The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

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Previously: "Losing Lucy" 

Melody Weiss proves to be a thin, pinched-looking the girl, the sort who probably organizes her social life around the library, and not because there's a cute work-study student at the checkout desk. She looks shiftily between you and the Gothic-type decor of Blackwell's library.

"I don't know why he said I was looking for Lucy," she says bluntly when you tell her what Blackwell said. "I was doing my research for him. He called me up last night and asked for an update, and then told me to pass it along to Lucy. Who are you again?"

"Another research assistant, I guess." You take a chance. "If you give your stuff to me I can pass it along to Lucy when I see her."

She shrugs and starts tugging a notebook from her backpack. "I was supposed to give it to Lucy directly, but I don't give a fuck. Here."

"Can you tell me what it's all about?" The notes she hands over to you don't mean much at first glance, and you pass them over to Will.

"Old estate records from England," she says brusquely. "Blackwell had me tracking down some antiquities that belonged to a duke back in the eighteenth century." She tells you a little more, but it doesn't sound like anything to do with the Libra until she mentions a collection of masks.

"I think he's got me doing research on the other end of this," you tell her. "What happened to these masks?"

"I don't know. Probably locked away in the Tower of London. They were at the center of some hushed-up political scandal during the reign of George I. All the records were burned, but this duke was one of the investigators. He might have kept them as a souvenir."

You're about to dismiss her with your thanks when you feel a gentle nudge in your ribs from Will. He brushes past you and Melody, and behind her back casts a meaningful glance over his shoulder. You buy a moment's time by asking Melody to expand upon one of the comments she'd made about the masks, and then the golem calls you from the kitchen, requesting your help.

"Yeah?" you mutter when you catch up to it. It points to a paragraph in Melody's notes, about the aftermath of that political scandal. It contains a reference to a book being pilfered from the duke's library upon his death, and from its description it sounds like it was the Libra.

"Ten to one that's what Blackwell is really interested in, the history of the book," your golem says.

"Why? He's already got it in hand."

"But he wants to know where it's been and what it's touched. What it's been used for."

You point to the paragraph. "It's just a footnote in her report."

"Then he's after other stuff, stuff we don't even suspect is out there. Or she's not telling him everything she's learned. Either way, I wanna know more -- or, I guess, you wanna know more. And once Blackwell is back in town we'll lose our connection to this girl and what she knows and what she'll find out for him."

"You're a devious son of a bitch, Prescott," you say, for you know exactly what he is proposing.

Using your new mask on Melody Weiss might be a waste of a precious resource -- you will certainly have to golemize it -- but it might score you an even more valuable resource: a spy on Blackwell

Next: "Old Scandals and New Discoveries" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"