(Session 20)
After the tragic and confusing events of last time we spent a considerable time in Darwin resting and recuperating. Mr. Moore sent a telegraph to New York to Monsieur Paynesworth’s family and his wife replied that his sons would travel to us and take Monsieur Paynesworth home. They arrived the 27th of august and Monsieur Abraham Paynesworth was on his way. However in a surprising twist the eldest son, Mycroft Paynesworth took his father’s place in our expedition. Something about finishing what his worthless father could not do.
We book passage aboard the ship Venture from Darwin to Hong Kong and our ship departed the 31st of August. The voyage was uneventful and we could relax some more and think about our next step. Monsieur Paynesworth has shown to be an interesting man and quite different from his father. He is a champion of the less fortunate and a lawyer to boot. We studied our notes and deduced that we had two leads in Hong Kong. Monsieur Elias had sent a request for more funds from the Peak Hotel and Brady was spotted in the Yellow Lily Bar.
Hong Kong
We finally arrived the 13th of september (on a friday no less) to Hong Kong and reserved rooms at the Peak Hotel. The concierge was able to give us a letter to Jackson Elias which had arrived after his departure and also a small note which has evidently fallen from Monsieur Elias when he was a guest. The letter was from Charles Godfrey, a professor from the department of Antiques and Classics. The letter discussed some poems and stories which were called Goddess of the Black Fan and the Bloated Women. We decided to meet with the professor but first we had to check up on our other leads.
X and Billy travelled to the Yellow Lily Bar and Mycroft and I went to visit the dock officials. From the dock officials we were able to learn that the Dark Mistress was a 90 foot yacht owned by Alfred Penhurst and that it had visited Hong Kong three times. The similarity of the owner’s name to Aubrey Penhew was not lost to us. The Marlin was a ship that regularly travelled between Shanghai and Hong Kong carrying cargo and passengers. It was due soon and we planned to use that ship on our final leg to Shanghai. Ivory Wind had visited Hong Kong once on its way to London. Other than that we learned very little. When we went to meet with our fellow adventurers at the bar, they reported that it was a dead end. So many people frequent the bar and too much time had passed from Brady’s sighting for the place to be of any use.
We called the university and agreed to meet with the professor the next day.
On 14th of september we met with the professor and he turned out to be a dreadful bore. So full of himself and in love with his voice. Not so different from our academic companions. Monsieur Jackson Elias had indeed met with him and they had discussed these forementioned poems and their time period in detail. The first one Goddess of the Black Fan was written in the 16th century and detailed some ancient power struggle between the servants of the goddess and palace eunuchs. Evidently the eunuchs had been victorious in that battle. However these servants of the goddess had surfaced time and time again in China’s history. The other book Monsieur Jackson was interested was not in professor Godfrey’s possession but he had information regarding it. It was called the Tale of the of Priest Qwan. Some really disgusting tale of debauchery, deviancy and villainy. It was more like a manual into becoming the Goddess’ servant. When we were thinking of leaving the professor dropped a bombshell on us. Professor had helped Monsieur Jackson with some translations and from that information we were able to learn that a Mr. Carter Randolph had been committed to the Yeung Wo Nursing Home. We rushed there and were able to convince the staff to let us meet with the patient. The person we saw was a shell of a man. He was once Roger Carlyle but he had met with some terrible calamity. This event had robbed him of his sanity and he was now a vegetable. The orderlies were able to tell that a Mr Brady had visited him a few times but that the last visit was more than one and a half year ago on february 2nd 1924. His expenses were paid a year in advance and that he had no other visitors. He was mostly catatonic but starry skies and egyptians triggered some sort of violent episodes out of him.
Monsieur X was able to rouse Monsieur Carlyle from his dementia by mentioning the name Anastasia and his words chilled us all.
Roger Carlyle in Yeung Wo Nursing Home, Hong Kong, Sep 14th 1925
“Now he talks to me, my Master. He is still my Master. He whispers in through my dreams, that man of Blackness. He is not done with me just yet, I think I am still his chosen and I don’t have a choice in the matter. I see now what we have done. Oh god, the door. We have unlocked the door. He approaches!”