This is a story from the Worlds of Sly Doubt – created in my novel Sly Doubt of Uranus. I created this on the READL NFT platform – yet another literary NFT project which failed and slid into the night.
Dawnwan’s Wish
A Story of Titania and the Uranus System
By CD Damitio
Author’s Note: Dawnwan is the same ‘Granny Dawnwan’ who appears in my novel ‘Sly Doubt of Uranus’. Hers is but one story of the millions that can be told about the citizens of Uranus, the witches of Titania, the Jovian monarchs, and many more of the people that inhabit their solar system and universe.
One of the challenges of being able to make anyone do exactly what you want was not making them do what you want. Dawnwan was blessed and cursed with this ability and though she had used it (mostly) responsibly, there had been times when she had gone way too far.
Forcing a rude farmer to drive his tractor into the side of his barn. Creating havoc over a random product to make sure she was able to get the last of a certain item during a shopping riot. Pushing an attractive woman that her love interest of the time had paid a little too much attention to mimic a Neptunian Siamang while at a fancy dinner party. She wasn’t proud of these things but she had done them. Maybe she was a little bit proud of them.
From the time she was a young girl, her skills had become apparent to those who were paying close attention. When she was able, she usually moved as far from those people as she could. Her birth parents had been sharper than most. They had recognized right away that it wasn’t they who were deciding to give toddler Dawnwan extra helpings of Titanian sweets and that the other children she spent time with, inevitably left happy that they had given Dawnwan their prized possessions. They had tried to develop protections for themselves and others who encountered her, but her powers were too strong to be contained by them.
When she was six years old, she recognized that her abilities were being stifled and controlled. She immediately decided to find another guardian and leave her parents and siblings behind. That was when Marshok entered her life. Marshok wasn’t a typical Titanian witch. She had the look, intense lidless eyes, colorful skin, and the lithe athletic molding that caused so many normal Uranian folks to fall for them. The difference between Marshok and other Titanian witches was that she didn’t have any obvious powers. The typical pulse of energy that a Titanian witch carried with them – obviously and strongly radiating outwards like waves or ripples in a lake was completely missing from Marshok. There had been those who mistook this for weakness. That had been a mistake if they acted to control or challenge her.
Marshok’s true power was absorption and expulsion. She had never encountered another witch that had been able to affect her. They did their weaving, sent their streamers, compelled and composed their actions – and inevitably, looked on with confusion when Marshok smiled at them, unaffected. Like a black hole she was able to draw their best from them but within the infinite storeroom of her own collapsed star, she was able to save their spells to be used when and how she desired. All of this, without the regular telltales of one who used such magic.
When Marshok encountered young Dawnwan, she was amazed to feel the girl’s powers of compulsion working on her. Dawnwan was upset that her parents had isolated her from others (and from them), she was sending out powerful waves of compulsion to any who might receive them. Her parents had known she would do this which was why they had painted the walls of her playroom in a bloot based paint. Bloot, the powerful substance mined on the surface of Uranus, the source of the Uranian monarchy’s power, and the most important element in the known universe – was the only thing capable of deflecting a Titanian witch’s castings. This secret was closely guarded by the witches – it was why most of them refused to ever go to the surface of Uranus and why they largely avoided all of the high tech that bloot powered. Outsiders thought this was a protest against Uranus, but in fact, it was a self preservation. As long as they were not exposed to bloot in front of others, no one would be aware of this weakness.
The fact that Dawnwan’s birth parents had gone to such lengths to protect themselves and others from Dawnwan’s gift spoke to their desperation. Getting enough bloot on Titania to paint the walls was no small feat. They had pushed the limits of their own powers to make it happen. Why? They loved their daughter. More importantly, they were terrified of what she might do. To release an all powerful tyrant child into the peaceful civilization of Titania was unthinkable. They told no one, they did what they were able, and they expected that was how things would go.
What they had no way of knowing was that Marshok’s gift wasn’t affected by bloot. That which was deadened and muffled for others, was actually not an impediment for a connection between Marshok and Dawnwan. Marshok took the compulsion the girl sent out, walked to the doors of her family home, and then everything changed.
Dawnwan’s parents opened the door.
“I’m here for her,” Marshok said.
“You have no idea what you are doing,” the mother told her.
“We don’t know what you are talking about,” the father tried to lie.
Marshok considered engaging them in battle. They would never see it coming. She could see the usual puzzled look on their faces as they looked for and didn’t find the pulse of her power. Then she realized that Dawnwan had already given her exactly what she needed.
“You and everyone will be better off if she comes with me. Go get her and say goodbye with happiness and joy.” She unleashed Dawnwan’s compulsion on them. Immediately they obeyed.
“Come sit down while my wife goes and gets her, she will pack a bag for her,” the father said.
“I’ll be back in a moment,” the mother told her “She’s going to be so much better with you.”
Dawnwan was all smiles as she emerged from her bloot painted playroom carrying a small rucksack.
“I knew you would do what I wanted,” Dawnwan said.
Marshok looked at the girl and frowned “Let’s get something straight right away. Your powers don’t work on me. I agree not to use them back on you as long as you are willing to learn what I have to teach.”
“That wasn’t my wish though….” Dawnwan the young girl said.
“Exactly,” Marshok replied. “Now wish your parents well and we will be on our way.”
Sometimes when the universe creates a danger it also creates a shield. For this, we should all be grateful.