Liber Scriptum Proferetur

Eduardo stops, on his way down to the records department; standing on the stairwell as his attention abstracts.

Eduardo turns about and starts heading back from the basement, to his unit. He drives -- quickly, since the streets are mostly empty at this time of night -- to the Holocaust Museum.

The side door that all the Servitors of Fire know of is untouched, and opens to his hand, leading down a corridor lit by votive candles to the hall where the Eternal Flame burns.

Eduardo pauses before the flame a moment, a small smile on his lips. And then he simply Ascends.

The world changes, vortexing into flames. Eduardo hangs, wings outspread, before a circling mass of fire, in a copper-and-obsidian room in the Volcano. A young Seraph starts upright, then folds his sapphire-and-gold wings, bowing his head. "Virtue."

Eduardo hangs before the fire a moment before folding his wings. "Most holy." His voice grates, as harsh as the flames.

The Seraph bows his head. "May I assist you?"

Eduardo stands another moment. "I wish to visit the Library." A pause. "I believe I can find my own way." Another pause, and then a polite. "My thanks."

The Seraph says, formally, "You are welcome."

Eduardo does not smile as he moves out of the room, heading for the limits of the Volcano.

The tunnels and flames of the Volcano are passed, and soon Eduardo can spread his wings and circle outwards from the crater, and see the sentinels below raise weapons to him in salute as he flies above.

<> Demiurge says "Basically, Heaven is thataway, and your destination is in Heaven, in the Eternal City."

Eduardo returns the salute, politely, and then glides thataway, towards Heaven and the Library.

Beneath him the sands of the Marches are left behind, and Heaven's bright walls are passed. He circles high in the light and air of the Eternal City, so much cleaner and purer than that of Earth.

Other buildings can be identified below: the Cathedral of the Sword, the Halls of Worship, the Council Spires, the Halls of Progress, the Halls of Creation, the Groves... and there, the side street that gives onto the Library.

Eduardo drops like a stone, unfurling his wings at the last posible moment to cut his travel time; a frustration evident in his gestures that is born of self-recrimination.

The air goes *phooomph* under his wings as he plummets like a hawk to land in front of the small door marked LIBRARY.

Eduardo composes himself and heads inside.

Two Malakim sit at the reception desk. One is busy dealing with what looks like a family group of souls. The other glances across.

<> Eduardo's head breaks. Malakim receptionists. "You want to see the boss? Are you EEEEEVIL?"

<> Demiurge says "Hey, some people get awfully rowdy when they want books!"

Eduardo steps over to the unoccupied 'receptionist'. "Virtue."

The female Malakite ruffles her wings. "Virtue. May I help you?"

<> Daimon says "Oh, the Malakim receptionists. They're such Cuties!"

<> Demiurge says "And they kill people who try reading with sticky fingers."

Eduardo says "Yes."

Eduardo says "I wish to do some research."

<> Hitherby says "They can sense it. It's dishonorable."

The Malakite nods. "This is not unusual. Do you need any assistance? We can second a reliever or someone else to help you if necessary."

Eduardo considers. "I will work alone, for now. I have some exerpience of the matter, on Earth."

The Malakite nods. "Good researching, then." She turns to deal with some angels of the Sword who have just entered, and who seem to be arguing.

A door to one side of the anteroom is clearly the door used to enter the Library proper.

Eduardo bows, shallowly. "My thanks." He turns, and steps into the Library.

The Library is as it ever is - vast, timeless, ordered, comforting.

<> Demiurge says "Sooo, what is Eduardo researching? :)"

<> Eduardo says "Disease."

<> Demiurge says "Eduardo, roll."

<> Eduardo rolls the d666 and gets 5 3 CHECK: 6.

<> Eduardo hopes that was Perception, not Int. :)

<> Hitherby | Eduardo arrives in the Live Cultures section.

After a certain amount of time spent wandering around the place - it's *large* - Eduardo finds himself in the section relating to Celestial History, around the period of the Black Death, where books on Makatiel might be found.

Eduardo starts seeking for references to the 'old plague' among such books.

It seems that Makatiel sponsored - or encouraged - many plagues, and was often referred to as "the Old Plague" himself, in some of the more classical notes. There are also a couple of references to the diseases that he had been working upon at the time of his destruction, which were supposed to affect celestial vessels. One of these is also called, "the plague".

Eduardo frowns, face intense as he throws himself into the research with much the same intensity as he would to anything short of actually killing a demon. He starts leafing fruther, seeking anything about that period that would link the black plague -- or, in particular, the celestial variant of it -- to some form of cull.

A sigil pictured in the current book - one _Liber Principium Aeris_ - matches the sigil inside the small cavity that Eduardo saw in the sewers.

<> Demiurge says "Eduardo, try another roll, please."

Eduardo sighs quietly, and starts to read that book, from the cover.

<> Eduardo rolls the d666 and gets 1 2 CHECK: 4.

<> Demiurge says "Woo."

<> Hitherby says "Hot times in the old library tonight!"

As Eduardo leafs through the book - and, perhaps, remembers the days when the Servitors of Gabriel preserved knowledge and others sought to destroy it - he finds what might be a _partial_ reference.

<> Eduardo says "Ed's *old* enough to remember that."

<> Hitherby says "Geez. You ancient Malakim. :)"

<> Eduardo says "Yup."

<> Daimon is so young. :)

<> Eduardo says "Why do you think Ed can't figure out a phone?"

Eduardo pauses, and squints at it.

One paragraph reads, "And Magog even then, as Angel of Fortitude, did see plague as yet another tool which should exhort humanity to greater strength. But as his corruption grew, he spoke to others of the weakness of humanity, and named plague as a tool for culling rather than for healing, saying that the weak should be cut away, and humans were wise who did so. For who, he said, could say that it was a matter of fortitude to waste one's own strength in saving another? Better to let them die. Other Servitors of David spoke against him, and he laughed, and returned to his work, and David as yet took no action..."

Eduardo murmurs. "And servitors of David have been dying..."

Eduardo pages: Can I take a copy of something from Heaven to Earth?

Above his head, a reliever is busy sorting and reshelving texts.

You paged Eduardo with 'Yup. Just don't try and walk out with the original.'.

Eduardo glances up, then down; collecting a piece of paper and starting to copy the text to it.

The reliever glances down in turn, dragonfly-wings fluttering. "Can I help you, sir?"

<> Hitherby falls in love.

Eduardo shakes his head.

<> arcangel says "It's too young for you, Hitherby. You have to wait for it to grow up."

<> Hitherby says "That would make it angelbait?"

<> arcangel nods!

The reliever flickers its wings almost too fast to be seen, and returns to shelving.

Eduardo pauses. "Perhaps you can," he says, looking back up again once his copying is complete. "Where might I find reference to Magog, before his ..." a pause, and his tone implies the revulsion he feels. "..Fall."

The reliever flickers its wings. "Oh, I can help with that!" It swoops down enthusiastically. "There's some in the Liber Principium Aeris here, and in these texts," he indicates other books, "and of course there's more under David's shelves."

You paged Eduardo with 'Of course, the library does sometimes have spare copies of books and lets people borrow them - but that's by no means a general rule.'.

Eduardo says "What was his appearance?"

The reliever shivers. "A Shedite. There are no pictures, but it must have been foul. It was a Kyriotate before that, of course."

Eduardo says "Of course."

The reliever nods, twitching its wings again nervously.

The reliever says, "That was in the eighth century before Christ, though. I'm not sure anybody except the very old angels ever _saw_ him who's alive now."

Eduardo pauses, suddenly thoughtful.

The reliever tilts an antenna.

Eduardo pages: Soooo... did I know Magog?

You paged Eduardo with 'How old _are_ you?'.

You paged Eduardo with 'Magog was sealed away about 800 BC. I didn't think you were quite that old.'.

>From afar, Eduardo doesn't actually know, you know. He was last on earth during the crusades.

You paged Eduardo with 'I don't think so.'.

You paged Eduardo with 'You can remember the Purity Crusades if you like (they were about 743 AD) but I'd rather not have you too much older than that.'.

Eduardo pages: OK.

Eduardo shakes his head. "I am old," he observes. "But not that old." He closes the book. "Are there illustrations of him as a Kyrioate?"

The reliever flips its wings thoughtfully. "Possibly in one or two of the books here, or in the older books in David's history section."

Eduardo says "If you would assist me in finding one?"

The reliever is clearly delighted to be of use. "Certainly!" It takes off, wings buzzing, and leads the way down the corridor to books on Angelic History, and in particular, books on David and Stone. The books look .. big. Heavy.

<> Demiurge rolls the d666 and gets 1 6 CHECK: 2.

The reliever confides, cheerfully, "I was looking some of this out the other day, so I know where it all is."

Eduardo follows, a little slower. "You were?"

Eduardo says "For whom, if I might ask?"

The reliever circles down to start tugging one large book, HISTORIA, out from its place. "Oh, it was one of the Servitors of Stone. An Elohite."

Eduardo says "Do you have a name?"

The reliever pauses, trying to remember. "Mordecai. I think he was Word-bound, but I'm not sure what the Word was."

Eduardo nods again, unsmiling. "My thanks."

Eduardo considers, wings furled about him as he considers the reliever. He thinks. "A word bound servitor of Stone. Researching *this*."

The reliever fliffs its wings happily. "A pleasure. Can you help me with this? I think there's a picture of Magog in this one."

Eduardo reaches up to help the reliever.

The book can be lifted down easily, as Eduardo is rather stronger than the reliever.

The book is bound in creamy leather, and smells of age and marble.

Eduardo murmurs. "And the illustration?"

The reliever flips through the book, finally coming to one page that shows a very geometric-looking Kyriotate, sketched against something that is supposed to be the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The artist was clearly better at Kyriotates than at vegetation.

Eduardo squints at the illustration. "Hnh."

Eduardo turns a few pages in the book, to see if there is any information about Magog around them.

Magog is described as a loyal and faithful servitor to the Archangel David, great in power, and assisting David in many of his works. There's a clear emphasis on the fact that he was a powerful and virtuous angel. Once.

Eduardo says "This book was written by a servitor of David, was it not?"

The reliever peers at the author's name. "It was, yes."

Eduardo says "I thought so. Are there texts here that were not? It is hard not to reflect on past glories."

The reliever flutes a few thoughtful notes, and checks along the shelf, alighting on a slimmer dark volume. "This one is by a Mercurian of my Lord." It's titled DE RERUM SAXORUM.

Eduardo reaches up to take it down, and starts to leaf through it, his reading perhaps a little slow.

The book is in Latin. Fortunately, Eduardo remembers Latin probably better than he knows how to use a telephone.

Eduardo has been to somewhat too many Latin masses. He reads slower, still, but can make headway.

The book seems an unbiased enough history, and it cannot be denied that the Angels of Stone do a great deal of good work. It also describes Magog as a virtuous and powerful angel, in the days before his Fall and his crowning as a Prince.

Eduardo looks up, to see if the reliever is still at hand.

The reliever is still hanging around enthusiastically.

Eduardo looks faintly surprised. "Have you ever heard of Magog referred to as a light?"

<> Eduardo goes off obsessively on one track.

The reliever shakes its head. "No! That was Lucifer."

Eduardo says "Is there any mention of a tie between the two?"

The reliever hesitates. "Well, not apart from Lucifer appointing Magog as the Prince of Cruelty, that I can think of."

Eduardo nods, attention still elsewhere. "Nor I. I am glad of that."

The reliever twitches its wings nervously. "Do you want to research Lucifer too?"

Eduardo shakes his head. "No. I have wallowed enough for one evening."

Eduardo pauses. "I believe."

Eduardo says "I hope I will not have to."

The reliever shivers.

The reliever says, nervously, "Any other Princes?"

Eduardo turns, face forbidding. "No. To meet one face to face was enough, and the research on Magog was an effect of another matter."

The reliever flicks its wings quickly. "Yes, Virtue."

Eduardo rubs his chin -- a decidedly human gesture -- and then asks. "Did the Elohite Mordecai start with Magog?"

The reliever pauses, thinking. "I believe so. He started here, in this section, then moved down to the general infernal histories." It preens a wing.

Eduardo says "Do you know what he looked at there?"

The reliever shakes its head, resulting in some bouncing of antennae. "I looked out a number of general histories for him; I don't know any particular subject he was interested in."

Eduardo says "Perhaps you could show me those?"

The reliever says, "Certainly, but there were quite a few." It starts to flutter back to the general infernal history section.

Eduardo follows. "Just to see the titles. I believe I have another errand to attend to."

The reliever flutters up and down the shelves, indicating thirty or so books. They are generally about Infernal history, Princes, and so on.

Eduardo says "How long was the Elohite here?"

The reliever thinks. "He was visiting for perhaps a week or two. He wasn't here all the time."

<> Eduardo says "Ah. That legendary antipathy. David's covering something up again. I can tell."

Eduardo says "When?"

The reliever says, "Two or three weeks ago. It's hard to be sure of the precise time, here. Why are you so curious, Virtue?"

Eduardo says "I serve the Bright Lady, and she delivered a Prophecy to me."

The reliever fans back its wings and antennae in awe.

Eduardo says "I am unravelling it, and I seem to be walking in the footsteps of a Servitor of Stone."

The reliever says, thoughtfully, "Perhaps he was working from a different direction?"

Eduardo smiles, a sudden blossoming on his face at the reaction; transforming his harshness entirely for its momentary life.

Eduardo's xpression dies with the relievers words. "So it would seem. You have an idea, perhaps?"

The reliever shakes its head. "No, Virtue. I was just thinking aloud."

Eduardo frowns, face hard again and any beauty gone with the smile. "Well, then. My thanks. I should, perhaps, talk with this Mordecai directly."

Eduardo's words set his face harder - it's clear he is not happy at the concept.

The reliever flips its wings again. "Okay. I don't know where he went, I'm afraid."

Eduardo says "It is not your responsibility. My thanks for your aid."

<> Demiurge says "That, Eduardo, took many weary hours of research. :)"

The reliever flutters happily back to reshelving the books you two got out.

<> Eduardo expects this.

Eduardo heads out of the library, flaring his wings to work out any 'kinks' as he exits the building.

<> Eduardo says "No kidding. And time on earth is the same as time in Heaven?"

<> Demiurge says "It varies, but there is some correspondence."

<> Demiurge says "This will definitely have taken several hours on Earth at least."

<> Eduardo nods. I expected that much.

Outside, Heaven is still bright and clear, and the fresh air ripples over his dark pinions.

<> Eduardo tries to figure how to track down a) a really really old Angel or b) Mordecai. Preferably a), since Mordecai is a Stonie.

<> Eduardo also tries to work out when we found the box, IC time, as compared to when Mordecai was working on stuff.

Eduardo heads back to the volcano, to find someone to talk to there.

<> Demiurge says "IC time, you found the box _after_ when Mordecai was researching this, if the reliever is right."

<> Demiurge says "If you want to find out where an angel is, you can ask his friends, or you can try asking at his Archangel's Cathedral."

<> Demiurge says "Also, there are rolls of the names of the Wordbound at the Council Spires, though that won't say where they are right now."

Heaven recedes beneath Eduardo, as the Volcano comes into view again.

<> Eduardo says "That's what I thought."

<> Eduardo oohs. Knowing his word would be good. I'll check that on the way out. :) Since it doesn't need RP.

Eduardo enters the volcano, and starts looking for an associate, preferably a Wordbound. Or at the very least, someone ranked with Gabriel.

<> Demiurge considers. Any particular sort of person, or just any old ranked/Wordbound?

<> Eduardo says "Uhm. Malakite, preferably, who I trust. Old preferred. I'd contact a party member, but there's noe of the ones Ed would go to on-line right now."

<> Demiurge says "Roll the dice."

<> Eduardo rolls the d666 and gets 5 6 CHECK: 1.

<> Eduardo says "*glark*"

As Eduardo passes through one of the high-arched halls of white marble and sapphire and copper, a Cherub passes him - one Nathan, who he knows to be the Angel of the Hearth.

Eduardo says "Guardian."

Eduardo stops, turning to intercept Nathan.

Eduardo says "Might I have a word."

Nathan - a tiger with wings of burnished gold - turns to face Eduardo. "Virrtue," he growls.

Eduardo furls his own wings, shadows behind him. "I would seek an opinion."

Nathan growls, "Very well, but I am in a hurry. What is it?"

Eduardo frowns somewhat. "I believe the Demon Prince of Cruelty is loose, or about to be."

Eduardo says "And that he has revived his plan to cull by disease."

Nathan's wings flare. "Magog? _Loose_?"

Eduardo says "Someone believes there is a way to loose him, perhaps."

Nathan's head oscillates slowly. "This is disturbing. This is extremely disturbing. What evidence do you have?"

Eduardo says "Little. I have a prophecy from the Bright Lady that speaks of a Bright light, a culling light. I have a Sigil found on Earth that is linked to him by a Book in the Library - a sigil found by a box believed to be associated with the Demon Prince of Disease. I have Vapulans at an AIDS laboratory."

Eduardo says "This is why I sought an opinion, and from one who was wordbound."

Nathan growls softly, considering.

Nathan says, "I have noticed that other angels do not always believe in the words of our Lady as strongly as we do. Their loss, of course."

Eduardo stands, stock still, eyes ablaze. "I am building a whole from fragments, but the sigil and the culling tie well to him."

Eduardo says "And they are *wrong*."

Nathan says, "I hear you. We understand. They do not."

Eduardo's voice is quiet, little more than a sibilant whisper. But for all that it burns.

Nathan purrs, softly, "Then we must *find* proof."

Eduardo nods.

Eduardo says "I plan to."

Nathan tilts his head slightly. "I will be here for a while. If you need some authority, I may be able to help."

<> Demiurge says "Trans: if you need a Wordbound to back you up because you manage to piss off the Stonies... ;)"

Eduardo nods. "You have my thanks, Guardian."

Nathan bows his head. "Go in fire, Virtue. Serve our Lady."

<> Demiurge says "Want to close there, or want to just go back to the Council Spires and check out that guy's Word?"

<> Eduardo wants to do the last.

Upon checking the rolls at the Council Spires, it is found that Mordecai, Elohite of Stone, holds the Word of Hardship.

<> Eduardo says "Hardship. Fortitude. I'm scared now."

<> Demiurge says "No comment."

<> Demiurge closes there, and assumes Eduardo goes back down to Earth? :)

<> Eduardo says "Yup."

<> Eduardo says "To find Pat and all."

---

Fiat Justitia