The Beginning of The Journey

Hagen sighed and sat down on a stump, looking at Remus with a weak smile. \"You need to -anfassen - feel it, Remus. Before, you fight too hard against it, and now you fight too hard for it.\"

Remus nodded and took a deep breathe, trying to clear his thoughts and relax. They had been out in the depths of the forest for the better part of five hours, but Remus refused to stop trying. He closed his eyes and concentrated on feeling as he did when he was about to transform. The slight prickling on the back of his neck, the heat he felt building up inside of him...every other little nuance his body had that let him know the change was coming.

And then suddenly he felt it, the prickling, the shifting...his hands first, and the pain was tremendous. He dropped to his knees and opened his eyes, holding up a hand as Hagen got up to help him. I can do this. His body started to twist and shift, and his screams rang out through the stillness around him, sending birds flying into the sky and larger animals to turn and run in the opposite direction of him. Finally, the pain was too much, and he let go of the feelings he had been drawing from and collapsed in a heap on the ground.

Hagen grinned and picked his old friend up easily, cradling him to his massive chest like a child. By the time they had reached the house, Remus had opened his eyes and was weakly protesting he was quite capable of walking, which Hagen chose to ignore.

Katja opened the door when Hagen kicked it twice, unable to knock or open it himself because of what was in his arms, and Remus flinched when he heard her exclaim loudly. \"Albern Menschen! Welches tat Sie ausführen ihm Hagen? Inwieweit tat Sie verschieben ihm?\"

Hagen ignored his wife\'s outburst and walked into the living room with Remus, placing him gently, and seated slightly upright on the couch and the pouring him a generous amount of fire whiskey, not speaking until Remus had consumed half of it.

\"Katja,\" Hagen said, trying to ignore her tapping foot and angry expression, and keep his own voice low and even. \"I didn\'t do anything to him, and I didn\'t push him. He wanted to keep trying, woman.\"

Her eyebrows shot up, and she looked to Remus for assurance that this is what truly happened, and he nodded. \"He speaks true, Katja. If you wish to be angry for foolishness, then be angry with me.\"

Her expression softened, and she went to her husband and kissed him tenderly, the tension melting away as it always did. \"You are both still albern menschen - foolish men - but I have supper to finish making. Go easy, mein geehrte Remus...let Hagen do what you need him to do, and you stay as you are for now.\" she bent down and kissed Remus softly on the cheek, and then hummed softly as she made her way out of the room.

Hagen sat down with a thud on a chair and looked at Remus. \"I\'m proud of you. You did well. Now tell me, what brings you to see me?\"

Remus began to tell him what had been happening, about the text, about the scrap of parchment, and finally about the reason he had come - The Heart of the Seraphim.

Hagen held his hand out, and a thick book slid from the bookshelves and came to him, landing neatly in his massive palm. He opened it up and began to read it, occasionally reading bits out loud, and keeping one eye on Remus to make sure he was staying seated and sipping on his whiskey.

He turned a page, a thick finger skimming a line. \"The root of Seraphim comes either from the Hebrew verb saraph \'to burn\' or the Hebrew noun saraph - which is \'a fiery, flying serpent\'. Because the term appears several times with reference to the serpents encountered in the wilderness, it has often been understood to refer to \'fiery serpents.\' From this it has also often been proposed that the seraphim were serpentine in form and in some sense \"fiery\" creatures or associated with fire...\"

Remus sat up a bit more and waited for Hagen to continue on when he found something else of interest.

Hagen set the book on the table next to him, and another book shot out from the shelves which completely covered all four walls of the room. He skimmed through that until he got near the middle, and then stopped and began reading again.

\"Ah!,\" Hagen exclaimed loudly, and began to read aloud once again. \"It is said that whoever lays eyes on a Seraph, he would instantly be incinerated due to the immense brightness of the Seraph. They are described as very tall, with six wings and four heads, one for of the cardinal directions. One pair of wings are for flying, one for covering their eyes - for even they may not look directly at God , and one for covering their feet - which is almost certainly a euphemism for genitalia. They are in the direct presence of God. In Isaiah\'s call-vision in the Temple, he sees Seraphim surrounding the throne of God, singing praise to God; the \"Thrice Holy\" hymn. In this instance they are angelic beings but in the Book of Numbers, seraph-snakes are sent to punish the Israelites...\"

Remus swung his legs off the couch and leaned forward, draining the rest of his glass, barely aware that he did so. \"Thrice - three...\" He fished the scrap of parchment out of his trouser pocket, thanking every Deity he could think of that Katja always emptied pockets before washing clothes, and handed it to Hagen, hands trembling slightly.

Hagen took the small scrap of parchment and read part of it out loud. \"Three times...reflect back...shield...fire...\" He lifted his eyes to Remus, and dropped the book from his lap as he stood up, moving with amazing swiftness for a man his size.

He snatched a book from the shelf after a moments hesitation, and Remus was suddenly glad for his friends uncanny ability to remember odd bits of obscure legends and information.

Hagen flipped through the book hurriedly, and read aloud to Remus again. \"Layamon, in the twelfth century, in his poetic paraphrase of Wace\'s Brut, thus expands that poet\'s brief notice of the birth of Arthur. \'Ertur son nom; de sa bunte Ad grant parole puis este.\' So soon he came on earth, Elves received him. They enchanted that child with magic most strong. They gave him might to be the best of all knights. They gave him another king. They gave him the third that he should long live.
They gave to that kingly child virtues most good.
That he was most generous of all men alive.
This the Elves him gave...\"

Hagen dropped that book without a second though on a nearby desk, and went searching again, mumbling mostly to himself, but loud enough for Remus to hear. \"Three, each time, everything I read, its been three, old friend...\"

He exclaimed loudly, which startled Remus, and snatched another book off the shelf, flipping it open quickly and reading aloud again. \"And there\'s more of Arthur, more of the three - more of the shield. Just listen to this Remus. \'The Annales Cambriae date to the middle of the tenth century, but the original sources for it may date back to the early ninth. The Annales include a list of events going back to about the year 516 or 518. The list offers short, sober accounts in annalistic style, including the famous reference to Arthur carrying a cross
on his back into battle. Jones suggests the unusual image may originate in a Latin author\'s confusion of two Old Welsh words--scuit, meaning \"shield,\" and scuid meaning \"shoulder\". Are you listening Remus? This text you speak of, the treasures...\"