Hope juncture
From
the diary of George Moriarty, a.k.a. Cousin George.
Friday, 4 June 1875
-continued-
We had dinner set out, and guests were arriving. Sir Cosmo and Mrs
Cuthbert were both busy making introductions among the guests. Captain
Will Sparrow being introduced as Captain John Smith of Portsmouth, of
course, though I don't believe anyone was fooled. I heard Captain
Tiberius mutter to his Second Mate that perhaps he should start telling
people he was Donald Jones of Dundee.
The last to arrive was Captain Nemo (who everyone is calling Prince
Dakkar, now). He had just stepped into the room and opened his mouth as
if to speak a greeting when he vanished. Just disappeared as if he
hadn't even been there.
And he wasn't the only one. Wilhelmina, Lady Cowperthwaite, Mr
O'Flaherty, Captain Sparrow, Captain Nemo, Professor Oddbody, Mr Voach,
and Mrs Voach all simply vanished from the room. I barely felt a
flicker of magic at all. They were simply gone.
Everyone left behind started talking at once and looking about. Were we
under attack by a new magickal threat? No one knew.
By the time Mr Salmalin and I had searched the ship, Mrs Cuthbert had
set up her crystal and several of her mystic devices at the table and
was staring intently into the glass. "They are at the Crossroads!" she
announced.
I peered at the crystal and after a moment I could see them.
It was the Crossroads we had found on the island in the ruined city on
the plain. Five cobblestone roads converged on a large cobblestone
circle. Where there had been five statues of charioteers now stood the
five chariots themselves, with their teams of horses. Mr Voach was
wearing a bronze spartan helmet and armor to match---I wouldn't have
recognized him without the horses (and Mrs Voach, looking a bit dazed
and confused, was standing at his side). Death was easy to spot, being
just a skeleton in a robe. I assumed the one in even fiercer looking
armor than Mr Voach was War, while the sickly one who looked like he
was about to fall over dead must have been Plague---though actually
Famine and he looked a lot alike.
At the head of each road stood at least one of our missing persons:
Wilhelmina and Prof. Oddbody stood at the northwest road, Captain
Sprarrow stood at the north, Lady Cowperthwaite stood at the northeast,
Captain Nemo stood at the southeast, and Mr O'Flaherty stood at the
south west.
In the center of the circle were three ladies: the Earth, Moon, and
Sun. They greeted everyone while Mr Voach escorted his wife to the
center of the circle. She was greeted by the goddesses as "The
Celestial Maiden."
I was chanting my Ties That Bind mantra the whole time, trying to make
a connection with Wilhelmina.
Various dangerous beings arrived: an angel with wings and halo and
everything floated down from heaven carrying this enormous book. Five
dragons, who each identified themselves as one of the winds (North,
South, East, West, and Fifth). Someone who looked exactly like Edward
did a few years ago who the Angel greeted as Lord Jokar Frak of the
Courts of Chaos, and a rather chilling doppelganger of the younger
Wilhelmina (she arrived in a golden all-clockwork carriage and
clockwork horses! I just know we're going to have to build one of those
now), who was introduced as Lady Goldana of the Lords of Order. There
was also winged lion representing the Lords of Light, an icy Queen
representing the Lords of Shadow, and this strange collection of wheels
and eyes and wings that was the emissary of the Balance. Plus Kali,
Shiva, Matsu, Herne, and Lakshmi all made an appearance, mostly
speaking through the mouths of one of our friends. The King and Queen
of Faerie arrived next, along with a big red demon with impossibly
large horns---everyone kept calling him "the Advesary." And Mrs
Cuthbert and Mrs Salmalin, at our end, had to explain to everyone that
he wasn't the Devil, per se, but rather the lord of the dark faeries.
Everyone was officially greeted and named by the Angel, who was reading
descriptions of them from the book, like "Miss Moriarty, who pursues
knowledge relentlessly," or "Lady Cowperthwaite, who breaks everything
but her word." It was all bloody god-dy talk for awhile.
They were there to select the King of a Thousand Years, which we've
been hearing about in prophecies and things throughout this whole
endeavor. Lady Cowperthwaite
wanted to know why there had to be a King of a Thousand Years---why not
a council ruling jointly? We'd
all thought that the five people who had possession of the artifacts
would choose among themselves---or fight it out. Turns out that wasn't
quite it. The five bearers of the artifact ("Lords of the Five
Quarters" they kept being called) were there to select which of the
Winds would be the next King of a Thousand years. Unless the Celestial
Maiden overruled them.
The dragons of the four normal directions all made arguments why they
should be king. And the gods, goddesses, and so forth all made their
appeals to the five mortals. The Winds kept talking about power, and
conquest, and how either the most mighty, or clever, or bold, and
faithful people should survive. Except the Fifth Wind, who talked about
letting people choose their own fate.
I think it was Mr O'Flaherty who first started asking about all the
people who wouldn't get to survive under each of the Winds. And since
the only dragon who wasn't talking about conquest was the Fifth, that's
who he wanted to vote for. Captain Sparrow quickly agreed, while
Wilhelmina, Lady Cowperthwaite, and Captain Nemo asked more questions.
The devil-guy tried to taunt Mr O'Flaherty into a fight, and amazingly
he didn't take the bait. Maybe he's taken all that advice he gives to
Wilhelmina about self-control to heart.
Finally, Lady Cowperthwaite, Captain Nemo, and Wilhelmina all voted for
the Fifth Wind. Which got some of the gods & faeries upset. The
witchy Queen tried to convince Mrs Voach that the decision was wrong.
And the devil said the decision shouldn't stand because the Celestial
Maiden's own daughter was standing in the circle, but the Angel said it
was allowed, and Mrs Voach agreed that the Fifth Wind's philosophy
sounded best.
Then the King was supposed to choose his champion, and all five
volunteered, which the Angel said was apparently allowed. Then each got
to ask for a boon from the new king.
Wilhelmina asked the King if there was a place in his library for the
Book. A magic door opened up, Professor Oddbody saw the endless book
shelves. He was grinning ear-to-ear when we last saw him.
Mr O'Flaherty asked if the eight crane-demons from the sword (who he
had vowed to set free, and had sent them to try to find their river)
had located a suitable home. When the Fifth Wind said they had, Mr
O'Flaherty asked if they could be freed. The dragon-bone sword fell to
dust and the Fifth Wind said they were free.
Lady Cowperthwaite asked for the power to protected her loved ones. The
Fifth Wind said she already possessed the power, and she would be free
to use it and learn more about it.
Captain Nemo asked that the people under his protection would always
remain free. The Fifth Wind said that they would.
Captain Sparrow had made a bit of a dramatic production out of not
knowing what to ask for, so he wound up going last. Then he asked that
the island be moved so that no one but him would know how to return. It
was phrased so very carefully you just know he knew all about the boon
in advance and has been planning this for some time. The Fifth Wind
granted the request, though he made an exception for natives of the
island.
The other dragons and the gods and such mostly left in a huff. The
Horsemen prepared to ride out, though at least one of them was
complaining because there wasn't going to be any war or disaster for
them to do. Each of the Horsemen was supposed to take one of the
artifacts and hide it somewhere, but Wilhelmina's boon had taken care
of the Book, so Mr Voach said he'd take the Five Lords back home.
The vision faded before we could see which of the Horsemen took the
Sword, Shield, Path, or Star.
Which about when we noticed that Galen was missing.
When we arrived at the nursery, we found Wilhelmina, Mr O'Flaherty,
Lady Cowperthwaite, Captain Sparrow, Captain Nemo, and the Voaches
talking with Galen. He'd swiped one of the etheric pulse guns, gathered
some biscuits, and his favorite blanket, and was preparing to go get
his Mama when they had emerged from one of the cupboards built into the
bulkhead of the nursery.
Apparently when Mr Voach was helping repair the nursery over the last
few weeks, he put in a special hatch that leads to his dairy wagon.
It's a cupboard door no one else was able to open, and Daru had decided
it was supposed to be decorative. Mr Voach wanted to be sure he had a
way to get the children out if something really bad happened to the
ship.
He wasn't wearing his armor any more. He had a grey striped waistcoat,
dark grey pants, and a dinner jacket that would have looked perfectly
respectable at a country squire's summer dinner party.
Everyone was hungry, so we got to hear the tale of what happened told
several times over dinner. Which was nice, because each of them had
some little exchanges with one of the dragons or the gods that we
hadn't been able to hear through the crystal.
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