ACT VI: SINS OF THE FATHER
(Scene: The Dark Forest, on another night, as a TRAVELER is passing through)
NARRATOR
Nicolas of Arrien was not seen again in those parts.
To where he fled, none can be certain. Here the story
Does not end, however: there is one last hellish chapter:
A traveler alone in the haunted wood, one night, was
Surprised to see a darksome sight, and evil laughter.
(A light from offstage shines onto the startled traveler’s face, as he peers through the great, dark trees)
NARRATOR
He saw a fire glowing through the trees, and figures pacing
Around an Oak tree which might have sprung from the
Pit of Hades itself, the River Styx may have been its sap:
Around it, a collection of demonic dancers, and flutists,
The unearthly horde that had disturbed his restless walk.
(The TRAVELLER creeps closer to take a look. The Scene changes to an unhallowed rite, led by the DEATH CRONE, surrounded by the DARK THRONG, around a central, wicked tree.)
(The DEATH CRONE sings, backed up by the THRONG):
The Spirits over Cocodover (The Crone’s Curse)
CRONE
Let our curse
Shatter the still
Of the Stars!
Let dark Fate
Be unyielding
Wicked bars!
Nicolas,
Wander lost
Heartsick pain…
The Curse of Nod
Take you now
Like old Cain;
DARK THRONG
By the spirits over Cocodover
By the sailors on the sea,
Nicolas of Arrien, by the Devil cursed be!
You will want for her, and you will pray,
But no love by your side will safely lay!
CRONE
You will not
Be satisfied
Nor Love obtain
.
No woman’s form
Nor lover shall
Safely remain;
In your bed
They shall lie
Just to die
East of Eden,
Hearts will rend
Without end.
DARK THRONG
By the spirits over Cocodover
By the sailors on the sea,
Nicolas of Arrien, by the Devil cursed be!
You will want for her, and you will pray,
But no love by your side will safely lay!
CRONE
In any land,
Love shall cry
Just to die
By your hand.
(Song ends)
CRONE
Nicolas, in peace or in war,
You are only a killer, a betrayer of thy word,
And never can the traitor
Of the world’s horned Devil
In safety wander far!
(Scene darkens, and we see the Traveler fleeing)
NARRATOR
The traveler left the wood with this story of a place, deep
In the wood where hell dared break through, to bring
Evil and hate upon the human race. He was broken to
His core by what he saw, and not long after, fell to a
Sickness that took his life, and that of others, too.
Here ends the tale of Nicolas of Arrien, not seen since,
A cursed man, and of the lives that he destroyed. This
Villain took from God’s earth sweet Rosalyn, and no
Hell that awaits him could ever do him rightly. May his
Blood be cursed, and always reap what their father did sow.
(Scene ends)
(New Scene: The same dark tower room that the play opened in, with Stefhen reading the Black-Lidded book. It is night; he is at a reading desk or table, before a burned-down candle. There is a blanket on the floor behind him, covering something.)
(STEHFEN stands, slams the book shut and hurls it to the ground in disgust.)
STEFHEN
Curse you book! Accursed be! I, Stefhen, cannot
Bear the words you bear! I would take my own life,
Happily, to escape this horrid tale. Alas, I must confess
This tale’s hateful spurn is at home in me, for I am
The many times grandson of Nod-cursed Nicolas.
(He pulls the blanket away, to reveal the bloody and dead body of a woman.)
(He starts singing, and is joined by a ghostly unseen female choir)
Caitlin’s Fickle Heart
STEFHEN
I sit here, this night,
In my stone-chamber dim,
Lit only by the light
Of the full moon grim,
Before me on my floor,
Lies the body of my Caitlin.
(Oh, My Caitlin)
In a fit of blind unrest
At her fickle heart,
Oh, her fickle heart
We had a fight,
And with a little guilt,
(Just a little guilt)
I drove my naked dagger
To its hilt!
(To its hilt)
Beneath her tender breast!
I stared at her pooling blood,
(Pooling blood)
Quite a flood
Listened sadly to
Her final pleas-
(pathetic pleas)
Heartless, I now understand
Who I am,
(just who I am)
And who I am doomed to be!
I cannot have love,
It will flee
(Flee from me!)
If I don’t kill it first!
Oh, cursed that this should be!
(That this should be!)
Caitlin’s fickle heart
Retired here,
(Expired here)
One last sigh
And I was tired here
(Tired here)
And so I took a rest.
In my dreams
Longing heart-despair
A man showed me where,
In a room above…
A book was hid
That could explain
My cursed love!
I know you, wraith!
I know you well
(Know you well)
My lost grandsire Nicolas!
(Villain grandsire Nicolas)
(Nicolas)
What have you done to us?
(Nicolas)
Damn you for this book!
I didn’t need to know!
(Need to know)
This hard fate
Is a sickness
(quite a sickness)
Let death be my loving nurse…
When comes the morning,
(Death my nurse)
I shall fall from this tower,
(Quite a curse)
With my neck in a noose-
(That should work)
And thus shall end
(Your nurse will mend)
This wicked curse!
(A noose comes down from above the stage and Stefhen dances around happily with it a bit, before the song ends.)
(The Act ends).
Go to ACT VII