Part XIV - Flames of Freedom, or, In Which I Get Some News That Really Brings Me Down, or, Whatever the Elf Does With the Sheep, I Really Don't Want to Know About it.
As I think I said before, we were in the Spiderweb, and we needed to go back to ancient Greece to make sure Joe made it forward with the torch. We got the supplies we needed, without taking anything that would be too anachronistic. So pretty much, we got all our old medieval/Greek armor and weapons back. Then we jumped through a particular space in the web pointed out to us by Fabio. Naturally I didn't want to turn my back on him, so I made sure he backed off and I kept an eye on him as I jumped through. Before we left however, spiderfabio told us that this was the last item on our shopping list, and showed us his backpack, which we had seen him putting his stuff in before. He said that if something happened to him we should take the backpack with us, but that we weren't to open it (that would be bad) until we knew the time was "right", at which point, we would get what we needed from it.
We fell for a long time, then found ourselves standing on a grassy knoll. Unfortunately, we didn't have any rifles with us, and there was no motorcade going by. We were in ancient Greece, near Delphi, with the Pythian games going on. Pretty much all we had to do here was find Joe and get him forward with the torch, then we'd be outta there. The elf (now in Anadies mode) told us that we needed some other stuff, namely a black ram, a white ewe, honey, grain, and maybe something else I forget at the moment.
Joe told us where he remembered being at the time, so Sakell, Jon, and I went to meet him (since Joe didn't remember seeing anyone he didn't already know, and he hadn't met Jay, Charlie, or Gegi at this point). Meanwhile, Joe and the others went out to get the "organic materials" as Anadies called them. We found Joe, gave him a hard time by saying that it was so good seeing him alive and whole after the horrible things that had happened to him. He said that things had been going well for him in his travels with Cimon, except for Cimon's great curiosity about some of the things Joe had, and for the time Cimon had tried to get Joe arrested as an army deserter. Joe also showed us his torch with the flames from both Olympic and Pythian games that the elf had told him to get while he was there (and that we'd already seen). Jon gave him a "magic pebble" that would save him when he was poisoned, and we told him that in 37 minutes and 10 seconds, he needed to duck.
Joe gave me a letter that I was to hold onto, and that wasn't to be opened until Brian Young and his wife were both with us. I suspect that it was also Joe's doing (and possibly connected to this letter) that I got the letter when we were back in Durham (NC) about not asking the oracle about my death (and it's a good thing that I had that warning, as you will see when I describe our trip to the oracle, NOT.)
Since we knew that he was fine, and ready to go, we agreed to meet up later, once we finished up there, and saw the Oracle, as Fabio said we needed to. As a parting shot, I advised Joe that, for no particular reason, he ought to get a bulletproof vest when he got back, which I already knew he will have had done.
We found the others, and the current Joe threw a pebble at Jon. Then we headed up to see the Oracle. We went up the rock steps to the oracle, and I slipped twice, for no readily apparent reason, but I got really upset and started yelling at the penguins. We got to the oracle, got a tour, and made some donations. Anadies told us that we should get rid of whatever money we were still carrying, except that we needed to make sure to have eight oboloi (silver coin) to take with us.
We then got back into the real oracle room, where the women (Pythia) sat over the mystic crack breathing the special vapors and prophesying, with the priests (named Lytos and Kaleus) translating. Anadies asked, "When is the end of the world?" The response was translated as "The Oracle will not speak for one who can learn the future for himself." So why we were at the oracle, I don't know.
He wasn't happy with that, so told me to ask about the end of the mortal world, so I asked, "I'd like to know about the end of the mortal world, and any possible involvement of a well dressed bird." The response was, interesting. The priests said, "In mortal combat you will be, with a black and red warrior of sin. You will fight with valor and bravery, but you will not escape. A chained ball will drag you down, and you heart will fell pain. And thus will be the end of your world." Along with this I got a mental picture of me fighting a balrog type creature, who beat me pretty bad, catching my halberd with his whip, bashing in my head with his flail, ripping open my chest, and eating my heart. This was not particularly fun to see, but not really a surprise to me, as I'd always somehow known I'd end up like that, and now I didn't have to worry about dying until those circumstances came to be. This also made me think about the letter I got about not asking the Oracle when I'd die. Of course, I didn't ask when I'd die, but that's what they told me, what a gyp.
Other questions followed. Jay asked about his death, and the response was "The Master of the Middle World will tell you where your destination lies." Anadies wasn't real impressed by this either. Jon was advised to ask, "What should we expect for the end of the world, not just mine, but for the whole world." The answer was, "7 spirits, 7 stars, 7 lamps, 7 messages, 7 trumpets, 7 seals, and 7 mortals." Which sounded like Revelation to us.
Sakell asked if the last of faerie kind stood among us. The reply was that he was among us, but not standing. (Margin note - Later on, looking at the list of items we were collecting, an early item was the last of faerie kind. I remembered that this was something the elf got from the royals way back in the Snow White story when we weren't looking, but lateer told us about it, but not what it was.)
Charlie asked about his future and how it pertained to the coming of the end. The answer was, "A warning message is being delivered, and you have the chance to escape with your lives. This place will be destroyed."
Joe asked what lay in store for our personal futures. The answer, "Asphedoles, Eurydice, Eumenidies." Which he recognized as an ugly grey weed, a woman's name, and "the gracious one". Finally Gegi asked, under counsel, "Describe the end of the world." The response was, "The world ends four times, each time brought about by a deity because of man, and always announced beforehand. The first end was by water, and wiped out the giants. The second was the rebirth after the first. The third end will be the opposite of the first, and the fourth and final, the opposite of the second, and it isn't clear if mankind will survive the third."
We left the oracle slightly depressed, and I nearly killed myself going down the steps, making me feel even better. Also after leaving the oracle, Joe gave me a letter addressed to Brian Young, which I was to give to Joe (the one who would just now be leaving Greece to rejoin us) with the instructions that it was not to be opened until both Brian and his wife were present. I suspect that this letter, or part of this letter, was what I got when I returned, warning me about the oracle. If Joe gave the letter to Brian when we got back to Durham, and then Brian went back in time, taking the letter with him, it could then have been waiting for me at that time (a paradox, a paradox, a most amusing paradox).
Joe and I went around to the games for the rest of the day, and some of the other guys went around looking for work, getting a gig as musicians at a party. Sakell wanted to go pick up some women, and Jon went along with him. They wandered off, and came back later, with the story that they'd met some women, followed them, the women turned out to be centaur fillies who then proceeded to kick Jon and Sakell's asses. As for the rest of us, we bummed around, then went to meet up with them at the designated spot, where Anadies said he'd meet us to pull out. It turned out that this conflicted with the musician job some of the others had found, but being the irresponsible bums that they were, they decided to break their contract, and not perform (a crime punishable by death in ancient Greece, if I remember correctly.
The first order of business was for me, Sakell, Jon, Anadies, and the old Joe (the one who'd been in Greece for a while) to pop out and get Joe back where he belonged. I'd given Joe the letter for Brian Young, so that loop was completed. The others (including the current Joe) hung around to watch, since they knew something strange would happen from the way Joe rejoined us unexpectedly. This was a case of doing things that we knew would turn out wrong, because we knew that they would turn out wrong, and for us to try to do anything else would result in a paradox. We had a heated discussion on this issue. The way it turned out though, was that the original plan was for Joe to leave Greece and meet with us in the future, which he did, just not in the place, time, or manner that the elf thought he should. When it came time to tranport Joe, things had to be done as if we didn't expect anything to happen, because from our perspective, Joe had already shown up unexpectedly, so we had to make sure that that happened. But that didn't mean that we couldn't try to figure out what went on.
While we were making the mystic circle, Jay saw Cimon standing nearby, casting a spell, and starting shooting arrows at him. While they were going after Cimon, we popped out, and landed in the waystation, but without Joe. We knew something had gone wrong, but we were expecting it, so we went back with Anadies to several minutes before we left, but a ways away. We came running in, just in time to see Jay shooting arrows, and Charlie making flying tackles at empty space.
Things wound down once we got there. It seems they were going after Cimon, and he turned invisible, but Jay had a mind lock on him and kept shooting at him, eventually however, he disappeared. This started making me think Cimon was the "evil leaper" who showed up at Oxford, since he was messing around, following us when we jumped.
Anyway, that seemed to be the end of that, since we had all that the elf wanted, topping it all off with the torch, and the sheep and stuff, all in the backpack (the sheep too).