Chapter 6

Sometime in October 1899, Enting Morrow and Stefan Peronius Parsons reached the tiny hamlet of Aldbrec, in northern Norway. Their arrival caused much excitement in a remote part of the country, unaccustomed  to strangers. However the people of Aldbrec’s curiosity was remarkably short lived. Within a few hours the atmosphere in the small village had turned decidedly frosty; people shied away from the odd pair and every door that Morrow and Parson knocked at seeking accommodation remained firmly closed. Were the people of Aldbrec so unused to strangers that hospitality was an entirely alien concept to them? Or did these simple people sense some malevolent aura surrounding the  Occultists which made them naturally fearful? Whatever the answer, Morrow and Parsons had no choice but to leave the now silent hamlet;they began their trek to Aldehain, the mysterious wall, whose secrets they had come so far to unravel.

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That night the two Englishmen sat within a Circle of Invocation which they had drawn in the soil. Beside them a small fire had been lit. In front of them loomed the ancient wall. Both stared in silence at it’s ancient bricks as shadows from the fire played across it’s surface. The next day dawned to find the fire dead, and both men still focused on the wall. By the  following night the men were so deep in their meditation the cold Norwegian air had ceased to matter to them. For days they stayed like this, undisturbed and unmoving. On the evening of the fourth day a villager from Aldbrec, apparently curious to see what the two strangers were doing, followed the path to the old wall. Before he could get close to where the men were sat however, he found  his path blocked by three mountain wolves. The wolves, unusual to be found in the lowlands at this time of year, bared their teeth but did not advance on the villager, who quickly turned tail and ran back to Aldbrec. He would later tell those interested that the wolves seemed to be protecting the ‘manneske djevels’  (devil men ) up at Aldehain.

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On the eighth day, Morrow and Parsons simultaneously emerged from their trance; they had found the secret of the wall, learnt what magic made it impervious to the ravages of time - Aldehain was a moonlight wall, and it’s power came not from the wall but from the bricks themselves.

Their work done, the men rose and headed down the hill. As they passed through the deserted streets of Aldbrec they stopped off momentarily at the towns water well in the main square to fill their water flasks. Parsons made a hand gesture over the well, and the pair then moved off, watched from behind half closed shutters by the villagers.

Less than a week later Enting Morrow and Stefan Peronius Parsons arrived back in London. At the same time a typhoid epidemic broke out in Aldbrec. Fourteen men, women and children succumbed to the terrible disease  which seemed to have originated from the towns well.