Scourge: A Grim Doyle Adventure

Chapter 10

The following morning, Finneas Keltin rapped on each of their doors. He turned up the lights in the corridor as they stepped out.

“Madam Phoebe is waiting for you,” he said. “She needs help polishing.” He led them through the corridors to a grand room with an arched entrance. The woman who greeted them was reed slim with a face that was smooth and flawless, to the point she had almost no features at all. Her hair was long and golden and constantly shifted. Similarly, her long yellow dress was made of a material that shimmered with her.

“Good morning, Finneas.” Her voice was slow, and as she finished speaking her appearance dwindled, so much so that she almost faded from sight. Only her one sinth hand remained solidly visible.

Grim squinted, studying the faded parts of her.

“Cool,” he muttered.

Then the woman faded back in again.

“Come along,” said Madam Phoebe as she floated through the room. “Please put your goggles on. I find it quite challenging to remain visible to the human eye.”

Grim put them on, but her appearance didn’t really change from what he could already see.

They followed clumsily after her to a giant, wooden wardrobe that she unlocked with a skeleton key.

“Please take a conductor to clean, but be careful with them.”

They each took a different item — Grim a rod, Rudy a cane, and Treena a tall staff. He wasn’t particularly impressed. They all looked fairly old and had scratches on the surface.

Grim blew the dust off it. He sneezed.

“Conductors come in different classes. For instance, this one here,” said Madam Phoebe as she took Grim’s rod, “is marked with the symbol for earth. It is used for the following.” She pulled one of the switches on it. “Speaking with animals,” she said as she pointed it at a mouse that scampered across the ground. It stopped to look at her. “Be gone,” she said, and it slipped out the door. “Growing plants,” she said as she pointed at another switch, “and ground shakes.” Thankfully she didn’t demonstrate the latter. “There is a locking mechanism on each.” She flipped a lever near the bottom that caused the other switches to disappear. “Please ensure the conductors are locked before you begin cleaning. We can’t have you summoning winds, or casting ice pellets at each other.”

Grim slid his fingers along the device. “How are these made?”

“They’re made in the south...” She paused. “Aren’t you from the Southlands?”

Rudy butted in. “Well, they don’t really teach us things like that.”

The woman had that condescending look that adults get when they think they know better. “Perhaps they think it’s too complex for children.”

Grim pursed his lips and said nothing, but the first chance he had he’d take one of these apart to study it.

Too complex for some children maybe.

“And who carries the most powerful one?” Treena asked.

“I suppose Professor Pearl or Hyperia DeLay, the Baroness of Everstay. She invented sinth.”

With that it was time to get to work. They had to clean the various conductors — pocket watches, goggles, lights, rods, staves, and canes. Madam Phoebe would ask them to hold each one aloft to examine the shine. They would hold it while the woman examined their grip, the angle of the light, the position of the arm, posture, everything. Grim wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to do any more polishing. Madam Phoebe was very particular.