The Queen of Cats

Interlude 6: Old Wounds

Dear J.W.K.

I still haven't found the missing link you're looking for, but it seems I've found the source. This is undoubtedly how the secret got passed along. I found a copy of this in Fisk's hotel room. He's presumed dead by the people here. Some other sleepy American town with a lot of dead cattle and an even deader man with a body stashed somewhere here. Or he up and left without his clothes, car, credit-cards, cell-phone, passport and any other kind of authorization.

No sign of the cat you asked about, although one of the residents, a girl of about nine, saw a cat matching your description doing what it did in the old man's house. Licking the window, pale eyes, the lot. The source's name is Lilly Mallow, in case you're still keeping track of all this.

Anyway, the original of this document is supposedly in a Jesuit monastery in Portugal.

Keep in touch.

And please DD my salary for the month.

King.

(the following message is translated from the original Portuguese. Wire an additional $43)

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Dear Father Santos,

The British are pushing us back. We are steadily losing whatever foothold we managed to eke out in Madras.

So, our efforts to pursue more ethnographic information is slowly winding to a close. We have almost finished surveying the area you assigned to us for the survey and we are closing with these final few details.

The majority of the tribes lining the east Madras presidency are scattered across a strangely diverse geographical landscape. The ruling dynasty, of whom you must have heard a lot, is often unable to bring these tribes under his control during times of war, even though they are still technically his subjects.

And it is here that most of the material concerning your cause can be found. The majority of these tribes worship bastardizations of the more urban regional deities. Some others worship the forest and the trees and the winds, similar to the Chhattisgarhi tribes.

But we found one of them which could find itself a nook in your compendium.

This tribe, which goes by the name Samayadharmika, resides in a cut-off little region towards the central south east. They are, in most respects, a very regular Adivasi tribe. They collect forest produce, hunt, fish and perform menial labour for the urban centres in exchange for food and fuel.

But their worship patterns are the most unique ones we've encountered in the south, perhaps even in the whole of India.

They worship a conceptual deity. One which cannot be represented by anything tangible. In this way, they seem much more advanced than the regular tribes here, who all seem to worship different sorts of idols established by the local intellectuals.

This god, or concept of god, goes by a name which can be roughly translated to 'The Eye Beyond Time', although the tribesmen vehemently state that even that name is only a very rough estimation of it's true essence.

There is a clear distinction in the tribe between the common folk, and those who are (for want of a better term) enlightened.

The enlightened folk live lives set apart from the rest of the tribe who provide for them through labour.

It is job of these enlightened men and women to prepare the next wave of those enlightened. Babies are chosen when they are born, and are taken away by the enlightened to their keep, where they are nursed and cared for.

These children grow up and take the place of the ones that have gone before them. Except for one.

The rituals and rites, and even the selection process, are coordinated by the mouthpiece of The Eye Beyond Time. This figure is called The Fly King, in case the selected child is male, or The Cat Queen, if female.

This mouthpiece would be the ruler of the tribe, and the sole being in communication with the Eye Beyond Time.

The technicalities involve the selection of the future mouthpiece, done by the preceding mouthpiece, who would then pass the soul of the victim through to The Eye Beyond Time. The Eye, a senseless being beyond thought and expression would randomly pass her through the fires of time, forcing her to live the lives of her potential ancestors, until she would be brought back, through the eventual destruction of her mindscape. By herself, or to be more precise, her future self.

She would be thus freed from the shackles of time and place, and her wandering soul would be thrust into the body of a chosen cat.

She would complete her tenure and she would be absorbed into the mindscape of the next mouthpiece and so on.

This is, of course, the mythos.

In reality, it entails a kind of torture-hypnosis, forcing the victim into a delirious haze, where she is forced to systematically destroy her mind. She is somehow able to create an actual imaginary landscape of her own invention, which would then become the mindscape of the eye.

This is achieved using a kind of epileptic fit triggered using flashing light, from some form of bioluminescent moss.

The general pattern was for one of the other gender to supersede the previous one.

As of now, the current mouthpiece is a girl of about seventeen, possibly in a comatose state for the past nine years. Her soul is supposedly injected into a black cat, usually a disabled runt of the litter who is then revered and worshipped as the mouthpiece.

We have, of course, dismantled this system with most steady expedience, encouraging conversions and rejections of the old faith. The rebels have been dealt with.

The cat is now in the custody of one of our servant girls who have taken a liking to it. We tried to save the girl, but she was far beyond our care, so we euthanized her.

And so, we've completed the holy mission you've set out before us, with as much care and precision as we could muster in these difficult times.

Hoping we will reach you safely without British interference en-route.

Carlos and team.   

A massive reveal, wasn't it? I'm sure you detectives can figure out at least part of this vast, labyrinthine puzzle I've built around myself (for some strange reason). I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know if it was too dry. I'll definitely try to fix it in the edit if it is. 

You guys are the best. Please do comment.