The Ring :New Dark Academia Lowbrow Painting: New Blackwater Manor Chapter

The Ring

During his travels the explorer spoke of the wonders of a world too small and too large to ever see fully.

He spoke softly of veiled women wearing wedding rings that bent their wrists. Rubies that flashed where their mouths would be and diamonds blinding their vision.

I noted the professors that slunk back into their own memories at the mention of hidden women. I was about to redirect the conversation when the explorer pulled a ring the size of a healthy house cat out of his bag.

We were drawn in. Circling it. Pulling away from it and then closer.

The ring was a castle of the gothic variety. Golden tourets grew from fortresses, quartz flowers bloomed on vines of jade, as we moved closer we could hear singing. As I brought my eye to a window I saw a young woman twirling around an open cage, the swinging bird harmonizing with her on her wrist.

“Surely this is not the woman you spoke of.”

“Are you dear librarian, sure?” His voice a tonic of honey for those with  a taste for such a thing.

“I am not. Can you explain yourself?”

“Someday I shall but for now you must admit the dear lady has been away from her usual size and the sun for too long.”

With that he was gone beyond the professor’s door. I was grateful for my assistant and her bird became most helpful in finding books on tall shelves. I was relieved she and not the castle is what grew to life size.

I do often wonder where that extraordinary ring has gone to? It did seem a lovely place to escape the world for a moment or two.

How I asked him when I could bare it no longer. I had studied it for hours turning to days folding over to weeks. What had started as a most enjoyable puzzle had turned to a disdain on my very intelligence.

The Explorer smiled. He took the ring to his hand and lifted the enameled lake, which under his hand and breath became restless waves soaking the carpets below our feet. The metal sheets that at first looked to be one began to unfurl dropping to the floor.

“If you follow the incantation you can live here forever in a one day loop. You will notice nothing amiss but the princess did say she had begun to feel some agitation.”

I looked at the incantation under a jewelers loop and decided that for the time being my staircase was enough of a hindrance to ensure my alone time.