Celestial Scribe Petrich Hollenburg and his assistant in training, Ellenora Hodgins-Baudelaire have been summoned by Dr. Leon Stephanotis, a maunscript archeologist, to accompany him on an expedition to Danzig Castle in the northwestern Gardarik reg...
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Nora awoke with Petrich asleep beside her. She had not heard him come to bed in the wee hours of the morning. Her sleep must have been deep, for Petrich had been busy in the night. Against the door to the bath sat every piece of furniture he could move, stacked high enough to cover the entire entry. The bath was, apparently, trapping something inside, or else being ban from use. Perhaps both were true. Nora considered this action wise, if not a bit compulsive. But it only added to the underlying menace of their current accommodations. What else could be lurking in this house just waiting to distract them, or worse, actually harm them? Nora gently reached out to touch the lightly broken and bruised skin where she had bitten Petrich on his shoulder. She had bitten him, but she herself did not go unscathed. Nora received her own wounds, bruising on her arms, shoulders and her thighs. It was fortunate that these marks could be covered from Petrich's sight, for he would not easily forgive himself for leaving marks on her. Petrich roused and looked at her solemnly. He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it. "We can't stay here." she stated, simply. "No, we can't." he agreed. They took immediate action, leaving the dream house with only the possessions they arrived with. They ignored the lavish breakfast that had magically appeared on the dining room table. It reminded them of their hunger, but neither of them had much of an appetite for another entrapment. To say it was easy to leave it all behind would have been untrue, but staying simply was not worth risking the other unknown dangers of what they now recognized as a sort of extravagant prison. "Barring the door," Nora said, as they traveled, "Did you see something? Was something trying to get out?" Petrich remained silent for a moment, then replied. "No, nothing was trying to come out, but the honest truth haunts me." "You should have woke me up, I could have. . ." "No," Petrich shook his head, "I saw what I had carelessly done to you." "Oh. . ." "And it took all the strength I had not to take you back in there with or without your permission." Petrich sighed, "So, I started blocking the door, just as I was blocking the desire out of my mind." Nora looked up at him. "It must have worked." Petrich glanced at her with an unhappy grin. "Not if we would have remained there." "But. . .who is to say there isn't danger everywhere here? No matter where we stay?" "Who is to say the danger is not in our own minds?" Petrich countered, which caused Nora to stop and look at him hopelessly. "Our minds?" Against her better judgement, Nora turned back to the far off hill, where the observatory sat. The hill was now bare of any structure at all, suggesting there had been nothing there in the first place. Nora gasped. "Are we becoming mad, then?" she asked fearfully. "We've been here in the Dream Plain for a long time, Nora," Petrich answered honestly. "Crinoline Danzig did us no favors sending us here for such an immense and lengthy task. The longer we stay. ." Petrich shook his head, not caring to following that train of thought, "Well, all we can do is complete what we came for quickly, but not at the cost of the quality of the tapestry." Nora took his hands in hers. "Now that we know, we shall focus all the more." "And be aware of anything unseemly." Petrich added, which made Nora roll her eyes heavenward. "As if anything on this Plain has ever been seemly!" "True enough!" Petrich laughed. "How about anything more batshit bizarre unseemly? Although I'd hate to see what that looks like, in comparison to what we've been through already." They were too far from the port to arrive there by walking only in one day, so Petrich and Nora resorted to camping for the evening. The camping and hiking skills learned from Leon and Fitz were worth their weight in gold. First was the search for temporary shelter, and they found one almost immediately. It was Nora's idea to go in search of their shepherd's cottage. Neither of them could imagine the cottage being 200 years old, and they were right. Instead of any sign of a cottage, there was a cave, but it would suffice. They gathered wood for a fire and took inventory of the last of their food rations. They only really needed the cave for the one night, just enough time to finally get their star reading. Tomorrow they could go in search of appropriate quarters to live and to work. When it was the hour of twilight, they took their star reading equipment and climbed to a high hill. It was not their own beloved hill. They decided to avoid it for now, since the incident with the dream observatory. They found the stars shone on this hilltop just as well. Setting up their equipment, Nora felt the happiest she had felt in many months. True, they were residing in a cave on a chilly night with meager rations, but none of that mattered. The cloud cast sky earlier in the day had cleared and the stars were at their twinkling brightest. "I wonder if Crinoline chose this date with the foreknowledge of how very clear the sky would be." Nora wondered, after they had made the reading. "Surely," said Petrich, packing away his portable telescope again. "We know it will no longer be a marriage document, the recreated tapestry, but I'm curious as to what it will be now." Nora wondered. Petrich hoisted a heavy knapsack onto his shoulder and Nora took the other lighter one. She also handled the pole with a hook at the end to carry their lantern to light their way. Petrich worked by lantern light to calculate numbers derived from the star reading. Nora busied herself rekindling the fire and preparing hot water for campfire tea. At last, Petrich took up his straight edge and other drafting tools and began sketching. Nora made ready their scant sleeping pallets when she was startled by Petrich's sudden shout. "Nora!" he called excitedly, "I've got it! I know for certain now!" Nora came to him and Petrich showed her the particulars of his sketch design. Nora sat back, her mouth falling into a great wondrous smile. "It's a double death document!" "Yes! A double death document for Crinoline and Rosemary! As far as I know, there has never been a double death document ever created. This will be the very first! And possibly the only one ever!" "So, not only will we be breaking a curse, we will be making history!" "Yes, we will." Petrich replied, thoughtfully, "And I think Crinoline Danzig is well aware of that fact."
