Audrey was in her bed, head centered on her pillow. She barely breathed. Her skin was pale and bloodless. She was like a corpse with a fever. Her vitality was burning itself away, and when it was done, she would be a cold husk ready for the viewing.

At her side, the misty eyed physician wrung his fingers together. Exhaustion marked his face.

“I gave her a sedative--an opium cordial.” the physician said. “In case she’s in any pain. It’s all I could think of doing.”

Joseph put a comforting hand on the physician’s shoulder. The physician hung his head in shame, like a schoolboy before his teacher.

“What is your name?” Joseph asked.

“I’m Dr. Felix Johns.”

“Excuse me, please.” Matthew muttered as he moved past Joseph and Dr. Johns to Audrey’s bedside. He took her cold hand and felt for a pulse.

“I’m Dr. Joseph Morton.” Joseph said. “That is Dr. Matthew Ernst, and my friend with the blue eyes back there is Dr. Martin Glass.”

Martin stayed by the door. He saw something when he entered the room that he couldn’t understand, and with the physician present he wasn’t sure if he should say what it was aloud.

“We are manesologists from Blackwall.” Joseph said. “And we are here to help.”

“I know who you three are.” Dr. Felix said. “Everyone knows who Ernst, Morton, and Glass are. You’re always in Illustrated Phantom Stories. I know your reputations. I would not have called you here if you three weren’t the only ones that could possibly save Audrey. She is in a terrible state, and it's growing worse, and I can’t do anything to help her. I don’t even know what’s wrong with her.”

“It’s alright, Dr. Johns.” Joseph said. “You’ve done all you can, all that could possibly be expected of you. The burden is now ours and ours alone. This was never a physical problem that a doctor could treat.”

“I’ve seen people die before.” Dr. Johns said. ‘But never one this young. Never in such good health. It isn’t right for this to happen. It isn’t natural.”

“You’re right..” Joseph said. “It’s not right and it's not natural. But we deal with things that aren’t right and aren’t natural every day. We’ll help her, Dr. Johns.”

“Dr. Johns, please go outside.” Martin suddenly said.

“He needs to go outside?” Joseph asked.

Martin nodded.

Joseph gently pushed the physician towards the threshold of the door. “Dr. Johns, tell Audrey’s parents that we’re examining her right now and we are not to be disturbed until we are done.”

Dr. Johns gave a sheepish nod and walked through the threshold. Joseph closed the door behind him.

“So what’s going on, boy?” Joseph asked.

Matthew suddenly spoke up. “I may have to revise my original hypothesis,” he said. “I don’t think this is a malady possessor. A full-body debilitation like this would be highly irregular for one. I see very little inflammation for a fever this bad. It’s not like she’s sick. It’s like the very life has been sucked out of her. It’s like all that’s left of her is the fever.”

“You’re right, Matthew, this isn’t a malady possessor.” Martin said. “Switch on your gaeite candle and you’ll both see what I saw when we walked in.”

Matthew unclipped his gaeite candle from his belt and flipped a switch. Silvery-white light the color of the moon filled the room.

A black silhouette covered Audrey Lewis from head to toe like a funeral shroud.

“What is that?” Joseph whispered.

“Is that her soul? No, no it can’t be.” Matthew said. “If that was her soul, and it was manifesting this strongly, then it should be decoupling. It should be forming a ghost before our very eyes, but it isn’t. This has to be the most thorough possession I’ve ever seen…but no, it can’t be that either. Possession doesn’t look a thing like this. Joseph? Martin? You two remember the Fox sisters?”

‘Yes.” Joseph said.

Martin nodded grimly. That had been one of their bad cases.

“The manes had such a strong grip on Leah Fox that she was speaking fluent Enochian, but it didn’t look a thing like this.” Matthew said.

“Yes, we remember.” Joseph said. “Under olprt radiance, odic particles let by the ghosts colored the nerves of their bodies. They both looked like cracked china dolls.” Joseph said. “But this is…well, it’s like if Esmee slept on top of her.”

“This is something the two of you have never seen before, but I have.” Martin said.

“You’ve seen this before?” Joseph asked.

Martin nodded.

“The Ror Raas calls this the death shadow. It is the state a man and his soul enter at the very moment of death, the instant he dies and his ghost lives. So quick and brief is the death shadow that it has only ever been observed by thaumaturgists in two respects: during the completion of the Abramelin Operation, or during natural death of a man carefully observed by psychic eyes.”

“This doesn’t seem very quick and brief.” Joseph said.

“Yes. That doesn’t make sense.” Martin said. “When we walked in, I thought we had arrived at the very instant of her death. Yet she lingers.”

Matthew suddenly leapt back.

“We need to stand away from her! Well away from her!” he exclaimed.

“What’s wrong?” Joseph asked.

“I’ll explain outside. Come on!”

Without another word, Joseph and Martin followed Matthew outside.

Audrey’s parents immediately sprang upon the manesologists.

“What’s wrong with her?” Mrs. Lewis asked. “Oh please, tell me you know!”

“Get back, please.” Joseph said. “We’re still in the middle of the investigation.”

“What do you mean?” Mr. Lewis asked.

“It’s hard to explain. But we need to investigate from out here, away from the girl.”

“I don’t understand. What’s going on? Is there a ghost inside her?” Mr. Lewis grasped at Joseph’s sleeve.

Joseph gently broke his grip with one finger.

“Please stay calm, Mr. Lewis.” Joseph turned to Dr. Johns. “Please take these two to another room in the house.”

“Any room?” Dr. Johns asked.

“Yes, just take them away. We need space to work. Please.”

Dr. Johns led Audrey’s parents down the hall. They slowly followed the physician and could not help but stare at the manesologists as they rounded the corner, as if their eyes could pull explanations out of them.

“What’s wrong, Matthew?” Joseph asked.

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“I fear what we’re dealing with is like a spiritual aneurysm.” Matthew replied.

“I don’t follow.” Joseph said.

“I think I know what you’re getting at.” Martin said. “But explain what you mean so I’ll know for sure.”

“Manesology has long known that there is a medium, poorly understood though it may be, through which the nervous impulses of the body and brain imprint upon the spiritual components of a ghost. There’s a botanist named Willhelm Pfeffer, he works out of the University of Tubingen, and he recently put forth a theory that a plant’s microscopic cells have fluidic membranes made of lipids and proteins. He called it a plasma membrane, and it works in such a way that it's permeable to some substances, impermeable to others. Pfeffer wrote a commentary on a manesological paper of mine in which he proposed that the medium between body and soul might also be a kind of membrane. This odic-biological membrane would allow the body to interact with the soul one way, and not another, and in doing so preserves the body just as a cellular membrane preserves a cell’s inner cytoplasm from being absorbed by surrounding fluid.”

“I see.” Martin said. “I had the same idea. The binding force that ties a soul to a body has been scraped off. Aneurysm was a good comparison, Matthew. The binding force isn’t gone, not completely, but it's weakened. Her soul is bleeding away and ravaging her body as it goes.”

"Then it’s a good thing we moved out here.” Joseph said. “The three of us are thick with spiritual residue. If there is such a thing as an Odic-biological membrane and if hers is scraped off, then our presence would be like rubbing dirt on a wound.”

Joseph turned to Martin. “Is this like anything your or the Ror Raas have seen?” he asked.

“No. This is a unique sort of horror. In a way, this is like the Abramelin Operation, where a thaumaturgist tries to separate his soul from his body without dying.”

Martin looked through the opened door at Audrey.

He took a long, deep breath.

He was looking at a dead girl. But did his two friends realize it? He wondered.

Matthew, maybe. But Joseph…

“This is awful, but from the standpoint of manesological inquiry, it's fascinating.” Martin said. “The death shadow is so rarely observed, so poorly understood, that what it actually is has been a matter of debate. Some say that it’s just like the Odic-biological barrier Matthew describes. Others say it's something created at the time of death, something that might be involved in nurturing the manes as it decouples, something like a spiritual placenta. But here, it’s lingering. It can be observed. I do not have the eyes of a true thaumaturgist, but I will still do my best to observe and take notes as she dies.”

Joseph glared at Martin. “Who the hell said she’s going to die?”

“Old man, I’m sorry, but look, if this was a possessor like we originally thought, we’d be rolling the dice. But this is something we’ve never encountered before. This is something no manesologist, or for that matter thaumaturgist, has ever encountered. We can’t save her. We can’t save her anymore than Dr. Johns can.”

Joseph narrowed his eyes. “I ought to slap you for that. You go on and on about “the sacrifice of Odin” this, “indescribable” that, but when it comes time to make miracles instead of talk about them, what do you do? You give up.”

“From her death we might learn something that’ll advance manesology. Don’t get upset about what’s staring at us in the face.”

“We’re going to learn nothing, because she’s not going to die.” Joseph unclipped his gaeite candle from his belt. “Since we can’t go in with her, I’ll cast the Darsar Operation so we can work over a distance.”

“Work what exactly?” Martin asked.

“The usual for when we don’t have a manifested ghost in front of us.” Joseph said. “We use the Aldi operation to pick up an Odic trace, then we use the Zacare Operation to call him in front of us.”

“Do you really think we’ll have time to pick up a trace before she goes?” Martin asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Joseph, it could take days.”

“It could take a day and a night if we’re lucky, and if she holds on long enough we can save her.”

“She’s not going to last that long and you know it.”

“Then go sit in the carriage and cry, boy. Matthew and I will do the work.”

“Damn it, old man, I’m just being realistic about what we’re dealing with and what we can do, and can’t do. Say we bring the manes that did this here. Then what?”

“Then we force him to undo what he’s done.”

“That’s assuming so much. That’s assuming we can communicate with the manes. That’s assuming the manes knows what he’s done. That’s assuming the manes can undo what hes done.”

Joseph looked at Martin silently for a moment. “You don’t want to try, do you?”

“I want us to use the Plosi Operation to make an impression of her death shadow on the Odic layer of the Astral.”

“Ah.” Joseph nodded. “I see. That way the magic men will be able to study later what’s going on here.”

“It’s for the best. She’ll die, but she’ll die having contributed to--”

Joseph suddenly slapped Martin across his face.

The young man recoiled and rubbed his stinging cheek. “What the hell did you do that for, you ape? You could have knocked my glasses off!”

“I was aiming to knock them off. I guess age has made me weaker than I thought. What are you thinking? The Plosi Operation would kill her as she is!”

“She’s dead anyway.”

“Everyone is “dead, anyway.” Everyone dies.”

“She has hours at the most. Damn it, Joseph! If there was something else we could do, anything else, I wouldn’t suggest the Plosi Operation at all!”

“There is something else. We work and we pray.”

“Her death will be meaningless if we waste what little time she has left on a fool’s chance!”

Joseph looked at Matthew. He hadn’t said a single word since they stepped outside the room. He just stared at the floor, lost in his own thoughts. Not even the slap broke his gaze.

“What are you thinking about, Matthew?” Joseph asked.

“I’m thinking about ways to repair her membrane. If we only had a model, a mental impression of what the Odic-biological membrane looks like, I think we could use the Ozien Operation to shape ectoplasm around the scrape like a bandage.”

“But we don’t have a model.” Joseph said.

“No, we don’t. We wouldn’t have the slightest idea what we would be doing. We’d likely kill her instantly if we tried.”

“Then what do we do?” Joseph asked. It always came down to Matthew to decide for the group whenever Joseph and Martin had a disagreement.

“What you suggested. We work and pray.”

Matthew looked at Martin.

Martin nodded his agreement. Martin the manesologist believed trying to capture the ghost was a waste of time, but that Martin came second to Martin the member of Ernst, Morton, and Glass.

“You can help us if you want, boy.” Joseph said. “Or you can go cry in the carriage, it's up to you.” Joseph knew that Martin would work with them, but he wanted to get another hit in. He was very disappointed in the boy.

Joseph closed his eyes and activated his gaeite candle.

The Dyeus warrior watched his enemies from across the sea. He feared the day they would finally meet, for in watching them, he grew to respect them.

The Darsar Operation.

Images of Audrey and her bedroom appeared in the olprt radiance that shined from Joseph’s gaeite candle.

Martin and Matthew activated their candles and added their light to Joseph’s own.

Together, Ernst, Morton, and Glass threw their thoughts onto the olprt radiance.

The Dyeus prince trudged through the wilderness. He could feel the target of his search pull away from him, but that was what he wanted. He didn’t want to catch him, he wanted to herd him towards the city where his grieving parents lived.

The Aldi Operation.

Martin gasped.

“There’s no trace!” he exclaimed. “There should be some Odic trace, even just a little one, but…there’s nothing!”

“I’m not detecting anything either.” Joseph said.

“Nor I.” Matthew said. “How is that possible?”

“There’s only one explanation I can think of for how someone spiritually assaults a person and then leaves without a trace.” Martin said. “They had to leave like you and me. They had to leave as flesh and blood, meaning they arrived as flesh and blood.”

“A human did this?” Joseph asked. “A living human?”

“Yes. And they’d have to have a considerable knowledge of the Astral world. They would have to be a manesologists or a thaumaturgist.”

“But why?”

“Why this family, why this girl, I don’t know, but ultimately I think it’s fairly obvious what they wanted. They wanted the death shadow.”

“So an insane manesologist, or perhaps a thaumaturgist, comes to Margate and attacks a random girl in her home just to see the death shadow? That doesn’t make sense.” Matthew said.

“I know it doesn’t make sense, but if there’s a better explanation, I’d like to hear it, gentlemen.” Martin said.

He turned off his gaeite candle.

“Why did you do that?” Joseph asked.

“Don’t you see? This is useless. Someone came in here last night as knowledgeable about the Astral world as the three of us, perhaps even more knowledgeable, and gave this poor girl a mortal wound upon her spirit. He’s killed her as surely as if he had shot her or stabbed her.”

“Turn your gaeite candle back on.” Joseph said. “Before I hit you again.”

Martin looked at Matthew. “Whoever did this would have known that we would come. He would have known how to make what he did untraceable and irreversible. Surely you see that, Matthew?”

“Please turn your gaeite candle back on.” Matthew said. “We will continue to look for a trace.”

Martin nodded. That was that, then.

He turned his candle back on and joined his friends in a long vigil.

Half an hour passed as they strained their thoughts over the image of Audrey. They searched for the faintest, smallest trace of Odic energy, the smallest particle of ectoplasm. They could find nothing.

But still they searched, even when Joseph had to sit down on one of Martin’s dogs, even when the hall became stiflingly hot with the heat of their occupation.

They didn’t notice Dr. Johns until he announced himself.

“Excuse me.” he said bashfully.

He cringed as the three manesologists turned to face him. It was evident from their perspiration and tired expressions that he had interrupted them while they were hard at work.

“The Lewis family asked me to check on Audrey. I know there’s nothing I can do, I told them that several times but…they still want me to look her over. May I?”

He glanced at the projected image of Audrey. He wasn’t going to ask about it. He figured the manesologists wouldn’t be able to give him an answer that would aleve his confusion.

“Take a look inside.” Matthew said.

Dr. Johns nodded and siddled his way inside the room. As he entered the room, he entered the projected image in the hallway.

The manesologists returned to the Aldi Operation. They paid little attention to the little man in their little projected image. They paid little attention until he started screaming.

Joseph caught Dr. Johns as he dashed out of the room. He had a great deal of experience with hysterics even before he became a manesologist.

“Calm down.” he consoled the physician. “Calm down, Dr. Johns. Remember the family.”

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis stood at the end of the hall. They ran to check on the scream.

“I’m fine.” Dr. Johns said to them. “They’re working very hard. This is a hard case. I saw something I didn’t understand and I screamed. But I’m fine now.”

Mr. Lewis nodded and then with slow reluctance took his wife by the arm and led her away. Mrs. Lewis didn’t want to move. She knew, as only a mother could, that her daughter was near her end, and all the work of the manesologists did was fill the minutes until the final moment.

But her husband’s gentle hand was hope, hope that the manesologists could save her daughter, hope that if she and her husband turned away and waited just a little longer that the manesologists would work a miracle. Just look away, and Santa will come with gifts. Just look away, and the faeries will work their magic.

Her husband’s hand was hope, and she grabbed it tight with both hands as it led her down the hall.

“I’m sorry.” Dr. Johns muttered to the manesologists. “I’m useless, but I don’t mean to be a hindrance as well.”

“It’s alright.” Joseph said. “Tell us what happened. We can see into the room but we didn’t see what you did. Tell us what happened, its very important.”

“I was checking her vital signs and I noticed that her breathing was faint, very faint, so I took out my pocket mirror, see? Here.” Dr. Johns produced a small circular mirror from his pocket. “I wanted to see her breath in the mirror. It’s a way to check breathing when it's very faint. But as I checked the condensation, I noticed that Audrey…had no reflection.”

Matthew took the mirror. He held it close to his gaeite candle. He worked the knobs on the gaeite candle’s metal base, turning one as far as it would go one way and another as far as it would go another way.

The hand mirror darkened as if gray mist clung to it.

Dr. Johns gasped.

“Where was she found?” Matthew asked. “Where was she found exactly?”

“She was found in the bathroom.” Dr. Johns said.

“And is there a mirror in the bathroom?”