Clarisse was consulting another map. Her assistant had brought it out together with some fresh candles. The sun had disappeared long ago but the lorekeeper never noticed. The reports about strange glowing lights in the sky had started about a year ago. Before the siege of Ul-Targash. But ever since the siege they had really picked up. Something was happening that responded to the horrors that siege laid bare. Or maybe it was a coincidence?
She had gathered all these reports and was trying to find a pattern. Some prophecies, complete charts of holy sites, holy dates of one of the gods, weather reports, swamp gas measurements, something, anything, to compare it to. To make sense of it all. She was not the only one working on this. The priests of Talor had not given this a high priority, but that had never kept lorekeepers from pouring over these reports for days without sleep. She had to be the first to figure it out. One more sighting report. One more point of data. One more and she would crack the code. She was sure of it!
And she did.
Any good hypothesis leads to verifiable predictions about the future. Find the pattern and you can predict when and where the next occurrence will be. Do this and check that prediction with reality. Were you correct? Then your hypotheses has a higher chance of being the truth. So now Clarisse was on a hill, four weeks later, at the exact right time and place. If she was right, the lights should appear here, directly above her and her theory would be validated. She would write papers about her theory. She would be validated and rise to the top of her profession as lorekeeper.
But such an ascension should not be viewed alone. Together with her assistant, she had also invited one of her most staunch sceptics; Valda. This colleague of hers would also be there to view the lights. If they confirmed her sighting, nobody would doubt the power of her predictions. And her rival would not betray her. Lorekeepers would never betray the truth. Everybody was holding their breath. This was the moment. Any second now.
"Well... It appears your predictions are shown to be untrue." The bitter sting of Valda's words was nothing compared to the disappointment Clarisse felt in herself. But then her assistant pointed. Not at the sky, but at the foot of the hill. Several large and angry looking figures were climbing the hill wearing uniforms she did not recognize. Carrying holy symbols of a God she did not know. All three members of the Library of Truth where silent and frozen in fear as the figures, most of them hulking Ogres, came into view. One of the figures stepped forward and suddenly, light was shining down on all of them.
"Good guess Lorekeeper. Very good guess. You best come with us."
Header image by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos, Wikipedia Commons
