The Grimm Dossier

Chapter 10 - The Bones

West Coast
Devonshire, Dartmoor
St George, Skirrid Inn
3 November 1898, 10:57 p.m.

Kyle turned away from the sight of the improvised dissection table and slid it across the room again. "Do you still need the bird's heart?" he asked as he then pulled up his case and placed it on the chair.

"I guess not." The doctor returned a little doubtfully. Kyle could already guess what images might be haunting his mind. There were countless, macabre, and truly bizarre practices in the arcane arts, among occultists or dark magic practitioners, where the fibrous boundaries to madness were crossed. Séances under the influence of intoxicants and trance states, offerings, and the use of mortal remains. Forms of cannibalism to necrophilia and another morbidity. Sophisticated mages and gentlemen shunned such methods. Kyle had come across such communities himself in his initial search for contact with the occult and had quickly refrained. That the thought of what an occultist might do to a heart made the doctor skeptical, he did not blame him.

Kyle instructed the doctor to draw the curtains, lock the door and then roll aside the old carpet. The slightly darker wooden floorboards drew a stained circle in the room. Meanwhile, Kyle undid the tight fastenings of his suitcase and carefully opened the lid.

Nestled in velvet red lining were countless reagents and items of various sizes and shapes. Inside the large lid, in compartments made for the purpose, were a handful of candles, a melting spoon, and a smaller book, its yellowed pages hanging inside the leather cover. Elongated vials of thick glass lay padded with velvet cloths in a holder. Some contained herbs, others were filled with liquids, two of them labeled "Holy Water" and "Consecrated Earth". Others contained dried mixtures of resins and incense. A small jar with a lid was held by a leather strap in the shape of a cross, with a wooden crucifix right next to it. A larger part was taken up by a noble mirror of shimmering silver, which of course was turned with the back facing outwards.

The other part of the suitcase was also filled to the last inch. Heavier items like a mortar and pestle, a small magnifying glass, and a handy sickle with a curved edge. A rabbit's foot lay in small compartments next to a small bag of semi-precious stones. A set of worn tarot cards was tied together with a ribbon. They lay next to a folded black cloth. A bowl of silver filled a larger area next to a crucible of salt. In it, wedged under the leather strap, lay a box of chalk and a tarnished horseshoe. Two hand-sized silver candlesticks nestled in two square squares, from which Kyle freed them with deft grips and handed them, along with their accompanying candles, to Dr. Archer. Then he freed a soft leather pouch from its prison in this smorgasbord of occult curiosities.

The doctor took his time to let his gaze roam over all the smaller and larger objects and ended up with a bundle of amulets tied together. The symbols, which came from a wide variety of faiths, nestled together on leather straps or thin chains. They formed a mess of brass, silver, and old copper.

"You collect a lot of trinkets," he remarked, his fingers reaching out to the hodgepodge of faith symbols. The amulets clinked softly as he slid them apart and looked at them one by one. Some engraved scriptures or whole symbols he recognized, such as an Egyptian ankh, a protective amulet of angels in three rings, reminiscent of orthodox crosses. But the rest was beyond the doctor's knowledge.

An amused snort sounded from Kyle. "THAT's not much, is it? That's all I could fit in that stupid suitcase. As a practicing mage, one must be prepared for all eventualities." he said, his voice resonating with pride, "There are endless paraphernalia, symbolisms, artifacts, and writings. Every spell we know has its roots in a different culture or belief system. Take, for example, the Seeing Mirror spell, through which one can see into other places. Every civilization we know uses different incantations, formulas, and paraphernalia. A shaman of an aboriginal tribe might burn herbs and scatter the ashes over the surface of a lake. A priest in ancient Egypt would sacrifice an animal and pour its blood into a bowl of gold filled with water from the Nile. And I use a silver mirror. Spells can differ drastically because of cultural influences or the era in which the spell was written down. Only the result is virtually the same."