08 - Merlin and Grisandis

Following Gleivia's rays, I wandered as a white deer through the forests of Thrace to Asia, living among the ancient fauns and satyrs, the spirits of the wilderness, and seeing the foolish and dishonest actions of men. I saw devils waiting for the souls of hanged men who had stolen only a few coins for their families, I saw children being buried with their believed fathers crying in the crowd and saw children being baptized whose fathers were in fact the priests reading the mass, I saw families starving while under their huts pots of gold were buried, spoils of past battles... and Ahinadab's ship stranded on the Asiatic coast, where angels waited for the spirits of the drowned to lead them to the realms beyond. Years may have passed, time meant little to me when I followed Gleivia's splendor, but I now felt for the first time something that had been unknown to me before... I felt age for the first time in my life when I had a strange encounter, for one morning I found tents of people in my woods, magnificent as I had never seen them before, and for the first time again curiosity gripped me. I wandered through the camp of those lapsed into deep sleep by Gleivia's splendor, and found in one tent a splendidly dressed man tormented by bad dreams.... and it must have been the three mothers of fate or Fortuna who had destined me to that place, for the mighty and yet so tormented man was none other than Thedososius, Emperor of Ostrom, who was suffering from severe grief, for his son Arcadius and his daughter Flaccilla had died, his daughter Licinia and granddaughter Eudocia had been stolen by the Vandals.... I wanted to understand him, the most powerful man and lord of half the known world, and it was pity for that great man that made me wake him up from his heavy sleep, but my magic also made his guards come to him and so I soon pushed open the gates of the camp in the shape of a stag and fled back into the woods without having achieved anything.But the emperor had the legendary white stag searched for after that morning.

The most powerful hunters of the empire scoured the forests of Asia and Thrace in search of me, but none could even approach me, none except a young Germanic named Grisandis, who was the most skillful at following my trail. Curious to know what this young man was all about, I soon approached him in human form at his camp. He took me for a wild man from the woods and asked me many questions about the much-praised white stag, which I answered laughingly but always truthfully, and I also learned a lot about Grisandis, who was willing to share his meager meal with the starving forest man out of mercy. Raised as the child of the Vandal Duke Mahthaimo of Suaris, in truth the son of King Geiserici, driven from his homeland by a jealous nobleman named Fraulucias, taken in at the Emperor's court in Bycantium and there ... working as a stable maid, because, and this astonished me deeply, Grisandis had the body of a youth, but the soul of a young girl and had adopted the habit of wearing a woman's clothes and living as a woman among women. What a strange coincidence of Fortuna, I wondered, but the destinies that the gods gave to people were sometimes unusual and often inscrutable. And Grisandis had already experienced much injustice in his, or her, young life. Grisandis had to flee from the imperial court, because the sister of the emperor, Pulcheria, had accused the empress Athenais of having a lover in her quarters, and when they searched the quarters of her servants, they found Grisandis living as Mrs. Aiweinafleta and suspected him of having approached the empress illegally. Now Grisandis had turned to his youth as a hunter to clear his reputation with the emperor by a great deed, because the lord of the Eastern Empire had promised great rewards and fulfillment of the greatest wishes to the one who would bring the white stag, and all Grisandis could hope for now was survival as a tolerated, possibly even wealthy, but in any case free eunuch. He had endured much on his hunt, had visited the centaurs and Silene, had even encountered a dragon or a great serpent spirit, and in the end had found a wandering fairy who had sent him unerringly on my trail, always following the morning glow! Who could this fairy be? A friend, or an enemy? One of the nine sisters of Aballon, or even my beloved Gleivia? I was curious, but found no answers at Grisandis... Nevertheless, I devised a plan to help this pure soul...

I had Carvacantos plant and water a Phrygian apple tree, and with Biliodelvo's strength had it grow rapidly until it bore a single, particularly large and beautiful fruit. I took the form of a Lycian merchant and gave the apple to the emperor one morning when he was on his way to his chapel to pray, the emperor insisted on paying me 150 solidi - most of which I donated to the poor.

Then I went back into the woods and let Grisandis pose me as a white stag.three times he walked around me against the sun's course to banish the forest spirit in stag form - what a doltish plan, Gleivia could not have been that fairy, rather a still unknown enemy! Nevertheless, I tamed myself and followed Grisandis, who brought me before the Emperor Theodosius, where I changed back into a human before the eyes of the court. The Caesar himself held back his bodyguards, because he recognized in me the man he thought he had seen in his dream and asked me to explain it to him. He had seen a wild man who laughed three times, at a hunter, at beggars who asked for alms in front of a temple, at a servant who beat his master three times with a whip during a mass. I had to laugh three times too, because these were things I had seen during my last walk among men. And it had been bitter and sad laughter when I had seen the beggars, because it had been them who had stood on buried pots full of gold! And it had been bitter laughter because the gold was hidden under the squire's feet, and there were three blows, as the Lord had been one of the soldiers who had once hidden the treasure there and now repented for his three sins: Greed, murder and cowardice, because although the people were hungry and he knew what he had done, he did not want to admit it and share the gold.

The emperor sent for the man and he confessed the crime, while the loot was recovered and alms were given to the poor. The third laugh, I explained, had been at Grisandis, because he had been mistaken for a man who had been lying in wait for the empress, when in fact he was a woman who had wanted to help the empress. Grisandis was examined and, to his own amazement, his wish to be a woman was fulfilled and he was released and given a place at the court of the Emperor, who soon became more than just friends with Aiweinafleda. But who was it then that was seen in the Empress's chambers? I asked Theodosius to look for the golden Phrygian apple, but in fact the empress confessed to have eaten it, but in truth the apple was found with Theodosius' best friend and advisor Paulinus, who had received it as a gift from the empress and was thus recognized as the true secret lover.

I now prophesied that Theodosius' daughter and granddaughter would live, and Licinia would be freed but marry Eudocia Hunaricis, the son of Geisericis, and become the mother of the future Vandal king.

Paulinus was executed, Athenaia went into exile to Hierosylima and I decided to join her, but left a Hebrew inscription at the imperial court, because I hoped to be sought and found in Hierosylima by a very specific person....