The Story of the Shroud in 12 acts - Part 1

Markuz, September 14, 2015
Translated by: Stefania

Act 1 - First Civilization and the myth of Jason

As every other Piece of Eden, the Shroud obviously was created by the First Civilization. One of the most curious characteristics marking its “genesis” comes directly from the opening sentence of Glyph 7 in Assassin’s Creed II, written by Subject 16, Clay Kaczmarek:

“First plucked from a tree guarded by a snake, its powers perform miracles. Then, worn across the ages, torn asunder, hidden under a sea of red, reconstruct the timeline."



The clue by Subject 16 is cryptic from the start, because it speaks of the Shroud as something that, aside from performing miracles (for instance the “resurrection” of Jesus), at the beginning was hanging from a tree guarded by a snake. The tree and the snake are a clear reference to Adam and Eve, but here the snake guards the tree and so it may have a positive value, in contrast with the negative significance that it has in the biblical text. What’s more, the tree and the snake are mentioned several times in the glyphs: Adam and Eve's story, the garden of Hesperides, Iðunn's apples (the Norse mythology, to which Iðunn belongs, also features the world tree, Yggdrasil, jealously protected by a snake, Nídhögg), the golden fleece, which is guarded by a dragon (which looks like a snake, as you can see from the image of the glyph), Sigmund who pulls the sword out from a tree, exactly like Arthur and the sword in the stone, the snake god Quetzalcoatl and many others.

The only certain, or better confirmed, element is that the Shroud, originally, during the TWCB era, was part of / was hung to a tree,

Yggdrasil, represented on Shay Patrick Cormac's medallion

exactly like the Apples (at least according to the legends and indirectly to what was shown in the memories of Kyros of Zarax - “Instead, she plucks a large apple from a nearby branch. She does it again, and then carefully selects a third one."). Similarly, once again according to the glyphs and to what Clay wrote, "The End. Almost the End. It happened before. The pieces were once part of a whole", it seems that also all the other Pieces of Eden were once part of a whole, a tree, as previously stated. For instance, I don't know, the World Tree, Yggdrasil...

Getting back to the Shroud, and to Glyph 7, the first owner of the artifact was Jason, in Greece, during prehistory (the glyph - and so Clay - doesn’t specify the exact period). In this case the idea is that the famous "Golden Fleece" is none other than the Piece of Eden that we are analyzing.

Before describing Jason and his relationship with the golden fleece it's necessary to explain how it appeared in the Greek mythology and probably also in the Assassin’s Creed universe.

The backstory is about Athamas, son of Aeolus (god of winds) and king of Boeotia, who, on orders of Hera (Juno), married Nephele, one of the cloud

Frisso ed Elle - National Archeological Museum of Naples

goddesses and daughter of Zeus (Jupiter). They had two children, a boy, Phrixus, and a girl, Helle. Later Athamas, furious due to the disdain that Nephele showed towards him, fell in love with another woman, Ino, with whom he had two children. Ino hated her stepchildren and, hatching a devious plot, demanded that they were sacrificed in order to save Boeotia from famine and drought. Nephele noticed the plot and asked the help of Hera, who sent Hermes (Mercury) together with a winged ram whose fleece was golden, thanks to which Phrixus and Helle were able to escape. However, while passing through the strait to reach Colchis, Helle fell off and drowned in the sea: according to the legends, that strait was then named after her and became known as Hellespont, “Sea of Helle”. Unable to do anything to save her, Phrixus went on and reached Colchis, ruled by Aeëtes, brother of Circe, the sorceress that appeared in the Odyssey. Aeëtes took Phrixus in and gave him his daughter in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus and offered the fleece to the king, who consecrated it to Ares (Mars) and hung it on an oak tree in the holy groove of the god, guarded by a dragon that never slept. That’s how the Greek mythology represents the fact that the Shroud had been “hung” on a tree and then guarded by a “snake”.

From Colchis, located on present-day western Georgia, we travel to Thessaly, Greece. Here Pelias, son of Poseidon (Neptune) and Tyro, power-hungry, after a harsh dispute, dethroned his half-brother Aeson and killed all his heirs. However, Alcimede, Aeson’s wife, just had a son, Jason: fearing that Pelias would have killed him, the boy was sent away and grew in the care of Chiron the centaur. Meanwhile Pelias was warned by an oracle to beware a man wearing one sandal. Many years later, while the town of Iolcus was hosting games in honor of Poseidon, Jason arrived and lost one of his sandals while he was helping an old woman (who actually was Hera-Juno in disguise) crossing a river. The woman blessed him and Jason confronted Pelias, demanding his father’s throne. Pelias told him he would have obtained it only after retrieving the golden fleece and Jason accepted. He rounded up a group of heroes for this mission, the Argonauts (from the name of their ship, the Argo). This group included Heracles (in the Glyph 1, we can see him in the Garden of Hesperides with one or more Apples), Peleus (during his wedding feast, Eris produced an Apple, which started the

Jason, the golden fleece on a tree and the dragon depicted as a snake

quarrel that led to the judgment of Paris and eventually to the Trojan War) and Atalanta (“deceived” by the golden Apples dropped by Hippomenes / Kyros of Zarax; according to other versions of the myth of Jason, Atalanta wasn't part of the Argonauts because he was worried by the presence of a woman in the group).

After various adventures, the Argonauts arrived in Colchis. Jason met king Aeetes, who promised to give him the fleece only if he could perform three tasks: presented with them, Jason became discouraged, but Hera / Juno (benevolent towards him) talked about this with Aphrodite / Minerva. Aphrodite, then, convinced her son Eros / Cupid to make Aeetes's daughter, Medea, fall in love with Jason, so that she could help him with the three tasks. Medea, who had “magical powers” like her aunt Circe, aided him. Leaving out the first two tasks, his last one was to overcome the sleepless dragon which guarded the golden fleece. Thanks to Medea and a potion of hers, Jason, instead of defeating the dragon, made it fall asleep and stole the golden fleece. Later, Jason, the Argonauts, and Medea fled the island, chased by Aeetes and his soldiers. This is the last mention of the golden fleece. Medea deceived Pelas’ daughters into killing their own father and then, Jason cheated on Medea, breaking their promise of eternal love and losing the support of the goddess Hera.

Considering all of this in the context of Assassin's Creed, we can conclude that a man called Jason stole the Shroud from the Tree on which it was guarded by a “dragon”/“snake” with the help of a “sorceress”, the actions of whom can easily be explained with the use of another Piece of Eden. In particular, with regard to this last information, it’s also possible to assume that Medea stole an Apple from one of the Argonauts who came in contact with them (Heracles, Peleus and Atalanta). We also have to consider the active role of gods / TWCB in these events.

Act 2 - Joseph, David and Goliath

From "Prehistory", again following Glyph 7, the Shroud reappears in the hands of Joseph, in Egypt, around 1700 BC.

Picture of Josef in Glyph 7

First of all, it’s better to point out that this Joseph isn’t the father of Jesus, as you can deduce from the date, but one of the patriarches mentioned in the Bible.

The episode of our interest occurs immediately after the introduction dedicated to Joseph in Chapter 37 of the Genesis, when the future patriarch was only 17:

Now Israel (father of Joseph, also known as Jacob) loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.

This event increased the already strong jealousy of Joseph’s half-brothers, fostered also by two dreams the young boy had: in the first dream, eleven sheaves of grain created by his eleven half-brothers bowed down to the one created by Joseph; in the second dream, eleven stars, the sun (representing Jacob in the Bible) and the moon (representing his stepmother Leah) bowed down to him. In the Assassin’s Creed universe, then, we can suppose that, as it happened to Giovanni Borgia in Project Legacy, when Joseph wrapped himself up in the Shroud, the object may have caused direct effects on him, making him able to see the past (a sort of Bleeding Effect) and maybe the future (as it happens with the Apples) and to understand his and other people’s dreams, as we’ll see soon.

Josef's brothers show the bloody robe to Jacob (Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari, c. 1640)

The jealousy was so strong that one day his half-brothers plotted to murder him. Ruben, the firstborn, didn’t want to kill Joseph and suggested to have him thrown into a cistern, after stripping him of his robe. However, in the end, Judah (the fourth child) suggested to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver.

As for the robe, the Genesis gives us an explanation on why it’s red. After selling Joseph, his half-brothers...

[31]got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.
[32] They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, «We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.»
[33]He recognized it and said, «It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.»

From here onward, Joseph’s story is full of interpretations of dreams (which, in the Assassin’s Creed universe, can be considered as “calculations”), the most famous of which is related to a dream the Pharaoh had about seven lean cows and seven fat cows and to another dream about seven withered ears of grain and seven fat ears. Joseph said that Egypt would have undergone seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, and, as always, his prediction came true.

Davide decapita Golia Guido Reni, 1606-1607 (picture from Glyph 7)

Following the chronicle shown in Glyph 7, we jump forward 700 years and reach the episode of David and Goliath, in the Valley of Elah, around 970 B.C.

David, ancestor of Jesus Christ according to the Bible, was the second king of Israel during the first half of 10th century B.C.. In the story of his life in the Bible, there are no references to any kind of mantle or coat, so we are going to describe only what is necessary.

The episode of our interest is the famous battle between David (who was not king yet) and Goliath the giant. At that time the Hebrews, under King Saul, were facing the Philistines, among whom there was an almost 3 meter tall giant, with an armor weighing almost 60 kilos, Goliath. For forty days Goliath issued a challenge to the Hebrew army, hoping that at least one soldier would have come forward: the winner of a single fight would have enabled his people to subjugate the losers. While he was in the Hebrew encampment to bring food to his brothers and make sure they were doing well, David heard the umpteenth challenge of Goliath and told King Saul he wanted to face the giant. The King accepted and offered his armor, but David declined because it bound his movements. The young man faced the giant with a sling, five stones from a brook and, as we can see from the image of the glyph, the Shroud, and hit the giant with one of the stones (provided that this action wasn’t an illusion created by the Shroud itself). Goliath fell on his face to the ground, and David cut off his head with his own sword.

Trivia fact, David had several children. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Solomon: the temple containing the Apple at the beginning of the first Assassin’s Creed is dedicated to him.

Act 3 - The Roman Assassins and Brutus

Moving forward again of around 1000 years, the Shroud reappeared in 42 B.C. in Philippi, Macedonia. This time the pieces of information are scarcer and come from Project Legacy, from the chapter "Ghosts of the Christmas Past”.

In this case the memory is narrated by one of the Roman Assassins shortly after their leader, Brutus, committed suicide. In case you don’t know, we’re talking about the same Brutus who killed Julius Caesar on March 15th of 44 B.C. and, in the Assassin’s Creed universe, entered the Temple of Juno (for more information, read our article "The End of an Era - Part 2").

Assassination of Julius Caesar depicted by Vincenzo Camuccini in 1798

After the assassination of Caesar, the other consul Marcus Antonius decided to grant amnesty to the conspirators but, during Caesar’s funeral, the sight of his remains caused a great uprising in the city and Marcus Antonius urged Brutus, Cassius and the other conspirators (Assassins) to leave Rome, while Caesar’s heir and adoptive son Octavian (the future Augustus) entered Rome and started his political career.
The conspirators supported Antonius to protect peace, but while they were leaving Rome, the consul went back and tried to keep them away assigning them responsibility for procuring wheat from Sicily and Asia. The relationship between the conspirators and Antonius deteriorated and Brutus, Cassius and the others headed for Crete, where they remained until 42 B.C. Brutus tried anyway to reach an agreement with Antonius, but failed. At the beginning of 42 B.C., Julius Caesar was deified and so Octavian, “son of a god”, together with Antonius, prepared himself to face the decisive war to avenge the death of the “father of the fatherland" and annihilate once and for all the republican opposition supported by the conspirators that had killed him. The battle took place in Philippi, Macedonia. Here, both Cassius and Brutus, facing an almost certain defeat, took their lives. In particular, when Brutus’ body was found, Marcus Antonius ordered it to be wrapped in his most expensive purple mantle (the umpteenth symbol of a purple mantle connected to the Shroud in Assassin’s Creed).

Here, finally, Project Legacy comes into play. The Assassin allies of Brutus gather around his dead body, mourning his death. One of them says that Antonius had sent a mantle to wrap his body, something that they consider as a “feeble” gesture because it was his refusal to stand against Octavian that caused their defeat.

Brutus' corpse from the Project Legacy memory

The Assassins pretend to accept Antonius’ shroud but they actually wrap the body “in a shroud of our own" and leave. So, in 42 B.C., the Assassins already were in possession of the Shroud, but had never used it.

Theirs was a real attempt to resurrect Brutus, which unfortunately didn’t end well. The Shroud “works” because the corpse starts moving, opens his eyes, lifts his arms and his fingers grip the air… but Brutus doesn’t breath or speak, he lays there, unmoving. Since they were not able to resurrect Brutus, the Assassins wrap him in Antonius’ mantle, resigning themselves to the fact that now they must regroup and face the future without their brother.

This episode is very useful to understand that the Shroud is a Piece of Eden which IS NOT able to resurrect a person, especially if used after a certain period of time after the death of the subject.

So, who are we going to talk about after saying that the Shroud doesn’t resurrect people?

Act 4 - Jesus Christ

There’s much to say in this act, I’ll try to follow as much as possible, once again, glyph 7.

We all know who Jesus of Nazareth is: for Christianity, he’s the Messiah and the God who became human; for Islam, he’s a prophet. According to the available sources and mentioning Wikipedia, in addition to his work as a carpenter, he was also a preacher, healer and exorcist, also through the so-called miracles. The main sources about his life are the Gospels and the letters of Saint Paul Apostle.

La Última Cena Juan de Juanes, ca. 1562

I’ll try not to describe the whole life of Jesus, but only the parts in some way connected to Assassin’s Creed and the aforementioned glyph, with reference to what is known up until now. From the images in the glyph we can assume that Jesus had been in possession of the Shroud for the most part of his life (also because he’s a descendant of David), but the Shroud wasn’t the only Piece of Eden he owned. In fact Al Mualim, in two of his dialogues (first dialogue – from 1:48:27; second dialogue – from 2:48:38) talks about the Apple of Eden taken from the Solomon’s Temple as a tool thanks to which a simple carpenter (through an illusion) was able to turn water into wine.

In any case, Jesus’ life, as we mentioned before, was full of supernatural events, called miracles. Those miracles, according to various sources, can be classified in five categories: cures, exorcisms, control over nature, resurrection of the dead, supernatural knowledge and, as indicated on Initiates “The Templars discovered that the source behind his grand miracles was an ancient and powerful artifact known as the Shroud of Eden". Here are some examples:

• Cures: healing of lepers, of the deaf-mute, blinds, and paralytics. All these healings (in the Assassin’s Creed universe) may have been performed using the Shroud, considering that, as we’ll see with Giovanni Borgia in Project Legacy, not only it revives the user, but also it cures him/her. We need to mention also an episode in which a woman, who had been suffering from bleeding for 12 years, was healed as soon as she touched Jesus’ cloak.
  
  
• Exorcisms of evil spirits that were in some of the people that Jesus met. For instance, delirious people that he “convinced” to act normally through the Apple / Shroud.
  
  
• Control over nature, in other words miracles like feeding the multitude, turning water into wine, and walking on water. Those were all illusions, as stated by Al Mualim.
  
  
• Resurrection of the dead. Or better, reanimation, as we saw in the case of Brutus. Several “resurrections” surround the figure of Jesus: the daughter of Jairus, who had just died (Mark 5, 21-43), a young man, son of a widow, brought out for burial (Luke 7, 11-17), Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, and Jesus himself (we’ll talk about this episode later).
  
  
• Supernatural knowledge/ precognition. Jesus, according to the Gospels, was able to see certain events before they happened. For instance, Peter’s denial (“Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times"), or Judas’ betrayal (“One of you will betray me”). This is a clear reference to the ability of the Apple - or the Shroud? - to see the future ("Calculations").
  

Before describing the connections with the last part of Jesus’ life, it’s necessary to analyze another element of glyph 7.

Senatus PopulusQue Romanus

When you select the five images (Joseph, Jason, Jesus Christ, David and Goliath, Christ Disrobed) that have a red cloak in common, the glyph doesn’t show, as happened before, their common element, but something else, namely what you see here aside. If you don’t know, SPQR stands for "Senatus PopulusQue Romanus”, which means “The Senate and People of Rome”, the symbol that represented the Roman Republic (509 B.C. – 27 B.C.), but that was also used until Middle Ages. In the image it's possible to see the traditional Templar cross and a laurel wreath, which, already during the Roman era, was put on the head of poets and victorious generals, like, for instance, Julius Caesar. The union of these three symbols implies that the Roman Republic and then the Roman Empire were organizations created and led by Templars for their own goals: control and creation of a new world order. The proof is in the continuation of the glyph.

Piece of Eden #66

The glyph continues with an image of Jesus (from the painting “Christ Crucified" by Diego Velázquez) on which the scanner must be used and in which, analyzing the right part, we can finally find the element that all the images of the glyph have in common, identified as Piece of Eden 66 - Shroud.
As many of you know or remember, if we analyze the read cloak on the right, we discover that this isn’t the Shroud, but a “cover”, because, as you

"Hidden under a sea of red..."

can see from the picture here on the side, the Shroud is way smaller. Here’s the meaning of that “hidden under a sea of red”, in the clue by Subject 16. Another information comes from the scan of the upper part of the cross: here you can see a smaller cross, symbolizing the involvement of the Templars in this event. The very last information is the hidden writing “They took it” on Jesus’ chest. Considering these three clues and the image of the SPQR, we can recreate the last part of Jesus’ life in the Assassin’s Creed universe.
In fact, the Templars plotted Jesus’ death, in order to get their hands on the Shroud: they used one of their biggest organizations used to control the people, the Roman Empire, at that time ruled by Emperor Tiberius. In particular, as narrated in the biblical episode, after crucifying Jesus, the Romans (Templars) shared his robes among themselves and so put their hands on the Shroud. Jesus, therefore, was crucified and died, his body was removed from the cross and then buried in a sepulcher.
Once again Initiates tells us how things went:

Just days after his death, the disciples loyal to Jesus managed to reacquire the Shroud and attempted to harness its powers to resurrect their Messiah.

It’s not clear if the disciples were allied with the Assassins, but it’s this event that caused Jesus’ resurrection three days after his death (even in this case a short period of time has passed since his death). So the Shroud, in this situation, wasn’t in the hands of Templars and then disappeared again.

Act 5 - Geoffroi de Charny and the Assassins of Monteriggioni in the 14th century

We jump forward of around 1300 years and reach the 14th century, at the Villa in Monteriggioni. The information come once again from Project Legacy, from a single memory in the chapter “Ghosts of the Christmas Past". The protagonist is an unidentified Assassin who talks about a recent mission in France. This mission consisted in stealing the Shroud from the Templar Geoffroi de Charny (not to be confused with the other Knight Templar Geoffroi de Charny, who was burned at the stake with Jacques de Molay in 1314), a historical character and the first reliably recorded owner of the real Shroud.



Our Assassin tells us that the "holy winding sheet" arrived, freshly plucked from Templar hand, and that his Brothers had replaced the real Shroud with an intricate replica (that’s how Assassin’s Creed explains the presence of the Shroud in Turin), bringing the original one to Monteriggioni.
The Assassin, probably a member of the Auditore, maybe Domenico, says that the Shroud was in a box and when they lifted the sheet from it, he could feel the “evil” and a sickness in his belly. However he began to take notes and noticed that "a man's shape has been burned into the Shroud, arms to his sides and palms forward" and that, according to the church's records, the visage had changed throughout history (it’s possible that the Shroud “recorded” the features of its last owner).
In addition to that, already in the 14th century, the fabric of the Shroud was old, yellowed and had blood stains on it and signs of torture, some unusual traits for a Piece of Eden, but that, we’ll see, have an explanation.

After finishing the analysis, the Assassins put the Shroud back into its box and, both to protect it and hide it, decided to “bury it deep" and set up measures to ensure it remained hidden.

Picture from the Mnemonic Set "The Shroud of Turin"

Finally, this is the first (chronologically speaking) occasion in which the protagonist of the memory says he hears words in his mind when he’s near the Shroud. A characteristic of the Shroud that that we’ll analyze soon.

It's also worth mentioning that Geoffrey de Charny is quoted in one of the Mnemonic Sets in Project Legacy, called " Shroud of Turin - Greatest mystery, or clever hoax?". This almost forgotten set connected the Shroud to "Jesus of Nazareth, Jacques de Molay, Geoffrey de Charny, Cesare Borgia". Unfortunately this set has never been explored further, but two of the characters represented were actually owners of the Shroud, so this would suggest that even the other two were. At the same time, though, the set refers to the Shroud of Turin and not necessarily to the Piece of Eden.

Sure, Cesare Borgia was more than convinced that no man could kill him ...

Act 6 - Mario Auditore and the “rediscovery” of the Shroud

The Shroud remains buried in the depths of Monteriggioni until 1454, the year in which the memories of Mario Auditore in Project Legacy are set. After his brother Giovanni left the stronghold for Florence, Mario had to rule, sustain and made the little town flourish alone.

And that’s what happened, although the main concern of Mario, condottiero and master in the art of war, was to fortify the walls and prepare the soldiers and the town to face and fend off possible external assaults, as happened in previous 200 years.



What Mario couldn’t predict was an attack from the inside. In Monteriggioni, in fact, suddenly Mario had to deal with thefts, acts of violence and fights between families, all caused by an agitator, Luciano Pezzati. Mario soon discovered and defeated him in a duel. Following this event, Pezzati was dragged to Villa Auditore, where he confessed that his activities were part of a bigger plan: the disorders he caused would have allowed the Florentine army, led by Federico da Montefeltro, to lay siege to Monteriggioni.

Mario, who had suspected the attack, did everything in his power to defend Monteriggioni and, thanks to the information obtained by Pezzati but also to the strength of his army and his tactical ability, was able to, after lots of efforts, to push back Montefeltro’s assault, showing Florence that Monteriggioni was an impenetrable fortress.

However, the most interesting part of this memory comes now. Only after Montefeltro’s defeat, Pezzati revealed to Mario another truth. The reason behind the siege wasn’t the thirst for power or conquest, but the search for “something” that Mario’s ancestors had hidden in Monteriggioni. Since we learnt what had happened 100-150 years before, we already know what was “buried deep” in Monteriggioni and this gives an unexpected meaning to Federico di Montefeltro’s attack. The latter, in fact, couldn’t know about the existence of the Shroud, unless he was a member of the Templar Order: the Templars would have had all the interests in recovering the artifact after it was stolen a century and half before from their brother Geoffroi de Charny, (we still don’t know how Montefeltro - or another person on his behalf in Florence - discovered that the Shroud was in Monteriggioni).

After the failed attack, Mario decided to learn more about this artifact and started to search for it in the town. Monteriggioni had many hidden or isolated places in which to hide secrets (the mines, the Auditore Family Crypt, the Villa’s dungeons), but the Shroud couldn’t be found in any of them. Eventually, Mario discovered that the Monteriggioni well had been drained and excavated by one of his ancestors (probably the one we saw in Act 5, that’s what he meant with “bury it deep”). Even more interested in finding the artifact, Mario drained again the well and entered it together with some miners and soldiers. The area was filled with traps: some of his men were killed while Mario himself was wounded by a pendulum, which left him with a scar across his face and blinded him in the left eye (that’s why he has a scar in the games ). However, Mario went on and found out that what had been buried was… a simple box (which he never opened), containing a “cruel treasure".



After reaching the room containing the box, Mario heard a voice in his head: “YOUR PAIN IS TEMPORARY, IGNORE IT.” and, immediately after that, his men were convinced that the box’s content would have healed their wounds (probably they heard the same voice). Mario ordered them not to open it, but they attacked him, forcing him to kill them all to survive.

Understanding or suspecting the dangerousness of the artifact, and probably realizing that the Templars would have launched a new offensive to recover it, Mario decided to move the box from that place. While he was returning on the surface, though, he heard again the same voice saying “REMAIN STILL", “CLEAR YOUR MIND" and “YOU WILL BE HEALED" (although his wound had already stopped bleeding). According to Mario, the voice did not seem hostile but gave him orders: he didn’t obey, although he was tempted to.

Eventually, Mario temporarily hid the Shroud in the Villa, until he asked his brother Giovanni to take it away. From that moment onwards, the box and its content would have been “the Brotherhood’s problem”.
In this episode we find several new information about the Shroud and, finally, some new, although indirect, interaction. Apparently the Shroud “speaks” in the head of people and it’s even able to persuade them to carry out certain “acts” in order to accomplish something that the Shroud itself suggests (for instance,0 “YOU WILL BE HEALED"). An unusual situation and some unusual abilities for a Piece of Eden about which I’ll try to give you my interpretations at a later time.