Callum had just dropped quite the bomb, a real corker of a story and for the first time in a long time Frankie found himself speechless. Callum's words still hung in the air and crazy as they were Frankie had his friend's back. As Callum finished his wacky tale Frankie nodded as if to say "That about covers it."

Still the tale was hard to hear, the Irishman was having no trouble believing that they had traveled from New York to Egypt, clearly they were in Egypt. Frankie looked to the potted plant for a second hoping this all was not a dream and that the pistol was indeed waiting for him there.

Frankie turned back and stared down at the table trying to recall the moment when they crossed the rune marks on the floor of the tower and came to be in the blistering desert. "Two months..." Frankie mumbled almost silently.

It was a strange feeling to try and set your mind to the information that you have lost two months. Surely now all of Frankie's business connections had given him up for dead, he would most likely not be able to return to his old life, no more fast money, but on the bright side no more Russians and other tough characters shooting at you with automatic weapons. It was at that moment that Frankie began to look at the life of a Professor's 'assistant' with some optimism.

But try as he might Frankie could not hold onto all the memory of the things he and Callum had experienced, parts of it seemed already forgotten or simply gone from his mind. Frankie could recall some true fear that he had felt in the passages and in the tower back in New York but the Irishman could not recall their source. Had they been followed by the Russians? Or were there far scarier things that sought them out in the underground there. For the moment the Irishman decided to chalk it up to 'jet lag' and the heat of Egypt.

[quote="RPMistress"]

As Callum told the story of how he and Frankie ended up where they were, Bea and Maddie exchanged looks with each other that spoke volumes of the fact they knew all too well what the professor was referring to. No doubt their arrival was directly connected to the same sort of mechanism they had uncovered by accident just a few weeks ago.

When the professor got done and the silence fell over the foursome like a wet blanket, Bea watched the look on both of the men’s faces. It was obvious something incredible had happened and who the hell was she to refute their story as hogwash? After all, she had spent time in a mental facility in a third world country. Somehow the old adage of pot and kettle resounded in her mind.

Finally she cleared her throat and glanced around to see if there was anyone hanging around she really didn’t feel comfortable with. Finally, she leaned forward and lowered her voice.

”Gentlemen. I believe there’s something I need to show you. Let’s retire to my room for a little bit. It’s not good to discuss this in public.”

As Frankie and Callum exchanged looks, so did Maddie and Bea. Dapping her mouth with her linen napkin, she got up from the table and gestured to the server to put everything on her tab. With a nod, the server smiled and watched the four leave the restaurant. When they were out of sight, he took out his cell phone and punched in something, waited a few seconds then slipped the cell phone back in his jacket pocket.

Bea stopped by the front desk to secure a key for the room that was situated next to the room that was Maddie’s. Handing the key to Callum, she instructed them to come with her to her room. When they reached the hallway, Bea checked both directions as she stood at the door to her room. Inserting the key and seeing the light turn green, she stepped in, clicked on the light and ushered the others into her room.

Once inside, she closed the door and locked it then walked over and closed all of the heavy curtains for privacy. Flipping open the laptop she used, she clicked on a few things then brought up her detailed report to date on the dig she and Maddie were working on.

”Professor….perhaps you should read about what we’ve discovered. I believe you’ll find the similarities you described to us to be remarkable with what we are working on. And I’ve also brought up the report I made on the dig I was working in Guatemala before…..”

Before what? You went insane from seeing….boogey men? Hell, Bea couldn’t remember some of the things she saw now only that they had been horrid and she was terrified of seeing them again.

”….before I had to leave the country. Anyway….please….take a look and tell me what you think. I would be most interested to know.”

As she left Callum to read for himself, she walked over to the liquor cart and poured four glasses of scotch, handing one to Frankie, Maddie and Callum before taking her own. Looking over at Callum as he became engrossed in her report, he would find she had discovered several artifacts that predated many digs in the area but the sort of hieroglyphics and depictions of occurrences were slightly different. Imbedded in the hieroglyphics were runes and other symbols that resembled the Mythotic. As he flipped through the pictures she had cataloged, he would see the form of Aramaic language he had mentioned. There was also a similar book with the same language written on it as well as the wheel sort of contraption they described. There was no doubt they were connected in some way.

As he brought up her report from Guatemala, he would see similarities there as well but more along the lines of something that was trying to prevent some sort of cataclysmic event from occurring. Before she had made any significant discovery, her last journal entry read simply, “They’re everywhere. I can’t close my eyes without seeing them. If I don’t stop what I’m doing they will come back for me. I have to get away from them. Some how. Some way.”

Frankie sipped the last of his cold beer, next to it at the table sat a small shot of some sweet local liquor, Frankie tossed it back as everyone got up from their seats. The Irishman took a second to put his jacket on, giving him a second or so to trail behind the rest of the group. As everyone left the table and walked back to the grand and beautiful lobby Frankie walked close to the colorful plant arrangement and quickly retrieved his ill gotten gun and slipped into his jacket pocket.

On the way out the four of them passed the off duty policemen, Frankie leaned in close to the men seated at the bar and patted the big officer who had lost his gun right on the back.

"Good luck mate." Frankie said with a grin and turned to catch up with the others.

They all gathered in Bea's suite and soon Frankie was looking over Callum's shoulder at a very similar 'fortune wheel' and a very familiar looking book. Frankie was no expert on these things but it made sense to him that there would be a matching set of magic artifacts at the other end of their mysterious teleportation.

"Sure enough Callum, we've seen something like this before..." Frankie said sipping his scotch over the professor's shoulder, slurping it right in his ear.

Frankie was right. The man was no academic, but Calderwood was a far cry from the stuffy old professors who believed their higher education gave them merit. The Irishman among his many other, more street wise talents, had an eye for detail and saw the similarity between the book they had alleviated from the cult and the one that Bea had a picture of in her document.

The drinking by his ear was entirely other matter but one that, Callum had learned to ignore. Professor Ravenwood quite often sipped his tea away while watching his young prodigy work away and so he had gotten used to it. He actually, in fact, found the sound kind of relaxing as it reminded him of his cozy, safe office back home.

"You're right, Frankie. They are the same, in fact I have little doubt it is not another book of Hsan."

Callum took out their copy and thumbed through the pages until he found the section that described the 'brass traveling wheel'. It was only partly written in Aramaic, the other parts were written in a mish-mash of heiroglyphics and one of the unknow languages of the Mythos. He could only partly make it out. He could translate the ancient Egyptian symbols, but even they were unlike anything else that was known to exist. What he could make out was that the wheel was made to spin through sacrifice and that it allowed doorways to open.

Callum relayed his translation to everyone in the room.

"Beatrice. Where is this other book?" Anxiously inquired Callum.

There was low rumble then and the wind picked up tossing the curtains of the patio doors wildly about. Outside a dark storm approached, blotting out the stars in the night sky.

[quote="RPMistress"]

Bea was just about to let them know when the wind picked up and caused a stir in the room. When one of the French doors that led to the patio banged against the wall she literally jumped and got that frightful look in her eyes. Almost frozen to the spot, she suddenly felt very parched and swallowed hard to try and regain the moisture in her throat so she could at least scream if she needed to.

Maddie, God love her, quickly took action and walked over to the doors and closed them after inspecting the sky. Furrowing her brows, she turned to the others and thumbed over her shoulder as she walked back to them.

”There’s quite a storm brewing out there.”

Bea’s eyes were trained on the French doors and the soon to be raging storm outside. While it wasn’t all that rare a storm like that could occur here, somehow she knew it was related to what they were discussing in this room. Finally, when Maddie touched her arm, Bea blinked and glanced at the others. Seeing the way they were looking at her, she gave them a puzzled look.

”I’m sorry. What did you say, Professor?”

When Callum repeated the question, she glanced at Maddie then back to Callum then back to Maddie and nodded. The young woman walked to the far side of Bea’s room and picked up a similar satchel to the one Callum was carrying. Opening the satchel, Maddie produced the ancient book and held it out for Callum.

”Bea didn’t think it was such a good idea to leave it in the tomb. We decided to bring it back here, with us, for safe keeping.”

Calderwood reached out and graciously took the book from Maddie. He cradled it in his hands as if it were crafted of the finest crystal and placed it carefully beside the copy he and Frankie had procured in New York.

"Incredible." The professor exclaimed in a whispering voice, as if proclaiming the existence of the books would somehow cause him to awake from a dream. As he compared them there was mistaking it, they were two of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan and Callum began to shake he was so overwhelmed by the discovery. All doubts had now been removed and accepting the reality of the tomes literally turned his world upside down.

Outside the storm began to rumble. Distant thunder began to boom in a steady rhythm as if a great Titan was slowly making it's away toward them.

"Honestly, I truly didn't accept they were real, until now. Seeing the two books, side by side there is no disputing it!"

Callum's final words were drowned by a colossal eruption that shook the room! His wide eyes darted toward the open door as if expecting to see something, but what, he could not say. It was apparent though that the professor was relieved to see the wind tossing the curtains and the flash of lightning illuminating the empty balcony.

Turning back to the others it was obvious to Callum that none of them, not even Beatrice clearly understood what the authenticity of the books really meant.

"These are two of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan. The very same ones kept in the temple of the Elder Ones in the city of Ulthar." Callum explained and still noting the confusion on their faces went on to tell them where this city existed, "In the Dream Lands... THE Dream Lands. Never in my wildest fantasies did I ever consider them to exist in some shape or form."

To further clarify, Callum took his laptop out of his satchel and put it next to Beatrice's. He booted it up and opened a graphic of a map.



"This is a representation of the Dream Lands of Earth focusing on the Six Kingdoms. My mentor, Professor Ravenwood told me all about it. Now what I believe we have here is proof that there is a source to these fantastical stories, perhaps it may even be here in Egypt. This could be one of the greatest discoveries the world has ever seen!"

Calderwood continued to study the books, browsing through them, comparing the pages while he was still processing their find. Not for one moment did he actually believe that the 'Dream Lands' themselves actually existed (he honestly wasn't that crazy) but he was convinced that they were on to locating some kind of representation of what ancient people might have misinterpreted as being another world.

As quickly scanned the books, the professor found something interesting. A reoccurring page near the beginning which was the plans for constructing some kind of sport light lantern able to concentrate light into a small powerful beam, but for what? It was then that Callum turned both books over and realized that they each had gem embedded in their back covers. Out of curiousity he took out his small flashlight which he always carried for emergencies and shone it through the jewel of the book from New York.

Callum gasped as the image of a map was projected onto the hotel room wall. It was an image of North America's east coast and the symbols (the same ones that appeared in various pages of book) were beside a location that was obviously the original home of the book. He then shone his light through the other book and it revealed an ancient map of Egypt, but there was no landmark. Then, the professor decided to try overlapping the two gems in the backs of the covers and a location appeared on the Egyptian map. Quickly he cross-refrenced it with a map of Egypt he brought up on Bea's computer, and after some checking was certain that whatever the destination was it was nothing but desert.

"We dun 'ave time to excavate." Said Callum, then something became apparent to him and he turned to his fellow researcher, "Say, Beatrice. Did ye say that there was another 'wheel' back at your site?"