ENTRY 27: THE TENSION
HEIGHTENS
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Dear friend-
It seems that we are
hunted again, and this time I fear for the safety
of my family. I received
a telegram from auntie; she mentioned that she
had spoken with G. She
also mentioned that she had let it slip that we
were in Cairo. This
is going to make our time in Cairo interesting; we
may be moving on from
here sooner than planned.
However, I am most concerned
about her welfare. These people are not
known for their subtlety
or their humanity. Is there any way you could
arrange to have her
well-being confirmed? I can't think of a way for
this communication to
be two-way, but I feel much better just knowing
that someone is there
in London on our side. Thank you a million times
over for all the help
you've been and continue to be.
Word on the street about
our friend Faraz is interesting; it seemed
that his shop burned
down around several years ago. He was burned quite
badly in the process;
he has a new shop now, and our hopelessly
American friend went
to visit him and purchase some old curiosities.
(Rather mundane, I'm
afraid.) The interesting part is the local
folklore states that
a demon burned down the old shop, and it has never
been rebuilt.
We also started some
testing of the artifacts we've managed to
collect. The rods
that we acquired are interesting; when crossed, they
give the holder a sense
of 'potency'. For the less rigid among us, they
seem to confer power
which aids in spell casting. The person holding
them can create a barrier
against physical touch (danger) extending
around 1/2 meter from
them; this takes up some of the energy. Our holy
friend used them to
'read our minds', in a way. While holding them, he
concentrated on expanding
his consciousness. After expanding as much
as he could, he asked
'Who am I?' internally. He got an answer from
each of us, describing
how we thought of ourselves.
After that, the rods
contained no power; they were 'empty' for both our
friend and myself. Time
will tell whether or not they 'recharge'. (We
all think they will.)
He also thought that
the interesting bowl might be used for scrying in
some way, so we experimented
with that. We wound up with nothing more
than a bowl full of
sooty water. Although, one interesting thing was
that when water is put
into the bowl, bubbles rose to the surface
(quite like a glass
of good champagne).
It was also his opinion
that the statue would be used for communication
of some sort, but I
must admit that none of us were too eager to find
out with what.
And that brings me to
my second piece of worrisome news. Before I
received the telegram,
our Museum colleague walked in on the rest of us
fiddling with the artifacts.
He became quite upset, and ran out of the
room. And out of the
building, and potentially out of the city;
subsequent search attempts
proved fruitless. We are all quite worried.
Our American friend also
found out that Bune accompanied C.E. to the
desert, but did not
return to Cairo with them.
While waiting for A.
to return, we performed yet another highly
unscientific act; we
hypnotized our American friend in hopes of gaining
some insight about what
lay beyond the mask. (While in London, he put
it on, went into seizures,
and required morphine to calm down. The
mask.... attached...
itself to his face. Quite horrifying. He remembers
nothing.) Unfortunately,
this proved not at all fruitful. Our holy
friend performed the
hypnotism, and could offer us no more than there
were actually holes
in his memory.
We have heard from our
contact here regarding potential magical allies;
he seemed nervous when
relaying this information. However, it was his
opinion that perhaps
a group called the sons of mamluks could help us.
We will see.
Our holy friend has also
purchased some books: a french translation of
the books of the dead,
an arabic tome called 'Magic in Egypt' (containing
tales of djinn, we assume),
and a latin translation of a book of
'portals'.
Still alive, though a
bit nervous....