by JM Bannon
“Mrs. Culpepper, it's a pleasure to see you again,” greeted Rose.
“Somewhat different circumstances to our last encounter eh? We will be having dinner in a few moments, but in the meantime can I offer you something to drink?” Glynnis asked.
She motioned Rose to a wing-backed armchair in front of the fireplace as she sat in her own armchair. She herself was clearly enjoying a tumbler of scotch and smoking a strange smelling cigarette. “Thank you, Mrs. Culpepper, might I have a small sherry?”
“Of course, my dear! Haines, a sherry for Sister Rose if you please!”
Certainly Madam, sweet or dry? Replied the butler.
“Sweet please.”
The butler went to the drinks trolley and poured sherry into a schooner and placed it on a silver tray which he brought to Rose.
“Your sherry Sister”
“Thank you,” Rose smiled at the butler who nodded and returned the tray to the trolley before leaving the room.
“Dammed good sort old Haines, was here for my father and then for me and my husband, god rest his soul. Now he keeps me on the straight and narrow.” Her tone and manner was gruff and obviously contained more than a little affection.
“Cheers!” Glynnis raised her glass and Rose echoed her sentiments.
“You seem distant tonight, far different from your frolic the other night,” stated Glynnis.
“I’m sorry Mrs. Culpepper, I did not mean to be so.”
“Please, call me Glynnis. I feel we are going to be friends Sister Rose.” She smiled at Rose.
“Thank you Glynnis and please, just Rose for tonight.”
“Now why so quiet and shy? You didn’t strike me as the retiring type!”
“I am afraid that much has changed in the short time since we met at Potters End. We have sadly had a death at the monastery and to some more importantly a theft. The Relic of Saint Ostric was stolen and I believe not by mortal means.”
“When was this?”
As Rose was about to reply she came to a sudden understanding. When Sister Madeline was murdered, and the relic stolen she had been with Glynnis and her sisterhood in the field at Potters End. They were not performing any rituals that might call forth the imps! Her last doubts about the woman faded.
“The night we met.”
Glynnis nearly choked on the mouthful of scotch she was drinking. When she had recovered her equilibrium, she stood and flicked her cigarette into the hearth with force.
“Rose, I spent a fortune in time, effort and treasure to get that skull back here. I believe your Saint Ostric was instrumental in creating the partnership between the Christian and the Celtic, that has kept the beast of evil quiet for a very long time. That is why I worked so hard to get it returned to our community.”
“You were the one who petitioned for the Carmelites to return?” asked Rose, surprised.
“I was. The Mother Superior who led the convent to France after the dissolution was an ancestor of mine, a great – great oh any number of greats, aunt of some sort and she was also one of us, a member of the sisterhood of the Morrighan” said Mrs. Culpepper,
“Come, I would like to show you the story of the Morighan. Bring your drink we may as well go through to the dining room anyway, dinner should be ready soon.”
Glynnis led the way across the beautiful foyer and to a set of double doors of dark polished wood.
“Ebony, you know! Aubrey brought the wood back on one of his trips. Dammed heavy don’t you know!”
Inside the room the wood continued as half height paneling. Above it pastel colored walls covered three sides while the fourth had a number of French windows opening onto a generous sized terrace. The ceiling that soared above them was a high boat vaulted collection of timbers interlocked to provide support. The workmanship was stunning.
The center of the room was filled by a beautiful mahogany table that could easily seat two dozen people. They went to the terrace side of the room and Glynnis turned and directed Rose’s attention to the opposite wall.
A fifteen-foot-long tapestry was suspended from brackets close to the vaulted ceiling. Intricate and quite beautiful in its workmanship, the pattern and pictures were worked with gold and silver thread that caught the lamplight and brought the pictures to life.
“The tapestry depicts a number of critical points in the history of what is now Chester and the land around the city. Long ago, when Britain was still connected to the rest of Europe by a land bridge where now the North Sea presides, this was a rich land, the river was wide and deep, and it was easy to get to and from the sea.”
“Our Celtic ancestors had made their way here following the wooly mammoth and other animals that are now gone. They found this land rich in animals and fruit and nuts and made their home here. They dwelt in peace, until a race of men to the west awoke an evil.
That evil came from a realm separate from ours and it had one aim, to subjugate man and treat us as slaves.”
“The story of those times has been handed down by those who were taught how to battle the evil. A group of men and women we now call druids. The story stated that Seithfed Mab, a seventh son, sought this particular parcel of his fathers’ lands. His father was fair and had provided all of his sons with an equal share upon his death, but Seithfed Mab wanted more.”
“He coveted the land but the brother who owned it would not give or sell it to him. In his anger he made a bargain with an evil from beyond our realm.”
“They say he might have been from Atlantis or at least a descendant and had means by which he could observe and walk in realms other than this one. The land would be his along with all other estates he desired, great wealth and power would be his, the bargain was made. His brother died and in time the land became his.
It was then that the reality of the bargain struck. Whatever he coveted and acquired, then rotted and decayed. Land would grow nothing, animals died when they were quartered on it men women and children sickened and died.
Seithfed Mab did not care because his soul was already corrupted and consumed by the demon. The corruption was spreading when the rulers of this land called together the heads of their religions and set them the task of ridding the land of this plague. Seithfed Mab fled from the land before they could contain him and made his way by ship to our shores. His ship brought him to the banks of the river Dee here in what is now Chester.
The tapestry on the left shows how priests from Atlantis that hunted Seithfed Mab came from far to the west and taught our ancestors how to protect themselves and the land against the evil.
They called upon the Morghanin the Earth Mother and she came to their aid and bound the evil in chains. The chains were not made of metal but were forged from the interaction of carved runes and shapes in stone and the power of the earth found in the ley lines. Seithfed Mab, was torn apart by the demon inside him when the priests bound him in chains of power.”
“When Atlantis disappeared, the evil stirred from its slumber but was bound again.”
“When the Romans came they brought a new order; stone roads where grass paths prevailed. Fortresses of stone and wood, and with their construction they interfered with the forces and stones that kept the evil in check. They harried and killed the priests and priestesses who kept watch on the evil and once again the evil awoke. In its attempts to win its freedom it slipped into the dreams and minds, of those who it could tempt with promises and lies.”
“There was a legionnaire…”
“Praefectus Castrorum Septimius,” interrupted Rose.
“Yes, he was the chief engineer for the legion and responsible for the major works created here. He was beguiled by the whisperings of the evil and set himself up as a king. When the legions of the Empire returned, conflict was inevitable. Septimius had persuaded some of the clan chiefs to aid him against the might of the legions.
While the legions besieged the fort, the clans prepared to attack only to find legions behind as well as in front of them and they were crush
ed between the two forces and destroyed. Spetimius’s forces soon surrendered after that and he was executed.
The tapestry shows the forces arrayed against each other, but it also shows the truth. That in order for the legions from Rome to win, the sisterhood of the time had to call again on the power of the Morghanin, you can see their depiction to the right of the battle scene.”
Rose looked where Glynnis pointed and could see that woven in gold thread were the shapes of a raven a horse and a wolf.
“The beast stirred again many years later, when the right to rule Britain was disputed by a number of men. It was a time of battle and warfare of kingdoms rising and falling.
Christianity was supplanting the old religion and the power of the sisterhood was waning. A great quake had shaken Stonehenge which is central to the ley lines and that too had disrupted the bonds laid on the evil.”
“It was at this time when the evil was close to breaking its bonds and entering our realm fully that your Saint Ostric defeated him again”.
Glynnis pointed to the next series of images, “The Kingdom of Mercia was in crisis, the King had abdicated in favour of his nephew and the Ealderman of the Kingdom were uneasy over the succession, for many years they had followed Aethelred and could not understand his abdication. It was a daughter of a chieftain from the Ordovices and a member of the sisterhood named Garwen who along with Ostric, returned the evil to its prison.
Ostric ascended into heaven and Garwen was overcome by the power of the Christian God and became a nun and thereby linked the sisterhood of the Morganhin and the brides of Christ as one. My sisterhood has been working to rejoin Ostric to this land and assure that the evil is kept in check. Whoever has been guiding the removal of our wards also knows of the skull’s potential and has stolen it in order to gain control of that power.” finished Glynnis.
“Madam, dinner is served,” the butler announced, entering the room, behind him came a footman carrying a soup tureen.
“Let us have dinner and promise each other to the only gossip about the village,” said Glynnis leading Rose to one end of the table where it had been set for two.
The two enjoyed the meal together. Rose followed Glynnis’s lead in which utensil to use from the many knives, forks and spoons arrayed by her plate. The soup had been followed by a fine venison pate with salad, Rose particularly enjoyed the spatchcocked pheasant and savory side dishes served with it. The iced fruit with an iced cream that was served as dessert sent her into bliss, she had never tasted anything like it.
While they always had a full plate at the convent, it was nothing like the food that had been served to her this night. She ruefully wondered how she would face the bland food from now on. She thought of poor Sister Madeline who would never get to return to being the cook as she had wanted.
The talk over dinner was light and stayed with matters involving the people they both knew from the vicinity. Glynnis asked after her father and mother and how the mill was doing. She told Rose of the many other properties and businesses which she owned, and Rose knew many of those involved with them.
Chester might be a city because of the presence of the cathedral, but it was a small city by many standards. There were other towns in the North that were larger as a result of the industrialization sweeping the country.
Rose had been circumspect with the wine that went with dinner and refused a brandy. She did accept a coffee and found the taste strange and different from the tea that she normally drank. In the convent the tea was made from easily grown or gathered herbs and flowers. She was very fond of chamomile and rosehip.
While responding to Glynnis’s questions or descriptions of her businesses, Roses thoughts kept going to the tapestry, she could see it from where she sat. The tale that Glynnis had said was embodied in the weaving was at odds with her last vision. Should she tell Glynnis of it, what would be the impact of telling her that Ostric might not be the savior long thought?
Glynnis stood and told her to bring her cup and saucer with her, she nodded to Haines and he picked up the tray on which the silver coffee set sat and followed after them as they left the dining room by a different set of doors to those they had used when they entered.
The doors opened into a magnificent galleried library, with floor to ceiling shelves it seemed. Rose was awe struck she had never seen so many books, what wonders were there in this room!
It took a moment for her to realize that Glynnis was calling her from across the room where she had opened another door, this once concealed in the paneling.
She followed the older woman and was in turn followed by Haines down a stone spiral staircase into a room as wide and as long as the room above but with a ceiling not far above their heads.
This room was chilly but not cold enough to be uncomfortable. Haines placed the tray bearing the coffee on a desk in the middle of the room and then went around the room lighting lamps stood in niches in the walls. In a few minutes, the room was fully lit by warm golden light.
“Thank you, Haines, that will be all for the moment, please tell the staff they may finish for the night, I will ring for you if I do need anything”
“Very good Madam!”
Rose was stood not far into the room looking around in wonder. Around the outer perimeter of the room were benches and shelves with all sorts of strange and familiar objects on them. In one corner herbs were hung to dry while on the bench near them a large pestle and mortar sat along with jars full and empty. Other shelves held large books and on the desk was an opened portfolio with pictures of plants.
On one wall there hung a large ornately mounted round mirror and below it on a pedestal a stone bowl of similar size.
“Come Rose, sit down and finish your coffee and I will explain all of this” Glynnis waved her hand at their surroundings.
“This is where I study herbology and use of the flora of this and other lands to help me with my sight. Like you, I was born with a natural talent, but I wasn’t proficient or understanding until I was taught how to augment my inner eye with potions and elixirs as well as objects imbued with certain properties. Now, before you get your back up and accuse me of practicing witchcraft, I ask you to keep an open mind.
“Please, tell me what you see in the mirror?”
“Just a reflection of this room and us.”
Glynnis indicated a set of different coloured glasses on the table, they resembled magnifying glasses.
“Look again, but this time through one of these. I would suggest the green one would be best for the first time.”
Rose picked up the round glass object by its handle, she was surprised by the weight of it, she supposed it was the brass circle holding the glass and its wooden handle as well as the thickness of the glass itself.
She held the glass up in front of her right eye and peered at the mirror. She gasped and almost dropped the glass. She held it to her eye again.
This time when she looked at the mirror through it she could see not just the reflected room but twisting lines of colors that seemed to snake around and through the objects she could see. They were strongest where the herbs were drying, the colors brighter somehow. Rose gazed deeper into the mirror also she was certain she saw the silhouette of another figure beyond the mirror.
“What you can see are the aetheric energies that bind us and all living things, not just to this world but to the worlds beyond the mortal and other realms. The world is much more than you know at the moment Rose. That isn’t a magnifying glass, but a spectral lens that I crafted in order to see the life forces that surround us” she indicated the other lenses on the desk.
“Each of these allows you to see slightly different aetherics and lines of power. I can teach you how to use these and herbs to enhance your natural abilities. Join our sisterhood Rose become a link between the old ways and Christianity. Use the power in both for good!”
Glynnis’s eyes were gleaming in the lamplight and enthusiasm was writ large across her face.
* *
*
Rose looked around the room at the drying plants and jars, the benches with other curious items on them. It pulled at her natural curiosity to know what purpose they had, but at the same time, she was unsure that joining with the woman in front of her and partaking of her methods would not be in direct conflict with the teachings of the church and her vows to the order.
Glynnis could see the doubt in Roses face as she looked around the room.
* * *
“I also once thought of these methods akin to sorcery, but now I know from my research that what we perceive or name as magic is in essence, scientific principles that we do not understand fully. As the sciences of alchemy, biology and physics delves deeper into the elements of nature and our world, they have gone from the archaic concepts that everything was made simply from earth, air, fire and water, to the knowledge that; those substances themselves are created from smaller building blocks that make up the whole. One small change in just one of those blocks creates a different element or creature. Did you know that many of our greatest thinkers and scientists were alchemists? Bacon, Dee, even Isaac Newton were alchemists. I would argue James Watt and Robert Stephenson and the Mechanists are just using devices to hrness alchemical forces. I create tinctures and potions, from alchemical compounds that naturally occur, how is this different from those that the Alchemist synthesizes and distills in the alchemical forges of their werks?”
Rose clasped her hands in her lap and took a deep breath.
“Glynnis, I have something to tell you. No, more than one thing. I think they may have a bearing on this evening as well as other matters. Firstly, I have told the investigator, Father Barnard all I am about to tell you.”
Glynnis sat back in surprise “you made no mention of an investigator, who is he?”