Gathering Storms: Machinations, 05 Apr 1870
Tuesday, 05 Apr 1870
Pickering Townhouse, London
Early evening
Thackery wakes to find the canopic jars he's taken into his room are missing. He calls the servants up and demands their return. Cowed, the servant who took them to be displayed downstairs brings them back up and is brusquely sent off to his duties. Thackery is quite in the jars' thrall and he has an overwhelming urge to stroke and hold one in particular. Thackery issues one last command to the staff: Fetch Mad and Madder Hatters.
Finch & Son
No. 3 Old Burlington St.
London
A little while later
There is a knock on the Finches' kitchen door and upon answering, they find one of the Pickering servants, a stableboy of about 12 or 13, standing there with Thackery's summons. They are to bring something that can capture spirits, he says. Please come.
Pieter immediately gathers up his Mitchelson Resonator, now attached to the bicycle chain drive, and loads it up into a little pony cart while Ariadne feeds the boy the remains of their supper. He's a growing boy, she says, of course he's hungry. When Pieter has everything loaded, Ariadne drives the cart to the Pickerings's while Pieter fiddles with the Resonator in the back, altering it to capture spirits in the Resonator chambers. By the time they arrive, Pieter is done.
They are allowed into the townhouse and told to set up where there is room. They were summoned to capture the spirits clinging to the jars so Thackery might talk to them.
Pieter jumps on and starts to pedal, powering the device. The faster he pedals the stronger the device is and soon enough, one of the chambers glows orange and misty as it captures Belle's ghost fiancé. Another chamber glows a different color and starts to rattle its lid. It has trapped the Egyptian spirit attached to the canopic jar Thackery is enthralled by. Pieter pedals faster to give the Resonator more containment power and the rattling settles.
Meanwhile the fiancé talks to the trapped Egyptian spirit and learns the story:
The Egyptian man was dying of a wasiting disease and he had himself mummified and his organs sealed in the jar (that Thackery is holding) to be reanimated later. Because he could not bear life without his wife, he had her mummified and jarred too. The destroyed manuscript held instructions on how to reanimate his spirit into a fleshly mortal body again. Once he has a translation in the hands of his minions, he and his wife can live forever. The Egyptian begs us to go to the British Museum where another such manuscript can be found.
Thackery vetoes the idea after Isabelle repeats what her fiancé has said.
The Resonator chamber with the Egyptian starts to rattle and shake alarmingly. Pieter pedals all-out, trying to contain the spirit who is now angry. Belle's fiancé urges her to convince Thackery to go to the Museum and translate that other manuscript. That way he can be reanimated and marry her. Isabelle isn't keen on the idea of being married to anyone, but that Resonator chamber looks fit to explode any second and Pieter is gasping on the pedals.
Thackery relents and agrees to reanimate the Egyptian and his wife, provided they negotiate the price for his services later. The fiancé tells the Egyptian, the Egyptian tells the fiancé his account number in the Bank of London. Thackery rips a piece of wallpaper free of the wall and writes the number down when Isabelle recites it back to him.
Also, the fiancé announces through Isabelle that Old Mrs. Prichard two doors down has died and her spirit is complaining that her remains are being nibbled upon by her eight cats. The poor dears are hungry and they need to be fed. Won't someone come and take care of them?
Thackery agrees to the deal, the container quiets, and Pieter gratefully stops pedaling. All the spirits dissipate. Pieter is blowing hard. When asked he accepts a drink to cool down and once revived, goes outside to find a bobby to report Mrs. Prichard's death.
Meanwhile, Thackery has a few words he wants to say to the fiancé and Ariadne gets on the bicycle to pedal the Resonator. No this won't do, Thackery insists and summons the stableboy to take her place. The stableboy arrives and catches sight of Ariadne's booted ankles as she pedals and stares slack-jawed. Thackery abuses him verbally to snap the boy out of it. The stableboy takes Ariadne's place and the fiancé is trapped in one of the chambers and browbeaten by Thackery. Satisified he's avenged Isabelle's honor, he orders the stableboy off the bicycle and hires him to accompany them to the museum on the morrow.
Outside the townhouse, Pieter has found a bobby and despite the policeman's suspicions, manages to convince him to investigate two doors down. Pieter accompanies the policeman inside and sure enough, the poor old woman is found face down on the carpet on the floor above, her extremities nibbled upon by her eight meowing cats. The cats have knocked over all the flower vases to get at the water inside and everything has been lapped dry. The old woman lived alone and did not entertain guests often. Had Isabelle's fiancé not warned her, it would have been many more days before anyone would have thought to check on Mrs. Pritchard.
Of course, the policeman is highly suspicious of Pieter. How did Pieter know about the body when he isn't even from the neighborhood and did not know the woman? Where did he get his information, unless he was the culprit who did the poor woman in? Pieter explains he is a scientist and works for Colonel Pickering, has a lab at the Lambeth installation, and is also a member of the Royal Society. The high standing of the Colonel saves Pieter from arrest and he is treated with more deference after that.
He is told, however, to remain in town and to be available for further questioning. He is allowed to leave and Pieter rejoins the group at the Pickerings'. When he hears of the trip to the Museum, he offers to use his new standing as a member of the R.S. to unlock any doors to exhibits not generally available to the public.
As Pieter's R. S. credentials would suffice admirably for our purposes, a daylight trip is agreed upon. Everyone can get underway at a decent hour, instead of breaking into the museum in the middle of the night. On that note, everyone packs up for home and bed.
Wednesday, 06 Apr 1870
Pickering Townhouse, London
Wee hours
There is a loud crash in the wee hours of the morning. Thackery wakes up and grabs a lamp and a pistol, and leaves his room to investigate. Isabelle is woken at the same time and the two run into each other in the hallway, frightening both.
Never mind. Let's go.
They creep down the stairs and spy a small light moving in the dining room. Thackery goes in first by the front entrance of the room, declaring loudly, "Who's there?"
Isabelle enters the room via the butler's pantry, under cover of Thackery's distraction. She sees 2 shadowy figures by the sideboard. Isabelle chucks a plate at them. It hits one of them and there is a muffled grunt.
A shot suddenly rings out and wood splinters in the doorjamb over Isabelle's head.
Thackery sees the muzzle flash at the sideboard and he tries to shoot at the gunner. He hits. There is a louder grunt.
No one breaks cover.
Thackery fires again and hits his target. A body hits the floor with a loud thud. The other figure flees, throwing himself through the dining room window, taking the curtains with him.
Thackery and Isabelle turn up the gaslights and see a small swarthy Egyptian man curled up on the floor around one of the canopic jars. He bites down on a cyanide tooth and dies frothing at the mouth and writhing.
Finch & Son
No. 3 Old Burlington St., London
At the same time …
Ariadne is woken by the sound of something cracking and she bolts upright in bed, waking Pieter beside her. They quit the bed and go down to investigate. Pieter creeps ahead, holding a cricket bat at the ready, Ariadne hefting something heavy she picked up on the way out the bedroom door.
They find two strange men in their front room. Pieter leaps forward and hits one of them twice with the cricket bat, knocking him out. As he engages with the enemy, the other man grabs Ariadne around the waist from behind and puts a knife to her throat. She elbows him in the ribs, causing him to fall back into the hutch, dropping a bit of heavy crockery on his head. She gets knicked by the knife but is not seriously wounded. Her attacker jumps out the front window and runs away. Pieter trusses up the unconscious home invader and calls for the police. The police arrive and drag the thug off.
Pieter manages to avoid having a panic attack at the sight of his wife bloodied. He puts one of his medical silk moths on her neck and it patches up her wound.
Pickering Townhouse, London
Thackery investigates the rest of the household, wondering how the two thugs had managed to break in. In the kitchen he finds Cook out cold, draped over the table. There is a stink of ether in the air and Thackery realizes that she's been knocked out. He throws a heavy pan through the window to let the fresh air in and goes to find the other servants. They've all been knocked out by ether.
Isabelle meanwhile has run outside to chase down the thug who jumped out the window but he manages to slip away into the shadows. She returns empty handed.
When she walks in, she finds Thackery upbraiding the Butler for leaving the house undefended. The Butler calls the police. The police arrive and see the body in the dining room.
Ooops.
Explanations are offered and statements are taken.
The bobby on the scene notices the canopic jar in the dead man's clutches and inquires where it came from. Thackery explains that he had acquired it the usual way and had intended to present it to the British Museum as a gift. As this sort of donation happens frequently—indeed, it's the main method by which museums build their collections—the story is good enough to release Thackery and the household from suspicion. The bobby assigns two policemen to guard the front door.
Thackery tells the police that two of his canopic jars were stolen, to the tune of 300 pounds each. The bobby promises to look for them. He orders the body removed and a detective sent over. Thackery demands the detective to delay until at least 10 a.m. in the morning, when it would be a more decent hour for visitors.
The bobby relents, leaves his card in case Thackery remembers anything else to add to his statement, oversees the body's removal, and leaves.
Whilst waiting for the police to arrive, Thackery had gone through the dead man's pockets and in one of them he finds a scrap of paper with the Pickering address and the Finches' address written on it. Once the police leave, Thackery dispatches the stableboy (still woozy from the ether) to warn the Finches of possible danger.
Finch & Son
The stableboy staggers to the Finches to tell them about a possible attack, only to find that an attack has already occurred and the Finches patching themselves up. Ariadne takes in the boy's condition and makes him sit down with bread and butter and hot tea to revive him.
A detective is sent to the Finches and he investigates the front room. Ariadne cannot override her curiosity and she follows in the detective's footsteps to observe him at his work. The detective is very sharp and finds evidence that others would miss. Ariadne manages to find a piece of linen torn from the thug's clothing as he went through the window. She wraps it up on a piece of silk—to insulate it from aetheric disturbance—and plans to get the Colonel to examine it thaumaturgically in the morning. It could be that sympathetic magic can tell them who the thug was and where he might be, as well as who the man was working for.
Pieter sends the stableboy home, his errand completed. Ariadne sends him along with a sandwich. Pieter sends him along with a pound coin. The stableboy leaves with a very big, if sleepy, grin. Pieter has a message sent to the glazier to fix their front window in the morning. He and Ariadne board up the window for the nonce and go back to bed.
Wednesday, 06 Apr 1870
Lambeth Labs, London
9:30 a.m.
Pieter demonstrates his modified Mitchelson Resonator, proving it can capture and contain ghosts. The Colonel is in attendance and is pleased with Pieter's results. Pieter hits on an idea to concentrate power into just one of the four chambers and the increased power actually achieves a partial solidification of the ghost thus captured.
Pieter explains he has an appointment at the BM and that leads him to relate the break-in during the night. Would Pieter bring Thackery round at 3 p.m. today? the Colonel asks. In the meantime, the Colonel drafts a letter of introduction for Pieter on the spot, saying it will allow Pieter and his party access to the more secure exhibits and collections at the Museum.
They briefly discuss the usefulness of Pieter's modified device and the Colonel orders Pieter to invent a version that can contain ghosts … and then explode on command.
Wednesday, 06 Apr 1870
Pickering Townhouse, London
A more decent hour
Thackery wakes and orders the Butler to repair the damage done to the dining room. It wouldn't do to have Mrs. Pickering come home from her holiday to find the room in a shambles, would it? Thackery authorizes money for the repairs and sends the Butler off to get them underway.
Thackery's friend Marty arrives soon afterward asking for help. He was asked by a wog the other day to translate this odd thing, he explains, and pulls out another manuscript from his jacket. It's very much like the manuscript that Varney threw into the fire and looking at it, Thackery is thrilled to discover it's part of the same book, written in Aramaic and Egyptian. His friend Marty was offered 50 pounds to translate it. Would Thackery help?
Thackery tells him to keep the money, he'll get back to him in two weeks with the translation. Keep it on the hush-hush. Let no one know of this manuscript or translation. Marty tells Thackery that he'll take him somewhere nice for dinner in payment.
Thackery sees his friend to the door and gleefully runs upstairs to his room to translate the MS. The psychic goad to translate, to free the souls trapped in the jars, quite takes him over. Such that he doesn't answer the door when the maid taps on it to check on him.
She wakes Isabelle in turn—sleeping in after her long night—and informs her that her uncle isn't answering his door. Isabelle grumbles and gets out of bed to roust her uncle. What could be wrong with him now?
She knocks and calls. He recognizes her voice and hastily throws the bedcovers over the MS and his notes (both on his bed). He calls out for a moment to allow him to dress and he hustles around the room, lighting incense and dons a cross before answering the door. He blocks the view of his room with his body and speaks through the cracked door.
Isabelle says the servants are asking if he's all right. He's acerbic and mean in his reply. The servant girl who followed in Isabelle's footsteps is dejected. She has a secret crush on Thackery and she goes back to work dispiritedly when she's dismissed. Thackery dismisses Isabelle, who will not be dismissed. She's not a servant. Let her in.
No.
She persists and Thackery eventually lets her in. He sprawls across his bed to further hide his activities. She suspects he's involved in something secretive. Did he tear pages out of the MS before Varney burned it? Or … maybe a piece got salvaged from the fire when no one was looking? She circumspectly asks him to put aside his current obsession so they can tackle the British Museum trip.
No.
Thackery insists he's looking at naughty Greek pottery etchings. It would not be proper for her to see them.
Isabelle desists though she's unconvinced and leaves.
Finch & Son
At the same time …
After the glazier has come and gone, the shop bell over the front door rings and Ariadne walks in to find an Egyptian woman has entered the shop. She asks for Pieter. Already hinked by the wee hours break-in, Ariadne stalls the woman, prattling on about her husband's work, showing the woman all the examples hanging on the walls in the front of the shop. The Egyptian woman is not fooled and ensorcells Ariadne asleep. Once Ariadne is laid out on the kitchen table, the Egyptian rifles through Ariadne's workshop looking for Pieter's inventions.
Ariadne resists the spell, blinks awake, and grabs the nearest object she can find: her solid maple rolling pin. She accosts the Egyptian and throws the rolling pin at her head. The Egyptian woman tells Ariadne that she is not here to kill. She attempts to bespell Ariadne asleep again. This time Ariadne resists completely, feeling only a slight disembodied tap on her forehead. Seeing her spell didn't work, the Egyptian woman sweeps out.
Ariadne dresses quickly out of her houseclothes to go out to find Pieter. Pieter walks in just as she is about to step out. Ariadne tells him what happened. He suggests making an Aetheric Disruption Field to dispel spells before they can hit their target.
Oooh, good idea! Ariadne is all over that one.
Pieter has to dissuade her from working on it immediately, for they are to go to the Pickerings' to gather Thackery and Isabelle for the BM trip.
Pickering Townhouse, London
Near noon
Thackery hides the MS in his room, forbids the staff to clean or enter his room, and is nasty to them all to repel them from having anything to do with his belongings. Pieter and Ariadne arrive and Thackery throws more verbal abuse on the staff to ensure they do not meddle in his room while he is away.
The party leaves.
At the Museum, they are met by the Director and Pieter offers his Letter of Introduction. The Director reads it and confers Pieter the proper deference. What rooms do you need, sir? he asks. Egyptian Antiquities, please.
The party is escorted to the Egyptian Wing. On the way, Thackery is introduced and the subject of his studies comes up. What interests do you have, Professor Thackery? Egyptian translation. Hieratic and Hierogyphics, especially those that deal with Anubis.
The Director shows us into a special locked room with Egyptian rarities and we are given the keys to the wing. Thackery makes a beeline to an item in a case off to the side. He quickly scribbles down a translation as the others talk and then immediately turns around and says he's done, it's time to leave.
And all before Pieter can have a proper conversation with the Director.
Humph!
Thackery throws money at Isabelle to take herself and the Finches somewhere for luncheon whilst he himself takes a cab straight back home. He marches out of the room and Pieter turns to the Director with apologies. So sorry, but Thackery is acting a little … not himself. On a hunch, Pieter asks the Director to show him what Thackery had been looking at. The Director leads him to the case. Pieter peers at the object. Canopic jars. Hmm. Could it be translated please?
A Mr. Harris is summoned and is very enthusiastically helpful with an explanation and on and on and on….and on. Ariadne soaks it in with a rapt expression and leads Harris away so Pieter can question the Director undisturbed. Pieter gives the Director his card with directions to let him know anything he can find out about the canopic jars.
The party leaves, much to Mr. Harris's disappointment—Ariadne's attention was very gratifying—and luncheon is had before they turn for home.
Little do they know, the Egyptian woman Ariadne encountered has managed to kidnap Thackery upon his return home. She's taken his notes and the MS. She's got him chained up and makes him translate the MS. Already enthralled by the spirit in the canopic jar, he's all too happy to do it.
Isabelle and the Finches arrive at the townhouse a little later and notice that the policemen assigned to the front door are not there. They rush inside and find the study ransacked, Thackery's room likewise treated, and Thackery himself gone. Isabelle hurriedly searches the house and the grounds, looking in all the places she knows her uncle is wont to hide. No Thackery.
Pieter searches the stable and finds the two bobbies asleep in the hay. He questions them and they say that an Egyptian woman put them to sleep. They describe the woman and Ariadne confirms it is the same woman who accosted her.
Isabelle's ghost fiancé appears and tells her about the Egyptian. The party is at a loss as to how to find Thackery.
Elsewhere:
By the end of the first day of his captivity, Thackery translates until he passes out. He's managed to translate the MS. It's all about "Binding the Eternal Soul".
On the second day of his captivity, he's given food and water to allow him to continue translating. He's given a second MS to translate. It is directions on how to keep the soul from making a full transference.
And thus the page count grows, bringing the Egyptians closer to their goal …
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