Libra 27. A painting that will not dry.
TITLE: KEEPING ALL SITUATIONS OPEN TO ALL POSSIBILITIES, AND THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE POWER OF DESIRES
A painting of a lake by the edge of a forest has hung in the Museum of Peth for 700 years without drying. When we look in the waters of the lake we find clouds that move, and which mirror the clouds in the sky above. We also find on certain days the paint dulling to gray, and at night the canvas becoming almost black, except on those clear nights when the moon has arisen. In winter the painting often grows white with snow, and sometimes, on rare occassions – mainly in spring – travellers are seen journeying through the forest with its trees in full blossom and sometimes stopping to bathe in the lake or drink of its waters, though when viewers of the painting attempt to get the attention of these travellers they seem oblivious to the museum, or the fact that they are only wet paint.
The paint is even known to make faint sounds, such as the movement of wind through branches or the twittering of birds.
The historian Renaldus has obtained some evidence that the painter, Geramo Daz, made the paint from ground gems which he bound with with a curious nectar extracted from the skin of salamanders. Many have tried to duplicate this formula, but have found that the salamander nectar, though creating glowing, shimmering colors will, over a short space of time burn itself out.