The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

A Test of Resolve

Previoiusly: "Moonlit Madness" 

Guess we'll have to test it out on someone, Caleb says.

But what is "it"?

It's a strip of metal, the same size and shape as the ones that you've made to copy the minds and memories of other people: yourself, your dad, the Welches, Barbara Meek. The runes etched into its surface glisten and glitter.

"Did you try unsticking the next page with it?" you ask.

"Yeah, no go," Caleb says. "We're going to have to put it on someone."

You give him a steady look. "You didn't try it on yourself?"

His lips disappear. "You told me not to do anything until you got home."

With a sigh, you take the band from him and study it, as though the answer to some challenge will spring out if you just stare at it hard enough.

"Are the runes here the same as the ones earlier?" you ask as you flip the grimoire back to the earlier spell.

"Yes, exactly. There aren't any other instructions with this thing. You know, it's just a sigil we got out of it," he reminds you. "I didn't even know if we could make whatever thing it was it wants, so I tried everything. I tried one of the blank masks we got, then I polished up another one and tried it. I tried all the glues and pastes. This"—he points to the strip in your hand—"was the last thing I tried because those things are a pain in the ass to make. Figures the last thing I tried was the thing that worked."

"So maybe you just made another doohickey like the ones we already made."

He sweeps his bangs away from his forehead: a very "Stephan"-like gesture, one he makes when trying to hide his impatience.

"Yeah, maybe," he says. "Except it's a different sigil. That's the first thing I checked this morning, to see if it's the same sigil as one of the earlier ones. It isn't, all the sigils are different, as much as I can tell, and so's this one. I dunno," he adds in a tone that is suddenly filled with annoyance. "Maybe it is the same kind of thing. But there's no way to find out without trying it out."

And that's the hell of it. You remember the last time you tried out something in the book that you didn't understand, and the result turned your father to stone. You're really hesitant about taking that risk again.

Caleb seems to understand.

"Nothing says we have to keep going, Will," he says. "We could just put the thing away somewhere. Your jewelry box, or someplace, and we could go back to looking at the earlier spells. Maybe there's some detail in them we've been missing."

He shrugs.

"Or maybe we'll get lucky again," he says. "Like last night."

Next: "Looking Into the Dark" 

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"