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Advent of the Necromancer: Book I
Chronicles of Past and Present
Chapter 20: The Sibyl Erythraea
– Excerpt taken from the Book of Ormus –
I remember her well. Erythraea was a woman of grace, beauty and great wisdom. Had she been other than whom she was, her destiny would have been that of Queen or High Priestess. However, those who have been born with The Gift are not meant to walk freely amongst the mortal. It was the honour as well as the duty bestowed by the gods upon a very privileged few. From the cradle, Erythraea knew what was expected of her, and she accepted her great destiny with humility. At the very height of her power, she performed the rites of ascendance in the Oracle Chamber of Astaroth Castle.
I was present at the time, and may the gods forgive me for such sacrilegious thoughts, but a part of me felt a great sorrow and an infinite pity that such a one as Erythraea should have to be confined into the glyphs that have been freshly carved into the cold stone of the Oracular Altar. Her body, the vessel that had kept her soul bound to this mortal plane of existence was to be made to fade. I can still see her body dispersing slowly, graceful limb by graceful limb, by means of the magical ritual that Erythraea chanted until all that was left was the sound of her sweet voice, and then, even that had to fade into oblivion.
The glyphs carvings on the altar which had been dormant began to glow with an inner light. I could feel the stirrings of an immense force, a very deep magic, barely contained, surge into the chamber. The Oracular Altar began to tremble and the very ground on which we were standing to shake. Perhaps some of the people present cried in fear or fainted, I know not for I could not hear them. All my senses were swept away by the fantastical swirl of power that flowed into the room and poured itself into the circle of light that was created by the glyph.
Thus the mortal woman known as Erythraea was no more. Standing within the circle of light all of us beheld the coming a most revered and sacred of beings, a semi-divine entity able to communicate with the gods and to foresee the future: the Sibyl Erythraea. The Sibyl had no corporeal form. She? He? was a pool of the brightest light with a disembodied voice. This was the very first pronouncement, I remember the words exactly:
Judicii signum
Exuret terras ignis portumque polumque
Eripitur solis jubar et choris interit astris
Solvetur celum lunaris splendor orbitit
Sic pariter fontes torrentur flumanque igni
Non erit in rebus hominem sublime vel altum
Tum equantur campis montes et cerula ponti
Omnia cessabut tellus contracta peribit
The world had waited a long time for such a one to appear, and guide us in the wisdom of their Gift, but the Sibyl Erythraea first words of prophesy brought dread and disquiet into the hearts of the people present. The second pronouncement that followed was equally harsh.
The Sibyl Erythraea's own end would also be the end of the Gift bestowed upon mortals by the gods. So that in essence the Sibyl Erythraea, although long awaited would also be the last such a one that the world would ever know.
§ § §
To be continued…
a/n:
I have borrowed these verses freely from the Chant of the Latin Sibyl which dates back to the tenth/eleventh century A.D. (In the real world that is… ;-)