07 - Merlin in Rome

Although the passage in Ahinadab's ship was calm, I was tormented by nightmares and dark visions. When I was awake I tried to follow Gleivia's glow on the horizon, when I was lying down I was sick and nauseous, boiling in the sweat of my own body. I was pursued by a long white snake which turned into the dragon of Babylon, a bound mighty wolf tore itself loose to devour the world with a bloody mouth, three chalices appeared to me which merged into one and changed, a stone, a jewel on a crown, a bowl, a mighty cauldron drawn with the images of ancient deities.
When we docked in Massalia, in southern Gaul, I was completely lost in madness, but thanks to the charity of some fellow travelers, I found shelter in the house of an old, pious man named Cartaphilus, where I was cared for.
In Cartaphilus' house, travelers and Christian dignitaries came together, far beyond the borders of Massalia or the Seven Dioceses. Now, in a strange whim, Fortuna had appointed three Christian envoys to be my traveling and hosting companions, Grunnitus, an elderly man of distant Germanic descent, and his companions Sixtus, a middle-aged man from Ravenna, and a Pannonian boy named Claudiurnus. Grunnitus and Sixtus, who were Christian Episcopes, helped Carthaphilus care for me and convinced him that I was obviously haunted by evil spirits. According to a rite familiar to the Roman community, Sixtus, imitating the words and deeds of Jesus with the help of the Holy Scriptures, tried to expel my plague spirits, but Grunnitus pursued strange other plans and handed me a golden chalice filled with black blood, and for a short time I looked into his jet-black soul. I saw Grunnitus with a richly dressed man in whose features I recognized my father, I saw a tower in a crowded city, and under it dungeons in which young women were locked up and abused, I saw angels who changed their shape to nightmares, three wolves in battle and a group of rough fishermen who pulled ashore a monstrous fish. But when I thought of Sixtus, I saw him ascend the holy chair of the Patriarch of Rome while I looked Claudiurnus in the eye and the boy transformed before my inner being into an anciently dressed man in the second half of his life. Then Claudiurnus poured the goblet before the black blood touched my lips and spoke well to Grunnitus that I should be accepted by him.
So I was brought to a wealthy country house near Neapolis where Claudiurnus, although still a child, led the prosperous and independent life of a patrician. The boy thought he had found in me a kindred spirit, and as I revived and my mind brightened, I realized that Claudiurnus was an old spirit trapped in the body of a young boy. He soon introduced himself to me as Virgilius, once a powerful poet and follower of the old gods, descendant of druids, who after his death long ago had found eternal life in the souls of his male descendants, and had fallen in love with me. However, I sought no more than Virgilius' friendship, but found only a self-depraved, wicked and vicious spirit. Nevertheless, I soon became his disciple and accompanied the boy Claudiurnus on his travels through the Western Roman Empire, for he was a respected advisor and builder in the service of the emperor's mother Galla Placida. It was the case that the emperor Valentinian was only thirteen years old and the affairs of the empire were largely run by his mother Galla as regent, Galla's power was only secured by two powerful generals named Boniface and Flavius Felix and the powerful episcope of Rome named Chrysologos, while in the general Aetius a powerful rival was found, who at that time fought the Visogothae in Gallia and the Baugades in Raetia. To all of them Claudiurnus introduced me and I recognized in the features of Flavius, Boniface and Aetius those wolves of my dreams.
Although I had to resist Virgilius' advances, I must admit that I enjoyed many of our days together. I was young and Claudiurnus was a rich heir who reveled in luxury, and Virgilius' spirit was young at heart and rapturous. Not a few magical experiments kept us busy, even though Biliodelvos always warned me not to reveal too much of my secrets to Virgilius and instead to trace the origin of his own power.So we worked together on a magical wine cask and an oil well, but above all I enjoyed learning his knowledge of architecture and road construction, for example, we renewed together the old amphitheater of Verona. But I saw how the workers and slaves of the empire did superhuman things and their bodies broke because of the heavy exhaustion and they were set replaced by new ones who soon joined in the drudgery without grumbling. Through Biliodelvo's eyes I recognized the army of demons which entered the bodies of the men and rode them to death during the hardest work.
I waited to act until something happened that I could not prevent despite all my visions, in a dream I saw the servants of Babylon drowning the Patriarch of Rome, Caelestinus, in the bath, undoubtedly by a witchcraft spell from afar, because Caelestinus died the same night, but he seemed to have died in his bed in his sleep, even if his mouth poured large amounts of water. Undoubtedly Virgilius was involved in the deed and so was Flavius Felix, for both wanted to elevate Grunnitus to the next patriarch. Their next target was the great war hero Boniface, who was able to defeat his opponent Aetius, but soon died of an undiscovered battle wound.
When Claudiurnus was urgently summoned to Rome, he sent me to Neapolis to fetch from his library a book he needed, but he did not realize that I knew the language of the ancient Hebrews, and so I discovered Virgilius' secret: not a long-forgotten druidic spell was the source of his power, but a pact with an ancient mischievous fish-shaped deity and its magic book, the Tablet of Zebulun, a long-forgotten Mesopotamian script! I broke the tablet and gave the trapped spirits their freedom, whereupon they left the bodies of the road builders, who collapsed from lack of strength, but lived. Galla Placida and Grunnitus raged full of wrath and had me led in chains before an assembly of Christian dignitaries led by Sixtus and Chrysologos in Rome where I was accused of witchcraft, heresy and the devil's pact, But strengthened by my faith and the assistance of my guardian spirit, neither water nor trial by fire could harm me, and so they finally had Claudiurnus brought before the assembly to bear false witness against me, but now it was I who spoke the words of Jesus of Capernaum and Gerasa and expelled Virgilius' selfish spirit from Claudiurnus' body. The freed boy now spoke against Grunnitus and together we let rise the vision of how he and his brotherhood of devil-fishermen had once fallen into my father's nets and of the innocent daughters of Rome who held them and Aetius captive in their tower for cruel purposes. In fact, the dispatched soldiers found the missing girls and freed them, breaking the spell against Flavius Felix's opponents, and also on the battlefield, fortune turned and the formerly demon-possessed soldiers of Favius Felix were defeated by the troops of Aetius, who were favored by Fortuna and the Matronaes, Aetius won the battle of Ravenna and Flavius Felix and his wife Padusia, as well as Episcope Grunnitus, were executed.
Soon after, Galla Placida ruled in name only and Aetius became the new true ruler of Ravenna and Western Rome. Sixtus succeeded Celestine as patriarch. He showed himself to be a friend of the Pelagians, the followers of my teacher Placidus, and later sent St. Patricius to Hibernia to convert the pagan Scots and Ivernians. But I was fed up with court intrigues and the crowded cities of the Italic peninsula, I brought the young Claudiurnus to the island of Sicilia where he could now live freely and merged again with my old friend Biliodelvos and together we ran as a white stag towards the forests of Dacia, following Gleivia's sky lights.