By Sultana Raza
Martisa’s Note: Sameer has brought his author’s mind to analyse our transcripts.
Maritsa’s Channelling:
‘Yes, yes, they see now! They see. They get a ________________ (glimmering?) of an idea of how __________________ (multi-faceted?) my palace was. Yes, yes. Was labyrinthine. Twisting, sinuous were its alleys. So many layers, so many floors, walls, steps, false traps and real ones too.
Yes, yes, they start to get ________ (an idea?) now. Yes, yes. It was that deceiver, Ariadnosh who helped him. For look, how she stands, beauteous and patient, waiting for that villain from Athene’s citadel to come back alive, escaping my traps…..’
***
Sameer’s Take:
Thanks for including me in your group channelling séance in Maritsa’s caravan. Her words uttered in a trance were quite impressive. I’m inclined to think she was channeling the Demunitaurosh, specially as she was stomping her right foot, which increased in intensity as she went on. The snorting, the wild rolling of the eyes, not to mention the scratching. I was afraid she’d scratch her thigh to shreds. Luckily she didn’t have long nails.
***
Maritsa’s Student, Gert’s Channelling:
‘Since this scroll/slab had the most archaic glyphs that didn’t match up to any known ancient language, and seemed to be the most daunting document, we pierced the transparent covering of this one last. We were literally blown away by the horrible odours of this scroll/slab. Though we recognised a few symbols from Linear A, the rest was in an unknown language….’
Sameer’s Take:
Gert’s text’s the most baffling, but since he mentions Linear A, I assume that the scroll/slab was related to the archaic period of ancient Greece. Research shows these glyphs have been found on Kretanosh too. That bit about the Feyaistosh Discus was pretty intriguing, but it’s not clear as to whether ‘they’ think they’ve solved that puzzle or not. Pity no one in our group started drawing the scroll/slab spontaneously. I think Gert’s channelling is related to that of Maritsa.
Are these things created by our imagination, or happening in some sort of another reality? Wouldn’t have believed it, if I hadn’t been at the séance myself. But I’m assuming all of you’re more experienced, as you sat there quite cucumber like.
***
Automatic Writing by Maritsa’s Student, Florushka - Speckled Spy:
‘Corrugated particles of corrupted dust started slithering innocuously at first. Just simple lines, curves, shapes that seemingly, by themselves, formed into a face. Unable to entirely disguise its malignant expression, watchful, waiting, spying for clues, indices, hints of the victim’s next move. Ratna’s thoughts that would be apparent in her visage, gestures, body language.
Yet the eyes didn’t have time to blink even once, as their intended victim stepped carelessly onto the carefully arranged face, minus that mysterious thing called a soul. Ratna shivered unaccountably, in the balmy morning breeze, on her way to the river to wash away her guilt of dispatching the monster in her dream. For it had been a sentient being, and she had sworn not to kill, or hurt, even a fly. Why this nagging feeling of having done something wrong? For it had had consciousness, even though it was an unsavoury violent character, albeit in an ephemeral dream.’
Sameer’s Take:
I found Florushka’s short fable to be most fascinating. At first, it seems to be completely different. But, for some reason it kept haunting me, till I got a click in the middle of the wee hours. I can’t help wondering if this girl, Ratna, is an incarnation or aspect of Ariadnosh, and the sly Demunitaurosh is still trying to get to her in some way. Perhaps Ratna has some connection to the Kretanoshi princess. Talk about an uber stalker. Since I’m from Asia, we tend to have tall tales of people joining up in some way or another over many life-times, but I guess this theory would be too much for you. Perhaps that’s why the story came when I was present. Perhaps I’m stretching it, but are these channellings connected in some way? As for Maritsa seeing the hem in fuchsia and bright yellow of a long skirt etc. Well, Ariadnosh was picked up by Dionysosh, who came from Asia. Did he gift her an Indian skirt? Is there a crazy connection to Asia? But how does it play out here, if at all? Btw, ‘Ratna’ means ‘jewel’ in Hindi. So it seems that Ratna was precious in some way.
***
Sameer’s Conclusion:
Since this is the first time I’ve ever attended a séance, I didn’t know what to expect, and I’ve got nothing else to compare it with. The most obvious thing to jump out from all this to me, is that since most of the writings were about the Kretanoshi monster, then there has to be a link to Diadailosh. If that’s the case, then Ikariush the maker of our labyrinth, whoever he might be, is somehow related to that myth. Were these channellings so clear because we were so near the Aberrant Orbitlusa?
Of course, it could have just been a publicity stunt. This guy turns up, calling himself Ikariush, makes this labyrinth, then disappears. His value shoots up. Possibly, he’ll turn up when he needs more money again. This was my thought on my way over to the Aberrant Orbitlusa. Now, specially as it got my creative juices flowing again, I don’t know what to think. These communications from beyond, point to the Diadailosh tie-in. Unless all of you are very good writers! In which case, congratulations on fooling me!
***
Martisa’s Note: Wow! Thanks Sameer, for pointing out the Ariadnosh connection. We’ll have to rotate, acting as ‘bodyguards’ for Florushka, even if she’s from Romania, and not Asia. What if some form of the Demunitaurosh could come out of our labyrinth, even if it’s badly damaged, and caught hold of her? I shudder to think of it. I vote she stays away from the Aberrant Orbitlusa for the remainder of her trip.
All: Yes. Florushka: No.
About the Author
Sultana Raza
Of Indian origin, Sultana Raza’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Columbia Journal, and The New Verse News, London Grip, Classical Poetry Society, spillwords, Poetry24, Dissident Voice, and The Peacock Journal. Her fiction has received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train Review (USA), and has been published in Coldnoon Journal, Szirine, apertura, Entropy, and ensemble (in French). She has read her fiction/poems in India, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, England, Ireland, the US, and at CoNZealand,
Her creative non-fiction has appeared in countercurrents.org, Litro, impspired, pendemic.ie, Gnarled Oak, Kashmir Times, and A Beautiful Space. Her 100+ articles (on art, theatre, film, and humanitarian issues) have appeared in English and French. An independent scholar, Sultana Raza has presented many papers related to Romanticism (Keats) and Fantasy (Tolkien & GRR Martin) in international conferences.
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
Timothy Dwyer is an American science-fiction writer living in New Zealand.
Haneko Takayama is an award-winning Japanese writer. In 2009, her short story “Udon, Kitsune tsuki no” was a runner-up for the Sogen SF Short Story Award. 
Kerrie Noor was born in Melbourne Australia in 1960 but has spent most of her adult life in Scotland.
Amy Logan's first work was published on October 29, 1970. It has been a bit of a dry spell since, so she is very excited to have the opportunity to contribute to AntipodeanSF.
Keech has been writing fiction and poetry for 40 years, and is currently working on a speculative novel of the Afterlife, focusing on Victorian literature, though it is technically set in the near future.
Bruce is an older Australian, living in Adelaide, who enjoys reading and writing, especially short stories and flash fiction.
Myna Chang writes flash and short stories in a variety of genres.
Umiyuri Katsuyama is a multiple-award-winning writer of fantasy and horror, often based on Asian folklore motifs.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
Old enough to just remember the first manned Moon landing, Kevin was so impressed he made science his life.
Garry Dean lives on the Mid Coast of New South Wales Australia, and has been a fan of SF for most of his natural life. Being vision impaired, he makes good use of voice recognition and text to speech in order to write. Many of his stories have appeared in AntipodeanSF over the years, and his love of all things audio led him to join the narration team in 2017.
Pixie is a voice actor, cabaret performer & slam poet From the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Although a writer of the baby boom persuasion, Ed has not boomed for quite a while.
Tim Borella has never lost his childhood passion for SF and writing in general and has been lucky enough to have worked most of his life as a pilot — in other words, he’s never properly grown up.
Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
Timothy Gwyn is a professional pilot in Canada, where he flies to remote communities. During a lull in his flying career, he was a radio announcer for three years, and he is also an author.
Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.
