British Gothic

An Unwelcome Gift - A First Impression, Part III

[Administrator, post reveals Hesselius family use of extrasensoryforces – Dr Zeiss]

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012, continued

Reader,

I felt the need to break off my last entry as Dr Hesselius paused histale. Martin rose after a few moments of silence and then asked, "Doyou want a bacon sandwich, Joseph?"

"Vegetarian, sorry," I replied, I knew I was in trouble ashis lips pursed. I was surprised then, as he left the lounge withoutgetting at me for this. I heard him in the kitchen, humming a tuneloudly but undeniably well, as the bacon fried. Order was restored tothe universe upon his return, when he passed me a cheese and lettucesandwich as he said, "Only a vegetarian could be a grown manafraid of water and forced to be a PA."

"I thought I was a valet?" I replied.

"Valets are better than personal assistants, Joseph, you earnthe right to be a valet," Martin riposted as he settled into hisseat. He is consistent, I will say that for him. He resumed the storyof George Harbottle.

*

I rushed back to my house, Stubbs drove us, and I ran to the guestroom's wardrobe as the valet waited downstairs. I threw open thedoors and scanned the spines for what I needed; I slid out JohannesTrithemius' The art of drawing spirits into crystals.My tool roll was in the guest room's chest of drawers, along withmany other items of magical miscellanea; the guest room was my occultcabinet. I packed all my treasures into my satchel and returned toStubbs; we raced back to Harbottle's place.

Once there, I went to the drawing room where Stubbs had placed thepainting on the coffee table here before we had left. A white sheetcovered it now, probably Harbottle's doing, though he was absent; hecouldn't stand to be watched any more. I lifted off the sheet, fishedmy tool roll from my satchel, and opened Trithemius' thin volume toscan its text. I unfurled the roll on the ground and got out a whitewax crayon. Around myself I drew a circle bordered by a largercircle, I could feel Stubbs wince at me drawing on the carpet. Myhand returned to my satchel and retrieved a compass, I used that tofind the cardinal directions; each direction I identified, I drew aStar of David at that point in the border. Between the Stars I wrotethe Tetragrammaton, then Elohim, then Adonai, and then the nameMichael in Hebrew. I looked to Stubbs, "Get me a mirror, a saucer,and close the blinds."

I got paper from my bag, tore it in half and poked a hole in it witha Gracey curette from my tool roll. On the paper I drew a circlebordered by a larger circle, in the border I wrote thirteen names forthe Judeo-Christian god. Inside the circle, in its lower half, I drewa big Star of David, then wrote Michael in there in Hebrew; in thenegative space around the Star I drew pentacles. The upper half ofthe circle had simply the Tetragrammaton again. (I kept writingMichael on everything because it was between 8pm and 9pm on a Friday,don't ask me why the archangel likes to hang about just before thewatershed.) I fed string through the hole and tied it off – thiswas my amulet. I hung it around my neck. From my satchel I retrievedtwo long candles; I held my lighter over their bases, stuck them tothe coffee table, and then lit them.

Stubbs returned with a mirror, theone which I think should have been by the front door, and a saucer.He laid the mirror next to me and the saucer on the coffee table, Ifelt his unease about the wax on what was undoubtedly an antique. Ina zipped compartment on the front of my satchel, I kept a silver ringon a necklace. I took this out removed the band from the necklace andplaced it on my left index finger. The ring's inscription wasLoquimur vobis per parabolas.(You will notice Joseph, this same ring on my hand today.) I held myleft hand over the mirror and intoned, "Occillo!"A shock wave flew from my hand. The glass shattered into large piecesand Stubbs gasped. I carefully lifted out the biggest fragment, thenlaid it over the painting. Harbottle entered the room slowly, Icaught him out the corner of my eye.