I recently saw that the meaning of the name Cynthia (which Cyndia is a variation of) means Moon. It's fitting then that she named her daughter Cloud.

Sadly, being the Moon could symbolise she couldn't stop her husband Marc / Mars (also known as the 'baleful mindstar' in Tanu prophecy) path to the dark side (Mental Man). Cyndia did sabotage his fertility but died as a result when he instinctively lashed out at her in defense.

Elizabeth, despite being a grieving widow, was a star in her own right with power of her own - Marc's natural coercive aura didn't work on her* and she called him out more than once on his #@$%&. 

For Marc, on some level this must have been like a breath of fresh air. A woman is daring to talk back to his face despite being understandably wary of him. He was enchanted by her dancing as well (see a previous post about this).

I've said in previous posts how Marc could have been inspired by Melkor / Morgoth from The Silmarillion / Lord of the Rings. In a comic adaptation of part of this**, are the words "It was Melkor who had the greatest power and knowledge, yet he went often alone into the void, seeking the Imperishable Flame, though it was not there."

**It can be found here and well worth a read - https://www.evanpalmercomics.com/ainulindale ;

So, in the Exiles-verse, who is the Imperishable Flame that Marc is seeking despite himself? Yep, it's Elizabeth. She thought she had died with her husband Lawrence in a fiery crash, and was shocked / upset to awake nine months later in a regen tank (the amount of time for birth / rebirth). Her flame was weak at the time but hadn't gone out. Marc often went on star searches in the void of space in the Exiles books.

Faced with a choice between good (Elizabeth) and further evil (Mental Man), Marc chooses Elizabeth, the Imperishable Flame.

"The two suits of black armour hung in space and the enclosed brains saw a nearby expanse of nebulosity that glowed red and royal blue*** from the double star**** forming within its heart." - The Adversary



*They had this in the TV show 'Lucifer' - Detective Chloe Decker didn't immediately fall for the charms of the handsome, charming-yet-dorky Devil. Much to his puzzlement - he must have looked in his full-length mirror at times and wondered 'why is She different?'  *flops dramatically yet sadly on his leather couch*

*** Elizabeth's power aura is red. Marc's is blue.

**** Is this a reference to the Simarills that Melkor had on his crown. Is this the text telling Marc and Elizabeth, 'hey, you're both Space Simarills now. Shiny!'

On the lighter side of things. If, like me, you're convinced that Atoning Unifex disguised himself as a lunar moth to listen in on his relatives in 'Diamond Mask, you can celebrate that by getting some luna moth socks.

https://enchantedlivingmag.com/collections/socks/products/moth-garden-socks

During October there was the writing challenge 'Ai-less Whumptober 2025' so I wrote a Galactic Milieu story for it from the PoV of Teresa Remillard.


Title: then there was one

Characters: Teresa Remillard, Paul Remillard, Matthieu Remillard, Marc Remillard

Summary: Teresa Remillard was pregnant with twin boys and everything would be fine. It wasn't.

Day 3 - "Please don't leave me"

https://archiveofourown.org/works/72159671

Here is a link to a 'satellite view style' map of Pliocene Europe done by a fan.

Note how there is no English Channel *spills cup of tea* and the Mediterranean is a small inland sea. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/JulianMay/comments/1mkvhkk/pliocene_satellite_map/

Dune Roller, the first professional sale of Julian May, was made into a radio play at one time by the BBC in 1961.

Here is the link:

https://archive.org/details/julian-may-dune-roller

Someone else on the interwebs said they were surprised to realise Elizabeth was only seventeen at the time of the Metapsychic Rebellion.

Yes, imagine you're a teenage girl on a outer rim planet that caters only to winter tourists. You hear murmurs and rumours about war on the horizon, but there's nothing you can do. You're just a teenage girl. Then there's outright war, which leaves those majorly involved on both sides dead.

You probably have nightmares for a while after, but society and you pick up the pieces again.

Then decades later, you travel as a grieving widow through the time gate on Earth back to the deep past. After various dramas, people start looking to you for help. You can barely help yourself, who thought this was a good idea? Oh, and by the way, the bad guys from that long ago war didn't die after all. They fled to the deep past as well.

It looks like you'll be expected to help out with this situation as well. What do you do?

You had thought that those bad guys were long dead.

You were only seventeen at the time of the Metapsychic Rebellion.

So someone mentioned elsewhere that Felice was a secret Remillard all along, which makes a kind of ... horrid sense.

( Clicky-click... )

Here is some book-based Exiles / Milieu fan art:

https://www.tumblr.com/imhilien/755194380218990592/some-fan-art-for-julian-mays-books?source=share

Snaffled from ysabetwordsmith

Uncle Rogi with his Maine Coon cat would have definitely watched this video of Maine Coon kittens exploring their house. 😄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROOtCHVDWs4