The Black Opal Cross
by India Edghill

From DREAMS OF DECADENCE
Summer 2000/Issue 11

The cross was set with black opals, luminous dark fires imprisoned in rich worked gold. A ruby hung pendant from the bottom of the opal cross. The ruby had come over the seas, from faraway India; the image of Kali-Mata, the Drinker-of-Blood, was carved into the stone's crimson depths. Perhaps the ruby had once belonged to a princess, or a priestess. Now the precious stone hung from the black opal cross, vice bound to virtue, and it belonged to a young and virtuous lady. But youth is a transient thing.

And virtue lies in the heart of the beholder.


Available at: DNA Publications