Part 4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
It was nearly lunch before I had time to get back to my newest acquisition. Waiting had tested my patience and resolve. But because I had gone over accounts received and payroll with Belinay; because I had listened to Senka pitch plans for an expansion of our press in the basement - Senka was insatiable, she always wanted us to purchase new fonts. But because I did half a dozen things I really didn’t want to do with a hangover and a new treasure waiting upstairs – because I did all that, I now at least an hour to myself with a clean conscience. And no distractions.
The power of deferred gratification!
The cover seemed to be leather over wooden boards. Reinforced with bronze on the corners and along the spine. It was an expensive and durable design. But heavy not terribly practical if you ever had to move it. A set of scrolls with the same material would have been a lot cheaper and easier to produce. With decent scroll tubes they would have been just as durable. And vastly more portable.
Clearly someone had been trying for something grand and monumental.
Or at least someone was creating a single repository for information. Interpreted one way, the tome was a compilation of religion (at least for Beltinians), civic laws, medicine, heraldry (with an implied ability to discern the legitimacy of ancestral claims) and a bestiary of infernals. Everything a half-feral prince might need to run a city state in a benighted age. If that were the true purpose of this book then scrolls would be an inferior medium. You wouldn’t want to misplace a scroll and loose half the rites of your church…
I was certain the gigantic book was meant as a blueprint for a civilization entered on the faith of Beltine.
Given that, I still thought it came from early in the Time of Terror. Probably in what is modern day Valentia, if not Enpyben itself. But I didn’t have a clue on how the book had come to be made, which cried for an explanation.
I didn’t know much about Enpyben’s ancient history and was completely ignorant of its activities during the Time of Terror. A body of background knowledge would have been helpful. I wondered if the city might have held out for a decade. On the surface that seemed unlikely, but I didn’t know. In the alternative might there have been an underground resistance to fiendish rulers? That seemed somewhat more likely, though I wondered if my hypothetical resistance would have focused on the lofty goals of preserving knowledge. In their shoes I would have been tempted to focus on just staying alive.
The dull throbbing of my head seemed to be increasing as I failed to make meaningful headway in the how the book came into existence.
I allowed myself to flip to the back part of the bestiary. Safe in Litera Scripta Manet, LSM to friends, I could enjoy the simplistic, yet powerful renditions of the Headsmasher devil and the Hellwraith. The Bonecracker Devil, the Inferno devil and the Volerath. I was glad all those horrors from the Crusade were safely in my past. One infernal puzzled me, an illustrations covering a whole page. It started the bestiary section, yet lacked caption or write up. It was a horned thing with cruel talons on its hands and feet. I believe it was wrapped with expensive ermine around its waist, which denoted power and lordship. I first thought maybe it was fanciful depiction of Uhxbractit. But it didn’t look anything like him. There were no wings for one thing. And the there was almost a gleeful innocence about it. It seemed very strange and not at all like the purported character of that dread sovereign.
Perhaps, it’s just a depiction of the generic rule infernals held over mortals?
Yes. That seemed like as reasonable a hypothesis as any.
This is a good place to break for lunch.
I was getting hungry. Stretching, I got up and massaged my head. The hangover was definitely getting worse. Maybe a quiet bite to eat was what I needed...
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_________________ Eric Gorman
AKA Ambassador Tukufu, man of letters, tomb raider and Master Sword Sage . . . and Sir Szymon val'Holryn, Order of the Phoenix Formerly Sir Jaeger val'Holryn. Weilder of the Holy Avenger: Thonanos. Gave his soul to help free King Noen
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