Oh that sounds much better than the other rituals she's heard about recently.

Actually you'll find that painting is very suspect. He knows about the religious connections between water and wine and blood.

Well, it’s two days before the ritual, so probably they don’t want to go visit the Ezana Stone yet. Where do they want to go?

"The cathedral sounds like it might be the only place that's not just a big rock?"

"Good a reason as any."

“The baths also have water and a stair. But I would like to visit the cathedral, yes.”

Oh look a big rock.

It's actually got some pleasant trees and archways and stuff so that's nice.

Maybe even interiors. He hears monoliths are short on those.
 
 
 
 

There’s stained glass! And paintings! And artefacts! It is almost entirely unlike a big rock in as many as Several ways.

The Cathedral has:

-The Chapel of the Tablet, which stores the Ark of the Covenant itself.

-A rare books library.

-A beautiful collection of crowns of some of Ethiopia's former rulers.

They are probably not allowed at the rare books are they.

The nun will ask if she can look at the rare books, and if there’s anything she should be careful of so as not to damage them.

The nun is given instructions about the rare book library, and informed that an archaeologist named Louise Fauche is also inside.

Zoe is historically terrible at gaining information from old books but she's willing to give it the old no-formal-education-try. "Man this place is really popular with the archaeologists, isn't it?"

“There are four places to go here, and likely more than four archaeologists. It isn’t particularly surprising to find one here.” Rare books! 

They find the three-volumed Book of Axum. 

(Louise Fauche is also studying the book of Axum, but seems sufficiently absorbed in it that she ignores them.)

The first volume describes the founding of the Church of Tsion Maryam by Saint Frumentius in the 4th century AD. Ordained by Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, Frumentius returned to Axum and became the first Abune of the Ethiopian Church. He was later known as Kesate Birhan (Revealer of Light) and Abba Salama (Father of Peace). This includes the holy rites and services of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The second volume dates to the early-17th century and contains a hundred or so historical and legal texts, many dealing with land grants and the like.

The third volume dates to late-17th century and contains various legal and historical texts regarding Axum’s history. These records were supplemented with additional documents in the mid-19th century.

As Oswald reads, he gets the sense that the histories presented in the Book of Aksum are clearly incomplete. Initially this appears to be merely a matter of old records being missing or damaged, but a deeper study quickly reveals that the records seem to have been deliberately expurgated.

Maybe that's better for his mind. Maybe a complete version of the Book of Aksum would drive him mad. It's still intensely frustrating.

And he doubts whoever redacted this had anyone's best interests at heart.

Later that afternoon, Zoe comes down with diarrhea.

"I hate this place. Why did we come here."

"I personally am a fan of being a victim of evil magic."

"We had reasons," Mordred says. "Good ones even."

(Mordred has diarrhea with a rather worrying amount of blood in it.)

"Ugggggh. You can remind me of them when I get back from the latrine. Again."

Anemone would point out their many different varieties of good reasons, but she is actually too busy vomiting.