Ed opened the door in all his stumpy glory, dressed to the nines in elaborate pink pajamas. He waved his short arms in defiance of Penndarius's early arrival and then quickly hid his teddy bear behind his back.

"What are you doing here so late...I mean early...I mean late...? You know what I mean!" he said. His long, pointed, white beard almost touched the ground, and he nearly tripped over it before deciding to throw it over his shoulder to keep it out of his way.

Penndarius was finding it hard to stifle chuckles at the ridiculous sight of Ed in his pajamas. Eventually he could not hold it in anymore and laughed until tears ran down his cheeks. As he wiped them away, he said in disbelief, "You wear that?" and continued to do his best to contain the laugher.

The smaller figure pouted. "It is of no concern to you, Mister Greyson, what I wear to bed," Ed insisted as his squinty face went beet red. He straightened out his nightcap, with its puffy, fuzzy little ball on the end, and shifted his pajamas as he straightened his back, trying to look serious—a difficult feat in such an outfit.

Penndarius wiped the tears from his eyes. "I am here to meet with Gale Southtale, and a communication from you told me to be here just after sunrise. I believe your words were 'Do not gaggle about,'" Penndarius quoted with a mock businesslike tone.

The friendly teasing escaped Ed. "I appreciate your professionalism," he replied, "but I must get dressed without all this prattle. Gale should be here soon. When she does arrive, please let her in," he said and then hurried off toward a set of stairs at the back of the tower that led up into his living quarters. "Wait here in the atri-thingy!" he yelled back to Penndarius.

"Atrium," Penndarius said, low enough that Ed could not hear the correction, and smiled to himself.

The first floor of Ed's tower was a mess. The atrium was shaped like a large pentagon with shelves lining every wall, so stuffed with books that they were falling out onto the floor. Even more books were stacked in disorganized piles. Some of them had been turned into an improvised desk, though the term desk would be used loosely. Many had bookmarks poking out from between their pages for later reading. Loose pages were scattered across the room and seemed to move about at will. In one corner an odd-looking fireplace was aglow with burning logs. The entire space was covered in a visible layer of dust, and the stale smell of moldy paper pervaded throughout.

Moments later Ed came stumbling back down the staircase. He was now fully dressed in a blue robe that looked no less ridiculous. With a pattern of half moons, stars, and teddy bears, the robe looked remarkably akin to his pajamas, but Penndarius said nothing. Ed's hair was combed straight, and his beard was tied with a pink ribbon at the bottom.

A knock sounded at the front door.

"Penn, would you answer that?" Ed asked.

Penndarius went to the door and opened it, and on the other side was Gale Southtale. She was wearing the brown robes of the Helkrif excavation crew.

As she walked through the door, Penndarius noticed something different about her from the last time they had met. Gale laid her hand softly on Penndarius's shoulder as she passed, and Penndarius narrowed his eyes and scrutinized her. At just a glance, the scholar knew something was intrinsically wrong. She looked like the same Gale he knew, but she was different in some subtle way. Her appearance was familiar, but her demeanor seemed strange. She seemed more confident. It was hard for him to put his finger on why, but it seemed almost audible.

He thought he saw the faintest outline of white on her shoulders, a silhouette of some kind. As a side effect of his heritage—of any person born of magi—Penndarius was able to see the energy residue of contracts made with magical entities such as kirins.

Gale turned swiftly toward Penndarius and asked, "Do you have the translations for me,

Mr. Greyson?"

Penndarius was sure of it now. The last time they had met, Gale had been energetic and slightly skittish, and now her demeanor was calmer and far more direct than before.

"Yes, ma'am, I do. It is as accurate as I could make it. One moment," he said and kept his eyes locked on the researcher while he began digging around in his bag for the tracing and his notes. He pulled them from the sheaf and held them out to her warily.

Ed did not seem to care or realize that anything was odd.

The woman took the tracing and examined it briefly. "Ah, yes," she said. "I remember this."

Penndarius gave her a guarded look. "Remember?" he asked.

“Why, yes.” She looked back at him. "Oh, I am sorry, dear. Please," she said with a winning smile and handed back his notes.

Ed walked toward them and stumbled over a book in the process. He almost fell on his face but righted himself at the last moment. "Please, Penn, tell us what it says!" he asked.

Penndarius took back the tablet tracing and his notes and looked them both over for a moment. "I have to admit, this tablet is unusual," he told them. "I have translated many manuscripts and writings from various cultures, but this took all my skills. For example, it mentions a creator god, something that has never been mentioned in any writings I have seen thus far."

Gale nodded as if this were expected, and the action set off warning bells in Penndarius's head.

"Please, dear. Tell us what it says," she encouraged.

Penndarius placed his notes next to the tracing and looked back and forth between the runes and his notes before he began. "All right, here we go," he said. "The tablet that this was traced from recounts a brief history. It says that the lesser gods of chaos, order, good, and evil were the Creator God's first creations. They were imperfect by intention, created to govern over the various races of the land. Next, the Creator God created the kirins to steward the lands, magical creatures that were like elemental forces of nature. Finally the Creator made the vaedziur. These people were perfect in every way, masterful creations that were utterly without flaws or reactive emotion...or so the Creator had planned. But instead, it became apparent that they knew hubris, anger, lust, and greed. Lacking temperaments of reason, the vaedziur ran rampant and caused...."

Penndarius stopped reading and looked up. "That is where this part of the translation ends. Apparently it continues elsewhere, telling about the guardian of the gate that is referred to later. The next part stands as a set of instructions."

"Hmm...do tell," Gale said and drew closer to him as her eyes narrowed with interest.

Penndarius gazed back at his notes. "To release the gate guardian from its servitude, three seals must be shattered in exact order. If they are not, the ritual fails completely. It reads: The first seal must be broken by two brothers who, through anger, spill blood in the hall of knowledge. The second seal must be shattered by two peoples who must...."

Penndarius stopped reading and looked up. "It appears that, once again, the instructions continue elsewhere," he said and looked back down at his notes before reading the end. "The last seal must be cut in twain by the shattered...." He stopped and looked up, "that also trails off," he said and then carefully set down his translations and the tracing on a pile of books.

"I see, my dear, and it shall be taken to...what was his name? Isaiah Helkrif?" Gale said, and the confusion in her voice surprised Penndarius.

"You do not remember the name of your mentor and teacher?" Penndarius asked.

Even Ed realized that something was different about Gale, but before either he or Penndarius could say more, two sharp knocks sounded on the door and resounded ominously through the house.

Ed shrugged his shoulders. "For another time," he said in a light tone. "I wonder, who could that be? I was not expecting anyone else."

Ed went to the door and opened it. "How may I help you…? Wait! What is this? Who are you?" he cried.

Penndarius and Gale rushed up behind him and heard a low kathunk, and a silver sword tip seemed to appear from Ed's back. His blue robes, with their stars and teddy bears, were suddenly stained dark with blood. The tip seemed to hang in the air for what felt like forever as Penndarius stood entranced by the gruesome scene before him.

While Penndarius was watching in stunned silence, Gale came between him and Ed and reached up and around, grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt. "Yes, you are what I need!" she hissed into his face.

Then Penndarius watched as a second blade passed through Gale's back and out the front of her robes, just barely tickling his chest and staining his white shirt with crimson blood.

"Get his notes!" the assassin at the door yelled to his companion.

Even as he watched, Penndarius felt an increasing energy in Gale as she died, and the white aura over her back grew more intense. He saw a humanoid figure made of mist rise from her body. Deep within his being, Penndarius felt the connection between Gale and the misty creature shatter as the last breath left her mouth. Then its striking, green-eyed gaze snapped toward Penndarius.

The assassins picked up the tablet tracing and threw it, along with Penndarius's notes, into the fire nearby. The pages curled upwards as they turned to ash.

The white mist figure that had separated from Gale's corpse suddenly rushed toward Penndarius and seemed to fall into his body. He felt the piercing green eyes fold into his own with an absolute force that denied him consciousness, and all suddenly went black.

- End of Episode -

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New Episodes of A Scholar's Journey: The Divine Tempest are released every Thursday at 7 AM PST.