Clearing the mistakes

     What AMPHIS had just said didn't register... He stood there, staring at us expectantly, as though we were meant to understand and accept what he had said straight away...

"I'm sorry... What did you say?"

"The End mentioned in the book! It's not a time! I mistranslated it! It's a place!"

Nope, still wasn't registering...

"How do you mean 'it's a place'?"

"Yesterday, when I translated it, a lot of the Latin I was unsure of; I'm not entirely fluent in Latin, so some of the pieces I couldn't make out, I interpreted based on the rest of the translation. But it's a place. The End is an actual, physical place!"

"How do you know? If you're not sure about the translation, how can you be sure about this assumption?"

"You remember that one line I translated and told you? 'The beginning of the End is near. It is but a short time until they are here'... It turns out parts of that were wrongly translated. Instead, it translates to 'We are close to The End. When we see them, I know we are close.'..."

"That's a massive change to what you thought it was though!"

"It doesn't matter, I'll explain when everyone is together. Can you go and get them, please?"

We moved passed AMPHIS to fetch the others to meet in the discussion room. UOPETA and THEROS went to the lab to tell Amie, OROTHO, Joe and COLUS, whilst I went to fetch THEXIS from the library. Unlike AMPHIS, I found THEXIS at the top, sitting at one of the desks working hard on a report of some kind. I told him about AMPHIS' breakthrough, and he looked at me quizzically...

"What do you mean? I thought AMPHIS had already taken us through it? I thought we already knew the contents of that book...?"

It seemed that AMPHIS had misinterpreted the initial translation, and after a second attempt, and after referring to the collection of works in the library, he had peeled away the final layers of the mystery, revealing what he thought was the true meaning.

"I see... Tell him I'll be with you shortly. I just need to finish up here..."

I went back to the discussion room to find that everyone else had already assembled around the desk. AMPHIS asked me where THEXIS was, and I told him that he would be with us shortly.

"Right then, AMPHIS. Take us through this breakthrough of yours..."

     AMPHIS explained to everyone about the mistake in the translation and assumptions he had made, and explained how he had come to this new realisation.

"So you actually believe this whole thing involving The End is actually a place...? Well how does that tie in with the portals?"

"From what I can assume, there are portals which allow these End Men to travel between The End and our world... I still don't know whether this refers to the portals we have seen and destroyed though..."

"If that were the case, then surely what we know as the Nether would be The End...? We didn't see any creatures fitting that figure in the Nether when we went through the portal to retrieve some glowing stone..."

"True... That would certainly support the idea that these creatures don't make use of the portals we know of..."

"What creatures! All we have to go on is a book god only know's how old, written by an anonymous fruitcake about some random beings that look like stickmen, and live in an alternate dimension! How are we basing any of this on fact?"

"Look at what we're dealing with right now OROTHO. Portals, Creepers, giant spiders and the undead... You really think we have the ability to say what is real and what is not any more? When we first heard that HoN Co. was actually training miners to find portals for them, we would likely have laughed at whoever had told us! Now look! We're fighting against the very people we worked for, trying to stop them from potentially destroying all life on the planet by activating a portal buried beneath a huge tower designed to conduct lightning! If you heard all of that for the first time, you'd think it was the plot of an upcoming film or book! We can't afford to assume anything is less than what we're told, without enforcing it with evidence... You of all people should know that..."

OROTHO and the rest of the room went very quiet... Attention was drawn back to AMPHIS however, when COLUS continued with the questions.

"What does this mean then?"

"Well, it means panic over about HoN Co. releasing the end of the world if they activate the master portal. Although, that's still a possibility based on the original outcome. However, it does mean that there are more hidden secrets and mysteries out there that have yet to reveal themselves. If and when they do, we need to be ready... There is no information about the behaviour or allegiances of these End Men, so they should be a potential threat if seen... Although I doubt we're ever likely to see one..."

"Why not?"

"Those ancient beings I spoke of. I verified that these End Men are the ancient beings... Why would the book reference them in this way if they were still here...?"

A very good point indeed. COLUS told us all to get some rest, and be ready for another hard day of mining tomorrow. Judging from the amount of iron we've collected already, we're close to already constructing the tunnel supports and security doors. Then we can get back to unveiling HoN Co.!

Syeonyx signing off