YOUR MISSION, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT...
AN ANGEL OF THE LORD
While some of the team work on the ritual and others fight Hounds, the rest of the team are dealing with the statement from the King that. 'I can do nothing to help you until the stone is returned to time.' In the court, they are sure they remember being told that they would need the ‘diamond from the past’.
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It has now become clear to them that ever since Stepanov made his failed attempt at a portal the Carcosa diamond (or entropic prism or shining stone, or whatever they should call it) has been floating outside of time. The more scientific team members think the stone is some kind of singularity, a compressed point of all the opposition to the force of entropy, held in check by the pressure of the universe around it... but all they really need to understand is that the diamond is sitting outside of time, the barriers are breaking down and that is a very bad thing.
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Dr Edgevarnt and others believe that opening the 'other end' of the portal Stepanov never completed will allow them to ‘catch’ the diamond as it is pulled through, completing its original journey.
They can't go anywhere else in space, so they need a moment in time to try and open the portal at Buckland House, but everything they try fails. It's almost as though the diamond is already at the location, preventing them from summoning it. After reading Lazlo and Jacob's notes again they decide to search for the earliest moment that it *isn’t there* – the moment the signal vanishes from CHRONOS at their location.
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The computer slowly struggles through the calculations, aided by NASA, who Frank has on the phone. When it finally gives a date, they also find a copy of the book Mr Jacobs was reading, used to prop up a corner of the machine, which confirms the date they are looking for is 1144.
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To send even one person to 1144 requires a huge power increase to CHRONOS, a lot more advice from NASA and they know it will be a one-way trip. Whoever goes will need to prepare their mind and body with psychological techniques, advice from the astronaut and a lot of drugs. Jon Narl, the man who cannot die, volunteers to be flung 1,000 years into the past, into the grounds of the not-yet-built Buckland House where he manages somehow to complete the portal and use his dying moments outside in the cold and dark to speak with Sir William and pass over the precious gem before Valhalla finally claims him. In 1969, CHRONOS explodes from the strain and the prospect of any more time travel is over.
The Diamond is now built into the cellar at Buckland House. Our team cannot check this because the encroaching darkness means the cellar isn’t there anymore. The world has gone dark. Only one room remains in the house.The circling, stalking hounds are relentless. Even the ref crew are now hidden behind black geometric masks.
They have nothing else left. They're ready.
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Ego sum angelus domini
Mr Jacobs was reading a rather nice hardback book on the Houses of Devon. Turning to the page for Buckland House, they come across a section on the legend of Sir William who met an angel who gave him a falling star.
"The Building of Buckland Manor
With the death of Henry Densyll in 1143, most of the estate passed to Richard Densyll, but the land at Buckland and the hunting grounds were given to his younger brother William. The first house to be located on the current site of Buckland House was built in 1144, by William Densyll, and there became the seat of his line for over 300 years. Sir William had travelled to the Levant and Jerusalem, serving in the court of Fulk and Melisende, and had made a name for himself fighting alongside the Templar knights. In the autumn of 1143 Sir William Densyll, returned to England to take up the seat of his new holdings. There are several different accounts as to why Sir William decided to build an improved house on the site, with one suggesting he was visited in dreams by Saint Demetrius while still in Jerusalem, who told him of the death of his father and that he must take with him a stone from the wall of the Holy City to use as the first foundation stone of his home. Another wilder account tells of an angel of the Lord, who came to Sir William when he first walked to the hill at Buckland and, handing him a holy jewel containing the Light of Heaven, instructed him to place the gem within the ground and build the foundations of the house upon it. Another account suggests he simply brought back a great horde of gold from the East, which he used to build the house"
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The book contains an image of a revealed wall painting at Buckland Church, showing an 'angel' wearing silver robes marked with a red 'Z', passing a red gem to Sir William. The realisation hits that the angel is one of them, wearing the outfits they took to the 1990s, and the red gem is the Carcosa diamond. One of them must go to 1144, opening the portal, catching the diamond and then giving it to Sir William and telling him in Latin or ancient French to bury it within the foundations of Buckland House.
