an interested tone, seemingly lucid again. »When you get your migraine attacks and see these things that look so familiar to you, as if you had seen them before? When you hear a foreign language and can suddenly understand it? Do you really believe that these are just regular déjà vu experiences?« Kelly laughed. »They are memories, Peter. Don’t shut them down.«
»What do you know about me?« Peter gasped.
»I know so much, Peter. Don’t forget that I can talk to angels. Hoathahe Saitan! Ask your parents, Peter.«
»My parents are dead!«
»Oh, that’s right, of course. Forgive me for being so impious.«
»Who are these Bearers of the Light?«
»A powerful brotherhood. Zodi od Zodameranu. They are searching for the Big Secret. They are already very close.«
»Which secret? The Treasure of the Templars?«
»Oh, the Treasure of the Templars! Yes, exactly, that is what I am talking about. But what is the treasure? The treasure, the treasure, the treasure. Everybody is searching for it, but nobody knows what it is. Nobody has it. Hoathahe Saitan! The number shows the way. 306, the number of the Apocalypse. After the inquiry into the Order of the Temple, the Templars scattered to the four winds and took with them the Big Secret. But it took them only a few years to regroup. They did it clandestinely and split into two groups. The Avignon group continued to pursue in secret the original goals of the Knights Templar. The other group, however, that called itself the Light-Bearers and convened on a cursed island in the Venetian Lagoon, where plague victims had been taken during the epidemic, this group was seeking revenge. They wanted to take revenge for the destruction of their order. Revenge on the world and on the Church that had betrayed them. They also call themselves the Sons of Seth, who was the son of Adam. Or the Egyptian deity of destruction; whatever you prefer. In any case, whoever was their leader over the past centuries bore this name: Seth. And 306 is his number. 306, you know what this number means in the Kabbalah, don’t you?«
Kelly wrote a Hebrew word into the dirt of the floor.
»This means Heress!« he hissed. »Destruction. Hoathahe Saitan! Because the Bearers of the Light believe in the Gospel of the Egyptians and in the Apocalypse of Adam. But the 306 also has another meaning.«
Kelly scratched another Hebrew word into the dirt.
»This means Dwasch – honey. Do you see it now, Micama? Do you recognize the truth? It is both: bitterness and sweetness. Hell and paradise. Pain and lust. The beginning and the end.«
»Kelly, that sounds totally insane. This so-called Apocalypse of Adam is an esoteric fairy tale.«
»Believe what you want, Peter, or don’t believe. In any case, the Templars were now two separate groups. Both orders became very powerful. And over the centuries, they engaged in an acrimonious war over the Big Secret. Because this secret was lost during the destruction of the Knights Templar. Only one thing is known…«
Kelly drew a symbol into the dirt on the floor. A symbol which consisted of multiple crossing lines, small circles, and small diamonds that had become all too familiar to Peter:
»The cursed symbol,« Kelly said, spitting on the floor. »The symbol is the key. Don’t forget that, Peter: the symbol is the key. Three zero six equals nine. There are nine keys in this world. Nine keys scattered to the four winds together with the Templars. But the key with this symbol holds them all together. This is the key that the Light-Bearers are searching for. And the angels in Hell have shown me where they can find it. That you have it, Peter. You and your little girlfriend.«
»So that is what you do downstairs in the hall; you talk to angels?«
»Oh yes, I do. Even though the term ›angels‹ might be misleading. The creatures with whom I am making contact are… how can I put this… more on the unfriendly side. Despite the fact that the Sigillum Dei is