INCIDENTS OF FOREBODING

IN EDINBURGH

My dearest friend,

I have no doubt that you will find this chronicle as strange and as unbelievable as I did when my uncle first entrusted it to me. Regardless, I ask… no, I beg you, to keep an open mind as you read through its pages. I pray you will not dismiss this as a mere piece of fiction, scribbled from the pen of a madman writing by gaslight in a lonely attic room somewhere in Londinium’s West-end.

For the creatures of the Elder Darkness are very real. I pray you will forgive me for saddling you with this burden, but the gateway cannot be fully closed, and certain eldritch beings have begun taking an interest in what I have. This chronicle is the only record of what actually happened and must never be lost.

You are the only one I can trust.

Now, for you to fully understand what follows, do you remember when we were children together, and our instructors taught us that, thousands of years ago, the Eldarions were the masters of all the other races before the humans rebelled and threw them down? But what they left out is that not all of humanity rose up; in fact, some human families sheltered the Eldarions in exchange for their help.

The Goldspears were one such family. They forged an alliance with an Eldarion clan and together, founded the great kingdom of Nubia, which lasted until the Muslim conquests of the 14th Century. Even then, the alliance between the Goldspears and Eldarions held until 1840, when an anarchist (as everyone believed) killed both the entire Eldarion clan and the southern branch of the Goldspears, leaving only the northern branch intact.

The next Goldspear child was destined to be bear a curse, the Eldarion clan’s revenge against humanity. Of course, by the mid 19th Century, the curse was thought to be merely a legend by everyone, including the Goldspears themselves, so when Jonathan was born with the foretold birthmark, no one thought anything about it…

‘Those who go beneath the surface, do so at their own peril’ - Oscar Wilde

My name is Jonathan Goldspear, and on the evening of October 13, 1860, the curse of the ancient kings of Nubia led to a series of events, which resulted in the destruction of humanity's civilization and the death of its people, sparing only a pitiful few.

My grandfather and I were sitting in the front row of the King’s theatre, nestled among the ivy-covered buildings of the University of Edinburgh, my grandfather quite solemn in his grey suit and black tie while I wore an opera cloak over the ritual garb of our ancestors.  All of the seats on the main floor and in most of the theater boxes were filled with well dressed gentlemales and ladies, the air fragrant with the scent of French perfume, mingling with the lingering aroma of tobacco from the gentlemale’s expensive cigars.

Grandfather and I were similar in many ways, both of us tall and slender with a wiry strength, our skin darker than that of other Englishmen, though his close cropped hair had now gone from black to almost snow white. The nobility of his wrinkled face always made me think of the great king he might have been, had the world been different.

Our host for this trip to Edinburgh, the English ambassador to the independent kingdom of Scotland, sat beside him on one of the seats upholstered in red velvet. As tall as my grandfather, Royce Bannon sported sideburns in a muttonchop style, all the rage in England then. His wife, Starshine of the Eldarion-Scots, Heather-Rose clan, sat beside her husband.

Their half-blood daughter Myste sat next to me. Slender, yet not so painfully thin as pure blooded Eldarions, the tops of her ears ended in a point instead of spiraling upward in a corkscrew shape like those of full blooded Eldarions. Myste had her mother’s red hair and her father’s blue eyes, with skin the color of fresh, sweet cream, but her freckles were a mystery no one could explain. Freckles were a trait only pure blood humans were supposed to have.

The seats were filled with many of Edinburgh’s upper class Scots, the males in dark suits while the females wore more demure dresses than normally seen in Londinium, with people from all the civilized races speaking quietly among themselves. The three males onstage, dressed in dark suits and ties as well, also spoke in quiet tones in front of the brass lectern, a Koncava made Terramagica device.

By Scottish law, all Terramagica devices had to be heavily shielded with lead mixed into the brass. Lead kept almost all of the Terramagica energy inside, so that the Eldarion male, now striding up to it, would not have his affinity for Aethyr magical energy affect the Terramagica energies inside the lectern, and cause the lectern to violently explode. 

The red haired Eldarion, with ear spirals so long they had begun to droop forward, flipped a switch on the device and began to speak. “My name is Professor Alar of the University of Edinburgh,” he said, the lectern projecting his words out to the audience, “and I wish to thank all of you for attending this lecture on the upcoming expedition into the Yucatecan wilderness of southern Mexico, as well as for your generous donations thus far. 

“Also, as promised, once the lecture concludes, Shabaka Goldspear’s grandson Jonathan will perform the Lion Dance, which only someone possessing the sacred birthmark of the ancient Nubian line of kings is allowed to learn. While Nubia is now part of Egypt, which in turn is part of the British empire, those of us with Eldarion blood feel the customs of the past should be preserved. Especially since the line of kings ends with Jonathan.” 

He looked back at the human male. “Speaking of preserving the past, I am pleased to introduce the organizer of this expedition, Mr. John Lloyd Stephens, who several years ago led an expedition into the only area on the face of the earth not under the control of any human government. He wrote a book about his experiences, titled: ‘Incidents of travel in the Eldarion highlands and upper Yucatan peninsula’, with drawings from his associate, Catherwood, Eldarion-English of the Cornish-Heath clan. John?”

The audience applauded as Mr. Stephens, a dark haired human with a beard sweeping only under his chin, leaving his upper face clean shaven, walked up to the lectern. Catherwood, an Eldarion much younger than Professor Alar since his ear spirals only went up a couple turns, went the opposite direction towards an Eldarion Artifact: a shiny black box with a fat circle on top. Its wide tube pointed straight at the bare wall at the back of the stage. He touched something on the top and a blue light within the box began to glow.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

A moment later, the device projected an image showing the cover of Mr. Stephens’ book onto the wall, as Mr. Stephens cleared his throat. “Up until the Spanish conquest over the Eldarion-Aztecs, all of the New World had been under Eldarion rule. Since then, those Eldarion clans have made their peace with the European powers and have given up control of their kingdoms to mankind, except for the Eldarion-Maya. They alone remain free of humanity’s dominion.

“And even this is beginning to change. The current Mexican republic, under the guidance of President Benito Juarez, has changed course and is now taking what the Koncava and human conservatives there believe is a radical position: they are treating the Eldarion-Maya with respect and cooperation. One benefit of this new relationship was Catherwood and myself being allowed to explore lands that no one who was not Maya, had ever seen before.”

Mr. Stephens then spent the next half hour describing their journey that began in the city of Chetumal, wandered through the mountainous highlands and lowland jungles of Chiapas and Campeche, and ended in the Mexican city of Merida. As he spoke, Catherwood used his Aethyr Artifact to project the detailed images he had drawn of the places they had explored.

Pictures of stunning mountain views, eerie abandoned cities swallowed up by jungles touched with tendrils of mist, and treacherous paths through snake haunted marshes,  were all brought to life by Mr. Stephens’ vivid, and often humorous, descriptions. His tales enthralled me and the time passed all too fast.

When he finished, the Eldarion device projected a picture of the Spanish gate they had gone through when they departed Merida for the coastal docks. Mr. Stephens paused for a moment. “What we have shown you are only the edges of this once great civilization. The cities the Eldarion-Maya still occupy, like Edzna and Calakmul, remain off-limits to anyone not of Maya blood, as are most of their sacred sites. 

“However, when I met in Campeche City with several of the Eldarion elders about getting their permission to launch another expedition, their oldest and most powerful shaman, a female named Ran-Li, said she would lead us to a sacred site off limits even to most of the Eldarion-Maya.”

Catherwood then projected an image of a rectangular, intact structure made of stone, on the near edge of a huge, natural depression into the side of a mountain. Catherwood had drawn the structure as if he had been standing on the side of a different mountain, looking down at the building from far away. If the tiny doorway was to scale, the edifice was enormous. “This image shows the closest that we were allowed to get. The temple you see is named in Maya, E’orin Totil Me’il, which is loosely translated to: ‘The Gateway Home of the Ancestor Gods’, while the vast bowl in the earth is called, ‘Totil Zotz-Na. ‘The Bat God’s house’.” He paused again. “The ancient Eldarion-Maya believed this is the entrance to Xibalba, the Maya’s word for hell.”

The audience gasped. “My friend is being overly dramatic,” Catherwood said as he strode up to the lectern. His brown hair was cut short while his suit, most likely designed for a human, hung on him as if he were a scarecrow. “Ran-Li laughed when I asked her about this superstition. She says it is a myth that none of them believe in anymore.”

“However,” Mr. Stephens said, “most of the Maya humans do. In scientifically studying this ancient ruin, I hope to help abolish their misguided beliefs, while allowing the civilized world an opportunity to see an intact Eldarion structure from a time before our recorded history.” 

There were more gasps, as only fragments of that time had ever been discovered. Mr. Stephens smiled. “There is more. Those ancient Maya built an underground road system known as Sac’be, or white roads, that connect to a natural cavern system which allows passage from one area of their kingdom to another. We will be the first Europeans allowed to travel upon it.”

Catherwood chuckled. “Ran-Li told me she is far too old to go tramping through the mountains and besides, only an Eldarion-Maya shaman can operate the doors leading in or out. So their secret passage will remain safe.”

Mr. Stephens gave his friend a broad smile. “It helped that Catherwood forged several good friendships among the younger Eldarion-Maya. He will be meeting his daughter for the first time when we arrive.”

Professor Alar, who had been standing just offstage, called out, “Hear, hear,” as all the Eldarions in the room began wildly clapping. A moment later the humans, and the scattering of Gnomes in the room, began clapping as well. The stocky Koncava in their tailored suits only folded muscular arms over their chests, or fingered the pieces of gold and precious gems woven into their braided beards. 

When the applause died down, Professor Alar said, “I am quite surprised the blessed event took place in so short a time. From Mr. Stephens’ descriptions, you never remained long in any one place.”

Catherwood hesitated. “John is correct, and I was shocked and overjoyed to hear the news. The Eldarion-Maya understand that the world is changing and not to our race’s benefit. So, once the expedition has returned to Campeche City, we are going to work out an agreement to where the Eldarion-Maya host select Eldarion visitors at their compound, which is just outside the city walls, so their bloodlines might be strengthened with new blood, while our dwindling numbers might be increased.”

Professor Alar seemed taken aback. “Catherwood, are you saying the population of the Eldarion-Maya is stable?”

Catherwood shook his head. “No, I am saying their population has been increasing ever since the losses they incurred when the Spanish first invaded.” Every Eldarion in the room gasped and he gave them a hard smile. “The reason is simple. No Terramagica device, shielded or not, is permitted in the areas they control, on pain of death.”

There was an uproar of male voices and one Koncava, nut brown and short like all of his race, shot to his feet. “This is lunacy,” he shouted. “Threatening someone with death over a brass lantern or an automaton servant?” One hand clenched into a stubby fist. “Someone should be organizing an expedition to bring these barbarians to heel.”

Catherwood pounded on the lectern with both hands. “Have you no decency, sir? You have flooded the world with your devices, replacing coal with your Terramagica engines in trains, so Eldarions must ride in the last car as if we were lower class humans, or risk dying in a fiery blast. 

“The streetlights of Londinium now glow green, while the West-end, once our enclave, has been invaded by people heating their homes and businesses with your infernal machines. We have been forced into Old Town, or the South-side if we lack the means, while you go off to East-end factories using so much unshielded Terramagica that an Eldarion takes his life in his hands just walking the streets.”

Mr. Stephens placed his hand on Catherwood’s arm, but the Eldarion shook it off. “I am not finished. For centuries, we have held off the slow influx of Terramagica energy poisoning our bodies, by having our females bear girl-children with human males. Those daughters of each liaison purify the mother’s blood by carrying off the residual Terramagica energy, so she might then bear Eldarion children. 

“The Eldarion-Maya were appalled to learn that we abandon our half-blood offspring at the tender age of sixteen, the poor girls often ending up in high class brothels, or worse.”

Myste had gone stone still beside me and I whispered, “You will never see the inside of one. Your parents both love you.”

She did not answer but held my hand with a fierce grip as Catherwood pounded the lectern again. “All this we have done for hundreds of years, but now even that is not enough. We are dying, sir; dying from all the Terramagica energy we can no longer escape from. Will you deny us the chance, the slightest chance, to save our race from extinction? After all these centuries, do you still hate us that much?”

 John Lloyd Stephens met the Eldarion Catherwood while both were in Cairo, Egypt. They hit it off at once, both having a keen passion for the ancient past, and in 1846, collaborated on a book titled Incidents of Travel in Egypt. The book became an immediate sensation, and when Mr. Stephens was appointed the Union ambassador to the Central American republic in 1849, they took the opportunity to visit a number of ruins, resulting in another book.

By all accounts, the two were well received by the Eldarions living under human rule in Central America, and in 1850, the Eldarion city-states of the Yucatan and the highlands agreed to allow them access to lands unseen by any human not of Maya blood.

Because of the Eldarion race’s reputation for lascivious behavior, there were always whispers of scandal, insinuating that the two were, at times, more than just close friends…

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