Excerpts from the diary of Miss Emily Bertilde


Things have been interesting again. Wilamina almost got her soul sucked out of her. St Cuthbert saved her. I decided to stick to her like a burr. We went down to the study. Mr. Frazer said Wilamina couldn’t go down the stairs so I stood in front of them.

Inspecter Mcgregor finally decided to go down. Wilamina wanted to go, so I also went. While going through a tunnel, the new man said that we should go faster after a certain point. Wilamina seemed to wince and owen tried to pull her back. She wouldn’t go back, though. I kept a sharp eye on her and decided that I would carry her back if she got worse. The room had all kinds of wierdness in it. Wilamina disconnected some kind of cable. Suddenly a pain I hadn’t notice went away.

Mrs Frazer joined us and Wilamina was explaining what she thought the crystals did. Then He said something. Suddenly there was a brilliant white light and some kinds of ring things around Wilamina and me and wilamina said ‘oh that’s what it does’. Then we were in a curvey room with music. Chimes and bells and stuff. I grabbed her and asked ‘what just happened!’ All she replied with was ‘now where are we?’ Hardly comforting. Vexing child!

Then she seemed to go kind of crazy cause she started asking me questions I knew she knew I didn’t know. She started by asking me where we were! I told her I didn’t know. How could I posibly have known! I mean, I’ve never been there! I wondered if something had happened to her. Then she looked at me and said that the crystals should not have come with us. She started collecting the crystals and asked if I had a string bag.

For a while I was quite distraught thinking that Wilamina and then I had lost our minds or entered a forgetful field. It started when she looked at no where in particular and said “I’m me.” I thought she had forgotten who she was. I sort of lost it and started telling her who she was and asking if she needed a note too. That’s when I lost my mind! A voice without a body I couldn’t see asked me who I was! I told it I thought I was Emily Wooster, but let me check my note. Bother of a time to find out that I missed changing one of my notes. It said ‘My Name is Emily Bertilde. If I’ve forgotten who I am, please take me to the british consulate. And Mr. Wooster is not my friend.’ Only I was so flustered that I thought I really had forgotten who I was and asked where the nearest British consulate was. The wall accross from me went clear and I seemed to be falling into something and then a map appeared and the voice said, ‘Here is the nearest British Embassy’. Paris, Wilamina said. Wilamina said we seemed to be above the earth. And that we had gotten there by a really fast lift. I wondered if we would ever get home. But I guess that voice had been asking Wilamina questions so she wasn’t crazy after all.

Then Wilamina started asking questions about angels. Then I heard the mystery voice saying something about answers being answered elsewhere. The existing hall just, well, dissapeared and a new one suddenly appeared. I told wilamina that I thought it was a really bad idea but that I would follow if that’s where she’s going. I mean it was that or be left all alone in the strange place!

We got to the end of the corridor and there was a room with a big metal thing. It looked sort of like the underwater machine and I straight up said I was NOT getting in. This other really wierd being-thing came toward us and asked who we were. It’s name is shmek. Or something. It said we weren’t supposed to be there. I agreed with it. Whole-heartedly. Wilamina leaned over and said we were in a vessel and then assured me that we weren’t under water and there was absolutely no chance of drowning. The conversation got a bit technical at that point, but I understood Wilamina asking to help explore possibilities. That’s always trouble. I was sure we were going to be stuck there forever! Then the being asked if Wilamina understood the metal thing. Then the floor raised up under Wilamina so she could look at it. She said something about it being a Rimbaldi divice. Just after saying I didn’t have any tools to pass him, a bench with tools appeared from the floor. I hardly knew where I could stand without worrying about the floor. I mean, if it could rise up unexpectedly, who was to say that it couldn’t sink unexpectedly unerneath me. Then what would I have done? I edged up against the wall as far as I could go. Until I remembered the disapearing/reapearing corridor. Was there no where safe in that confounded place!?!

The ship served tea. It was good but unnerving.

The being said that something else arrived. There was a note from Sir Cosmo saying that they would be opening the thing again in 5 minutes. I tried to convince Wilamina to just go home, but she wanted to take the big metal thing. Wilamina was actually sensible and recommended I practice my meditation. I should have thought of that earlier...

This is the strangest place I have ever been. We walked back to the lift. As we walked through the hall, it seemed to be forming ahead of us and dissapearing behind us. I was happy to see the yellow ring again! And even happier to be back home! Now if only we could have gone without the loud noises and lights. I was never so happy to see people I knew and a floor that was (mostly) trustworthy.

Then the conversation got really odd. Something about the being missing part of itself and all the angel things being all kosh. Why would they hit each other? I got lost really fast.

Except that all everything broke loose. People wanted to join with the being. Wilamina worked on the machine thing. Bright lights and beams of energy and then Atlas talking all funny. I just wanted to curl up on the floor. But then the machine was working again. And we need to find a missing piece of kosh. Oh, and Wilamina told me that kosh is like a country name and not thing things the street toughs hit each other with.

The kosh being said something about shadows coming and we had to leave. I thought for sure that I was going to have to go back up the rings. But then a pedastle dropped into the floor (No! untrustworthy floor!) and we all left to go in a tunnel. Atlas/kosh seemed to indicate that we cannot fight the shadow things. Our next course of action is to find the other piece of the kosh. Back in London.

Mrs. Frazer can be so annoying. I want nothing more than to get away from this shadow thing. Anything that worrys a being that is completely comfortable in the vessel that we saw completely scares me. I can’t even comprehend something that horrible.

Only we got into trouble on the road. The annoying reporter man attacked us and sent his servants with swords after us. I was going to go to one of the sword guys when something happened to Atlas and he turned into an angel. With swords. If I hadn’t been so terrified, I would have been totally miffed. Swords are MY department! And totally unfair because his were better than mine! I don’t really remember what all happened because guns were going off, a shadow thing was forming in front of us, and big black thing was appearing on the horizon behind us. Nothing that I could do anything about. That black horror was the most frightening thing I have ever seen. Even worse than the curvey moving wall ship. Even worse than forgetting or seeing humungus scary men running toward me. At some point in the fight, I just knew I was going to die. I just knew it. And there was nothing I could do to stop it. Since I was going to die anyway, I attacked the shadow thing right by me. I mean, I’d rather die fighting than doing anything else!

Luckily, I didn’t die. None of us did. But it was probably the single most horrible experience in my life.

I couldn’t take anymore and went to sit in the carriage. At some point, He joined me and sat holding me. It was rather sweet. Or rather it would have been had the circumstances been different...

Now we are sitting on the train heading back to London. I figured I should write all this down while it is sort of fresh in my mind and before it gets any more muddled. It’s already muddled.

Pitty we didn’t get to see much of Dahlia. I wonder what all she thinks of this trip?


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