Raelson
by
Nathanael Smith


I had moved to vienna to contiue my education. Soon after arriving, an old friend of the family, monsieur Jakob Arbam stopped by. After learning that I had finished my studies, he requested for me to accompany him to doctor Raelson's home, saying that he had a most exciting person for me to meet.

I had a vague misgiving, but nonetheless I followed him to the learned doctor's colorful estate, consisting of large gardens of rare and unusual orchids, and shrubs of the genus kathopedia . Once we had passed the flowering border, we saw the private menagerie of the great doctor Raelson, which were even larger on account of his being an avid discoverer of foreign flora and fauna. We also saw his house, a giant bulky affair created of limestone bricks and mortar, which gave off a glaringly bright reflection.

I followed Jakob up the shallow flight of stairs, and to the great door of the mansion, on which he knocked. A hollow booming sound was heard within, and a small door to the side was opened slowly. We turned and saw a small lady of apparently oriental ancestry in the garb of a handmaid.

She addresed my friend in acute italian, "Ahh, monsieur Arbam! The doctor has requested to let you in at any time." Then she turned towards me, "I am sorry, but doctor Raelson will allow no visitors at this time of day. Excuse me." With these last words, she turned and walked back in.

Jakob looked slightly embarrased, "Excuse me, monsieur, I shall go talk to the learned doctor. Stay here until I send word. 'Twill take but a moment." Here he followed the lady into the small door and closed it behind him. Not five minutes passed before he returned with the doctor.

The doctor was the first to speak, "Hallo, my good man, excuse the inconvenience. Monseiur Arbam has asked permission for you to read through my library, as you are a good friend of his and he of myself."

I stood dumbstruck. This was extremely fast. I quickly explained that I had not even had the time to consider asking such a favor. Jakob laughed and said that he had the mind to ask, and it was not of my own choosing. I accepted the offer as graciously as I could, what with me being surprised with the suddeness of it all.

We continued to chat for the remainder of the afternoon, and, even when we felt it neccesary to leave our host begged us to stay. Jakob firmly said that we must go, and that I had better rest for the morrow. It was nearly midnight when we passed under the arch of the gate leading out to the road.

The next day I rose and took my breakfast on one of the picturesque nooks along the high road. During fore noon, I walked to the doctors magnificent estate, which looked even bigger in the morning sunlight. I timidly knocked on the side door, which was, once again, slowly opened. There stood the oriental lady. As soon as she had seen my face, she motioned for me to follow her. I quietly shut the door and walked quickly behind her in the lush carpet covering the floors. We passed through many hallways full of portraits, for the doctor was a man of high ancestry as well as good proffesion, and at last we came to a staircase.

When the lady dissapeared down the stairs, I began to get nervous, but continued to follow. She led me along the dark corridors which were lighted with flickering candles, until we came out into a bright sunny corner and there was the library. It was much larger than most, and it contained so many books that I feared that I could not but start before I must pass away with but a small amount of the knowledge that could be had.

The lady left me alone, with only the instructions that I must ring the bell when I whished to leave and I would be shown out. I thanked her and began my search for knowledge through the forest of books. when the sun sank behind the trees, I rang the bell and was fetched by a young gentleman with dark skin and almost impossible accent. I followed him out, and the door was shut behind me with nary a whisper.

The next day I found myself at the door scarcely after it was light outside, and I was again greeted by the oriental lady. 

This same thing happened for nigh on a week before I had seen naught but the two servants of the doctor. On the eve of saint Peter's day I again found my way into the library, which I had grown familiar with and it looked not but larger than the primary occurence. I swiftly got myself to the book over which I had been studying, and swiftly found my way to the window seat which I was fain to sit upon. Ere I had oppurtunity to repose in thus a place, I spied across the way a dainty damsel in a great starched dress with a modest veil over the portion of her face and head. She was seated on a bench against the side of the great case of books and was busy in a large book which somehow looked out of place in her tiny hands. Many days thereafter I was wont to find the fair maiden upon the bench, and she never vacated her resting spot, at least not until past the time I made my egress.

I was to see her most days, but never did I but utter a word to her person the entire time, until a peculiar morning which she greeted me at the door and showed me my way to the hall of knowlege. She left off immediately before I descended into the subterranial corridors. I then spoke to her, "Madame, am I correct in assuming that you are, too, a miniscule scholar in search of greater knowledge? I wish to know the more according to your diverse knowledge  obtained through endless hours in the library."

She looked at me and whispered in a fugitive tone "Ay, speak of it not. I shall tell all at our next meeting."

I looked for her at my time of parting, but was not greeted by even the slightest peep of her well-bred face.

The following day, however, I found her once again sitting on the great bench that she was accustomed to sit upon. I took the liberty of speaking to her, and she looked at me and said in a whisper, "I am Glarion, daughter in name of the generous doctor, although, if you were to know him as I know him, you may think of him as an evil pagan," She smiled as she said this, and I thought that surely the doctor must needs have been a generous benefactor. We continued to speak to eachother in snaches of conversation throughout the remainder of the day, ay, and the following weeks, until I felt I knew her as much as I knew my dear sister, but for the fact that I never saw her walk, or even do so much as stand, beyond the carpeting of the house.

After I had spoken to her for several weeks, I began to notice that she was paling every day progressively more. When I took the liberty to ask her why, she replied cryptically that "Father has seen." I thought nothing of it, and brushed it off for a length of days, whence I no longer saw the maid.

When I spoke of it to Jakob, he brushed it off as a scholar leaving for a time in the country to regain her composure before the universities were again crowded with jostling crowds. I felt uneasy about the manner in which he put it off, as if he knew something that I did not know, and that I would find out, for better or worse, and sooner, not later. After we parted ways, I once again found myself wandering towards the mansion of the doctor.

The oriental lady greeted me at the door once again and was making off in the direciton of the library, but I called out to her and asked her to stay, as I was wont to question her on the subject of the damsel. She turned around, and quickly answered that she was in the library. I followed her, and when I got to the library I looked to the place which she was to recline, and she was there sitting with a book in her hands, and with a no longer pale expression. She looked at me and I looked at her and I once again sat in the window seat and began to read. As evening approached, she looked slightly paler, but never said why.

When at last I made it known that I was preparing to leave, she stood up and walked sedately to the door. She passed the long shelves, but stopped mere feet from the exit, and, turning to face me, she reached up and put her hands over her face, then fell forwards onto the stone floor with a gentle sigh. As gently as I might I pulled her into an upright position, until she was nearly on her feet, but when I averted my face to prevent possible inhalation of poison, her body withered and dissappeared, so that only her rich gowns were left in my quaking hands. I loosened my grip and felt nauseous for a fraction of a second, then I felt my head hit the hard floor and I was falling, falling, falling.

--=--O--=--

I awoke to find the fair damsel caressing my hands, which had been folded on my chest. She was now in garments of a faeriean nymph and shallow smile pervaded her serene face. I sat up and in a musical voice, she asked why I was here. I sat upright, and gingerly rubbed my head which was just then beginning to ache, and addressed her, " I know not, ma'am, except that I am where you are, and where I was not."

She stood up and began to speak in a quiet voice, a thoughtful voice. At first I thought that she spoke to me, but then decided that she was reflecting on the past, "I bargained. It was all my fault, you know, I begged him for one more night, if I would but bring you with me on my next visit. Now I am pervaded without a meaning. I wish for light, for paradise, but I merely get my home. I suppose that I belong here." here she sighed, " I wish I was human, and I suppose that you wish that you were human, too" here she looked at me with a wan smile, and reached down for my hand, which I gladly offered. She pulled me up, and I looked at her in a questioning way.

"What do you mean, IF I were human? I am human."

"Oh, but you are not, look at yourself."

I looked down. I was not what I had been in the library. In the library, I had dark gray wool trousers, now I had long, thin, hairy legs, capitated in goat's hooves. I reached up to my head, and, to no little surprise I found a pair of tightly curled horns.