Ink of Truth

Eureka! Finally I have arrived in the Vita at an account of the evacuation of the Council of Apostles' central archives. Much of the admnistrative documents and council proceedings were burned before the advancing Sarum troops could reach them, and many other manuscripts and relics were transported to safety in heroic missions skipping through enemy lines. 

The absconded relics are listed in code, using the ancient acronyms whose meaning got lost. But there is one old acronym I did recognise: AVSAP. The only reason I recognise it is because we came accross the same acronym in the asteroid monastery that I lived in for a long time before taking to space. My order was founded on the principles of Saint Aloysius of the Quill, and AVSAP refers to the holy Ink of Truth used by Saint Aloysius. It stands for "Atramentum Vertitatis Sancti Aloisii Pennae".

Let me try to explain the importance of this relic!

The Saint's writings are considered his miracle. In order to be canonized a Saint, you need either to be martyred or have performed a miracle. Aloysius died peacefully. Scholars generally agree that he passed away from a bleeding in the brain after hitting his head on a tree branch during a walk, being distracted as he was. The other option is miracles, and back in Aloysius' days these were supposed to be miraculous healings of incurable diseases. Or reviving dead trees or shrubs, that counts too. But Aloysius did neither of those things. 

So, it was very hard for Aloysius to be canonized according to the church law of that time. But even so, it was generally recognized that Aloysius should be regarded a saint, because his writings reflect God's truth so well and so clearly. Therefore, the theologians of that era took a revolutionary step: they concluded that Aloysius' writings should be considered the miracle for his canonization. It was the first time that this type of miracle, consisting only of a written work, was invoked for canonization.

But I digress.

The ink that Aloysius used was imbued with the miracle of his truthful writing. Something of his communion with God rubbed off on it, so to say. As a result, anyone using the ink will only be able to write truth with it. You can dip a quill in the ink, and try to write down a lie, but no ink will flow from the quill to the parchment. Only if you write truth, does the ink wet the parchment.

You can see how valuable this ink would be to any intelligence agency! To distinguish truth from falsehood about anything by using the Ink of Truth grants immense power to any faction in its possession. 

No wonder that the ink was confiscated and locked away very soon after Saint Aloysius' death. Over the centuries, the secret of its precise location was lost. Now, there might be a chance to find it!