Intro to Nuro (a novel)

Introduction

From the Journal of Dr. Reginald Brodie
Regarding the Alexandria Scroll

January 2, 2055
The Alexandria Scroll was discovered on Everest by an expedition from America. While waiting out an approaching storm, they found it buried beneath the snow; folded inside a leather pouch with a mixture of soil and crushed gemstone. Tests revealed that the red substance – believed to be ruby – was part of the corundum family; though, its molecular structure could not be matched to any mine past or present.

The Alexandria Scroll is a very old and very odd document. Despite its age, it is well preserved. On one side, a letter was addressed to a Lady Billingsly from her son, Grayson, who alleges he left England and discovered a lost civilization. On the other side, an unknown writer details a dramatic battle in which a villain called the Nuro King seized a city named Alexandria. However, part of the story is missing. The original document was torn to provide the appropriate sized parchment for the Englishman’s letter, and it is not known how much of the original scroll was lost.

Historian circles around the globe have debated its authenticity for years, but its origin has yet to be validated. Tests were performed on both the writing and paper materials, and the scientific community is at a loss for an explanation. Two clues are given as proof of the letter’s authenticity. First, the letter’s ink is strange. It does not match the writing on the scroll. On the page it appears black, but when it was inspected closely under the microscope, we discovered that it contained dead cells. The letter was written in blood. After exhausting all available testing, we determined that the blood was from an undiscovered species of animal.

Secondly, the letter was of English origin and dated over one-hundred years ago, but the carbon dating process revealed that the parchment dates back to a time when writing had not been discovered – which leads to one of two conclusions. Either the document is a fake, or the writer had in fact discovered a lost civilization. Here within lies the letter.

To Lady Billingsly, Miranda of Oxford

Dearest Mother,
I recall, as a small boy you would hold me in your arms and sing lullabies until I fell asleep. My dreams were never as bad when you were with me. Now, no lullaby can comfort me in my time of need. No matter how long I close my eyes, my nightmare will always be there when I open them.

It hasn’t always been like this. And even though you are no longer alive to read this letter – writing it brings me some comfort, however small it may be – to know that you have always been with me in heart and memory.

When I discovered this strange land called Instanturas, its reality was beyond my wildest dreams. The Nuro race accepted me unconditionally, and with a grace few possess. Few have ever had the opportunity to find a lost civilization, but my discovery troubles me.

Can you label a civilization lost, if it never wished to be found? And what would you call a world in which everything you believed to be true was a mistake or miscalculation? My discovery has led me to believe that the Earth I knew is not all it should be. I found this lost civilization here, beyond the borders of our world. It was found within a separate realm, on the same planet, but on a different plain of existence. I have seen what I can only describe as the Garden of Eden. At least, how it might have existed if there had been no sin – where immortality awaits all who find it. But I realize it could never last, as humanity has a way of making a mess of things. I understand now there can never be a Utopia.

You would be glad to know that I am married, Mother. Though I don’t know how it will turn out in the end. I wish you could see my darling, Ahmose. She is both beautiful and wise. She is everything I ever hoped for in a wife, but I admit that I have not always had the best judgment in women. As perfect as she is, she is not without fault. She has a secret – a secret I did not find out about until recently.

Something inside her has changed, and the person she is and the person she used to be is not the same. For the longest time, the memory of her past life was lost, and she was unaware that she was once someone else. Knowing this, I cannot hold her accountable for her faults.

Now she has vanished, and I write this letter to confess that I may join you soon. I love her, Mother. I will stop at nothing to find her, but I am afraid that the obstacles I am about to face are beyond me. I know that my situation will not end well, but I must try. Her innocence compels me. It keeps me going. I must try and save her. I must save her from the Nuro King, Mother. I know the name means nothing to you, but it is a dark and perilous name among the Nuro people that have befriended me.

Love always until we meet in Heaven,
Your loving son,
Grayson

July 22, 2058
It has been more than three years since the Alexandria Scroll was found on Everest, but its secret has finally unraveled. The scroll has been uncovered in its entirety, and yet, far more has been revealed. I cannot express how excited I am about this discovery.

The scientific community exploded with morality debates and conspiracy theories after the “Book of Nuro” was found off the coast of India six months ago. During a salvage expedition, a large steel reinforced chest was pulled from the wreckage of an eighteenth-century flyboat. The contents sealed inside the air-locked chest proved to be more valuable than any treasure in the sea.

The book was in immaculate condition, despite its age and exposure. Since its discovery, historians have questioned how a book of this nature could have found its way onto the Dutch ship. More importantly, how could this discovery have existed for so long without so much as a rumor about it?

The book measures eleven inches in width, thirteen inches in length, and is both bound and written in pure silver. The pages were constructed from the precious metal, hammered into thin one-millimeter sheets; the words burned into each page with magnificent skill and detail. But it all pales in comparison to the most impressive part of the book. Set into its cover is a strange crystal. The crystal appears to be its own source of light that never wavers or goes dim. It is inlaid with an oval cut, measures three inches by one and a half inches, and shines an iridescent shade of blue.

The book was marked by a magic that has baffled the greatest logical and scientific minds of our time. It has been near impossible to discover the original language the book was written in, because the words are translated into whatever language the reader speaks. The words are somehow transformed on the silver pages, or possibly translated within the mind of the person who reads it.

The book is separated into sections written by a compilation of authors, including a nineteenth-century English professor that discovered the lost Nuro race after he found a doorway into their parallel realm. His name was Grayson Billingsly; the same Grayson that wrote the Alexandria letter.

There have been other important discoveries within the book. The most intriguing is the claim that Grayson was not the only person from ‘our world’ to uncover this lost civilization. According to the book, two others found it: an ancient Egyptian and a sixteenth-century conquistador. We have also concluded that the Nuro race must have been far advanced mentally, because the book provides several instances of mind travel.

As a new discovery, the contents within the “Book of Nuro” cannot be proven. It is apparently old, but there is no other mention of the lost civilization anywhere else in the world, as far as we have found. And despite its apparent age and direct relation to the lost letter and its author, the story described is improbable. It can only be considered a fictional work from a very imaginative mind.

However, we did discover that there was a Professor Grayson Billingsly teaching at the University of Oxford at the time he claims to have disappeared.

Despite its improbability, “The Book of Nuro” is a very compelling work; organized and bound by an unknown author believed to be this professor. The events that he recalls could have only been written at a later date.

It has been a grueling task to prove how anything written by a nineteenth-century English professor could have found its way onto a boat that sank more than a hundred years before he was born, but we may have found an answer.

We have been unable to locate any mention of the book on the ship’s historical documents. We can only assume it was somehow placed on the ship after it sank, or that it was something so terribly important that someone would stop at nothing to keep it a secret.

A very small and secret organization has assembled around the world; of which I am a leading member. The Society for Nuronian Discovery was formed to discover the origin of the “Book of Nuro”. It is our opinion that the book was not part of the ship’s original cargo. The biggest clue is the chest itself. It is an old chest, but not nearly old enough to have sunk with the ship’s cargo three-hundred years ago – and it was not actually found aboard the wreckage itself.

When the boat sank, it broke in half when it hit bottom, spilling its insides onto the ocean floor. The chest was covered in a thin layer of growth and corrosion. The condition of the artifacts around it was far more dilapidated, proving that the chest could not have been there as long as the ship. The Society is of the opinion that someone dumped the chest overboard some time after the ship sank, not knowing that the wreckage was where it was, and with luck the chest found its way to a most fortunate position to be discovered again.

The “Book of Nuro” is divided into four sections, which I have entitled simply enough: Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, and Book 4. Book 1 describes the events that occurred after the three outsiders discovered this strange new world of Instanturas. Book 2 provides a detailed history of the Nuro civilization; including the events that led to the rise to power of what was the Nuro’s greatest adversary, the Nuro King. The third book documents the Nuro King’s rule and his determination to destroy the world that came to be known as Instanturas. Finally, Book 4 describes the aftermath after the Nuro King was overthrown, and brings to conclusion the events that involved the three outsiders introduced in the first book.

I have provided an English version, along with a short forward at the beginning of each book. However, the reader should be aware that the contents within are based on the mythology of a world that remains a mystery, and if this lost Nuro civilization truly does exist, it has yet to be discovered.