[Child of the 7th Age]

Kali took the locked chest and put it into Piosenniel's hands. The Elf immediately wrenched a crowbar off the main mast and began straining to open the lid. The news of the discovery had spread very quickly so that everyone had now gathered round.

Cautiously, Pio pryed open the top of the chest. With utmost gentleness, she tilted back the lid and peered inside.

An old bag lay there, made of some rough material. Pio began gently working the knot. She reached into the bag and felt a mass of small parchments, very delicate and fragile, animal skins that had been stretched out and written upon with some rude instrument. Although they had been held in the underwater chamber, they were surprisingly dry and brittle.

Pio looked down into the bag. She could see that no actual writing appeared on the skins, but there were many pictures. She could not make out exactly what they were.

Although Pio lifted the parchments out of the bag with exquisite care, many of them began to disintegrate and crumble the moment the air touched them. The Elf howled in frustration. She knew that some of her kin had developed techniques for preserving such ancient documents, but at the moment she had no tools for such delicate work. Within a space of five minutes, only scraps of parchment remained. A pile of dust and crumbled strips sat on the table.

But then Piosenniel reached once more into the bag, and drew out a piece of stonework with a picture inscribed on the front. It was identical to one that Kali had seen in the Sea tunnel: a young man in a grey cloak holding a staff. Light beamed from his face. This picture, however, had a name etched under it. It read "Ancalimon" which means, in Quenya, "he who is most bright."

[ July 18, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]