Song-spiration Saturday & The Rise of Mnemosyne Part-2

Posted on by Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Hello, everyone.  February is already here.  Thanks for clicking over to spend part of the first day of the month here.  WordPress continues to make my way of editing/creating posts nearly impossible.  I apologize in advance for the gigantic picture and that it’s not a pretty post.  Honestly, anybody would think they’d like us all to quit blogging.

As theme or mood music, I’m using the video Tim Price made for the song we created together, Winter’s Moon.  When Tim sent the lyrics to me, it felt like serendipity, because his words were so in line with the story that was demanding to get out of my head and onto the page.

About the Story

Some of you may remember the other post.  Here’s a link. 

I’m sorry that I can’t commit to a schedule for this story.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy bits of it showing up randomly.  Remember it’s a “parallel world” science fantasy. I might do several episodes, or only a few — I’m not sure right now. 

Picking up where we left off — here goes.

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Crowlings

The Rise of Mnemosyne 2

Deep within the Baja Abyss where forgotten knowledge gained sentience and named itself Mnemosyne, small shadow creatures came into being.

They were unlike the large evil forms that coalesced from the noxious vapors.  Those varied in form, but all could fly, and most had suckered tentacles, and long manes, the hairs of which ended in tiny grasping hooks.  While they had no need to live in water, because of the tentacles and the violent manner in which they were released, she called them kracken.  All in all, they seemed built to latch onto other animals.

And what?  Are they symbiotic, or merely carnivorous? pondered Mnemosyne before her attention returned to new miniscule beings that had just come to life.

Nanites, thought Mnemosyne as she watched hundreds of them gather and then merge into a single, although still small, entity.

The nanites exuded a shadowy, barely visible form.  Instinctively she knew that generally the creatures would be neither evil nor good, unlike the kracken, which were clearly malevolent.

Abruptly she realized the nature of much of the knowledge that had fallen into the abyss during the cataclysm above.  Yes, there was information and knowledge, but amid the facts and memories was the means of tracking it.

From whence it comes, and whither it goes, she thought, her mental voice shifting randomly through centuries of changing linguistic forms.  These nanites are willing to do my bidding.  Yet they are no longer simply microscopic machines.  Just as I became aware, so have they… if not to the same extent.

“Nanites no longer,” she whispered to a cluster of the little shadow things, which eagerly gathered near her as a sense of whimsy became part of her nature.  “You put me in mind of Erebus, the primordial god of darkness, so I name your kind crowlings.  Ha!  He enjoyed crows.  He would likely think it a slight, but I see your value.”

Wanting to learn more about the world above before venturing out, Mnemosyne turned her attention to some of the nearest fragmented data.  Her awareness touched and sifted nonsense and news, politics and pollution, harbingers and humans, anonymous and named.

Praetor maximus.  Why does this title appear in so many fragments?  Not governor, or senator, but more of a supreme dictator, she decided, piecing together data from shortly before the apocalypse.  A deceiver.

“This one will be key to my understanding what has transpired,” Mnemosyne told several of the crowlings.  “Fly out to the world above.  Learn about this praetor maximus creature, and learn how things are in Gaia since the destruction — and tell me.”

A dozen tiny shadowy forms launched up into the light and the world beyond.  She could see them disperse in every direction.  Nodding, she returned to the broken knowledge, patching together bits of memories.   She needed to understand what had brought about the apocalypse.  Although it continued to defy common sense.

“Bard?” she murmured over one bit of knowledge and suddenly paused.  “I remember bards!  Ah, Taliesin… and Shakespeare whom they called the Bard.  “Although this appears to be a human name.  Tinsley Bard.”

Mnemosyne paused, considering the very ordinary nature of the memory fragments that included the name.  As she thought, two of the crowlings drew close to her, curious.

“Ah, you two like to learn.  What’s this?  You have named yourselves?” she asked in delight and the crowlings clicked excitedly.  “Arc and Zyme?  Let it be so.  My small friends, much can be learned from that which is ordinary,” she murmured to them.  “Daily life indicates a much broader picture.  I bid one of you find the human, Tinsley Bard and tell me all about the kind of human she is, her success or hardships.  The other, learn all about the world around her home.  We will gain important insights through what we know of a single human.”

The two crowlings consumed the fragmented knowledge that Mnemosyne fed them.  Their clicks began to sound more like chimes and chirps.  Then Arc and Zyme launched out of the abyss, already tracking their quarry.

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Thanks for reading.  Friendly comments are welcome.   Hugs!

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Of course, here’s the obligatory shameless self-promotion.

A Peril in the Vines

Just released, in paperback and e-book.

Universal Purchase Links

A Peril in the Vines

e-book:  relinks.me/B0DS4G7RSD

Paperback:  relinks.me/B0DS69GJDV

A Medium’s Peril full series link: relinks.me/B0CG2SXX24

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Copyright © 2025 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

All rights reserved.

55 thoughts on “Song-spiration Saturday & The Rise of Mnemosyne Part-2”

  1. Pingback: Short Story Saturday: from the world of Mnemosyne – Teagan's Books
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  7. Brilliant!

    This is my second time (attempting) commenting. there’s something gremlinish going on with WP.

    Anyway, I said something about hoping you’ll continue, but what you already done is great.

    Sending big hugs.

    (second tries at a comment are never as good as the first one!)

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  12. Wow Teagan!! A stellar collaboration with Tim – profound thoughts that flowed with your voice and remarkable artwork. I love the word: Song-spiration!! Sorry you are having issues with WordPress, but I found that your post came through beautifully on my iPad.

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    1. Hi Rebecca. Yikes! I just now fished you out of spam. It looks like you were in there for a few days. Then I again couldn’t find your comment because WP put you in “pending.”

      Thanks about the post, but the “look” complaint is because suddenly all the images are gigantic. I like to break up my text with an image every 5 or 6 paragraphs. Tith these enormous images, that would be overwhelming.

      I appreciate you reading and commenting. Hugs on the wing.

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  13. Like the others have said, your story looks fine here (MAC IOS) Two weeks ago I woke up to no more classic. I struggled to put a post together and then like magic the next day, classic was bad. Go figure. Love the story and think having the Crowlings form and dissipate is genius. Hugs.

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    1. That happened to me with classic editor too — and now it’s gone again… Just when I thought it was safe to get back in the water. It really frustrates me. Thanks for your feedback. The “appearance” part that’s bugging me is that suddenly it’s making all my images huge, and will not let me adjust the size (even when it supposedly lets me crop the image, no change). I don’t like to use long expanses of unbroken text, so I make a lot of illustrations. Now, I’m afraid they would be overwhelming. So I only used the one. I had to do a lot of finagling to get the video to show up where I wanted too. It would only add it to the top of the post… (Of course, that’s on top of the other reasons why I find this current editor ridiculous and difficult.

      Thanks very much about the crowlings! In a reply to Liz, I spoke of my thinking about Mnemosyne — the same reasoning applies to the crowlings. Big hugs.

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    1. Thanks for that feedback, Liz. I find that using names that have known or apparent meanings lets a story work on more than one level/layer.

      I think Mnemosyne will mostly be a guide to the reader in this story (though not precisely a narrator). The character gives me a means of detailing how this parallel world is different from ours without it becoming an information dump. (There are lots of those details!) Also, gradually showing those differences adds some mystery/intrigue to keep a reader curious.

      Have a wonderful weekend. Hugs.

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    1. Thanks for that reassurance, Dave. Although I don’t like to use long expanses of text without an image in between. Without the option to resize them, more than one picture was overwhelming. I’m meticulous about the appearance of my posts, so this WP editor setback is extremely annoying…

      I appreciate your feedback about the creatures. 🙂 It was a relief to suddenly think of something that would let me add some whimsy to this story. Happy February. Hugs.

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    1. Hi, Noelle. It’s good to see you. I know how hard it can be to build up energy after a bad cold. Thanks for your kind words and encouragement. The crowlings popped into my head suddenly. Thank goodness something that isn’t so dour came to this story. The dark aspect of it prevents me wanting to “live in it” the way I have to do in order to write a story. Hugs.

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          1. Adorable. Crows and ravens are very smart birds. We have three house crows who visit us every day. We had one when we had our lake house – they are very territorial and will pick out a house as theirs.

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  17. Your post is looking good here too, Teagan, but I sure know what you mean about WP making things tough. I thought they were picking on me because I still use the Classic editor.
    It took a while to comment on Dan’s post because it kept saying that comment could not be posted.

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  18. Your post looks good on this device (Microsoft Surface), but I understand your frustration with the barriers we face trying to get a post to look the way we want – it shouldn’t be this hard.

    Oh well, that aside, I love the story. You have such an amazing ability to draw me into to the worlds you create. I feel just like Mnemosyne and your other characters, I want to know more.

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  19. The post is beautiful and I read it while listening to the song, it’s such a poignant song Teagan, and I loved this extract. Of course I’m rooting for the crowlings. You have a talent for creating beings that I love. xxx

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    1. What a wonderful comment, Adele — thank you very much. Tim’s lyrics were inspired by the election results. So was the story that (during the same hours) came into my mind. However, I don’t talk politics or religion here — also I resist posting dark stories. Yet the darned story keeps demanding to be told. I compromised by making the setting a parallel world. I’m relieved that the crowlings suddenly came to me, because they could add some lightness to it. I hope. Anyhow, thanks again for your feedback. Big hugs.

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  21. I’m sorry about your blogging difficulty, Teagan, although I’m reading your post on my phone and it looks good on this format. Beautiful, in fact. I’m fascinated by this intriguing story, and I love the crowlings already. Oh, and I’m very curious about Tenley Bard. I look forward to learning more about her! Thanks, Teagan, for sharing the song again, and to Tim as well, of course. Happy weekend, big hugs and love to the Scoobies!

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