The Sword of the Fifth Element

For Arcra means the ‘Lightning of the Uncreated’, in perfect balance, having no beginning and no end. The Arcra came from the World of the Crystalline Entities, in the ancient times of the Order of the Makers.

  The frame of the icon was a joy to make, now that he knew that the image was worthy of housing in a frame such as this, and every piece of it was an act of reverence for the Goddess whose love seemed to shine from the painting, so that it was as if he had not himself painted it, but it had materialised from the very air and soil and light of Aeden by some divine magic.

  When the picture was finally secured into the frame, Calibur added as covers the left-hand panel of Love and Beauty, and the right-hand panel of Truth and Freedom, pivoting them with hinges of finely wrought silver from the smithies of the east beyond Baldrock, where the silver-mines were. And he polished the agathra varnish on the jeweltree wood of the frame until it shone with a deep glow.

  Then he closed the cover panels and wrapped the precious icon in blue silk, put it in a strong linen bag marked with the sign of the Guild, and after saying his farewells to all the students and masters, who were now like brothers to him, and to the Master who had become like a father, he set off to find Rosa in the thorn convent.

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