Feb 6, 2017
33a.
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33a.
33.
AULDOMOUCHE. The mask was fully loaded with its charge: a massive dose of chloropallidol. The stench is overpowering. What possessed him to do this? His curiosity about certain matters must be far stronger than I knew.
SOPHELAIDE. His pulse is returning to normal but his gibbering is the same...
AULDOMOUCHE. It may remain so. With chloropallidol, the mind is not technically intoxicated; rather, it is coerced to perform oneiric processes, identical to dreaming sleep — even while conscious. The mask’s purpose may be to keep its subject in this state for an unusually long amount of time, or perhaps for good.
WILFRED. ...warmed by the air of a room. Meet with the queen at night, so that all wishful thinking in the daytime disappears. Answer quickly! Answer quickly! Two eye-holes in front of us...
AULDOMOUCHE. Nevertheless, we’ve found several of the cowled robes that will allow us to attend the conference undetected. It must be starting soon, quite soon. We have to press on.
32.
“She is heaving herself around there, there, behind those unused fingers… Rullina! The horses haven’t seen us. If we could only snatch one tainted seed… A fresh surface is almost instantly obtained. Answer quickly! Ooohhh…”
31.
THE SEVENTH AND FINAL ITEM INSPECTED: A COMMEMORATIVE SOUVENIR PLAQUE RECALLING A SHIPWRECK THREE YEARS PREVIOUS THAT CLAIMED THE LIVES OF SEVERAL EUXINOVAN NOBILITY (THOUGH NOT ALL OF THE BODIES WERE RECOVERED).
AULDOMOUCHE (ASIDE TO SOPHELAIDE). Note these photographs, although I don’t believe Wilfred has yet suspected — shall we tell him? — But what is he doing now? ...Wilfred!
30a.
30.
THE SIXTH ITEM INSPECTED: A RESPIRATORY FACE MASK THAT APPEARS STYLED AFTER THE SKULL AND CARTILAGE OF A BALEEN GAZELLE (G. GAZELLA EDENTULATA) AND INCLUDES AT EYE LEVEL A GLASS RECEPTACLE CONTAINING AND MAGNIFYING A FLOATING ASSORTMENT OF MINIATURE FOSSILS.
WILFRED. I understand that this does not reproduce the natural feeding processes of a baleen gazelle, nor could it to the wearer’s benefit. It does contain actual preserved “air plankton,” however, including the mallardfish spawn you just mentioned.
Surely it isn’t an aid for consumptives at all, but a certain rumored prototype (you know the one) that administers soporifics while flooding the patient’s vision with samples of the baleen gazelle’s diet. Supposedly, those tiny plants and creatures correlate with mythological typifications that can appear simultaneously in the thoughts of multiple individuals when their minds are united in deep sleep.
Could there be any truth to it? Did the horrors I endured yesterday take place in this unconscious domain? Could the rigorous approach promised by this device offer better results? Could I discover... The Curtain of Somnus... Is it something more than an old wives’ tale spun from hysterical contagion? I wonder...
29.
THE FIFTH ITEM INSPECTED: A MECHANICAL TOY IN THE FORM OF A ROTUND GROTESQUE, FEATURING A BELLY CHAMBER THAT SPRINGS OPEN TO REVEAL SMALLER FIGURINES.
According to Euxinovan legends originating in the Roman era, Lapurnippas was appointed guardian of the nubile orphan Pampiphlorine, a scion of the oldest noble family of the island province of Thriampa. When bandits stormed the family seat, Lapurnippas hid himself in the woods and swallowed all of the gold bequeathed to his ward. This feat was possible because the old servant, faithful also to the forest god Arbrocomesus, had chosen to rest against a massive oak whose exposed roots bounded an ancient grove sacred to the deity. So long as Lapurnippas did not move from the spot, his health and safety would be sustained and his stomach could retain the treasure. It also served as a gold-lined conduit (accessible through his navel) to an underground sanctuary where Pampiphlorine and her attendants took refuge until the bandits were driven from the island. Before Lapurnippas rose again, certain unwelcome forest denizens, such as the parasite Coccidillio and the “bandit maiden” Plundribel, clambered inside his belly uninvited; their expulsion is the subject of several comedic fragments.
AULDOMOUCHE. This was plainly manufactured within the last decade or so, with these indiscriminate figures recalling less the original legends than the popular caricatures of those revelatory photographed magnifications of Balkan mallardfish eggs — which (due to the appearance of their undeveloped heads and the tendency of certain parasitic species to burst unexpectedly from afflicted specimens) drew comparison to the iconography of Lapurnippas. Recent entertainments bearing his name have strayed considerably from tradition.
Landmarks of Old Euxinova