Now, Hy-Jinx has had this mask placed upon her before, in the bell tower after she had been mortally wounded by an ice missile fired at her by one of the butt-naked tattooed barbarian sorcerers. The mask had at that time had a healing spell placed on it, a healing spell specifically placed on it by Hood, as a means of keeping Madeleine alive and breathing - a slow but constant drain on Hood’s magical resources. It should come as no surprise then that, since the apparent demise of Madeleine, Hood has removed this enchantment as a means of claiming back some of his energetic expenditure. Clearly, however, there is more to the mask than simply just this: the strange undulating dark threads, the recent monstrous mud pile, being cases in point, and, moreover, it appears to be part of some wider collective to which we may refer, using our awareness at least, to Madame Masque and Masqued Maerin. But this is all by the by, and what is currently worrying Hy-Jinx, sitting now as she is in total darkness on a stone cold bench, with wet water seeping into the seat of her already damp britches, aware that there are seven people in the immediate vicinity who are wishing to, at the very least arrest her, what is worrying Hy-Jinx is that nothing is happening.

“Err,” she says aloud partially to herself, but partially in hope that the mask is…is listening? “If you’re going to do something, it might be a good idea to do it around about now.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Are you talking to us?” comes an aggressive voice from a guardswoman who must be, judging by her voice’s direction, volume and clarity, approximately twelve feet and closing, off to Hy-Jinx’s left.

“They definitely seemed to suggest this course of action,” Hy-Jinx says to herself, trying to reassure herself as to the validity of the decision she has made in removing her glasses and placing on the mask. And just at this point, for some unknown reason, a memory of Madeleine standing at the side of the underground canal, having just alighted from Madame Masque’s boat comes to Hy-Jinx’s mind. A memory of a strange cat like shudder that ripple ran through Madeleine’s body. Perhaps it is the simple act of sitting waiting for the Mask to do something that has caused the memory to arise, for Hy-Jinx was waiting at the time for Madeleine to give orders, and she remembers distinctly that strange spasm which caused a change in Madeleine’s persona and body language. And in recalling this memory Hy-Jinx suddenly realises what to do, or more correctly, what not to do. Sitting thus, Hy-Jinx lets go of Hy-Jinx, feels her awareness sink into her body and a ripple of something that she can only describe as fire spreads up her spine and out into her whole skeletal structure.