In long researches, especially when the research is into an obscure or difficult subject, one always discovers bits and pieces that do not easily fit into the grand design -- suggestive, perhaps, but of unknown significance. And this is perhaps true of nothing and no one more than Aegidius, who eludes the eye of the ordinary historian, and appears and disappers in history like a flickering of shadow across the landscape.
(1) Take, for instance, an occurrence I have been able to piece together from various sources. The exact location is impossible to determine with any certainty, but I think it was in France; the time is equally uncertain, but if it occurred in France, the time was almost certainly the late 1930s. I imagine it to have happened in something like this way, and, while some of the precise details may have varied, I have confirmed the substance from several sources.
The first people to notice him were a handful of young men lolling around by a clump of trees. He stood out. While most people here were dark-haired and dark-eyed, as he was, they also had a dark complexion, while he was as pale as an invalid. But it was perhaps not this that made him stand out, but his immaculate, custom-tailored, and very expensive suit. He came toward them.
"I am looking for the Old Woman," he said. "Where may I find her?"
They looked him up and down a bit.
"That is a very nice suit," said one young man, who wore a brightly colored vest.
The stranger threw the vested man sarcastically. "And yet the Old Woman is not in my suit. I have business with her. Where is she?"
The vested young man caught sight of a gleam on the man's wrist. "That is a very nice watch," he said.
"Where is she?" The stranger did not raise his voice in the slightest; if anything it became softer and quieter. But there was an edge to it that gave it both the force of a command and the air of a threat. The young man tried to stare him down, but failed. Shrugging, he pointed towards a tent at the end of the makeshift path.
"Thank you," the stranger said, and continued on his way.
A young woman was weaving something outside the tent; she barely looked up at the stranger.
"I am here to see the Old Woman," he said.
She shouted something back toward the tent. When there was an answering shout, she nodded and gestured at the stranger to enter.
Inside an old woman was sitting on a makeshift chair drinking tea. When she saw the dark-eyed, pale-skinned man she froze, then slowly put down her cup and stared at him as he sat down across from here.
"You know who i am," he said with some mild amusement.
"Yes," the old woman said slowly. "My grandmother told me about you. 'He burns with the light of the full moon, even at new moon, even during the day,' she said. Until I saw you I did not know what she meant. But it is true. The moon itself blazes inside you, almost too bright to bear."
"Do not look too close at it," he said softly. "Those who do lose their way through the sane world. I looked at once, long ago, and I have never found my way back again."
She looked away. "You are the Wolf-King."
"'King' is such a very small word," the stranger said reflectively. "But yes. I am Aegidius, and I am the Invincible Wolf."
"Why are you here?" she asked. "We wish no dealings with you."
Giles smiled. "Your family has had dealings with me for time out of mind. One of your ancestresses performed a very great favor for me. That debt was repaid long ago. But there are dark times coming for your people, and it would be...displeasing to me...if your family were wholly swallowed up in them." He pulled two cards from his pocket and held it out to her. "If anyone in your family is in mortal danger in the years to come, these will help you."
She took the two. On one there was nothing but an address. On the there was printed an ornate white A on a black circle.
"If your family is in dire trouble, send someone to this address and show the people there the second card. They will help protect you."
"Why are you doing this?" she asked.
"Because I still remember," he replied as he rose and left.
She never saw him again. But she did use the card. I have in my possession that card, or one exactly like it; it was sent to me by a colleague. It is well-worn and faded, but the A is still visible.
(2) A bit farther back, in the nineteenth century, there is evidence of small club in London called the Cynthia Club. It was very exclusive, but farther from Pall Mall than was quite fashionable. A hint of scandal always was associated with it, and rumors of decadence, but I believe this was chiefly because they were rumored to be lax about guests of members, even if the guests were women. Any trace of this club, beyond some occasional passing mentions, is gone now, but I believe it to have been a front for Wolves in London at the time. And, perhaps more importantly, I believe it was here that Seneca Lewis first met Giles Scott. Was it a chance meeting? Was Seneca summoned? I do not know.
Of Seneca himself I have been able to find very little; I do not know when he was born, or even where. I do have evidence that he came to London from Barbados, but whether this was his place of birth I do not know. He seems to have risen high in the ranks quite quickly; Giles after the American Civil War seems to have split his time between New York and London; when in New York, he seems to have left London in the hands of Aveline and Seneca. At some point, I do not know when, Seneca went over the Atlantic to help Giles in New York; Giles seems to have started splitting his time between East Coast and West Coast, eventually spending most of his time on the West Coast. The earliest record of the Aegidian Corporation is in New York in the late 1950s; in 1980 there is a legal record of transfer of controlling shares from Giles Scott, allegedly born in 1942, to Giles Scott, allegedly born in 1961. The first linking of Seneca with the company seems to have been at this time, first as Director or Vice-President of Eastern Operations and then as General Director or President; I have not been able to discover when the transition was made, although it was certainly made prior to 2001. That I was able to find even this much about it is due largely to the fact that the rise of Seneca in Aegidian seems closely linked to the increase of public action on the part of the corporation, and with the fame of Giles Scott as a savvy businessman. Most information available to the public about the business seems to be smokescreen -- some of it true but unimportant, some of it probably but unprovably false. At no point does Jolie seem to have been involved with Aegidian, although most of the other major players in this period are. Both Aveline and Elsbietka are names that occur on the small handful of company documents I have been able to find. But of Jolie there is no clear trace in history at all.
Historians, like everyone else, want to find the story. But in matters like this, most of the links are hidden, and all we have is a heap of facts, records of uncertain significance. That we have even this much is due to paper-based bureaucracy, which records its own doings with ceaseless self-regard; but it never tells us what we really want to know. In the end, every identifiable story is just a vein in an extraordinary bulk of uncertainty, and when we have no choice but to plunge our knives in at random, we are left with little more than a mess. Had I the time, perhaps more could be done; but my time is short, and the only goal I can afford is just to get the notable things down on the page.
