Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Alibaster Allwinter and she loved her family very much, especially her father. He was a trader, and would travel to other worlds and bring back such wonders for his little girl. But one day he brought her something that would change her life forever…

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The girl ran down the stairs, her favourite green dress almost tripping her. She careened to the front door, pushing instead of pulling it in her excitement.

The door swung open and she ran to the man coming through the gate. “Daddy, Daddy, do you have it?” The young girl cried out happily as she ran out to meet her father. She ran into a hug, almost knocking the crouching man backwards in her excitement.

“Hehe, I’m back on this Scape for the first time in four months and that’s all you’re happy about?” Her father asked with a smile on his face.

“Oh.” She straightened out of his embrace and corrected herself. “I'm glad you’re back father.”

His smiled brightly and picked her up, spinning her in his arms. “I'm glad too see you to Ali. Oh, and I have a present for you.”

“Yaaay!” she yelled as she was spun around. “Tell me all about Scenceta daddy. Was it as pretty as it is in the fairytales?”

“Why yes it was. Almost as pretty as you in fact.” He got another smile from her as he placed her down. He put his hand in his coat pocket and fished around for a moment. “Ah, here we are.”

He lowered his closed hand so it was in front of her face. Her eyes widened in wonder as he slowly opened his hand “Wooah” she gasped.

It was an insect. It was tiny and a shiny blue colour. A she watched, it opened its wing cases and fluttered and as it did blue dust fell of its wings, each one shiny prettily for a short time. It hovered gently above her father’s palm, entrancing her as it drifted from side to side in mid air, seeming to study her as intently as she as it.

“That’s not all, watch.” He closed his hand tightly around the bug, too tightly it seemed. There was a quiet crunching noise and she squeaked in surprised horror. She felt tears well in her eyes but her father shushed her gently and opened his hand again. She winced, expecting to only see the poor things remains, but instead something else was there.

It was another beetle. But this one was green and a slightly different shape. A bit rounder and a bit larger. It began to flutter, leaving green light in its wake. It fluttered to Ali and began flying round her head as she began to laugh in joy.

“It’s a Lazribug. It will always stand back up after being squashed. And it will fall in love with whoever it sees when it does.”

“It’s so pretty daddy” She said, her eyes full of wonder.

“Come on then Ali, let’s go show it to you’re mother.” Placing his hand on the young girls golden haired head, he led her and her new friend towards their house.

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“Do you have it?” The man asked, the Ptrygon dusk cloaking the alleyways with shadows, he could barely make out the face of the one he’d came to meet.

“I do. It was tricky though. Messy to.” said the other. The voice was young but serious. He had had great reservations about hiring the boy for this task, but they said he was good.

“If you’re angling for more payment I would forget it, you’re charging too much as it is.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it” The boy spoke back; he couldn’t have been older than fifteen.

“Right, now hand it over.” He man moved forward, raising his hands, one held a case full of money, the other grasped for the package.

“Here.” The boy handed over the package and pulled the case out of the mans’ hand. The package was about the size of a bread box and as wrapped in brown paper to hide what was within.

“Yes, after all these years. Thank you young Brier, I hope that…” Brier had taken his payment and marched back up the alley, soon disappearing in the crowd. The man held the package tightly and looked around, as if ever shadow contained greedy eyes. He almost ran back to his home as his fingers dug into the package.

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His lab was a mess with different tools and implements spread messily among old experiments and current projects. All of it though took second place to his most recent work. It was all set up; he had been working on it for months. All it needed now was the missing piece. He tore the package open and then placed it gingerly on the table in the middle of his lab. He stared at the wonder of it.

It was a glass and gold bell-jar, with a human heart suspended in midair within. Brier had done his job well, for wrapped around the heart was a large, gold scarab beetle. Its limbs digging into the muscle, a red glow coming from within its wing casing.

He put on his magnifying glasses and got closer to the jar. He almost jumped into the air in surprise when the heart beat. Once. He excitedly scrambled around for his note book and feverishly scribbled in it. The magic used in the creation of this thing must be even more wondrous than he had thought!

He spent the next day taking measurements and adjusting equipment. He could tell by scanning the thing with a Lithotech that the scarab itself was mechanical, but he could make no sense of the inner workings, or of the magic which kept it going. It seemed to be many different kinds of magic, meshed and woven in an elaborate, multicoloured pattern. No matter, he would have to go through with his plan.

With some effort and a pair of pliers he prised the beetle from the heart and carried it to the device he had been working on. Mounted in the far end of lab it was a strange thing of brass and copper. Coloured liquids bubbled in jars and strange energies sparked over parts of it. He kicked a leaver at its base and a claw-like appendage on its front began to open and close. He gently let the grasper close around the scarab and stepped back. The beetles’ legs were wriggling in the machines grip. He had to move fast. He grabbed the box of Mixun powder he had on a bench near by and carefully sprinkled it in a circle around an X he had drawn on the floor. He ran to his machine and twisted dials and knobs in a pattern only understood by him.

With a triumphant laugh he pulled a large brass leaver on the side of the machine. It let out a high pitched wail as cogs and circuitry began to whirl and fizz. Energy coruscated over the grasper and be blue energy seemed to mix with the red light of the beetle.

He ran to a safe distance and hid behind a bench, to many times had he been burnt by his own experiments.

With a final flare of purple light the machine seemed to settle down. The beetles wing cases opened and the gemstone underneath projected a blue beam of light into the room. It took a minute but it focused on the X on the floor and a figure seemed to coalesce in the dimness of the lab. It was made of blue light and lacked all detail, though it was defiantly human shaped. It seemed to open non-existent eyes. They were a lighter blue than the rest of the figure. From his hiding place behind his workbench he felt its’ gaze on him.

“Xrytgrm au pro pada?” The voice came from a speaker mounted on the front of the machine. He sprung from his hiding spot and ran to tend to it, he twisted a dial and spoke, addressing the figure who had kept its eyes on him.

“Do you understand me?”

“Zesx” The static filled voice replied. He adjusted a few more dials.

“Are you… are you Alibaster Allwinter?”

“Who wants to know?” The voice spoke, static free but devoid of tone.

“I am Dr Mondus Verden. Are you Alibaster Allwinter?” He demanded, almost shouting.

“I am. And you’re in trouble.”

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The young girl, still not yet thirteen, sat in her favourite tree and sketched to take her mind off things. She had gotten used to not seeing her father for long sprees, but this seemed to go on for ever. His caravan had left the town for the Journey Stones what seemed like an age ago, and she had so much to show him.

She had been busy. Not at school, as to tell the truth she found it boring. Maths was boring, seven-geographies was boring, science was boring. She was getting good grades in all of them but only to keep her mother happy. History was the only thing she actually enjoyed, but that was because history was the one subject she couldn’t predict after a few minutes reading it. I mean, who could have predicted the Belirus Grimsy would have gone mad and left his entire estate to a horse, thereby causing the war of seven brothers? That’s what she loved about history, you could work out everything else, but people were unpredictable.

It was her private project that had her most exited though. Her father would have to look at her drawings. She had had the dream that had inspired them a while ago, it had been full of swirling lights and colours. She drew them now, using every colour pencil and pen she could buy, trying to get the patterns right. They burned so brightly in her mind, and it frustrated her endlessly.

Thunder rumbled in the sky, she looked towards the hills and saw the storm clouds gathering. She huffily packed her drawings away. She knew she would have to build a tree house one day.

She climbed down the tree and ran towards her house, it was right on the edge of the town and could be seen from quite a way away.

She blinked as she saw the carriage outside her house and doubled her pace. She saw her father brushing his horse and called to him. He glanced up, seemingly from deep thought and then smiled as he saw her. “Daddy!” She cried as she jumped into his arms, seeming to surprise him with her impetus.

“Easy there princess. I’ll get you your present.”

“I'm just happy to see you father.” She smiled, almost hopping from foot to foot with excitement about what he might have brought her. He went to his carriage and searched around for a bit, before bringing her a simple wooden box. She took it eagerly and opened it. As usual the present took her breath away.

It was a necklace, with a silver chain and a red stone hanging from it in the shape of a heart. The stone was a deep, dark red which gleamed in the light. She wasted no time in putting it on. She had never had proper jewellery before. She looked up to see her father had fetched a mirror, knowing his daughter well. She admired the necklace in the mirror for a moment.

“Does it suit me daddy?”

“You look beautiful Ali, just like nobility.”

She giggled and took his hand as he moved to go into the house. Being a child, she completely missed the look in his eyes.

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“You have to tell me, tell me everything.” Verden demanded. He had been messing with that machine of his for almost an hour. He had gotten the machine to display a gold light for her hair and she was now defined enough to see her fingers. Her voice also had some tone to it now. It was a sound she had not heard for a long time.

“Everything’s a big request. Could we start with something smaller? Like some-things?”

“Don’t mock me, I could kill you with a flick of a switch.”

“Oh I don’t think you’d do that. You’re just like the rest of them, I know what you want. You’re after immortality and you think I can help.”

“You can.” He stated “You invented a self perpetuating, self renewing containment vessel that is capable of holding a human mind.  With technology like that anyone could gain immortality.”

“Yes, but who wants to life forever?” She mused “I know I don’t. I just want to live just long enough y’know? Have a few adventures, see some sights, read some books. Eventually I’ll get round to dying, but it’ll be on my terms.”

“Nonsense. You lived for many times a human life span, it proves you’re able to keep coming back almost indefinitely, who would give that up.?”

“Ah it’s true, they just keep writing new books and adventures tend to keep happening. And as for sight seeing… Do you know they discovered a Seventh Scape just a few years ago? I really gotta get round to seeing that.”

“Well, if you want to see it you will help me get want I want. You will assist me in creating a new scarab, and then maybe I’ll let you go.”

“Fair enough. I can wait, it’s not like I’m getting any older.”

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For the next few months she helped him construct a scarab. She had to have him order special gem stones for the inner workings and she almost gave up on him when it came to particularly fine detail work. It was painfully slow but, after months imprisoned in the circle they were almost done.

One day she spoke to him, just to kill time.

“Have you ever been to Scenceta?”

“Just once on sabbatical, it’s a frivolous place. Why? What does that have to do with anything?” He said as he winced over a pin-vice, trying to carve exactly detailed runes on the surface of a piece which was going to be a scarab leg.

“My Father used to go there all the time. He was a trader you see. He had got very rare permission to trade with that Scape. He would bring back amazing things to our little town in Myrsgaurd. He loved Scenceta. Too much apparently.

“Ah yes, Scencetan Meshing, one reason to stay away from that damn place. Pretty, but it gets in your head.” He said, not looking up from his work.

“Meshing… Is that what they call it now? When I was young they called it a ‘sickness’. Like a home sickness, but the opposite I guess. It’s a creeping madness. An unsatisfaction. Hey, that would be a good name for it.”

“Yes, tragic.” He said, taking the leg from the vice. Holding it up to the light to study it better.

“I can’t claim to still be traumatised, it was a long time ago, and I guess worse things happen to other families all the time. It helped me see that people change, and so why not change with them? Y’know?”

“Do you have a point to your drivel?”

“I was just wondering why you want to live forever. Is your existence really that great? You gonna be stuck in this basement for the next thousand years?”

“I want immortality, because I have things to do. My work has changed lives, but there’s so much more be done, and there’s no time! Why must I be locked in this decaying shell while useless creatures like you happen upon everlasting life and use it to kill and exploit, whilst I, a good man, must toil all my life away ‘stuck in this basement’ as you put it.”

“I thought it would be something like that. It’ll never be enough though. Not a single person in all of existence has ever died without wishing to do one more thing. Trust me on this one. I'm a person who’s died more than once.

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It had happened slowly. Every time her father had returned he had seemed more distracted. The men who had gone with him on each trip had not noticed it, but everyone else had. He would go for long walks, sometimes with his family, more often without; ‘trying to clear his head’. He stopped complementing things; simple thing people take for granted like, how good his wife’s cooking was and how pretty his daughters’ drawings were. Years later, she would look back and think ‘I should have spotted it when he started calling me princess’.

One day, she was sketching in her tree when he climbed up to sit with her. He looked worn out and full of regret. He and her mother had been arguing a lot recently. Nothing particularly fierce, they just seem to be frustrated with each other in some way Ali couldn’t guess.

“Pri… Ali, I’m going away again soon. Back to Scenceta.”

“Ahhh, but you’ve barely been here any time at all this time.”

“I know sweetheart, it’s just that… Look, I’ve been going through some things and… well they tell me I’m sick.”

“Sick how?” She asked, trepidation mounting in her chest.

“Nothing painful or dangerous, don’t worry. It’s just, I need to go away. And I may not be coming back”

“W…Why?” She began to sob, her hands tightened, scrunching up her drawing paper.

He moved over to hug her. “It’s not you Ali and it’s not your mother. You two are the reason I’ve been able to come back here up to now. You’re the only things that have let me live in this world as long as I have. But Scenceta… it’s amazing, beautiful, and stronger than I could ever be.” He kissed her on the cheek.

“Don’t go” She whispered as she pulled herself close to him.

“I have to. But not right now. I’ll stay here with you, a while longer. And when you’re older, and stronger, you can come and visit me if you like. I can’t wait to show you Scenceta. It’s wonderful.”

She didn’t reply. She just sat and silently cursed an entire world, for taking her father away.

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“Alright, it’s ready” Verden said. Ali had had him move a workbench closer to the circle so she could talk him through the final stages of the process. As he had worked she had continued to amuse her self by telling him stories about herself. Mostly because it annoyed him.

“Okay, that should do it.” She said, trying to stand up tall enough to see everything. She still couldn’t pass over the powder that trapped her in the circle. “Now, to activate it, simply zap the main gem with 7 Picons of renewal magic. That should be enough to get it started. It will power itself from then on.”

He picked up a spiked tool/wand and held it pointing at the innards of the jewelled beetle. With a tap of the activation stud a small bolt of green lightning disappeared into the bug. For a moment nothing happened, then the air began to hum and a dark blue light shone from within the scarab broach. Shaking, Verden reached for the device and picked it up.

“What do I do now?” He asked hesitantly.

“You pull out the spike on the base of the broach and you drive it through your heart.”

“What?”

“Hey, no power without sacrifice. Look, if I’m lying I’ll be stuck here for years, maybe forever. So I’m hardly likely to just kill you. So do it, what have you go to lose?” She smiled evilly, with the mouth that had only just formed that morning. She was getting better at focusing her form.

He stood up and seemed to look around him for inspiration and then decided. He ripped open his shirt, madness was in his eyes as he preceded to unhook the sharpened spike on the base of the beetle. “Yes, I can do it. Just one more test, one more trial, and then immortality will be mine.”

“Go on doctor. Enjoy it. Embrace your destiny.”

“Yes!” He drove the spike into his chest. There was a blinding flash of blue light as energy flared. All around them liquids boiled out of flasks and lights exploded. The machine holding Ali’s Scarab shook as the energy it contained doubled. Gauges went to maximum then broke. Cogs tore themselves free as the energies released by the activations of Verdens scarab shook the room. The projection of Ali flickered as a shockwave hit, concussive force screamed from the broach on Verden’s chest as he fell to the floor.

His bench overturned and slid across the floor. As it hit the circle of powder Ali smiled. The bench passed right through her.

Then there was darkness. All the lights had burnt themselves out, except for the lights coming from the two scarabs.

“Yep, that happened to me too.” Ali said. Her projection strolled towards the downed scientist. In the half light, its’ colour shifted so that it seemed to be wearing the green outline of a dress. “Also, it takes a while to learn how to move inside the scarabs, and inside any body they’re attached to. Not as long as it took me to figure out how to do this though.” The projection reached down and grabbed the downed mans wrist. With visible effort she dragged him towards his machine. It took a while as he kept slipping from her grasp. By the time she got him onto the X on the floor he was already groaning.

“Wow, someone’s trying hard.” She said, actually impressed.

She picked up the box of Mixun powder that he had always kept nearby to redraw the circle each day, and carefully drew a rough circle around him, humming incantations as she went.

“Well, I have to thank you for this little break, it’s been kinda relaxing.” Her image smiled. “And if it were up to me, I’d quite happily let you keep your life… but I’m afraid you’re not that lucky.”

The man lying in the circle groaned loader at this “Whaaaaor?”

“Yes, I’m afraid we copied my scarabs design too exactly, I can tell from the pulse of your light that you’re not compatible with it at all. But I never said I could replicate it. Do you know how I came up with the design for my scarab? It was a dream. A dream when I was lonely. It took me ten years to figure out what all those colours and lines meant, and another ten to actually craft a container that could hold them, from something precious to me. You can’t just copy that kind of thing.”

The man stopped moving, his attempt to raise his head abandoned. “Faiiiiled.”

“Hey, don’t say that. You’re alive now with a dead body, most people never get that far.”

“Huh” the man grunted.

She reached up and pried her scarab from the device. She paced it within her own hollow chest and it hung there glowing softly, giving her a soft red glow. She then walked over and prized the blue scarab from the prone mans chest and set it into the device, in place of her own. She then lay down on top of the mans’ body and let herself settle in. She twitched until the spike on her scarab settled into the hole in the man’s chest. A moment later, she stood up, wearing his body like a suite. She looked down to inspect her new self. “Well, it was nice while it lasted” She said with Verdens voice. She moved to the device and flicked a few switches and played with a few dials, finally throwing the main lever on the machine. It stuttered to life, its mechanisms obviously damaged but it had just enough power for a projection of the man inside the scarab. He was lying in the centre of the circle.

“What have you done to me?” The projection said as it sat up.

"I’ve locked the machine on. It should keep you alive for about a year, just enough time for you to think on immortality. Of course you can’t leave this room, though the powder should go bad in a month or two, so you will be able to walk about a bit. Well... bye.” She waved with his hand and turned to leave.

“Wait you can’t leave me!” Verden cried. She stopped, and after a moments thought she reached for a hammer.

“You know, you’re right.” She threw the tool with more strength than seemed credible and it struck the machine. Metal crumpled inward. Sparks flared as the device gave out. “I guess I’m not that cruel.”

As the projection faded he looked after her forlornly. “Where will you go, with the life you’ve taken from me?”

“I don’t know” she shrugged his shoulders. “I think I might look up that handsome young lad you sent after me. You could say he stole my heart. Hehe… I may have to change first though…” Her voice faded into the darkness. And after a few more minutes, the light from his scarab did to.

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The young woman, a girl no more, walked from her town to the coach stop, her goodbyes said. She carried with her the very best drawings of a dream she once had. She would go to a city and study magic, maybe even a university in Ptrygon, anything to put some meanings to those colours and lights. She wore a heart shaped gemstone that would one day fit all too perfectly into the centre of a scarab broach.

But most of all she carried knowledge, knowledge that people change. And she wanted to see it, she wanted to know what it was to be every person, to watch their unpredictable habits and laugh along with there unpredictable foibles. Maybe then she would understand.

She turned her back on her quiet, market town. On the memories of her mother who had grown so tired, and the memories of her father who had fallen in love with a place so far away. A place where all the stories begin with ‘once upon a time’ and they all end with… something else.

She left her town alone, and it was hundreds of years ago, so no one alive knows if she was smiling or in tears.