Chapter 059: The Hermit's Legacy

 

"So you tell me `trust me' I can trust you

As far as I can throw you

And I'm trying to get out of a shadow of doubt

Cause I don't know if I know you"

 

Lie - Dream Theater

 

    There was a slight sigh of air escaping for the first time since ages as the door slowly opened. The darkness of a chamber loomed up before us, yet there appeared to be a soft orange glow coming from somewhere inside. With a very mixed expression Rinaldo turned back toward us, as if uncertain what to do next.

    "Well, shall we?" Panther asked. Rinaldo shrugged and stepped into the room, closely followed by Panther and with yours truly trailing behind at a safe distance. I still wasn't altogether convinced that there wouldn't be any traps waiting for us, this being Brand's place and all.

    Inside the shimmering orange glow provided just enough light to make out the contours of a typical laboratory. However, it seemed a little too... neat, I guess. It was as if the room had completely been decorated and furnished only yesterday or the day before: everything was too well ordered, there was too little rubish or even dust lying around. Of course this could well be the general effect of the Overshadow at play, but it might be something else.

    The source of the light appeared to be a brightly glowing orange cloud floating a couple of centimetres over a table near the far wall. As I watched it started to swirl and move, slowly forming into an image of a man sitting in a chair. Well before his features were complete set I knew who it had to be and in this I was not disappointed. Panther was rummaging around a bit, but when he realised that something was up he too started paying attention. I was vaguely aware of some shifting sounds behind us and as I glanced back for a moment I thought I saw something move in the darkness of the corridor. At that point, however, the image of Brand, for it was of course none other than him, started to speak and what he had to say took up all my attention.

    "My son," he began, yet he wasn't looking at Rinaldo, but straight at the door through which we had entered. This was probably some prerecorded message left in the hope that Rinaldo would one day find it. I bet he hadn't counted on anyone else being here as well, though.

    "The fact that you're hearing this right now," he continued, "could very well mean that I am not here anymore. I speak these words to you now, before my attempt to restore the balance in our universe. For quite a long time I've had the feeling that some disaster is about to happen, but I never knew exactly what. All the prophecies I've read point to the fact that our universe doesn't have very much time left. After an extensive study of all the facts I've come to the conclusion that this inevitable end is a direct result of a flaw in the basic nature of the Pattern. The Pattern as created by Dworkin is in complete polarity with the Logrus, and because of this it can be affected by it. The two powers are in constant conflict with one another, thereby continually weakening one another.

    "This in itself does not pose any danger, as long as these two are the only powers in our universe, but I have discovered that this is not the case. All the indications and portents of what is in store for us that I have discovered have made me decide that drastic action is the only recourse left to us: Dworkin's Pattern must be replaced by a new Pattern that works with the Logrus instead of against it, and that is in effect a kind of extension of the Logrus' power. This might seem a contradiction, but paradoxically it is the truth. The polarization of our universe, our main weakness, must come to an end. Amber as it exists today is doomed, yet no one will believe me." In spite of that last remark Brand's projection seemed to be very calm and collected. I couldn't help but wonder whether these were the ravings of a madman, never mind the calm exterior, or whether there realy was some truth to his tale. The first possibility was the easier one of course, especially since if the latter case were to be true, Brand must have failed to accomplish his tasks and the threat would still be around.

    "As I tell you this," Brand continued, "I have already succeeded in damaging the Primal Pattern. However, Corwin, that idiot, has constructed a second Pattern despite my best efforts to keep him from doing so. The cracks in our defenses have widened into gaps. If I do not act, the first harbingers of our doom will arrive in but a few years time. If you're here listening to this, I probably will have failed in my objectives.

    "As you know I have anchored this stucture to the Overshadow, so it will remain in place even after my death and only your presence here will activate this message. Trust no one. The only one who could have been of any help was Dworkin, and he would not believe me. I leave it to you to continue the struggle. Perhaps you will only see this when it's already or nearly too late, but I don't believe that the prophecies can be ignored without risk. You can look for help among my brothers or sisters or ask your mother, but I warn you: some of them have already allied themselves with the other powers that will walk all over us. I'm sorry that I have to include your mother in this category. I have found that she has tried to keep certain things from me. Trust is deadly. Maybe even you have been recruited. In that case, this message will not accomplish anything.

    "However, Malachie thinks or has made some cryptic remarks to the extent that there may be hope for the next generation. Malachie knows as much about this as I, and you can look him up if you want to, but I have to warn you that we disagree about the solution to our problem. He believes that the polarization of our universe could be used as a weapon against our enemies, an utterly naive notion. Anyway, talk to him if you will and to all the others of our group. I left a list of names with my other papers.

    "I would have liked to have been able to tell you more about the nature of our assaillants, their powers, their strengths and weaknesses and such. In the prophecies they are referred to as the Wolves, but whether this is merely a metaphor or whether it has some literal meaning remains unclear. They feature in Chaos' memory." His expression changed to a wry grin. "No one has ever accused me of sanity," he continued. "So be it. Perhaps, however, one needs some degree of insanity once in a while to attain a higher level of insight. I leave this matter in your hands. Go with my blessing." Brand's image grew hazier as the orange glow slowly drifted from above the table to cover the whole room, until it touched everyone inside, including Martin who was unobtrusively standing just a little bit behind us. After that the glow returned to its original place where it continued to illuminate the chamber without showing us anymore images from the past.

     I looked at the others, trying to gauge their reactions. Panther regarded the rest of us with that condescending little smile of his, clearly waiting for whatever it was that was going happen next. Martin looked sceptical.

    "Hmph," he snorted derisively. "What a load of..." Rinaldo didn't rise to the bait, however, but simply stood there studying the glow with a pensive expression. I too put on my thoughtful face, and quite appropriate it was too, since Brand had left us a lot to think about.

    "You're not going to tell me that you believe all that drivel, are you?" Martin demanded when he saw my expression. "That guy was a certified lunatic!"

    "Certified lunatic or not," Panther said calmly before I had a chance to reply, "there may yet turn out to be more to the things that he was involved in than is generally believed. There were some elements of his story that I have heard mentioned before."

    "That doesn't prove anything," Martin said stubbornly.

    "Perhaps not," Panther said, "but it is enough reason to handle this with all due caution."

    "Oh, caution is good," Martin said, "I'm all for being cautious. Let's proceed with the proper caution and destroy everything we find here," he waved around at the laboratory and some of the stuff we saw lying around. "That's a good way of getting started."

    "No," Rinaldo said, "I cannot allow you to do that." Uh-oh, I had been afraid something like this would happen. The two of them hadn't been able to get along right from the start and now they seemed to be heading for their major showdown. And that was a thing that I didn't relish to be caught in between.

    "Well," I said lightly to Rinaldo, trying to keep the mood a little bit friendly, "if there's anything you want to salvage from this place, you'd better make it quick, for when Grenade is through with frolicking with Filigree outside she's going to level this place."

    "Grenade is with Filigree?" Martin asked.

    "Sort of. They had some things to discuss, or to fight over, or whatever. There seemed to be some basic disagreement between the two of them."

    "Well, there's a surprise," he snorted. The tension between him and Rinaldo was still there, of course, and they were beginning to gauge where Panther and I stood.

    "Just for the sake of argument," Panther said, "what if one of those so-called wrongly allied relatives of ours is here at this very moment, then what would their intentions be?"

    "What do you mean?" Martin asked suspiciously.

    "One should think that whatever Brand's business was, his adversaries would surely like to see it all destroyed."

    "Ha," Martin burst out, "you already start by assuming that all of this bullshit is actually true. Who can say whether all of this has not been left by someone else to start us off on some wild goose chase?"

    "In that case there would be no need to destroy all of this, would there?" Panther replied cleverly. Martin stared at him for a moment, an angry frown creasing his brow, but he could find no way to counter this logic.

    "Look," Rinaldo said with a sigh, "I'm not going to defend my dad here, okay? Whether he was justified in what he did or not, he just plainly went too far. With everything that I now know I cannot support his actions, but I don't want to see his notes destroyed right away. Who can tell whether there is not some glimmer of truth hidden away underneath all of that madness? How much harm can these few notes possibly do?"

    "Quite a lot I fear," Panther said. "There are already people looking for them."

    "Who? And why?"

    "That is the question," he replied evasively. "Malachie has disappeared and there were marks in his cottage that were said to have been made by the Wolves."

    "How do you know it was the Wolves?" Martin wanted to know.

    "Because that name cropped up," Panther explained. "I had never heard it before myself."

    "But somebody knows more about them, the person who mentioned them to you. I would certainly like to know who this person is."

    "One of the sisters," Panther said. He was clearly uncomfortable with mentioning Violet's name here. I wondered why. "There are a lot of people from the Circle involved in this too, and they are all looking for this information."

    "Look," Martin said, "we have a chance right now to destroy all of this without too much hassle. If we wait too long, we might lose this opportunity and come to regret it later, especially if there is some information in here that we definitely don't want to see falling into the wrong hands. But okay, since you all want to be so cautious about it, I propose that we take a few moments to browse through all the papers and get some general idea what they are all about. After that we can still decide whether or not to put it all to the torch."

    "I second that proposal," Panther said immediately. Of course he would, for if that elisive list that he was looking for was among the papers, this was his chance to get a look at it. I nodded my assent too and Rinaldo also saw no problems.

    "We shall have to do it quickly, though," Martin added, "for if Dorian is right, we probably don't have a lot of time before Grenade marches in and brings down the house around our ears."

    "That may actually be a good thing," Panther said, "for if this is indeed information that is best to be forgotten, we had better not study it too closely."

    "Yes," Martin said with a wry smile, "we don't want to add ourselves to the list of things that people want to see destroyed, do we?"

    Brand's papers could roughly be divided into three categories. The first was a series of technical treatises on the Pattern and its relation to the Logrus. There were of course a lot of calculations that would require a lot of closer study to be understood completely, including theories on the Jewel of Judgment and ways to draw a new Pattern. The second group was even more esoteric than the first, since it dealt with the prophecies that Brand had referred to in his speech. Unfortunately, these appeared to be mainly notes and comments on certain books and other writings that weren't immediately specified. I guess they had only served as entirely personal notes for Brand himself, considering the great number of cryptically underlined words or phrases, the scribbled page numbers in certain margins and other references. There were a lot of unfamiliar names in these texts, but we came across the Wolves a couple of times and Malachie's name also cropped up. The only other name that meant anything to me was that of Cadurn, one of the most renowned sages from Chaos history. He was the kind of person whose name as known to everyone, while his theories and discoveries were only understood by few.

    The third category was also very vague and we had some trouble figuring out what they were all about. These papers also consisted of some number of technical treatises and notes, yet this time the subject of the research seemed to be the dynamics of the different dimensions. There was some talk of the Overshadow, the various realities and the way of travelling between them, while a certain part of the research seemed to concern the role of the Pattern in this model. It was all very theoretical, however, and since I had only a minimal understanding of these things this was all that I was able to pick up at a first glance.

    Finally, there was one item that didn't appear to belong to any of the aforementioned categories. It was a simple list of names and places, which I guessed was the thing that Panther had been looking for. The following names were on the list:

Melkoth of Sandwick

Flauron of Grahl

Solkon of Rebma

Janice of Quendor

H7520 of N1001

Nostradamus of Earth

Nisse of Chaos

Devoli of Chianit

Guadela of Jidrash

Mormu of Kessanar

     Inwardly I cursed when I saw Nisse's name among them. I pointed it out on the list and told the others that this one was already dead, as was Nostradamus, whom I remembered having read something about during my stay on Shadow Earth; he had been a legendary seer who had lived some three or four centuries ago in Earth time. Rinaldo recognised the name as well, but he wondered whether we could really be sure whether he was dead or not. If he had been an ordinary Shadow person, he probably would be, but if not he might still be alive somewhere. I conceded this point, but asserted that the other one was really dead. I should know, I had been there when he died. Worse even, I felt at least partially responsible for his death, but I couldn't let myself be bothered too much about that right now.

    Rinaldo told us that he knew this Guadela person, not surprisingly since Jidrash was the capital city of Kashfa; according to him she earned a living as a fortuneteller and as far as he knew she should be still alive. Martin also recognised one of the names on the list, namely that of Solkon, who was a magician at he court in Rebma where Martin had grown up. A very religious man, or so Martin told us.

    "But I gather that this is the famous list?" he added.

    "Yes," Panther said, "this is the one that everybody is looking for. The interesting question is whether there was a copy of this list in Malachie's cabin or not. If so other members of the Circle may also have it."

    "Why would they still be after this one then?" Martin asked.

    "To keep others from learning about it, I guess," I said.

    "Okay, so they may be looking for these names, but you don't even know who all these people are!" Martin burst out. "For all we know they may be all accomplices of Brand's who are trying to bring him back in one way or another. In that case I know exactly what we have to do with this list." Oh dear, we were back to this again. Panther had his counterarguments ready, however.

    "Brand's story has been corroborated by other sources," he said. "On the one hand we have the Sisters - again I may add - and then there is Redbeard."

    "Redbeard?" Martin said. "I don't know him."

    "He is an associate of Filigree's," Panther said. Hmm, that didn't entirely help to convince Martin, as he was not too fond of that lady.

    "Still," he said after a moment, "I see no reason not to put the lot of it to the torch."

    "Neither do I actually," Panther said. Yeah, sure, he had already seen his precious list. A lot did he care about all the other stuff. Rinaldo, however, was still unconvinced about the necessity of destroying the material.

    "If you don't want any of it," he said, "I'll be happy to take it all." That idea certainly didn't go down well with the others, nor did it please me very much.

    "Whatever we do," I said, "I don't think it's wise to destroy the notes on the different realities." That material on the Pattern and the Logrus would undoubtedly be available from other sources and I thought it a fair bet that the people on the list would be able to help us get further with the prophecies; the dimensional research, however, was something that I wanted a chance to read up on in all peace and quiet. The more I figured out about this business myself, the less I would have to rely on any introductions or tours from either Grenade or Filigree. If it came to simply grabbing the stuff you wanted and trying to get away with it, pile number three would be my choice.

    "But what about the rest of the notes?" Rinaldo objected. "We cannot foresee whether or not we will need any of it later on. My dad put a lot of effort into this stuff. I think it's rather short- sighted to let all of that come to nothing."

    "I do not find that a very convincing argument," Panther said, "saving material just because it might become important later."

    "Well, you don't have involve yourself in this if you don't want to," Rinaldo retorted angrily.

    "I would not were it not for the fact that information like this has the tendency to crop up in the wrong hands sooner or later. You have to have a purpose for it right now, or else you might as well destroy it."

    "Meanwhile we're still undecided," Rinaldo sighed.

    "Oh, we shall become decided quite soon, I fear," Panther commented wryly. "Time is running out."

    "But you're telling me that you don't believe my dad's story, is that it?"

    "I never said that," I replied calmly. Indeed, I felt that there may well be a great deal of truth to it, but I couldn't tell them that without also mentioning the vision I had had of Miri and the Unicorn, and I wasn't prepared to discuss that just yet.

    "I believe that he was onto something," Panther said, "only I am not convinced that his conclusions were the right ones."

    "Alright," Rinaldo said, "I want to look into this and I need his notes for that. Is that clear enough for you? If there is the least chance of there being any kind of threat out there, I have to find out. And what if he really was insane? That name, the Wolves, has already cropped up a number of times, you said so yourselves. There has got to be more to this than just one of Brand's delusions. So I want to keep his notes and study them, not throw them away or destroy them without really knowing what they're all about."

    "How do we know that the kind of research you're plannig is the right kind?" Martin demanded sharply. "I can very well think of another kind, one that also involves different dimensions."

    "You and your petty thoughts of revenge," Rinaldo said with a hint of disgust. Martin swung back and hit him hard on the jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground. Slowly Rinaldo picked himself up from the floor, rubbing his jaw and eyeing Martin with an angry glare.

    "I tend to be very petty-minded about people who have tried to stab me to death," Martin hissed through clenched teeth. "Call it a character flaw."

    Right, I guess that just had to happen. The tension between the two of them had been mounting right from the very moment that we had arrived here. While our to cousins got ready to have it out between them I glanced to my side, right in the inquiring eyes of cousin Panther. "Shall we?" his expression seemed to say. Well, why not? With a final cautious glance at the two combattants we surreptitiously picked up the papers from the table where we had laid them out, after which I touched Panther's shoulder and willed the both of us to the top of the castle. Save the papers first, sort the mess out later, that was about the only solution left to us. And now I only had to argue with Panther about what we would do with these notes.

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