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While the written material is much more challenging to sift through, it seems to offer a slightly more coherent story. Liscia is particularly helpful at this juncture: her ample schooling in literature and theology allows her to explain some of the more culturally-rooted concepts mentioned in the writings. In short, it appeared that you were not only dealing with an infection, but a cult. A thick, leather-bound book recovered from one the residential units was apparently a religious text, and the six-armed motif decorating the front cover left little question as to who - or what - was being worshiped. The writings contained within the tome is a bit too dense and metaphorical for your specialized processing core to decompose, so you spend much of your time listening to Liscia provide a synopsis. Despite her hotheadedness in combat, she seems surprisingly comfortable with the task:
"...the central diety of their religion is the so-called "Silent Mother", who will reclaim her progeny and uplift them to godhood. However, the Silent Mother is described as both blind and deaf - and she relies on the call of her children in order to find them amidst the vastness of different worlds and different stars...it falls upon her followers to light a beacon that she can comprehend and follow"
She frowns. "But then, there seems to be shift from pseudo-mythology to something resembling written history. In the next few pages, the book discusses the coming of "angels" during the cult's founding, described in language that mirror how we would describe our own saints. Apparently, the angels performed a great sacrifice - gifting the village with the ability to call the Silent Mother at the expense of their own."
"Doesn't sound much like a blessing to me" says Alberico as he walks over. "My boys are almost done with their first pass. I've even asked them to mark any big bits of scrap laying around with some red cloth if your machines want to pick it up later." He grins and flashes a modest collection of gold rings. "Monsters or not, some of these houses were exceptionally well-stocked. At this rate, we could all retire in a few weeks. A month or two and my father might even deign to look me in the eye."
