut low enough to suggest far more.
Wow! She is absolutely amazing!
Emcorae tried, unsuccessfully, to control his breathing as he continued his “stately” walk, pretending not to see her, setting the basket down perfectly on the bench. He then waited, praying for her to come down.
But the minutes soon stretched into an agonizing silence.
Finally, he allowed himself to look up to the window. To his surprise, Lynsy was seated again. Though too far to discern her expression clearly, he could see her eyebrows raised, her mouth open in awe. When she saw him looking, she instantly turned her gaze away, forcing herself to stare straight ahead as Tiffania resumed brushing her hair.
Resolute, Emcorae continued staring, captivated. Eventually Lynsy timidly looked back, but then instantly looked away again. [Oh the tedium of this lover’s farce!] In spite of all his hopes, Lynsy made no efforts to come down to see him and eventually Emcorae was released from his trance when he saw the two women talking and then Lynsy left the room at which point Tiffania looked down at him and shook her head – the plan had failed!
“Well, this wasn’t exactly how I pictured it would turn out!” Embarrassed, Emcorare fought the urge to flee with maximum speed and instead slowly walked back the way he came. ALONE.
The Post-Mortem of the Plan
Days later, Emcorae, having quarantined himself in his room from disappointment, was finally convinced by Tiffania to meet her in their secluded clearing. He sat dejectedly, digging absentmindedly at the dirt with a twig as he whined, “Yeah, but what should I do now? Where does that leave me?”
Tiffania tried reassure him. “It’s not that Lynsy didn’t like you. She was just amazed when she saw you. She just didn’t expect it. I probably should have told her, huh?
“I don’t know if she even likes me, Tiff! She didn’t hardly look at me.”
Tiffania explained that Lynsy had spent that last seven years preparing marry Diked Dinus, the future King of Orkney. And even though she knew it wasn’t going to be a fairy tale, Lynsy was ready to “get it over with” and move into the life her father had arranged for her. “Em, she never imagined someone like you would come along. She wasn’t ready to face the NEW reality that you want to give to her.”
Emcorae broke his twig in frustration. “So I should just walk away? How can I do that?”
Tiffania gently caressed his cheek. “Emcorae, don’t give up hope… Lynsy and I have talked long into the night about you. She does like you.”
Emcorae brightened instantly, but Tiffania tempered his enthusiasm. “She didn’t go down and talk to you because she’s scared… She doesn’t understand WHY you love her so much and I think she doesn’t believe you are for real.”
“But how do I make her see that I AM real, that my fantasy actually IS a reality?”
Tiffania smiled wickedly. “You just have to march right back and try again!”
Emcorae groaned, then laughed. Tiffania shared a final, cryptic warning, one that he knew his master El-Janus would appreciate:
“Be careful what you wish for because it may just come true!”
Emcorae, now fully hopeful again, affirmed that he had nothing better to wish for than Lynsy.
Tiffania made ready to leave: “Ok then, if you come back tomorrow evening, I’ll make sure that Lynsy comes out to see you, even if I have to drag her out to the yard myself!”
They laughed at the mental image. The pact was sealed. The next confrontation would surely be inevitable – it just had to!
In the Flesh
Emcorae Azop, foolishly determined, once more climbed the Finch estate wall. Despite his years training with the elite Amorosi warriors, he realized he felt truly alive only in this new pursuit of love – never realizing it was completely manufactured by Alyssa.
Although Tiffania had advised him to bring no gift, his obsession compelled him to veer into a small apple orchard and pluck the brightest, plumpest red apple he could find. If you’re gonna make the effort, you might as well go all out!
As he approached the manor he looked up at the fourth window from the left – to his dismay he saw only Tiffania – but his friend was eagerly waving and pointing down toward the first-floor door. Following her direction, he gazed diagonally down and left and there, in the open door, looking straight at him, stood Lynsy!
Emcorae nearly dropped the apple. He froze, then managed a smile. All the while Lynsy stood motionless, her expression unreadable.
What now? Emcorae wondered. I can’t very well go in there and get her? Can I?
He met Lynsy’s eyes again, resisting the urge to look away. Then, sitting on the bench, he placed the apple beside him…and waited.
Finally, Tiffania reappeared behind Lynsy – pushing her mistress toward the door, but Lynsy resisted. She pushed past Tiffania and vanished back into the interior of the house.
Dejected, Emcorae started to walk away. But after only a few steps, he heard a woman’s voice call out behind him: “Wait…please…”
It wasn’t Tiffania’s voice. It had a magical quality to it – surely it was Lynsy’s.
Emcorae stopped but did not turn around. Instead he considered walking away to test if the woman would pursue him, but he quickly realized the foolish risk. So he turned around and saw the object of his heart’s desire.
They sat together on the bench. At first the words escaped them both. Then they tried talking, but kept stumbling over their words. It was Lynsy who found her composure first. She began asking questions—who he was, why she hadn’t heard of him, why he was doing these nice things for her, and if he knew she was engaged.
Emcorae struggled to focus. He tried to answer, but was overwhelmed by her proximity: the music of her voice, the scent of her perfume, the “silkiness of her skin.” His gaze drifted from her face to her lips and back to her eyes, lost in a day dream.
“Emcorae Azop? Are you even listening?” Lynsy’s hand on his snapped him out of his reverie. She looked straight at him and asked: “Emcorae, why me?”
Finally coherent, Emcorae told her his story—including the first time he saw her, smiling sweetly as he recalled the memory, however, in his foolish candor, he revealed too much. For at the mention of Rock Run, Lynsy realized Emcorae had surely seen her naked at the glade!
Lynsy blushed, and quickly got up from the bench. Embarrassment had shattered this fairy tale and she felt like a fool. Wanting to escape she stammered, “I can’t…believe I am out here talking to you like this!” Her hands pulling her robe tightly around her. “I just got out of the bath, and…my hair is so messy. You must think I…look terrible.”
Emcore didn’t say a word, but instead slowly followed after her.
Lynsy looked back and then turned around – intent on ending this farce, “Emcorae Azop, it’s been nice talking to you. I’m sure you will have many girls in your life and all love will you if you are half as nice to them as you have been to me.” She’d reached the door to her house, yet before going inside she stopped – knowing she was at a crossroads in her own young life. Was she really going to throw away this chance – perhaps her last – at true love?
Her eyes met Emcorae’s. Sensing her internal struggles, the man reached a hand towards his lover. She didn’t resist his touch and soon they were lost in a mutual trance there at the threshold to her house. Emcorae, trying to drink up every moment of the sight of her, never knowing when this fantasy would end. And she, wanting so badly to have him carry her away from here, to a place where they two could be together forever.
Smiling and exhilarated, Emcorae leaned in to kiss Lynsy – she didn’t back away but before their lips met suddenly a bird flittered down from one of the trees and flew a path right between them, chirping furiously as they broke apart. As if on cue, thunder rolled as grey clouds blocked the sun. The bird soon vanished, but the lovers’ spell was dashed.
Modesty and embarrassment rushed back over Lynsy. She reached behind her for the door handle. She stopped one last time, looking at the man who represented a chance at a new destiny, recalling Tiffania’s warning: Be careful what you wish for, because it may just come true! But the thought of his eyes having seen her bare form won the battle.
“Emcorae… I wish you all the best. But…I can’t. ” Lynsy tried to smile, but it didn’t work and soon she disappeared inside.
Emcorae was left standing alone. He had felt the sheer bliss of her presence, the closeness when she continually moved toward him, their hands briefly touching. He knew she had liked him. But her sudden, inexplicable retreat broke the illusion.
A melancholy drizzle began to fall, and Emcorae turned away, defeated. What happened? He walked back toward the wall, not sure he would ever know.
Unseen by Emcorae, perched in a nearby oak, was the blue jay that had stopped their kiss – for this was no mortal bird, but the Goddess Alyssa herself. Transforming into her nephilim form, yet hiding in the forest, she began weeping, having called forth the storm clouds to foil what would have been the beginning of a genuine romance—a genuine romance with a man she wanted for herself!
“Oh, Emcorae, my love, can’st thou ever forgive me?” she sighed dejectedly, her tears flowing. “I would but give it all up for the chance to spend but a moment of happiness in a single kiss with you… But, alas, my lover that is not to be.”
Meanwhile, as Emcorae climbed the wall less than a few tree lengths away and was offering yet another prayer to his favorite goddess – the very same Alyssa, begging her for help.
At last Alyssa came to herself and watching him from afar she quietly vowed. “Emcorae Azop, you deserve better. I have heard your prayers and I will help you in your quest!”
With that, she returned to her bird form and took to wing. Meanwhile the drizzle stopped and the clouds vanished.
Emcorae, oblivious to the divine drama, never knew Alyssa was nearby, and he didn’t pay attention to the rain stopping or the return of the sun. He only noticed, too late, that when he jumped down, he landed in a deep puddle – which he took as another piece of bad luck – not realizing this was the pool of Alyssa’s tears. The splash soaked him through and through—a coating whose fateful results would surely play a role in the rest of his life.
The Apocrypha of Azazel 