The next morning, as our heros prepared to head back to Heliopolis, Renato drew Matushida aside and gave him two of the letters from the other Matsushida, explaining that those two, and no others, mention a feeling of deja vu. Matsushida adds to his mystification by reading the letters, and then bids Renato a fond farewell.
Matsushida's position was enough to get him an appointment with Charles Korandai, the Bishop of Pentateuch, in an hour, so he made that his first stop. Unfortunately, the Bishop was not able to shed very much light on the issue at hand. Like Father Orin, he guessed that a demon might be responsible, and gave Matsushida the address of the only Avestite on Pentateuch.
The next stop was the Naos; again, Matsushida was able to get an immediate appointment, this time with Philosophus Maya. The Philosophus, the very picture of a wizened and eccentric old mystic, listened to Matsushida's account and then performed an Eskatonic theurgical rite that apparently allowed her to see his aura. After mocking his moral character and muscle tone, she allowed as how there was a strange darkness around his head, but she couldn't identify it. She gave him three books (on demons, strange Pentateuch phenomena, and aliens), and told him to come back and tell the provost on duty if any of the descriptions matched his experiences. She also gave Jaana a copy of The Eskatonic Inquisitor, and when Gwen looked slightly confused, gave her a paperweight. Then she shooed everyone out so she could teach a class.
While Matsushida was being examined in ways that made Father Orin grind his teeth, Halley was reading in the Naos library. As she sat with her nose in a book, she was approached by a young girl of eight or ten who asked what she was doing. When she saw that Halley was working on cryptography, she demonstrated knowledge of geometry-based asymmetric encryption techniques, and invited Halley to be her pen pal. Arcadia, PO Box 5, Heliopolis. (Arcadia is one of the names Doramos gave the planet before settling on Pentateuch). She also drew an apparently accurate map of Penteteuch and its ley lines, demonstrated telepathy ("How can you tell what I'm thinking?" "If you look in someone's eyes, you can find that code that will tell you what their face means."), and asserted that no one could read Doramos' scribblings.
Further abusing his position to get to the head of the line at the Charioteer's office, Matsushida quickly determined that there were no records of his ever having previously travelled to or from Pentateuch, or having sent mail to or from. The tracking numbers on the envelopes did not exist in the Charioteer databases. Matsushida was even more mystified, but went ahead and sent a letter to his aunt asking her to check the records at Kish.
No one had any cleverer ideas, so the group caught their prearranged flight to Aztlan, a small Obun community built on the ruins of a older city near the base of Mount Tabor in the Megiddo Desert. As the day was still only middle-aged, they rented some draga-beasts (the local riding lizards, much smaller and weaker than spitters but infinitely better-tempered and less toxic) from Doran vo Shaavan, and hired Jared Greymoore to guide them to the mountain.
The first part of the trip was uneventfuly, with no more than the expected amount of trouble with the mounts. Halley was delighted to find that draga-beasts are motivated by horsemeat. About two hours into the trip, and halfway to the mountain, the wind started picking up, and it quickly became apparent to the guide that an example of the famous Pentateuch ghostwind was in the offing. Going onward and trying to take cover near the mountain seemed better than going back, so they slogged on through worsening conditions until they were travelling through a full-fledged sandstorm with almost zero visibility. Then the weird stuff started.
Gwen's vision:
Losing sight of the others in the flying sands, Gwen is set upon by half a dozen bandits. Her gun is quickly jammed by the adverse conditions and she draws her sword to face them at close quarters. She only wounds a couple of them before they overwhelm her, however. Her shield is inoperable in the sandstorm, so her sword is broken and she is knocked to the ground. As the bandit raises his weapon for the coupe de grace, Gwen's hand falls on a leather-wrapped hilt, still warm as though it had just been released from another's grasp. She draws from the sand a greatsword with an ornately curled crosspiece of black metal, the meter-and-a-third blade inscribed "Force, Fierte', Famille". It is Coeur de Leon, first held during the Diaspora by Zenobiah Hawkwood, the daughter of Robert Hawkwood who was the first of the name; and lost centuries ago.
Though the sword is not at all what Gwen is accustomed to, the bandits are dead in seconds, and then Coeur de Leon rises up before her.
The sword divides her vision. To the left, she sees one of the broad concrete avenues of Byzantium Secondus, with people crowding the walks and cheering two battered hovertanks that lead a parade of armed forces. The tanks fly Imperial and Hawkwood banners, and a woman sits on the prow of the lead tank. She's dressed in Questing Knight colors and wears the insignia of the Knight Commander of that order. She looks to be about thirty five, and holds the greatsword before her. Her hair is cut short in the style of a woman recently made widow. She is Gwen. The crowds cheer for the triumphant return of her army.
The scene to the right of the sword is similar. The same two hovertanks float down the avenue, but they are in much worse condition, with holes where the armor has been penetrated. The banners they fly have been replaced with black banners showing a planet, a crown atop it, and three swords beneath it. A very different army marches behind the tanks, armed and menacing. A pale boy rides on the hull of the first tank, brandishing the sword overhead in both hands. His face and arms are covered with raised scars, and his white hair and features mark him as a member of the Ukar race. He looks to be about ten years old. The crowd lining the streets is cowed and watches the procession in fear.
Then the sword falls from Gwen's hands and she passes out.
Halley's vision:
She hears a conversation in a language she has never before heard, but somehow seems familiar. At first, it is just two speakers: one she recognizes as Arcadia, and the other a much older, deeper masculine voice she suspects is Doramos. They seem to be discussing something, speaking in long paragraphs. Eventually, a third voice, male, joins in, and seems to be mediating the discussion. After a time, the third voice sums up, and speaks some sort of conclusion. The conversation ends.
Halley closes her eyes for much of this, and keeps trying to get closer to the voices. She does get closer, but does not find them before they stop speaking.
Jaana's vision:
Jaana's attunement to the planet tells where and when she is at all times, but now it tells her that she is in a thousand places, at a thousand times. She is cognizant also of the connections between those places, the flows of energy and life, and that, slowly, one by one, each site will vanish from her perception until she is only where and when she was.
The sites vanish.
Elaine's vision:
For a few moments, Elaine sees herself, dressed in Gwen's clothes, with Gwen's sword at her side, walking down the aisle with an adoring Matsushida.
Matsushida's vision:
As he turns back to look for Gwen, who has gone missing, a lull the storm opens around him, and on the flat sand thus exposed he sees a drawing of a clenched fist with a cuff. A right fist, as the gargoyle fragment in the letter from the other Matsushida. Then the storm sweeps it away.
As the storm subsided, Matsushida spotted the glint of Gwen's broken sword, and found Gwen lying beside it, unconscious. There was some blood around, but no more than could be explained by the messy cut on Gwen's head, and certainly no bodies nor ancient swords. Matsushida patched Gwen up, and eventually she came to and told her story. Further mystification ensued.
The group got its act together and continued on to the base of Mount Tabor, where they encountered some Obun theurgical researchers, whom Jaana hit it off with immediately. Gwen questioned one of the Obun about the Ukar, in particular how they age (ie, was the Ukar boy she saw in her dream really tenish) and whether they have any legends of a boy king, but only found out that the Ukar age about like humans and that the boy king is a human myth, not an Ukar one.
That evening, Jared explained about the Marabouts, those people who have had visions that inspire them to protect and care for Pentateuch (or for other worlds, but obviously those people do not remain on Pentateuch). Apparently this can happen to anyone; Jared himself was once an Avestite!
The next day, they explored the giant Ur face carved into the mountain (much like the one in the cave at Taurus, but without the strange effects), and climbed to the top to be inspired with awe by the view.
<<Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe [Index] Chapter 9>>This file was last modified at 1635 on 22Jun99 by trip@idiom.com.