Strumble Head - South Cardigan Bay, Wales - 1879
The Sabbath Estate sat at the top of the Strumble headland, some years previously the existing lighthouse had been purchased by an entrprising Englishman who had renovated and incorporated it as part of a manor house.
To the left of the grounds, to the south of the narrow ornamental seaward facing terrace at the front of the house, wound a path descending the grassy slope of the cliff-top to where the land leveled out above the drop of the cliff face, there sat a small fishermans cottage.
On this clear morning the cry of seabirds shrieking carried across the bay mingled with the gentle forceful slap of waves against the rocks below, the day was bright and clear albeit with a winter chill courtesey of the Little Freeze.
Jepson shifted his not inconsiderable bulk to get comfortable on his bench, he had carved the huge seat from chunks of solid driftwood gathered from the shingle beaches below, at 900lbs his favourite seat had to be very sturdy, he snorted and nodded thanks as the current Lighthouse keepers wife handed him a steaming mug of fish broth
It was a decade ago that Jepson had handed over the keys to the light, he hadn't thought he'd see a few years in retirement his kind were not known for longevity, but here he was still going strong, his nostrils instinctively closed as the broths steam wafted past his whiskered muzzle.
He smiled watching the lighthouse keepers children and the young Lord play upon the sloped field that bordered the path, the keepers wife scolding them not to stray to close to the cliff and as younglings were want to do they ignored her until she grabbed them and told them off.
Smiling he took another sup of broth before putting his pipe back in his mouth.
Looking across the bay toward the Irish sea he saw the distant shape of a ship too far away to gauge its size, at the left of the bays head stood the three islands Ynys Meicel, Ynys Onnen and Carreg Onnen, occasionally he would dive to retrieve things caught by the currents and snagged in the Islands rocks.
Although his wife had long since passed, Rosy the Keepers wife fussed everytime he went under, the Islands had their share of creatures and the waters much more, but then being Walrus Folk was he not a creature himself, he inwardly chuckled he had been called far far worse in his younger days.
Despite being the first Boojums to appear with the First Mystrial, none of the Folk were that accepted especially by the humans and elves, but he or rather his parents were stranger still, great creatures from the frozen north.
He puffed thoughfully on his pipe, they'd been lucky to have met the Late Lord Sabbath and luckier still that his son and heir had insisted the old walrus live out his retirement in the fishermans cottage, 'Needs someone to fix it up, look after it!' the Lord had winked.
Mind you he was always busy, well apart from his morning sit down and was always busying around or in the baywaters, the waters were after all his home.
The Fresnel Plane
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arcanus
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The Fresnel Plane
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arcanus
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The Fresnel Plane
The Cliffs near Wringcliff Rock, Near Lynton - North Devon.
Far below the waters of the Bristol Channel hidden deep within the tunnel systems that permeated the Devonian rock, that made up the coastline, was a cave large enough to house a small cottage perched on a ledge.
The cave was virtually impenetrable from the outside world, it sat at least 30 feet below the oceans surface and behind dozens of feet of solid stone, the only ingress were small fissures barely larger than a water pipe, the other key fact was that the cave did not sit fully within the physical world.
It was one of many thousands maybe more, Hollows as they were called, what Celestial Navigators, Enlightened Scientists and the Thaumaturgic Guilds in a rare instance agreed were ancient parts of the physical Earth that had become trapped between the walls of worlds, between the Earth and its Astral Plane.
This explained how despite the lack of entry the upper portion of the cave retained breathable air despite being far below water and how Samantha Brocklesbury the current owner of this Hollow could access it, her heritage meant that she could both sense changes and currents in the water and hold her breath for two hours, plenty of time to find the Hollows entrance.
This was her place, she only shared it with its native inhabitants and the one who had led her to it, the cottage was essentially a small single roomed cabin with a cramped sleeping space in the loft, it sat on a wooden platform occupying all of the stone ledge that jutted from the sheer cave wall rising to a point some sixty feet above, the black stone illuminated by aetheric lanterns.
The Hollow was roughy Octahedral in shape, the majority of its height actually being below water, in front of the cottage sat a large pool of seawater which then extended down to the opposite bottom point some hundred feet, these waters also illuminated but this time from shoals of luminescent plankton, shrimp and fish that all fed upon the other.
Sat on the narrow jetty veranda Sam looked through a summary of her accounts smiling as a baleen head surfaced, the one other outside visitor to this place Glurkom, as far as she could tell he was some form of magical whale, no hint of Fae or Spirit ancestry but capable of swimming through the otherworldy submarine tunnels to the Hollow, indeed it had been he who had first led her here after encountering her swimming out in the waters below Strumble Head.
She knew little of her parents other than her mother was a member of the Dartmouth Brocklesbury's, her father something Fae Borne of Mer lineage, by all accounts it had become quite scandalous and she had been rescued from a short stay in an orphanage by Lady Sabbath.
The Sabbath's being relations of the Reynolds Family to whom the main Brockelsbury clan had been retainers for years, although she hadn't met her cousin also called Sam, that being Samuel until her late teens.
As it turned out neither the Reynolds nor the Sabbath's were happy with a Brocklesbury being cast adrift, irrespective of the shock this caused in society, she had always suspected that was why the Sabbath's had stepped in, the Reynolds were prominent although they could weather a storm, such a storm would have possibly impacted projects whilst the Sabbath's were more remote, tucked away on the edge of the Welsh Dragon lands or away in Etheria or Fumis and it was well known her Ladyship was spirit-borne, so her adoptance into the Sabbath's was more in keeping, perhaps.
Although she had always thought it curious why the families had such loyalty to what was essentially a servant family, sentimentality wasn't generally a trait of the upper classes, and both families were ruthless when the need arose.
She could feel animosity or resentment to both her parents, but on reflection often whilst swimming deep below the ocean waves, she had come to the conclusion that all things considered she had been quite lucky, many foundlings were destined for short tragic lives.
Lady Sabbath had all but adopted her alongside her own, schooled her, put her through University so that she could get her Profession Papers, her limited suffrage and most importantly had sheltered her from the usual expectations of society.
Despite Gabriels chiding, both he and his mother had supported her setting up her own small venture, providing protection to Society Ladies who required confidence in a woman rather than a man, although in truth the majority of the company’s time was contracted by Gabriel.
They had argued for months over how his endeavours were monopolising her time, in the end she had finally albeit begrudgingly relented that they come to a business arrangement, that her tiny firm be fairly compensated for looking after him on his continued madcap schemes and trips.
So she contended herself with providing protection to unattached ladies during debutante season, a carefully kept secret was that the children of societies peers whether from old or new money were increasingly targeted by organised criminal gangs or Scarlet Traces, as the Dreadfuls called them, there was healthy coin to be made in kidnapping or 'Aquiring' despite it being a hanging offence.
She watched as Glurkom rolled around splashing in the waters scattering the glowing fish, above she wondered at the brightly coloured Paradoxical Fish swimming through the air of the cave, their being paradoxical in breathing out of water and swimming through the air, although they were pests insatiably curious and always trying to take or eat things if they swam into the cottage.
She stretched 'Time to get back' she thought and stood, it would take her about an hour to leave the cave and her boat to round the coast back to Strumble Point
"Not today" she said smiling to the creature playfully splashing to get her attention
"Some of us have matters to attend to" and with that she walked into the cottage to collect her things.
Far below the waters of the Bristol Channel hidden deep within the tunnel systems that permeated the Devonian rock, that made up the coastline, was a cave large enough to house a small cottage perched on a ledge.
The cave was virtually impenetrable from the outside world, it sat at least 30 feet below the oceans surface and behind dozens of feet of solid stone, the only ingress were small fissures barely larger than a water pipe, the other key fact was that the cave did not sit fully within the physical world.
It was one of many thousands maybe more, Hollows as they were called, what Celestial Navigators, Enlightened Scientists and the Thaumaturgic Guilds in a rare instance agreed were ancient parts of the physical Earth that had become trapped between the walls of worlds, between the Earth and its Astral Plane.
This explained how despite the lack of entry the upper portion of the cave retained breathable air despite being far below water and how Samantha Brocklesbury the current owner of this Hollow could access it, her heritage meant that she could both sense changes and currents in the water and hold her breath for two hours, plenty of time to find the Hollows entrance.
This was her place, she only shared it with its native inhabitants and the one who had led her to it, the cottage was essentially a small single roomed cabin with a cramped sleeping space in the loft, it sat on a wooden platform occupying all of the stone ledge that jutted from the sheer cave wall rising to a point some sixty feet above, the black stone illuminated by aetheric lanterns.
The Hollow was roughy Octahedral in shape, the majority of its height actually being below water, in front of the cottage sat a large pool of seawater which then extended down to the opposite bottom point some hundred feet, these waters also illuminated but this time from shoals of luminescent plankton, shrimp and fish that all fed upon the other.
Sat on the narrow jetty veranda Sam looked through a summary of her accounts smiling as a baleen head surfaced, the one other outside visitor to this place Glurkom, as far as she could tell he was some form of magical whale, no hint of Fae or Spirit ancestry but capable of swimming through the otherworldy submarine tunnels to the Hollow, indeed it had been he who had first led her here after encountering her swimming out in the waters below Strumble Head.
She knew little of her parents other than her mother was a member of the Dartmouth Brocklesbury's, her father something Fae Borne of Mer lineage, by all accounts it had become quite scandalous and she had been rescued from a short stay in an orphanage by Lady Sabbath.
The Sabbath's being relations of the Reynolds Family to whom the main Brockelsbury clan had been retainers for years, although she hadn't met her cousin also called Sam, that being Samuel until her late teens.
As it turned out neither the Reynolds nor the Sabbath's were happy with a Brocklesbury being cast adrift, irrespective of the shock this caused in society, she had always suspected that was why the Sabbath's had stepped in, the Reynolds were prominent although they could weather a storm, such a storm would have possibly impacted projects whilst the Sabbath's were more remote, tucked away on the edge of the Welsh Dragon lands or away in Etheria or Fumis and it was well known her Ladyship was spirit-borne, so her adoptance into the Sabbath's was more in keeping, perhaps.
Although she had always thought it curious why the families had such loyalty to what was essentially a servant family, sentimentality wasn't generally a trait of the upper classes, and both families were ruthless when the need arose.
She could feel animosity or resentment to both her parents, but on reflection often whilst swimming deep below the ocean waves, she had come to the conclusion that all things considered she had been quite lucky, many foundlings were destined for short tragic lives.
Lady Sabbath had all but adopted her alongside her own, schooled her, put her through University so that she could get her Profession Papers, her limited suffrage and most importantly had sheltered her from the usual expectations of society.
Despite Gabriels chiding, both he and his mother had supported her setting up her own small venture, providing protection to Society Ladies who required confidence in a woman rather than a man, although in truth the majority of the company’s time was contracted by Gabriel.
They had argued for months over how his endeavours were monopolising her time, in the end she had finally albeit begrudgingly relented that they come to a business arrangement, that her tiny firm be fairly compensated for looking after him on his continued madcap schemes and trips.
So she contended herself with providing protection to unattached ladies during debutante season, a carefully kept secret was that the children of societies peers whether from old or new money were increasingly targeted by organised criminal gangs or Scarlet Traces, as the Dreadfuls called them, there was healthy coin to be made in kidnapping or 'Aquiring' despite it being a hanging offence.
She watched as Glurkom rolled around splashing in the waters scattering the glowing fish, above she wondered at the brightly coloured Paradoxical Fish swimming through the air of the cave, their being paradoxical in breathing out of water and swimming through the air, although they were pests insatiably curious and always trying to take or eat things if they swam into the cottage.
She stretched 'Time to get back' she thought and stood, it would take her about an hour to leave the cave and her boat to round the coast back to Strumble Point
"Not today" she said smiling to the creature playfully splashing to get her attention
"Some of us have matters to attend to" and with that she walked into the cottage to collect her things.
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arcanus
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The Fresnel Plane
Strumble Head - South Cardigan Bay, Wales - 1879
The three figures clambered up the stone stairs of the lighthouse, built on the Westerly face of Strumble Head manor-house.
Outside they could hear the storm raging, picking up salt and spray from the sea below and hurling it against the the main house, outhouses and the lighthouse.
The light was already on as it was every night casting its beam far out to sea and warning shipping both marine and sky of the cliffs and landfall, however it served another purpse not everything that sail or flew did so by mere human sight alone, that would be ridiculously dangerous.
The Lighthouse Keeper Mr Morgan hurried up the spiral stairwell behind a curious creature, the Goat Folk or rather Goat woman Agnes Kidd and to complete the trio was local boy Marcus Credge at the rear, who was on the second day of his apprenticeship.
The three arrived in the light tower looking out at the lashing rain launching from the pitch darkness, the towers light sweeping in a circle casting out its three beams, Kidd and Morgan immediately converged on the polished wooden panels and Aetheric controls before them.
Both nodded in satisfaction the ether vent was running smoothly flooding Blue Etheric energy into the towers independant steam engine.
Marcus looked out across the bay, it had been a clear blustery day only a few hours before, now the rocks looked ominous and the water churning and black, as the two senior staff checked the instruments he started as several pulses of white energy suddenly flashed in the air ovee the bay.
"Mr Credge you need to watch this, won't learn anything looking out there!" said Morgan in his broad Welsh accent
"Sorry Mr Morgan, I thought I saw something"
Kidd shook her head, Morgan giving her a reproving look as her overly large horns threatened to strike his shoulder "Waste of space boy" she muttered
"Now Miss Kidd, boys only on his second day and he won't learn anything if we don't teach him and these are the nights he needs to know what he's doing!"
The Goat Woman looked up at the taller Morgan, regarding him with her vertically slit eyes "We don't need an apprentice, so there's no need to waste time showing him anything" Credges shoulders sank
Morgan leant in closer "Agnes"
"Miss Kidd"
"Agnes, he's an apprentice for the Maintenance Department of the Estate that means both of us, instruction of Lord Sabbath, you know as well as I do the Estates too busy for just the two of us"
"He can't learn what I do" she said tartly "Insufficient spark"
"If its magic I can give it a go, I ain't never tried" said Marcus nervously
"Foolish boy" scolded Agnes "Its nothing of the sort, Enlightened Science not palour games and rabbits, we'll leave that to madame Brockelsbury shan't we!"
Morgan caught Marcus's eye, he was smiling and winked "Now we don't know if he has insufficient lamplight or not, not till you teach and test him!"
"Don't try to flim flam or flatter me, Owen!" she hissed
"Point still stands, you can't say that young Marcus here is a waste of space til you've taught him properly and he fails.....or succeeds, there's no flattery involved, I hope your not doing it because you can't"
Agnes snorted angily and inserted a Lovelace Card into the Lights Difference Engine, the three of them saw more of the white flashes of energy, like a white ink drop into black paint, initially spreadin out before being consumed by the blackness"
"Thats what I saw" said Marcus nervously
Agnes signed "So much work to do now this" she said looking Marcus up and down "Right don't stand there boy, over here you've got work to do and things to learn if your to be a worthy apprentice"
"Thats right" said Morgan in agreement
Marcus hurried over and started to memorise the dizzying series of instructions that Kidd fired at him, after much fumbling and being scolding he completed a sequence of checks on the round green screens of scrolling phantom words and ticker tape print outs, giving Kidd the readings.
"Good" she said "It'll do to start with!" and with that she nodded to Morgan who was now stood by a tall upright brass panel set into the wall behind the console, he turned several metal dials, watching the outputs Kidd nodded and slid a two armed level from its idle downward position to up.
Immediately the great lighthouse beams flared with intensity and a deep thrumming noise rose up through the lighthouse tower.
Marcus noticed that the beams had grown stronger more intense, Morgan handed him a set of goggles "Don't wear them for too long, they'll give you a head thicker than a good night down the local and you'll be of no use tomorrow"
He tentatively put them on and jolted, an icy pain ran through his temples he saw the bay, but could now see flares of power flashing across the it, he shuddered watching ghostly shapes darting through the wind, ribbons of energy dancing on the storm winds and huge shapes seeming to move through the water, he also saw the Lighthouse beam shining a bright red in this place.
"So what you have just learned and performed is a series of calculations to check the volatity of the Etheric Energies across sthe bay and up the coastline, we are shining a beam of mana north, mana is etheric energy mixed with Bios or living energy from the Earth and its creatures.
However if one is to shine a beam of concentrated mana in the middle of a Mana storm, which could be laced with other forms of volatile elemental etheric energies one is prudent to check the concentrations before just switching on, we wouldn't want to leave a smoking crater in the physical or astral planes now would we!"
"Why do we need to shine a beam in the Astal plane" asked Marcus watching the magical fireworks display
"That's Astral plane and because in storm conditions such as this many vessels use more reliable astral or etheric means to navigate and we are shining a light for Lord Sabbath to hopefully see and use for his safe flight back from Manchester" with that she took the goggles off Marcus
"That'll be enough you're already growing pale"
"They'll be able to see the beam from Manchester or Liverpool" asked Morgan
Agnes shook her head "No theres only so far the beam can travel before it loses potency, his Lordship wil have to rely on his senses to get close enough but if he see's it he can navigate in"
Marcus' head was pounding "What are those flashes" he groaned
"The Irish sea has many many storms, unfortunately its not uncommon for those physical storms to feed off the Irish Wyld and quickly turn into mana storms" replied Kidd
"More common than not" added Morgan
"The flashes are magical energies manifesting in the physical world or in scientific terms white ether venting into the physical, this ones actually not that strong magically its just a nasty physical storm throwing Aetheric Energy around"
"Not that anyone out in it is going to be having an easy time of it" said Morgan looking at the swollen skies to the North
The three figures clambered up the stone stairs of the lighthouse, built on the Westerly face of Strumble Head manor-house.
Outside they could hear the storm raging, picking up salt and spray from the sea below and hurling it against the the main house, outhouses and the lighthouse.
The light was already on as it was every night casting its beam far out to sea and warning shipping both marine and sky of the cliffs and landfall, however it served another purpse not everything that sail or flew did so by mere human sight alone, that would be ridiculously dangerous.
The Lighthouse Keeper Mr Morgan hurried up the spiral stairwell behind a curious creature, the Goat Folk or rather Goat woman Agnes Kidd and to complete the trio was local boy Marcus Credge at the rear, who was on the second day of his apprenticeship.
The three arrived in the light tower looking out at the lashing rain launching from the pitch darkness, the towers light sweeping in a circle casting out its three beams, Kidd and Morgan immediately converged on the polished wooden panels and Aetheric controls before them.
Both nodded in satisfaction the ether vent was running smoothly flooding Blue Etheric energy into the towers independant steam engine.
Marcus looked out across the bay, it had been a clear blustery day only a few hours before, now the rocks looked ominous and the water churning and black, as the two senior staff checked the instruments he started as several pulses of white energy suddenly flashed in the air ovee the bay.
"Mr Credge you need to watch this, won't learn anything looking out there!" said Morgan in his broad Welsh accent
"Sorry Mr Morgan, I thought I saw something"
Kidd shook her head, Morgan giving her a reproving look as her overly large horns threatened to strike his shoulder "Waste of space boy" she muttered
"Now Miss Kidd, boys only on his second day and he won't learn anything if we don't teach him and these are the nights he needs to know what he's doing!"
The Goat Woman looked up at the taller Morgan, regarding him with her vertically slit eyes "We don't need an apprentice, so there's no need to waste time showing him anything" Credges shoulders sank
Morgan leant in closer "Agnes"
"Miss Kidd"
"Agnes, he's an apprentice for the Maintenance Department of the Estate that means both of us, instruction of Lord Sabbath, you know as well as I do the Estates too busy for just the two of us"
"He can't learn what I do" she said tartly "Insufficient spark"
"If its magic I can give it a go, I ain't never tried" said Marcus nervously
"Foolish boy" scolded Agnes "Its nothing of the sort, Enlightened Science not palour games and rabbits, we'll leave that to madame Brockelsbury shan't we!"
Morgan caught Marcus's eye, he was smiling and winked "Now we don't know if he has insufficient lamplight or not, not till you teach and test him!"
"Don't try to flim flam or flatter me, Owen!" she hissed
"Point still stands, you can't say that young Marcus here is a waste of space til you've taught him properly and he fails.....or succeeds, there's no flattery involved, I hope your not doing it because you can't"
Agnes snorted angily and inserted a Lovelace Card into the Lights Difference Engine, the three of them saw more of the white flashes of energy, like a white ink drop into black paint, initially spreadin out before being consumed by the blackness"
"Thats what I saw" said Marcus nervously
Agnes signed "So much work to do now this" she said looking Marcus up and down "Right don't stand there boy, over here you've got work to do and things to learn if your to be a worthy apprentice"
"Thats right" said Morgan in agreement
Marcus hurried over and started to memorise the dizzying series of instructions that Kidd fired at him, after much fumbling and being scolding he completed a sequence of checks on the round green screens of scrolling phantom words and ticker tape print outs, giving Kidd the readings.
"Good" she said "It'll do to start with!" and with that she nodded to Morgan who was now stood by a tall upright brass panel set into the wall behind the console, he turned several metal dials, watching the outputs Kidd nodded and slid a two armed level from its idle downward position to up.
Immediately the great lighthouse beams flared with intensity and a deep thrumming noise rose up through the lighthouse tower.
Marcus noticed that the beams had grown stronger more intense, Morgan handed him a set of goggles "Don't wear them for too long, they'll give you a head thicker than a good night down the local and you'll be of no use tomorrow"
He tentatively put them on and jolted, an icy pain ran through his temples he saw the bay, but could now see flares of power flashing across the it, he shuddered watching ghostly shapes darting through the wind, ribbons of energy dancing on the storm winds and huge shapes seeming to move through the water, he also saw the Lighthouse beam shining a bright red in this place.
"So what you have just learned and performed is a series of calculations to check the volatity of the Etheric Energies across sthe bay and up the coastline, we are shining a beam of mana north, mana is etheric energy mixed with Bios or living energy from the Earth and its creatures.
However if one is to shine a beam of concentrated mana in the middle of a Mana storm, which could be laced with other forms of volatile elemental etheric energies one is prudent to check the concentrations before just switching on, we wouldn't want to leave a smoking crater in the physical or astral planes now would we!"
"Why do we need to shine a beam in the Astal plane" asked Marcus watching the magical fireworks display
"That's Astral plane and because in storm conditions such as this many vessels use more reliable astral or etheric means to navigate and we are shining a light for Lord Sabbath to hopefully see and use for his safe flight back from Manchester" with that she took the goggles off Marcus
"That'll be enough you're already growing pale"
"They'll be able to see the beam from Manchester or Liverpool" asked Morgan
Agnes shook her head "No theres only so far the beam can travel before it loses potency, his Lordship wil have to rely on his senses to get close enough but if he see's it he can navigate in"
Marcus' head was pounding "What are those flashes" he groaned
"The Irish sea has many many storms, unfortunately its not uncommon for those physical storms to feed off the Irish Wyld and quickly turn into mana storms" replied Kidd
"More common than not" added Morgan
"The flashes are magical energies manifesting in the physical world or in scientific terms white ether venting into the physical, this ones actually not that strong magically its just a nasty physical storm throwing Aetheric Energy around"
"Not that anyone out in it is going to be having an easy time of it" said Morgan looking at the swollen skies to the North