The Altar of Pergamon

PART I BEGINNINGS

Ariel Herzog comes home and puts the manuscript in the top drawer of his home office desk. Over the next few days he keeps taking it out, staring at it, trying to explain the man's visit and his cryptic story. That goes on for about a week. Then one evening, while watching the news, he sees a report about a strange homicide. A man has plunged to his death from the forty-second floor of a hotel in central Manhattan. Police suspect homicide because of a forced entry and a violent struggle. They found a picture of the man among his papers, and it appears in the news story. "No!" Ariel says to himself. "No." It is him, the man who gave him the page.

Ariel had not believed the man's story. He wrote off his talk of "them" coming for him as paranoia. But now the danger the man spoke of is real. So perhaps the existence of those he warned about is real too. The man believed they were trying to stop him. Apparently they were. And they are dangerous enough to throw a man to his death from a highrise in New York City.

How much more of his story is true? If there is an organized network committed to keeping the book or the page from being known, then for what reason? What is so critical about the book that it would warrant a man's murder? Ariel takes the page out of the drawer and stares at it. Now it seems different, as if it has a weight it did not have before. If they killed a man to stop him from giving Ariel that page, what is there to stop them from doing the same to Ariel? He checks that his apartment door is locked. He draws the curtains and scans the street for any sign of danger, of being watched. He sees nothing. The street is quiet. His apartment is just above the ground floor, not forty-two stories up. Still, there is no shortage of ways to kill a man at ground level. Finally, he turns out the lights and goes to bed. It takes hours to fall asleep.

As soon as he wakes, thoughts of how he might meet his death race through his mind again. Those who killed the man were trying to stop him from giving Ariel the page, but he gave it, and now Ariel is its possessor. That alone appears to place him in danger. On the other hand, they might not even know he exists. They may have known the man was trying to give it to someone, but that does not mean they know it was Ariel. No one actually saw him give it. As long as there is no connection between the man and Ariel, Ariel is safe, perhaps.

The following evening he notices a text from a Detective Richter, asking him to call as soon as possible. Ariel calls, and though it is after hours, the detective picks up right away. "Mr. Ariel Herzog?" "I am." "Detective Adam Richter with the New York Police Department. I'm investigating a homicide. What do you know of a Max Yildirim?" "Nothing. I've never heard of him." "We don't believe it's his real name. It's the name he was using. We believe he was murdered, pushed out of a window in his hotel room. We found a paper in his pocket, and it had your name on it and the address of a library in the city." "It had to be the library where I was giving a lecture." "On what?" "On the supernatural, rationality, and skepticism." "From what we've been able to gather, Mr. Yildirim had worked for the security forces of the Turkish government. Why do you think he would come all the way to America with your name in his pocket and the address of where you were giving that lecture?" "Maybe he thought I would say something interesting. I have no idea. Those who attend my lectures come from all over and from all backgrounds. I don't know them, and I certainly don't know their motives." "Did he speak with you?"

Ariel knows that if he says yes, he will be making his connection with the man official, and if that connection becomes known to the wrong people, it could mean his death. Further, it will lead to his being asked why the man came to see him, the giving of the manuscript. He pauses. "Nobody with that name spoke with me." What he says is technically true. The man never gave him his name. The detective does not press him. "One more question," he says. "The man was found with a note tied around his neck. I wanted to know if the words on the note meant anything to you." "What were they?" "Thieves don't live long." "I guess it sounds as if his murderers thought he had something that belonged to them and would stop at nothing to get it back." "Do you have any idea what that was?" "How could I possibly know that?" There is a good answer to that question, but Ariel does not volunteer it. "If I need to talk with you again, Mr. Herzog, and I have a feeling I may, I'll use this number to reach you." The killers pushed that man out of a window to stop a mystery from being revealed. Instead, they started Ariel on a journey that will lead him to the mystery's revelation, and to the changing of his life.

The Curator

A man is dead because of an illuminated manuscript, a page from a mysterious book hidden from the world. Ariel has to find out why. The page is an elaborate creation of artistry and calligraphy. An entire book of such pages would have involved countless hours of painstaking work. Why would anyone take the time and effort needed to produce it? The one person Ariel can think of who could possibly help him is the same person least likely to do so. He thinks she views him as something of an enemy. Her name is Lara Winter.

She is a woman of intelligence, passion, and strong convictions. She is a Christian, not by name but by conviction, a true believer who takes the Bible and her faith seriously. She belongs to an organization that posts biblical apologetics online. She is a frequent contributor, writing articles on reasons to believe and citing testimonies of healings and answered prayers. Ariel sends emails to her office inviting her or those of her organization to debate him. They never accept. He posts articles arguing against faith, specifically attacking the articles posted on that site and, more specifically, the articles she has authored. More often than not, his responses are contemptuous and derisive. Lara never attacks in response, never responds at all, nor does she ever cite his name in any of her writings. He is a thorn in her side and in that of her colleagues.

What made her really dislike him was the first time they met in person. Her organization hosts a seminar on the subject of angels, featuring testimonies of those who claim to have encountered them. The event is open to the public. Ariel decides to attend. While he is sitting in the audience, waiting for the presentation to begin, he first sees her. She is on the panel. She is young and pretty with dark, wavy hair. The format allows several opportunities for those in the audience to ask questions. He uses every one of them. He grills every witness like a cross-examination. He cross-examines each witness, looking for inconsistencies and contradictions in their testimonies, anything that would discredit their claim. "Have you ever seen a fairy?" he asks one of them. "Do you believe in fairies? Have you ever had an encounter with a pixie or a boggart?" "No," the witness says. "I don't even know what they are." "Then how," Ariel asks, "do you know that you've never encountered them? Is it possible that what you took to be an angel was actually a pixie?" He asks another, "Do you often see things? Have you ever been on medication?" Those hosting the event want to stop him but decide it is better to let him finish asking his questions than to try to silence him. When it is all over, he sees Lara from across the room, gazing at him with a troubled look on her face as if asking him, "Why?"

And now he needs her help. She works in a museum. The museum's most prominent and celebrated exhibit is of illuminated manuscripts. She is the exhibit's curator. His dilemma is that the person whose help he most needs is the one with the most reason not to give it. Despite that, he decides to take the risk. He takes for granted that the exchange will be awkward and possibly hostile but believes there is a chance she will help him. He will be extremely friendly and act as if the past never happened.

He phones the museum. They put him through to her line. "This is Lara Winter," she says. "Lara!" he says enthusiastically. "I hope you're doing great! I don't know if you remember me, but this is Ariel Herzog. We've corresponded a number of times by email." There is dead silence. "Yes, well, I could use your expertise. You see, I came across an illuminated manuscript, but I have no idea what it means. So if you could help with this, it would be..." "Yes, Mr. Herzog," she interrupts. "I certainly remember you. But my memories of you are not pleasant. Why are you calling me?" "Because I need your help. Someone gave me an illuminated manuscript, an original illuminated manuscript, and I can't figure out what it's about." "Someone gave you an original illuminated manuscript. Really? And where did they

PART II KINGDOM

The plane lands in Izmir, a port city on Turkey's Aegean coast once known as Smyrna. Herzog and Lara check into separate hotel rooms. Lara has been quiet on the flight, and Herzog suspects she is wondering whether joining him was a mistake. The next day they rent a car and drive to Bergama, the modern town sitting in the valley below the ancient ruins of Pergamon. A local man explains they can reach the acropolis by cable car or by driving up the Akropol Cad. It is a narrow winding road with steep inclines and sudden turns that some call the road of death. Herzog jokes that they are on the road of death to the Throne of Satan. Lara does not laugh. He believes she is praying.

They reach the summit in the late afternoon. The view opens into a sweeping panorama of the plain, the city below, fields and olive groves, distant mountains, and the shimmering blue of the Aegean Sea. The acropolis itself is a field of remnants, temples, walls, columns, foundations, but they have no idea how to find the Altar of Pergamon among them. A middle-aged man in a long dark coat stands watching them from a distance, then approaches and offers help. He speaks fluent English with a Middle Eastern accent. When Lara names the Altar of Pergamon, he calls it the Great Altar and offers to show it to them. He says he is not a tour guide but a custodian who watches over the site.

He leads them through the ruins, pointing out the Temple of Trajan, the Theater, the Temple of Dionysus, the Sanctuary of Athena as they pass. Then he brings them to a terrace jutting from the side of the acropolis, an open rectangular platform overlooking the valley. This, he says, is the Altar of Pergamon. In the center are the ruins of a colossal structure outlining the Altar's perimeter and the remnants of the stone stairway where the priests of Zeus once ascended to offer sacrifices. Stone blocks and column drums are scattered around. Wind gusts sweep across the terrace as Lara and Herzog gaze at the ruins.

When Herzog says what they seek is the Altar's meaning, the man surprises them by speaking the words His Throne upon the Mountain, His Altar in the Midst. Herzog demands to know how he knew those words. The man says it is his job. The confrontation sharpens: Herzog accuses him of belonging to those seeking to stop the revelation, but the man says it is quite the opposite, that he is there to stop those who would stop the revelation. Lara asks who the we are, and he answers, those who keep watch. She asks how they know he is not on the other side, and he replies that if he were there to stop them, they would already have been stopped. He knows Herzog's name without being told. When Lara asks what comes after His Altar in the Midst, she finds the phrase in her notepad: For Ages Hidden, Unearthed.

The man explains that for most of the last two thousand years the Altar was covered, hidden in the dust, buried by God. It was the coming of the Gospel into Western civilization and the pagan world that caused the Altar to be abandoned and covered in ruins. Lara says that means the Christianization of the West made Satan's Throne disappear. The man confirms it, and explains the consequence: the power of the Enemy was restrained, no longer the reigning power, no longer ruling cultures and empires as in pagan times. Then he poses the reverse question. What would happen if the Altar returned, if the Throne of Satan were uncovered, dug up? Lara answers that the darkness would no longer be restrained, the power of the Enemy no longer held back. The man says it would mean the unleashing of the power of darkness on the world, the power to reign over kingdoms, the reverse of what happened at the beginning of the age. If Christianization meant the disappearance of the Altar, its reappearance would mean the dechristianization of the West.

Herzog realizes the implication: the Altar was unearthed. The man confirms that someone came from far away, a stranger who had no idea what he was doing, and when the Throne of Satan was unearthed, everything was set in motion. That which was holding back the power of darkness was removed, and the powers of the Dark Angel were unleashed. What exactly was unleashed, the man says, is the next piece of the mystery and not for him to tell. But he reaches into his coat and hands Herzog a sheet: an illuminated manuscript in the same style and language as the first one. Another manuscript. Herzog asks if it is also stolen. The man says, apprehended. He confirms it is the second page. When Lara asks how they will know what it means, he says they will have to find out themselves. Then he walks away without looking back, saying goodbye to Mr. Herzog and Lara and offering a final word: Godspeed.

As he departs, Herzog glimpses what comes next: a castle, a television newscast, a city of domed buildings, an ancient bazaar, a room full of colored lamps, and a bearded man in a flat-topped red hat.

The Second Page and the Grand Bazaar

Back at the car, Herzog cannot process what just happened. How did the man know who they were? How did he happen to be there? How did he happen to have the page? Lara tells him to just go with it. They examine the manuscript in the car on top of the mountain. Unable to read the text, they focus on its image, a stylized castle with a large open doorway at its bottom and what appears to be a throne inside. They speculate about a king, any king connected to the Altar of Pergamon, the king of Turkey, a sultan, but nothing clicks. That night, Lara manually transcribes the words and uses a translation program on her laptop to render them into English.

At lunch the next day in a Turkish coffeehouse in Izmir, she reads him the translation. Under the picture is a title, Basileia, which means Kingdom. Then the text: The Altar Taken, The Throne Removed, The Seed Is Planted In Colder Soil, The Altar Of the Kingdom Bears Its Fruit, And the Kingdom Of the Altar Is Born. They puzzle over what kingdom and what planting of what seed. Suddenly Lara is transfixed, staring over Herzog's head, her eyes wide as if in shock. A television mounted on the wall behind him has been on the whole time, unwatched because it is in Turkish. On the screen are scenes from a Turkish bazaar. Lara says it is her dream, what was in her dream. The bazaar, the old streets, the golden lamps, all covered with arched ceilings. She insists it is the exact place, the next key, where they will find the answer. She searches for bazaars in Turkey and finds the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, matching the domed buildings of her dream. She finds flights from Izmir to Istanbul, less than an hour and a half, and calls it a divine setup. Herzog is skeptical, but it was because of a dream that Lara agreed to come with him in the first place, and they have nothing else to go on. He books two seats on a flight that same afternoon. They rush back to the hotel, pack, rush to the airport, and fly to Istanbul. On arrival they drop their luggage at the hotel and head straight for the Grand Bazaar.

The Grand Bazaar sits inside Istanbul's old walled city, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with over sixty covered streets and over four thousand shops, a maze as in Lara's dream. She tells Herzog he has to trust her and let her lead him as she did in the dream. He agrees. The bazaar is a sensory overload, Middle Eastern sights, sounds, and fragrances. Lara gives continuous commentary as they walk: the golden lamps, the ceramic plates, the rugs, the sounds of the instruments, all as in her dream. At cross streets she pauses, closes her eyes to concentrate, then turns or continues based on what she senses. Then she stops and points to a wooden door framed by two painted pillars of brown, yellow, black, and red, with a small carved eagle in the center, matching her dream. She says, He's in here. She has no idea who, but that is what she said in the dream.

Herzog knocks. The door opens to an older Turkish man with a short white beard, an aquiline nose, and thick rosy cheeks, wearing an ornately woven red vest and a fez. He asks if they are Americans, then welcomes them in as Mr. Isik. His store is a microcosm of the bazaar: golden lamps, trinkets, painted ceramic plates, bowls, vases, elaborate garments, embroidered fabrics, souvenirs, Turkish rugs, all lit by colored lamps. No one else is there. He says he usually conducts business by special appointment and asks how they heard of his store. Lara says they did not, they were just kind of led. He asks what they are looking for. Herzog asks if he deals in illuminated manuscripts, then lays the manuscript on the counter. Mr. Isik says he does not sell such things. Confused, they thank him and turn to leave. But he stops them, addressing Herzog by name. He still has something to say.

PART III FURY

Halfway through the bazaar, Herzog notices the man behind them. He tells Lara to keep walking and not look back, that the same man has been trailing them since they left the shop. They turn down a side street, duck into an alley, and watch him pass, scanning in every direction. Herzog decides to confront him directly, leaving Lara hidden and stepping into the street about thirty feet behind the stranger.

The man turns and approaches. He gives his name as Kazim Yarikan and says he works for an intelligence agency specializing in terrorism. He and his people have been following Herzog and Lara since they arrived in Bergama, tracking a homegrown organization from the region. He calls it clandestine, somewhat mystical, militant, and dangerous.

Yarikan explains that while his agency has been tracking this group, the group has been tracking Herzog and Lara. They have been watching and following their steps, and he does not know why. Maybe it is the people they have been meeting, maybe something they know or something they have. He asks if Herzog has any idea what it might be. Herzog says no, though he does have an idea. Yarikan warns that the group poses a threat to both of them, has members throughout the world, and hands over his card, telling Herzog to contact him about anything concerning. He confirms they will keep following through the bazaar, but less conspicuously. As Herzog walks away, Yarikan calls out, "Good night, Mr. Herzog."

Reunited with Lara, Herzog tells her what the man said. She asks who he is and why they need protection. Herzog says the agent did not give many details, but they can guess. Lara connects it to the ones from whom the pages were taken. Herzog believes it is more than wanting the pages back, recalling that the man who gave him the first page said the pages served the plans and purposes of the Dark One, the same ones who threw him out of a window. Lara goes quiet for the rest of the walk, looking very concerned.

Back at the hotel by taxi, they examine the page. Its color, text, layout, and stylization match the previous pages. The only thing they can make sense of is the image: a red, stylized dragon standing upright, hands outstretched, mouth open, breathing fire. Lara says it looks like medieval heraldry, something off a royal crest or coat of arms. Herzog suggests it might identify a house or dynasty. Lara thinks it stands for something deeper.

The next morning they meet for breakfast at a traditional Istanbul café. Lara has translated the text below the dragon. The title reads "Fury," and the text says: The Beast Aroused / Of Ancient Rage / The Deadly Fire Given / In Dragon's Lair / By Water's Edge / He Waits / For the River Child / To Make of Them / An End. They puzzle over it. The fire is given, not just breathed, and they do not know who the River Child is or whom he seeks to make an end of. They lack enough to know where to go next, so Herzog says they will stay in Istanbul until they do, and asks if she might have another dream. She agrees with a wry smile.

Three days later, in the middle of the night, Lara calls his room. She had a dream. She was walking through the streets of a European city, looking for something she could not name, and came to a bridge over a little river with people crossing. Pairs of white Greek or Roman statues lined the bridge. She heard a commotion, stopped in the middle, and looked over the railing. A woman on her left said, "It's coming." Then Lara saw a gigantic red dragon walking up the city street alongside the river, swaying its head, agitated, angry, raging, and speaking German. The people listened and began following it. It reached the bridge and crossed, multitudes behind it. Lara knew the most dangerous thing about the dragon was the words from its mouth. The woman beside her said, "He's coming to his home, the new dragon's lair." The dream ended.

Lara knows where they have to go: Germany, and specifically Berlin, because that is where the Altar was sent. To the bridge with the statues. Herzog checks online and finds such a place exists, the Schlossbrücke, or Palace Bridge, spanning a small river, open to pedestrians, lined with pairs of white classical statues. The next day they board a plane for Berlin, where the dragon's ancient fire is about to be revealed.

They land in Berlin, settle into their hotel, and the following day take a taxi to the site of Lara's dream. Walking along the river, Lara stops and stares. She points out the bridge and the statues, exactly as she saw them. Herzog tells her to find the place where she stood. She walks about halfway across and turns to gaze at the river and the streets lining it. Herzog joins her there. She says this is where she stood when the dragon approached and crossed, and where the woman told her the dragon was coming home. Asked whether this is the river of the River Child, she thinks so.

A woman to their left, in her early thirties, Mediterranean or Jewish looking, with long dark wavy hair, speaks up, saying she could not help overhearing their question about the Altar of Pergamon. She asks if they know where they are, and what this bridge leads to. It leads, she says, to the Altar of Pergamon. Pointing to the other side, she explains that this is Museum Island, and the Altar is contained in a museum built to house it. Lara turns to Herzog and says, "It's her," recognizing the voice from her dream.

Herzog takes a risk and asks the woman whether she is one of them, one of those who happen to be waiting in the exact places at the exact moments they arrive. She answers, "I am," and tells them to cross the bridge with her. Herzog reasons that the people they keep encountering, who know their names and their footsteps, must belong to some intelligence network or organization. They have them under surveillance and are somehow connected to the Altar. They are for them, or at least for having the mystery revealed.

The woman introduces herself as Yaira and asks about the dream. Lara tells her everything. Yaira asks if they know the Scriptures; Lara nods, Herzog says no. Yaira describes the vision in Revelation of a red dragon and a woman crowned with twelve stars, who gives birth to the Messiah. The dragon wars against her, pursues her, hunts her, and, in the Greek word used, persecutes her. She asks who the dragon is. Lara says Satan. Asked who the woman is, neither answers. Yaira says there is only one entity that gave birth to the Messiah and is still in the world: Israel, the Jewish people. Lara concludes that Satan wars against the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, pursuing and hunting them down. Herzog says that would explain a great deal about why they are the most hated and persecuted people in history. Yaira explains the dragon exists to war against the purposes of God, and the children of Israel exist to fulfill God's purposes and bear witness that God exists, so there would be war, and he would seek their destruction. Lara connects it to "To Make of Them an End." Yaira adds that if the dragon could destroy the Jewish people, he could bring God's purposes to an end.

They finish crossing into Museum Island, and Yaira leads them onto the Lustgarten, a large open area of manicured grass with a fountain at its center. Lara asks what it meant that the dragon came raging and speaking German. Yaira says the Altar is the Throne of Satan, Satan is the dragon, so the coming of a dragon represents the coming of the Altar and everything it stands for. Herzog says the coming of Satan to Germany. Yaira says the Throne of Satan to Berlin, and asks what they would expect to happen. Herzog answers something satanic. Yaira agrees, calling it a deadly combination for the Jewish people: the satanic hatred for that ancient people would focus on and indwell the nation and people of Germany, and the Devil's ancient hatred for the children of Israel would take control of that nation. Lara names it the Ancient Rage, the Enemy's ancient hatred and rage against the Jewish people. Yaira explains that what comes out of the dragon's mouth is that rage, and in the dream what came out was words, German words. The dragon's fire manifested as German words, and the words became vessels of that fire. Lara names it the Deadly Fire Given, the passing of the dragon's hatred for the Jewish people to another nation. Yaira says Germany would become the most deadly vessel of the dragon's rage, and it was no accident that of all nations it received the Altar, restored the Throne of Satan, and became the most satanically driven of nations, driven against this one particular people. The Germans became obsessed with the Jewish people, and as the dragon's fire inflamed them, they set out to bring God's ancient people to an end. Herzog notes it all follows where the Altar rests, then asks about the timing, the discovery, the unearthing, the transfer, the arrival of the first pieces in Berlin. Yaira tells them to come, and leads them toward the Altes Museum to reveal the mystery of timing and the days of the dragon's rage.

PART IV DESTROYER

The Broken Pillar

Lara examines the page while Herzog drives. She sees a broken pillar, an ancient classical pillar lying horizontally, snapped in two. Herzog wonders if it could be the ruins of the Altar, but she points out they already know the Altar was left in ruins. Neither has an answer for what else it could mean.

That night she translates the text. The title is the Greek word "Apoleia," meaning destruction or devastation. The broken pillar, she believes, symbolizes destruction. Then she reads the rest: He Who Makes The World to Shake, Who Turns the Earth To Wasteland, Kingdoms Into Raging Camps, Prepares the Vessel Of His Wrath, The Two Lands In Their Joining, The Die Is Cast, The Spark Ignites, The Many Fires, The World They Knew Aflame.

It is not about the ruins of the Altar, Herzog realizes. It is about the ruins of the world, a great devastation. But that only raises the question of where it gets them. The last revelation left off in 1889, so what great devastation happened then? With nothing yet to go on, they drive back to Berlin, whose international airport can take them anywhere once they have a lead.

The Black BMW

About halfway through the drive, Lara falls asleep, and Herzog notices they are being followed. A black BMW sedan keeps a steady distance behind them, two men in sunglasses in the front seat, never passing, never catching up, slowing when he slows and speeding up when he speeds up, holding the same gap through turns and miles.

When Lara wakes, she tells him about her dream. They were in a city in a valley surrounded by blue mountains. She noticed domes of mosques, but churches as well. They came to an open square with an ornate drinking fountain at its center, with a stone octagonal base and waterspouts on each side, topped by an elaborately carved wooden structure and above that a light green dome. Around the fountain were cafés, tables, benches, and open seating, and the square was filled with people and pigeons.

A man sat by himself at one of the small outdoor tables. She calls him a man, though she could not make out a form. It was more like a presence, like light, and somehow she knew him. He stood, called to them, and they followed. He led them through the city and along a river until they reached the beginning of a bridge. Then came a massive explosion, a flash of bright light, and everything went to white. The dream ended there. She says they have to find the city. The people were speaking another language, and to her it sounded Slavic. Herzog guesses the Balkans, a Slavic city with mosques and churches.

She takes out her cell phone and searches every distinctive feature she can remember. It takes about fifteen minutes before she finds it: a photograph of the octagonal drinking fountain, the Sebilj Fountain, in a place called Baščaršija Square. The country is Bosnia. The city is Sarajevo.

At the hotel, Herzog tells Lara about the black BMW, then calls Kazim Yarikan, the man he met in Istanbul who warned them they were being pursued. Yarikan tells him that those following them will look for patterns, habits, predictability. Change things up. Continually alter the routine, take different routes, ones they have not taken before or would not have taken. Make themselves unpredictable. Going forward, they do that as much as they can.

The Man at the Chessboard

The next morning they fly to Sarajevo. After checking into their hotel, they head to the city square, and it is just as Lara described: cafés, outdoor seating, people, pigeons, the fountain. She surveys the surroundings, then spots a man sitting by himself at a table. Since he is turned away and they cannot see his face, she suggests Herzog go up to him.

Herzog walks around in front of him. The man is old, with a large white mustache and a Greek fisherman's cap. On the little round table sits a chess set, the pieces arranged as if a game is underway between two opponents, though he is alone. He notices Herzog staring and asks if he would like to play. Herzog says he never learned. The man offers to show him. Herzog says he does not think he would have time to learn. Then, the man asks, would he have time for him to show him something else?

Herzog approaches and asks if he is one of them. The man asks if he is. It depends, Herzog says, on what he means by "them." Exactly, the man replies. He gives his name as Zoran, addresses Herzog by name, and tells him to sit down and invite Lara to join them. Herzog motions to her, and they sit on the opposite side of the chessboard.

Zoran asks if they want to know the meaning of the third mystery. He asks Lara how the words on the page begin, and she reads from her notebook: He Who Makes the World to Shake, Who Turns the Earth to Wasteland. He asks if they know where that comes from. It comes from Isaiah the prophet, from the same prophecy that speaks of Lucifer and his fall from heaven, the one who shook the earth, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities. And how would he destroy? That which he would destroy, he divides. He places it in conflict. The most intense of conflicts, Zoran asks, is called what? War.

With his Throne of Satan unearthed and returned to the world, he would seek to unleash his power of destruction through war, bringing upon the world the greatest calamity ever wrought by the hand of man, a destruction so colossal that even those who waged it could never have imagined it. Herzog says it: the First World War. But that came years after the Altar's unearthing. Decades.

Zoran explains with the chessboard. Herzog does not know how to play, but if he did, he would know that those who master the game anticipate the greatest number of future moves and countermoves, then strategize, plan, and act accordingly. They make their first move in view of their last move, and every move in between, to victory or defeat. The Devil is a chess player. He sets his plans in motion long before the time of their fruition, positioning and moving the pieces years before his strategy is manifested. So it was with the mass destruction he would bring on the earth. And what does that have to do with the Altar? Everything. The greatest of calamities to fall on the modern world was joined to the Altar from its beginning. The Throne of Satan was brought back into the world, and it all began.

The Pawn, the Knight, and the Two Camps

An altar requires blood, Zoran says, and so blood would be spilled. To bring about the shedding of blood and mass destruction, the Destroyer would need an instrument, a vessel, a pawn. He lifts a black pawn and moves it forward. They already know the pawn: the power that came into the world with the Altar. Germany. The power that rose at the same time Carl Humann's path crossed with the Altar.

The Prussian wars, Herzog says, through which Germany was born. According to the mystery, the nation born with the Altar would become the central vessel in bringing the Enemy's destruction upon the world. Zoran moves a black knight forward. Germany was born in a state of war, its birth announced in the midst of its war with France. Its victories in the Prussian wars fostered the belief that the German army was invincible and that military force was the most effective tool of foreign policy. The army became a central foundation stone of the new nation's government and a critical element of German culture and identity. Germany became increasingly militaristic, predisposed to initiating war for its own advantage. That happened in 1871, the year of the Altar.

Before 1871, what was called Germany was a patchwork of small states. In 1871 it became the strongest land power in Europe, altering and destabilizing the European balance of powers and setting off a chain of events that would lead to the First World War. Germany's growing power and militarism provoked rivalries, distrust, and militarism in other nations, an arms race. All of it would explode at the outbreak of the war.

Zoran moves white pieces to face the black ones in the middle. What drives war? Conflict, Herzog answers. To bring about his planned destruction, the Dark Angel had to sow seeds of conflict. The same war that gave birth to Germany, the Franco-Prussian War, sowed the seeds of the coming world war. After defeating France, Germany imposed harsh terms. France was forced to give up Alsace-Lorraine, strategically important provinces, and Zoran removes some white pieces from the board. It was a humiliating blow. France had to render massive and crippling payments for war damages, and German troops were stationed on French soil to ensure the payments were made. The humiliation led to growing French-German animosity and gave birth to the French revanchist movement, aimed at revenge.