Dustless | Print Volume 12

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 12 | Nocturnal Form

The subtle and the wise say: In the darkness of the night, all things take on nocturnal form.

A brilliant child has risen above the sages, and begins to leave them behind, their heads bowed complacently over dusty sutras, their minds lost in a trivial wisdom. Going on alone, abandoning the daylight atoms of ordinary life, he neglects the world of dust, and enters a state where imagination is power. Among human beings, he has grown Dustless: among the Dustless, he has the supreme potential of a young god.

And yet, even young gods must learn their lessons. In a realm of transcendental darkness, he discovers predators who prey on angels, monsters who mine the voices of children, demons who consume music as food. And with his vision endlessly expanding, can he really bear to continue onwards, to achieve the ultimate revelation of his nocturnal form? When all the dust lies still, and all that you love falls silent, what will be left for you — what will remain for the Dustless?

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Dustless | Print Volume 11

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 11 | Celestial

To be Dustless in a world of dust — isn’t this the aim of the subtle and the wise? To gaze through enlightened eyes, brilliantly piercing the clichéd states of worn-out thinking, to perfect a clear, celestial vision where all life is made afresh, as if witnessed at the dawn of the very first thought.

But what if illumination brings not peace, but violence? And to see through celestial eyes means only an immaculate view of carnage and strife — wounds, bones, hatred and loss? Would the sages pursue such a course, if they knew its true end? And if transcending the dust of flesh and blood meant the power to be able to walk calmly among disaster and suffering, unmoved by the unbearable — then who could bear to be Dustless?

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Dustless | Print Volume 10

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 10 | Terrestrial

High summer in the ancient, sleepy provinces of the Precious Cantons of the Heart: clear blue skies, heat and glare on the road, gently hypnotic stages between one settlement and the next as the travellers move ever closer to their destination, the great Metallic city, Shar — the imperial capital, and birthplace of the Way.

For the unilluminated, there is little to disturb this empty landscape — it is a clear pool without ripples, a place of nature and routine. All there is is all they see — and the limits of their vision define them.

But to those who grow illuminated, this terrestrial world is no longer the end of life, but merely the entrance to a strange, celestial state — and for them, the landscape is less peaceful, less benign.

Through celestial terrain, a powerful child moves, seeking enlightenment. But wasn’t this realm meant only for the illuminated and the wise? Why, then, do monsters roam here? And is this monstrosity enough to make even the Dustless flinch, and to crave again the humble world of flesh and dust?

 

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Dustless | Print Volume 9

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 9 | Master Darkness

There is a darkness. Not the darkness of a clouded moon or the darkness of a broken lantern. Not the darkness of a midnight grove or the darkness of a long-quiet grave. Not a darkness hidden in the shadows of noon, nor in the silent blackness of ocean trenches, depths too great for the sun to reach. There is a darkness no ordinary human being will ever see: a darkness not connected to light at all.

No gods created it and no reason may order it. No journey can commute it and no wealth can tame it. No army can vanquish it and no word can seduce it.

In such a darkness, any creature of dust must be obliterated. It is a void even the Dustless may find hard to endure.

Yet in this darkness, there is life.

But what kind of life?…

 

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Dustless | Print Volume 8

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 8 | The Lover in the Snow: 2

Against the towering backdrop of the Mountain of Light, as the travellers shelter from a sudden storm, the story of a fall is told: of one who was selected for supreme power, but who ended only in exile and dismay. But such a fall! — a descent that led through the palaces and mansions of the imperial capital, the homes of great ladies and of shadowy princes; through seedy retreats and low bars, where songbirds fluttered, and the invisible performed; through locations, famous across the fifty cantons, which every Pure sightseer should wish to visit; and through dubious backwaters, quarters reserved for the purposes of pleasure, which any Pure sightseer should fastidiously avoid.

It is a tale of mismatch and misadventure, of glory lost and glory found. A tale where a fragile wisdom can be won from acts of wilful stupidity, and where violent pride may lead to moments of true tenderness and humility.

What can the wise and the illuminated make of such a tale? Is it possible, against all the teachings of the sutras, that the burning carnality of dust may yet sometimes give rise to a calm and Dustless vision?

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US | Dustless | Volume 8 | The Lover in the Snow: 2

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Dustless | Print Volume 7

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 7 | The Lover in the Snow: 1

They have survived a wilderness, defeating attacks, hunger, terror and bitter cold. Civilisation, however, with its arenas of politics and power, appears to offer little reprieve. And yet, although enemies multiply, allies also gather; and despite much bitterness, healing, of a kind, begins.

For a brilliant child, an emergent energy begins to flow. From the heart of an enigmatic Building, an immortal voice speaks. A presence silent for so long, perhaps for centuries, has begun to stir — but what are centuries, for one who has no need of time, for one designed purely for eternity?

The terrestrial world is made of dust, for creatures of dust: mortals, with limited time, and limited vision. Is there, though, another world, reserved for those who no longer have a use for flesh and death?

Is there a world where only the Dustless can venture?

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Dustless | Print Volume 6

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 6 | For Pride in Their Flight

A time of ruination. In the countryside whole provinces are rendered unstable by a spreading disorder, and His Majesty’s feared spiritual police are called on to preserve the empire from anarchy. Yet urban centres are no refuge: from the western half of a great Metallic city standing on the Vo River, huge fires may be seen burning at night across the water on the eastern side, and by day only endless palls of smoke blotting out the sun.

In this tormented landscape, a small party of companions must struggle to fend off catastrophe and to seek healing for a dangerous wound. In hours of desperation, peculiar alliances must be sought and forged, and distasteful comrades accepted. For when death closes in, even the highest must sue for mercy, even the proudest must reckon with humility.

Through such storms of flame, in such depths of dirt, ash and dust, can even the Dustless walk unchanged?

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Dustless | Print Volume 5

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 5 | The Place of Living Dreams

It is the official birthday of His Majesty, the Dustless One, the focus of week-long festivities across the empire. Under the lanterns of great ceremonies, dressed in their finery, people perform for each other: they pray, feast, drink and dance, staging the end of a dying year, and the start of a new play and a new season.

But away from the bright lights of theatres and processions, in dark courtyards and the shadows of alleys, different dramas are being enacted, and assassins with angelic missions hunt and battle in secret, seeking to enforce their will and to protect their Way.

Caught up in their struggles, a mysterious child develops strange gifts and explores the world they start to reveal to him. Yet, as his powers increase, so too does his importance to rival factions. To survive, must he commit to the very world he yearns to escape? To reach the peaceful state the wise call ‘Dustless’, must he take the path that leads through violence and dust?

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Dustless | Print Volume 4

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 4 | Masks

Deep in the wintry Sea of Trees, an innocent child grasps that life is growing more complex: even in these remote parts of the empire, among impoverished settlements, the culture is rich and arcane, and people’s motives mysterious.

Wherever they go on their inexorable journey to the capital, the travellers are among strangers. Whoever they meet upon the road – a brutal angel, a teller of fortunes, a man who writes the history of his own prison – seems a secretive creature, lost behind a mask.

Surely only people of dust and lies need to wear disguises? But don’t you wear a mask too? If so, how can you be pure? How can you be true? And if you can’t be pure and true, how can you ever be Dustless?

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Dustless | Print Volume 3

DUSTLESS | print edition

Volume 3 | Still Building

In remote provinces of the Desolate Cantons, exiles meet and speak about their pasts. A gifted child discovers, among the tales of kings of cards, and the songs of murderers, an occult story concerning ‘the Still Building of the mind’ – a mysterious place where all things gather, in all times, eternally.

Already drawn to the threshold of this Building, the child wonders whether you might find within it only froth and loss and decay, only the same old dust that is found in the terrestrial world? Or is the strange Building greater than the world from which it arose? If you were to step inside, might you find there the beginning of a new truth? And might that truth be Dustless?

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