The Watchers Return Out of Time
Morning Breaks, the Third Day
Standing in the golden glow breaking through an oriole of the magnificent Georgian Door Waite was utterly perplexed. How had he left his bed, and how had he stumbled into what he now saw was an old unused cellar. Harder still to explain was his once again filthy appearance. But hardest of all was the small leather pouch that he still clutched in his hand. That pouch and it's small horde of strange golden coins that he now held in his hand was inexplicable. He could not explain it at all, but it was solid and it was real.
Waite hardly could stand erect yet after regaining his composure he hastened to return again to the library at Springfield. He was badly shaven and without even a crumb for breakfast, but he was greeted by the librarian Saul Clifton who informed him that by special arrangement Dr. Armitage of the Miskatonic library in Arkham had faxed over a portion of the dreaded Dee Necronomicon fragment. It was not the VII Book of Abdool Al Hazzred previously requested by Waite, that could not be permitted. The parts alluded to in the Orne Bishop correspondence were deemed to be too dangerous for public release. Dr. Armitage was unusually forthright in his language repeated to Waite, by the librarian---
'that VII Book could not be permitted. Yes it was truely a fragmentary portion of the Necronomicon that had been retrieved from the Whateley farm house after the trouble of '28', yes part of the book to was 'community property' and would be safe to release in part so to speak.'
The librarian continued to explain to Waite,
Dr Armitage had been very generous in faxing over that part of the Dee manuscript, which he, speculated might be a part of the Whateley heritage, but he had carefully expurgated the more objectionable parts especially the VII th Book of Al Hazzred.'
'Those parts which Dr. Armitage considered to be 'too dangerous' would have to remain under seal in the locked Special Collections section of Miskatonic University. Certain contents, though were deemed safe enough for limited scholarly distribution and had been sent over.'
Waite was then ushered to a table where he bent over and began to read the preamble entitled;
Ars Necronomica
It is it to be understood that man is neither the oldest nor the wisest or even the last of earth's masters. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but in between the space that we know, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and unseen, coterminous with all time and all space. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. For Yog-Sothoth is the gate and the key that unlocks the gate. For Yog-Sothoth is the guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all time are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows the spaces where the Old Ones broke through in times of old, and where They shall break through again, and again. He knows the fields of earth where They have trod, for again they still tread earth's fields. No one can behold Them as They tread. But sometimes by their smell men can sometimes know Them near. But no man may know Their semblance. They have begotten spawn on mankind; and only in the features of those may man even guess their true form, for they are many sorts, differing in likeness from man's truest eidolon. Without shape, without substance ye shall know Them, As a foulness when thou shalt feel Their hand at your throat, yet ye see Them not. Not now and thankfully not ever shall they be seen yet Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man now rules where They ruled once; They shall soon rule again when man is no more. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for They shall reign again. And then shall They clean off the earth and remove it we know not where. They walk unseen and foul in the lonely places when the Words are spoken. They await the bloody sacrifice to be performed at the Rites when they will howl through the all in their Season. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth vibrates with Their step. Their consciousness will then drive mad the seers with the unseen. They will bend the forest and crush the city, but none not in the forest or in the city will behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath? Their cousin Shub-Niggurath has made fertile the earth Iä! Iä! Iä! The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon Their mighty seal is engraven in the fabled stone of Mnar. But who may see the deep frozen city at the poles or the sunken and sealed tower beneath the waves where He waits. Their dead but dreaming seaweed garlanded and barnacle encrusted Great Cthulhu waits for the stars to come round right and then he will be freed from his watery prison. Deem ye not to catch to overly eager at the promises. Cling not, but be ye ever ready to serve.
So much could Waite see but being impatient he flipped pages at random till he saw; at the top of he page
The art of controlling the spirits of fire, the air and the dead is an extension of Ars Pyronomica, an obscure spiritual alchemical process which is necessary to controlling the astral body in order to make contact with the intermediary spirits at the Sabbat.
This somehow irked the impatient Waite as he thumbed through the lengthy fax.
'In another dark passage, Dee alluded to the philosophers' mercury and its replacement by the Gold of the Sun.
Ye must know that this operation is the final stage in the transmutation of metals which can no longer be performed in the present age, as it was in the past performed by some great experts, unless indeed one let the work be governed by a certain soul which has been severed from its body violently but restored by the art of Necromancy, a work very difficult and fraught with dangers because of the fiery and sulphurous fumes, not to mention the fierce and intractable spirits who must be called by the use of human blood and effluvia. Chief most of these terrible spirits is the demon Sultan, Azathoth the Blind Idiot God who sits upon the throne of Chaos, there in unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; to which detestable pounding and piping dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic Ultimate gods, the blind, voiceless, tenebrous, mindless Other gods whose soul and messenger is the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep. It is Azathoth who swallows everything, and when in the end he finds the world is nought, he eats himself. Poorly represented in myth as a 'serpent who eats his tail. Who is ever accompanied by his avatar Nyarlathotep.
This demon is falsely mentioned as a sole companion of the 'Evil One'. For Azathoth is also Brother of Yog Sothoth, the Gate. Nyarlathotep, is he who is the Black Antichrist, and is the 'black man at the Sabat of the witches. as well as all evil flyers who seek to enter the gate with the Great Old ones and seize the the life of a man. It is Nyarlathotep's hand that strikes a man with lethargy so that he is incapable in the hour of his need. He casts his hand on the sick one who is in fever, or when he lurks in his eyes as he drives away the life, and they call it death, yet it is but a living death before the second death cast by the demon of the malignant eye who spoils everything which men see, unless they be quick to say 'in the name of Yog-Sothoth.' Azathoth is also brother of Great Cthulhu but they abide apart.
Cthulhu currently lies bound but will eventually break free and lay waste to the earth, as it is written elsewhere in the Necronomicon.
With every one of them are many sub demons and fiends subordinate, who are the winged furies of the air, present when called at the Sabbat and who are invisible yet in very numerous in ever great multitudes as it is said until they are compelled to visibility by certain secret drugs and human blood. These are the demons of ruin, pain, and decrepitude, who are the producers of vexation and bile, revivers of grief, the progeny of gloom, and bringers of stench, decay, and vileness, who are many , and very notorious; and a portion of all of them is mingled with the bodies of the evil men, and their characteristics are glaring in the deformed children begaten upon mankind. For it is said that in the features of man one may know their semblance.
The malignancy increases, until once the fetters have been removed and if the apostate remains in his impetuosity the Spawn of Azathoth swallows him down the on the spot, and rushing into the world to perpetrate evil, he commits innumerable grievous sins; he swallows down not just the sons of mankind, but as well cattle, and sheep, and commits grievous devastation even upon the vegetation. At that time when there was the coming of the planetary star of Mars into planetary conjunction with Saturn, and the moon and planets were in trine. I issued from the intensely noxious effect of the drug as amidst tears of sweat and blood, as I raised my eyes, I saw the world as when it was dark as night; and on the whole earth were snakes, scorpions, lizards , and other noxious creatures of many kinds; and so the other demons of the night stood among the reptiles; and every approach of the whole earth was as though not as much as a needle's point of light remained, in which there was no rush of noxious creatures. 'Lastly, he the Evil One came forth with many dark forms to the fire, and there mingled darkness and smoke with the face of Azathoth who then called out to the wicked spirits and suffered them to punish the company of man with certain alien beings; with whom I was amazed at .' This demon Nyarlathotep is mentioned as a sole companion of the 'Evil One' as through fear of the likeness of the body, as he who remains even after other evil spirits have been conquered, he remains at large, then the Evil One the Spawn of Azathoth shouts and creates a cacophony of noise because, Azathoth stands up before him.
Wearily and confused Waite closed the faxed pages of the book and silently shivered before he prepared to go home in the remaining twilight. So much had happened in so short of a time. His research progressed yet he still was no closer to the answer, what was the mysterious sign that he lacked. He seemed to be possessed of much of the mystery of the 'edicated Whateleys' of Dunwich. But there was also something that was missing, something that he could not put his finger on. All had appeared so much clearer earlier today in the Springfield sunlight, but with dusk hastening, Waite hurried back to his car and returned to his Dunwich home.
Brusquely Waite strode in. Closed the door and mounted the stairs. He was tired and cared little for plumbing anymore fresh mysteries. All he wanted was long deep sleep, the kind that seemed to elude him since his return to his native state. Well it was still pleasantly chill he thought as he checked to make sure that the windows were shut. Distantly, faintly, though he could still make out the commencement of the nightly chorus of birds and frogs. The first baleful glow of a distant fire also caught his eye in that instant where he sunk weak with denial onto his bed barely able to remove his shirt and socks he fell rather than lay onto his bed. Closed his eyes and swiftly drifted off to blessed blissful slumber.
Or so he thought---
Standing in the golden glow breaking through an oriole of the magnificent Georgian Door Waite was utterly perplexed. How had he left his bed, and how had he stumbled into what he now saw was an old unused cellar. Harder still to explain was his once again filthy appearance. But hardest of all was the small leather pouch that he still clutched in his hand. That pouch and it's small horde of strange golden coins that he now held in his hand was inexplicable. He could not explain it at all, but it was solid and it was real.
Waite hardly could stand erect yet after regaining his composure he hastened to return again to the library at Springfield. He was badly shaven and without even a crumb for breakfast, but he was greeted by the librarian Saul Clifton who informed him that by special arrangement Dr. Armitage of the Miskatonic library in Arkham had faxed over a portion of the dreaded Dee Necronomicon fragment. It was not the VII Book of Abdool Al Hazzred previously requested by Waite, that could not be permitted. The parts alluded to in the Orne Bishop correspondence were deemed to be too dangerous for public release. Dr. Armitage was unusually forthright in his language repeated to Waite, by the librarian---
'that VII Book could not be permitted. Yes it was truely a fragmentary portion of the Necronomicon that had been retrieved from the Whateley farm house after the trouble of '28', yes part of the book to was 'community property' and would be safe to release in part so to speak.'
The librarian continued to explain to Waite,
Dr Armitage had been very generous in faxing over that part of the Dee manuscript, which he, speculated might be a part of the Whateley heritage, but he had carefully expurgated the more objectionable parts especially the VII th Book of Al Hazzred.'
'Those parts which Dr. Armitage considered to be 'too dangerous' would have to remain under seal in the locked Special Collections section of Miskatonic University. Certain contents, though were deemed safe enough for limited scholarly distribution and had been sent over.'
Waite was then ushered to a table where he bent over and began to read the preamble entitled;
Ars Necronomica
It is it to be understood that man is neither the oldest nor the wisest or even the last of earth's masters. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but in between the space that we know, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and unseen, coterminous with all time and all space. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. For Yog-Sothoth is the gate and the key that unlocks the gate. For Yog-Sothoth is the guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all time are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows the spaces where the Old Ones broke through in times of old, and where They shall break through again, and again. He knows the fields of earth where They have trod, for again they still tread earth's fields. No one can behold Them as They tread. But sometimes by their smell men can sometimes know Them near. But no man may know Their semblance. They have begotten spawn on mankind; and only in the features of those may man even guess their true form, for they are many sorts, differing in likeness from man's truest eidolon. Without shape, without substance ye shall know Them, As a foulness when thou shalt feel Their hand at your throat, yet ye see Them not. Not now and thankfully not ever shall they be seen yet Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man now rules where They ruled once; They shall soon rule again when man is no more. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for They shall reign again. And then shall They clean off the earth and remove it we know not where. They walk unseen and foul in the lonely places when the Words are spoken. They await the bloody sacrifice to be performed at the Rites when they will howl through the all in their Season. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth vibrates with Their step. Their consciousness will then drive mad the seers with the unseen. They will bend the forest and crush the city, but none not in the forest or in the city will behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath? Their cousin Shub-Niggurath has made fertile the earth Iä! Iä! Iä! The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon Their mighty seal is engraven in the fabled stone of Mnar. But who may see the deep frozen city at the poles or the sunken and sealed tower beneath the waves where He waits. Their dead but dreaming seaweed garlanded and barnacle encrusted Great Cthulhu waits for the stars to come round right and then he will be freed from his watery prison. Deem ye not to catch to overly eager at the promises. Cling not, but be ye ever ready to serve.
So much could Waite see but being impatient he flipped pages at random till he saw; at the top of he page
The art of controlling the spirits of fire, the air and the dead is an extension of Ars Pyronomica, an obscure spiritual alchemical process which is necessary to controlling the astral body in order to make contact with the intermediary spirits at the Sabbat.
This somehow irked the impatient Waite as he thumbed through the lengthy fax.
'In another dark passage, Dee alluded to the philosophers' mercury and its replacement by the Gold of the Sun.
Ye must know that this operation is the final stage in the transmutation of metals which can no longer be performed in the present age, as it was in the past performed by some great experts, unless indeed one let the work be governed by a certain soul which has been severed from its body violently but restored by the art of Necromancy, a work very difficult and fraught with dangers because of the fiery and sulphurous fumes, not to mention the fierce and intractable spirits who must be called by the use of human blood and effluvia. Chief most of these terrible spirits is the demon Sultan, Azathoth the Blind Idiot God who sits upon the throne of Chaos, there in unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; to which detestable pounding and piping dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic Ultimate gods, the blind, voiceless, tenebrous, mindless Other gods whose soul and messenger is the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep. It is Azathoth who swallows everything, and when in the end he finds the world is nought, he eats himself. Poorly represented in myth as a 'serpent who eats his tail. Who is ever accompanied by his avatar Nyarlathotep.
This demon is falsely mentioned as a sole companion of the 'Evil One'. For Azathoth is also Brother of Yog Sothoth, the Gate. Nyarlathotep, is he who is the Black Antichrist, and is the 'black man at the Sabat of the witches. as well as all evil flyers who seek to enter the gate with the Great Old ones and seize the the life of a man. It is Nyarlathotep's hand that strikes a man with lethargy so that he is incapable in the hour of his need. He casts his hand on the sick one who is in fever, or when he lurks in his eyes as he drives away the life, and they call it death, yet it is but a living death before the second death cast by the demon of the malignant eye who spoils everything which men see, unless they be quick to say 'in the name of Yog-Sothoth.' Azathoth is also brother of Great Cthulhu but they abide apart.
Cthulhu currently lies bound but will eventually break free and lay waste to the earth, as it is written elsewhere in the Necronomicon.
With every one of them are many sub demons and fiends subordinate, who are the winged furies of the air, present when called at the Sabbat and who are invisible yet in very numerous in ever great multitudes as it is said until they are compelled to visibility by certain secret drugs and human blood. These are the demons of ruin, pain, and decrepitude, who are the producers of vexation and bile, revivers of grief, the progeny of gloom, and bringers of stench, decay, and vileness, who are many , and very notorious; and a portion of all of them is mingled with the bodies of the evil men, and their characteristics are glaring in the deformed children begaten upon mankind. For it is said that in the features of man one may know their semblance.
The malignancy increases, until once the fetters have been removed and if the apostate remains in his impetuosity the Spawn of Azathoth swallows him down the on the spot, and rushing into the world to perpetrate evil, he commits innumerable grievous sins; he swallows down not just the sons of mankind, but as well cattle, and sheep, and commits grievous devastation even upon the vegetation. At that time when there was the coming of the planetary star of Mars into planetary conjunction with Saturn, and the moon and planets were in trine. I issued from the intensely noxious effect of the drug as amidst tears of sweat and blood, as I raised my eyes, I saw the world as when it was dark as night; and on the whole earth were snakes, scorpions, lizards , and other noxious creatures of many kinds; and so the other demons of the night stood among the reptiles; and every approach of the whole earth was as though not as much as a needle's point of light remained, in which there was no rush of noxious creatures. 'Lastly, he the Evil One came forth with many dark forms to the fire, and there mingled darkness and smoke with the face of Azathoth who then called out to the wicked spirits and suffered them to punish the company of man with certain alien beings; with whom I was amazed at .' This demon Nyarlathotep is mentioned as a sole companion of the 'Evil One' as through fear of the likeness of the body, as he who remains even after other evil spirits have been conquered, he remains at large, then the Evil One the Spawn of Azathoth shouts and creates a cacophony of noise because, Azathoth stands up before him.
Wearily and confused Waite closed the faxed pages of the book and silently shivered before he prepared to go home in the remaining twilight. So much had happened in so short of a time. His research progressed yet he still was no closer to the answer, what was the mysterious sign that he lacked. He seemed to be possessed of much of the mystery of the 'edicated Whateleys' of Dunwich. But there was also something that was missing, something that he could not put his finger on. All had appeared so much clearer earlier today in the Springfield sunlight, but with dusk hastening, Waite hurried back to his car and returned to his Dunwich home.
Brusquely Waite strode in. Closed the door and mounted the stairs. He was tired and cared little for plumbing anymore fresh mysteries. All he wanted was long deep sleep, the kind that seemed to elude him since his return to his native state. Well it was still pleasantly chill he thought as he checked to make sure that the windows were shut. Distantly, faintly, though he could still make out the commencement of the nightly chorus of birds and frogs. The first baleful glow of a distant fire also caught his eye in that instant where he sunk weak with denial onto his bed barely able to remove his shirt and socks he fell rather than lay onto his bed. Closed his eyes and swiftly drifted off to blessed blissful slumber.
Or so he thought---