1887: The Whispers Begin
The air in the Valley of Whispers thickened that year, not with mist, but with anticipation. Father Silas, a man carved from granite and sorrow, arrived, carrying with him not just holy texts, but a profound sadness - a resonance, almost, of the forgotten. He was tasked with confronting the lingering echoes of the "Shattering," a cataclysm that had rent the very fabric of the Valley centuries before. The villagers, descendants of those who had witnessed the event, spoke of a 'grey sickness' that clung to the land, a sickness not of the body, but of the soul. Accounts varied, fragmented like shattered glass, yet a common thread persisted: a recurring image of a colossal, obsidian bird, its wings blotting out the sun. Silas began his novena, not as a plea for forgiveness, but as a desperate attempt to *understand*. The initial days were marked by unsettling dreams – visions of a swirling vortex, choked with the screams of the lost. He recorded his observations in a journal bound in human skin (a detail he vehemently denied to the local constable, Mr. Hemlock), detailing the increasing intensity of the 'resonance'. He believed the key lay within the geological formations - the ancient basalt columns seemed to vibrate with a low, mournful hum.
October 27th, 1887
1888: The Obsidian Mirror
By 1888, Silas had unearthed a subterranean chamber, a perfectly smooth obsidian surface reflecting distorted images of the past. He called it the 'Mirror'. The Mirror didn’t simply show images; it *pulled* at the viewer's memories, amplifying their regrets, their fears, their deepest sorrows. Silas, despite his rigorous training, found himself consumed, his journal entries becoming increasingly erratic. He began to speak in archaic phrases, his eyes glazed with a unsettling light. Local legend spoke of a 'Keeper' associated with the Mirror, a being of pure shadow that fed on psychic energy. The villagers, terrified, began to avoid Silas, whispering that he had become a conduit for the Shattering. His assistant, a young apprentice named Elias, attempted to intervene, but Silas, convinced he was on the verge of a breakthrough, dismissed him with a chillingly dismissive wave of his hand. Elias, convinced Silas was losing his mind, left, carrying with him a single, tarnished silver locket – a memento of his grandmother who had perished during the Shattering. The last entry in Silas's journal reads, "The bird sings...it calls me home."
December 12th, 1888
1892: The Silence
Twenty-five years after Silas’ disappearance, the Valley remained unchanged. The villagers had accepted his fate, a tragic footnote in their history. However, a team of paranormal investigators, led by the flamboyant Dr. Alistair Finch, arrived, driven by rumours of a ‘temporal anomaly’. Finch, armed with a complex array of instruments, detected a significant energy fluctuation emanating from the site of Silas’s chamber. His findings – a complex network of electromagnetic fields and a disturbing lack of residual psychic energy – baffled him. The silence, Finch realised, wasn’t a void, but a carefully constructed barrier. He discovered that the novena, executed with unwavering faith, had inadvertently created a ‘psychic lock’, preventing further intrusion. He left a single white rose on Silas’s grave, a silent acknowledgement of the valley’s enduring sorrow. A cryptic note was also left behind: "The echoes will always remain, but the song is finally silent."
June 5th, 1892
Notes on the Novena
The Lawen Novena, as recited by Father Silas, was a complex ritual designed not to appease a deity, but to establish a connection with the ‘residual consciousness’ of the Valley. It consisted of twelve days of prayer, meditation, and the recitation of ancient verses – verses that, according to local folklore, were originally composed by the inhabitants of the Valley before the Shattering. The core of the novena focused on acknowledging the suffering of the lost and attempting to ‘harmonize’ their energies with the present. The specific wording of the verses is lost to time, but scholars believe they incorporated elements of pre-Shattering languages, possibly a dialect of proto-Celtic. The silver locket, Elias's grandmother's, was said to have acted as a focal point for the ritual, amplifying the psychic resonance. The most intriguing aspect of the novena was its apparent ability to manipulate temporal perception – a phenomenon that remains largely unexplained.