Renaissance Smith: 11/4/96 (10/28-29/96)

 (Beth Miller)

Events of Oct. 29-30, 1996

To continue, Mr. Diary:

We spent the night trying to solve puzzles. Not the crossword type, the dream type. Daedalus had a line of cryptic symbols that were a result of his efforts to determine what really caused KC's house to be destroyed. Cab had a paragraph she had written taking down impressions from a dream she had the night before.

John came walking back into the Place that evening as casually as if he had just stepped out for a few minutes. Which, it turned out, he thought he had. He was very surprised to hear that he had been gone for over a day. He explained that he had been in the Umbra (that's the spirit world, Mr. Diary) talking with someone. To him, the conversation only lasted a few minutes. It also added another puzzle for our fogged brains to try to deal with, although I think it was actually a help, since it connected with Cab's dream.

Daedalus's line of symbols were the symbol for earth, followed by what looked like a piece of DNA, followed by the symbol for chaos with the right arrow extended and pointing toward a mark Daedalus said meant correspondence. Over the DNA fragment was the symbol for life, really big and touching some of the other symbols along their tops. My talent for solving puzzles failed me completely of this one; I had absolutely no idea what it meant. Earth + life + chaos -> correspondence? I had no clue.

The line John brought us was, "Only in flames can coyote be set free." We tentatively equated the coyote with the trickster from Native American mythology, but I'm a little weak on my understanding on just what he represents, except that I'm sure that it has something to do with the weather machine. The coyote also had a place in Cab's dream, which is what we spent most of our time trying to interpret.

What she wrote went like this:

A coyote falls from the sky into a great ocean. A sea serpent coils around him and drags him down as the ocean freezes. A metal child reaches into the frozen ocean and pulls out a ball painted gold and silver. the child throws the ball into the air and the ball is caught in a tree. The child tries to climb the tree, but the ball keeps drifting up into it's branches. Seven children and a dog pluck the ball from the tree. Before them are a sleepwalker, a wall of flame, and a snake with a wolf's head. The children give the ball to the sleepwalker. The sleepwalker places the ball in a safe with no door. The children throw the ball into the flame. The ice melts within the ball and pours to earth in a torrent. A flower which constantly changes color grows in the rain. On its stem a small spider is protected from the rain. The children give the ball to the wolf-snake. The wolf-snake swallows the ball and grows until he encircles the entire world.

From what we understand, the ball is the weather machine, and the metal child is representative of the Technocracy, or some individual or group inside it. The coyote is some element of the weather machine. I have no idea just what the serpent and the freezing ocean are supposed to mean. The stuff with the tree indicated that they lost it, and the seven children and the dog are us. John, of course, is the dog.

The next part seems to show three possible pathways in the future, and what would be the results of each. The sleepwalker represents Mr. Forteau. The dream seems to say that if we give the weather machine to him, he will hide it someplace and throw away the key. The wall of flame is Master Porthos. Giving it to him will cause stuff to happen. The torrent is probably as much literal as figurative. After all, if he destroys it, disconstructs it, whatever, there's probably going to be a very strong reaction by the earth's weather. It won't be a catastrophic reaction, however. John thought the flower represented the wild, and the spider the weaver. If so, the dream suggests that the wild will grow as a result of this and that the weaver will not be harmed.

The wolf-spider is obviously the wrong person to give the weather machine to. I guess the idea is that it would use the power of the weather machine to take over the earth. We have no idea who it represented, unless it means the Technocracy again, and that would be mixing metaphors.

We all went to bed that night more confused than we were before we started dissecting prophesies. I felt like some poor fool trying to make sense of words of the Oracle of Delphi. By the next morning I felt very much in need of doing something, rather than thinking. I dragged John with me and we went over to STaN's house, to see if the weather machine had ever arrived there.

We parked on the street behind their house and John tried to get close enough to the gazebo to see if anything was there. Unfortunately, the yard had defenses, in the form of vines that entwined anyone they found trespassing. We got out of there fast. Last time, they came chasing after us.

For lack of anything better to do before our scheduled meeting with Ogre and his gang that evening, John and I took a walk. At first it was nice; the sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the woods were so peaceful and quiet. Pretty soon it felt downright creepy. There was nothing alive in the area. Well, the plants were still there, but they can't move. There wasn't a single bird or squirrel or even insect anywhere. It was like they all knew something bad was coming, and wanted to be elsewhere. We cut our walk short after that.

Back at the Chantry, KC had noticed the same thing. She also discovered that the same was true in the Umbra. Not a spirit to be found. Apparently she tried to force the issue by calling one, and got knocked with paradox for her efforts. The effect that hit her was her vision was locked into the spirit realm, which must have been pretty boring, considering the lack of activity there.

She still couldn't see when we headed for the mall that evening. Daedalus decided we'd better let her come because otherwise she'd do something dangerous, like try to get there on her own. It turned out all right, since her sight went back to normal right as we got to the mall.

We found Ogre, Betsy, and the others up by the food court again. At KC's request, I took a look at the guy she said had no aura, but I couldn't determine anything useful about him. All I saw was that he was appeared to be alive, healthy, and calm. KC had done some research into how someone could have no aura. The possibilities all seemed unlikely. Either he was dead, expending energy on a dampening field, using a theorized Akashic Brotherhood rote, or was a supernatural creature who wasn't created by magic. I'm really not sure which explanation I'd prefer.

Tom Brady <tabrady@mindspring.com>

Last modified: Tues Dec 24 15:10:00 1996 by tabrady