Chapter III Part II

Kandah continued, “Ok, well, we know that she's the mother of human kind as we know it, yes?”

“Erm, yeah”

“That wasn't a question Anjali. Right, we also know that she fought the Great Enemy, and that she was almost defeated, but she managed to wound it somehow.”

“Yeah”

“And that because she only wounded The Great Enemy, our race has been fighting The War ever since. And the rest of history is about how we came from virtual savagry to what we are today. But, it was Victori who started it all.”

“Yeah, ok, I'm with you so far.”

“So, the question is...actually, what is the question? You haven't asked me anything other than what I already knew.”

Excited that she might know something that Khandah might not know, Anjali relished the moment perhaps a little longer than she would, or should.

“Anjali, what is it? You've got that look about you, like you know something! What is it?”

“What would you say if I told you that today I was holding a copy of the original document written by Victori herself?”

“What do you mean a copy of the original? You really didn't learn anything in Humanica did you? Only first hand evidence counts, so either the original, or nothing at all. What did it say?”

“I don't know, I didn't get to look at it that close, I mean, I had it in my hand, but just for a moment, then Vedas … “

“Vedas! That old fool? What's he doing with it?”

“I dunno, he said he was a Keeper or sommet.”

“You mean a Keeper of the Makarium?”

“Yeah, that was it, he said he was entrusted to keep special documents and artefacts.”

“You know that The Makarium tried him once, under the anti-heratical acts, 'cos he claimed to be in possession of artefacts that questioned the existence of human-kind!”

“Yeah, I think I heard something like that, thats why nobody really belives what he says though, isn't it?”

“Well the story goes that he was to be tried, but the then Grand Laywer held a hearing in secret and old Vedas came out as a Keeper of the Makarium.”

“Part of that is true at least, cos he did have that copy, I even held it in my hands for a bit, managed to see something.”

“Really? What?”

“Just a name, doesn't mean much to me, even when I looked it up.”

“What name, what name?”

“Wulfren. Does that mean anything?”

“Hmmm, I've heard that name before, I'm sure it was mentioned in class, let me see, what would it be in? Ah, I know, the Encyclopedia Humanis.”

Reaching up to her upper most shelf, Kandah pulled down a large old book, what the librarians of old would have called a Tome, it's leather cover covered in years of dust. It fell onto the table with a loud thump, as though the knowledge held on it's pages actually had mass. It's spine creaking as Kandah opened it's pages.

“Wulfren, Wulfren. What would that be under then? Hmmmm”

“Isn't there a list of contents or something, like with a Vault-Pad? I guess there's no search bar!”

“Ah, actually Anjali, you're wrong there, there is a search bar, of sorts anyway, it's called an Index!”

Flipping to the very back pages, Kandah showed Anjali the index, and quickly found a reference to Wulfren there, just a single article in the whole Encyclopedia. Turning to the page, and flowwing her finger down, she soon found it, and was sorely disappointed.

“Is that is? Is that all it has to say?”

“What? What does it say? Kandah!”

“Oh! Sorry. It says;

“Wulfren: The mythological opposite of Victori. He was once her partner. The Enemy made it's war, and he was lost, this is why The Sign of the Makarium is shouting a battle cry. This cry is the inspiration of the whole of humankind society.”

Nothing that says if he actually existed or not though!”

“Gawd! I knew that already!”

Immediately Anjali knew she had slipped up, that she was going to have to tell Kandah about her trinket. Maybe she didn't hear her, maybe she got away with it.

“What do you mean, you knew that already?”

“Erm, just that, I know that...”

“You were actually listening in class then?”

“Err, yeah, sort of …. “

Anjali was gald of the escape route that Kandah had just given her, she had to keep her trinket a secret, for now anyway.

“Strange, I don't remember that class, I must have missed it”

“Yeah, I think you did, you had extra science or something, that was why I listened for once, cos I didn't have you to tell me what happened after”

“Hmm, makes sense. But doesn't help us any, that article says nothing much, and by the sounds of it, thats all there is, oficially anyway.”

“Yeah, a dead end. Now what?”

“Anjali, we need to see Vedas' copy, or whatever it is he's got!”

“What? How? We can't just walk in there and pick it up you know!”

With a hint of a plan in her eyes, Kandah replied, “Maybe we can, just maybe”