The Alien Artefact from the Andes: A historical-fantastic narrative

By Michael Wächter

Peters, an astronomer from northern Germany, makes an inexplicable discovery in the sky in the Wild West. It's so incomprehensible that he doesn't dare to publish it.
Kulik, a Russian mineralogist, makes a strange find in an extraterrestrial mineral - he considers it fake.
But in Germany, in the city of Münster, the young student Jens notices the connections - a discovery that will change the course of the history of mankind.
He doesn't dare tell us about it, too.

But then Kulik's find turns out to be real. The incontrovertible proof: there is a counterpart. Intelligence agencies are chasing him. A disaster happens. His friend loses his mind. And Jens has the "Andean artifact", the proof:
There is a civilization out there in space.

And she's on the road.

To us.

((The original print version of this book was published in 2018, the English print version 2020 can be ordered with the ISBN 978-3-750281-52-3))

• Language: English
• Publisher: TWENTYSIX
• Release date: Aug 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9783740768799

Michael Wächter

Der Autor ist Lehrer, verheiratet, hat 6 Kinder und betätigt sich als Roman-, Sach- und Lehrbuch-Autor. Er war auch Hobbyastronom und in der wikipedia-Fachredaktion Chemie. (Website: https://michael-waechter.jimdosite.com/ )

Book preview

witnesses.

Chapter 1: Granny's Tales

It started back in January 1968, I was sitting in my grandmother's living room, under this strange round table. The white tiled coal stove spread a cozy warmth. Grandma was in the kitchen and the tea kettle was whistling. I heard her cut a piece of marble cake for me on her marble countertop.

I played under the tea table in the living room. The round table was covered with brass. Grandma had allowed me, as she had done so often before, to take the wooden box from the cabinet with glass windows under the table top. It lay on my lap and my children's hands opened the little treasure chest. I took the replica of the Westphalian peacekeeper, put it under a sheet of paper and rubbed it through with a pencil. His image became visible on the paper: the angels, the city view with the city wall and the armoured soldiers reaching out their hands. Monasterium Vestphae stood above the fighters, whom I thought to be knights as a child, and P. O. R. - Pax Optima Rerum- the motto of the Peace of Westphalia.

I reached into the box again. Under the old emergency coin lay my favourite toy. It could tighten screws and nails, paperclips, pennies and tacks - but no brass screws or pennies. The Friedensthaler and the emergency coin were not attracted by it either, but it got stuck to the tiled stove. And on the old bathtub in grandma's bathroom.

Grandma, what is that? Why does it always get stuck on some things and not others?

This is a magnet, Jensilein, said Grandma, and I learned that it attracts iron and nickel money.

And screws too, Grandma, look! I added enthusiastically.

Grandma looked at me and laughed from the heart when she saw me playing.

Is this thing itself a screw too? I asked. And where did you get it?

Grandma handed me another piece of cake. It smelled.

Grandpa got this from a friend. And he got it from Russia. You know, Grandpa repairs typewriters. Maybe this magnet piece is one of the fine tools you need for that. But he doesn't know it well, because it's not from Germany, you know.

Grandma got up.

Would you like some more cocoa, Jens, my little boy?

Gladly, Grandma, I returned. When grandma left the living room to warm milk on the gas stove, I played with the magnetic metal piece again. It really looked like a screw somehow. When grandma came back from the kitchen, I was allowed to taste her marble cake and the cocoa. She took off her apron and sat down next to me in the armchair. Then she told me how Grandpa had gotten this screw and she promised to read me something from our family chronicle as a bedtime story.

A bedtime story, I cheered?

Yes, Jensilein. Your mommy told me that you can stay over tonight. She gave me a bag with your pajamas and your teddy bear."

Whoo-hoo!

I rejoiced. I could have burst with joy, because that didn't happen often. Mother always wanted to keep me at home, in the nursery. But sometimes there were exceptions. When I went to summer camp, for example, or on a school trip. Or when I was allowed to sleep at Grandma Lotte's or Grandma Hanny's.

Today it was Grandma Lotte's turn. She made me chicken rolls for dinner with potatoes, applesauce and beetroot. She always drank the beetroot juice afterwards, because I didn't like it. It tastes good, she said. And it's got minerals in it, which is healthy!

I didn't know anything about potassium or calcium. I wanted to brush my teeth and put on my pyjamas right after the delicious meal.

But why do you want to go to bed now? Grandma asked in surprise. But it's only seven o'clock.

Well, the sooner I get the bedtime story read to me by you, I winked at her.

You are something, she laughed. You are a clever one.

Then she looked at me. She put aside the plates she had picked up to clear away and sat down next to me.

You know what, Jens? I'll put on some water right away, then we'll do the dishes together and then I'll read you the story when we're sitting on the sofa. You don't have to go to bed to hear it.

Oh, yeah.

I remember how much I was glowing. At home, no one read me stories. Mother did the kitchen, and Father often had to work late. He fixed typewriters. My brother and I, we always had to go to bed just like that. Put on our pyjamas, do the laundry, pray briefly together to our guardian angel and then: Good night.

Everything was different today. I was allowed to wash the cutlery and dry it, while grandma washed the plates. When I put the cutlery in the kitchen cupboard drawer, she dried both our plates. Her apron waved to the rhythm of her hand movement as the towel scurried across the plates.

Did I ever tell you that our ancestors came from a manor? she asked me.

I was astonished.

Really, knights? As real as they were in the Middle Ages, with armor, lance and iron helmet?

Well, not quite medieval. That was longer ago. No, you have an ancestor in your family tree who was a tenant farmer. He managed a real manor. It was Skada.

Skoda?

No, Skoda is a make of car. Skoda. It was a village. Near Senftenberg and Geierswalde. It's in East Germany.

It seemed to be getting exciting. Grandma came from East Germany. There was the GDR, and as a child everything that came from there was mysterious to me. After all, that was behind the Wall, and all the adults talked about the fact that there was the East Zone and that you were shot if you tried to get over the Wall from there into our FRG. Grandma came from Thuringia, but her ancestors from the Säuberlich line were from the area around Geierswalde and Senftenberg. I imagined a forest with vultures, because Geier in German means vultures, and wald means wood – wood of vultures.

Geierswalde is near Bautzen in the Lausitz, near Ho-yerswerda. This is Brandenburg, almost in Saxony - near the Spreewald., Grandma explained.

In my imagination the vultures circled over a wooded, hilly area. Knights chased through the woods, pheasants chased after them, and somewhere in the deep forest there was a small knight's castle. It had no towers or walls, and looked more like an inn. It was a small manor.

Granny went on. The manor Lohsa was called manor from 1599 on. In 1836 it became the property of the von Loebenstein family. They then leased it to Carl August Säuberlich. This is my great-grandfather.

Grandma went into the kitchen and got me a grape juice. Meanwhile, she went on talking.

The estate had a manor house, stables, barns and farm buildings such as an inn, a tavern. It was near Steinitz. The place is surrounded by several large forests. To the east are the Driewitz-Milkeler Heiden, the largest uninhabited forest area in Lusatia. There is also the Eichberg. On the Eichberg is a monument, because there fought in 1813 the troops of Napoleon. In this area between Bautzen, Senften-berg, Kamenz and Hoyerswerda also live the pastures".

Pasturing? Trees?

No, no. Grandma laughed. She shook her head.

These are the Upper Lausitz Serbs or Sorbs. They speak their own language. You couldn't understand them. They call Lohsa in Sorbian Łaz, and Steinitz for example is Šćeńca, which means young dog. And there's also some manor.

I tasted the sweet juice. In my imagination, the knights were fighting in oak groves by now. In the wooded hills, dragons and foreign robbers faced them and had to slay them to defend their goods.

Grandma handed me a booklet. I read the title: Family tree of the Säuberlich family, written by Carl August Säuberlich, owner of the Geierswalde jug in 1856.

I took one last big sip of grape juice. When I carefully opened Granny's old booklet, I came across a picture. There was an old man in the picture. He had a crutch or walking stick in his left hand. Over his shoulders he wore a black cloak or coat. And he had a really stern look.

This is Carl August Säuberlich, mother's grandfather, Grandma explained. He was born in 1801 in Lohsa and died in 1878 in Geierswalde. His grandchild Anna Elise was my mother. His father Johann Gottlob Säuberlich the Younger was the tenant farmer of the manor in Skada. He was born in 1779 - when the United States of America was just three years old.

A long time ago, it crossed my mind. Almost in admiration, I turned the pages of the book. Meanwhile Grandma moved the empty juice glass from the table back into the kitchen.

Oh, yes, America. Granny sighed longingly dreaming.

Did I ever tell you that my brother was in America? But he was in South America, with the Imperial Navy, all the way to Argentina. For that, your grandfather not only sailed to faraway lands, but he even flew. He was in the Zeppelin Brigade in World War I and flew across enemy lines in Belgium to take aerial photographs.

He photographed air?

No, soldiers. Troop reconnaissance checked where enemy soldiers are. They couldn't shoot that far up. Later he was wounded. Christmas 1917 in the military hospital. Then he was a war veteran. And he became an office machine mechanic, like a father. He became a guild master at the Chamber of Trade. He even had trade connections as far away as Russia. That's where the screw you were playing with before came from.

Grandma pointed to my favourite magnetic toy. Then she continued: And because typewriters belonged to war important industrial goods, he didn't have to go to the front in World War II. That was our good fortune.

I smiled sheepishly. I was really impressed. I remembered her pictures from the photo album. Grandpa on horseback. Grandpa on a zeppelin. Grandpa in uniform at the field kitchen in a field somewhere in Belgium, from where the troops had come all the way to Verdun.

As I turned the pages, Grandma explained the respective pages from the family chronicle. She always pointed to the pictures. That there is my grandmother. Her name was then Emilie Ernestine Säuberling. She was the daughter of Carl August Säuberlich and married the hosiery manufacturer Friedrich Wilhelm Herz from Senftenberg in 1863. And in 1885 her daughter Anna Elise Herz from Senftenberg married my daddy. His name was Otto Köller and he came from Niederlahnstein. He was born in 1860 and was royal Civilsupernumerar, a private secretary of his Majesty King Wilhelm I of Prussia.

My head was spinning when it went to bed. Grandma had told me so much. But it was exciting, and so I had her read me more from her chronicle before I went to sleep. The one where a princess appeared. This Friedrich Herz from Senftenberg, told grandma, had met her in 1859 in Kamenz. He had been allowed to offer the passing princess and her ladies-in-waiting refreshment, and her accompanying lady Marie and she had thanked him for it. May the good Lord grant you that you or your descendants may once receive charming things from another world in return - you and your friendly railway master Friedrich Köller here, the lady Marie had said on behalf of the Prussian princess. Grandma's eyes were shining. She told how the princess must have wished her ancestor and his family something really special and nice when she met him in this railway carriage. Grandma promised me that it would surely come true.

And now I wish you a good night's sleep, Jensilein. Sweet dreams.

Grandma left the bedroom. I made myself comfortable under the covers. The warmth enveloped me. I wondered what it was really like then. People are such that they paint something they have experienced afterwards and feed it with dreams and wishes they have. I wonder if that nice wish had become a kind of prophecy.

I could not fall asleep. Not at all. A real princess! So I lay there in bed, imagining what it might have been like then: My middle-class ancestor had met a real crown princess.

Chapter 2: The Promise of Kamenz

A hot day in late summer 1859 in that wagon of the Prussian Railway. The wagon stopped in Kamenz. It was no coincidence that it came to a halt there on platform 3, despite being occupied by sovereign travellers. The three noble ladies, Crown Princess Augusta, Marie Mimi von Buch and Cosima von Bülow, reacted with energy. Railway master Friedrich Köller was also extremely nervous. He had a plan. He used all his Saxonian charm and his small repertoire of courtly French vocabulary to appease the Highnesses.

"Pardon, mesdames, we have a slight technical problem to remedy. A coach is broken, there is a short technical stop. We'll offer you fresh mineral water from the nearby Geierswalde.

Oh no, what a madness!, the crown princess moaned and reached for a bottle of lemon water to combat her perspiration. She dabbed it on her forehead with a fine silk cloth.

Railway master Friedrich Köller von Kamenz regretted very much and many times. He said that another carriage had even broken down completely, and that there were therefore two first-class passengers who humbly asked the honourable ladies-in-waiting for permission to travel in the princess' sovereign compartment.

Commoners? asked Cosima von Bulow in horror.

But Cosima, we are close to our people, the princess said and asked for their names.

It is the owner of a jug and a highly honourable hosiery manufacturer, your Hoohet, replied the railway master, "the gentlemen Friedrich Wilhelm Herz from Senftenberch and Carl August Säuberlich, who made this request to her Hoohet.

"Hosiery - we're interested in that. We might need them. Let them on. Maybe you know the latest fashions from London and Paris.

Move Manager Friedrich Köller thanked him humbly and very much, and he closed his anthem of thanks with the words I'll just go and get the gentlemen. In a hurry he called the two first class travelers. The hosiery manufacturer Friedrich Wilhelm Herz from Senftenberg was by chance the brother-in-law of his wife Louise, a born Krechler. His father-in-law, also by chance present, was Carl August Säuberlich, the owner of the Geierswalde jug. Friedrich Köller's heart was beating. His cunning had led to success. At the insistence of his relatives, the railway master had threaded it and arranged the technical defect so that his brother-in-law could finally find an opportunity to solicit customers at court. And his father-in-law wanted to extend an invitation to the stranded" princess to thank her for the opportunity to travel with him, to his jug at Geierswalde of course.

I hope we can leave soon, dear Augusta! moaned Marie von Buch. She asked for some of the lemon water from the Crown Princess' flacon. The flacon was decorated with an ornament with a crown. Princess Augusta Marie Luise Katharina von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach was her full name, the wife of the Prussian Crown Prince Wilhelm I of Prussia. She was of liberal disposition and high education. Once again she applied some refreshing lemon water to her face, which had blushed in the summer heat. Then she talked on.

Yes, Marie, it's too hot today. Especially for me, the new grandmother. You know, my beloved British daughter-in-law Vicky has finally given birth to my Friedrich on.

Marie nodded.

On January 27th at the Crown Prince's Palace! the Princess added proudly. But here you are, dearest Marie! She and handed her the flacon. We have entrusted the education of Wilhelm to the Calvinist Georg Hinzpeter. And you cannot imagine, Augusta continued, how happy I am since Vicki and Friedrich's wedding! My triumph! Our Vicky, Princess Royal of England, granddaughter of the British Queen Victoria - what a match for my son Friedrich! Sufficiently influenced by her origins, she can give him and perhaps also my prince consort a contemporary image of the liberal, British monarchy. Our dear Alexander Gustav Adolf Count von Schleinitz of the court in Koblenz also raved about her again and again!

Oh, I hope with you, my love! said Marie. And I believe your Prince Regent will embrace this ideal.

"How glad I was that Wilhelm announced this last year in November when the regent regent began! He said in the Ministry of State that we must endeavor, in the changed principles of the administration of justice, to let the feeling of truth and equity penetrate all classes of the population. And that our Prussia must make moral conquests in Germany, through wise legislation, by raising all moral elements and by seizing elements of unification, such as par exemple the customs union. Augustas eyes glowed. After all, it was she who had suggested exactly this choice of words to her husband.

Yes, a new era in politics! beamed Marie. He's sticking to the constitution. And he has appointed Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as Prime Minister - thank God! This conservative Karl Otto von Manteuffel is thus recalled, and the reaction time with him!

Careful, we haven't reached our destination yet, said the crown princess. My husband is still a soldier in body and soul! He tends to transfer military categories to civilian life. Discipline! Just imagine, the other day at the troop parade in the Palais: When the diner longed for by the staff officers arrived, Wilhelm simply pulled his roll out of his skirt pocket!"

Our Prince Charming! it shot through Marie's mind. Marie Mimi von Buch sat next to her, blond, slim and tall. She was the daughter of a diplomat. Her father, Prussian Prime Minister of Rome, had died. Her mother had remarried. She was about to take Marie to Paris to introduce her to high society together with her grandmother. This is how Marie came into contact with Alexander Freiherr von Schleinitz, who was at court in Koblenz, with Crown Princess Augusta and her husband Wilhelm, the Crown Prince. Marie always had a friendly smile on her fine lips

Marie and Augusta whispered something to each other. They giggled. Cosima von Wagner read in a pamphlet. With one ear she followed the conversation of her friends. For she, Cosima Francesca Gaetana von Bülow, also knew Wagner. After all, she was the illegitimate, but now also acknowledged daughter of the composer Franz Liszt.

Yes, the men, our princes! said Cosima. Sometimes they strike at us too, like a cartouche!

Augusta and Marie looked over at her. She had put away her pamphlet.

You mean your Hans? said Marie.

Yes, him too - and the divine Richard!

And Cosima raved to Marie about her trip to Zurich. She had taken it last year, right after her wedding in Berlin and the subsequent honeymoon with her groom Hans von Bülow. And this trip had of course first gone to Richard Wagner, who lived in the garden house of the Villa Wesendonck. For her husband was one of her father's most talented pupils, the pianist Franz Liszt. That is why he was also a fervent admirer of his friend Richard Wagner. Cosima had known Richard since 1853 and was musically gifted, eloquent and had a strong imagination. And of course a soft spot for Wagner's music (and not only for his compositions!).

But back to your prince again! Just look!, said Cosima and handed her print to the princess.

Augusta took the sheet and read.

"From the Proclamation of the Free-Minded Friends of the Fatherland of July 19, 1859, we therefore direct our hope to the Prussian government, which, through the change of system introduced last year of its own free will, has shown its people and the whole of Germany that it has recognized as its task to harmonize its own interests with those of its country, and for such a purpose does not shy away from sacrificing its own perfection of power and entering new and difficult paths.

How nice! laughed Marie. Is that what the freaks write?

Yes, said Cosima, and she went on to quote: The objectives of Prussian policy essentially coincide with those of Germany. We may hope that the Prussian government will grow more and more in the realization that a separation of Prussia from Germany and the pursuit of allegedly purely Prussian great power purposes can only lead to Prussia's ruin.

This will provoke our Karl Otto von Manteuffel, this is hell for him, Augusta giggled.

Suddenly the door of the compartment opened. The railway master and two bourgeois travellers stood in the door, asking to be let in.

May we come in to your house and become ladies?

Bienvenu! said Princess Augusta in a good mood, Kick a messieurs!

The gentlemen entered.

Can I get you some refreshments?

The track master provided cool mineral water for the ladies. The two gentlemen modestly sat down on a bench at the side and after polite thanksgiving began a conversation about the weather, the railway and hosiery for the three noble ladies. They were amazed at their good manners and enjoyed the conversation so much that they forgot the scorching summer heat.

Carl August Säuberlich looked around the compartment. Two posters hung on the wall. One of them commemorated the fifth anniversary of the death of locomotive manufacturer August Borsig, who died on 6.7.1854. Next to it hung a railway office notice recommending that first-class tickets should be ordered in advance, as there would be several special trains for sovereign gentlemen who wanted to visit His Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm, who had fallen ill. And a postcard hung there, from the Kruggut zu Geierswalde. Friedrich had really thought of everything.

The polite conversation of the ladies-in-waiting with the two gentlemen meanwhile also showed something of their erudition, for they made every effort to follow the topics of conversation. Augusta parried with them about von Humboldt, about the publication of a new thesis by the natural scientist Darwin about the origin of species and about fashion in the new world on the other side of the Atlantic. She told Mr. Herz and Mr. Säuberlich about the Prussian envoy von Gerolt, who was trying to buy hosiery products there, and about an astronomer who was supported by him. He had come from Istanbul to New York to look for comets and asteroids in the night sky.

And their hoohet menen, the Prussian legation in America, wishes to purchase stocking manufacturers in Prussia, murmured Frederick William Herz hopefully.

Our products would be as valuable to them as precious things from another world, he added in an advertisement.

We shall see, my dearest man. Your effort is delightful! May the good Lord grant you that you or your descendants will one day receive attractive things from another world in return - you and your friendly railway master Friedrich Köller here, said Marie.

His heart was warm. The friendly wish from the princess' mouth went down like honey. They radiated something prophetic - should he now also receive precious things from another world? Charming things from the royal court? Orders from America? Friedrich Wilhelm Herz was beaming all over his face. From then on he firmly believed in the fulfillment of the princess' wish and buried it deep in his memory.

We shall be happy to inform her, my lord, if her offer there is of interest, Augusta assured him, adding, "We must write to him. Herr von Gerolt has been back to Washington since January 1859, because Count von Schleinitz had to decline his transfer to Europe.

Didn't he also stand up for this Peters on Humboldt's recommendation? asked Marie von Buch.

Yes, Mimi, said Augusta.

Who? asked Cosima von Bulow.

Well, our astronomer, Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters. In the meantime, he has gone from Istanbul to New York to build a new observatory. He asked the Foreign Ministry for funds for this. He thinks that there are some kind of violent electrical storms on the sun. He wants to observe it, look for comets and asteroids.

A smile went across the princess' face. Yes, I heard about it: He discovered a comet, two years ago And guess what, my dears: Von Gerolt told me that Peters also wanted to find a new planet one day. He would name it Feronia in my honor because he heard that I worship Feronia, the goddess of the forest.

How romantic! Cosima thought. Immediately other mythological figures appeared in her thoughts, which appeared in Wagner's compositions.

Soon the ladies were able to continue their journey through Lusatia and they parried about Eichendorff the Romantic, who died two years ago at Lubowitz Castle in Silesia. In memory of him, they took this train trip to Lubowitz Castle. The stop at the Kruggut zu Geierswalde was very convenient for them.

Railway master Friedrich Köller closed his eyes. Fresh home he had only wanted to put his legs up on the chaise longue for a short time. He fell asleep even before he had gone to bed. He suddenly found himself with his chaise longue in the aforementioned railway compartment, the first class compartment of the princess, which seemed to float above the clouds. Carl August and Friedrich Wilhelm sat with him on the bench, and opposite them stood the lemon water on a small table - a small bowl with the inscription Säuberlich (clean), one with the inscription Hertz or Herz (heart). Through the open compartment window three angels floated in from the starry sky and sang a song about virtuous clean hearts. The angels took a seat opposite the gentlemen.

I am Cosima, angel of the celestial musician Richard! one of the angels imagined Friedrich Wilhelm. And I am Augusta, angel of a heavenly politician, said the other angel to Carl August, refreshing himself from the water bowl marked Clean. Friedrich Köller heard singing. The angel there looks like the crown princess, he thought. Only now she has wings, almost like a bird-man, and a kind of beak mouth. The angels' voices sounded like chirping or trilling, and on their forearms they wore a large, striking wristwatch with a square, flickering image. It changed constantly when the angels tapped it. They tapped it as if it were one of those new mechanical typewriters. Like these Danish skrivekuglen, which are given to us by Pastor Rasmus Malling-Hansen of the Danish Institute for the Deaf at court and in the Royal Prussian ministries, he thought.

Opposite him sat the angel with the face of Marie von Buch. He introduced himself with Mimi, Countess von Schleinitz and Puntirjan. They were messengers of a heavenly astronomer, he said. His name is Peter Puntirjan, after Saint Peter. The messenger continued that he had a message for him.

Friedrich Köller swallowed. He looked at the angelic figure with big eyes. He was unable to speak. A twittering sound penetrated his ears, as if from the birds in the forests of Lusatia. He didn't understand it, but his head seemed to translate it into his language. Friedrich Herz, Carl Säuberlich and he had been chosen to be members of a family flock in which a few generations later a descendant would receive a visit from heaven. The visit would bring him a charming thing from another world. It is sent to him from the starry sky and delivered by a merchant into the hands of his grandchild. The child would then receive another visit, this time in person, to bring the charming thing back home to the world of the stars.

Suddenly the earth seemed to rumble. An earthquake like before a volcanic eruption. Frederick got scared. He opened his tired eyes. His wife stood before him. She shook violently the chaise longue on which he had fallen asleep.

Friedrich, you're barely awake! Come to bed, she said impatiently.

Yes, I'm coming, replied Frederick, half asleep, shooing away the visions and angels.

Tell me! Your day must have been really exciting, urged his wife. She was almost bursting with curiosity.

Yes, just imagine what Carl August and I managed to achieve, Friedrich began his report of the meeting with the Crown Princess and her friend Mimi from Buch.

When he had finished his report to his wife, he decided to make a short note of the event and to add it to the family chronicle written three years ago, so that it could be passed on to future generations. And so it came about that the Chronicle of the Köller'sch-Säuberlich family one day received an addendum about the Kamenz prophecy of Buch's lady-in-waiting Mimi - the prophecy of a charming thing from another world. One day it was to come into the possession of one of the grandchildren, it was said, from another world. Perhaps it could even fall from the sky like a star, thought Friedrich Köller and imagined the event in the most beautiful colours. He knew nothing more. But for those who came after him, it would bring death - and a new age.

Chapter 3: The light in the South Sea sky

I looked up. Was it really like that then? Did I just imagine that fairy-tale encounter with the princess? Or had I fallen asleep and dreamt it? I wondered, because I didn't know this language - the Saxon language. I had probably only imagined the encounter with the princess - and her promise of a thing from another world. I had