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The Castle Ruotkerspurch, Riegersburg
Year 1600
On the Christian side near the border to the Ottoman Empire two men waited with a torch that was about to burn out. The big one was at least on the surface calm, the small one trembled.
But both were anxious, afraid of what awaited them.
They looked out over the dark plain. Their master had ordered that as soon as the coffin was delivered, they would bring it up to the castle and his chambers.
When the last embers fell on the ground they heard hooves hitting the ground not far from where they stood.
The big one squinted and said to the little one. ”It is ours, this is ours. Now look, stern up.”
The little rose slightly. The sweat dripped from his hair. It was easy to see that he was scared, he looked up at the big one as a son looks at his father when something unknown is approaching in the darkness. The big one hit him in the back. Told him once again to stand up straight.
The riders approached. The little one's breast trembled as he drew in a deep breath.
The riders heaved out a coffin on the ground in front of them. They rode away before the dust settled.
Fearing ambush and scolding the men hastily brought the coffin through the village below the castle where the lepers and cripples were infected in the dirt and ate plague powder with 2 solder bayberry and saltpeter. A toothless woman shouted after them. The words whistled through her mouth.
”Is it not the bear and rat chasing each other in the night?”
The other old women laughed at her wit as she smacked his mouth. She pressed a little more plague powder in her mouth and looked at the men with a blank stare.
The bear turned around.
He fixed his eyes on her and raised his leg. He kicked mud in her face but fell. He lost his grip on the chest and also the rat slipped. The coffin hit the ground and slid open. A compartment in the bottom clicked.
A glittering object rolled out in the clay.
A jewel box covered with shimmering sapphires.
It shone as bright as the Evening Star over a dark sea.
The Bear and the rat looked at each other and the box. They threw themself over it without thinking and tucked it away in a shoulder bag. The rat closed the coffin and the men rushed up towards the castle.
The rain lashed their faces when they took the last steps up the steep, winding road that led up to the castle. It lay unavailable at the precipice of a mountain, where the wind all day whined lamentations that was as long as the horizon and the horizon was long one can undoubtedly say. The Castle Lord had built it there because the view was panoramic and ideal for early detection of the dog Turk, whom he called his enemies.
They left the coffin quickly.
With the box in their bag they ran away from the castle towards wealth.
In one of the castle's halls a chandelier threw its play of light across the walls and floorboards. A stove was smoldering near the dining area where an empty plate stood next to a half-full glass. When the castle lord came into the room, he took off his overcoat and folded it over a chair. He looked at the coffin that the bear and the rat had set in the middle of the room. It dripped with rain water. After he opened the lid, he locked up the compartment in the bottom where the two pamphlets were. He picked up one and read the title:
Reproba informatio ab Deus - occultus venalicium in praedestino vicis versus.
A shiver went through him when he under the pamphlet saw the Great Corpus.
It was Master Plethos Holy Manuscript.
The Manuscript where the Master commented and expanded The Corpus Hermeticum from Constantinople and described the secret path to Thoth´s enigmatic secret.
The Castle Lord opened the Corpus and read a few lines until his loyalty finally defeated his ambition. He was not the first to be tempted to take part of the manuscript secret and was far from the last.
He reminded himself that he was one of The Brothers, one of Master Plethos confidant.
He put down the manuscript and took up the instruction that was at the bottom of the coffin. Without tremble, he performed the task with care. Urgently, he then put the coffin to its resting place where the Black Friars would never find it.
When he was finished, he heard a disturbing sound.
He realized instantly that the Black Friars had arrived.
Behind a curtain, he looked out the window across the plain. The village below the castle was on fire. The fire lit up the dark night. He could hear the sound of muskets and the screams from the cripples.
He drew the curtain and went to work.
Their coats were wet and smelled sour smoke when the Black Friars threw a battering ram against the castle gate. Eager to destroy the plague that ravaged Rome and the Holy Christianity. They shouted Pope Julius II's battle cry ”Fuori into barbarism, fuori into barbarism”.
The Black Friars butted down the wood in the door. As soon as it gave way they stopped their cries. The brothers were astonished. Above the stairs, across a beam hung the castle lord.
He had a noose around his neck.
Two red velvet ribbons were wrapped wrap around his body.