The Silver Sphinx

 

„Well, I suppose you could try to ride out of town, sir. But first, you'd have to find a horse - then, you'd have to find a portal big enough to ride through.“

Geena Mirrathar, a tout in Sigil

 

 

Third Low Day of Regula, 126 HR

Sarin greeted Terrance as always with a rather deep bow, despite the numerous political and religious differences he had with the factol of the Athar. But he was a high priest, and although that ominous Great Unknown was more than suspicious to the paladin, an appropriately respectful greeting was irrevocably due to Sarin's understanding of the world. Basically, he liked Terrance. He had turned away from his goddess Mishakal, much to Sarin's incomprehension, but he still felt committed to the principle of healing and followed the path of good. This was more than he could say for many of his fellow factols. Moreover, Terrance possessed a calm and extremely humble manner that Sarin had to acknowledge. That he did not bother to peddle around his certainly considerable power made him rise in the paladin's esteem. The quiet cynicism he occasionally displayed, on the other hand, certainly annoyed Sarin when it came to religious questions. But today, fortunately, this was not the case. It was about something else ... possibly more serious. The Athar were the only faction he knew that also knew something about the ancient prophecy he wanted to talk to Terrance about. The Lost would not have been Sarin's first choice, if he had been allowed to decide. But it could well have been worse. Just as he was about to take a seat with Terrance at the long conference table in his office, the door was yanked open noisily. His Sigil legate, Tonat Shar, rushed in, followed by two people who, however, did not come into Sarin's focus for the time being, thanks to the less than proper entrance of his deputy.

"Sarin!" Tonat shouted. Then he faltered when he caught sight of Terrance and stopped dead in his tracks. "Factol, excuse me ..." he corrected himself, then hastily bowed to the high priest. "Factol Terrance ..." He took one deep breath, then turned back to the paladin, more controlled but still clearly agitated. "Sarin, this is unbelievable!"

The latter drew his brows together in displeasure. "I think so, too. What kind of an entrance is this, legate Shar?"

He could see Terrance's smirk out of the corner of his eye, and he was almost certain that the high priest was as amused by his disgruntlement as he was by his legate's somewhat uncouth demeanor. Tonat, meanwhile, was waving a parchment in front of him. A parchment that he immediately recognized by the hanging seal band ...

"I know," Tonat gasped out. "I apologize for my inappropriate behavior. But factol, I have someone here who can read this!"

"What?!" snapped Sarin.

Tonat lifted the scroll, the very parchment he had wanted to talk to Terrance about. That ancient, enigmatic scroll, the secrets of which he had inherited from Juliana and had never been able to decipher until now.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Shar affirmed in an excitement quite unusual for him. "He! He says his name is Kiyoshi!"

He pointed behind him, at a young man and only now did Sarin take a closer look at the two people who had entered the room together with his legate. One was a pretty young woman with shoulder-length blond hair. The other, Tonat now pointed to, a young man he estimated to be in his early to mid-twenties. He had relatively short, jet-black hair, dark eyes and a tanned, slightly bronzed complexion. Sarin stared at him as if he deemed him an apparition. The young woman immediately took a few steps away from him. Terrance seemed calmer, but no less surprised - though probably more so at Sarin's behavior and that of his legate.

The factol of the Harmonium pointed at the young man. "Come here!" he commanded.

The visitor, introduced as Kiyoshi, tried heroically and quite successfully to keep a deadpan expression, but Sarin noticed that the whole situation was unsettling him. All too understandably. He took a breath and reminded himself that the man was not one of his soldiers and that a more moderate tone might be more appropriate.

"Please," he added. "I meant, please step closer." He extended his hand and Tonat handed him the parchment, which he now held out to Kiyoshi. "Is it true that you can read what is written here?"

The young woman now slowly stepped closer again and looked curiously in the direction of the parchment. Sarin thought he saw her exchange a nod with Terrance out of the corner of his eye, but he was too focused on the parchment and his other visitor at that moment to worry about it. The latter now nodded in response to his question. Incredible. Sarin could hardly believe it. For so long they had searched for a way to decipher the writing on the mysterious parchment, but without success. And now someone who understood this unknown language was just stumbling into his office? He was dying to hear it, but his eyes fell on the young woman and he paused. She seemed to belong to Terrance, but that didn't mean the words on the parchment were meant for her to hear. Sarin glanced briefly at the Athar factol and he nodded. Very well. Terrance knew what was to come, and if he wanted to call in the young woman, he certainly had good reasons. The factol of the Harmonium closed his eyes for a moment and took another deep breath, before he held out the parchment to Kiyoshi. "Then, please ... read."

Tonat as well as the young woman waited impatiently and excitedly, Terrance more calmly but nonetheless attentively. The young man took the scroll presented to him, glanced at it and for the first time since entering the room, raised his voice as he read:
"It says: the child who possesses the gift of healing - the child whose blood makes the razorvine bloom - the child who looks into past and future." Even as he read aloud, he looked somewhat stunned at the parchment, as if he could not quite believe it himself.

Sarin was aware that he was staring equally stunned at his visitor. "That's what it says? Or is there more?" He tried to remain calm as Terrance beside him suddenly exclaimed: "Jana!"

Sarin looked to the young woman, whose eyes had suddenly turned silver-white. Tonat let out an irritated "Um..." and the paladin frowned. "What's wrong now?"

The one addressed as Jana groaned softly, swayed and then slumped to her knees before falling forward with a dull plop.

Terrance rushed to her side. "Jana! By the Lady ..."

Sarin walked around Kiyoshi, who was still standing there with the parchment in his hand, and stepped up to the high priest. "One of yours, Terrance?"

The latter nodded with concern. Jana breathed, but otherwise seemed completely out of things.

"Does she have this … condition often?" Sarin asked, trying hard not to sound like he was interrogating his colleague.

"Not that I would know of," Terrance replied, leaning down to check her breathing. 

Sarin looked from the young man with the parchment to the woman lying on the floor, then to Tonat Shar and back to Jana. She did not move. "Shouldn't we do something?" he asked.

Terrance gently shook his head, waiting. "I don't want to make it worse."

At that moment, Jana gasped and blinked, moving slightly and finally lifting her head.

Terrance helped her sit up slowly. "Jana," he said, worried but gently. "How are you feeling? What was wrong?"

Sarin went to the table and poured water from a carafe into a glass, while Jana rubbed her temples and looked at Terrance in confusion.

"I ... don't know," she answered weakly. "I ... was hallucinating, maybe."

Sarin handed her the glass. "What did you see?"

With his and Terrance's help, she stood up, growing even paler than she already was. She remained standing, however, swaying slightly, taking the glass and murmuring a soft "Thank you." Sarin supported her, lightly holding her arm. She smiled gratefully at him before answering his question. "I saw ... an acquaintance of mine, factol. Together with a half-elven man and a large scorpion." Poor Kiyoshi, still standing next to the whole scene with the parchment in his hand, eyed her in confusion, as Sarin noticed. No wonder, her words didn't sound very meaningful. And yet he guessed what they meant. "They were in some sort of ... basement vault ..." she continued. "And there was an eye." Terrance frowned and Sarin knew to say no more than an irritated "aha" to that. Jana rubbed her temples again. "On the scorpion, I mean. His back. Then I saw the Festhall and factol Erin. I must apologize, factol." She seemed to address both of them with this. "This kind of thing doesn't usually happen to me. I ... it certainly doesn't mean anything."

Sarin made a placating gesture. "Apologize? But for what?" Then he looked at Terrance and raised a brow. "Lady Erin, well well."

Terrance smiled in amusement. "The Sensates just have a finger in every pie. Your words, right Sarin?"

"How true," the paladin replied, then looked back at Jana. "Forgive me, I'm forgetting all decorum in my excitement. Please sit down first." He pointed to the large table.

Jana cast a long, inquiring glance at the parchment in Kiyoshi's hands, then took another sip of water. "Thank you, factol. I ... I'm sure it had nothing to do with that parchment and is of no concern."

"I'm not so sure about that," Sarin replied seriously.

Jana walked slowly toward the table and dropped into the chair Tonat Shar had pulled back for her. Terrance stepped closer, but didn't sit down, instead stopping beside her and lightly placing a hand on her shoulder.

Hesitantly, Jana looked to Sarin. "May I ask ... why not, factol?"

The paladin beckoned Kiyoshi closer and eyed first him, then Jana insistently. "You are one of them ... you both belong to them. It has begun ..." He couldn't quite grasp his own words at that moment.

"Yes," Terrance confirmed quietly. "It has begun."

Kiyoshi had stepped closer and seemed unsure whether to return the parchment, place it on the table or continue holding it. He decided to hold it.

Jana took another sip of water, then said quietly: "May I ask for an explanation ... I don't understand, factol ..."

Sarin made a sign to Kiyoshi to sit down, not without taking the parchment from his hand first. The young man seemed grateful to be rid of it again. When Terrance and Tonat had also taken their seats, Sarin leaned back in his chair and sighed, glancing at Kiyoshi. "So ... That was a bit much now, even for our city. I regret that you are thrown in at the deep end like this. If it's any consolation, I'm also feeling a little ... blindsided right now. No, not a little ... completely. Where do I start?" He thought for a moment, Kiyoshi looking at him with an almost expressionless face. Sarin wasn't quite sure if that was due to the shock of what he had just experienced or if it simply was in his nature. Only then did he remember what he had wanted to ask the young man at the very beginning. "Wait. I would like to know first how Tonat came to know you. In all the excitement, he didn't tell me."

Tonat raised his shoulders apologetically, but Kiyoshi rose and said: "I volunteered."

"Oh, you're a new recruit?"

"Indeed," replied the young man.

That his path had led him here to the Barracks, as a mere recruit, the very man who could understand the Old Tongue ... it seemed more than sheer coincidence. "Remarkable ...", Sarin noted. "Where are you from?"

"From Kamigawa," came the prompt reply.

Sarin shook his head. "Never heard of it. Material?"

"Indeed," Kiyoshi confirmed in the same wording and tone as before.

"I see." Sarin glanced at Terrance, who nodded gently. Yes, they both belonged, Kiyoshi as well as Jana, and at that moment Harmonium and Athar became associate in a way Sarin didn't necessarily like. But here, for once, he apparently had no say in the matter. "All right, then." The paladin nodded to Jana and Kiyoshi. "I guess we owe you an explanation. So listen: Sigil is a very old city. Many legends entwine around the Cage, some well-known and some dark. And some are almost completely forgotten. One of those almost forgotten legends tells of an ancient and powerful artifact - if you can call it that. It is part of this city. Somehow, it seems to be integrated into the architecture of Sigil."

Jana frowned in confusion, while Kiyoshi tried to keep his expression as blank as possible. The paladin, however, looked at Terrance and, with a nod, gave the floor to him.

"In the few reports that exist about it, this artifact is referred to as Deus Machina or God Machine," the Athar factol continued with the narrative. "We do not know exactly what this machine can do. However, it is believed to be capable of shaping or altering space and time, reality and dreams, even entire planes. We don't know where this machine is or how to activate it. And whether one should at all. Another legend is closely related to this one. It is the Prophecy of the Chosen. It says that at the time when the God Machine is to be found, the Chosen of the Ring will appear. It is not clear whether the Ring means Sigil or the entire ring of the Outer Planes. The Chosen have unique qualities or abilities that somehow seem to be related to this machine. Unfortunately, we possess only fragments of this prophecy. In the archives of the Harmonium as well as in those of the Athar such fragments were found, so factol Sarin and I decided to work together. The abilities of the Chosen are addressed in them. We knew of one who understands the Old Tongue, of one who knows the scent of the planes - whatever that means - and of one who walks in dreams." Terrance paused and looked at the parchment lying on the table before Sarin.

The paladin nodded. "And we had this text, written in a language no one could read. Not even with magic, not with any known spell. So we suspected it was the Old Tongue, supposedly spoken by the gods and unknown to mortals." He interrupted himself, for Kiyoshi looked as if he wanted to say something. "Yes please?" 

The young man hesitated for a moment and looked at Jana before speaking. "You think … I am one of them?"

Sarin nodded seriously. "Exactly. Because you can read the parchment. You are the one who understands the Old Tongue."

Kiyoshi's deadpan expression began to slip, he now looked somewhat horrified.

"Yes." replied Sarin. "I understand your reaction. It must be very confusing. I wish I could tell you more about it, but unfortunately ... I don't know more. When you just read the parchment in the Old Tongue, you mentioned other abilities that were not described in the fragments from our archives: A child who sees into the past and future, a child who has the gift of healing and someone whose blood makes the razorvine bloom - which sounds pretty crazy, to be honest. Then Jana had some kind of vision - so I guess it's clear what ability she has."

Kiyoshi now seemed quite uneasy again, Jana more than confused. Sarin exchanged a quick glance with Terrance, then sat back to let the two unexpected Chosen ask their questions. Not that he was sure he would be able to answer many of them ...

 

(played January 30, 2012)