Canticles of the Prophet Zachariah:

The Pillar of Irad

Notes by Anthony

“I will spare you, listeners, the exact routes we took to explore the Temple. If you will, please refer to the map Asa made. I’m sure we’ll post that on the station bulletin board someday. Maybe I’ll make an account on one of those message boards and post it one day. When this is all over. I think you can understand why I can’t exactly post this now. Why I can’t actually broadcast any of this to you. Not yet at least. One day. And hey, since time travel is real, maybe you can listen to this in the future and call me back now. My phone number is, uh, I don’t actually know. I have the satellite phones from Desirée and the cellphone that Sascha gave me. But hey, if you’re from the future, then you’ll totally know the numbers already! Give us a call anytime.

“No takers? Well, I suppose you’d be wanting the grand tour first. Let’s pretend that the Temple is on the cardinal axes, and entering the Temple is facing due North. On the ground floor is the Entry Chamber, which is where Ben and Asa and I teleported into all those days ago. South was outside. We had just opened the North door into the Entry Chamber, which had doors to the North, East, and West. To the North was some kind of Control Room. The same one I had seen in my dream where my blood was sucked into one of the funnels. It felt like the Bridge of the Enterprise, though far stranger. It was circular, but at the four corners of the circle were triangular Cells with manacles. I touched one, but I only felt the memory of the metal being forged. It felt fresh, too. Maybe only a few years before. No one had been chained here. 

“To the West of the Entry Chamber was the living quarters. A Kitchen, Armory, a room with a lot of Bunk Beds and four Bedrooms with single beds. The mattresses were filled with straw and animal hair. Camel, maybe? Sheep? The armor was for shorter people. Gwen would fit right in. Maybe I could have squeezed into the taller ones, but none were built for my bulk. To the North of the Control Room was a Navigation Room. There was a giant stone disk with symbols on it. It felt like, if the system had power, we could use it to direct the Temple somewhere. That power likely being blood, of course. There were two maps on a desk. Circular Cities. I recognized them from my dreams. Enoch-Called-Gomorrah and Enoch-Called-Sha’adom. I could read the writing. In the center of each was a forbidden zone. The Fourth Circle was the Circle of Science.

“Then we got greedy. Should have moved methodically. Written down everything we saw. But no. I was feeling confident. Cocky. My melancholy that had lasted from Ben’s Embrace to Prentiss’s townhouse had turned into mania. I touched the map of Enoch-Called-Gomorrah and tried to read the memory of its making. The map twisted under my fingers, snaking up my hands and arms. It seemed to merge with my skin. It burned like acid. I screamed but managed to stop myself from running around like a crazy person. Asa grabbed my hands. I wanted to yell at him to let go. I didn’t want it to infect him, too. But then a light glowed from his hands and the map sloughed off me. My hands and lower arms were red and stung like a bad sunburn. But they were mine and mine alone. Gwen was mad, but I just let her yell at me. She gets upset when things happen unexpectedly or out of her control. I get it. At this point I’m just used to everything being unexpected and out of my control. 

“Once everyone calmed down, we went to the East of the Entry Chamber. It was a Storage Bay. Gwen spent over an hour pouring through each box but found nothing. At that point I laid out my theory. This was a space ship. One that traveled through time and space. Like the TARDIS. That’s why the manacles and armor and bedding were so new. It had been made thousands of years ago in one of the Enochs our timeline, but to the timeline of the motes of dust left in this place, it had only been made a few years or decades ago.

“In the Navigation Room were stairs that led down. Gwen wanted to bring more ghouls with weapons, in case something alive lurked below. She broached the idea of bringing Ben, but I shot that down quickly and she accepted. It’s nice to say ‘yes’ to Gwen most of the time. I think she is much more readily accepting of a ‘no’ when I accommodate her reasonable requests. Gwen also asked Vousette and Nana to come with us, but, apparently, they have been bolstering the Obfuscation of the Temple this whole time. It made more sense for them to stay on the surface. 

“I went into the Farmhouse to update Cedric and Comet. They were both awake. Ben was sleeping peacefully. Or, whatever we do when we’re not awake as vampires. Cedric had connected with Ben last night and driven that “blood witch shit” of out his mind. He’d helped compartmentalize Ben’s mind. Made a safe space for him to heal while processing the Malkavian Embrace. And that meant Ben was still in there. My Ben was alive. I couldn’t tell if I wanted to cry or laugh or hug Cedric. Maybe all of them at once. But I kept my head. Cedric decided to stay with Ben, but Comet wanted to explore the Temple. Asa came in and we looked down at Ben together. I was so scared. I was just beginning to hope that Ben would be okay. Asa squeezed my hand and said he would pray for Ben. I closed my eyes and prayed, too.

“Back to the Temple. Rose took one staircase down, the ghouls the other. I won’t keep you in suspense, listeners. There was no one down there. No one who would fit our usual definition of alive, anyway. I’ll get to that. Below the Navigation Room was a Gallery. Sculptures and paintings dotted the floor and walls, but many were still in crates or wrapped in wax paper. To the south was a large Central Shaft, with tubes that carried blood from the Control Room above to some room below. There were stairs leading further down, but we elected to explore the first sub-level.

“To the East, West, and South of the Central Shaft were three long hallways with rooms at the end, each with a smaller second sub-level room. Each Hallway was labeled with the Enochian Aralu. To the West were the rooms for Mekhet. Careful listeners might note that I have been pursued by the Mekhetim and this place has been referred to as the Mekhetim Temple. The Hallway was filled with mosaics of a woman, possibly Mekhet herself, teaching students and designing grand buildings and machines. The rooms were largely empty but may have been intended as a workshop. To the South was Vait’hara Tuii’s chambers. The mosaics in the Hallways showed that he was a King. He ruled all of Gomorrah and was the Lord of the Second Circle. Gwen put together that this was the Ventrue antediluvian. As before, the rooms were empty though a large map of Enoch was hung in one. Rose found a wolf pelt and slung it around her shoulders. 

“Lastly, the third Hallway to the East. Many crates lined the hallways. One of Gwen’s ghouls opened one. They were filled with bones. Gwen sounded more excited than I have ever heard her as she ordered most of the ghouls to take the crates of bones to her workshop in the Farmhouse basement. Only four remained with us. These were the rooms of Ashûr-called-Cappadocius, who must have been another vampire on the same level as the Antediluvians. Remind me to ask Cedric when I get the chance, listeners? 

“Finally, the central chamber on the second sub-level. A twenty foot high Pillar took up the entire room, leading up to the Central Shaft. There was a pool of blood near the bottom. About my height, maybe. Something was suspended in it. A worm, maybe the size of my forearm. It was staked and lifeless. A golden plaque stood before it. IRAD. I remembered flashes from the Il Gran Ballo. Caine’s beloved Childe, murdered by his Grandchildren, the Antediluvians. The Childe had been killed, according to the Sabbat legend. Yet here some part of him lay suspended. His soul? His Beast? And it was the Engine of the Temple. Every bit of blood that flowed throw the funnels and shafts of this place was feeding it. Irad. It pulsed with the slow heartbeat of the ship I had not consciously noticed until now. The Temple was alive. The Ship was alive. Irad was alive.”