That evening at dinner, the visitors and the Baron's court assemble for dinner.
At the head table, Malleus and Hera are deep in conversation, as is the Baron and his various retainers. Gerald wolfs down his meal, since he wants to talk to Malleus about the parchment he got. Once he's had a couple of bowls of stew, he stands up and walks over to where Mal is sitting and gets his attention.
Mal reaches out and takes the scroll, and looks at it for a moment. A worried expression crosses his face, and he quickly excuses himself and gestures for Gerald and Lady Hera to follow him out. Back up to the Observatory, where he is instantly digging through books.
“That is the mark of summoning for something. How did you get this?” he asks. Gerald shakes his head, and Mal continues flipping through tomes in a rather hurried way. “It bears a certain resemblance to...ah, here we are!” he says. His face darkens.
“Gerald, this mark, it is the mark of a devil. An Eyrines, or fallen one.”
Hera and Malleus both look highly concerned. “Why do you have this? Were you sent it as a threat?” she asks, “Or does someone think you can use it?” More shrugging from Gerald. “Either way,” Malleus says “It cannot be a good sign. I can infer this symbol is diabolic in origin, but we'd have to look through the chapel archives to narrow it down.”
“I'll go to the chapel,” says Hera, “And check the library there – maybe there's information about this.” She leaves, hurriedly.
“Why do you think you received this?” Mal asks. “Wait, nevermind. Just tell me, you aren't mixed up in anything bad, are you?” Gerald shakes his head, the picture of innocence.
“If you find anything else like this, if anything else like this makes it's way to you, let us know, please.” he says. With a concerned expression, he stares up at the night sky. A cluster of stars pulse faintly, white, red, black and green.
Soon, Hera returns with a book clutched under each arm. She places them down on the table, and begins flipping through them. The tomes have ominous looking covers, and are filled with illuminated pictures of rather nasty looking demonic things. Malleus and Hera quickly locate the exact symbol.
“Sycarixian, archenemy of Carcerixian. Siblings cast out from the heavens, each blame the other for their failure.” Hera says, lifting the tome up and showing Gerald and Malleus. There's an illustration of a woman, wearing a furious expression, black and red feathered wings behind her opposite a male version holding a flaming sword. “It says that she was last seen one hundred and fifty years ago, but she was sealed away beneath a runestone in the steppe. She was on a rampage, slaughtering indiscriminately, but a group of champions summoned her brother and with his help defeated her and sealed her away.”
Malleus harrumphs. “All fine and good. But it still doesn't bode well. What of the its star?”
“A faint red star, supposedly” and here Hera points at the star charts. “Here.” They do a quick comparison of the night sky with the charts. “Yes.” says Malleus. “The star is still there. Which means the devil is still hopefully imprisoned.”
Gerald takes a peek through the telescope and sees the distant, sparkling red star. It's close to the cluster of bright new stars, but it shows no activity.
“Well,” says Malleus, “I hope this doesn't mean the fates have bad things in store for you, Gerald. Perhaps it would be best if you...well, you probably do try and stay out of trouble, don't you? Maybe it has a way of finding you.”
Malleus and Lady Hera go over their work once more, and once satisfied, they turn back to Gerald again. “All right,” says Hera, “You'll probably be leaving in the morning, so just in case...” she reaches in her pocket and pulls out a small charm on a string. “Wear this to protect you.” she says. “It should ward away evil influences.”
Malleus nods, reaches over to the table and picks up a glass globe. He briefly waves his hand over it, whispers something, and the globe lights up from within, filling the room with a pale yellow light. He quickly swaddles it in cloth and hands it to Gerald. “And take this, in case it's helpful. Goodness knows what you're in for, but if a mysterious source is sending you diabolic sigils, you'll need all the help you can get.”
They excuse themselves, and Gerald returns, the evening meal having wound down. Sir Bernard locates Gerald in the great hall. “Ah, Gerald. There you are. We leave early in the morning, so try and get some sleep. I'll tell you about what happened on the road home.”
Gerald's sleep is troubled by dreams where he is in the dark, and feels the brush of feathers on the back of his neck.
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Topic: (ISG) Fantasy Suggestion RPG: Back To The Baron's Castle (Read 20380 times)