It was enormously difficult to capture the mood I desired for this piece, which I produced around Halloween. I’m still not certain I did.

In addition, until I post the novelette “Play It Again, Sam” (a piece the canonicity about which I’m still not entirely certain), this one’s a little out of context. Ah, well.

“Toil and Trouble”

By Joseph Manno

The room was ferociously hot; Parihn felt the weight of its gravity and her purpose.

A firepot’s embers drenched the walls in blood. Incense and darkness wreathed the enrobed figure; her visitor nearly withdrew as, unbidden, she thought of Faust.

T’Vaar’s voice emerged, it seemed, from a far realm… or, perhaps, a bygone age.

“You have a petition?”

Parihn had no friend here. This was the priestess, the Adept of T’Pel, and only the ritual words might suffice.

“‘I seek mastery of self,’” she declared. “Will you help me?”

“No,” T’Vaar answered.

“But I shall teach you to help yourself.”