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About Valaris

I would like to share with you the homeworld featured in all my Tales from the Path of Shades. Known as Valaris, it begins its journey into the multiverse in Gathering of Rain and continues in House of Valla, Shades of Shadow and The Sunless One. Thereafter (Glittering Darkness onward) Valaris remains the homeworld, but the multiverse expands a fair bit to include other worlds and dimensions. Always Valaris is hearth and home to the characters that populate the Tales.

A small world, in the grand scheme of time and space, but beautiful and benign. There is one continent and a host of islands- a water world, really…although the folk living there are more than a little wary of the great depths of unchartered oceans!

Here are a few descriptions and images:

Drasso’s continuing legacy was a continent divided by the one region that had remained relatively untouched by the battles: the Great Dividing Forest. Valaris was a largely water world- one continent and thousands of unexplored, uninhabited islands, the rest being ocean in every direction. Thus, when one described the continent as divided, one was actually saying a world had been divided and its people also, and most effectively as Kisha and Kylan came to understand.

Back in Valaris’ beginning, once it became a habitable world, there was no sentient life. The humans of today did not evolve here; they came from faraway worlds, much the same as happened elsewhere. One starship came and saw it was good, and then there was another and another, a familiar tale. This was and is a paradise world and the humans who settled were happy, but, being human, being sentient, they were selfish also- another familiar tale- and denied entry to other races. Now, around the time that selfish mind-set began, a space warp materialised in the heavens above that made it impossible to travel the stars again, the same warp still in position today. It also, of course, denied entry to other settlers, and put an end to other races interfering with the humans already here. Thus, without any great effort, the humans got their wish, and the Valarians were born as a people apart.

Valaris went beyond every dream. It was far more than this miserable excuse of a world. Even when the light shone benignly here and the mountains were green and white, rounded and inviting, it could not compare.

Ah, what a kaleidoscope world! Sapphire and emerald, silver and white, gold, crimson, amber and violet! Mountains of infinite variety, fertile valleys, oceans, islands, lakes and rivers! Wondrously growing things! There he could live, BE! He could never return to that innocent young man, but, then, he no longer had interest in recapturing that kind of wonder. He was what he was, and it would bring him what he desired. Beauty. Valaris had beauty. In abundance.

A real world, don't you think? Would love to hear your opinion.

Rainbow Pond

He had not expected to feel intense pain. He had not expected extreme joy.

She whispered in the dark: ‘Follow me,’ and he followed.

He was curious, and he tripped over his feet on the unfamiliar path.

She was anticipatory, and her tread was sure.

They descended a rise, the path steep and dangerous in the dark.

Lycea had come as a child? Good god. Where was she taking him? He did not know this place and would not know it even in bright sunshine, yet he had lived nearby for many years. If magic summoned he had been deaf to this call…perhaps it had been a child’s dream, and she would soon be disappointed. Yet, yet, a feeling of recognition washed over him, bathing him in its warm glow. He felt alive.

‘Careful,’ she whispered, holding him back as he came abreast of her. At her touch a powerful surge of emotion erupted within, leaving him breathless and fighting to gain control. She sensed it and tightened her hold on his arm briefly before letting her hand drop away. ‘We can’t go further; there’s a sheer drop at our feet. Sit with me; it will be dawn soon.’

Rustling sounds as she sat on the damp grass. He was surprised by his heightened awareness. Slowly he did the same, and was careful not to touch her. What was the matter with him? He had made love to her, loved her, liked her, and had never felt this way in her presence before. Discovering her body should not bring forth this feeling of power, of helplessness, dear Aaru, what a paradox, and this underlying joy…peace almost. Well, it should, but not so strongly, and not without equal measures of guilt to balance it. There was no guilt, and he could not even imagine it here.

And why did he feel as if he had been at this place, this time, many occasions, when he knew he had not? What were they waiting for? He hoped, for her sake, it was real.

Gradually the dark gave way before the light. Sunrise was imminent. He could now see her sitting patiently beside him, her face peaceful, incredibly different from the day before. She was expectant…and a little doubtful. She glanced at him and smiled. Once again his heart lurched. A bond, that’s what it was, more than love…but what? Why this recognition? Was it this place?

‘Patience,’ she admonished, mistaking his confusion. ‘This magic appears only with the sun’s rays, but watch carefully, for it doesn’t last long, only minutes. You don’t want to miss a single second…oh, look, look, the sun is peaking over, and it’ll hit the water soon…’ She faced forward, and, smiling, he did the same. The feeling overcame him then that this was important, more so than anything in his life.

They were in a tiny clearing at the end of an overgrown path, and to the sides were tall trees made impenetrable by dense undergrowth. The flooding had not reached here; this was high ground. Ahead lay a perfectly circular pool of smooth water, mountain cold and dropping straight into the earth. It was so perfect it was debatable whether it was nature’s work. The water began mere inches from where they sat, the path ending abruptly at the water’s edge, and he couldn’t guess how deep it was, nor could he see anything under the surface. It was black and ominous, and a feeling of dread caused him to shift.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ she whispered, sensing his unease, and he looked at her sharply. She could read him now? What magic was this? ‘Nothing here can harm us,’ she added.

On the far side of the pond a dark cliff-face, higher than the rise they descended earlier. He sensed water running down the stone face, but could not hear it or see where it entered the pond; it did not disturb the unnaturally smooth water. It was supernaturally silent, and the air was expectant. Looking up he saw the first luminous line of the rising sun above the wall of stone ahead. They faced east…and there was definitely magic in the region.

‘Concentrate now,’ she said, and was agitated.

And then the first rays shot over the rim and bathed them in welcome. All feeling of dread was instantly dispelled. Moments, a heartbeat, later and the sun’s tentacles sank into the dark pool. And before his disbelieving eyes the water changed, a metamorphosis. The dark gave way to sylvan emerald, as if someone had washed a blank canvas in glorious colour. The stone face lit with impossible hues, scientifically impossible given the degree and angle of light, and then something even stranger happened. The light on the water skittered and shattered into…lo! dancing rainbow sprites and imps, fairy butterflies, all in abandoned, uninhibited delight, dancing upon the water and about the cliff-face. As he watched, entranced, his rational mind thinking it had to be a trick of the light, more rays flung into the pond and, wonder upon wonder, his imagined sprites and imps and fairies leapt high into the air, dancing joyously. Real? They were real?

‘Impossible,’ he breathed.

‘You see it? The colours, the little ones?’ Tearing her gaze from the wondrous spectacle she looked at him, and smiled in appreciation. His grey eyes were filled with colour, his face rapturous. How right she had been in bringing him. Deep down she had known he would see it…what strange twist of fate had brought them to this place together? How had he known to transport them here? She stood and moved over to him, crouching behind him, putting her arms over his shoulders. His hands came up and clasped hers tight.

He had seen many different races in his time, and heard of many others. He had read works both factual and fiction, and always he kept an open mind…but sprites and imps he had heard of only in tales for children. Fairies he knew existed, although these were children’s fairies before him, not the fairies of reality- they were bigger- but he had not ever entertained the idea of the others as being real. He was wrong; his mind expanded that little more that morning.

‘From the bottom of my heart I thank you for this.’

The Sunless One

Amazon US

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Smashwords

Forging on Shyala

It is said the forest dwellers discovered petrified trees in the primordial regions and were afraid. Stone trees? This was an concept as alien as the creation of vessels to cross the great waters.

Slowly, however, the mechanism of wood to stone became known. Sediment, minerals, the march of time and so forth. It awakened in them the need to uncover other mysterious phenomena and this, it is said, led to directly to the discovery of fire...and metalwork. And that led to something more. Forging a tangible object from minerals in rock and sand via the heat of organic materials is alchemy, after all, and alchemy is a thought removed from magic.

By the process of logic- and trial and error- and the long march of years, the Shadof stumbled into the realms of magic.

It changed everything.

Of course, the Shadof are not unique in their discoveries and change comes to all, but they created something greater...or lesser, some say.

The universe at large calls it Shadof Wheels.

The Sunless One, available on Smashwords and Amazon