Celer - Gems III (2024)

From Will Long:

“My first encounter was 5 years ago, at Isle Royale. At a certain depth, we had found masses - thick, large sheets of copper weighing up to many tons, set inside “rooms” deep in the vertical shafts, and which typically could be taken away in chunks, or as a whole. We used black powder to loosen the ore, and hoist it up to the surface in wooden buckets. There were at least 5 of us at the base of the shaft, or along the lower winzes.”

“And where did you first encounter this “phenomenon”, as you call it?”

“It was at Nacimiento, on the 3rd day of our excavation. We had just found a large mass in a large room that resembled a rotunda, and there were 3 of us in the room, after the others had ascended with the opening load, which had been at the “doorway” to the room, as we later discovered. What lay inside covered the entire southern wall, roughly 20 feet wide, and 35 feet high. When we entered the room, our candles made the walls glow, brilliant like sunlight. Immediately we began work, as it seemed to be one entire sheet against the far southern wall. We planned to break it into vertical pieces, chipping away at the sides to pry it from the wall, as we had done previously when we encountered it at earlier depths.

But on the 3rd hit with the pike, the entire wall face shattered, almost as if it turned instantly to ash, and disintegrated at our feet, though with hardly anything left but a cold blast of wind, and a cloud of almost-vaporous mist covering the room, which dissipated quickly, and completely, in about 2 minutes. With the crash, all of our candles had gone out. We called to each other, and gathered near the doorway, and relit our candles. At that very instant, the entire room lit up, upon hitting the light, in an blinding deep blue light, but upon further examination, consisting of hexagonal crystals, blocky, crudely formed mosaics, sparkling from light in every direction, completely covering the wall behind where the copper wall had stood moments before.

In addition, I felt an instantaneous change in my physical being. I would say that suddenly, despite the altitude, I could breathe so clearly, I felt no pain anywhere in my body, and any hint of fear, regret - whether past or present - was existent. Everything completely disappeared, and I was left in a nearly perfect state of being. I felt acceptance of everything, and protection, as if by the stars themselves.”

“Any what happened when you extracted the ore?”

“It disintegrated with a change in depth, and the color completely vanished upon exposure to sunlight. The feeling, whether related or not, also never returned. But I still remember the color. The Madonna’s mantle in Raphael's Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints, is the closest I have seen. And since that day, I stare at a reproduction of this painting for hours, unwilling to break eye contact, and attempt to experience that feeling again.”