Between Aurora and Antaeus

Stardate: November 1, 3999

My Dearest Magdalene,

Your voluminous words are a delight to me. Never stop. And now, it is my turn.

I've had the luxury and good fortune to be able to dock my ship with a star cruiser and travel through the dangerous Istical path, one of the great wormholes attached to the Delta stargate so my journey has been cut in half! I am now staying at the Golden Horn Station. There isn't much to see here as far as views but it is teeming with an inner world of Turkish culture and Turkish delights to the senses. The dominant population here is, of course, Turkish. I have had the best tea with each delicious meal here as well as many other delicacies. One of my favorites is the rice pudding. And the stuffed mussels. Istanbul of the stars.

But that is merely a minor distraction to other things. The cyborgs that came to the station. It is probably well that I wasn't there. I detest them! I am glad they did not trouble you. If they had, I would have had to vow and get my revenge and that would destroy my precarious link with the Divine that I've been trying to strengthen. But enough of them!

Even in my gloominess, it delights me that you have found the sacred book right there on the station library! Who would have known a copy would be there? One of my men had learned and memorized the entire text and he often put many sacred texts to song on the lute during our times of rest or camping out at night on various planets and stations. He would recite prayers and  other texts to strengthen us when it was needed on the hunt. All in all, we'd made it to the sixth clue. Just one short of that sacred number of Seven, where we would have found what we all sought, the Way to the Starry Lathe.

I am tired. I am always tired, lately. Speaking of dreams, I went to sleep last night and when I dreamed I dreamed of a painting. It was so clear in my mind that it seemed real even in the painterly colors and surroundings. It was the Murillo Madonna. Except it was you and you held a little baby in your arms. Does this mean something, love? I don't not know. It seems your dream you spoke of last was perceptive of my precarious emotional and metal state. A place on the edge of great Light and great darkness. I feel so despondent because of my failure that I grasp at anything, no matter how tenuous. I re-think my life over and over and as I do, I feel that perhaps the chase and the journey really is the start of wisdom and understanding of the Sacred Things and not the end. Keep the great book for as long as you can. Upon my return we can read it and pray together. I feel it is a precious prize of consolation for me after the failed hunt. We'd reached the sixth clue in the second ring of planet Oterra, the symbol for healing which is also the symbol for strength, the symbol of Antaeus. We reached all that way without incident, defeating one of his schemes, and felt buoyed by this, having not too long passed the fifth clue and sigil, Aurora of the dawn, all in light. We had thought that our triumph had dawned. Then Kristoff had cut off our path to the last place completely. I think he even destroyed the seventh clue, from reports we heard from others in the area, but we cannot pin it on him directly. What a diabolical blasphemy! He left a false clue that would have had us entering the black world of Nyx, really the most dangerous place in the universe, the Great Darkness from which no light escapes but from which evil seeps into the universe. As is always the case with him. It was then that we all wondered if he was merely a human agent of wickedness or if he is really something more. 

It is hard to pin anything on him, yet he looms over disasters and wickedness like a shadow. I wonder. 

But the dream with your beautiful face as the Lady with the Child, ensconced in warm red against the gray and dark of the air of dream. I must say that I first had a fragment of this dream, like a holy vision between Aurora and Antaeus, and never said a word of it, not understanding what it meant. It could not be madness, it has the proof of earthliness and tenderness about it. But I don't know for sure. After my small travails of the Golden Horn I stay in my ship until another path is plotted through the next gate I must jump through. I nearly forgot to mention, but a kind gentleman allowed me passage with his train of ships which is why I made it here so quickly. A very long and arduous jump to this system, but any danger is worth braving to get closer to you, love. Until I see you, I raise a glass of exquisite tea.

Love,
R. Vaughn