Royal Meteorological Chronicle: Gothic Mountain Stillness

A pallid sun, throttled by a veil of cloud at sixty-one parts in a hundred, cast its weakened rays upon the eastern slopes at the seventeenth hour, whilst the mercury in my barometer stood firm at nine and twenty inches and seven-eighths, betraying not the slightest tremor—a steady pulse that speaks of settled airs, yet whispers of unseen perturbations in the upper reaches. The thermometer registered sixty-two degrees of Fahrenheit, its dew point lagging at five and forty, so that a light mountain mist, born of the valley's exhalations, crept in spectral tendrils about the pines, neither dense enough to obscure the path nor thin enough to promise clarity. The wind, a mere breath from the southeast at three knots, scarcely stirred the hair-hygrometer upon its stand, and the waning gibbous moon, though hidden behind the clouden shroud, exercised its pull upon the atmospheric tides in silence.

Let coachmen bound for the Borgo Pass take heed: the stillness of the air is a deceitful calm, for in these Carpathian latitudes, a steady mercury and a gentle breeze oft precede the sudden swoop of the wind from the high cols, which can overturn a carriage as a child overturns a toy. The mist, though light, coils in the hollows where the road narrows, and the absence of the moon's light leaves the night travelers to the mercy of their lanterns and the dubious guidance of the roadside crosses. Folk of the valley towns, who read the skies with the wisdom of generations, mutter of the waning gibbous as a time when the veil between worlds thins, and the still air carries whispers not meant for mortal ears.

Yet for the scholar, this Gothic Mountain Stillness is a rare text, written in the faintest of inks upon the atmosphere. The hair-hygrometer's strands, though relaxed, retain a memory of the morning's damp, and the barometer's steadiness is but a pause in the dialogue between the peaks and the plains. I shall watch through the night, for the mercury's constancy is not to be trusted; it is the quiet that precedes the storm, and the waning moon, though invisible, still governs the tides of mist and the fancies of those who dwell too long in the shadow of these ancient hills.

Meteorological Readings & Barometric Log:
• Atmosphere: Gothic Mountain Stillness
• Temperature: 62°F / 17°C / 13.3°R Mountain Chill
• Barometer: 29.87 inHg - Steady
• Wind & Squalls: Southeast 3 kts Calm Air
• Station: Scarlet Ridge Observatory, Transylvania
• Observer: Alistair Sterling, Atmospheric & Barometric Scholar