The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids (18 page)

A

ttacking the denizens of another world.
- -

We need
say little
on this subject, for
, apart from the immoralitie of the notion,
the dangers are great and
obvious
. 
And yet
, ther
e are those who have ignored such
warnings and pressed on with
out apparent concern for
the consequences. 

     A
general
in the armie of Alexander learned
t
his lesson
to his dismay
. 
Thinking to
please
his
lord
,
this foolish soul
impressed upon a wise man of the camp to open a portal so that he might
carrie
the war of the Hellenes into another world
, thus expanding the
empire of Alexander beyond all
imagination. 
Th
e
minor
general followed this path with a fervor
that might well have impressed Alexander, had disaster
not
befallen the excursion. 
T
hose who
lived beyond the portal
were not of a mind to cower
before
the
armie of
Hellene
s
. 
They faced the invaders with a defending armie
thrice the size of
that
brought by
the Hellenes, repelling the
Greeks
with weaponrie that this world
would not know
for two thousand years.

R

emaining too long
absent from
your own world.
- -
 

T
here have been
some
who
became lost in their desire to explore other worlds, to the
neglect of their home world.
 
Of these
persons
little can be said, for
most
have been lost to the ages. 
But
it is well known that the Fates have much in store for us in these little l
ives of ours
;
it is not meet
that we should forget the lands of our birth.

~
168
~

Chapter 15

The Enlightened

H

igh up in the mountains above the Persian cit
tie
of Astrábád, where the deep brown hills meet the river Attuk, the people called the Zelaznids came to settle. 
And
from
th
at place,
they vanish
ed
, chased from the
world
by the armies of the sultan.  None
know
the fate of these people. 
Perhaps a
nother portal will open
one day
,
through which
the Zelaznids
will
return. 
Or
it may be that their like will never again be seen in this world.  To be sure, no people have
served the cause of knowledge as well
as
the
Zelaznids
.  Would that they
had
remained
with us
longer
,
to
reveal more wonders from this and other worlds
.

U

ntil
now
, the Zelaznids
have
bor
ne
the
chief
responsibilitie for
passing on the 
knowledge of ports and portals. 
But
they have not been alone.  Alexander knew not of the
Zelaznids;
neither did
the great
Euclid, Eratosthenes,
nor
Archimedes.  Emlyn and Leonardo carried on without such knowledge, and we may be sure that Nostradame kne
w of no such people
.
  Yet all of these knew the secrets of ports and portals.

     N
o
w
that
the Zelaznids
no
longer
live
in this world,
the burden
falls
upon
us
;
we must
give a sense of
their accomplishments to the world
.  We
are unable to
instruct
the reader
fullie
in the ways of ports and portals
, but the ideas of the Zelaznids must survive.  T
his treatise
does not
contain
all of their wisdom, but it is
a beginning.

D

id Majumin know what Fate would bring when he led
his people
from the desert?
  Who can say?
  Zelaznu, it
is known
,
spoke
of his own sense of revelation upon meeting those otherworlders for the first time.  He knew that his world had changed.

     
When Qutughai received his commission to serve in the distant Takla Makan,
could he have imagined the
trials
that
lay in store for him, or how beloved he would become in the eyes of the people he
was
meant
to subdue? 

    
Did Abdul Hazred,
while search
ing
for the
Cittie of Pillars in
the Roba El Khaliyeh, know that he would one day find his true familie? 

    
When Lakku
led
his people from the village of Sang-e, did he know that the
y would never
again
call
that
place
home
?

    
Was Hooshyar aware that
he would
perish for the salvation of the Zelaznids?

    
Th
ere
is no one
who
holds the
answer
s. 
We
can but convey
what
we know
. 
We are called to do so by He who made
all
worlds
, and we must obey the call.

A

s
one voice,
the
whispers
of time enjoin us to speak. 
T
hose of us who hold the truth in our hearts have spoken it
, recalling th
ose who have fallen
;
countless Zelaznid brothers have perished for the truth, as
did he who
first
sought to bring this storie to light.
[131]

    
C
ome what may, we have told all that we know.  May the Fates treat us well for it in their
mercie.
- -

~
168
~

Bibliography

Alhazred, Abdul. 
Necronomicon
, Olaus Wormius, trans.
1666.

Barsoum, M.W., A. Gnaguly, and G. Hug.
  Microstructural Evidence of Reconstituted Limestone Blocks in the Great Pyramids of Egypt.” 
Journal of the American Ceramic Society
, Vol.89,
Issue
12 (November 2006): 3788-3796.

Berossus and Manetho.
 
Berossus and Manetho, Translated and Introduced: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt
, Gerald P. Verbrugghe & John M. Wickersham,
trans
. 
University of Michigan Press, 2001.

Clapp, Nicholas. 
The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands
.
 
Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

Eaton, George.  “Maid
of Mars
: Speculations on the
Origins
of Joan of Arc’s Military Knowledge.” 
2007
(unpublished)
.

Epic of Gilgamesh
, Benjamin R. Foster,
trans
.  W.W. Norton & Co., 2001.

Ferguson, Paul-Thomas.
A Life in Chiaroscuro
.
 
Dark Highlands, 2008.

Galip, Seyh. 
Beauty and Love
, Victoria Rowe Holbrook,
trans
. 
MLA, 2005.

Grann, David. 
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
.
 
Doubleday, 2009.

Huda, Ikraam. 
Earlie Days in the Light
.
  R.C. Pubs., 1816.

__________.
What Remains Unseen
.
R.C. Pubs., 1828.

Lovecraft, H.P. 
History of the Necronomicon.
  1938.

Misner, C.W., K.S. Thorne, and J.A. Wheeler.
 
Gravitation
, 2
nd
ed
.  W.H. Freeman, 1973.

Verses
.
R.C. Pubs, 1818.

Weber, Friedrich Christian. 
The Present State of Russia, Volume 2: Journal of Laurence Lange’s Travels to China
.
 
W. Taylor, 1723.

The Works of Gildas and Nennius
.
  James Bohn, 1861.

~
168
~

About the Author

     Paul-Thomas Ferguson is a poet, singer-songwriter, playwright, and novelist.
 
He is the author of
A Life in Chiaroscuro
,
a
historical
novel
set in 1904 Milwaukee.  Other works include: several published poems
;
One Cool Cat
,
the debut
CD
from
his band, Cthulhu Ferguson;
and
The Scottish Play: A Travesty
, a one-act comedy
,
written
with Traci Davis and Jeremy Koester.

     Dr. Ferguson
works a
s
a full-time archivist for an inter
national corporation and
is
a
part-time
history professor
at
a pri
vate university.  He holds a Ph.D.
in U
.
S
.
, Urban, and Middle Eastern History
and
a
n
M.A.
in Medieval History from Marquette University
, and
a B
.A.
in European History
from Western Illinois University.

    
He is currently working
on
:
his
second
full-length
novel,
Vishnu Springs
; a stage musical based on Jack the Ripper
; a textbook about the history of sports and recreation
;
a series of vintage-style radio plays,
and several other projects
.

     H
e lives in Rock Island, Illinois with his wife and their cats.