Page 12     

Again, the wind stirred. 

It whipped fallen leaves into little swirls.  A high pitched noise, just beyond hearing at first, grew louder.  The wind grew, gathering the little swirls into a larger whirlwind that centered itself on the spot marked by Lenesco.  Sparks of light seemed to jump between the flying debris.  The high pitched noise dropped in frequency and began to pulsate.  A faint line of a half dome shape a little higher than the height of a man began to form among the swirling leaves.  Shimmers of light danced between leaves and outlined form.  The high pitched whine grew to a crescendo and the outline took solid shape: a smooth white, oblong dome -- almost like half an egg laying on its side -- with thick runes written in red around it at shoulder height.  A red line enclosed the letters and trimmed the bottom of the dome.  At the narrower part of the dome and intersecting the runes, the stylized image of a lion had been carved in deep lines of gold.  No other markings distinguished it.

The wind settled again to a whisper.

Silently, the dome shape melted away as if it were ice in a furnace to reveal a man wearing a dark hooded cloak sitting on a control bench of some kind with a small table extending up at an angle in front of him.  The cloaked figure focused his attention on this table.  The table was tilted slightly towards him and seemed to gain all its support from its extension from the bench.

Done with his work on the table, he lifted it over his head.  It pivoted on the extension and came to rest slightly above and behind him.  Unaware of the six men watching his movements, he stood up and sighed, a long, peaceful sigh of one whom remembers the former glory of a thing now haggard by time.  Conspicuously, he did not have a sword.  Then as if suddenly recalling an urgent task, he walked briskly up an aisle and towards an arched exit.  As he walked, the control bench shimmered and melted into the shape of a bench similar to the others in the Old Arena.

Scroll 1: History's Mirror                                                                                    Chapter 1: Treasures from the Past