A clockwork heart: The neuroscience of writing fiction – A new approach

Abstract

Not all fairy tales end with Happy Ever After. Some begin that way. The girl who casts no shadow has become a wife. The world once again has an Oracle and the realms of Light and Shadow are in harmony. The pact between Alchemist and Nightwalker is no more. The pact that stood for so long has crumbled to dust and rests in the ruins of Constantinople. But a bargain has been struck. Those of the Council who would harm the girl have agreed to let her be« for now. Some would say that these are all matters which do not concern the likes of me for the world is vast and I, La Fée Verte am but small. What can one do but only have regard for that tiny part of it which concerns us? I have gained my freedom, but I sometimes find myself missing Paris and the absinthe-green dreams I used to weave in return for lumps of sugar. They have given me my own quarters in the glasshouse that leads off the breakfast room, and I have filled it with green: Angelica and anise now blossom in large clay pots amongst the ferns and fancy moth orchids that were brought from far away. But beneath the wooden cladding and frames that allow me to pass unhindered, the glasshouse is still made of iron. And were it not for the stray bumblebees I invite in to stay with me, I would be completely alone in this vast grey city of smog and drizzle. It is a place I have grown to despise, despite my good fortune. I digress. The sunrise is about to call upon the day and there is work to be done. For such is the nature of the two realms that make up this world: As happiness and contentment grow in the Light, so from deep within the Shadow, 3 the dark counterparts grow too. Sometimes in the quiet hours of the day I sense it, and I grow afraid. My mistress is too immersed within her happiness to sense what will come to pass« and I do not have the heart to tell her. Yet. Better to let her enjoy this contentment a little longer. She will need the memories of this happy time to sustain her, because when the darkness comes, it will take everything.