The Book of Illusions

Act I – Scene I (Part One)

The Man and his Plea 

A Young Man walks the street as the night falls unto the day. He is downcast; sadness and anger overcomes his heart as he falls down on his knees and lament on the Heavens. Nearby, an angel whose light emanates from the sky and whose cloak keeps his face shrouded approaches the weeping man.

The Young Man: O cursed Heavens, hear my plea! What have I done to thee to fascinate on my soul such demons of bittersweet and ivy joy?

Cloaked Angel: Grace! Is that a stricken, true sorrowful soul? A soul forlorn and deplorable? Such youth, and lamenting already!

The Young Man: Mercy!

Cloaked Angel: Fear not! What is your soul ashamed of?

The Young Man: My heart was stolen!

Cloaked Angel: How is it?

The Young Man: It is as thunder striking on a rock, shattering my quintessence in millions! It is as the snowflake so beautiful melting after the season! My soul is as the yellow leaf winded at locations unknowns’ to men before the tempests stop! I marvel at everything which hath no grasp on me therefore this strange curse, and I have loss my sense o’ equilibrium.   

Cloaked Angel: Come, and I shall tell thee.

The Young Man: What is your scheme?

Cloaked Angel: I am a seeker of knowledge: once my wings shake off the rain and the vane of my
feathers dry, I tire already; yet even with weariness I fly in foreign lands; I seek elsewhere! Such delight it is to know many things! And yet, even I can be ill at the sun; and sometimes I must settle down.

The Young Man: Have you come for me?

Cloaked Angel: I have looked there and there for a place to settle down, and as I was groomed for some rest, I heard your lament with much curiosity.

The Young Man: Fortune may have it then. I am a free and whole man, yet my heart is as hollow as the jewel of night.

Cloaked Angel: Then hear me: even with all the knowledge of this world, ye would still not understand this mystery; one of such finest craft which can, without a trigger or a spell, sharply make intrusion of the human mind; tis' the Entity you mortals deem to call a name of your own invention: love.

The Young Man: It is as you said.

Cloaked Angel: Yet, ye shall still wonder and be overwhelmed when you feel its fiery embrace on your soul; ye shall yearn and hope, and yet when it will overcome your deepest beliefs, surely you will beseech, crave for freedom and mercy!

The Young Man: Suchs things happened to me!

Cloaked Angel: Even then, when thy heart is weary and thy mind is confused; even when thee are uptight and hopeless, you will still find the courage to look at this person, and hope is anew!

The Young Man: No man can escape his fate! Love is a master hunter, a mad seeker!

Cloaked Angel: Indeed! Have you not seen it? How strange can this be?

The Young Man: Righteous, blinding truth! Love hath bemused mine face against my own will! O Queen of Sorrow, Mother of Illusions!

Cloaked Angel: It is bound to its master; and yet he has no one to call master. As a limitless Champion, only so the Eternal One can have him under His dominion!

The Young Man: While I am what I am, and whichever breathes lives, my believes are in what I reckon is to be felt and acknowledged by my natural senses.

Cloaked Angel: And wise ye are to reckon so!

The Young Man: Let us continue with pleasantries more substantial.

Cloaked Angel: O Imperious youth! Love is as such; it first seduces with a flower; and whoever may be confounded in his vile perfume is then deceived into approaching its body. It is only then that the thorns stab, stab and stab! Twisted pain, sweet horror!  

The Young Man: It is to my eyes that you seem to enjoy this.

Cloaked Angel: If you were bound to none but yourself, you would rejoice to the same delicacies!

The Young Man: Demon! You're no Angel of Light!

The cloaked angel twists in horrifying manners and convulses in deep, mad threatening screams as he rips apart his cloak. The Prince stands before the Young Man.

Lucifer: Ha! 

Scene I - Act II

The evil angel Lucifer is about to bargain with The Young Man, as a shadow approaches from a lamp post.

Lucifer: Behold, what comes!

The Young Man: A shadow of thyself!

Angel of Light: Truth is at hand!

Lucifer: What an eyesore!

Angel of Light: Heed my words: ye shall not find any peace in the Devil. He is more foul than the blackest of abysses and surely he cares not for your sake! It is with poison even more deadly than what you seek that the Devil play with his victims!

The Young Man: Hell and fire might find mineth way if there is hope to my curse.

Lucifer: I have a cure!

Angel of Light: No!

The Young Man: Devil of Heathens, I find thy guile most interesting.

Lucifer: As I said to thee therefore; love is a great mystery that no knowledge of this world can reveal, for it is a great secret kept hidden even for the wisest of fools or the most chivalrous of hearts. However, if I myself tell you, then shall thee most surely succeed in knowing about its design and fabric! Then, you will hold power over hearts.

The Young Man: Such a power would not be as easy to withhold! And the bargain?

Angel of Light: It will not be fair; the devil seeks only to fest on souls, and the more there is desire, the more it is lusicous!

The Young Man: Let us bargain.

Lucifer: At your disposal.

Angel of Light: You are damned!

To be continued