Latet anguis in herba (IC)

[Supercape]

Quentin Quill may have been an athiest, but he had come to that path not from ignorance but from a position of dalliance with philosophy and even theology.

Accordingly, he remained interested in the historical, sociological, and psychological aspects of religion. When the catholic church, St. Georges (based in Midtown) was host to a public lecture by the priest and scholar father Rozello, from Italy.

Dressed in his tweed Jacket and bow tie, he had spent half an hour wandering through the church admiring the architecture, and five minutes doing the crossword puzzle in the paper, before settling down to hear Rozello's public lecture.

[Aoiroo]

This sort of event was not something Etain would of attended usually, but it was suggested by one of her teachers to give her a better understanding of this world. The idea of religion wasn't something she was really familar with, she knew of gods who were popular in this world whom she had heard several rumors and had once met an elderly god who no longer got the faith to maintain his place in the hierarchy. To her gods were not creatures that she associated with worship as she more associated as particularly powerful enities that were generally as deeply flawed, if not more so then the mortals they enticed. The church however was a very pretty, and the walls were inlined with a light glow of the faith that it preserved with daily sermons. She hadn't taken much time to explore the church before the lecture, instead she had simply stood outside and looked at it before it seemed appropriate to enter.

It was just as bright and open as the outside adding very pretty colorful windows that cast light down upon the rows of wooden chairs which were filling up rather quickly. She moved towards a middle row, taking care not to catch her skirt on any outward feets of those she passed in front of before she found a spot next to an older gentleman dressed in tweed. She took the time to reach into her purse and pull out a small plastic camera she had picked up earlier and started to take pictures.

[Supercape]

Quentin nodded at Etain as she sat down next to her. Quaint dress he noted to himself. Although he was far from an expert on fashion, this seemed antiquated even by his standards. Perhaps some form of ultra religious Christian sect?

He put down his crossword when Father Rozello began his talk. It was not long, about twenty minutes or so, and Rozello was a good speaker. He was discussing some of the first Catholic missionaries and churches in Freedom City, making reference to a famous document, the Latet anguis in herba, apparently some treatise on witchcraft and demonology that had been transported to the New world in the 16th Century. Details were somewhat vague, but Rozello was something of an expert on theological history, and had come to look at the Archives of the church.

The talk was over, and the audience free to wander the Church again. Father Rozello remained, answering a few questions politely, referencing the history of the church - both architectural and theological, in the City. Several display cases were showing old bits of history and archeology from the Church, and some of the bound text books detailing the workings of the old Cathedral.

"Interesting talk" said Quentin to Etain. "" he mumbled in Latin, almost unconsciously, his old Latin lessons from school popping into his head.

[Aoiroo]

""

She answered almost instinctively as she rose and passed him without another word. The lecture was somewhat interesting, but there was something deeply troubling about the document he mentioned. The name alone was a hint to that, if such a document still existed there was a chance that it might be something a bit more then parchment. She moved over and waited in the small cluster of people who had otherwise approached the speaker and asking questions. She waited with a quiet sigh as the others chattered hoping she could find an opening to ask her own questions about that particular piece.

[Supercape]

Quentin was rather surprised that the lady had answered him in fluent Latin. As fluent a Latin as he had ever heard - it would have made his old teacher at Eton weep. It certainly put his own mastery of the language - and he was quite proficient albeit rusty - to shame.

Following her, he offered his hand. "" he commented. "My name is Professor Quill, may I have the pleasure of yours?" he asked politely.

[Aoiroo]

Turning towards her she gave a light smile as she took his hand,

"I am Etain, and Latin is not as hard as English. There are many strange rules."

Glancing through the crowd at the speaker she looked back at this new person. His title was professor, like a teacher, she had heard that the person who had spoken had a similar title or at least something like that, which probably meant,

"Do you by chance know the speaker?"

[Supercape]

"No I don't. But I was impressed by his mastery of history and his command of oratory. Really engaged the audience, don't you think? I'm only an amateur in these matters, of course, but he seems to know his stuff. Ontological arguments for the divinity, and all that. "

He adjusted his bow tie. "Well, he looks affable enough, and is meeting and greeting. Care to?" on impulse, he politely offered his arm with a smile.

[Aoiroo]

She really didn't care terribly for most of that stuff, however the matter of the treatise still troubled her. Looking at her arm she weighed the possibilities. In this world she was literally nobody, if not only because of her apparent age, as well as limited knowledge of the world as a whole it might be somewhat difficult to ask for information regarding it. Attaching herself to someone with a title like a teacher greatly increased credibility in that area however. It was a few seconds in this thought that it took her to smile and say,

"Yes, I would greatly."

Taking his arm the two moved forward from the crowd and she kept the smile and appearances. She had forgotten what the speaker had called himself, so she waited quietly for them to start up the conversation.

[Supercape]

Quentin escorted Etain to Father Rozello and shook his hand. "Fascinating lecture, Father" he started. "I am Professor Quill, of Freedom City University. And this is... Ms.. Etain. Quite the Latin scholar!"

Father Rozello greeted them warmly "welcome the church, so glad you enjoyed the lecture" he replied warmly. "What is your field of study?" he asked Quentin.

"Quantum physics!" laughed Quentin "not exactly one for the church. Although I like all knowledge, of course. I was very interested in this Latet anguis in herba you mentioned, sounds very mysterious!"

At the mention of this, Father Rozello's face furrowed slightly. "Yes, mysterious and perhaps disturbing. Those were dangerous times. For the Church, and the spiritual well being of all. But perhaps I am being too melancholy" he muttered, without much conviction.

[Aoiroo]

She listened in but only sought to add at the end,

"The latet anguis in herba, what do you know about that? With a name such as that, it seems, what is the word, menancing? I think that is right. Such a thing does not seem appropriate a church paper. It does not seem like a thing that would be brought up often, maybe because of that."

<In fact, it being obscurely swept under the carpet only makes a magical origin much more likely.>

[Supercape]

Father Rozello furrowed his brow. "It is... complicated, madam. The history of the region is... obscure. I had hoped to find out more on my visit to the Church here. The archives in the crypt below us, for instance, hold much useful information..."

At that point his attention was distracted by a cough from the corner of the hall. A scurrying figure was briefly seen, disappearing into a side room.

"But I distract you with such talk. Please, enjoy the display, and donate what you can to the Church restoration fund..." he wiped his brow and could not meet their gaze.

"Very curious" said Supercape as Rozello walked off. "I smell something most peculiar going on. Rather worrisome. "

Turning to Etain, he continued "would a scholar of the classics such as yourself have any light to shed on the matter?"

[Aoiroo]

Her eyes followed the slightly nervous figure of the man until he disappeared,

<Something is definitely happening here.>

Turning towards Quinten she gave a light smile,

"He said there were archives, maybe it would be good to look. I am sure there will be lots of things of interest, you were here before myself, do you know where it is?"

[Supercape]

"Well, there is obviously the displays they have out for the public" replied Quentin, gesturing around them. "Interesting stuff, of course, and it may be worth a look. I'm hardly the detective, but plenty of old books and artifacts from the history of the city and the Church".

There were indeed a good two dozen display cases littered around the Church, under the watchful eye of two security guards, and probably more clergymen.

"However, Father Rozello was implying the Church had something more tucked away down below, in the crypt. Perhaps a library or something. Quite how we get to look down there, I don't know."

He looked over at where Rozello had scurried away. "You know, he didn't look himself. Something seems wrong here. "

[Aoiroo]

"Yes, it does."

Passing him quietly she started to look through the displays. If she wasn't looking she might of missed it, but there were several symbols, runes in various texts as well as signs of a ritual. They all seemed to be common runes used in a summoning, what however, and who involved were hard to tell. For sure however, there was real magic preformed at some point, and that was very troublesome. She came back to Quinten before saying,

""

[Supercape]

"" he smiled generously, pleased his Latin was still up to scratch. If nothing else, he could flex his linguistic muscles with this elegant lady. Her Latin really was excellent.

"The key is getting to the Archives, however. I doubt we can just waltz in. Although we could certainly try. I doubt priests are open to bribes - not that I condone such moral laxity of course. "

"Do you have any influence? I confess, I hardly know anything about you!"

[Aoiroo]

Glancing at the preists in the corner of her eye she made a few looks around the church. It was an older chapel, so it didn't seem to have upgraded it's security much past heavy doors and heavy locks. Leading him by the wrist she walked away from the hall and the guests towards the stairs where there was no one to see them. She made a quick check, but no one was around. It didn't require much effort, though Quinten could still see them just fine to everyone else there was simply an empty hallway that was completely quiet.

"

[Supercape]

"" replied Quentin, enjoying conversing in Latin. "" he laughed softly.

He lead Etain off down one of the side doors, and down some stairs. The air was getting pleasantly cooler. "

At the bottom of the door was a sturdy wooden door with old iron reinforcements. It looked antique but robust nonetheless. And, more pertinently, it was locked.

[Aoiroo]

She simply nodded to his suggestion and followed behind,

""

When they reached the door she tried the handle quietly then let out a sigh. Glancing at her companion,

""

[Supercape]

Quentin creaked his neck to one side. Concentrating, he shifted subatomic wave particles in his mind. All energy was interconnected, it was just a matter of, well, nudging the entangled data this way and that.

He called it a quantum hole, an invisible and in many ways, non-existent entanglement of space time. It could reach anywhere. But right now, it only needed to reach a few metres behind the door.

In his mind, the energy door opened up, and, like a radar, he could sense the outline of the crypt ahead of them, as particles zipped this way and that. It would now be a simple matter to open up the quantum hole and bring Etain and himself through to the other side.

Except he wasn't Supercape was he? he was just professor Quill.

"".

He sighed. Who was this lady? ""

[Aoiroo]

She looked at the door again and tried to see if she could find some way to open. Something, so she could just continue with just the two of them. There was something happening, and she didn't know how much of this was actually known in the church. She couldn't know who she would alert if she asked someone with a key to open the door for her. She still needed to know more, because something like this could be very dangerous. In light of this however, her companion still wanted to make light talk. She could only slightly hide her frustration,

""

[Supercape]

Quentin gave the door a little push. Damn with a few seconds concentration he could open up the hole and teleport them inside.

As he was contemplating his dilemma, the sound of footsteps on the stairs reached them.

"Oh dear" he muttered. "Quick! Hide!" he gazed around, and saw there was absolutely nowhere to hide. A locked door behind them, a stone staircase leading upwards.

"Oh dear" he muttered again.

"Ms. Etain... can you keep a secret..." he gulped.

[Aoiroo]

Etain did not panic at all, instead she glanced up the stairs and pulled Quentin to the side of the staircase as the figure came down. It was Rozello who came down the stairs. He was looking quite flustered as he drew a key from his pocket and unlocked the door, glancing around behind him he let out a breath as he opened it and disappeared inside. Walking over, Etain caught the door, and glanced forward into the darkness. Rozello seemed so flustered that he did not notice the door not shutting yet.

""

Opening the door she disappeared into the crypt.

[Supercape]

"

He looked at Etain, at Rozzello, and back at Etain. ""

He followed Etain into the cool and slightly dusty air of the Crypt. Tomes and other relics lay around everywhere in the modestly sized underground room. The number was not many, but still, there were plenty of very old parchments on bookcases, all carefully labelled and indexed.

""

[Aoiroo]

She paid no mind as the man continued talking to himself and quickly headed and started to pull down books into her hands. Moving towards the nearest table she opened them one by one and started to skim through pages looking for hints and runes like some of the stuff she found upstairs. When her companion started conversation directed towards herself this time, she did not even look up to address him,

""

[Supercape]

Quentin shrugged. Quite the woman of mystery, which of course he totally respected. Although by Jove it was intriguing! did the woman always talk in riddles?

By Jove? hmph. He was even thinking in Latin now.

"

This was probably going to take some time, but there did not appear to be a rush. With luck, something would turn up sooner or later.