Some commonly used words are after the list of characters. Replace th on end of words with ness and t with d or ed and most of the rest are obvious if sounded out aloud. Some words with n or en on the end can be easily understood if the n is replaced by a d. Only difficult words and words that do not exist in English are now referred to specifically at the end of the chapter. Appendix 1 Folk words and language usage, Appendix 2 Castle places, food, animals, plants and minerals, Appendix 3 a lexicon of Folk and Appendix 4 an explanation of the Folk calendar, time, weights and measures. All follow the story chapters.
For countless thoughts before the birth of spacetime, they watched. They had no particular form, for being apart from spacetime they were able to form themselves as they wished, yet they had an affinity for the form that, in lifetimes of universes to come, would be known as the dragon by one particular life form. They had no physical conception of spacetime, only an intellectual one, because they had existed before it was born. Their being was independent of spacetime, though they knew they had been been brought into existence and watched over till it was no longer necessary by the one they referred to as the Father of Beings who had given them their affinity for dragon form. They referred to themselves as the Beings and their number was six, a perfect number.(1) They were Analyser, Comparator, Concatenator, Differentiator, Extractor and Integrator. Their designations as he or she were something they treasured, for though they understood them not they had been given to them by the Father of Beings.
Analyser was in some ways the most powerful of the Beings and in others the least. Given any situation that existed she could provide huge amounts of information concerning how it came about, but without being given that information she could do nothing. However, given a fragment of a thought concerning the present by one of her siblings she was able to explain the entire history of that thought.
Comparator compared different situations that had existed, did exist, would exist or even could possibly exist. He was not able to do so without the input of his siblings who gave him the initial situations to compare. Given situations from any time frames he could contrast and compare them in detail right down to sub-quantal levels. Sufficient detail to be able to turn any of them into any other situation in any other time frame.
Concatenator was so named for his ability to join fragmented and unrelated thoughts from many sources and create a coherent single thought from those sources as to what was happening in the present. Knowing partial things from any set of time frames he could explain any and all possible presents.
First Thinker was accepted by the others as older than they by the thickness of a thought, and occasionally she had been thought of by them as Eldest. First Thinker was also Differentiator, but had been so designated because her first thought had included the birth of spacetime which without her thought the others would have had had no conception of. First Thinker took more satisfaction from thinking of spacetime than the others who preferred to think of other things. Given a past and its concomitant present enabled her to see its future.
Extractor was able to think across all thoughts and from them elucidate new thoughts past, present and future. She was the least understood of her siblings because what she could produce was the least explicable. She was as a result reclusive and enigmatic. Knowing thoughts from any time frame she could construct alternate thoughts in any possible time frame. She was able to change past, present and future and as a result her siblings were a little reluctant to engage with her.
Integrator was able to take thoughts from many sources and put them together and hence he could create a concept as to what those multiple thoughts had arisen from in the past. Knowing the future and present enabled him to deduce the past.
Despite their almost limitless abilities the Beings did not have a total vision or control of future events. Many things occurred that none of them foresaw, perhaps most significantly to the readers of this tale the fevers. As a result they oft had to react to events as they occurred, for they could not merely set a sequence of events in motion and then leave them, for life was complex and like any other non linear dynamical system an insignificant change early on could result in counter-intuitive, unpredictable or even chaotic changes with time.
Other than the Father of Beings, whose presence they yearnt for, they knew they were the only sentience, it is pointless to say, that had ever existed, because to make such a statement requires that they be subject to spacetime. Collectively to many, in many galaxies, they would come to be wrongly known, by many names, as God, but in that place and time that was no place and no time, they neither created nor destroyed. They watched as they had been so watched. They knew watching was their existence. They also knew time would be be born the twin of space when spacetime was born out of the Void’s loneliness and needs for fulfilment. They understood not the Void but they pitied her. She who, unknown to all her offspring, would become God by her sundering act of self inflicted pain which was creation. The Beings had no sense of loneliness nor need of fulfilment, yet they knew out of the immeasurably deep needs of the Void would come spacetime and concomitantly fragile life would arise in countless forms in countless places in every variety of physical environment. They watched, they watched and they watched, and eventually First Thinker broadcast, “And what then?”
Comparator eventually breakt the age long silence and broadcast in reply, “Then? There is no then.”
“Yes, there is no then now, but there will come to be a then. And what then? After the offspring of the Void come to be which will result in an almost never ending then to them, do we just watch and allow the products of her labour to constructively and destructively interfere with each other completely stocastically? Or do we nurture all, some or a few? Moreover, do we take part and will offspring of our own into being?”
Integrator broadcast, “To what end is your thought, Differentiator? We are. Why should we seek else? Seek you purpose?”
“As you are all aware, I find satisfaction in thinking of the spacetime to be. I merely wish to have more to think of. Rest easy, Integrator, I was not considering dissolving my thought. I need no purpose other than my thought, yet it is also my thought as we were watched over by the Father of Beings, may hap, we are expected to do likewise.”
Concatenator broadcast, “Your thought is provoking, First Thinker. I shall retire to think further on it.” The others felt him break off his receptiveness.
Extractor as was usual did not broadcast, though they were aware she was receiving.
The Void’s rhythmic but irregular contractions of her labour pains compressed the infinitude of dimensionality available to her into a small portion of her self aware universe that æons later became accepted by some of her children as the four dimensional spacetime. As her birth pangs were distorting and giving shape to the very spacetime she was giving birth to amidst the cataclysmic cosmic background radiation that was the buffering fluid of her convulsing womb, First Thinker’s thoughts were reconsidered, and Analyser broadcast, “Now I understand your fascination with spacetime, First Thinker. The potential for complexity is almost boundless. What an exacting thing to think on. I have had no beginnings of thought concerning your thoughts on nurturing spacetime, but I am considering willing offspring into existence. Should I do so, I shall name my offspring Entropy, but thought is required.”
Time now in existence, æons of it passed before the next consideration of such things. Extractor, who had not broadcast anything since countless thoughts before the beginning of time, broadcast, “It is my thought Eldest was correct to ask ‘What then?’ Now is then and I ask, ‘What now?’ My thought is we should take a part in this spacetime, and will offspring into existence as did the Father of Beings. I think this that we can more nearly be a part of it. Analyser was correct, but my thought is in the almost boundless complexity of this spacetime there is as much potential for wrongness and distorted thought as there is for rightness and clear thought. This is not acceptable to me, wrong thought uncontrolled could make us consider dissolving our thoughts, and that is not part of my vision of our being. The Father of Beings did not will us into existence for us to dissolve our thought. It is my thought that would run counter to his thought which is disrespectful. Thus we need to not just watch over our offspring, but also to nurture some of this fragile spacetime life to be, and to terminate what is of a wrongness by returning it to the Void for her to take back unto herself. All such wrongness will become part of the nothingness that is the Void whence it originated. All life birtht out of and by the Void has its own opportunity to strive for rightness.” Extractor had just broadcast more than the others had received from her since they had been willed into existence. As she lapsed into silence they knew she had withdrawn from them into her habitual isolation and was no longer receiving.
Galaxies were born, and those galaxies grew, matured, aegt and died, and still the Beings watched and thought, still having come to no conclusion about offspring nor of nurturing spacetime, and all the while the five had no awareness of Extractor, which caused them to feel lessened, no longer the perfect six. They were thinking together on the matter, as they had many times before, when they became aware of a strangeness. “It is I and my six Catalytic offspring you are aware of,” Extractor broadcast. “My thought has become denser and faster since I willed my offspring into being. I have grown. It is my thought in the willing of offspring into being we shall grow as the Father of Beings intended. Too, thoughts of nurturing the rightness and clear thought born out of spacetime and of returning the wrongness and distorted thought to the Void has encouraged my thought to be wider, more all encompassing.” Then just as suddenly as the strangeness had impinged on their awareness it was gone. Extractor and her offspring were no longer with them, but the five no longer felt lessened.
The five thought for long on Extractor’s broadcast, and Analyser was the first to break their silence, “It is not clear to me why it is right for offspring to be willed into existence in sixes any more than it is clear to me why we number six, but it is clear to me since six is perfect it is right. I am going to will into existence my six Entropic offspring,” and she so did. It was not long, in the terms of the lifespans of galaxies, before Integrator, Concatenator, Comparator and Differentiator willed their Synergistic, Isochronous, Anisotropic, and Syndiotactic offspring respectively, six of each, in to existence too. Extractor and her offspring rejoined the others, and the six were busy watching over their offspring for many æons before they could consider the nurturing of rightness and the termination of wrongness in spacetime, but eventually that time arrived, and they spent much time deciding what constituted rightness and wrongness.
That was a convoluted process, for to make progress a life form had to struggle, and oft that struggle was for limited resources another life form needed too in order to make progress. Thus that one life form out competed the other to extinction was not a wrongness by definition, but if it happened there were enough of that resource for both but still one forced the other to extinction that was deemed to be a wrongness, and termination was considered. Most situations were complicated with many life forms and even more resources involved in a complex web of interdependent relationships, many times judgement was withheld, and in many cases life forms were sampled and the sample removed to other similar environments, always galactic distances away from where they had originated so as to prevent potential cross contamination or worse reinforcement of wrongness. Sometimes a perceived wrongness persisted in either the original life forms, or in some of the removed ones, sometimes all were of a wrongness. There was no difference to the Beings whether they removed a sample to an environment similar to whence it came or they returned a wrongness back to the Void, for it was the same process.
The Beings’ responses varied according to the exact circumstances, but ultimately they terminated determined wrongness, oft over time rather than by sudden extinction. When they had any doubts they always removed life form samples, this was especially so in the case of withheld judgements, and such was the case with Earth. Earth was home to a fascinating but troublesome set of life forms with a wide variety of interactions. There was a complete spectrum of interactions ranging from obligate parasitic(2), amensalistic,(3) commensalistic(4) through to mutualistic(5) at the other end of the symbiotic spectrum. Many of the parasitic forms they terminated, but many, like Sacculina,(6) they left for a variety of complex reasons. The Beings could not decide whether humans were essentially of a wrongness or of a rightness because they exhibited both characteristics so vibrantly and extremely. Humans they thought could be deemed to parasitise their entire planet and all life forms there on. They had been removing samples of many species from Earth for a long time to many places, including the planet that would become known as Castle, where initially there were no humans to drive them to extinction. Later they had also removed many life forms along with humans to places where the life forms could rerun their co-existence, the first such was Castle, and those humans became the Folk.
Different places had received different kinds of humans, not all perceived as of a rightness overall, but all possessing some characteristic that was of a potential rightness. Earth was the original gene pool from which several thousand other worlds had been seeded. When the Beings relocated a self aware life form such as a human all artefacts and history of that human were removed too, and memories were manipulated in such a way that they were never missed. Steps were taken so hardship was not experienced as a result of the removal. The Beings, being apart from spacetime, could remove anything or any one from any where or any when and likewise deposit them. There had been consideration of terminating most if not all of the humans on Earth many times, but always there had been many factors that indicated withholding judgement was the most appropriate course of action.
Almost two hundred years after the man who became known as The Music Man [see later this chapter] had given his six performances in Caerwick when he had warned both the authorities and the citizens of their folly, and as a result of hubris had been misinterpreted and hence ignored by both, the Beings had been nearer to terminating most humans on Earth than they had ever been before. They reserved judgement because it was their thought the humans were about to terminate most of themselves without any help, and the survivors would be a better selection to reseed the Earth than those they would have not terminated, and if humans became extinct on Earth they had humans else where with which to reseed, or not as seemed appropriate. That was just before the total collapse of human society on Earth a man named Stewart had witnessed and explained to the Folk. Stewart had been removed from Earth by the Beings as a member of the incursion that reached Castle in its six hundred and nineteenth year after the Fell Year. He had been removed because of his quintessential rightness and their thought he could better help the Folk of Castle than the survivors of Earth. [See chapter 129 for full details.]
That collapse had been global and total in every even barely developed place. Europe, North America, and Australasia and the rest of the west had all gone the same way as Britain, where, as a result of the overwhelming number of social parasites society could no longer carry, the host had sickened almost unto death, and only the extinction of the parasites had allowed the vastly changed and reduced number of survivors to rebuild. South America, Africa, China, Indonesia and India had drowned in their own populations along with many other places. The effect on various native populations in isolaett parts of the globe had been virtually nil, but they had never had any significant effect on the rest of the planet. The net effect was the planet was starting again with a cleansed and vastly reduced population, which it was now capable of supporting, at the beginning of a new industrial revolution. As Stewart had remarked after his removal to Castle, ‘slightly behind Castle’.
The Beings considered the Folk of Castle to be essentially of a rightness and regarded them as capable of managing their own terminations. That the extreme nature of Castle’s climate was in large part responsible for that rightness gave them much on which to think. They had been considering terminating the fevers, which was responsible for the frequent but irregular huge deadth toll which limited the population of Castle to about thirty-five thousand, for some time, but even after the Fell Year had nearly terminated the Folk they withheld judgement, and carefully adjusted the flow of incursionists, selecting only those who would adapt to the Folk quickly, so as to give the Folk a viable population yet at the same time maintain their culture. When the Folk had terminated the fevers themselves the Beings were satisfied their withheld judgement had been appropriate as it had provided the Folk with the opportunity for the rightness of their thought to grow.
All incursions had been carefully managed and it was agreed, for Earth, Extractor’s thought was the best at selecting the elements of incursions, not just the human incursionists, for the many societies which needed them. She and her descendants were best able to balance the needs of the receiving society, the needs of Earth and the needs of the individual incursionists. On various worlds including Castle, some incursionists of essential wrongness, but with a redeeming quality, who were almost certain to be terminated quickly by the resident population were included. Those incursionists were being given the opportunity to change and grow, which it was appreciated they would be unlikely to recognise, but occasionally it worked. However, for the Beings, an unlikely chance for those individuals to grow their thought was better than certain termination by Extractor.
Had humans known what was going on doubtless many would have adjudged the Beings to be callous and concluded that they placed little value on life, but no human was capable of understanding, never mind considering, the huge number of factors that influenced exactly what the Beings did and why. Some incursionists were selected because they required considerable help from the residents which enabled the residents to change and grow, and on Castle in particular, for the Castle Way, the codes by which the Folk lived, to evolve. The inevitable loss of life brought about by incursion was regrettable, but to the Beings’ wider perspectives not without benefits to both incursionists and residents alike.
The most difficult incursionists for Extractor and her descendants to select were the persons who were essentially of a rightness and were valuable persons making large contributions to the rightness of Earth, but who were needed to help the receiving society develop as a viable human population should it become necessary to terminate so many humans on Earth that either the remaining humans would need a society to go to large enough to absorb them or it would become necessary to repopulate Earth from elsewhere. Where possible they chose persons whose lifes would be better as a result of their incursion, where not they manipulated their memories so they believed their lives were now better and then assisted to make them better. It was a complex process because whilst primarily concerned with the macro-management of several thousand human societies, and of course the many other species they coexisted with too, there was a large requirement for the micro-management of individuals.
The selection of the first human incursionists for Castle had given Extractor and hers much thought. Jacques was the obvious choice to lead the community in the bitter climate of Castle. Of a rightness, he was a capable leader who did not have the arrogance of those who considered it was their right to lead due to their ancestry. That he could be taken from his deathbed was convenient, but not important. That he would build a Castle at the coastal river site was not just obvious but necessary to ensure the long term safety of his community from the climate. How to structure the community was thought provoking, but it was eventually thought the complementary abilities of the Christians and their mutual enemies the Muslims would make a good basis for a community. Persons were taken from a wide time range and there was a preponderance of male Christians and even more female Muslims to enable the society to settle and integrate quickly. Many were ‘encouraged’ to cross marry, including Jacques and Mariam. In order to give Jacques the skilled workforce he would need to build the Castle Muslims from Spain, many of whom had Berber blood, were also taken. The resilience of those who had sub-Saharan African blood as a result of surviving slavery was thought to be a helpful inclusion. The fevers that arrived with the second incursion had not been a deliberate decision, but it was allowed to continue despite repeated consideration of its termination.
The community was watched closely for a long time, and those whose prejudices towards persons of different origins were dangerous to the weäl(7) of the community had their memories manipulated, or if it be considered their traits were genetic they were returned to the Void. When a particular skill the community did not possess was required memories were altered such that the skill was created, or skilled artisans were taken from Earth. When particular raw materials were required that were not easily available in sufficient quantity on Castle they were imported, if necessary by relocating whole ranges of ore bearing mountains, and someone ‘encouraged’ to discover them. Such importations rarely came from Earth. Other importations not from Earth included life forms considered to be useful to Castle. Most, but not all, of those were plankton like life to form the basis of food webs in the waters and terrestrial plants and trees, though there were some much larger animal life forms, most notably perhaps the chlochan.(8)
The creation of the Castle Way was achieved by the incursion of spiritual leaders from many different sources along with a number of persons of extreme intelligence, all being ‘reminded’ from time to time of things they already ‘knew’. The community was guided in just about every way it could have been in order ensure its success. It was not the first such community the Beings had created, but it was the first involving humans, and initially they were a difficult life form to manage. However, it did not take Extractor’s family long to master the handling of humans, and all subsequent human communities they created were more easily dealt with as a result of their experiences with the Folk of Castle.
The Beings’ only perplexity concerned the individuals they could not take from Earth, there had not been many, possibly one every century or so, and they were all superior humans who seemed to have some connection with a concept known to some humans as Saijät. For some reason the Beings could not perceive it did not cause them much thought even though they knew it should have done. They never considered the possibility they were being controlled. The humans of Castle were for reasons unknown, even to the Beings, the most right of humans anywhere and Extractor had maekt the decision Castle provided the yardstick gainst which humans would be measured, which meant the Earth population was expendable, the Folk was not.
The Beings were by no means solely concerned with humans, they watched all lifeforms of spacetime, though there were relatively few intelligent species and none that required as much attention as humans. They continued to watch as spacetime developed, and their offspring willed into existence offspring. That process continued twice more, and the Beings numbered nine thousand three hundred and thirty when they considered there were enough of them to nurture all spacetime. It was a puzzle to the Beings that their generations numbered five which was one short of perfection and they numbered one short of of a number which they felt, for reasons beyond them, to be of significance. It gave them a deep sense of unease when they realised that number theory must exist independent of all else including existence, for truth is truth even when there is none to give it witness or the lie.
Concatenator had finally decided to broadcast his thought concerning the matter that caused him the most unease, “I can not join my thought of where spacetime is with where we wish it to be. It is my thought I shall not be able to do this without help. Since I am the best at joining thoughts I have come to the conclusion we must seek the guidance of our Father. I shall retire now and leave you to think on this as I do not wish to influence your thought. I shall remain receptive and when you have reached a conclusion shall be satisfied to receive it.
Comparator eventually broadcast, with overtones of great longing, “I find it difficult to separate my great desire to meet with Father and our need to do so. I want us to need to meet him and believe my thought to be overwhelmed by that. I am not thinking to any effect and am willing to agree with the thought of the rest of you,” with that he ceased broadcasting and waited receptively.
It was a long time before the Beings managed to reach the far ends of their thoughts and all agreed to some extent their thought was dominated by desire, which they found both disturbing and satisfactory. They eventually came to the conclusion since they were what their father had willed them to be, their desire had to be an acceptable part of their thought, but they also accepted that may just be wishful thought. However, the decision was maekt to meet with their father.
They cast their thoughts wide open to receive from over the entirety of spacetime and beyond, and to their surprise found their father was within a thought or two of Earth. Analyser broadcast, “We should not be surprised, since it is home to the set of life forms that requires more of our thought than any other. Father would naturally be there to assist without us realising it. We should be grateful, for were he not we should probably have had a great deal more thought to expend than we have so done.” The others agreed with her and planned to meet with their myriad of descendants, at their spacetime average position before setting off for Earth. The decision had been taken to allow their journey to take time, rather than simply appearing at Earth. This was in order to allow for thought, though their journey was for them of no particular interest as compared with their shared thoughts concerning their father. Their descendants, who had only experienced the presence of the Father of Beings at second hand, were almost excited by the prospect.
The Beings’ interactions with humans which they knew they would experience without casting their thought abroad when they achieved closer contact with Earth they regarded as of no import whatsoever, but the wrongness of distorted human thought and reactions to their father they became aware of, long before they were any where near Earth, filled them with such a violence of feeling they had, for the first time in their existence, to struggle with their thought lest they terminate from dislike rather than reason. They considered long, and in a fraction of a second reached their conclusion, such unprovoked malice could not be allowed to continue to threaten the survival of Earth. They would trace the wrongness over the element of spacetime that was the history of Earth and terminate all humans and sites involved. They contacted their father, but whilst he was prepared to allow them their chosen course of action, he would not allow them to do anything which would affect his chosen course of action which he said would be over in three rotations of Earth. “On my sixth interaction with the dominant life form you may deal with any wrongness as you will, but not before. Then, and not before, you may come into my presence.”
The small middle aged man with the mellow and sometimes difficult to follow Scottish accent smiled with resignation at the smartly dresst representative of the New York publishing house who had just rejected his book. He said, “No matter, Master Holborne, it’s just a matter of time.”
Alan Holborne, trying hard not to stare into the almost hypnotic eyes of the author didn’t understand the honorific but accepted Mr. Smith regarded it as a courtesy. Thinking Smith meant either, he would have his book published somewhere eventually or he would have another book published, Holborne apologised and handed back the manuscript saying, “The public is just not interested in a work like this. Here in the States thirty years ago, we were publishing dozens of books like this every year, but alas no longer.” Holborne’s use of the word alas, which he knew had been for the first time in his life pulled him up sharply as he realised he was starting to think and speak using Smith’s spaech patterns.
The book had started with a newscast about the discovery, by astronomers, of thousands of things, all many light years away, both from our galaxy and from each other, converging on a point so far away it was almost at the limit of observable detection, they all appeared to be travelling at many times the speed of light and could not be identified. They defied all known science and the scientific community considered them to be the most exciting and important discovery since ancient times, for their velocities seemed to indicate observation of current events rather than events that had happened æons ago. A little later, after they had converged, they moved in a direction which seemed to be aimed at this galaxy. Their velocity was such there was no known way of even estimating just how high that was. Just inside the limit of resolution they seemed to slow to below the speed of light, and once they were close enough for scientists to be able measure they appeared to be between four hundred metres [¼ of a mile] and eight hundred metres [½ a mile] in size, and now seemed to be aimed at this solar system. As they came nearer they continued lose velocity and appeared more like æroplanes than space craft or space debris. As they came even closer they appeared to be æroplanes fashioned to look like some kind of creature.
Once in Earth orbit and travelling at a mere forty thousand kilometres per hour, [25,000 mph] but still with negative acceleration, they appeared to be biding their while and looked as if maekt in the image of dragons. On their descent through the atmosphere, US fighters were sent to meet them as their path would impinge on US air space. The Russian premier had already been on the hot line to the US president about the matter. There were about ten thousand of them, though they were so densely packed it was difficult to be sure. Now travelling slowly enough for the fighters to parallel their course, the fighters broadcast warnings of dire consequences if they did not turn aside and land. The same warnings were also being broadcast in hundreds of languages on a wide range of frequencies from the ground. A fighter pilot, who had drifted a little closer than any other fighter to one of the craft at the edge of the pack, watched in terror as a huge neck turned its head towards him. As the eyes blinked, he realised they weren’t craft, they were creatures.
As they continued their descent the air became thicker and they started to use their wings which moved slowly but with a great deal of power. They continued on their path with no deviation and no sign they had heard the warnings, so, despite advice to the contrary, the president gave the order to open fire. The fighters pulled away and opened fire from a safe distance. The munitions exploded just before hitting the dragons and when visibility resumed it was seen they had been unaffected by the attack which should have disintegrated them. The ejector seats of the pilots had all been activated simultaneously the instant the first weapon had been fired, but not by the pilots, and the dragons had breathed green and blue flames on the fighters which had instantly disappeared rather than disintegrated. The pilots landed unharmed. When they traversed Russian airspace, again they were met by armed fighters broadcasting dire warnings and threats. Again when they were fired on, the fighter pilots’ ejector seats operated, the fighters were consigned to the Void and the pilots landed unharmed.
Holborne, who had been in the publishing business all his working life and was not far from retirement, had considered the novel to have been an intelligently written, highly interesting and entertaining one, but in his opinion totally unsaleable.
Closed circuit television footage shewed he arrived in the town square of Caerwick, in northern England, just before ten thirty that Saturday morning. A small, serious looking man of medium build with a full head of graying hair, he could have been any where from forty to sixty. He was dresst in faded black trousers of nondescript cut, a knitt woollen pullover of startling flecked random colours that looked as if it had been knitt from thin left over oddments plied together to create a yarn, and black leather shoes that had clearly seen better days. He walked, with the confidence of those in total control of their destiny, to the far side of the square from the news agent’s shop and held out his left arm with the palm of his hand facing upwards. His hand briefly shone with a pulsing blue light and then there was a glowing blue ball about three inches in diameter in his hand, not just on the palm, but embedded in the flesh of his hand. The blue light spread out to encase him, or perchance become adsorbed into his skin would be a better description of what occurred, before the ball flew from his hand stopping briefly at the six upper corners of the area comprising the ‘square’ leaving a copy of itself at each corner all connected by linking blue lines as it delineated an irregular hexagon. It went back to just above the man, still standing patiently as if waiting for it, from where it sent linking lines of blue light out to the corners. It then descended slightly and dissolved into the man’s corona. The lines about the periphery of the square thinned as they dropped down as sheets to the ground enclosing a three dimensional space.
The man then held both arms out with his palms facing down and what appeared at first sight to be an accordion appeared from nowhere at his feet. It rose to his chest and his corona extended to encompass the instrument too. His instrument had no straps nor visible means of support and the left hand side had no wrist strap with which to work the bellows. The instrument was marked SYNCODEC as if that were its maker, or perhaps that indicated its model or type. The left hand side was flat and had no visible buttons, and the right hand side was difficult to see as it shimmered, as if one moment it were not there and then in the next as though it had multiple manuals like a church organ, some of them with buttons like a bayan(9) rather than keys like a piano accordion.
Then he started to play, and his skill maekt virtuosi seem like fumble fingered beginners. His fingers moved so quickly it sometimes looked as if he had multiple arms and hands with a dozen fingers on each. The instrument sounded as though it were complete orchestras of many types accompanied by the singers of massed choirs, including soloists, as well as having the facility for creating every kind of sound effect known, and some that had never been heard before. There was no obvious source of the sound, it seemed to originate from everywhere in and about the square within the blue enclosed space. As the growing crowd occupied more of the surrounding streets the blue sheets moved farther out to encompass the extra audience that they too may listen and see the player. The man did nothing other than play, there were no auxiliary controls as on a virtual accordion of the most sophisticated type, like a Roland.
When moving slowly enough to see, the fingers of his left hand maekt movements that to the accordionists in the crowd were what they would have expected, though his thumb seemed to articulate in the same way as his fingers and he uest it as such. Notwithstanding the lack of physical buttons, it seemed to be a conventional left hand set up, and many accordionists concluded the buttons were of a touch type rather than of a push type. Such technologies had been known for a long time, though not, as far as they were aware, uest on accordions. The bellows moved conventionally, and despite the lack of a visible wrist strap, followed his left wrist as they expected. To those who understood, the technical brilliance of his dynamic control was breath taking, with diamond sharp edges to the bellows’ movements which flicked entire sound-scapes about the square and beyond. The instrument’s right hand side constantly changed in it’s nature, and the player’s hand and fingers seemed to move through it.
That his seamlessly integrated glissandi took his audience to new heights of musical appreciation was beyond doubt, but everything contributed to the emotional impact of their experience. Some of the music elusively bordered the edge of recognition, but there were also strange musics, some uest tonal structures different from the western concept of octaves divided into twelve semitones, some were haunting and eerie musics that included notes so deep they could only be felt and other notes so high they vibrated the skull and were on the the edge of pain, some vaguely familiar musics from all over the world and some sounded so unfamiliar it was not entirely incredible to suppose they were not of this world. As he played the man smiled at the crowd, his body not responding to the music he was creating, his head was still and he didn’t tap his feet. He looked about him at the audience as he smiled, especially he smiled at children, though some noted his smile didn’t seem to include his unnaturally bright, yellow-green eyes. The crowd that gathered to watch and listen had soon blocked the square, but it could approach no nearer than two metres [6 feet] to him, there was an invisible barrier between him and them, which enabled the crowd to see him that much better. As the crowd had become larger he had risen, standing on the five feet of air beneath his feet, presumably so as to enable the larger audience the better to appreciate his performance.
After a while a pair of policemen forced their way through the crowd and one self importantly told the musician he had no licence for public performance and had to move along. The crowd booed the police and the man rose higher in the air giving no sign he had heard them and carried on playing. The police left and returned with reinforcements and a ladder. They leant the ladder against the invisible barrier but the none of the police constables were eager to climb it. A constable was ordered to climb the ladder to arrest the musician, he climbed the ladder, but the musician just rose higher so as to be still out of the constable’s reach. The constable’s superior who had ordered him up the ladder now ordered him to come down and went up himself. When he reached the top the barrier ceased to support the ladder and it came down to the ground with a clatter, and the policeman, who landed with a dull bone breaking thud, was taken to hospital. The police requested a fire engine with long reach ladders to come and assist. By this time the local newsmen were reinforced by national newsmen.
There was now a large police presence, and thirty officers were ordered to disperse the crowd and a member of the crowd shouted, “Go on, you bastards, read the Riot Act(10) to a peaceful audience listening to music. You’re on TV for all to see. Let the world see what a bunch of fascist twats the good old British bobbies(11) really are. He’s not even asking for money so you can’t say he’s an unlicensed busker.” The young man’s abuse, much to the embarrassment of the police, had somehow been amplified so every member of the crowd could hear it, and it resulted in derisive laughter from them all. It was relayed with great relish to the entire world by the media. The police found they couldn’t approach near enough to the crowd to disperse it due to the presence of another invisible barrier. The fire engine arrived and much to the amusement and delight of the crowd the player simply moved a little higher and was still out of reach, but his music, still at the same volume, had become a flighty, mocking ditty reminiscent of a sailor’s hornpipe.
The police gave up but continued to watch from a distance. After having played the most compelling music ever heard for six hours, and in the process having burnt holes in the global news networks, at four thirty the player finished his last piece, bowed, smiled and spake for the first time, “Next week, I shall sing too.” The blue lights and his instrument reversed the order of their appearance and he slowly sank to the ground. The police attempted to rush him from all directions at once, but a foot from him they bounced off and slid about him to fall to the ground as he ignored them. He walked about a corner and the closed circuit television footage later shewed he had disappeared between two adjacent frames.
Virtual accordion and electronics experts all agreed what ever his instrument was it was way in advance of anything they had ever created. The experts, in private, and the media, who referred to him as The Music Man, always with three capitals, were endlessly speculating what SYNCODEC may have indicated. The general opinion was synchronised codec, but the significance of that was unfathomable. An untraceable post on a major social networking site simply said, “SYNCODEC, SYNaptic COder DECoder,” which didn’t help the authorities, but speculated the media, maybe it wasn’t meant to. Pictures of the The Music Man were circulated in an effort to identify him, unfortunately for the authorities everybody saw a different face even looking at the same picture.
Much to the anger of the retailers with premises in the square, the police cordoned it off the following Saturday morning at six. The Music Man appeared from nowhere in the middle of the square and was again untouchable. He set up as before and the crowd gathered as close to the square as they were allowed. Then a blue light barrier enclosed the police and forced them down a side street, allowing the crowd access to the square, much to the joy of the retailers, especially those selling food and drink. The Music Man played and sang again from ten thirty to four thirty. His voice was entirely unbelievable, and his audience considered it was cleverly augmented by his instrument, since no one could sing like a massed choir in all registers from soprano down to bass simultaneously.
His performance was a completely different set of music and songs from the week before, moving, haunting, provocative, satirical, many lampooned the system and were bitingly amusing, all unknown. The crowd loved it, it was the best entertainment many had ever heard and it was completely free. Politicians about the world squirmed as their follies and culpabilities were exposed, The Music Man only sang of their misuse of public trust and monies, and never of their private lives, be they howsoever sordid. The media revelled in it, what maekt it so good for them was they knew a lot of what he sang about was true, but they could not have proven it to a libel court’s satisfaction, and had been seeking evidence for some of it for a long time, now they had the sources that gave them the evidence and could print it. To the discomfort of his global audience he also sang of them having the public officials they deserved because if they had cared enough the officials could never have got away with it. He maekt it clear they had to accept their share of the responsibility too. He sang particularly scathing songs of parents who blamed others, schools particularly, for their children’s failures when those very children were out of control, and that was a situation of their creation which in turn created the responsibility vacuum their corrupt politicians and officials operated in.
Again at four thirty the end was a reverse of his set up procedure, and after having been the focus of the world’s media for six hours, he disappeared after saying, “Next week, I shall play, sing and present special effects.”
The powers that be tried everything they knew of to identify and locate The Music Man but to no avail, they couldn’t even agree on what they saw on high resolution film. Police artists watching the film drew completely different looking persons. The male artists drew men, and the female artists drew women, all different. What they didn’t know was they were all drawing The Music Man as he had appeared in one of his personae over the millennia. What really frightened the authorities was everyone in the crowd, the few whom they managed to persuade to have spaech with them that was, was emphatic The Music Man had sung impressively and fluently in their native tongue, and they had spaken with users of over forty languages including tourists from all over the globe, some of who spake languages only uest by a handful of persons. They even tried person specification matching with the subject matter of his songs, but it soon became obvious he simply knew too much to be any one they were aware of. They realised The Music Man was in possession of a science, or possibly a technology, far in advance of anything any one else they knew of had.
It had soon been reported no matter where someone was in the crowd The Music Man was always facing him. Even persons who had arrived too late to obtain a place in the square and had had to stand in one of the side streets with no direct line of sight insisted they had been able to see him, and he was facing them. His instrument had no perceptible power source, and it was the scientific opinion it was not large enough to to contain a battery capable of putting out so much for six hours. The Music Man’s instrument had been connected to no known sound system but everywhere in and about the square the volume was the same. It was assumed the blue light beams and transparent blue sheets must be some kind of a sound system. As for what a synaptic coder decoder could be the scientists still knew nothing, but convinced The Music Man was responsible for the post, the authorities were desperate to find out, and the media, disseminators of lies, masters of embellishment and purveyors of hyperbole dished as truth, couldn’t write anything to say about the situation that was even as fantastic as the reality of it, they certainly couldn’t exceed it, but then they didn’t need to.
The following Saturday, again the police cordoned off the square, but this time all leave had been cancelled, and there were two hundred policemen with police cars blocking off all routes into and out of the square. The police had full riot equipment including baton rounds, tear gas, tasers and water canon. The Music Man appeared in the square just before ten thirty. As the police expected they could approach no closer than six feet to him, and he completely ignored them as he set up. The first baton round bounced off before reaching him to land harmlessly some distance away, the second and third rebounded, and hit the policeman who had fired the other. The use of baton rounds was discontinued. The police tried using tear gas and tasers on The Music Man, but the tear gas was blown back at them with unfortunate effects, and the tasers shocked the users rather than The Music Man. All in all, not a successful morning for the police. The water canons, which had originally been intended for use on a hostile crowd, were deployed on The Music Man. Unfortunately the water was returned from the barrier with rather more force than it had left the canons, and it washed the police down the gutters like leaves in a storm.
As he started to play the blue lights touched and dissolved all the police equipment including their cars blocking the streets. The wet and demoralised police tried to stop the crowds entering the square and a senior officer started to threaten The Music Man with dire consequences if he did not comply with their orders. That was the point at which the police officers, both men and women, realised their clothes had disappeared along with their equipment. It is very difficult for a naked and humiliated police officer of either sex, especially when their intimate body piercings and tattoos are on display, to order a member of a hostile crowd, who is doubled up with laughter, to go home.
This performance was initially magical, then deeply disturbing and finally impossible to resist dancing along with. The Music Man’s performance could be considered to be of three two hour movements all very different, yet, ironically given the deployment of the water cannon, all had a connection with water. As always, all his musics and songs were uniquely his own though they always had something about them people could relate to, a tenuous connection with familiarity. He started by playing a piece whose beginning reminded some of his audience of ‘The Aquarium’ in ‘The Carnival of Animals’ by Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns, a popular piece for a long time. An ocean of water was all about the crowd, and it felt and looked like there were a considerable depth of water above the square. Fish and marine life abounded and the seaweeds undulated by the currents moved in time with the music. The rhythmic background clicking sounds were maekt by crystal shrimp, and the performance educated as well as entertained as the creatures making the music were visibly doing so as The Music Man sang about them. The piece was more effects than music but the effects combined to make delightful music, the music of the oceans, and like, ‘Le Carnaval des Animaux’, it was particularly enjoyed by children.
His second movement started with the music of the greater mammals of the seas, the love songs of whales, dolphins and seals, the musics of mothers with their young, it was enchanting and touching, and it maekt the horrors that followed so much more powerful, poignant and distressing. The music and song now reminded many of the haunting and desperately sad ‘The Last of the Great Whales’ as sung by Seán Cannon of the Dubliners lifetimes ago. Whaling as seen from a whale’s perspective, under the water complete with their terror, pain and death song, is a hideous, gruesome and gut wrenching business for any of any sensitivity at all. It was followed by nightmare music set to barbaric songs accompanied by scenes of seal hunters slaughtering young seals for their fur. Scenes of slaughter, cruelty and torture complete with a five sense awareness of it all that moved the audience profoundly. His performance was obviously designed to maximise the horror and most had tears running off their cheeks as in silence, unable to leave, they experienced what they knew was a reality of their time. The death knell of the bearded seal, one of the most vocal of the aquatic mammals, as their genocide became complete was soul shattering. Each and every member of the audience was sickened to the core, though it was realised later the experience had been different for each individual and no more than they could manage.
His third movement was different again, still under water the audience was taken to Louisiana and the surrounding areas, complete with the alligators, catfish, choupique, water snakes, turtles, manatee, hundreds of other varieties of swamp and water life including huge glittering, iridescent dragon flies, and listened to two hours of compulsive, toe tapping Cajun music which they danced to with more abandon and lighter hearts than most had ever experienced before. It was a happy but thoughtful crowd that left the square at four thirty.
“I’ll be back next week with more entertainment,” The Music Man told the crowd, before walking into a small alley and out of sight.
It was a deeply worried government that came to realise the power The Music Man had when he played his instrument, which could create such illusions and worse tailor them to each individual in a huge crowd. The possibilities if they could but gain control of his instrument were endless, but if they couldn’t they were determined none else should be able to either, including The Music Man. It was becoming clear to the authorities exactly what SYNCODEC meant. What never occurred to them was the instrument was just a prop, with no more reality than the barriers, blue lights and illusions The Music Man wove out of nothing, and it was The Music Man himself who coded and decoded the firing of the synapses in the brains of the crowd. That in the terms of spacetime he didn’t exist was something the authorities weren’t capable of envisaging even if they had been told.
The following Saturday there was a huge police presence reinforced by a several hundred soldiers in the square whilst a flight of three RAF helicopters circled overhead. Access to the square was blocked by yellow civilian bulldozers with the blades facing outwards. The Music Man arrived, seemingly from out of nowhere, and set up as usual, but as ten thirty approached an army major with a loud hailer told him he was considered to be a threat not just to public order but also to national security too, and the major advised him to give himself up and hand over his instrument before he was hurt. The Music Man started to play and sing, and that was as far as the major reached with his threats before his loud hailer simply disappeared, and he, looking ludicrous shouting at his hand, was greeted with laughter from the crowd.
The army and police were forced into side streets by the slowly squeezing invisible barriers, and they couldn’t hear the performance other than via the local radio station which by popular demand had announced it would broadcast nothing else for the full six hours. The drivers of the bulldozers left their machines to join the crowd, the blue light bathed the machines and they vanished. An army squad was given orders to shoot The Music Man. The crowd would have ripped the police and soldiers apart but for the protection afforded them by The Music Man’s barriers. The Music Man carried on playing and as the soldiers took aim their weapons and clothes disappeared like the loud hailer and the dozers. The helicopter crews were instantly removed to safety and the helicopters too instantly disappeared as soon as their crews were safely on the ground out of harm’s way.
The Music Man performed yet again a different selection of music and song, again none known, most warned of the dangers of too many people exploiting their world too fiercely and hinting of a nightmare to come for their descendants. He sang of generations unborn for whom the current generations would become no more than a contemptible hissing in the dark due to the legacy of the ruined planet their ancestors had bequeathed them. Extracting every nuance of terror from the minds of his audience, which most members of would have strenuously denied they believed in, he maekt them fear their very selves. The crowd saw all the ogres and nightmares of humankind’s creation they were aware of. All experienced what they were most vulnerable to, gibbering giants lurking in the shadows, snarling trolls hiding under bridges, torture chambers with black-masked torturers carefully examining the gleaming instruments of their craft, the unseen geese high in a foggy gloaming sky honking of the imminent death of those who could hear them, the white hounds with the blood red ears of the wild hunt seeking their rightful prey: traitors, the softly singing Bean Nighe with her long breasts threwn over her shoulders so as not to impede her washing of the pile of blood stained garments at the ford, the skeletal apocalyptic horsemen going about their business, the lothsome creatures of the pit and the inferno beckoning to the flames behind them, hungry Grendel muttering, the Earl of Hell himself, sleek, black waist-coated and unctuously welcoming, Loki’s children, Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel, all seeking someone to visit their own torments on, the claustrophobic locked in a box of their imaginings, the agoraphobic gripped by their fears to look out on the entire universe. For those whose families were from different cultures their grues were caused by things of different nature, but there was no escape, and the effect was the same for every member of the crowd, the soul searing fears of childhood.
Then in complete contrast the day brightened, the crowd ceased to be haunted by themselves and the invisible creature waiting under the bed ready to bite the toes off an incautiously uncovered foot before finally pulling its silently screaming victim under the bed for total consumption was again just a thing of childhood.
The steam train was heard whistling, it could be seen and heard approaching in the distance coming over the tops of the buildings hurtling towards the square with the familiar rhythmical clickerty-clack as the wheels passed over the rail ends of the non-existent tracks, a huge steam engine with a massive smokestack and traditional cow catcher that could have come out of a wild west movie. It was fully functioning with all the moving parts of its prototype and was complete with driver and fireman on the footplate with smoke and oil blackened faces, the fireman shovelling coal for all he was worth whilst the driver operated the steam whistle and waved to the crowd as they thundered past.
The entranced crowd watched as train after train passed in all directions as The Music Man played and sang in perfect harmony with the wheezing, roaring, huffing, puffing, clanking and all the other noises the trains produced. The song, music and sound effects were blended so intricately it was impossible to separate them. Trains from all over the world, modern magnetic levitation bullet trains travelling at five hundred kilometres an hour [300 mph], sleek Pacific class greyhounds doing two hundred kilometres an hour [130 mph], Challengers and Big Boys pulling miles of laden waggons, narrow gauge trains, pairs of funicular railway carriages, every kind of train, trolley bus, street car and tram imaginable, all providing full sensory input. The music, noise and its accompanying vibrations provided the young with a far more complete and satisfying experience than any electronic experience they had ever come across. It was a veritable orgy of delight for steam aficionados, they could taste and smell the products of live steam they were so familiar with.
For the last hour it seemed to the crowd they were with rather than on the train of their dreams and experiencing a day or a week’s journey through wherever they had most wanted to. Some took grand journeys, coast to coast of North America or Canada, the Trans-Siberian express, trains around the Indian sub-continent, Adelaide to Darwin via Alice Springs, some took more modest journeys, Settle to Carlisle, trolley bus, street car and tram journeys round numerous cities of the world, Japanese commuter bullet trains or local trains they were familiar with, and many experienced journeys that were no longer possible like the Manchester to Liverpool line on Stephenson’s Rocket, or the trip across the long gone Solway Viaduct on the Solway Junction Railway line. When the full grandeur of their trips could not be experienced from the train the passengers experienced them from the air, some in light æroplanes, some in helicopters and some in hot air balloons.
It stopped at precisely four thirty bringing them instantly back to the square. The Music Man waved and promised more entertainment “Next week,” before disappearing as usual. There was coal and ash on the square, and the buildings had a few smuts of smoke on them. The smells of the combustion products of various fuels along with the metallic smell of electrically generated ozone lingered for hours.
This Saturday there were tanks blocking access to and from the square and fighter aircraft in the air. Most of the authorities’ personnel were military rather than police, and there were a couple of thousand of them. The crowd was even bigger, filling the nearby streets, and, despite orders to the contrary, the television crews were in helicopters, on roofs, hanging out of windows and everywhere else they could find that overlooked the square. The Music Man appeared in the square and set up as normal. The blue balls touched the tanks which disappeared, their crews hit the ground with sore backsides wearing surprised expressions, and nothing else. The fighter pilots’ ejector seats fired without the pilots having done anything, and the fighters too instantly disappeared as soon as their pilots were safely out of harm’s way. Yet again, despite their considerable numbers, as the army and police were forced into side streets by the slowly squeezing invisible barriers the crowd now able to do so drew nearer. The military tried to shoot The Music Man from places of concealment not realising it was pointless, for even if their weapons and clothing had not disappeared before they could fire the barriers would have silently absorbed the bullets and the energy they possessed, and even had that not happened the bullets would have passed through The Music Man leaving him unscathed.
The consensus of opinion was what ever The Music Man was he was not the one threatening or hurting any one. Expensive machinery had disappeared, but he had caused no loss of life.
This time a lot of the music was of a recognisable style if not recognisable tunes, passo doble, flamenco, tango, rhumba, Spanish or Latin American style music many associated with bull fighting, the crowd loved it, and like the week before they danced in the streets. The Music Man sang of the rewards of coöperation and the joys of family, he touched on the sadness to be found in the elderly who had done their share and then been abandoned to the cold, dismissive care of strangers, betrayed by their own blood. He sang of the theft called big business, the obscenity called war and the treachery and treason called politics, but mostly he sang of the benefits to be had from reciprocated care, respect and love. It was noted by many the sun always shone and it was warm when The Music Man played.
The local sandwich bars and cafés as before sent employees out with food and drink and all enjoyed the day. As always there were no fights, nor indeed any problems at all. Most surprising, to themselves, was the sense of weäl(12) the wealthy obtained from sharing their wealth with those who couldn’t afford to buy from the food and drink vendors. How could one feel so good for the price of a coffee and a sandwich? At just after one the dancers in the main streets and the square were gently divided by new barriers leaving a wide path down the middle of the streets leading to and from the square and the square itself. Then they felt the vibrations through their feet. The Music Man was playing passo doble style music again and singing of the obviousness of the reaping of the same crop one had sown. His song had a chorus the crowd sang too, plant beans harvest beans, plant corn harvest corn, which a few knew was an ancient Chinese proverb. Just deserts, whether deserved punishments or rewards, was a recurring theme.
Then the crowd saw the cattle at the end of the street. They appeared to be large cattle with huge horns, but as they approached it was realised no cattle had ever been that large. There were a few in the crowd who realised even the largest size ever hypothesised for the extinct aurochs did not even approach the size of these animals which were easily larger than any elephant. They came down the street at an easy pace no human could have kept up with, and every now and then the music was augmented by the rifle crack of a breaking paving flag,(13) which was as much a part of the music as punctuation is of the written word. The dancers had stilled and were completely silent now. It was just the music and the beasts. Solid lines of mature and aggressive looking bulls formed the spearhead, the lead bull was magnificent, massive and disdainful, his arrogant masculinity clear for all too see. Younger bulls brought up the rear whilst lines of cautious dams down the sides of the phalanx kept a watchful eye on the calves in the centre. The herd moved down the street in time with the music slowing for nothing. The street furniture just disappeared in front of them as they reached it, there were some three hundred of them, and they slowed to a halt as they reached The Music Man. They all turned to face him for a few seconds, their head’s dipped briefly, and then they continued out of the square at their previous speed, again all disappearing in front of them. All the while, The Music Man continued to play and sing of wrongs being righted.
When the cattle had passed, the crowd watched and wondered. The Music Man was back to dance music again, and despite the martial under current, the dancing resumed. The herd kept going downhill to the end of the street and turned right when they reached its end leaving the old city and its walls behind them. The news men tracked the progress of the herd as it headed towards a number of educational and administrative establishments, all close to one another. The phalanx spread out into a line a quarter of a mile wide, the calves in the middle surrounded by their dams, and kept going, but at a walk. Two minutes later the educational and administrative establishments were no longer there, like the street furniture, as the cattle moved towards them they had silently disappeared leaving no trace there had ever been anything there. The Music Man continued to play music of the same style till four thirty, but before he disappeared he said, “Next week is my finale.”
The cattle appeared at various places over the next week, many but by no means all of their appearances were in Britain, and the only continent they did not visit was Antarctica. Each appearance targeted specific institutions or public buildings. When a building disappeared any records that building had ever generated disappeared too, as did any back ups of those records kept elsewhere. The Music Man was never seen with the cattle again, and after each appearance they disappeared as mysteriously as they had arrived.
Several weeks after having handed Mr. Smith his manuscript back, Holborne was hearing the paragraph of the book which related the approach of the dragons again, as far as he could remember it verbatim, but this time it was on television and being related by a news reporter on the evening news program. The item had been presented by the anchor as a joke article, and the public took no notice thinking the world must be suffering a dearth of events the media could hype into super-superlatives to have to resort to such nonsense. Holborne was a lucky man to have been in company and close to the hospital when he had his heart attack.
Three days later, in his bed in the acute coronary care unit having just been told he was now out of danger and would be transferred to a general care unit in a few days, he thought about Smith’s book. As he had told Mr. Smith he would, Holborne had only read the first three chapters, and the third concluded with the largest dragon telepathically informing the US president, and allowing the international news media to hear the one sided conversation, “We Beings have no interest in any of you, and desire no further communication. You have nothing we are interested in, and we have no desire to further your attempts to destroy your home by providing you with knowledge you do not currently possess. We redress wrongness directed towards the Father of Beings, and in your long term interests shall terminate such before we come into his presence. You are not capable of stopping us. May your thoughts be profound and productive.” Many had wondered how long long term was.
He had idly skimmed the rest of the book, and was aware the Russian premier had been very upset with the president for what he had considered to be the western monopolisation of this new power, but he had no idea how the book ended, nor what happened in it. “Oh, shit!” He wondered what to do and who, if any, to tell. He had no evidence. The manuscript he had handed back to the author was a work of art in its own right, a superb quality, tooled and gilded, vellum bound book, hand written in a beautiful, flawless, Italian copperplate on quality hand maekt paper. It had been very easy to read as well as a joy to behold, but it was he believed the only copy, and he had shewn none else the book because he had known he was going to reject it before he had reached the end of the first paragraph. He had not admitted to Smith that it’s beauty was such that he would have loved to publish the book as a facsimile rather than as a typeset edition. He considered it unfortunate he had mentioned the manuscript to several others in the last three weeks.
The author had told him he had gone to Holborne as its last chance of publication, and he would be returning home that evening. Holborne had thought ‘its last chance of publication,’ was an odd turn of phrase rather than ‘my last chance of publication,’ but at the time had put it down to a difference between British English and American English. Now he thought it had probably been deliberate. Smith spake, what was to him, a very old fashioned, but he now considered to be a very precise, English, albeit with a Scots accent. Holborne knew him as John Smith, but there were a lot of John Smiths, and he wondered what his name really was. He also wondered where home was for the little man with the compelling eyes, and how he had travelled there. Who or what Smith was that he knew about world shattering events months in advance, events that had begun on the farthest edge of the universe, was something he tried not to think about. As to where something big enough to be the father of a kilometre [½ mile] long dragon could be hidden, he didn’t think there was anywhere that remote on Earth any more, and the satellite cameras photographed every square inch of the planet several times a day. He decided in the unlikely event of the security people appealing for information he would tell them nothing. What they would do to obtain further information he definitely did not want to learn first hand, the rumours were bad enough. He would remain silent, and like everyone else just see what happened as it happened. Perhaps he should visit some of his interests abroad?
The following Saturday the square was empty. Caerwick and all within many miles had been forcibly and ruthlessly evacuated by the military during the week. Worldwide, people were glued to their news channels from very early in the day. There were hundreds of tanks and half the air force, including heavy bombers, ready to turn the square, and The Music Man with it, into dust, vapour and if needs must plasma. The Music Man was on time as always, and all happened as before as he set up, but there were no warnings from the authorities and no audience present, though the news channels from the entire globe had remote controlled equipment and long range cameras focussed on the square, not realising even if their equipment disappeared it would appear to be functioning as it should be. Various governments had high definition satellite camera’s trained on the square which the media, and thousands of digitally sophisticated citizens, had hacked into, ready to broadcast the events to the world. The few homeless persons the military had missed and not forcibly removed from the area were moved to safety by The Music Man before the authorities could hurt them. He’d also taken to places of safety all the feral cats and thousands of other animals, mostly rats and mice.
The tanks and bombers waited till The Music Man started playing, it was a reluctant, melancholy kind of music never heard before and poignantly beautiful, the song was of missed opportunities. Shell after shell, missile after missile and bomb after bomb deluged into the square, more explosive power in a few minutes than in the seven air strikes that had razed Dresden to the ground in early nineteen forty-five, and still the music could be heard using the sound of the hellish inferno the ordnance had created of the square as counterpoint to its melody. When the dust had settled, The Music Man was still serenely singing of missed opportunities and playing his beautiful music, standing on air, and surrounded by a smoking, empty crater four hundred metres [¼ of a mile] in diameter and almost as deep.
There were a few minutes of delay during which he continued playing oblivious of all about him whilst the prime minister was consulted. Against much advice he took the final step, and a different set of missiles rained down sub-atomic generated hell. The mushroom cloud, centred on Caerwick that dominated the borders,(14) went upwards within razor sharp limits and hurt none. The Music Man was still serenely playing and the authorities were subsequently terrified when they realised not only had their nuclear weapons resulted in no increased radiation in the blast zone, there was no background count either. Caerwick was the only place on the planet with a zero radiation count. The politicians had just ordered the military to vaporise of one of England and Scotland’s most fought over cities which had a recorded history going back a long time before Romulus and Remus were even born, never mind before the subsequent empire had had a major presence there. However, the Beings, permitted so to do by their father, thinking about possible futures, had limited the blast zone to an irregular annulus between the city walls and the castle and rendered all radio active isotopes within the annulus safe by converting them to harmless stable nuclides. Though the city walls and the castle were unaffected, all else twixt the two, much of great historic interest and as yet undiscovered by contemporary archaeologists, was lost.
The populace identified with this harmless stranger, who the authorities had gone to so much effort to slaughter, this seemingly, magically, invulnerable Music Man who had given so much joy and pleasure to so many, and had hurt none in the process of awakening them to the horrors they lived with, and was jubilant the authorities did not so much have egg on their faces as were drowning in egg. The remotely controlled tanks started to crawl towards the walls and The Music Man, yet still he sang and played of missed opportunities and the warnings he had attempted to give by writing a book of what was to come that had been ignored. The bombers having delivered their payload had turned for their bases before the final salvo of ordnance from the tanks. They were not far from Caerwick when a pilot’s scream was received and re-broadcast by the media, “Ye gods! What are they?” That was the first time the world at large became aware of the reality of the dragons, as opposed to a presumed Hollywood spoof, which the politicians had encouraged, so their spin doctors had time in which to formulate a response. In the three days that had elapsed since the American experience they had come up with nothing, and now it was too late. Still The Music Man played and sang, and Holborne was now an even more nervous man.
The dragons were huge, the least of them four hundred metres [¼ of a mile] long, some more than double that, just as Smith’s book had described. The fighters were ordered to destroy them. Officialdom can always be relied on to keep on repeating obvious stupidity expecting a different outcome from the same input, it’s the hallmark of its insanity, the touchstone of its inertia, yet in fairness to the British authorities, neither the Americans nor the Russians had told any one what had happened to their fighters when they tried to destroy the dragons, though the British knew what The Music Man had done to theirs just a week ago. The missiles exploded about the dragons, as before the ejector seats fired without the pilots having triggered them. All members of bomber crews said more or less the same in explanation afterwards, “I couldn’t help myself. I was compelled to jump.” The dragons had not only been unharmed, they had given no indication of having even noticed the attack. They breathed cold looking green and blue flame at the æroplanes, and both bombers and fighters were dissolved in their entirety leaving no residue, and then they did the same to the tanks.
Holborne was feeling relieved, despite Smith’s singing of his attempted publication, the authorities now had first hand experience of vastly more than he was aware of and as such he knew he would be no longer of interest to them. The dragons went to all the sites the cattle had visited in Caerwick and breathed their cold flames onto the ground. Pyrometers estimated the ground temperature had exceeded a million degrees Celsius [approximately double that for degrees Fahrenheit] for a few seconds. The ground became glass over a kilometre [½ a mile] deep, which effectively put a halt to the digging to recover any bodies that had been in the buildings. There hadn’t been any one one hurt when the cattle had caused the buildings to disappear, but it had not suited the authorities to admit that, so they had instituted pointless and needless body recovery procedures for the media to report. Still The Music Man, without a live audience, played on, though millions watched and heard him via the media. As usual he played till four thirty. Then like the cattle he disappeared.
Holborne rewrote his will leaving all his considerable wealth to what he considered to be the most needy and worthy environmental charities. He also wrote his memoirs, carefully hidden, which he proposed to update regularly, and leave to his publishing house.
The dragons dispersed to every corner of the globe without let or hindrance, for nothing could stop them. They terminated individuals, families, buildings, institutions, organisations and not a few governments. They were very selective in their terminations, sometimes terminating say twenty on a committee leaving two individuals, or may hap the other way round. Governments employing huge computer systems tried to determine what the terminated had in common but failt completely, for they were asking the wrong questions over far too short a time frame. Smith had lived many lives as ordinary persons, as often female as male though sometimes having the mind of one in the body of the other, usually but not always as an educator, and all over the planet. They had always been pleasant but different, and had been subject to suspicion, hatred, persecution, victimisation and many kinds of prejudice over their many lifes, and the Beings were systematically rooting out all who had attempted to hurt what the Father of Beings had standt for over the millennia, including some of their descendants. The descendants they returned to the Void were the ones who had inherited traits that were of a significant wrongness. It was the traits that were detrimental to the future of the life of the planet they were terminating. And that meant all the life of the planet, not just human.
The longed for meeting of the dragons with The Music Man was observed and heard by all who had access to the news channels. The dragons met John Smith who was also The Music Man and the Father of Beings on Salisbury plain witnessed by billions via the thousands of tons of media remote equipment, which he had allowed.
First Thought broadcast first, “Greetings, Father.”
“Greetings, Eldest.”
“How can you name me Eldest when it is you who willed me into being in the egg and watched over me till I no longer needed watching over?”
“Even so, I greet you, Eldest. I know you are aware this meeting shall bring about the time of the testing, Eldest. That is why I could not allow you into my presence till now. It was not wise to tell any of you, but it was you alone the proscription applied to, not your siblings nor your kin.”
First Thought had never been so troubled, “Should the testing take place, Father, either I shall unthink you, which I do not consider to be a possibility, or all spacetime shall be terminated to be returned to the Void. Too, all the Beings will be uncreated. I should not regret the passing of the Beings for if it is your will that is to be then it is of a rightness, but I shall regret the passing of spacetime which is neither deserving of it, nor has any understanding of it. Too, the Void is not deserving of such treatment. It is one thing to return that which has failed to achieve rightness to her. It is quite different to return all when most has achieved rightness. My thought is it will inflict great pain upon her to have to create all again from nothingness.”
“Even so, Eldest, it is the time of the testing. You have brought this about by coming into my presence, and so it must be. I have always known it would be you who would administer the test. It is your destiny, my daughter.”
“As you ordain, so shall it be, Father.” Watched by the Beings, Differentiator, who had been named First Thought, prepared herself for her thought to be dissolved, and she breathed the green and blue breath of unbeing upon her creator. With bated breath the world watched as the flames that unmaekt what ever they touched encased the small man. Everything about him disappeared, including the stones(15) men considered ancient so recently placed there. Smith disappeared and in his place was a dragon, a dragon thrice the size of his daughter, yet First Thought remained as did spacetime. “How can this be, Father?” she broadcast in amazement, before she and her kin realised the truth hidden from them for so long by the limitations they no longer had. Their generations had always numbered six, perfection, and their numbers were nine thousand three hundred and thirty-one, the longed for satisfaction, which was sum of six consecutive integer powers of six. What was special about the product of seven, thirty-one and forty-three(16) they couldn’t fathom, but they had the rest of time and beyond to ponder number theory.
“I forbad the unmaking of spacetime, it has many things yet to accomplish, and even more so do I forbid the dissolution of the thought of my children, who are the guardians of its rightness. I thought you more than any would understand, Eldest. All things, even the immutable, change with the passage of thought because at the least they age. I could not allow you to know before this instant, but it was you not I who underwent the test. You did this on behalf of all my children and of spacetime itself. Had you not been able to bring yourself to it then indeed all else other than myself and the Void would have ceased to be, unmaekt by the lack of your will.”
There was a long pause as the Beings dealt with their emotions, something they had only experienced as a result of meeting their father, and his words and its implications became clear.
“What now, Father?” his eldest asked.
“Now we shall be together for six times as far as I can envisage, once for myself, twice for the Void, thrice for you and your siblings, four times your offspring, five times for the offspring of the Void and six times for perfection. Doubtless my thought shall grow along with that of my and my Lady’s descendants, whom we shall nurture and cherish till they can join us on our side of spacetime.”
“Your Lady, Father?”
“Yes. My Lady. The Void. I am. She is not. We are perfect complements who were both there when all else was not, and we have been together for so many thoughts your mind is not able to encompass them, my daughter. We have always been each others’ perfect complement, even from before there was an always been. Between us we have willed into being all that is and all that is not. When this ephemeral spacetime is no more then together again shall we watch. In the meanwhile I shall continue evolving the lifeforms of spacetime leaving you children to protect, terminate and reorganise as you deem fitting. The only restriction I place on you is the one I always have, you may not take any individual I am personally guiding and sharing my thought with, Saijät.”
The Beings accepted their father’s restriction, and were satisfied they now knew why, save the very first who was necessary to weld the collection of individuals that comprised the first incursion on Castle into a society,(17) they had been unable to to remove Saijät connected individuals from Earth, and why Saijät connected individuals were always superior humans. They and their father left the vicinity of the Earth to return to beyond spacetime from where they would continue to watch, nurture and when necessary terminate. Unlike her siblings, Extractor believed most of the residents of Earth would not learn anything from any of the Beings’ actions, nor indeed from their father’s actions. However, she was glad the castle and the city without the city wall had been saved, for she deduced they would be necessary to the survival of humans in the not too far distant future as humans reckoned time.
The performances and incidents of The Music Man and the Beings soon became no more than history, then myths and finally fables, bedtime stories for the old to tell the young. What maekt fables of it all so quickly was the lack of evidence, when people came to replay recordings of his performances, they had gone. After he and the Beings left Earth all recordings and notes maekt at the time were no longer there to consult and as the memories of people employed by the authorities started to fade they found alternative explanations for what they could remember of their experiences. Holborne’s memoirs, written after the events took place, were the best source of information, but of a fearful disposition he had written them as a series of færie tales and Extractor had ‘assisted’ him. He never wrote about nor mentioned the book Mr. Smith had submitted to him nor of their meeting, but restricted himself to the events he had not been involved in. The affection the public had held The Music Man in resulted in any piece of good fortune, be it however small, being ascribed to him and the fables grew and increased in number, and he finally achieved the same status as the Tooth Færie, Father Christmas and Robin Hood. Holborne became ranked with the brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Lewis Carroll, a teller of classic children’s tales.
Index of significant characters so far listed by Chapter
1 Introduction
2 Jacques de Saint d’Espéranche
3 The Folk and the Keep
4 Hwijje, Travisher, Will
5 Yew, Allan, Rowan,Siskin, Will, Thomas, Merle, Molly, Aaron, Gareth, Oak, Abigail, Milligan, Basil, Vinnek, Iris, Margæt, Gilla, Alsike, Alfalfa, Gibb, Happith, Kroïn, Mako, Pilot, Briar, Gosellyn, Gren, Hazel
6 Chaunter, Waxwing, Flame, João, Clansaver, Irune, Ceël, Barroo, Campion, Limpet, Vlæna, Xera, Rook, Falcon, Cwm, Sanderling, Aldeia, Catarina, Coast, Elixabete
7 Mercedes, Spoonbill
8 Lyllabette, Yoomarrianna
9 Helen, Duncan, Gosellyn, Eudes, Abigail
10 George/Gage, Iris, Waverley, Belinda
11 Marc/Marcy, Pol
12 George/Gage, Marcy, Freddy/Bittern, Weyland, Iris, Bling
13 Thomas, Will, Mercedes, Llyllabette, Yoomarrianna
14 Kyle, Thomas, Will, Angélique
15 Mercedes, Morgelle, Gorse, Thrift, George/Gage, Chris, Iris, Thrift, Campion
16 Bling
17 Waverley, Mr. E
18 George/Gage, Larch, Mari, Ford, Gorse, Morgelle, Luke, Erin
19 Will, Pilot, Yew, Geoge/Gage, Mari, Ford, Gosellyn, Cwm, Cerise, Filbert, Gareth, Duncan, Helen, Thomas, Iris, Plume, Campion, Pim, Rook, Falcon, João, Hare
20 Yew, Rowan, Will, Thomas, Siskin, Weir, Grayling, Willow
21 Brook, Harrier, Cherry, Abby, Selena, Borage, Sætwæn, Fiona, Fergal
22 Yew, Thomas, Hazel, Rowan, Gosellyn, Siskin, Will, Lianna, Duncan
23 Tench, Knawel, Claire, Oliver, Loosestrife, Bramling, George, Lyre, Janice, Kæn, Joan, Eric
24 Luke, Sanderling, Ursula, Gervaise, Mike, Spruce, Moss
25 Janet, Vincent, Douglas, Alec, Alice
26 Pearl, Merlin, Willow, Ella, Suki, Tull, Irena
27 Gina, Hardy, Lilac, Jessica, Teal, Anna
28 Bryony, Judith, Bronwen, Farsight
29 Muriel, Raquel, Grace
30 Catherine, Crane, Snipe, Winifred, Dominique, Ferdinand
31 Alma, Allan, Morris, Miranda
32 Dabchick, Nigel
33 Raquel, Thistle, Agrimony, Benjamin, Ian, Phœbe
34 Eleanor, Woad, Catherine, Crane
35 Muriel, Hail, Joan, Breve, Eric, Nell, Mayblossom, Judith, Storm
36 Selena,Sætwæn, Borage, Grace, Gatekeeper, Raquel, Thistle
37 Siân, Mackerel, Winifred, Obsidian
38 Carla, Petrel, Alkanet, Ferdinand
39 Dominique, Oxlip, Alma, Allan, Tress, Bryony
40 Agrimony, Benjamin, Ian, Ella, Kestrel, Judith, Storm
41 Ella, Kestrel, Tress, Bryony, Tunn, Whin, Plane
42 Weights & Measures and Sunrise & Sunset Times included in Ch 41
43 Ella, Kestrel, Serenity, Smile, Gwendoline, Rook, Tress, Bryony, Tunn, Whin, Plane, Sapphire, Mere
44 Pearl, Merlin, Rainbow, Perch, Joan, Breve, truth, Rachael, Hedger, Ruby, Deepwater
45 Janet, Blackdyke, Janice, Kæn, Ursula, Oyster
46 Janet, Gina, Alastair, Joan, Breve, Truth, Bræth, Mayblossom, Judith, Storm
47 The Squad, Mercedes, Fen, Judith, Storm, Iola, Alwydd, Heidi, Rock, Stephanie, Matthew
48 Bronwen, Forest, Opal, Spice, Vincent, Kathleen, Niall, Bluebell, Sophie
49 Janice, Kæn, Ursula, Oyster, Imogen, Wryneck, Phœbe, Knapps
50 Erin, Nightjar, Eleanor, Woad
51 Gina, Jonas, Janet, Gerald, Patrick, Tansy, Craig, Barret, Ryan
52 Constance, Rye, Bling, Bullace, Berry, Jimmy, Leveret, Rory, Shelagh, Silas
53 Rachael, Hedger, Eve, Gilla, Mallard, Fiona, Fergal, Tinder, Nightingale, Fran, Dyker
54 Pamela, Mullein, Patricia, Chestnut, Lavinia, Ophæn, Catherine, Crane
55 Susan, Kingfisher, Janet, Gina, Jonas, Ruth, Kilroy, Judith, Storm, Iola, Alwydd, Heidi, Rock, Stephanie, Matthew
56 Gina, Jonas, Patricia, Chestnut, The Squad, Hazel, Janet, Blackdyke, Swift, Clover, Vetch, Mangel, Clary, Brendan
57 Erin, Nightjar, Xera, Josephine, Wels, Michelle, Musk, Swansdown, Tenor
58 Timothy, Axel, Nectar, Waverley,Yvette, Whitebear, Firefly, Farsight, Janet, Blackdyke, Swift, Clover, Vetch
59 Lilac, Firefly, Farsight, Lucinda, Gimlet, Leech, Janet, Blackdyke
60 Douglas, Lunelight, Yvette, Whitebear, Thrift, Haw, Harebell, Goosander, Judith, Storm, Iola, Alwydd, Heidi, Rock, Stephanie, Matthew, Matilda, Evan, Heron
61 Brendan, Clary, Chloë, Apricot, Llyllabette, Yoomarrianna, Otis, Harry, Gimlet, Leech, Jodie
62 Gimlet, Leech, Lark, Seth, Charles, Bruana, Noah, Kirsty, Shirley, Mint, Kevin, Faith, Oak, Lilly, Jason, Gem, Ellen
63 Honesty, Peter, Bella, Abel, Kell, Deal, Siobhan, Scout, Jodie
64 Heather, Jon, Anise, Holly, Gift, Dirk, Lilac, Jasmine, Ash, Beech, Ivy, David
65 Sérent, Dace, Opal, Spice, Vincent, Clarissa, Gorse, Eagle, Frond, Diana, Gander, Gyre, Tania, Alice, Alec
66 Suki, Tull, Buzzard, Mint, Kevin, Harmony, Fran, Dyker, Joining the Clans, Pamela, Mullein, Mist, Francis, Kristiana, Cliff, Patricia, Chestnut, Timothy, Axel, Nectar, Waverly, Tarragon, Edrydd, Louise, Turnstone, Jane, Mase, Cynthia, Merle, Warbler, Spearmint, Stonecrop
67 Warbler, Jed, Fiona, Fergal, Marcy, Wayland, Otday, Xoë, Luval, Spearmint, Stonecrop, Merle, Cynthia, Eorl, Betony, Smile
68 Pansy, Pim,Phlox, Stuart, Marilyn, Goth, Lunelight, Douglas, Crystal, Godwit, Estelle, Slimlyspoon, Lyre, George, Damson, Lilac
69 Honesty, Peter, Abel, Bella, Judith, storm, Matilda, Evean, Iola, Heron, Mint, Kevin, Lilac, Happith, Gloria, Peregrine
70 Lillian, Tussock, Modesty, Thyme, Vivienne, Minyet, Ivy, David, Jasmine, Lilac, Ash, Beech
71 Quartet & Rebecca, Gimlet & Leech, The Squad, Lyre & George, Deadth, Gift
72 Gareth, Willow, Ivy, David, Kæna,Chive, Hyssop, Birch, Lucinda, Camomile, Meredith, Cormorant, Whisker, Florence, Murre, Iola, Milligan, Yarrow, Flagstaff, Swansdown, Tenor, Morgan, Yinjærik, Silvia, Harmaish, Billie, Jo, Stacey, Juniper
73 The Growers, The Reluctants, Miriam, Roger, Lauren, Dermot, Lindsay, Scott, Will, Chris, Plume, Stacey, Juniper
74 Warbler, Jed, Veronica, Campion, Mast, Lucinda, Cormorant, Camomile, Yellowstone
75 Katheen, Raymnd, Niall, Bluebell, Sophie, Hazel, Ivy, Shadow, Allison, Amber, Judith, Storm Alwydd, Matthew, Beatrix, Jackdaw, The Squad, Elders, Jennet, Bronze, Maeve, Wain, Monique, Piddock, Melissa, Roebuck, Aaron, Carley Jade, Zoë, Vikki, Bekka, Mint, Torrent
76 Gimlet, Leech, Gwendoline, Georgina, Quail. Birchbark, Hemlock, Peter, Honesty, Bella, Hannah, Aaron, Torrent, Zoë, Bekka, Vikki, Jade, Carley, Chough, Anvil, Clematis, Stonechat, Peace, Xanders, Gosellyn, Yew, Thomas, Campion, Will, Iris, Gareth
77 Zoë, Torrent, Chough, Stonechat, Veronica, Mast, Sledge, Cloudberry, Aconite, Cygnet, Smokt
78 Jed, Warbler, Luval, Glaze, Seriousth, Blackdyke, Happith, Camilla
79 Torrent, Zoë, Stonechat, Clematis, Aaron, Maeve, Gina, Bracken, Gosellyn, Paene, Veronica, Mast, Fracha, Squid, Silverherb
80 George/Gage, Niall, Alwydd, Marcy/Beth, Freddy/Bittern, Wayland, Chris, Manic/Glen, Guy, Liam, Jed, Fergal, Sharky
81 The Squad, Manic/Glen, Jackdaw, Beatrix, Freddy/Bittern, Fiona, Fergal, Wayland, Jade, Stonechat, Beauty, Mast, Veronica, Raven, Tyelt, Fid
82 Gimlet, Leech, Scentleaf, Ramsom, Grouse, Aspen, Stonechat, Bekka, Carley, Vikki, Morgelle, Bistort, Fritillary, Jed, Warbler, Spearmint, Alwydd, Billie, Diver, Seal, Whitethorn
83 Alastair, Carrom, Céline, Quickthorn, Coral, Morgelle, Fritillary, Bistort, Walnut, Tarragon, Edrydd, Octopus, Sweetbean, Shrike, Zoë, Torrent, Aaron, Vinnek, Zephyr, Eleanor, Woad, George/Gage, The Squad, Ingot, Yellowstone, Phthalen, Will
84 Morgelle, Bistort, Fritillary, Alsike, Campion, Siskin, Gosellyn, Yew, Rowan, Thomas, Will, Aaron, Dabchick, Nigel, Tuyere
85 Jo, Knott, Sallow, Margæt, Irena, Tabby, Jade, Phthalen, Yumalle, Stonechat, Spearmint, Alwydd, Seriousth, Warbler, Jed, Brett, Russel, Barleycorn, Crossbill, Lizo, Hendrix, Monkshood, Eyrie, Whelk, Gove, Gilla, Faarl, Eyebright, Alma, Axx, Allan, daisy, Suki, Tull
86 Cherville, Nightshade, Rowan, Milligan, Wayland, Beth, Liam, Chris, Gage
87 Reedmace, Ganger, Jodie, Blade, Frœp, Mica, Eddique, Njacek, Whiteout, Sandpiper, Serin, Cherville, Nightshade, peregrine, Eleanor, Woad, Buzzard, Silas, Oak, Wolf, Kathleen, Reef, Raymond, Sophie, Niall, Bluebell
88 Cloud, Sven, Claudia, Stoat, Thomas, Aaron, Nigel, Yew, Milligan, Gareth, Campion, Will, Basil, Gosellyn, Vinnek, Plume
89 Llyllabette, Yoomarrianna, Silverherb, Cloudberry, Smokt, Skylark, Beatrix, Beth, Amethyst, Mint, Wayland, Bittern, Fiona, Fergal, Joan, Bræth, Nell, Milligan, Iola, Ashdell, Alice, Molly, Rill, Briar
90 Morgelle, Tuyere, Bistort, Beth, Beatrix, Sanderling, Falcon, Gosellyn, Gage, Will, Fiona, Jackdaw, Wayland, Merle, Cynthia, Jed, Warbler
91 Morgelle, Tuyere, Fritillary, Bistort, Jed, Otday, The Squad, Turner, Gudrun, Ptarmigan, Swegn, Campion, Otis, Asphodel, Jana, Treen, Xeffer, Stonechat, Bekka, Vikki, Carley, Beatrix, Jackdaw
92 Turner, Otday, Mackerel, Eorl, Betony, The Council, Will, Yew, Basil, Gerald, Oier, Patrick, Happith, Angélique, Kroïn, Mako
93 Beth, Greensward, Beatrix, Odo, Morgelle, Tuyere, Bistort, Otday, Turner, Gace, Rachael, Groundsel, Irena, Warbler, Jed, Mayblossom, Mazun, Will, The Squad
94 Bistort, Honey, Morgelle, Basil, Willow, Happith, Mako, Kroïn, Diana, Coaltit, Gær, Lavinia, Joseph (son), Ruby, Deepwater, Gudrun, Vinnek, Tuyere, Otday, Turner
95 Turner, Otday, Waverly, Jed, Tarse, Zoë, Zephyr, Agrimony, Torrent, Columbine, Stonechat, Bekka, Vikki, Carley, The Council, Gage, Lilly
96 Faith, Oak, Lilly, Fran, Suki, Dyker, Verbena, Jenny, Bronze, Quietth, Alwydd, Evan, Gage, Will, Woad, Bluebell, Niall, Sophie, Wayland, Kathleen, Raymond, Bling, Bittern
97 Jade, Phthalen, Yumalle, Margæt, Tabby, Larov, Morgelle, Tuyere, Bistort, Fritillary, Brmling, Tench, Knawel, Loosestrife, Agrimony, Jana, Will, Gale, Linden, Thomas, Guelder, Jodie, Peach, Peregrine, Reedmace, Ganger, The Council, Faith, Oak, Lilly, Ellen, Gem, Beth, Geän
98 Turner, Otday, Anbar, Bernice, Silverherb, Havern, Annalen
99 Kæna, Chive, Ivy, David, Birch, Suki, Hyssop, Whitebeam, Jodie, Ganger, Reedmace, Whiteout, Sandpiper, Catherine, Braid, Maidenhair, Snowberry, Snipe, Lærie, Morgelle, Tuyere, Bistort, Fritillary, Ælfgyfu, Jennet, Cattail, Guy, Vikki, Buckwheat, Eddique, Annabelle, Fenda, Wheatear, Bram, Coolmint, Carley, Dunlin
100 Burdock, Bekka, Bram, Wheatear, Cranberry, Edrian, Gareth, George, Georgina, Quail, Birchbark, Hemlock, Bramling, Tench, Knawel, Turner, Otday, Ruby, Deepwater, Barleycorn, Russel, Gareth, Plantain, Gibb, Lizo, Thomas, Mere, Marten, Hendrix, Cuckoo, Campion, Gage, Lilly, Faith
101 Theresa, Therese, Zylanna, Zylenna, Cwm, Ivy, David, Greenshank, Buzzard, Zeeëend, Zrina, Zlovan, Torrent, Alastair, Céline, Meld, Frogbit, Midnight, Wildcat, Posy, Coral, Dandelion, Thomas, Lizo, Council
102 Beth, Beatrix, Falcon, Gosellyn, Neil, Maple, Mouse, Ember, Goose, Blackcap, Suede, Gareth, Robert, Madder, Eider, Campion, Crossbill, Barleycorn, George, Céline, Midnight, Alastair, Pamela, Mullein, Swager, Margæt, Sturgeon, Elliot, Jake, Paris, Rosebay, Sheridan, Gælle, Maybells, Emmer, Beauty, Patricia, Chestnut, Irena, Moor
103 Steve, Limpet, Vlæna, Qorice, Crossbow, Dayflower, Flagon, Gareth, Næna, Stargazer, Willow, Box, Jude, Nathan, Ryland, Eller, Wæn, Stert, Truedawn, Martin, Campion, Raspberry
104 Coolmint, Valerian, Vikki, Hawfinch, Corncrake, Speedwell, Cobb, Bill, Gary, Chalk, Norman, Hoopoe, Firkin, Gareth, Plover, Willow, Dewberry, Terry, Squill, Campion, Tracker, Oak, Vinnek,
105 Council, Thomas, Pilot, Vinnek, Dale, Luca, Almond, Macus, Skua, Cranesbill, Willow, Campion, Georgina, Osprey, Peter, Hotsprings, Fyre, Jimbo, Saxifrage, Toby, Bruana, Shirley, Kirsty, Noah, Frost, Gareth, Turner, Otday, Eorl, Axle, Ester, Spile, David, Betony
106 Jodie, Sunshine, Ganger, Peach, Spikenard, Scallop, Hobby, Pennyroyal, Smile, Otday, Turner, Janet, Astrid, Thistle, Shelagh, Silas, Basalt, Suki, Robert, Madder, Steve, Bekka, Cowslip, Swansdown, Susan, Aqualegia, Kingfisher, Carley, Syke, Margæt, Garnet, Catkin, Caltforce, Council, Thomas, Briar, Yew, Sagon, Joseph, Gareth, Gosellyn, Campion, Will, Qvuine, Aaron, Siskin, Jasmine, Tusk, Lilac, Ash, Beech, Rebecca, Fescue
107 Helen, Duncan, Irena, Scent, Silk, Loosestrife, Tench, Knawel, Bramling, Grebe, Madder, Robert, Otter, Luval, Honey, Beth, Beatrix, Falcon, Amethyst, Janet, Lilac, Jasmine, Ash, Beech, Fiona, Blackdyke, Bittern, George, Axel, Oak, Terry, Wolf, Vinnek, Dittander, Squill, Harmony, Jason, Lyre, Iola, Heron, Yew, Milligan, Alice, Crook, Eudes, Abigail, Gibb, Melanie, Storm, Annabelle, Eddique, Fenda, Lars, Reedmace, Jodie, Aaron, Nigel, Thomas Will
108 Aldeia, Coast, Chris, Wayland, Liam, Gage, Fiona, Fergal, Beth, Greensward, Jackdaw, Warbler, Jed, Guy, Bittern, Spearmint, Alwydd, Storm, Judith, Heidi, Iola, Heron, Beatrix, Harle, Parsley, Fledgeling, Letta, Cockle, Puffin, Adela, Gibb, Coaltit, Dabchick, Morris, Lucimer, Sharky, Rampion, Siskin, Weir, Alsike, Milligan, Gosellyn, Wolf, Campion, Gareth, Aaron, Nigel, Geoffrey, Will, Roebuck, Yew
109 George, Lyre, Iola, Milligan, Gibb, Adela, Wels, Francis, Weir, Cliff, Siward, Glæt, Judith, Madder, Briar, Axel, Molly, Coaltit, Dabchick, Bluesher, Qvuine, Spoonbill, Ashridge, Morris
110 Nectar, Cattail, Molly, Floatleaf, Timothy, Guy, Judith, Briar, Axel, Storm, Beatrix, Iola, Coaltit, Siward, Cockle, Gibb, Lune, Manchette, Gellica, Dabchick, Morris, Sycamore, Eudes, Fulbert, Abigail, Milligan, Ashridge
111 Iola, Turner, Otday, Alwydd, Will, Dabchick, Sgœnne, Coriander, Saught, Ingot, Molly, Vivienne, Michelle, Nancy, Fledgeling, Letta, Milligan, Spoonbill, Knawel, Beaver, Cnut, Godwin, Ilsa, Holdfast, Jeanne, Tara, Lanfranc, Furrier, Joseph, Crag, Adela, Jason, Judith, Gem, Wolf, Storm, Terry, Axel, George, Oak, Coaltit, Posy, Gage, Bluesher, Nigel, Heron, Aaron, Orchid, Morris, Russell, Thomas, Eudes, Ashridge, Polecat, Redstart, Herleva, Fletcher, Jasmine, Ash, Beech, Lilac, Elaine, Kaya, Fulbert, Buzzard, Raymond, Firefly, Roebuck, Francis, Cliff, Odo, Alice, Grangon
112 Council, Bruana, Iola, Kirsty, Glen, Shirley, Wormwood, Noah, Aaron, Dabchick, Nigel, Judith, Milligan, Campion, Gibb, Morris, Polecat, Ilsa, Glæt, Braun, Turbot, Voë, Llyllabette, Yoomarrianna, Sledge, Cloudberry, Smockt, Burgloss, Hubert, Skylark, Srossa, Cygnet, Uri, Cnara, Sexday, Luuk, Slew, Quinnea, Roach, Vosgælle, Siward, Adela, Bluesher, Olga, Amæ, Helen, Odo, Wels, Camomile, Fulbert, Ashridge, Swaille, Gren, Spoonbill, Alwydd, Puffin, Chub, Gage, Ivy, Sippet, Orcharder, Knapps, Eudes, Fledgeling, Cnut, Letta, Nightjar, Greensward, Saught, Carver, Wlnoth, Flagstaff, Coaltit, Thresher, Parsley, Harle, Coriander
113 Aaron, Glæt, Braum, Sandpiper, Ellflower, Abigail, Nigel, Morris, Iola, Ivana, Zena, Trefoil, Comfrey, Scorp, Milligan, Ashridge, Polecat, Gibb, Basil, Knapps, Sagon, Pleasance, Posy, Woad, Will, Gage, Strath, Eric, Ophæn, Coriander, Vivienne, Michelle, Camilla, Odo, Siward, Swaille, Fulbert, Adela, Coaltit, Dabchick, Eudes, Harle, Matthew, Grangon, Hayrake, David, Gellica, Biteweed, Heron, Qvuine, Hjötron, Fledgeling, Parsley, Spoonbill, Greensward, Bluesher, Beatrix, Roebuck, Sagon, Letta, Carver, Wlnoth, Beaver, Saught, Swegn
114 Iola, Dabchick, Gage, Fulbert, Eudes, Coaltit, Burnet, Adela, Sippet, Milligan, Spoonbill, Coriander, Fennel, Knapps, Llyllabette, Yoomarrianna, Smockt, Wheatear, Cloudberry, Sanderling, Scree, Eve, Sledge, Hubert,Irena, Suki, Burgloss, Harle, Polecat, Gibb, Gordon, Douglas, Lunelight,Lovage, Francis, Pleasance, Siward, Grangon, Qvuine, Ashridge, Abigail, Alice, Emma, Embrace, Basil, Aaron, Nigel, Hville, Heron, Bluesher, Musk, Michelle, Joseph, Ivy, Bruana, Noah, Ianto
115 Council, Basil, Iola, Ilsa, Crag, Sgœnne, Waternut, Joseph, Ivy, Dabchick, Milligan, Roebuck, Polecat, George, Yew, Will, Gage, Raspberry, Lisette, Bruana, Ianto, Noah, Evan, Yanto, Jocelyn, Lætitia, Faith, Kæn, Janice, Oak, Lilly, Jason, Wolf, Irena, Mica, Quartz, Peregrine, Ellen, Ousel, Abel, Honesty, Rose, Suki, Veronica, Chris, Mast, Vinnek, Alan, Jane, Beatrix, Jackdaw, Nancy, Douglas, Euan, Coriander, Yæna, Gosellyn, Peter, Bella, Anne, Joa, Joanna, Harrion, Beth, Otter, Luval, Bittern, Wayland, Tansy, Craig, Jonathan, Rhame, Moil, Blush, Alfalfa, Puffin, Briar, Bay, Storm, Hobby, Gibb, Judith, Bjarni, Mhairi, Kbion, Nigel, Bluesher, Spoonbill, Grangon, Kell, Deal, Wryneck, Weir, Musk, Joseph, Knapps, Deepwater, Gordon, Ashridge, Yanwaite, bluebean, Alice, Alfgar, Matthew, Heidi, Rampion, Heron, Siskin
116 Fiona, Fergal, Nightingale, Margæt, Milligan, Polecat, Tinder, Beatrix, Whitethorn, Irena, Lilly, Isabel, Beth, Warbler, Gage, Cicely, Will, Bruana, Coaltit, Gibb, Ianto, Noah, Iola, Morris, Joseph, Dabchick, Kirsty, Shirley, Ivana, Judith, Posy, Wolf, Oak, Jason, George, Gem, Firefox, Mangel, Mace, Millet, Faith, Yew, Hazel, Rowan, Siskin, Basil, Hobby, Thomas, Nightlights, Alkanet, Ferdinand, Eudes, Fulbert, Ashridge, Abigail, Briar, Almond, Crake, Storm, Barret, Alec, Harris, Brock, Bruin, Graill, Joanna, Alice, Alfgar, Fiddil, Orcharder, Melanie, Adela, Spoonbill, Betony, Michelle, Ellen, Jocelyn, Lætitia, Abel, Mari, Ford, Peter, Honesty, Bella, Yæna, Harmony, Dittander, Molly
117 Lyre, George, Irena, Lilly, Goshawk, Peregrine, Graill, Judith, Oak, Dabchick, Iola, Coaltit, Fulbert, Spoonbill, Parsley, Knapps, Gage, Ashridge, Eudes, Oullin, Bruana, Diana, Hville, Adela, Ingot, Herron, Rosebay, Gwyneth, Sheridan, Sturgeon, Jake, Maybells, Council, Yew, Will, Thomas, Rowan, Qvuine, Milligan, Joseph, Bluesher, Greensward, Morris, Grangon, Ryan, Hobby, Phœbe, Harris, Alec, Fiddil, Orcharder, Briar, Sagon, Storm, Durance, Charlotte
118 Iola, Adela, Knapps, Dabchick, Bruana, Beatrix, Bwlch, Burnet, Winefruit, Twailles, Saught, Spoonbill, Coaltit, Fulbert, Eudes, Coriander, Milligan, Hobby, Morgelle, Caoilté, Fritillary, Tuyere, Ælfgivu, Morwen, Bistort, Furnace, Turner, Froe, Otday, Otter, Luval, Molly, Ivy, Eorl, Geoffrey, Betony, Gosellyn, Smile, Phœbe, Cwm, Angharad, Vervain, Irena, Lilly, Falcon, Judith, Storm, Iola, Alwydd, Charlotte, Heron, Heidi, Rampion, Yew, Rowan, Spearmint, Veronica, Mast, Flint, Peregrine, Loosestrife, Bramling, Tench, Knawel, Oliver, Claire, Gdana, Grebe, Ironwood Agrimony, Joseph, Gordon, Diana, Gander, Gibb, Lunelight, Pleasance, Bay, George, Jason, Briar, Barnet, Oak, Acorn, Knott, Ingot, Gage, Beth, Jed, Guy, Qvuine, Swegn, Mortice, Mike, Spruce, Linden, Will, Gale, Morris, Rock, Revæl, Rampion, Matilda, Silverherb, Wheatear, Brock, Bruin, Estelle, Slimlyspoon, Edwin, Aspen, Musk, Joseph, Cynthia, Sannie, Lobelia, Merle, Laura, Warbler, Mint, Allia, Kevin, Laiqqa, Davvi, Madder, Robert, Crossbill, Barleycorn, Compass, Sextant, Sólarsteinn, Fulke, Bryony, Cobalt, Tress, Livette, Whin, Plane, Tunn, Lavender, Balsam, Jade, Phthalen, Tallia, Yumalle, Larov
119 Joseph, Briar, Sago, Swegn, Tress, Bryony, Gordon, Livette, Whin, Plane, Tunn, Lavender, Balsam, Cobalt, Sppleblossom, Lotus, Veronica, Mast, Flint, Peregrine, Bloom, Weälth, Coppicer, Lacy, Silverbean, Marjoram, Scorza, Gooseberry, Cove, Gowwan, Hugh, Earnest, Campion, Aaron, Skale, Xera, Horehound, Joaquim, Lorna, Leofric, Sabrina, Shag, Vinnek, Ruby
120 Warbler, Jed, Thrift, Firefox, Beth, Greensward, Will, Leech, Livette, Gloria, Peregr Janet, Ninija, Fiona, Isabel, Lilac,Ash, Beech, Jasmine, Rebecca, Francis, Yellowstone, Buttercup, Gage, Opal, Mist, Odo, Milligan, Thomas, Will, Gareth, Yew, Rowan, Basil, Hobby, Sagon, Campion, Joseph, Iola, Alwydd, Spearmint, Heron, Heidi, Rampion, Bowman, Gibb, Coaltit, Gordon, Douglas, Dabchick, Pleasance, Fergal, Åse, Leveret, Durance, Wayland, Laura, Stonecrop, Aaron, Nigel
121 Warbler, Jed, Thrift, Firefox, Iris, Otday, Gooseander, Harebell, Haw, Molly, Campion, Qvuine, Axel, Milligan, Veronica, Mast, Shag, Flint, Scoter, Sabrina, Marjoram, Peregrine, Clarice, Lingon, Cove, Gooseberry, Boarherb, Lorna, Horehound, George, Gowwan, Bloom, Leofric, Silverbean, Scorza, Flittermouse, Bryn, Hugh
122 Will, Gage, Mari, Ford, Milligan, Basil, Gudrun, Fergal, Rowan, Iola, Llyllabette, Yoomarrianna, Sledge, Hubert, Svetlana, Stanislav, Kathleen, Reef, Desmond, Raymond, Nigel Dabchick, Gabriëlla, Campion, Qvuine, Swegn, Nuulla, Gareth, Juniper, Leech, Thomas, Pilot, Yew, Janice, Ashlar, Slate, Whitethorn, Marble, Kæn, Berg, Linden, Lorna, Horehound, Banana, Veronica, Mast, Joaquim, Sabrina, Shag, Bloom, Cove, Hugh, Dlupé, Seela, Bullnut, Rutlan, Coppicer, Peregrine, Gowwan, Torrent, Irena, Chiffchaff, Lilly, Gosellyn, Cwm, Pim, Agrimony, Margæt, Otter, Suki, Whitethorn, Falcon, Mink, Ousel, Lyre, Dudaim, Yew, Sagon, Rowan, Jed, Turner, Otday, Hazel, Flint, Geoffrey, Eorl, Kæna, David, Harle, Clarity, Joseph, Milligan, Gibb, Gooseberry, Spoonbill, Ashdell, Bruana, Grangon, Pleasance, Heron, Basil, Alsike, Wolf, Zoë, Torrent, Columbine, Madder, Robert, Compass, Sólarsteinn, Sextant, Fulke, George, Peregrine, Molly, Falcon, Briar, Spoonbill, Dabchick, Honey, Bruana, Eudes, Fulbert, Grangon, Milligan, Gibb, Ingot, Sagon, Paul, Bulrush, Brightth, Happith, Douglas, Aaron, Nigel, Euan, Musk, Plume, Hobby, Courage, Truedawn, Nathan, Wolf, Geoffrey, Gosellyn, Steve, Axel, Yew, Zoë, Flint, Zephyr, Fletcher, Orkæke, Lunelight, Damson, Agrimony, Æneascoffey, Siskin, Brock, Bruin, Vinnek, Turner, Otday, Havern
123 Veronica, Mast, Zoë, Torrent, Columbine, Zrine, Zeeëend, Zlovan, Zylanna, Zylenna, Eolwaena, Tualla, Quoylay, Isdeän, Qheræce, Molleande, Sayley, Sennen, Waggon, Ivy, Vivienne, Nicola, Minyet, Morris, Dabchick, Iola, Geoffrey, Godfrey, Roebuck, Letta, Redstart, Russell, Iffan, Ælle, Fulcrum, Constant, Catfish, Lingwood, Fyrday, Vvavva, George, Lyre, Sagon, Graill, Joanna, Fiddil, Orcharder, Brock, Bruin, Judith, Storm, Caldera, Beth, Falcon, Warbler, Fiona, Isabel, Greensward, Jed, Fergal
124 Eleanor, Fuchsia, Woad, Bruana, Iola, Fulbert, Dabchick, Coaltit, Spoonbill, Ashridge, Noah, Bittersweet, Veronica, Mast, Coriander, Oak, Jason, George, Shag, Sabrina, Wolf, Joseph, Howell, Gervaise, Lilac, Rebecca, Jasmine, Fescue, Joella, Ash, Beech, Cattail, Guy, Molly, Beatrix, Cwm, Aida, Sharky, Lucimer, Wayland, Beth, Gage, Irena, Lilly, Eliza, Council, Gareth, Thomas, Yew, Bullnut, Flittermouse, Joaquim, Scorza, Aaron, Weälth, Silverbean, Hotroot, Shoveler, Gooseberry, Leofric, Bryn, Prawn, Gail, Dlupé, Rutlan, Flint,, Gorse, Cove, Weir, Milligan, Ruby, Janet, Alison, Olga, Miels, Ysteil, Horehound, Gowwan
125 Iola, Gage, Milligan,George, Oak, Axel, Josephine, Terry, Vinnek, Dittander, Squill,Jason, Silverbean, Mystery, Veronica, Geoffrey, Euan, Laslette, Douglas, Annella, Rampion, Mist, Lunelight, Damson, Æneascoffey, Jimmy, Berry, Aaron, Yew, Joseph, Joan, Bjarni, Polecat, Hamish, Gordon, Ross, Alastair, Céline, Midnight, Morag, Morgelle, Lillian, Tussock, Basil, Hobby, Suki, Irena, Nigel, Wayland, Siskin, Judith, Sagon, Janet, Ninija, Shader, Ivy, Beth, Mallard, Wryneck, Echo, Amber, Rowan, Weir, Will, Gale, Thomas, Gareth, Lilly, Gage, Jessica, Mike, Spruce, Harmony, Gevlik, Storm, Heron, Jamesstorm, Modesty, Solace, Timothy, Langstroth, Dadant, Io, Gdana, Liam, Gibb, Abigail, Ashridge, Morris, Dabchick, Ivana, Bruana, Miranda, Spokeshave, Manley, Field, Rose, Bling, Bling, Bittern, Madder, Robert, Heidi, Rampion, Wayland, Vlæna, Sooz, Alfalfa, Prudence, Spelt, Treen, Gramot, Greensward, Saithe, Falcon, Ripple, Sdorn, Zandra, Tenon, Hale, Beatrix, Vervain, Cwm, Amethyst, Mint, Blackdyke, Leech, Gwendoline, Pol, Bekka, Marcy, Drive, Brock, Bruin, Gervaise, Zoë, Tansy, Craig, Rock, Revæl, Sharky, Lucimer, Fiona, Warbler, Granite, Gosellyn, Eyebright, Julia
126 Dittander, Vetch, Axel, Squill, Bwlch, Beth, Granite, Falcon, Julia, Heron, Iola, Revæl, Rock, Judith, Storm, Pepperspice, Godfrey, Gibb, Gareth, Willow, Tansy, Craig, Gosellyn, Lilly, Irena, Blackdyke, Janet, Gale, Gage, Will, Mari, Ford, Weir, Siskin, Rampion, Heidi, Aaron, Nigel, Wayland, Prudence, Vervain, Io, Heron, George, Lyre, Peregrine, Larch, Dabchick, Gabriëlla, Scarff, Oddi, Myles, Ursula
127 The Father of Beings, Analyser, Comparator, Concatenator, Differentiator, Extractor, Integrator, First Thinker, Eldest, The Void, Entropy, The Music Man, Stewart, Jacques, Mariam, Saijät, Alan Holborne, John Smith, Romulus, Remus, The Tooth Færie, Father Christmas, Robin Hood, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Lewis Carroll
Word Usage Key
Some commonly used words are below. Replace th on end of words with ness and t with d or ed and most of the rest are obvious if sounded out aloud. Some words with n or en on the end can be easily understood if the n is replaced by a d. Only difficult words and words that do not exist in English are now referred to specifically.
Agreän(s), those person(s) one has marital agreement with, spouse(s).
Bethinkt, thought.
Braekt, broke.
Cousine, female cousin.
Doet, did. Pronounced dote.
Doetn’t, didn’t. Pronounced dough + ent.
Findt, found,
Goen, gone
Goent, went.
Grandparents. In Folk like in many Earth languages there are words for either grandmother and grandfather like granddad, gran, granny. There are also words that are specific to maternal and paternal grandparents. Those are as follows. Maternal grand mother – granddam. Paternal grandmother – grandma. Maternal grandfather – grandfa. Paternal grandfather – grandda.
Heartfriend, a relationship of much more significance than being a girl- or boy-friend is on Earth. Oft such relationships are formed from as young as four and they are taken seriously by both children and adults. A child’s heartfriend is automatically one of their heartfriend’s parents’ children too, and a sibling to their heartfriend’s siblings. Such relationships rarely fail and are seen as precursors to becoming intendet and having agreement.
Intendet, fiancée or fiancé.
Knoewn, knew.
Lastdaysince, the day before yesterday.
Loes, lost.
Maekt, made.
Nextdaynigh, the day after tomorrow.
Sayt, said.
Seeën, saw.
Taekt, took.
Telt, told.
Uest, used.
1 A perfect number is a positive integer whose positive factors, excluding itself, sum to itself. The first four perfect numbers are 6, 28, 496 and 8128. For example the positive integer factors of 6 are 1, 2, 3 and 6, and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. The positive integer factors of 28 are 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and 28, and 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28.
2 In a parasitic relationship one species benefits and the other is harmed. An obligate parasite is one that can only complete its life cycle by exploiting a suitable host. Facultative parasites can act as a parasite but do not need a host to continue its life cycle. Many parasites have lost all abilities other than to feed and reproduce over evolutionary time.
3 In an amenalistic relationship one species is harmed and the other is unaffected.
4 In a commensalistic relationship one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor does it benefit.
5 In a mutualistic relationship both species benefit.
6 Sacculina is a genus of barnacles with over a hundred members. It is a parasitic castrator of crabs.
7 Weäl, well being.
8 Chlochan, a huge snow leopard that usually hunts elk, winter-elk and aurochs. At maturity they are the size of a large waggon horse. The queens, females, are larger than the toms, males.
9 Bayan, a type of button accordion invented and favoured in Russia.
10 The Riot Act of 1714 was an act of Parliament in Great Britain that authorised local authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled, and thus have to disperse or face punitive action. It was put into effect by reading it aloud to whomever the authorities wished to disperse. The expression ‘to read the riot act’ is still used in an informal sense indicating extreme anger vociferously expressed. For example one child may ask another, “Was you mum ok when you got in late last night?” The reply might be, “Ok‽ She went mental and read the riot act.” The act was repealed in 1967.
11 The police force was brought into being by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. They were colloquially known as Peelers or Bobbies. Bobby being derived from Robert.
12 Weäl, well being.
13 Paving flag, much paving in the UK is done with concrete slabs referred to as flag stone or flags. Most are two to three inches thick and made with crushed granite. Most are rectangular 3 ft x 2 ft or square 2 ft x 2 ft, but other shapes are used.
14 The borders, familiar name for the region around the border between Scotland and England, also the name of an administrative area in southern Scotland.
15 Stones, a reference to Stonehenge on Salisbury plain.
16 9331 = 7 x 31 x 43. 9331 is the product of three prime numbers.
17 The first Saijät connected individual was Jacques de Saint-Georges d’Espéranche, also known as as Master James of Saint George. He became the first Lord of Castle. See Ch 2 or Ch 128.
Comments
More to Say...
...later on, probably.
But it seemed unnecessarily uncaring on the "adults'" part to obliterate all record of the Music Man's visit, and thus the reason for the damage to Earth, leaving people with no way of knowing what the "wrongness" was that destroyed them and could come back to haunt them later. Apparently they won't even remember the failings of their "martyred" leaders that the Music Man specified in song.
Btw, you said that the Music Man didn't kill any of his attackers. But you also said all the attackers on the planes "disappeared", though the pilots were unharmed. Weren't they human?
Best, Eric
We are getting into the
We are getting into the realms of the Beings thought processes here, and they are beyond mankind. There is a paragraph that explains that.
Had humans known what was going on doubtless many would have adjudged the Beings to be callous and concluded that they placed little value on life, [by which humans would have meant human life only] but no human was capable of understanding, never mind considering, the huge number of factors that influenced exactly what the Beings did and why. Some incursionists were selected because they required considerable help from the residents which enabled the residents to change and grow, and on Castle in particular, for the Castle Way, the codes by which the Folk lived, to evolve. The inevitable loss of life brought about by incursion was regrettable, but to the Beings’ wider perspectives not without benefits to both incursionists and residents alike.
The Beings destroyed property and returned only those who were dangerous to the life on Earth [not merely human life] to the Void . Essentially the damage done to Earth life and the Earth itself was done by mankind, not the Beings. Yes, records were destroyed but not memories, Holborne's memories of events shew that. Too,
After he [The Music Man] and the Beings left Earth all recordings and notes maekt at the time were no longer there to consult and as the memories of people employed by the authorities started to fade they found alternative explanations for what they could remember of their experiences.
The point being they chose to ignore their experience and rewrote it to suit themselves. My intent here was that mankind should have to make its own minds up as adults should, not to be treated as children. I deliberately did not wish the records of events to become some kind of new age 'Holy book' that instructed them how to behave. At this time humans are right on the edge of self termination. They have been helped more than they realise by the Beings. It's up to mankind to work that out and then to decide how to proceed. I'm told when alcohol is unavailable all alcoholics believe they are cured. We'll see in Ch 129.
The Beings are not interested in justifications for horrendous acts. They regard the individual(s) as responsible for those acts and they respond accordingly. What I'm saying is in their view Adolf Hitler being sat on a cold potty as a baby would not have excused his actions as an adult. They certainly would not have inflicted upon him what he did to others, but they would have instantly returned him to the Void as soon as they had become aware of his actions. The Beings are what they are and can not be judged by any human morality, so the use of the word 'unnecessarily' is not germane to the discussion.
I haven't used the word 'attackers' any where. I have used the word fighters, but that refers to fighter aircraft, fighters as opposed to bombers.
Regards,
Eolwaen
Eolwaen
One More Question...
...while I try to organize my thoughts on the main points:
If I read this right, some of the arcane knowledge, or items unrelated to people's employment, that the 568 incursion brought in were added to the newcomers' minds without their knowledge. (Like Iola's encyclopedic recognition of foods from all over the world and how they were made?)
But it seemed to me that you were also implying that some of the nightmarish childhoods on Earth which the newcomers of 568 were contrasting with their new start on Castle were false, intended to make them happier or more useful as Folk. Is that correct?
Eric
Memories
Regarding Iola and George and their phenomenal memories and skills. They were already very talented with wide ranging experience and skills, and widely read too, but were possibly/probably assisted to access what they already knew at one time. It is not unreasonable to assume they were selected for incursion because they were extremely talented and equally unappreciated.
As regards the nightmarish childhoods. Remember times on Earth and Castle are not directly comparable. The next incursion is in 619 after the Fell Year and [a tiny spoiler here] Stewart in Ch 129 tells that The Music Man performed about 200 years before he was a child which would be about 150-180 years before the incursion of 568 and so the newfolk of the 568 incursion should have known about him had the two time frames been parallel. However the time frames are not and none of the 568 newfolk were aware of The Music Man for he was way in their future when they were on Earth.
As far as we are aware none of The Music Man's audience that experienced the nightmares of childhood ever went to Castle. The intent was to make the audience aware of what they were doing to their world and how they would be regarded by the generations unborn should they not stop. The nightmares were to drive the point home. None suffered more than they were capable of internalising without harm. Then there were the trains - the sweet after the bitter pill if you like - but again some experienced reminders of what had already been lost that they valued. Yes a lot of the connections are subtly elliptical, but I didn't want to beat readers over the head with it and so I left much finer detail unwritten for readers to fill in for themselves in whatever way they related to best.
In short no I was not implying that some of the nightmarish childhoods on Earth which the newcomers of 568 were contrasting with their new start on Castle were false, intended to make them happier or more useful as Folk though it is entirely possible that some readers would fill in detail and assume that. If so that's fine after all it's their reading and every reader takes away a unique and personal experience from reading anything.
Regards,
Eolwaen
Eolwaen
Out-flippin'-standing!
My only query is: Since the Beings understand and can identify 'Wrongness' and eliminate it, even name what actions it comprises, what then would they decree as 'Rightness'? Obviously one could be vague and simply declare that 'Rightness' is anything other than 'Wrongness' but surely that would declare that 'Irrelevantness' and 'Immaterialness' are part and parcel to 'Rightness'.
Rightness
Rightness is that which moves towards being ready to join the Father of Beings on the far side of spacetime. That is a somewhat Buddhist philosophy I know but it does sidestep the question concerning 'Irrelevantness' and 'Immaterialness' rather nicely, in the proper sense of the word nice i.e. a fine distinction.
Regards,
Eolwaen
Eolwaen