THE ELYSIAN TETRA MORPH

"The Guilty Conscience"

Art and research produced by Eric Gross




For almost a year while hiding from the authorities of France, Philip LeMarchand was secreted by an order of The Alumbrados (The Illuminated).  The Order St. Salamanca De La Necros Negro Biblios was located in Toledo, Spain, and in who’s keeping was all the forbidden texts Torquemada had plundered during the Spanish Inquisition. LeMarchand had been welcomed amongst them with open arms.  During his stay, he had been commissioned to complete four of his puzzle boxes for the mysterious sect.

His first Spanish construct, “The Mason’s Keystone” had been completed in the early part of the year.  Its results were immediate.  The head of the order, Santino Raphael De Torma, was very pleased and felt a new sense of power for his brotherhood.  He would have to find a way to convince LeMarchand to become their new head artisan.  The knowledge he possessed could not be allowed to slip thorough his hands.

Santino had given LeMarchand access to their most sacred tomes.  His hopes that the library would be sufficient to keep Monsieur LeMarchand occupied with his studies while a plan was contrived to elongate his stay.  After all, was his coming not foretold?

By mid Summer, LeMarchand had finished his second commission.  The Elysian Tetra Morph was covered in angelic script and intricate geometric patterns. 

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The design shined like the purest of gold, set upon jet.  For this puzzle was not constructed of brass and wood, but fool’s gold and an amalgam of black mercury, sulfur and lead oxide.  The prolonged touch of the device could produce mild hallucinations and euphoria.

After the evening meal, LeMarchand presented the box to all and stated that it need not be solved with the hands, but with the mind.  “Who here among you thinks he can solve the riddle?”  And with that, he placed the puzzle on the dining table in plain view, and retired to his rooms.

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That night the "golden" attraction had been passed from one brother to another, each reluctant to give the next person a try.  All the while getting drunk from the arcane caresses.  “It’s like being in my mother’s arms, she had died when I was very young…I almost forgot how it felt” one described.  “And the music, like the choir of the host” said another.  One man claimed to almost be able to make out the angels whose sigils were etched into this new configuration.  “They watch…oh…they are so beautiful.  But I cannot see them clearly, as if the veil between heaven and earth clouds my eyes."  The laughing carried on into the night, while squabbles broke out over whose turn it was next.

It was decided that one member at a time should take the box, and find someone to bestow it upon.  In a tavern, in a brothel, in a church, wherever the box led.  They were to learn what he could within two days time.  All had  been warned that the box was not for them, they were entrusted as it's caretakers.




In the weeks that passed, many different reactions had been reported.  However, all agreed that the device  produced a certain covetous nature, a reluctance to part with it, even among the holy.  Yet, none seemed even close to solving the riddle.  One night upon returning to the order, the man entrusted with The Elysian Tetra Morph had started screaming wildly only yards from the doorstep.  When help came moments later, the man was dead, and the poisonous box had been taken.  No one saw the assailant, or to where he fled.  Senor De Torma was outraged, and demanded a search.  Was his order to now be subject to petty robbery on his doorstep?  Did not all, including the Church, fear and respect his Order?  This was unthinkable.  The villain would be found, and all of Spain would know of the transgression, and how it would be dealt with.
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Philip LeMarchand had witnessed the Grand Padrone’s outrage, and very quietly pulled him aside whispered something in his ear.  To this, Santino’s eyes widened and he screamed “Search the house!”

A thorough investigation had revealed the culprit still in the house, hidden in one of the older less used studies.  The brother who had the box last had not been able to part with it.  He insisted on joining his fellow member on his “research”, only to feed him wine laced with a slow poison.  He waited till the man’s thoughts became clouded and suggested they go back to the monastery.  On the way, he relieved his dying companion of the box, and made his way in via a side entrance.

Once inside, he locked himself in an old study he had prepared that day.  Sitting on the floor, he tried every way he could to open the box, though nothing worked.  He uttered every prayer, dark invocation and summoned every spirit that came to mind, but still nothing.  Miserable and desperate, he started pleading with it.  Then something strange happened…the box seemed to respond to his needs.  The more desperate he became, the more it “consoled” him.  With this, he reflected for a few moments and decided to take extreme measures.  He left the study, found a member, and brought him back under false pretenses.  Once inside, he tortured the man to death.  The box did nothing.  Agonizing over what he had done, the riddle of The Elysian Tetra Morph slowly unfolded to him.  Only from true misery would he be able to receive the bliss the box had promised.  Now he understood.

When they had found him, he had killed half a dozen of the Order, and had mutilated himself beyond belief.  The fact that he was still alive was strength of will alone.  There was hardly anything holding what was still attached to him together.  All he kept saying from what once was a mouth, “Still not enough."  He lived long enough to admit what he had done, and how he suffered from the guilt.  With this admission, he died.  The air escaping his lungs made it sound as thought he was sighing “Yyyeeessssss…”

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