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I Rho

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Long Count Date: 998.11.96

They found themselves a rather productive crew, Fareed clearly had been on ships and handled the sails precisely, Maximus had clearly been a master of troops on ships and had organized food and water and was strong enough to hold the tiller, Albertus, having produced a cartography of the lower Hellenic sea, and being, of course, skilled in observation was an excellent navigator.

And Marchangela found that she was able to avoid most work what so ever and focus on her reading and keeping the log.

The chased a breeze away from the coast and towards the northern coast line, Albertus’ plan was to grab an easterly wind that swirled south of a prevailing westerly. It took a great deal of skill to handle such winds, but they found that they were making far better time than the ship had. Fareed and Maximus both commented that the former ship’s master was an incompetent, and had allowed the wind to spill from the sails, and had often engaged in generally poor handling where, even if he had picked a better course, he would have been hard pressed to hold to it.

It was mid-morning before they were arrayed in a comfortable pattern and could spend time gathering the story which Albertus had to tell.

“I will say that you must forgive me if what I am about to say is unconvincing, because until the event which we all witnessed, I was not certain of it. However, now I am.” He steadied himself, adopted a pose of a practiced lecturer and begin.

“Many of you may have heard of necromancy, and of sorcery, and of the other branches of the arcane arts which are related to the movement of souls. I am sure that you have heard they are black arts, and forbidden. And yet, the world rests upon them: our souls do not come from here, but from another place. And the origins of our bodies are from that same place. The evidence for this world being not our true home is overwhelming, we do not sleep with the night nor rise with the sun, we have neither the great night vision of the dark dwelling creatures, nor are we as frenzied as the day animals. We have stories of a moon which does not exist, and our habits lead us to cultivate fire, which is lethal when it turns to conflaguration.”

“In short, this world is not our home, neither in spirit nor in body.”

They waited. He took a swallow of water and continued.

“Until recently I believed that it was the role of my profession to regulate the comings and goings of spirits, and to minister to them. But I found errors in our calculations which, if our theories were correct, should have lead to failure. I also saw signs from the great engine which I was entrusted with, that it was growing unstable for reasons which we could not understand. I was told by the wise to perform certain ancient rituals, and all would be well.”

“Then there came an increasing series of strange events, dreams and panics, and signs that the energies of the well were leaping more and more to the surface. These were associated with particular people – it seemed clear that some attracted events more than others. I again wrote, and was told to perform even more rituals. Which I did to an exactness that surpassed all description. And yet, the events did not diminish, but increased. There was a full possession which I attended to of a young woman, who was reduced to a state of raging mania. All of the art which we had was applied to her, and yet, she worsened and finally ended her life by smashing her own head against the walls of the place where she was confined.”

Marchangela blanched, she knew who the were talking about, it had been a girl that she had traded some card secrets with, who had an unearthly aspect and seemed truly gifted with the sight.

“But before this I had already resolved to find some alternate plan, and began gathering others of like mind to reform our procedures, and set our art on a firmer foundation of observation and modeled after the newest developments. I recruited a few, and we planned to seal off the well from human inhabitation, and begin a program to discover its true secrets, which…”

He was cut off at this point by Maximus.

“All very well to explain to her. But we, the poor warriors of this group, do not understand most of it. You say there is a potential repetition of what happened before.”

“Oh far worse…”

Marchangela interrupted.

“What he is saying is that the magical art that was thought to protect us does not, and what really did – the well of souls – is now broken and unmade. What he has not explained is that the source of what tore over this ship comes from a place called Earth, and it comes in waves when the planets align and we see Earth at perfect opposition. That perfect opposition occurs soon, and when it does, the souls will flood out of the well, and perhaps more of the energies. We have not long to alert the world as to the danger, and convince them to take a better path.”

Maximus nodded, “I think I may be of help in Latia.”

Fareed smiled, “I am sorry, I am a man of no account in my own lands, but clearly there is fame and fortune in this, or at least better than what awaits me at home.”

“Which is?” inquired Marchangela.

“I was caught gambling, they are going to cut off my fingers if I am caught.”

Maximus whistled.

Fareed concluded, “Think of it as divine calling, only it is the police of the divine calling me heretic.”

Marchangela, “So it is agreed, we go to warn the wise, the Hellenic Council and the College of the Wise.”

Fareed: “Well, I hope our friend Albertus is persuasive, because I have a feeling that ‘Everything you know is wrong’ will not be a particularly popular speech to give.”

The sun was near noon, Albertus took out an apparatus and sited it for their location and smiled, they were making excellent progress. They busied themselves with tasks, and hoped that it would be progress enough.