Final Preparations for the Manifestation

The Silvergrey Sea

Part Seven: What Is and Should Never Be

Final Preparations for the Rite of Manifestation

* * *

The Erthe Woman had lost herself in the Æthyr, or so she thought.

It took her some while to realize she wasn’t in NOTHING at all, but in the Dark, the Lost Aion of the Elven Convocation. How that had occurred was something she would never figure out. It was fortunate that she was. She could collect the Fæ souls Poseidon would need.

She had planned to come here after securing Miu to act as mortal host for the new Templars. There wouldn’t be time to fetch them, now. Since the exile of virtually all educated Miu long ago, that region had become so chaotic that finding and capturing the requisite number shouldn’t have been a problem. Then the Hermetists had stuck their bad finger in, disintegrating the mountain of Primal Matter. There was no time to go hunting and return, now.

She communicated the situation to her god, who responded that mortal hosts had been secured and so had Fæ. They revealed to her the spot they could be found at.

The woman who had been Rayne Hermit had never been to the Elven Dark. Indeed, none of the handful of Hermetists who had done so returned to tell the tale. This ignorance about something so important rankled.

She, at least, had some data to relate, assuming anyone wanted it. ‘Anyone,’ in this context meant any of the new Templars. The Erthe Woman doubted the Order of Hermes would be allowed to continue after what they had done to try to stop the re-emergence of the Shining Empire. In nothing was the death of her former self more apparent than in her indifference to the thought of the extinction of the Hermetists.

The former Rayne set about gathering the Fæ for the Rite. Later would come the gathering of the other Elements at the Evanescents. The Temple needed to be prepared for the Manifestation to follow.

Being thrown out of the Æthyr had meant abandoning the two—The Hermetist and the Watr Man—to the mercy of undiluted Spirit. No doubt they’d soon realize they weren’t in a dream of hers and that they were in real danger. At least, the Hermetist Abram would be safe so long as he wasn’t separated from his companion. The Element of Watr would have to wait. If he were half as strong as he had seemed, he’d probably get out on his own.

She was as surprised, therefore, to discover the duo had preceded her into the Elven Dark.

—Gideon Jagged
Innsmouth, October 2026

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Gideon is a freethinker, free expression absolutist, intersectionalist, and a proud child of the Enlightenment. He lives and works on the Pacific Coast.

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