We retire to Mr. Moore’s room to talk with Mr. Brady. He tells us having left the Carlisle expedition in Kenya, right after the episode at the Bent Pyramid, when things started going downhill. He had been very sceptical about Anastasia in the beginning, and later on he saw her effect on Roger Carlisle, him slowly starting to lose his mind and seeing weird dreams about meeting his god. In Cairo, they were supposed to meet Carlyle’s god after breaking the eye on top of the red pyramid and opening a way for the god to appear. Brady was able to draw the shape of the eye, what it had been before. When breaking the stone, Carlisle had stated that “Now that the eye is gone, Jack, we can all become gods!“
A few days later, all but Brady woke up early and entered the Bent Pyramid. After a while a chaos broke lose – local workers were running around, yelling that the academics had died, and fled the camp in panic. Brady entered the pyramid as well, but found no trace of his companions. Short while afterwards, the others came out of the pyramid, Carlisle explaining that “he had visited the real egypt”. Others looked like they had aged years in those few hours. Later Brady heard them talking amongst themselves, about the horros they had seen.
One night Roger Carlisle had wanted to show Brady what they had learned. He took the expedition out to the sands, played drums, and caused strange things to rise up from the sands, who then proceed to slaughter all the arabs, while the white men of the expedition only laughed. That night, Brady fled the camp, but Carlisle found him. Brady was told to change his attitude towards their goal, and that they were chosen to do this. The people of the expedition started to change too – every day, Aubrey Penhew seemed younger, and Patty Masters older and more tired – her pregnancy starting to show too.
In his last night in Cairo, Brady drugged Carlisle, stole the expedition’s funds and sailed to Mombasa with Carlisle. In Mombasa, Carlisle was able to finally sleep properly, and was starting to seem like his old self again. Brady reminded him of the horrors he has seen and caused, and after a week, he started to change again, realizing what he had done. When they reached Hong Kong, Carlisle was afraid of shadows and being followed. Brady left him in a hospital, and paid with his own money. He thought they had gotten away from it all, until a few years later, in Shanghai, he saw Aubrey Penhew again, on the deck of the ship Dark Mistress.
Brady did steal the 7 Cryptical Books of Shan from Mr. Liu. The book explains how to draw the mark of the eye, which can prevent Carlisle’s god from entering this world. The book was at Moon Shie to be translated. Brady also knew, that Penhew is at the island of the grey dragon, getting ready for the ritual. The island is a small distance away from Shanghai towards Hong Kong. According to Brady, if the ritual is disrupted in one of the three places it is being conducted at once, it will be disrupted in all of them. We saw the map inside the pyramid, and the island is the closest one to us at the moment.
Friday September 20th 1925
Mr. Walker and Mr. Troxler, physically biggest of us, were tasked with distraction – they went out to ask about coastal maps and train tickets, while Dr. Descours, Mr. Paynesworth and Mr. Borel were searching for a new accommodations for us, one room big enough to house all seven of us. We find one on the red light district, and while Dr. Descours and Mr. Paynesworth discuss the room, Mr. Borel uses the opportunity to sample the services of the house. In the evening, he feels itchy.
We conjure up a plan to smuggle our things and ourselves out of the hotel. The bulk of our belongings go with Mr. Walker and Mr. Troxler, who loudly inquire about good hotels in Beijing. Mr. Revelli and Mr. Moore slip out of the back door in disguise with the rest of our things and take them to our new room. Rest of us leave the hotel after Mr. Troxler and Mr. Walker, use a riksha to join Mr. Revelli and Mr. Moore. Mr. Troxler and Mr. Walker board a train, and leave quietly just before the train takes off. Then they sneak towards the red light district in the dark of the night.
Saturday 21th September 1925
Mr. Revelli and Mr. Moore, again the smallest of us and most likely to disappear in crowds, set out to meet Moon Shie. They receive a scroll, wrapped around a human rib, with strange symbol on the nobs at the end of the rib. The symbol has an eye drawn in a middle of a star. Moon Shie tells them that the text is written very strangely, not from left to right or from up to down, but in every direction, and it seems that the chapters switch places, depending on the position where one starts reading. He feels like there are many texts in the scroll, at least seven, but perhaps even an eighth one as well. The order of the text does not seem to depend on any external factor, time, place, phase of the moon or anything. Moon Shie tells them, that the eighth book seems to be an algorithm to count the final days of the world, when the blind god will enter.
Moon Shie has been translating the scroll for six days, and hasn’t slept from the second day forward. He is understandably very tired. Moore asks him to read from the scroll once, and then from the same spot again, and he reads two different stories. Mr. Min checks up on Mr. Shie each evening, and reports to Mr. Brady. Mr. Revelli and Mr. Moore stay and wait for Mr. Min to send their own message to Mr. Brady about Moon Shie’s condition.
Mr. Paynesworth and Mr. Borel try to find a ship for us to rent for our naval journey. They find a reliable-seeming captain, Mr. Wu Zetian, who can rent his ship, the Lotus Blossom, for us at the cheap price of 50 dollars per month. The other members of our expedition hide in our room.
At the evening, Mr. Min comes, and delivers the message to Mr. Brady. They both return very shortly afterwards, and after a quick chat, decide to come with us to our hideout, and in the morning, our ship. We take Mr. Moon Shie and the scroll with us as well. In the night, Mr. Moore tries to photograph the scroll, but the pictures are blurry. He tries again, and is sure that this time he succeeds, but the pictures are a failure again.
Sunday September 22nd 1925
Lotus Blossom only has a crew of two, the captain Wu Zetian and his worker, Yun Ying. They are paid 100 dollars for two months, as we board the ship and set off at afternoon, and sail the river down from Shanghai. Everything feels like we are getting near the solution, but with a sense of a menacing doom looming over us. Mr. Paynesworth estimates, that for each book from the scroll he reads, he will need two weeks to decipher and translate. By that calculation, he would be ready at the end of the year. Penhew and his henchmen are planning to conduct the ritual on the January 14th 1926, which would leave us only few days to prepare ourselves.
We decide to spend that time in a quiet rural village, away from everything. Mr. Paynesworth immerses himself in the research. Mr. Troxler nurses Moon Shie, who after a month of rest feels up to the task again, but in a few days of spending time with the scroll, can not continue with it. Our only connection to the world is Mr. Min, who travels to Shanghai and back every once in a while. In four weeks, he brings us news about professor Ali Kafour passing away in august.
Mr. Paynesworth’s research technique is superior to his early estimate – in just six weeks, he finds a carefully constructed trap within the text, which would send him reading the same entries again and again. When he realizes this, he understands the ritual behind closing the gate.