The Folio - part 1

“There’s no time. We must go!” one of the guards cried.

Darkness filled the temple as the five finished cutting the folio. With a blessing from the high priest they vowed never to meet again, and never to reassemble to works. It had come to this. The once honored guards of secrets were willfully banished under pain of death. They would run to the corners of the earth and hide. With any luck, they would not have to take their secrets to the grave with them. They were to each take on an apprentice and teach them the full body of their suit.

One by one they left the temple with a small body of personal guardians. They fled Memphis by cover of night, and with the fastest horses in Egypt they raced away; four of them carrying 13 sheets of the folio, and the fifth with the small box and 2 more sheets. They would need all their years of training and experience to survive the travels. Each of them a master of his art. Each of them equally as powerful as any other sear in the known world. Each of them a master of centuries old teachings.

Unfortunately, the five were not the only people alive who understood the power of the folio. Its contents had become legendary, and its possession had spurned many wars. The peoples of the sea had tried to take it by force three times, and Nubians had attempted it also, and were almost successful. There was also a rumor that a witch from the ancient days had made a copy of it. If that were true, her students, if they knew how to use it, would be almost as powerful as the five. No one knows if she ever finished the copy, or where she fled to. Some say Britannia, others say south into the jungle of the south, still others wonder if she followed the great Median highway through the mountains to the land of the Tao.

Now, the Order faced a threat like none they had ever seen before. The hoards from the East were on the march in numbers that shook the Earth. They destroyed, ate and conquered every piece of land they crossed. It was reported that even glorious Babylon submitted to their rule. The great army was only two days march from the temple. They had already crossed the sea, and camped just across the Great River. Their power crazy, blood thirsty king wanted it all. He was to be the ruler of all the world. Two days march. Only two days separated the folio from the Persian.

The five had called a secret meeting of the entire Order into the caves below the temple. They organized a plan to give the Mad King exactly what he wanted. They only prayed that he would take the bait. They would turn over the entire library to the king, except the folio. Without it, the rest of the works were nothing more the ancient logs and histories. The remaining members of the high Order would teach the king and his advisers all the traditions and customs of the Old Kingdom. They would buy time for the five to find their way past the armies scouts and out to the corners of the world. They knew that if they were found out they would surely face torture and death.

So, the five fled, while others stayed, all to protect the ancient teachings that Isis herself had graced upon the Egyptian priests from the beginning of time. Egypt would fall, but they would save all mankind from a mad king wielding the most potent weapon known to man. And they knew that it would cost the lives of many brave men to do it. No one would know where the five would flee to. No one outside the Order would know about the plan at all. It had to be that way. The Persians had there scouts and spies spread into every crack and corner, searching for that small scroll.

It’s been nearly one thousand years since that night. For almost a millennium the folio had been lost, the five have been hiding, and the world has not seen the magic from ancient Egypt. Countless wars had been fought. New religions had started. Great powers had risen to their heights, only to crash down into oblivion. Persia, Greece, Rome, all came and gone. No longer was Egypt the focus of spiritual studies. Mecca had become a powerful stronghold for the followers of Mohammad. Jerusalem still mourned the destruction of their once glorious temple and kingdom. Ravaged by centuries worth of wars fought in the name of gods, and conquerors. Rome was not what it once was. Now its glory was matched by Constantinople, and many other great cities, London, Paris, Nineveh.
The world had gotten much bigger. Some say that the Norsemen had sailed past the edge of the sea to the west and returned. Others have returned from traveling to the east with stories of a golden island. The Folio had been lost for one thousand years, but it had not been silent all that time. No, the great folio of Isis had been anything but silent through the centuries. Never reassembled, but never silent.