The Collector of Tales

The story opens with a decision about a path to take and this is intended to give the semblance of choice as well as reminding us of Dante when setting out in his Inferno.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Mi ritroverai per una selva oscura
Che la diritta via era smaririta.

The words are deliberately similar and yet intentionally dissimilar: In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.

Thus, our Collector turns to the main road and avoids, in his view, the risks and dangers of the world beyond and maybe even death, who knows? His reward is an Inn inhabited by a strange collection of humans whose language is harsh and whose manners are rough and where personal hygiene and personal space don't seem to be recognised. Here he hears a tale of the Firedancers from the village storyteller before moving on to the violent town of Trellsheim.

On route he meets up with a travelling spice trader who goes by the name of Welcome, together with his pet bear and two flatulent oxen. Happenchance and randomness inexorably produce a further connection with the Firedancers in the form of a book that the trader has wrapped up in a cloth and kept under the bear as it sleeps.

In Trellsheim, the Collector finds himself drawn in on the fringes of strange happenings that take place around him. Who are the people in Black Capes that he keeps seeing around What is the problem with the librarian and why is she so bitter? Who is the girl in the bath? He seems to be losing the plot and his search for the Firedancers tale is going nowhere when he suddenly contracts a mysterious and contagious illness.

The two lads who own the inn that he is staying at decide that he poses a threat to business and dump his unconscious form outside the town gates in the snow. Here, he would have inevitably died but he is rescued by a traveller family who are heading north to a festival of some kind. Despite the sinister undertones of the husband, the Collector is nursed back to health by the wife and by the time they reach the festival he is able to join them and participate in the rituals taking place there. Here he discovers not the Tale of the Firedancers but the people themselves. Not a myth, just ordinary people who are gathering together to celebrate death and new life. Here he finds a part of himself that he has kept hidden deep beneath the surface since childhood, a raw and innocent self that he had long forgotten as he had trod this sweet earth

As the story ends one is left asking whether he has achieved a form of enlightenment in the mystery of the events that are played out before him. That however, is a theme that is developed in the second novel, The Xandrian Quarters, now available.