084 – Steven Among The Academics

Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 118

At least this sword is not a Red Herring marked blade. Rox used one of those back in Veradale, for carving up fish.

Upon their return, the jeweler had the funds on hand to buy all the jewelry, they will separate the steel and gold rings, and melt and press the gold to local coin size, which will be given to them. He will keep the steel as the part of the price for his labor.

The Caplan’s walked out with a significant bag of coins of assorted types.

Their carriage dropped Roxanne at the outfitters for another brief session of fitting. She would then walk to Master Iver’s for more training. Thus would be her day. The carriage then continued to the hotel to drop Steven and Caspian off. Verigan was waiting when they arrived, and went in with them. Cyrril flew off as soon as Caspian saw the elf.

Verigan’s slight blue tinge and tall mohawk set him apart from the average populace; his skin was lighter and almost human in tone, while his mohawk was kept about twice as long as average, the sides clean shaved. His usual silks were closer to the human standard color pallet than the local motley.

Steven was to present the sword to Cuinton and Mallob to be sure it was what was desired.

Steven left his money with the hotel concierge, and got a receipt for it. In his room, he gathered the sword, the parchment book, the scroll in the wooden tube and the scroll he kept wrapped in a cloth, and put these into his bag. Verigan and Caspian waited patiently. Steven wondered whether Caspian was invited. Whether he was or not, he had self-invited and was coming.

Verigan hailed a passing carriage and they went into the center area of the upper tier of the city. Verigan led them up the front stairs of the building into the main annex and then into a side hall and up to a third floor and into an area that looked to Steven to be a cross between a library and office building.

Again the scale of things was larger than Steven was used to, but growing accustomed to here. Against his expectations the shelves were of various heights, almost too close for comfort, full of bound books, scrolls, and piles of papers, and were apparently used as the dividers of the working areas. Verigan led them along a main corridor past the areas, each with a table staffed by males and females poring over documents. At the end of the corridor, against the outer wall was a larger area with three parallel tables making three islands of activity in the area, with shelves all the way around this area. Verigan took them to the table to the right, where Steven recognized Mallob and Cuinton among the gathering. As Verigan approached, the gathering involving these two broke and two younger females and three younger males picked up papers and books and departed. Several other elves hung around in the background, watching and waiting.

Cuinton, the darker colored of the two, stood a bit stooped with age. Yet he stood as tall as Mallob who was built heavier than his companion. Cuinton turned and leaned against the table with several papers and books scattered across it, as Mallob turned to greet Steven. Verigan moved past and went around the table, pulled a stool out and sat down.

“Welcome,” Mallob greeted the men speaking in Caspian’s native language. “We trust this is the sword of the Nydecia Kings.”

Steven put the sword down on the polished stone top table between some books and piles of papers, and then put his backpack on top of it. He unloaded the scrolls and parchment as he spoke.

“I hope so. It was the only serviceable sword I could fine. There were a few buried with their apparent owner. However this sword came with a bit of a vision, which led to a hidden safe that contained this sheaf of parchment, and some seals that I left behind.”

Steven pulled the parchment last, and presented it to Mallob. “My best guess is that this is the genealogy of the royal line of that place you sent me.”

Steven handed the wooden scroll over to Caspian. “Open this carefully. I think it is a scroll that lists the same genealogy in better detail.”

Steven then took the cloth wrapped scroll and removed the shirt he had wrapped around the gilded scroll case, and carefully put the case down. Then he stuffed the shirt into his backpack.

“I found the scrolls in a storage room in the church attached to the fortress. This one was the only one put separate from the others.”

Mallob was leafing through the parchment as Caspian pulled the fragile scroll out. Verigan opened the gilded case. It hinged in two lines opening to show the scroll within, the outer two pieces of the case holding the rods that the scroll wound around.

“I can’t read any of this particular script, but recognize the alphabet.” Mallob put the parchment down.

“I can have it translated. Is it important to you?”

Steven shook his head. “No, not really. To me the best they could be called is a bunch of guys that died before anybody I know was probably born, on a planet I did not even know existed until I arrived on it. But it might be useful for your records. It struck my fancy. But the gilded scroll, there, has my interest. I expect it is the local scriptures, or holy book, or what ever the local word is.”

Steven pulled a stool out and climbed onto it.

Verigan carefully slid the scroll over to Cuinton. The older elf rolled the scroll back and forth carefully, and then paused to read. He spoke in a language Steven did not recognize.

When he stopped, Mallob spoke first. “Have that translated, a copy brought back here, a copy for storage, and three sent to the church. If they want the scroll, we will turn it over per the usual process.”

Caspian beat Steven to the punch. “What was just read?”

“A version of the Chaos Bringer prophecies,” Cuinton answered, as he handed the scroll over to a runner. “The difference is this reads as a copy of the original text, rather than a commentary given by another writer. I am passingly familiar, but it has been some time since I read the original.”

Steven was a bit impressed.

Cuinton looked at Steven. “May we see the sword?”

Steven turned and moved his bag and moved the sword hilt first over to the old elf.

Cuinton picked the sword up, cradling the hilt while holding the blade. Steven had not yet polished or sharpened it, but he had wiped the loose stuff off. As he had handled it he judged from its hardness that the crossbar and pommel were bronze, not gold. The wire in its grip was a tight braid of steel and gold inlayed into the knurled ivory. The double edged blade still had some discoloring from the leather it had rested in, that Steven intended to polish off, but had not yet taken time to bother with.

Cuinton turned to an aid, which stood up and stepped forward. Cuinton spoke in the local language and the aid moved off quickly.

“He sent the aid for some oil and alcohol to wipe the blade down.” Caspian said this to Steven, and then directed his attention up to the older elf. “What do you hope to see, sir?”

“We found a description of this sword that said it had some letters very lightly etched into its blade. It would have been useless to tell you before now: We only found it yesterday, and just as you cannot read the script on these books you brought back, you might not have seen them on the sword.”

Cuinton put the sword down and looked at Mallob. “While we wait for this, let us move on to informing the young man of what we have found since we talked to his paramour.”

Mallob nodded, and drew a pile of papers to him. He looked it over. “We talked with Roxanne some about the last Chaos Bringer, and what we had gathered about Krogg’s motivations. How much did she tell you?”

“Some. I had other things on my mind at the time,” Steven answered.

Steven then explained all he knew, and where he knew from it. He mentioned all that Caspian had told him; he filled in from what he had picked up from the things he had heard from the meeting he had participated in; he filled in from what Rox had reported. Steven then summarized. He knew Krogg wanted his kids for their own reasons, which he was still unclear on, and had sent the caravan, to go kidnap his kids and return them to Krogg. That Pervical wanted the kids for his own reasons, among these fears over the Chaos Bringer, and his desire to train Diana and Alex to be able to combat this Chaos Bringer. Now he and Rox were racing the clock to get properly trained and equipped and to Krogg before something dire happened to the kids.

Mallob inscrutably listened. When Steven concluded, he nodded, and looked over the sheet he held. He put it down and shuffled through the papers in the pile.

“There are a few other things we have found, from disparate sources. Most of it is reading that only the truly devout can tolerate without dozing off. We have cataloged a few overall themes. Would you like to hear them?”

Steven shrugged. Caspian leaned against the table.

Mallob glanced at Cuinton who motioned for him to continue. “From our own records: A fourth generation half-elf, parenting two fifth generation half-elves. The kids will be descended from one of our clans. And they will be born on ‘the foot stool of the Messiah.’”

Mallob paused. “That is an interesting title. It only appears a few times, and always in relation to the Anointed Lamb of God.”

Steven was not moved. He was well read in his bible; even if he did not attend any denomination. “It’s not a surprise. My home planet is called that a few times in our own scriptures. Do you need the meaning, or shall we go on.”

Mallob went on. “It is self evident, if one knows his scriptures. One last thing unique from our own sources: the Chaos Bringer will be a child of incest.”

That got a little attention, but only in the realm of distaste.

Mallob put that sheet down, and picked up another. “Both Light and Dark forces will be present, around the harbingers. The two children are harbingers of the Chaos Bringer; we have been over that. . .  Here we go . . . this is from a human kingdom. ‘The common interpretation is if the parents are unable to keep the children, then it is presumed that the Chaos-Bringer will be born to the children, when they are of age. If the parents are able to hold on to the children, they will be leaders for good.’ There is a bit more about if they are good they will not be the parents.”

Steven perked up at this. “Sounds like something to tell Humber Shroober.”

Cuinton agreed. “Indeed. But I doubt it will sway him. Right now, it is simply yielding to the majority that he is not being more tyrannical.”

Mallob continued, as he ran his finger down the sheet. “In the life span of these fifth generation half-elves the Chaos Bringer will be born. That is from an eastern kingdom. Evil hopes to control the harbingers in a bid to control the Chaos Bringer. That is from an elf up north. . .”

Mallob ran his finger over the sheet, and looked over a few others. “Everything else that I have appears to have been covered one way or another.”

“I have a little,” Caspian spoke up. “I don’t have my notes but I recall that the Chaos Bringer will be able to travel to several worlds, but never the ‘foot stool of the Messiah.’ But he/she might be able to cause trouble there, if the time is right, and the kids don’t stop him/her first.”

Steven listened to this. “Fun. So my kids have a bit of excitement in their futures; immediate and long term. Rox will want to hear this.”

Steven looked at the papers Mallob had. “Are those in your local script?”

“Yes.”

“Can I take them to let Rox read them?”

“Yes. These are my personal notes. She can give them to Master Iver. I will get them from him.”