The Guild Chronicles Books 1-3

by J M Bannon

  “The Hermetic Brotherhood,” said Preston.

  “And you know I was here to meet Lorelei Traube?”

  "Lorelei arranged for you to show up at the Mosque, but we were your appointment not the Doctor. We are in need of your help.”

  Preston peered out through the archway into the outer parlor were several Turks convened, some in western suits others in traditional garb. Beyond the parlor appeared to be an open courtyard. “Pardon me, I don’t follow you,” said Preston.

  But you have heard of the “Hermetic Brotherhood.”

  “Yes, the Brotherhood of the temple of Hermes and Thoth, the original guardians of the three mystical arts: Theurgy, Alchemy and Astrology.” Preston was a little tossed off at the line of questioning, this level of comprehension wasn’t even what he considered entry level mystical knowledge.

  “More important to us is your intimate understanding of how one of our thirteenth century brothers broke his vows and as punishment for his treachery was banished from mortal existence to a place of undying.”

  "Azul," breathed Preston.

  "Yes, Azul Hassan,"

  "You're kidding me right? This is all about you trying to punish Azul?"

  "Oh, on the contrary I need to speak with him, we are in need of his service," clarified the diminutive Vizier.

  * * *

  6:40 p.m. The Peregrine

  Rose had returned to the Peregrine. Her hands and feet were still numb, she had the weird sensation of being awoken too soon from a nap, dazed and a trifle befuddled. No matter how she felt she must press on, having no idea where Preston could be. What she did have was the journal of Azul and that might be just enough to learn Preston’s location.

  After updating the Captain to the situation, she went to her quarters and rummaged through her belongings. The sleeping compartment was so small she didn’t have enough work surfaces or space to get all her gear out.

  “God Damn it, no space, no tools, nobody I know to help!” She threw her belt against the wall.

  “Can I be of any help?” asked Captain Falk standing in the doorway.

  "I’m flummoxed, I can’t think straight from what those goons zapped me with and I don’t have what I need to solve this,” complained Rose.

  “What do you need exactly? I have found just talking about a problem cuts it in half. Not that I have the answers but if I do, the only way I can help is to know what the problem is,” Reidun finished, leaning on the bulkhead frame.

  “I need tools, some fittings, maybe a welder, I require my workshop at home,” rattled off a flustered Rose.

  “What you need is to let those around you help. I can assist in two ways now that you have told me what you need. First, you can go up to the engineering deck and see what Jules and Tommy have that may be of use, second, I can fly you back to your workshop.”

  Rose stewed for a moment then stood picking up some of her junk. “Captain Falk, please escort me to the engineering deck.”

  The Captain led the way to the back of the gondola and up the stairs to the engineering deck. The deck was dominated by the boiler and the smokestack. There was a subdeck above the boiler that led to a spiral stair encircling the smokestack and went up through the cylindrical space carved out of the gas envelope. The canvas walls gave the stairwell a heavenly appearance. Jules, wearing a dirty undershirt and leather apron met them as they entered. “Captain Falk?”

  “Our guest here needs to use your shop.”

  “I have motors I am rewinding but Tommy can give you a hand. He is a top-notch tinkerer for his age and knows where all the bits and bobs are… Tommy!” The young lad came out from the other side of the boiler, “Yes Mr. Jules."

  "You help the lady with her project. Captain says our shop is hers," Jules ordered wiping his dirty hands on his apron.

  “First off, Tommy I need your help just bringing up materials from my cabin. There are items there you just won’t have,” informed Rose.

  After some time working on a sketch and thinking about what she needed, she went to scavenging with Tommy. Jules used the same inventory system she did, leave an item where you used it last and just remember. The airship was well stocked, but it was a dog’s breakfast when it came to order. She made a personal promise to clean up the studio arcana when she returned home.

  They started with a large glass bowl taken from a port side running light, big enough that the journal would fit inside. Tommy had welded up an airtight base that could accommodate the lamp cover, and in addition, the required fittings as sketched out by Rose.

  “Tommy, how are you with all this metaphysical stuff?”

  “Well, I haven’t been exposed to much but I like learning new things and I love what we are doing right now.”

  “What did you do before you got into ship engineering?”

  “The first job I had was as a telegraph operator on night shift. I got fired because I was tinkering around making a battery and spilled acid on the ground. Just happened when I was let go Mr. Jules was there picking up dispatches and he took me on.”

  “Interesting, so what we will do is something like that telegraph. You see there is a connection I can make to someone through this book. For the point of discussion just accept he is in the book. Just like your telegraph, there is an energy that can be tapped into and used to send messages. If I can contact him and he is connected to Mr. Gilchrist and I hope and pray that he is, we can find out where Preston is being held.”

  “The fella in the book, he was the one that Mr. Gilchrist was speaking with?” asked Tommy.

  “Yes, so we will put the book in the stand you made, attached to these silver clips and chain through this tube, into this basin where I can touch them,” Rose maneuvered the book into place. “Now help me put the cover in place.” The two of them lowered the clear glass ball over the book and into the stand, then screwed in the bolts to fix the lamp cover in place.

  “This basin is set so I can pour water in filling to a level in the ball of about three inches” Rose measured in the water. “Oh, there’s a leak, let me get sealing putty,” said Tommy moving quickly.

  “I had this idea, Tommy. You see, the other day I was doing a ritual where people can project across the multiverse and it just happened that book was accidentally placed near the ritual and connected. I was hoping to recreate that.

  “Most spiritualists use the gemulet as a connection tool. It is a physical object that has a rift to another plane of existence contained within it. We use mediums like eldritch gases to suspend the rift then we connect to the object through precious metals and water imbibed with other gases or tinctures. What we will do is build a gemulet of sorts around the book that contains a gemulet. My hope is this creates a telegraph line from our world through to his,” Rose instructed.

  After the ball was sealed, Rose connected a container of surelium mestificatos to the pipe nipple and valve Tommy had installed. She opened the valve and let the gas bubble in. The contraption looked like a giant crystal ball. Rose dipped her fingers in the water touching the silver chain that she had fed through the water and attached to the clips and began her incantation. She closed her eyes to project, but it didn’t feel right.

  “Holy Christ!” Tommy’s yell snapped Rose out of her trance.

  “What’s the matter?” shot Rose with concern.

  “I just saw a guy in there, in the smoke.” Rose looked closely, the gas was settling. She saw nothing.

  “You may think this is bonkers but none more than talking to a book. You see I have this idea of being able to record sounds. I don’t quite have the material to record them on, but I have figured out an apparatus to receive and transmit the sound.” The boy ran off and came back with two buttons made of brass and carbon with wires hanging off them and a lead-acid battery.

  “What I would suggest is we take these and connect them up to the silver chain and apply a low voltage to them. This one should allow us to hear sounds and the other to transmit your voice,” explained Tom
my as he held up the two devices.

  “Let's give it a go. Where did you learn this?” asked Rose.

  “Oh, I can’t tell you how many ideas I have rolling around in my head, but they come and I just tinker until it becomes a reality,” added Tommy.

  The two made the alteration and Rose began a second incantation. She kept her eyes open this time. Rose could see an image forming, it was the mad cleric, Azul Hassan.

  “Azul,” Rose said out loud.

  “Who is this?” came a tinny faint voice from the speaker. The image of the old man was looking around for the source of the voice.

  “It’s Rose Caldwell.”

  “Rose, you continue to amaze me, how have you broken through to communicate?”

  “It’s a long story and not important, I need to find Preston.”

  “Sister Rose, to a man trapped in a deathless prison for five hundred years, no story is too long and this could be a way to freedom. Please tell me.”

  Rose broke the connection. Azul's image faded.

  “There really is a guy in that book,” said Tommy.

  “Yes, there is.”

  “Why did you stop?” asked Tommy.

  “It’s too loud up here for me to concentrate properly and I need rest to hold the incantation. I also need to let Hassan know I am in charge and I won’t play his games, he is a crafty devil. Can I keep these transmitters?” requested Rose.

  “You can borrow them but I need them back, they are the only ones I have. You should disconnect the battery when you're not using it,” answered Tommy.

  “Tommy, you have been a life saver today. If you ever need a place in London to land, you make sure you come to see me,” offered Rose.

  “Ms. Caldwell, thanks for letting me help. I love to experiment with these gadgets, and you just showed that if little ole me, Thomas Alva Edison, can make it possible to talk to ghosts, then anything is possible,” Tommy gushed excitedly.

  * * *

  8:40 p.m. The Estate of Ahmed Pasha

  They moved Preston again, out of the downtown area to an estate surrounded by a large olive garden. This was the home of Ahmed Pasha. Preston willingly accompanied him, Ahmed had promised that here he would see Lorelei and learn why he was needed.

  Ahmed and Preston sat on cushions, at a low table sharing a meal in Ahmed’s dining room. It may have been the exotic spices or that much of the ingredients were grown on the estate, but the food exploded with flavor. As if what Preston had eaten before was just a dream and now ate for the first time.

  Ahmed interceded, “Are you acquainted with the Emerald Tablet?"

  “Yes. it’s known as the Philosopher's Stone. The founder of your order was to have etched the secrets of alchemy, ritual magic and astrology. There are dozens of books and illuminations containing versions of what was written on that stone and even more books with the mythology of the stone's power,” answered Preston.

  “And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one, so all things have their birth from this one entity by adaptation.” It was Lorelei’s voice, he shifted to see her come in from the garden. Jumping up Preston hugged her, “My God, it’s you, Lorelei. Did they hurt you in any way?” he asked.

  “No, just a wee bit panicky when they snatched me in my office but none the worse for wear. You have no reaction to what I said earlier?” she inquired.

  “Why would I?”

  “I hoped through Azul you would have. It is from the stone, I have seen it Preston, I have touched it," recounted Lorelei.

  Still holding her hands, Preston turned to Ahmed. “How about we stop right here and now and you clarify why you have kidnapped me?”

  Ahmed spoke as he poured tea. “Mr. Gilchrist, please sit down and have mint tea. We have been the defenders and holders of the emerald tablet for millennia. Over that time, we have needed to move it, hide it, fight and die for it. We failed when a group of Teutonic knights supporting Peter of Cyprus crusaded against the Ottomans and sacked Alexandria. There they found the Temple of Hermes and the Emerald Tablet. Our Brothers were killed, the temple razed. We have since searched for the tablet's whereabouts to find that the tablet has been in the custody of the Alchemists. We spent decades trying to infiltrate the Alchemists to determine the location to reclaim the tablet.

  Our agents heard of the new crucible project and how important Doctor Traube’s work was to the future of the Alchemists. We took radical steps and kidnapped Doctor Traube and destroyed the workshop. Our strategy was to hold her hostage and ransom her for the return of the tablet.”

  Lorelei spoke, “The emerald tablet has been the origin of the guild’s capacity to tap into elements from other dimensions. The founder of the Alchemist’s Guild, Master Stahl used fragments of the stone as a catalyst and learned from the inscriptions, but we have gone so much further with the work Maxwell and I have accomplished. Ahmed told me of the true nature of the stone and the consequences if it continued to be mishandled; I knew something needed to be done.”

  “Lorelei, didn’t he say they kidnapped you and annihilated your work? You sound like you are working with them?” Preston questioned.

  “I am. I wasn’t at first, but I now understand that the stone’s true purpose isn’t the testimony of arcane secrets but a vessel that bears a great evil," she replied.

  Preston walked back to the table and sat down. “I was genuinely concerned for your safety Lorelei, I… I left and grabbed Rose to chase after you and this is all just a game for you? Really Lorelei, just go back home and tell your father whatever the issue is with the stone and quit playing like this is a scavenger hunt.”

  “No Preston this is fate, this is bigger than you and me, I needed to compel you to bring the book - Azul’s journal.”

  “What are you going on about?” asked Preston, irritated.

  “The stone is a prison of one of the four outcasts,” explained Ahmed. Preston logically processed this new information. In his studies, he had seen citations in various ancient texts across Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Meso-American and Chinese mysticism about ancient beings that were cast down from another world. Some believed that it was the same race or just one being that visited all of these ancient cultures and helped them to greatness. He had never had confirmation of the myth that the outcasts existed until now.

  He felt a little tension in the back of his neck and heard what sounded like Arabic chanting, but upon focusing, it was gone. He recognized a detachment from his innate genius in arcane knowledge.

  “Preston, once I realized what we were dealing with I had to help this ham-handed bunch. Now they did one thing right in kidnapping me they blocked any chance of the crucible being a success. Sure, Maxwell is a decent man and the brains behind that plant but the Alchemist Guild will require proto-gas recipes and they will never figure those out without me. The reason I believe these circumstances are destiny is because of the involvement of the Hermetic Brotherhood. Think how we met Preston, you were studying the works of Azul Hassan, a leading mind of the Hermetic order, then I am abducted by the same order, tell me that’s not fate?”

  Preston shook his head, he was still not following the logic of these two. He understood the connection of the Hermetic Order to the emerald tablet, he had read the works, hell, he had a fraternity member in his head most nights, but couldn’t get a grip on this fate business.

  Ahmed interceded. “We have learned from Lorelei that over time, the Alchemists have been chipping, etching and abusing the tablet. This has weakened the protective wards, and sooner or later the prison will collapse. Just as the wards lost effect, so have our arcane powers. That is why my brothers have resorted to using mechanical gadgets to give the appearance of magi. Without the stone and continuous practice of the ritual to reinforce the prison we have forgotten the practice.”

  Our plan is for Doctor Traube to bring us to the stone. We will need the rituals to fortify the wards and require the journal of Azul Hassan and your help to advise us.”

/>   “That’s why we need you Preston, as part of the team.” Lorelei walked over to him and grabbed his shoulder. “You are the missing piece, you can reeducate the Brotherhood to seal up the stone. This is fate Preston, for me to know where the stone is and you to have the knowledge to repair it,” implored Lorelei.

  Preston took unleavened bread, scooped up lentils and humus and devoured it.

  “Lorelei, you have always been one step ahead; you possess the biggest brain in the room, you have out-smarted everyone your whole life, until now. You were always so certain you had everything figured out and now that overconfidence has put you and me in a real pickle.

  First off, a day ago I could have arranged for you to speak with Azul Hassan. Direct communication as I have, or I should say had, a channel to him. Your choice to electrocute me in the market has somehow broken the connection. Where he lived in the deepest hollows of my mind you figured out how to flush him out. I haven’t yet decided if I should thank you or curse you for that.

  “Oh, then there is the fact that your father has the recipes,” concluded Preston.

  “What?!” Lorelei’s smug confidence evaporated at the disclosure.

  “You know Lorelei I thought you were in danger and needed my help” He threw the half-eaten bread on his plate. “And your father is concerned too, so much he flew to London to call on me with one of your notebooks. He was hoping to find some clue to your situation, and so was I. The book was your stock standard alphabet date cipher. I didn’t even need a key, I could decode it in my head,Hydrogen charged with Malicos Ultimata, Seureleum Mestificatos and Thanatalic Quintessence.

  The exact recipes don’t roll off my tongue since you blasted me with electricity but don’t worry I transcribed them verbatim for him.”

  A muffled “Oh, no” came from Lorelei. Her face rested in the palms of her hands.

  * * *

  12 p.m. The Hunsrück Königsberg Air Naval Yard