In the small laboratory on the top floor of the Edge Library frequently used by Elena Rosenkreuz, covered in many small pitch black shelves holding various trinkets, Elena stood once more at the dirtied wooden table in the middle covered in vials and scattered research papers in her favourite red robe which bore the insignia of Maj'Dul's Court of Truth.
There was a sudden knock on the door. "Come in!", Elena said loudly as she scribbed down notes. Maati rushed into the room in the black caped attire for which she was famed, closing the door hastily behind her.
"Maati, you look exhausted. What's wrong?", Elena said with confusion in her tone.
"Have you met the white haired Ayr'Dal that arrived here shortly after Raika did? Scar on her forehead, has a claw for a left hand?", Maati asked curiously.
"I've seen her around, yeah. I haven't spoken to her though, why?", Elena replied.
"She calls herself "Ketera"."
"Ketera?!", Elena exclaimed in shock.
"She had a bundle of documents that she was reading through in the inn. Poking out of her backpack with a copy of Lyresmith's Poetry Collection, I spied another indentical looking bunch of papers.", Maati stated calmly, catching her breath.
"Did you get a chance to look at them at all?", Elena asked.
"No, I didn't ask. It only occured to me after she had gone up to her inn room.", Maati answered as her breathing became more steady.
"That those two bundles of papers were....?"
"...copies of the Ketera Manuscript.", Maati replied. "She called herself a "postlady". She admitted to trying to create a predestination paradox and that she was here of her own free will."
"Did she say what era she's from?", Elena asked.
"No. I haven't a clue. She didn't say. Although she did say that she knew me from when she had come from, but it wasn't in the best interests of her or the one for whom she's doing deliveries to give any details. I've never met her before, so all I can assume is that I meet her again at some point in my future when I return to Norrath."
"Do you suppose that we're through the looking glass?", Elena replied, her eyes widening.
"Exactly my point. I think that we're close to the source.", Maati answered sagely. "The first copy of the Ketera Manuscript appeared shortly after the first Rallosian War around 4600 A.N. From there, it's passed from owner to owner who saw it's contents as little more than fairy tale. Through the ages, a handful of copies were made which too faded into the shadows. Around 5372 A.N, a second copy, which is said to be an exact match in handwriting to the original, emerges. Some say that there is only one original to begin with and that the second is a myth, but conflicting sources point to the existance of two seperate originals on opposite sides of the world. Both documents appear out of nowhere, apparently written by the same author."
Elena paused for a moment, pondering. "If we are to assume that the "Ketera" that is currently staying here IS the author the the Ketera Manuscript, she must be intending to wait here until somebody here hires a gate weaver to take them back to the era that Ketera wants to travel to, and drop the manuscripts off."
"But there are two.", Maati responded. "Either she is planning on making a return trip here to drop off the second one in a different era, or she is going to give the document to somebody else travelling there and counting on the fact that the effect that she hopes to create has already happened or is about to happen in the era from which she has just came and that her document must logically reach it's intended recipient. My advice. Keep a close eye on anyone who pays you to gate weave until Ketera leaves the island. Also, take careful note of what eras people are travelling to, and listen out for people traveling to the ages of Blood and Turmoil. There are other gate weavers aside you that might create the portals that Ketera ends up using , so we have no guarantee of finding out how Ketera's endevours turn out, but we can at least try and get some answers."
Elena nodded. "I understand. Tell me, Maati. Have you ever read a Ketera Manuscript before, original or copy?
"No...", Maati replied, shaking her head. "...I've heard only whispers. Stories woven throughout time."