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The Mimer's Well


Supplement Number Six: Paopi the Thirteenth 997


Rast – Baronne Ignores Empress's Demand

Tumult in Rast as the Baronne, Violetta Montacute, announced that she will not travel to Galena to answer charges of treason brought against her by the Imperial Government. Instead, she has declared the young lad known as Crown Prince Adolphus to be the rightful King of Tobolsk, and has had him crowned by the Hierarch of Rast.

A spokesman for Empress Juliana immediately declared that Violetta Montacute was stripped of her title of Baronne, and that she and the pretender Adolphus were henceforth outlawed. Unless the Empress can get troops to Rast, and quickly, though, this may prove a hollow threat.

The Dramatarch declined to condemn the Hierarch of Rast's behaviour, saying only that he assumed the coronation had taken place under duress.

Callow Stringley


Chiliasts Active in Sibutan

Reports have come in from Sibutan that chiliad cultists are actively recruiting in the villages and communities south of Samarinda. These scattered folk are ready prey to the wiles of the depraved cult, remote as they are from the beneficial influence of good government and of ready news about the Wheel's turning. No doubt it is easy to convince such simple folk that the passage of three more years will see chiliadic disaster, rapture and the Final Curtain, and that they should lay aside their responsibilities and their families to join the cult. We enjoin the governments of the Sibutani Federation to act jointly against the menace!

Mousa Broach


Terrorists Captured in Rangar

The Heitman Kirkland, head of the City Watch, announced that his force had been successfully rounded up and arrested the terrorists responsible for the printing and distribution of the seditious tome On Fraud, whose illicit publication was discussed here in the Well last issue.

Heitman Kirkland said that those responsible were not Inheritors, as previously thought, but members of a new group called the Futurians. Their message is a broadly Kendist one of armed revolution against the upper echelons of society, but they are also involved in a range of criminal activities such as robbery and protection racketry: so much for their supposedly laudable aims!

The Futurian leader, Bodizz Lensen, is to be boiled alive in a week's time, together with those of his associates who survived the inquisition process. Whether this Lensen is the same person as Merindyn Gheran, the purported author of On Fraud, is not clear: we at The Mimer's Well have had no luck finding this elusive individual, but if he is a reader he is welcome to write to us with his own side of the story!

The Editors


Kirkland Traps Bandits

An announcement from the Kirkland estate near Carnivi, in central Pangaturan, says that the Heitman's bailiff has been successful in apprehending and executing a number of the bandits that still plague Bodger's Forest, causing trouble to folk trying to go about their business along the King's Highway. Only recently a wool caravan belonging to respected Athricol merchant Ishmael Jarndyce was captured by these miscreants, and Jarndyce himself is believed still their captive.

Persile Vetch


Sibs, Pangs – No More, Please!

Dear Editors,

May I say how distressed I am that in many of your journal's reports you persist in making use of the derogatory terms 'Sib', 'Sibish' and 'Pang'. As you well know, the proper names for inhabitants of Sibutan and Pangaturan are 'Sibutani' and 'Pangaturese' respectively.

This is not merely a pedantic point, but an ethical one. If our strife-torn peoples persist in referring to each other in such an insulting fashion, what hope is there of ever achieving the harmony and peace that Saint Monksilver enjoined upon us? Therefore I beg you at The Mimer's Well to set a good example by shunning these horrid pejorative terms.

I remain, yours in the name of the Dramaturge,
Angélique Masparo, Hierarch Trey, Rangar

While we thank the Hierarch Trey for her wise and holy words, and encourage our readers to take them to heart, we must point out that our function is to report and inform, and we must do so as accurately as possible. Our journalists and columnists are under instructions not to use 'Pang' or 'Sib' themselves, but when they are reporting the speech of a member of the public it is their duty to accurately set down that person's precise words – however offensive they may be to those of a delicate disposition.
The Editors


Fatality on Morning Rose

Sol Barnworth, leader of the Morning Rose project, has announced the death of a crewman, Martin Teppis, in a gunnery accident during the ship's last round of sea trials. Given the troubled history of opposition the Morning Rose has suffered, and the recent attack on Captain Rollan West, I naturally asked whether sabotage was suspected, but Master Barnworth declined to comment.

Nelly Chirk


The Strange Column

Darius de Profundis, roving reporter for Unusual magazine

Yes! Pant no more, devotees of the Strange, for your wants are about to be assuaged by my humble hand. It will not have escaped any of your notices that the so-called 'mainstream' press has been making a good deal in recent months of various stories of the Limelight, that phenomenon so familiar to we of Strange sensibilities. Indeed, Unusual magazine has long been pressing for funding for a mission to investigate the Limelight further, or even to attempt to sail beyond it. Perhaps now it has filtered through to the popular consciousness we may see some action!

I promised you my Yapeni researches, and have them you shall, O patient readers. In brief, I have established beyond any doubt that the Margravian bloodline runs still in the folk of the hinterland here. There are villages of charcoal-burners and the like, that is to say, where the descendants of the priests of Ah-Kepple live today! I have seen one with my own eyes, though he knew it not.

Also in this bosky hinterland there are a number of dolmens, barrows and the like, relics of the former times. None have been excavated, as far as I can ascertain – a tricky task in any case, for the forests that contain them also house numbers of wild beasts of ferocious mien. Far within the forest there is a great cleft in the ground, apparently, known as Stern-Holding, the domain of the ancient god known as the Crimson Smith, he who was set to guard the gods' creations. What this Stern-Holding is like I do not know, but doubtless most interesting and well worth a future expedition.

Meanwhile I continue in my excavations under Castle Villus, thanks to the new Heitman's generosity and forbearance and the good offices of Master Pantling, her steward. Many interesting curios from the past two centuries, but nothing very ancient as yet. Ah well! Back to the pick and shovel, and until next time – remember, The Future's Bright, The Future's Strange!


Architects' Spat

Sahelan tongues are wagging about the recent very public dispute between Master Darkev and young Inigo Carivelli, but recently arrived in the city from a rather chequered past in Samarinda.

Word has it that Septimus Severin has withdrawn the architectural contract for his prestigious new Kufrish Emporium from Darkev, and instead awarded it to Carivelli. When the two were introduced at an architects' gathering, tempers heightened and the affair ended with Carivelli challenging Darkev to a duel. Although the hot-headed Samarindan is reputed to have already slain one opponent on the field of honour in his own city, the chances are that Darkev will defeat him, and Severin will be forced to return the Kufrish Emporium contract to him – if his pride will allow him to take it!

Joshua Chirk


Expedition Leaves At Last

The long-delayed colonial expedition finally left Rangar Port on the morning tide, the breeze tugging at its sails with eager anticipation of the voyage ahead, the colonists lining the rails and waving a last farewell to those loved ones they were leaving behind.

A small marching band struck up 'Has He Gone for Good, Mamma?' as Captain Wrigglesworth stood to take the salute on the poop deck of the Queen Tulean, Captain Grimes on the Royal Oak following smoothly behind. The two mighty vessels are to meet their naval escort off Slack Point, and then to billow ponderously across the Inner Ocean, round Kufra {calling at Seoni Kuchinda for provisioning} and thence ride the blue Morbific to far Tulean. Was there a single one of the spectators who did not wish her- or himself a colonist too, embarking on the journey to a new life? Certainly your correspondent was moved to a tear.

Philip Graveside, Royal Exploratory Commission


Ambassador's Daughter Snatched

Fast-breaking news has just reached me that Mary Huggett, younger daughter of the Pangaturese Ambassador to the Court of Empress Juliana, has been kidnapped, taken from her carriage while on a visit to a concert. Her companion, a Doctor Théophile Marchant, was also taken, and the coachman Wilbrod Nargs brutally slain.

This shocking incident can only add to the tension that already exists between native Galenans and their Pangaturese neighbours, as evidenced by the riots of winter. Equester Huggett, the Ambassador, has been up till now a voice of moderation and understanding – will the kidnap of his daughter change his position? And, most importantly, can Hierarch Grazio and Chevalier Maurice Vaucanson, the promoters of the Flaming Wheel Club, say that their hands are clean of this foul misdeed?

Ariel Bender


Privateers Attack Yapeni Vessel

The Brave Euan, out of Yapen Town, was boarded by privateers and all its cargo seized last week, the crew revealed after hobbling back to port. Although the pirates flew no flag and wore no uniform, the Brave Euan's master Jane Trevelyan insists that they were Sibutani in origin. 'I could tell from their accents, see. That's a thousand crowns of silk we shan't see again! When's the government going to do something about it, that's what I'd like to know?'

The Domna's office responded with sympathy for the crew of the Brave Euan, and announced that as the danger from Sib warships seemed to have lessened the naval flotilla under Admiral Horza's command was now to take on the role of guarding against privateers and pirates.

Willoughby Marsh


Doings of Saint Monksilver Recast into Modern Form

Here are some extracts from a new book entitled The Lord Is My Heitman, by Medarch Valis Cypria, of Pell Enna. The book retells well-known stories from the life of Saint Monksilver, but set in the modern day rather than historical times – Medarch Cypria's aim being to make them relevant and accessible to today's children.

For example, the story of Monksilver's entry into Magna Lirium, which we all know as follows: 'And the Saint spake unto the tax collectors that beset him, saying unto them, Why do you beat me thus with sticks, that have done no wrong? And they answered him thusly, for that he had entered the city walls with no thought of payment of the toll, nor means to do so. And the Saint rent his garments with woe, and black was his brow, as he spake, saying, Foul is the pestilence of Magna Lirium, and swift shall be her end, and he struck the ground with his staff, causing a great rift to open up that devoured the tax-collectors. And the people of the city were sore amazed.'

In The Lord is My Heitman the passage runs thusly: 'So the Saint arrived at Rangar, but he was asked to pay the poll tax before he might enter. And the Revenue officers said to him "If you cannot pay the tax, you are liable to imprisonment, as is customary for vagrants." But Saint Monksilver was angry at this, and he said "Any government which demands of its citizens a tax solely because they exist is a bad one, and must fall." The Revenue agents fell silent at this, and there was much rejoicing from the other poor folk who had gathered around.'

I myself cannot help feeling sorry that the high, fine language of the Saint's ancient biographers has been lost in this new version, 'Relevance' is not everything! But Medarch Cypria is to be congratulated on her efforts, which are highly readable and most inspiring in heir own way, though best read as a supplement to The Life rther than a replacement for it.

A spokeswoman for Palawan said that the Dramatarch had not yet seen a copy of The Lord Is My Heitman, but that it was almost certain to be adjudged heretical. I would guess that this is unlikely to concern the author, though, as the Hierarch Prime does not take the same view.

Prompter Jenna Wade, Carnivi, Pangaturan


Some New Manuscripts

Professor August Rhineholt, President of The Athenaeum, University of Galena

Scholars among this journal's readership, if there be any in truth, will be interested to learn of a number of interesting manuscripts that have recently come into the hands of the Athenaeum.

The first item is a most interesting treatise on the transmutation of metals, by one Kafdan the Crafty, of Kufra {note that the word 'Crafty' here does not imply deviousness or disreputability, but simply a person skilled in craft}. This worthy claims to have hit on the secret of changing base lead into gold – common enough, you may think, the claim at least, but Kafdan proposes thus an insight into the nature of metals. What if each metal were essentially of the same spirit, or of the same matter – the meaning is unclear – of the same base componentry, perhaps, would be a better way of putting it – so that any one could be changed into any other by a process of 'enrichment'? So lead is 'enriched' into gold, by somehow cramming into it more of this base componentry. Which could be obtained by 'impoverishing' say silver into tin. Or perhaps there are metals on the Wheel that naturally and spontaneously 'impoverish' themselves, and if we put our lead close to a sample of one it would become 'enriched'. Much food for thought there, I think you will agree.

The second item of note is a manuscript by the learned Ahoumi Al-Hoss, which Doctor Tilla Berio is currently studying: it concerns various interesting poisonous leaves found in the jungles of Kufra, and the preparations that may be made from them. It may be that we will be able to learn a good deal from this study, the undertaking of which must have been hazardous in the extreme.

These and the other manuscripts are available to members of the Athenaeum, and to members of the public upon application to myself.

 

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