Awe was duly inspired, and various people prayed and/or meditated in the hopes that Mount Tabor would grant them secret knowledge. No revelations seemed forthcoming, so our heroes returned to Aztlan. Halley and her draga-beast had formed a strong bond based on a common view of the proper position and fate of horses, so Doran vo Shaavan offered to sell it to her. This idea was initially dismissed as infeasibly expensive, until Matsushida realized that people on Kish would probably pay through the nose for an alternative to spitters. A breeding pair of the finest thoroughbred draga-beasts was duly selected and reserved, pending a determination of whether draga-beasts seem likely to survive on Kish.
Back in Heliopolis that evening, Matsushida phoned Renato to arrange to visit again in a day or two, to discuss certain important matters.
Gwen had a message waiting for her at the front desk, which turned out to be from her cousin Sir Robert Griffin Hawkwood, the Warder of Agni. Sir Robert was in Heliopolis for a few days, and wanted to have dinner with Gwen if she returned before he left. Although both Gwen and Elaine were perfectly aware that Sir Robert had been given the fief on Pentateuch because none of his relatives could stand him, propriety is a harsh mistress.
Dinner with Sir Robert was not pleasant, but not terribly eventful. It turned out that Robert is a student of ancient mysteries, but knew nothing of the gargoyles on De Moley, being barred from the planet due to unspecified disagreements with the Order of St Mantius. Slurs against the Hazat were met in kind, but did not escalate to a duel. And at least the food was good. Afterwards, various people read their various books.
The next day, Matsushida continued his research on draga-beasts and their likely compatibility with Kish. Jaana studied theurgy and looked into Matsushida's problem, and Gwen sought information on Coeur de Leon and Zenobiah Hawkwood. Halley went out and about to make contact with the local Scravers.
Halley produced results first, running into famed mailScraver Joseph Home, who recognized her on sight (as he does every member of the Guild, apparently) and gave her two messages. One was that she had a package waiting for her on Barter, the floating Scraver space station currently in orbit around Delphi. The second was a note delivered through the usual Scraver routes: "Hi. I told you I could send you mail. Meet me at the Salamander at ten! --Arcadia"
Matsushida had by this time decided that draga-beasts had at least even odds of surviving on Kish, and made arrangements to spend huge quantities of his father's money on a breeding pair, so he went along with Halley to meet Arcadia.
After chitchat and ice cream, Halley asked Arcadia if Matsushida looked different than other people, and she said that he looked different everyone except one other person, an old man who had visited Heliopolis three years previously, and told her stories. She didn't know anything else about him, except that he had been with the military forces that had visted Pentateuch at that time.
Arcadia then announced that she wanted Halley to meet someone and dragged them to the Basilica of St Paulus, where they found Arcadia's friend praying. He finished his devotions and took them outside, where he introduced himself as Thane, an Eskatonic Tertiary (lay student). Cleverly perceiving at this point that Arcadia was trying to matchmake Halley and Thane under cover of having them discuss Pentateuch oddities, Matsushida attempted to perform a tactful withdrawal, but somehow everyone ended up back at the Naos library. Halley and Thane did not appear to be in love.
Jaana had by that time learned many exciting new theurgy facts, but hadn't come up with anything on Matsushida's problem. Gwen had found some interesting tidbits on Coeur de Leon, which she at first refused to show to anyone, but finally shared with Matsushida. Gwen's enthusiasm for seeking out the lost world of Minsakar was not noticeably dampened by Matsushida's description of the practical difficulties.
Halley denied being an inventor, but Arcadia drew, from no apparent source, a complete circuit diagram of Halley's current project, including the bits she hadn't thought of yet. Matsushida noticed Arcadia drawing, and asked if she could draw a picture of the old man who looked like him. The picture she drew was a dead ringer for Matsushida's grandfather, who had vanished some five years previously, and was known to be a theurgist. This caused considerable speculation, although Matsushida was assured that theurgy could not make one person appear as another, but finally Jaana pointed out that it was impossible to distinguish valid leads from Pentateuch weirdness while on-planet, and that no one should get excited until they found leads that existed off Pentateuch. Halley suggested to Thane that Arcadia might be a manifestation of the planet itself and was surprised to find that Thane had never thought of that. This prompted them to give Arcadia the third degree about her home and family, which led to her clamming up and telling them all to go away.
Eventually, everyone went to dinner.
Returning to their quarters, our heroes found the door slightly ajar. The bodyguards crept in and found no assassins, but the place had been thoroughly tossed. None of the valuables or weapons were missing, but every book in the place had been stolen, including The Vision of Doramos, both copies of Carter Feriel's book, and two of the Naos library books (on demons and Pentateuch). Fortunately, the library book on occultism and The Eskatonic Inquisitor had been in Jaana's possession and were safe.
Jaana tried to use theurgy to find clues, but the Pancreator was not forthcoming. She and Gwen went to the Naos to report the theft of their books to Philosophus Hideo Ackerman, and were lent Provost Elizabeth Wynn to help investigate. Wynn's theurgy produced the sign of three triangles in a circle (like three-quarters of a jumpgate), which she claimed was an important clue.
The hotel staff duly notified the local police, who came and did police things under Elaine's watchful eye. In the meanwhile, Matsushida (with Gwen for backup) was off asking Sir Robert (who he suspected on the grounds that he was a student of ancient mysteries and a butthead) if he had a copy of The Visions of Doramos that Matsushida could borrow. No stolen books or incriminating twitches were in evidence, so he beat a hasty retreat and spent the remainder of the evening being shrewed at by Gwen for insulting her cousin's honor.
Halley, with Jaana for backup, went to seedy bars to make contact with the local Scravers. She finally tracked down an old two-bit crook by the name of Whiskers, and threatened him into asking around, but he was unable to find any trace of the book thieves.
<<Revelations 1 [Index] Overdue Fines>>This file was last modified at 1635 on 22Jun99 by trip@idiom.com.