The Black Swamp: Winged Inanna

Part Four

All of us had started to perceive how terribly silent this place had become.

As if some reason and common sense finally came back to us, we hastily reached for the door and started climbing the long stairs to the hall. For god's sake, the doors weren't locked and nothing dramatic happened on our way back, at least not until we reached the dining hall. We were supposed to find some servants who could tell us where their master had gone, since the entire villa is run by no less than five of the loyal servants of Graf Wilhelm von Luisse at all times, as he once proudly introduced to us.

Yet, there was not a soul in the hall. Within our sight were only the luxurious furniture made from the best European and South-Asian craftsmanship lit under magnificent candles and chandeliers, as if narrating to us the obscenely large scope of the riches of their master. Yet, under these chilling lights, we felt such coldness that almost clawed to our bones. There was not a sound, save the bursting and crackling from the fireplace.

Saliz, the youngest of us all, seemed quickly rattled by this extremely anomalous situation and he started shouting for Professor Lesch. As one could expect, no answer came from such disturbance of the atmosphere. After reading those heretical tablets of Etana, my mind was filled with deranged thoughts that I could not even begin to correctly assess our current situation. Berel kept the most composure and suggested quickly that we should not linger long in this unoccupied dining hall after Saliz's unruly noise. We agreed to his suggestion and started looking for Professor Lesch by knocking on each and every door on the second floor. Theoretically he could not have left the mansion because of the raging storm outside.

As we started searching, I was still pondering in my mind the relationship between the text we just saw and the original Myth of Etana and the cylinder that was taken by Professor Lesch. I almost dream walked all the way as we wandered through the now intimidatingly large mansion. I kept thinking, why did Lesch act as if he knew about the scene on the lapis lazuli cylinder seal? And why indeed did he dodge the question about his source? We have all been quite certain that the presentation scene contained some extremely unusual elements. Why did he not even try to persuade us?

Just as I started pondering on these questions, an unbecoming thought came to mind inevitably: could Professor Lesch himself be the director of such a large scale practical joke? He is one of the most capable people and the most widely recognized figure in this field. It would be entirely possible that he knew Wilhelm von Luisse long ago and they started orchestrating this magic show behind us together before we arrived, or maybe even our contact by the museum was part of it.

But why? It didn't make any sense and it wouldn't bring any enjoyable merit to Professor Lesch if he truly had plotted such a thing. He had been an established scholar for over a decade, and he had ever been a friendly, supportive, though somewhat "Socrates" figure within or outside of academia. I couldn't even begin to think about his motive for such a scene.

While I was contemplating this issue, Saliz and Berel seemed to have finally found something. To the south corner of the east floor, there was light behind a door. It happened that the light emitting from the grand chandelier hanging on the ceiling was blocked by a large vase on the end of the handrail. Dim light seeped through the doorstep and encroached onto the shadow cast by the vase. I could not lie that I felt my sanity was under great challenge as I started imagining horrible monstrosity lurking behind that threshold, as if those shadows were the assurance of safety and those dim light the source of danger. Those tablets I just read nourished the horror within my mind with the greatest nutrition which is called imagination.

Berel also seemed to find this creak of light quite uninviting. He first knocked and no one answered. He then tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge. It seemed that it was locked from the inside.