A Leather Shell filled with Apprising Flesh

The front title of the tome itself reads:

"​ Nothing: Bound within a leather shell filled with apprising flesh. "

Even ​Cado's ​eyes begin strain just looking at the symbols found within the next page. Still, she can make out a lot more than most could. It appeared that the author was curiously trying to link Nothing with every single aspect he could find, all while simultaneously linking various aspects together in a nonsensical fashion. Water with Fire, Air with Earth, Light with Dark, etc.

A few aspects were unknown to her, but the total formula looks unfinished. A few straight lines lead to single unknown aspect: It resembles two crescents facing the opposite direction, linked together with a single squiggly line. This symbol was, conversely, used to link every single one of the contradicting symbols.


Scrawled on the page next to all the formulas are a few actual words.

​ "All is one, one is all. Then how can we be Nothing if Nothing is nothing at all?" ​

​ "What lies ahead is a bowl. In this bowl there is Nothing. But if there is Nothing in the bowl, does that mean that there is nothing? If Nothing is nothing, then how can Nothing still be something?" ​

A crude sketch of a bowl is drawn, containing several apples with holes bore through them; resembling the symbol of Nothing.

Cado notices the 'Nothing' symbol blink towards her, like a bulging eye. The next page shows yet another series of contradicting formulas. This time with Nothing drawn in the center of a large diagram, surrounded by various circles that were all intricately linked to one another with Nothing in the center.

The symbols are all haphazardly scrawled around the symbol, with them all eventually leading to the same bizarre symbol that was described in the last page. Cado hears voices read the words to her, should she try reading them herself. The same voices that she recalls from the manor; voices of children, women, and men all speaking in unison. The letters all seem to dance around the page, forming the string of words below.

"​ Let us say causality applies to Nothing. That would mean there would be Anything. If Nothing is intangible, then wouldn't that make Anything tangible? Let us say that my bowl is instead filled with Anything. What does it mean to have a bowl of Anything? It would be tangible, but what would Anything be? ​

​ Nothing is...Something. ​

Beneath this line is the symbol of Nothing, tied into the aforementioned symbol.


Cado skips off to the next page to find that Nothing and it's two were linked to each other. Both form a spiraling series of arrows that reach a circle depicting the symbol of a man. The symbol briefly melts into a black wax, which bubbles about to reveal a pallid mask. The mouth of the mask seems to move as the voices continue reading to her.

​ "Nothing...is...(A Fyrian symbol is drawn here. The make-up of the symbol briefly reshapes itself, with various lines of ink dancing freely along the page: ​ The Warden ​) ​

A large, blank space is here. It appears dried. Perhaps...invisible ink? It was common for a Thaumaturge to be paranoid enough to hide their own writing from unwanted eyes.


"If Nothing would be someone, then what would that entail? Would they be Nothing? This is a question even I ask myself, yet, if someone were ​ Anything​, the answer is simple... They would be everything. Would have anything. They could do everything, Anything, and Nothing. ​ Nan."


Still, the voices speak whatever word Cado reads. The next page was actually a literal mural sketched out between all the pages, depicting:

Sidd, the Monkey King. Sidd is standing upon a large staff, cross armed and staring down upon a hooded figure. A few animals are found beneath the staff, staring ahead. Sidd, as stated before, is essentially the orient's equivalent of Vyzmara; a deific figure that's said to act as a safeguard to life and also the one to assist it into the afterlife.

The cloaked man was on his knees, looking over a large patch of roses, hands clapped in front of him as if pleading for some form of mercy. Initially it looked as if he was looking towards Sidd, but further inspection indicates that the man is actually staring up towards a completely blank portion of the page, with the symbol of nothing drawn there in place of the moon. Text is written beneath the symbol.

"Only through my eternal suffering of atonement may I cleanse myself of this sin."

Cado, having studied vampires as a part of her studies into motion, may recall this single quote being referred to in the staple vampiric text. It is said that the entity that granted the vampires such a curse was the one responsible for stating this.

 "He spoke to Nothing. He spoke to Someone.

The next page:

 Mu-Nan (Written alongside two Fyrian characters.)

This is the word written in bold ink at the top. Initially, everything is blank. The pages are crinkled similarly to the space that Cado had seen before, yet the letters all seem to...bubble. A black, sludgy wax briefly oozes from the book's pages. It seeps back in, revealing what was hidden?

" Mu , the box of Nothing. Is written above an arrow pointing at the box.

 Nan the key to Anything  Is written above an arrow gesturing towards the key.

A diagram is drawn; the same odd, black cube that they received from the manor, with the same intricate looking lock. A key is found next to it, with the key splitting at the end into four sharp prongs.

" The Key to Anything is slumbering beneath the impenetrable watery wool."





A majority of the remaining pages are coated in the same sludge, blocking whatever contents that it may hide. Scratching or attempting to remove the sludge does nothing.

Once again, she hears the distinctive cacophony of voices with every word she reads. Of men, women, and children all melded into an unholy din.


The first page after the gooped up muck is yet another complex formula. This one appeared to have three circles for Nothing, all linked towards the symbol for a human. A massive variety of symbols are linked about together beneath the human symbol, she'd be able to pick out: Flesh, gravity, weight.

"Nothing is Someone. If someone were us, the rock becomes mud and drowns us beneath the crust, 'till we fall below the impenetrable wool.


The next page actually links the same aforementioned symbol found in the last few pages; the pair of curved, sickle-like blades connected to a zig-zagged line. It is connected with the symbol for time; yet another very coveted symbol Thaumaturges world wide have always wanted to properly harness. The symbol for time is yet again, linked to the symbol of man.

"Love is but a fickle thing. It drives us to find what is real and unreal. If Anything were real, then the veil that hides the secrets to mortality would be cut, leaving everything to fall within our hands."


After this it's only a matter of journal entries.


Entry 1

"My dear Mai's condition only worsens as time goes on. At this rate, glass would make better bones than what she has now. Just today she tripped while trying to leave her seat, and that alone was enough to shatter her shin. Slippy has been taking as much care of Mai as she can while I conduct my research. Fortunately my findings have been a bit...fruitful, to say the least. Perhaps there is something in Nothing...if the law of causality is to apply, it wouldn't matter if Mai were to die. Or if everyone did, for that matter. Anything is the key.

"I think it's starting to get to me. The sound of...Nothing. It's starting to grow painful. The silence of it all is driving me crazy. I've decided to set up a music player in my room so that I can keep myself in touch while I conduct my research."


Entry 2

"Bells are fastened to the ceiling now. The silence...it hurts. Numbs my mind. I swear I can hear voices when I don't have music or sound nearby..and the place that Slippy set up. I'm far too fearful to investigate what lies beyond that door, not to mention what hides within the shadows. The eyes."

Mais condition still worsens. I keep her in a bedroom on the first floor so that she doesn't have to go down stairs when she wants to go outside. Separated from my research lab, though. She must keep far, far away. If she were to find Nothing..."


Entry 3

"The earth has become mud. I am sinking into the pool of ignorance. My head pounds at my own ideas, yet I must find Anything. I keep her favourite music playing constantly. The bells. The bells toll and keep away the silence. Silence is bad, it lures him. Lures the warden."

"Who did he cry to? Why did the Architect -- the strongest and most mysterious of all the known Gods, beg for mercy?

Entry 4

"Big, large man in the chamber of Nothing. Dressed in black shroud, mane of boneless limbs and winking orbs. Left as soon as eyes peered upon him."

"Dislike research. It's causing a dissonance in the balance of things. Gods frown upon disarray. Mai is weak. Could hardly say my name."

Entry 5

"He's watching. Waiting. While nothing is happening, Nothing comes. Every time I look back during my research, I see his eyes staring through the crack of my doorway. Every time silence happens, I hear his footsteps."

"I heard a scraping sound from upstairs. Found a large scratch in the attic...is this who Sidd spoke of? Is this the reason why imbalance is so despised?"


Entry 6

"He grows closer. The winking orbs blink and stare. The boneless limbs reach for every second of silence. The Warden knows."

Entry 7
(Scribbled in a nearly illegible manner.)
mai.

forgive me please

goodbye mai i love you