Were anyone in the library, they might notice two additional pieces of parchment poking out of a certain book on a shelf. Were there anyone to notice, they might go over and check the book to see why it looked as if its contents had changed. It was old enough to be on the pile that needed rebinding, many leaves of its interior loose and tilted partially out, but even so, these two additional leaves of the book--while on the same aged linen parchment--would not be at the same angle as the rest.
Were anyone there.
The first page read:
Private TransmissionThe second leaf, obscurely, looked older, or at least, slightly more degraded. Scattered spots of some staining substance marred the upper left corner--walnut-gall ink? A spill of dark red wine? Blood, aged beyond all reason? It was impossible to tell.
Em - I am not sure how this is getting to you. I know it is. I feel a presence when I focus. It seems like it is me or a version of me.
This timeline corrupted deeply. I fear that our adversary (the serious one, not the pirate princess with a taste for pork) has captured power in a very early stage of this civilization.
I am going to use the Cryogenic units salvaged from the Gray Area to try to sleep until you find me. It is only three thousand years. I will have to awaken multiple times to recharge the units. Perhaps move the vault but luck and Magick, I should see you very soon.
I have some downtime so I have been composing some texts that maybe influenced this time line? I will send a copy of the text soon. Love as always -
your Hiro, Duke of Gearhaven, Archduke and Caliph of the Sphinx Hegemony, First Consul of the United Civilizations and Timelines.
P.S. In the library, I left a short translation of “Thaumaturgic Dynamics and the 21st Century Economy” by Jean-Pierre Kalifa. Might be helpful.
The second page read:
Justine - By now you will have surmised that something has gone wrong. Hopefully, part of the Gray Area will be home. Knowing the engineer in you, you will have found some items are missing. Power systems, Cryonics. The quantum Mechanical drive is destroyed. I am going to attempt to use the Cryogenic Tech and make it home.Below the calligraphy of the note, impossibly, it seemed words had been typed onto a leaf from a book that was printed long before the invention of the typewriter. These words read:
Love you,
your Hiro, Duke of Gearhaven, Archduke and Caliph of the Sphinx Hegemony, First Consul of the United Civilizations and Timelines.
P.S. Jung and Pauli were friends. See the transcribed article.
"Jung's theory of synchronicity posited that certain events--often called coincidences--actually reveal the operation of a causal connection between mental and physical events through meaning.Below that was a scribble in another hand entirely, and a vaguely blueish ink:
"The connecting meaning in a synchronistic event is experiencer-specific, related to the individual's process of psychological maturation, or individuation. Events like this occur often enough to be more than meaningless coincidence, Jung and Pauli believed. Jung and Pauli were convinced that synchronistic events reveal an underlying unity of mind and matter, subjective and objective realities. Synchronicity was (and continues to be) a prime target for criticism of Jung that for decades bordered on outright dismissal by many in the scientific and academic communities. For example, historian of science Suzanne Gieser writes that she finds Pauli's interest in Jung 'unusual' because 'most of those with an academic or scientific background dismiss Jung totally.'5
"Following Pauli's death in 1958, Pauli's wife actively opposed including any of his correspondence with Jung in the collections of his papers.6 The chairman of CERN's Pauli Committee recently wrote that, 'inclusion of letters dealing mainly with psychology...was much debated by the committee.'7 In the end, they did decide to publish the correspondence, explaining that, 'it is of no importance what we think of Jung and his psychology. The important thing is that Pauli was a convinced adherent of Jung’s teachings.'
57.) OsF., or Voso. The Fifty-seventh Spirit is Oso, Ose, or Voso. He is a Great President, and appeareth like a Leopard at the first, but after a little time he putteth on the Shape of a Man. His Office is to make one cunning in the Liberal Sciences, and to give True Answers of Divine and Secret Things; also to change a Man into any Shape that the Exorcist pleaseth, so that he that is so changed will not think any other thing than that.Tipped in below that, secured with two dots of glue, was a sigil.
Beneath that, written:
The Seal of Gremory.Below that was tipped in a second, partially burnt sigil, the edges more firmly stuck down to the parchment.
Figureror. Gremory.
Beneath that, written:
Figure 102. The Seal of Ose.Beneath that, another scribble, in the same vaguely blue-inked hand:
--he is in verity that Creature or Thing he is changed into. He governeth 31 Legions of Spirits, and this is his Seal, etc.But of course, all of this really didn't mean anything. No one was in the library. No one saw the book change. Perhaps no one would ever know.
(Continued in part XXXVIII.)
