The Fox and the Shadow

'A Fox swimming across a rapid river was carried by the force of the current into a very deep ravine, where he lay for a long time very much bruised, sick, and unable to move. A swarm of hungry blood-sucking flies settled upon him. A Hedgehog, passing by, saw his anguish and inquired if he should drive away the flies that were tormenting him.

"By no means," replied the Fox; "pray do not molest them." "How is this?' said the Hedgehog; "do you not want to be rid of them?' "No," returned the Fox, "for these flies which you see are full of blood, and sting me but little, and if you rid me of these which are already satiated, others more hungry will come in their place, and will drink up all the blood I have left." '

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Thus read the introductory page to the first translation (Circa 1401 TR) of "The Fox and the Shadow", but no children's story was contained within those parchment pages. Indeed, the book itself, bound in ornately worked bronze, with depictions of shadowy forms who seemed to be screaming in unbearable torment, was itself enough to ward off most casual scholars.

But, hidden within the pages of fairy tale, gibberish and seemingly random babble, were these words:

"The Fox came with losing case,
He smiled at the Shadow Man.
Whispered words, a sweet embrace,
Beneath the dark, he ran.

With trepidation and remorse
The Fox and Shadow ride.
Overcome by force,
The Shadow must abide.

All was quiet for a span,
Until the Fox he fled.
Fox devoured Shadow Man,
Then in moments, thousands dead."

While obviously prohpetic in some fashion or another, it was not always clear to whom the prophecy applied, nor even what era it would apply in. Prophecy, as any good student will know, has a way of revealing itself while further clouding its meaning in obscurity.

Indeed, after careful study of the book, it became clear to me that many of the ramblings and seeming "gibberish" of the book, were the keys to understanding both the hidden meanings inside the prohpecy and to discovering the era in which the prohpecy could take place.

It wasn't until many years later that I discovered, with shock, my own name hidden inside the text. Imagine it, I who have been to a thousand gatherings of the Society of Sensation, I to whom death itself holds no more mysteries, surprised by a book of prophecy I read in my youth! Yet there it was, clear as day, "Marius Wind" and next to it, my real name which, for obvious reasons, I do not record here.

I have come to believe, over long study, that the prophecy refers to a family in the Well. Perhaps a living member, or one yet unborn. I know also that the "thousands dead" to which it refers will come to pass regardless of fulfillment of conditions, yet none will believe it so. As is usually the case with prophecy, this seems to set only the conditions under which the next events may come to pass. This particular prophecy is actually the keystone event for a group of events which must come to pass.

--- Excerpt from the diaries of Marius Wind, entry dated 1543, TR