Who they were in the 16th-century
Madeline is the narrator.
Cordelia was the dishwasher and invited her to accompany her to England.
Somara was the bookkeeper for the Monastery.
Cyndy was the shepherd for four sheep.
Jill tended to the hens and chickens & the flower gardens.
Caren was a potter for the monastery in a separate building.
Mary Jo was in charge of the appearance of the chapel.
Karin was a counselor to the distressed brothers, but was exposed and expelled for deceiving authorities.

New characters:
Mary was Abbot Richard Whiting, the head of the monastery, who was partially hung, tortured, finally killed and buried at the top of the Tor.

Gloria was Brother Roger James who was beaten up when he went to a meeting with the henchmen of King Henry VIII and later was hung to his death on the Tor.

Anne was Brother John Thorne, an assistant to the Abbot who was hung to his death on one side of Abbot Richard, with Brother Roger on the other.


Previously: The group who had recently returned from a time travel experience into the 16th-century was on their way to the top of the Glastonbury Tor.

Their first option was a railless stairway about 400 feet long at about a 45-degree angle. They are walking to the opposite side of the hill, hoping to find an easier, safer access.

They have seen a group approaching them. There is something unusual about them. There is a bright glow around them. Cordelia and Madeline know this to be an aura, highly intense energy emanating from a person's physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual levels.

"Each was certain the other was thinking the same thing as she was.

This was confirmed as Cordelia walked toward Madeline. Cordelia was the first to enthusiastically share her inner dowsing sense. "Do you notice anything different in their aura?"

********
Cordelia responded to her own question. "Their aura travels out exceptionally far and is pure white.

"How can that be with the dark negative With Michael ley line crossing through here, I would never expect to find anyone with a clear, balanced aura."

I was feeling less alone in my vision. "Hopefully, we can investigate the cause. Cool, they are getting closer. Hello."

English responses were all, we thankfully heard.

"Hey." Her hat was lovely with different colored varieties of butterflies. I worked at not appearing rude as I stared at a few I recognized.

My thought on the subject is, if you wear a hat that looks like a poster made into a hat, expect to be stared at or studied.

"Hi." The sportily-dressed one had a baseball cap with the letters 'NY.'

"Hello." That lady had a flamboyant sun hat.

We returned the greetings. Next came our barrage of questions.

Cordelia began. "So, are you guys coming down from the top?"

The butterfly lady responded. "Yes, we finally made it back down. We went up those treacherous steps in the front of this monstrosity of a hill. Gloria," she pointed to the sporty one, "discovered there was a stairless back way up or down."

Gloria stepped closer to explain how she spotted the cement path heading downward. "Hi, yes, I knew anything would be better than that vertigo producing steep railess stairway, plunging downward."

Butterfly lady introduced herself and her other companion. Hmm, there were three of them, I noticed. Hmm.

"Excuse my rudeness, my name is Mary and this is Anne." She gestured with her arm extended.

Anne stepped forward and began shaking hands with everyone. "It is so good to meet you and possibly be able to share our bizarre experience."

In my jumbled head, I quickly made mental notes. Butterfly hat was Mary, Sports cap was Gloria and Sun hat was Anne.

I forewent the order of age for introducing us. It was something like 'introduce the oldest first, blah blah, blah.'

Instead, I just introduced myself and quickly went through the roll call and left it to everyone to make acquaintances. And they did. It was fun to see the enthusiasm, until the tone grew more serious.

Mary began the harsh declaration. "We are worn out. We do not understand what has happened to us since we got here.
"One of the most bizarre occurrences was on our first drive up this way. We did not know we were supposed to get a shuttle ride up here.

"We impulsively headed up toward the signs for the Tor. Our trip up the hill through downtown was worse than the ride back down.
"I don't think we even reexamined the distorted faces as we descended the hill, supporting the shops full of busy, preoccupied individuals."

Gloria agreed with the report. "We three had similar reactions to the townfolk. I heard inner screaming and Anne saw a sick green color around them."

Anne said, "There was an olive green fog around the whole town."

Mary switched the description of events to more current bodily symptoms. She spoke for the trio. "The strangest, most unnerving thing that happened was that the closer we got to the top of this Tor, the tighter our throats felt."

Anne added her description. "It was as if something or someone were clenching my throat right by my air pipe." She held onto her throat, as if she were reliving that life-threatening sensation. After taking a deep breath, she continued. "I began panicking when I experienced difficulty breathing."

Gloria claimed she began coughing and putting her hands to her throat. "I didn't know if I was allergic to something or the climb up had affected my breathing. I began wheezing as if there wasn't enough oxygen."

Mary summarized by saying, "We figured maybe the altitude was too much for us. Next, the most debilitating thing happened. I had just reached the top of the staircase, and I was hit with a case of vertigo like I've never had before."

Anne asked her if she'd ever had vertigo and Mary had to answer 'no.'

Gloria was showing concern for us. "So, we don't want to say too much and influence your trek up the path. I will tell you, the path we came down seems a lot easier than those death-defying steps we climbed.

"I will give you a head-up, though. The 45 degree angle hill is quite short, although the section where the path levels off is extremely long."

Mary said, Yuh, hopefully this place doesn't affect you the way it did us."

Gloria added an important fact. "As we examined each other, discoloration began to show itself on our necks, totally encircling each of our necks."

"Let's not forget, Gloria, your black eyes and swollen lips that creepily appeared." Anne shuddered as she pointed that out.

Mary said, "The worst was the excruciating physical pain we experienced, as we neared a plaque telling about some monk, I think his name was Richard, being buried there.

"I felt like my arms were being yanked out of their sockets. Fortunately, they have benches up there. I had to sit, my legs would no longer support me. I felt paralyzed.

"Gloria's face and jaw ached like a toothache, and she had humming in her ears making her feel nauseous and crazy."

"I had shooting pain from my tailbone to the top of my neck." Anne drew a line in the air with her finger to accentuate the extent of the area of pain.

All three looked at us and simultaneously asked the same question. "What would cause such a thing?"

As our group intensely took in all these three ladies were saying, it was becoming clear to us, who these three women were in the 16th-century.

But how to tell them was going to be the challenge.