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The story of Anne Duray, the rose gold star of mendasia.
Penacony, land of dreams, in a run down accommodation made for the space refugees, a large family huddles together to save what little warmth they’ve left.
The matriarch of the family, an old woman, with a wrinkled face but an elegant and resolute behavior, starts talking to the rest of the family, reading stories from an old and worn leather book to make the children fall asleep and to make the adults remember who they are and where their roots start from.
“larose, my child remember this story well, for this is one of the last stories that we have left from mendasia, our home planet”
“yes grandma” said the young lady, full of anticipation for a story she had already heard thousands of times. The story was always the same, but it never failed in relaying the old forgotten story of their planet, and of their shiniest dream, Anne duray.
The old woman, cladded in rags, but somehow still stylish and striking, started recounting the story in an old language, nowadays left behind in the sands of time… or in the belly of a monster, her white hairs started glowing and her frail skin seemed to have rejuvenated.
“a long time ago…
there was a planet renowned for its canticles, dances and aesthetics, some even compared it to heaven.
where the inhabitants sang all day and danced at the rhythm of the wind, the sea and the blades of grass caressed by the breeze.
where the citizens weren’t afraid of wars or poverty, because they were all united in their pursuit of the arts.
where the people could drink and eat when they needed, because the planet was fertile and the soil generous.
where the children, parents and all the people could sleep comfortably, knowing that their dreams could come true.
safe from themselves and from the perilous outside space.”
“But grandma, if the people were so happy, why are we now on this strange dream-drugged planet? can’t we just sail back home?” said the child, already knowing the reason, but still hoping for a different answer from the elder.
“That is because our home is no more. a devious beast, one full of gluttony and ugliness beyond compare stole it from us, and right under our own noses…”
“how could that happen grandma!”
“that is a long story… and everything starts from the same reason the people could live such blissful lives..
Even more time ago, before the fall of mendasia, the planet was a capitalistic mud, the same that we can see here in penacony, probably even worse, where only people with the right connections, resources and pockets could think of realizing their aspirations.
During that era, the arts were in the hands of the rich few, with grand galas every day, in their golden towers, full of every luxury one could imagine back then.
With dancers and actors following old scripts, like puppets, without a crumb of artistic freedom or innovation, research was only fitted for production and efficiency sadly.
One day, a child came, as usual, out of a slum in the outskirts of the capital city, searching for food in the backstreets and dark alleys, where people wouldn’t scold her for trying to survive with all her force.
While searching for crumbs of bread or old and expired vegetables, she found something unexpected, a book full of tales, seeing the colored and fancy images she took the book home, to study it later near her little brother.
After a not-so-bountiful day the girl came back home, actually a shack kept together by nails, tape and prayers, this accommodation almost a luxury in the slum. The child started cooking what she could and called for her brother, who, sick with some strange ailment, couldn't walk properly and nearly fell a dozen times.
Following that dinner, the child started reading the book to her little ill brother in order to make him fall asleep quickìy, distracting him so as not to feel the biting cold and the raging hunger.
the stories were almost magical, and told about elegant and beautiful banquets full of delicacies and incredible music, well dressed people and exciting dances, in gilded mansions, with ivory rooms and mirrors that could reflect all of the sky, and enormous gardens and balconies that could give some rest to the people, tired after a night of wonders.
These were moments of sharing tales under a coarse blanket, brother and sister, giggling about words they didn't know but sounded funny. about witty protagonists and dull antagonists, about the once-in-a-while comic relief characters.
For the two siblings, these rare times of fun and pure imagination were really important, and was the foundation of a promise they made during a moment of incredible difficulty and almost starving to death.
during that hard period, the two children felt that life wasn’t worth living without a dream to pursue, that living just to survive could not be called life, and so they decided, they promised to themself that one day they would go and see with their own two eyes that dazzling places, eat delicacies, sing and play awesome songs and tunes and that they would dance until exhausted.
and so their dream started to take shape, little by little.
The children’s idea was to one day have their own dance troupe, in order to be able to freely travel the world, eat as kings and discover new exciting and interesting songs to play and dance.
and so their pursue of this dream began, the young lady started adventuring into the inner circles of the capital, all to put her little and quick hands on whatever was needed, colored piece of cloth, needles from an old seamstress who now couldn’t see very well, and one very lucky day, the child even managed to put in her paws a music disc.
The children were very happy and they were practically bursting with excitement at the idea of their dreams coming true, slowly but surely.
The two children, after obtaining the materials they needed, started sewing and producing their own personal equipment, since their dream was to be a musical and acting troupe they had to at least play the part!
sewing requires patience and hand-ability, both things that one can acquire with some training, a needle, some cloth, a thread and enough ambition.
So after some errors and bloody fingers, the two finally completed their set of clothes and masks, all was finally set, and they started playing around and dancing in a silly manner.
***
After two years though, the sickness of the little brother of our dear lady flared unexpectedly, and made him bedridden for a long time, without being able to get out of the polluted area of the slum,with the passing of time the child became even more sick and weak.
our girl tried in all ways to obtain the medicine that could cure her brother, the last person she could count on and call family.
She went around asking in anguish to all the people she could think of, and even to some strangers, but all of them refused to help her.
…she couldn’t find the drug in time.
The passing of her brother made her fall in the depths of despair .
She even got robbed by some bandits of her shack, and lost everything in a single night.
But she was able to escape with her most precious possessions, the book of tales and her brother's earring, a symbol all the slum inhabitants had to be recognized and kept away from the luxury district where the rich and powerful figures lived.
After all of this she was a mess, and the only thing she would do was pick rotten food from the trash bins and drink rain water to survive, in a robotic way, detached from everything, dead but still alive.
While wandering around the dilapidated streets of the old city, Anne saw a broken music player laying as scrap in a dark alley. She, moved by some subconscious thought, took the thing and brought it to the new place she called home.
The new safe place was simply an old warehouse located underground near the sewers, where she could sing, dance, act and make all kinds of noises, no one could hear her.
and so following that, anne kept trying to fix that music player.
until she did it, and that day she listened to the old music disc she found with her brother…
It was magical, the place almost started to morph into a sophisticated, detailed and beautiful ballroom, background chatter of people could be heard, laughter and even someone acting a role.
but the real show was the music, light and swift at moments, while solemn and slow in others, anne was in a daze, and totally wanted to not only be able to sing that way or play the instruments, but to stir the hearts of the people, to make them feel that pure and raw emotion she was feeling right in that moment. It was cathartic.
she felt a surge of energy and suddenly a burst of joy, the same she felt when laughing with her brother under that dirty blanket.
At that moment she understood what to do with her life, Anne decided to dedicate all of her energies into achieving their shared dream.
to become the shiniest star in that forsaken planet.
for herself, but for her brother too-”
the child in the cold room interrupted the old woman while she was still speaking, earning a stare from all the others:
“but grandma, how did Anne become the great star of mendasia we know of?”
the stern old woman stared at larose for a second, with a nostalgic light in her eyes:
“that we don’t know darling. Lots about the story of our planet, that star and the rest of our culture, except anything that could be saved during the cataclysm and oral storytelling was lost. I am sorry. The only thing we know of is that a long time ago, before everything was lost, someone who somehow predicted the future built a majestic library far far away with all of our knowledge, but it’s only a myth I fear…
So back to the story…
one day Anne during an interview was surrounded by her fans, the crowd enormous, almost beast-like, she felt incredibly happy and with her heart full of anticipation, but while she was dozing off the host asked her a question:
“Anne, thank you for coming here with your busy schedule, but we have to know, is it true that you will only have one last live-performance before you retire?”
The public of the tv studio almost cried in pain, no one expected such a bomb of news.
Who would have believed that the most famous singer and dancer, performer if you will, would retire at such a young age, and at the peak of their career?
“Yes, I will. I accomplished everything that my brother and I had agreed upon that night. that last concert will be in his honor and mine, also, please, come and see for yourself, since it will be unique in its genre, you’ll see something… beautiful”
After that Anne answered some questions but the fans were too stunned by that piece of news that they couldn’t really listen to anything else, and so the preparations for Anne Duray’s last concert began in full swing, among gossip and questions left unanswered.
another shock fell on the heads of the poor people after a short time:
The live-performance would be free, and accommodation would be provided for everyone who came to see, no tickets needed, one only had to listen and have fun.
This made the people go into a frenzy, no one would ever think of this and Anne was on cloud nine for happiness.
***
the day of the concert
while stroking the old tin rose earring in her hands affectionately, she said
“dear brother we’re finally here, we are at the top of the artistic world, in everyone’s heart and mind, we finally are the epitome of art. and this concert will be the end of my career and the start of our legend”
The moment she fixed the earring on her ear, her assistant came into the room, saying that everything was ready and that she could come out to perform at any time.
The budget for this last concert was absurd, even bigger than the PIL of some smaller nations. Anne made sure to use every last drop of money she had, even selling property and making auctions to obtain all the funds needed, she didn’t care about herself at all anymore.
When the gates opened the people rushed into the enormous theater like a river, the place was built specifically for this spectacular concert, one couldn’t see the stage if it weren't for the screens that would record and transmit the show.
the walls were exactly how the grand ballroom was in the book the siblings read during their childhood, the walls of ivory and gold, the floor of the best marble one could find, and the balconies filled with exotic plants and greenhouses to rest during the exhausting performances, food covered a terribly long table that ran near the walls, all dishes and snacks from all over the world.
Everything was ready.
The listeners were counted and assigned a place to sit when they first came in, in total all the people present in that royal theater were more than half the population of the whole planet. The scale of this project was unheard of and impossible at first thought, but Anne duray made that possible with her songs, her beauty, her charm and all her talents, she was almost worshiped as a deity…
and so everyone sat.
The crimson velvet curtains of the stage opened, and the crowd cheered, already bursting with delight at seeing their idol for the first time.
Anne was there, staring at everyone, taking in the sight of everyone and everything. It was an incredibly solemn moment, but the pride in her heart was real and made her almost dizzy.
Without wasting any time she started singing the new songs she would sing in this last concert, accompanied by her loyal orchestra and troupe of dancers and co-singers.
The words were enchanting, the rhythm indescribable and the notes divine, the songs were not only words put together mindlessly, but a story, a wish, a world that she wanted to come true, a reality that was about to be weaved.
and then, THE moment, the orchestra stopped playing, the dancers left the stage and only SHE was left there, singing, glowing and pronouncing the last song’s words.
the song of beauty, that was the title.
“███ █████ ██ ███████
███ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████
███ ██████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ████
███ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ███
██████ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███████
██ ████ ██████████████ ██ █████
███ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ██████”
after finishing the primal yet entrancing song, Anne Duray’s whole figure started shining, the exterior expanding while the interior contracting, absorbing the expectant gazes af all the people, no one knew what was happening but everyone knew it was beautiful and couldn’t stop observing and admiring even if forced to.
THEY started taking form, a beam of light encompassing the whole place, countless visions of beauty being projected.
a new whole path of existence was being weaved right in that moment, by the will of all the people there, the cathartic experience, the emotive peak that had been breached, the countless dreams and hopes united together,
to form THEM.
the aeon of beauty, Idrila.
no one knew what to do, the air was filled with the scent of roses, the crowd was there, in pure bliss and ecstasy.
The whole ascension was being broadcasted in the whole world, and probably someone else was watching too… a crystalline reflection appeared in the walls, eyes watching intently… even a deity was trapped for an instant by THEIR divine appearance.
Idrila in that moment knew what to do, to preserve and spread beauty in all the corners of the universe… but THEY also saw the end of it, it would be THEIR ruin, but it wasn’t yet the time to think about THEM, godhood comes at a price, action bounded by THEIR path’s primum mobile, but it’s okay.
beauty is everything they wanted to be.
nothing else.”
larose, eyes filled with tears to the brims, was about to ask another question, but she couldn’t bring herself to, since this time even her grandma was quietly sobbing by the end of the story,
After that, a man of their tribe entered the room, telling all the people, whose eyes were still red, puffy and sore, that they would have to leave by next morning if they wanted to reach their next destination in time.
Before they started to pack everything up, Larose managed to ask her last question “grandma, what happened then? Why did idrila leave us? Why did THEY leave us to our ruin? why did that paradise of a planet fall?”
the old matriarch, eyes shining and with a loving smile:
“child, sadly i don’t know what THEIR reasons were, but it wasn’t intentional, of that i’m sure, we were in Idrila’s thoughts right until the second THEY disappeared… and for what happened to the planet, i’ll tell you that story tomorrow night, now be good and go to sleep”
“...okay grandma, love you”
“ good child…”
and so the night passed and everyone started their journey again, who knows how their story will unfold, and if they will be able to reach their home or find their lost god.
- a passerby who listens through the memories.