Whyborne: A History

[onefortheland]

BEFORE THE SERIES
Percival Endicott Whyborne was born on Halloween in 1870 to parents Niles and Heliabel (Endicott) Whyborne, a prominent railroad tycoon and socialite from Boston each respectably. Heliabel fell ill while she was pregnant, causing him and his twin sister to be born early. His twin, Persephone, was said to have died shortly thereafter. Heliabel asked Niles permission to name after “the best of all Arthur’s knights, the one who found both true love and the Grail”. Whyborne was a sickly child and thus spent a great deal of time with his mother in his childhood. She in turn shared with him her love of books, and when he proved interested, taught him Greek and Latin in order to read the great works as close as possible to their original forms, “rather than as bloodless translations censored to match the modern idea of morality.” They spent hours together discussing literature and the ancient gods and she was only too amused when as a small boy Whyborne constructed altars in the yard to Pan and Bacchus.

Of course, not all of Whyborne’s family was quite so endeared to him as his mother. The rest of his siblings, his older siblings Guinevere and Stanford, took after their father’s more outgoing character instead. Guinevere and her friends would constantly tease him (“there’s my sister Percival”), but Stanford took the bullying further, going so far as to dangle him from the top banister of the house or pelt him with rocks, for example. Stanford was Niles’ shadow, and instead of getting a reprimand for his torment of Whyborne, Whyborne himself instead was told to stop being so “girlish”. Niles hoped such treatment of his youngest son would help him build character, but instead it only served to push him further and further away from any connection he felt with the family outside of his mother.

Growing up, Whyborne’s father had a close friend by the name of Addison Somerby, who was also Whyborne’s godfather. Addison had a son named Leander, who could perhaps be counted as one of Whyborne’s only childhood friends. Only two years younger than Leander, Whyborne knew him all of his life. They grew up together and would explore the grounds of Somerby estate together every chance they got, Leander dragging Whyborne on all sorts of adventures outdoors that he might never have attempted otherwise. He was never a very athletic person but he made an attempt for Leander, riding horses, skipping stones, and wading in the streams. One spring Leander became convinced that someone was performing blasphemous rituals on the island in the center of the lake of the Somerby estate, and thus came up with a plan. They would take his boat out on Walpurgisnacht -- the so-called witch’s sabbath, May Eve -- to catch the evil-doers in their act. To Leander, it seemed a grand adventure. For Whyborne, it seemed another opportunity to get his friend to himself -- a friend who he was secretly in love with and had been for some time then. When night fell though, a storm came as well, dangerously churning up the lake thrashing the water about. The boat capsized on them and Whyborne managed to get back inside but did not have enough strength to save Leander -- they had to drag the bottom to recover his body. It is a loss that Whyborne feels even to this day, blaming himself for Leander’s death. If he had not loved him, if he had not wanted him, he would not have gone along with the scheme, he would not have been so desperate to prove himself to the other boy and they would not have been out in that boat, where Leander had met his fate.

As Whyborne describes it himself, there was no falling out with his father, largely because there had never been any “in” to fall out of. His father expected him to behave in a certain way and he says that he did try, when he was younger. But once he grew older he realized how futile it would be. He clung to the hope that the only thing to do was to bear it and hope that one day he could escape. Not long after Leander died, Whyborne was informed he was to attend Widdershins University and study law. Upon graduation, he was supposed to join his father and Stanford in the family business. But Whyborne refused. He told his father he was not going to do any of those things. His mother sold some of her jewelry to pay for his education since his father refused to give him so much as a penny ever again, and upon graduating from secondary school Whyborne went off to Miskatonic University to study comparative philology, before he graduating and finding a job soon thereafter at the Nathaniel R. Ladysmith Museum back in his hometown of Widdershins, Massachusetts.

WIDDERSHINS: BOOK ONE
Whyborne meets the handsome private detective Griffin Flaherty when Griffin is called in on a case to investigate the mysterious death of the son of one of the board members of the Ladysmith museum. The only clue as to his untimely demise is an old book, written in an unknown language and code. Griffin has been assured that Whyborne is the best in his line of expertise, he says, and quickly ropes Whyborne in on the investigation of the mystery of the death as well. Whyborne, for all that he has sworn himself off of his attraction to other men, cannot help but feel drawn to his attraction to his handsome partner, for his part.

Whyborne eventually determines that the book is much older than they had assumed at first, and is actually a grimoire, titled the Liber Arcanorum, written in a mixture of Latin and Aklo, a language whose origins are speculative at best but allegedly its main use was as a means of secret communication amongst medieval cults. It contains within it a number of spells and alchemical treatises, all of which Whyborne writes off initially as nonsense until he and Griffin, on one of their investigations into the case, run face to face into a Guardian -- one of the creatures mentioned in the Arcanorum, constructed through a spell from bits and pieces of chemical and animal bone to be a mindless servant of the creator.

Griffin reveals he has been investigating this case for some time now, and that he knows who is behind the crime -- a cult known as the Brotherhood of the Immortal Flame. Griffin had once been a Pinkerton in Chicago, and he and his partner together had been on the case of a missing girl when they had run afoul of the Brotherhood themselves. While investigating the dungeonous basement of one of their hideouts, he and his partner encountered a terrible creature the likes of which Griffin cannot describe even now. It dissolved his partner alive and managed to burn a scar into Griffin’s leg before he managed to escape himself. When he tried to tell the Pinkertons what had happened, when they went back to investigate the creature and his partner’s remains, they just found his skeleton and an empty basement. They determined that he broke under the strain, he says. After seeing the Guardian and reading the Arcanorum, however, Whyborne reassures Griffin that he believes him. The things that happened are terrible but they are real, and therefore can be approached with logic and reason -- it is a reaction to the situation for which Griffin is terribly grateful.

Whyborne decides to teach himself one of the spells out of the Arcanorum to prove his point, choosing what the book describes to be a novice spell. Invoking the “secret name of fire”, with this spell he is able to set any combustible material alight. And it works, surprisingly easily for him at that. Of course, the day after Whyborne teaches himself this spell he is called to put it to use to defeat another Guardian, this time one who has snuck in with a thief, intent on stealing something from the museum. Together, he and Christine kill both the thief and the Guardian, although it means revealing everything he knows about magic and the Brotherhood to her as well. Sitting together with Griffin to try and reason out what the Brotherhood must have been after at the museum, they soon come to the conclusion that it must be the mummy that Christine has recently come back from Egypt with, a mummy that there will be a gala for the exhibition of in a few days’ time. He is the pharaoh Nephren-ka, also known as the Black Pharaoh, for his dealings with black magic and his worship of the chaos god Nyarlathotep. The Brotherhood has been stealing bodies from cemeteries, both for the creation of Guardians and also, they reason, as practice for the raising of Nephren-ka as their final act.

Their investigation continues, bringing them first to Griffin’s informant, Madame Rosa, the madame of a brothel by the docks. Whyborne agrees to go along with Griffin under cover, but quickly becomes jealous when the other man disappears upstairs, ostensibly to “pay a visit” to the madame. He gets very drunk and wins a lot of money at cards and nearly gets mugged on the street for said money before Griffin saves him and takes him home. Reassuring him that he was in fact only speaking with her as his informant, nothing more. Whyborne feels a fool and they hardly talk for several days, Whyborne’s mood cluing Christine in that something had happened and she demands him explain. When he does she reassures him that he is hardly the only one to ever make a fool of himself in front of a handsome man, revealing that yes in fact she does know of Whyborne’s feelings towards men, and reassuring that no, she does not think anything less of him for them. The pair of them share a bond in that they stand outside of what society dictates for them, Christine being a woman in academics and science and Whyborne with his romantic feelings for other men. She urges him to discover whether Griffin feels the same way, and declines to accompany them on their next adventure to the abandoned house where Madame Rosa bid them investigate.

When they get there, there are signs of the Brotherhood but the house seems empty. They investigate all but the basement, saving that for last due to Griffin’s claustrophobia -- but Whyborne determines it to be a trap. They are attacked and nearly do not make it out, save for some quick thinking in which Whyborne fills the house with gas from the gas lights and then explodes the place with the fire spell. They pair of them have leaped out the window together and are watching the blaze from just outside when they share a moment together, a moment which leads to a kiss, and then to Griffin inviting Whyborne back to his house with him and the pair of them sleeping together. During their love-making, Griffin calls Whyborne "Ival", which he reveals after the fact is a name he had thought up for him to use in such moments, since he knows he dislikes his given name and calling him by his surname while in the throes of passion seems wrong. When Whyborne wakes the next morning he explains his history with Leander and what happened and why he had expected disaster out of being together with someone, all of which Griffin is terribly understanding of. Their relationship develops and Whyborne spends more time at Griffin’s than his little apartment. The case develops too and they determine the Brotherhood has also raised the patriarch of Widdershins from the grave, Theron Blackbyrne, a man who founded the town after fleeing Salem, being suspected in the witch trials there. A man whose grave has the mark of the Brotherhood on it as well, suggesting maybe Widdershins was not the only thing he founded.

Griffin wakes Whyborne screaming and shaking in the middle of the night, in the throes of a night terror, crying that he does not send him back to the madhouse and that is when Whyborne finds out that the Pinkertons had not only suspected Griffin had lost his mind after the encounter with the demon in the basement, but they had him condemned for it. Griffin is mortified for the reveal and is convinced Whyborne will leave him for the knowledge that he had been in an asylum, that he has fits because of it sometimes, but Whyborne reassures him he does not think anything less of him for it himself. Griffin reveals more of his history then as well. His father rescued him from the asylum, his adopted father. The same adopted father that had sent him to Chicago in the first place, after he’d been chased out of town being caught with the neighbor’s son in the barn. He tells Whyborne that he will not think him faithless if he chooses to leave him then, and Whyborne reassures him that he is where he wishes to be.

Whyborne and Griffin both attend the gala, Griffin ostensibly as Christine’s plus one. Whyborne, trying not to be jealous of their easy camaraderie, makes his way away to where the other pieces of the show are being exhibited besides the mummy they are waiting to reveal, and that’s when he reads parts of a certain scroll, which mentions Immortality and Nyarlathotep. It is also when he runs into Theron Blackbyrne himself, there at the gala. Realizing who he has had a conversation with, he tries to find Griffin and Christine, when he realizes that it was not the mummy but instead the scroll that they were after. Chaos ensues and Whyborne winds up chasing down the thieves himself, nearly getting shot, and losing the scroll in the mazes of the library of the Ladysmith. Luckily, Christine remembers that they have photographed the exhibit for posterity, so there may be a way of reading everything it had to say yet. When Whyborne finally does get to reading it, the translation of the hieroglyphs he reads is (eventually in full):

‘Lo, he has come into being; the man who was dead has come into being; the container has come into being. Then shall you call on the Beyond-One, saying, “You who are All-in-One and One-in-All, the God Behind the Veil, who open the gate and are the gate, Yog-Sothoth, let Those from Outside see and rejoice, let this container be filled.” Then say to the one who is summoned, ‘I have called you while the stars stand at... [there is a piece missing] ‘…All being done, the gate closes; Yog-Sothoth closes; the Beyond-One closes. All not being done, the demons of the night will come through; Those Outside will enter in, and they will not hear you. Give to them a man; send him through the gate; they will accept the sacrifice; they will close the door. All being done, the container will be yours to command, and lo shall it make the rivers into deserts, and the desert into ocean, and lift up the land or cast it down as you say..’

In other words, the scroll and the spell described upon it portend the end of the world. Whyborne and Griffin try to track down Madame Rosa to see who had fed her the false information to set up the trap for them, but they find her eaten alive by one of the Guardians. This is of course when Whyborne receives an invitation to go home for dinner. Fearing the worst -- that something happened to his mother -- he accepts, only to attend and find her alive and as well as he has always known her. He shows her the spell and tells her of his learning of magic, and she is delighted by it. Then he meets with his father and is less delighted, as he tries to convince him to leave the Ladysmith for better employment. He returns to Griffin in a foul mood, which the other man abandons his paperwork in the study to quickly sets to rights. The next morning Whyborne wakes before Griffin and happens upon a folder in Griffin’s study with his name on it, containing notes on how he might investigate him, whether or not he is involved with the Brotherhood, and how he might sleep with him to try and get more information out of him. It also contains a newspaper clipping with the whole story of Leander’s death. Whyborne is furious, for he had been the happiest in his life and now he believes it is all a lie. He leaves in a flurry without giving Griffin the chance to explain himself and spends the next day fuming at the museum. He tells Christine who sympathizes but wonders if there might be some explanation.

Of course, Griffin does not get the chance to explain himself for that night he is arrested for the murder of Madame Rosa. Before Whyborne can visit him to rescue him from jail however, he has been bailed out by his own godfather, Addison Somerby. Which can only mean one thing -- that the Brotherhood has him. His father, his brother, his godfather -- they are all involved. All the pieces start to fall into place, and upon discovering that the Somerby estate now sits on the old site of Blackbyrne manor, Whyborne realizes where they have taken him and where he must go. He hatches a mad plan, playing along to pretend that he has turned to their goal, so that the Brotherhood takes him in and lets him in on their secrets. He meets with Blackbyrne and understands that while the members of the old families of Widdershins each have their own personal goals for the ritual they are about to take part in, Blackbyrne has not told them the full extent of what will happen. Blackbyrne plans to raise Leander Somerby to be the container that the ritual speaks of -- Addison does not know that his son will be raised back from the dead only for such terrible means.

And thus, although at one point Whyborne would have wanted Leander alive again more than anything in the world, once the ritual is happening and Leander Somerby is raised from the dead, Whyborne breaks the spell and sends him back from whence he came. What he does not know in that moment of course is that in breaking the spell he has left open the void created between their world and wherever the demons of the night are, and it continues to open and they threaten to come through. Blackbyrne is enraged and the pair of them battle together, Whyborne attempting to sacrifice himself to save the rest of them but it is Blackbyrne, shot and shoved through the gate that ends up sealing it and saving them from the end of days.

Whyborne and Christine return the scroll to the museum and Whyborne and Griffin return to Griffin’s house, where Griffin apologizes for the notes. He never had intended to use him like the notes suggested, they were just thoughts on a page written down in a moment of poor judgment when he’d first come into town, nothing more. Whyborne, given everything they have been through, understands and forgives him instantly. Griffin tells Whyborne that he loves him and he offers him the spare room in his house, if he would like to move in with him. To the public Whyborne would of course be his border but they would maintain a much more serious relationship than that. And Whyborne accepts.


THRESHOLD: BOOK TWO
The book starts with Whyborne and Christine stuck at the opening of the Isley Wing at the Ladysmith. Whyborne is anxious to go home and see Griffin, who has been away on a case for several weeks now. He is also dreadfully hot so he decides to try out this new wind spell he has learned to try and cool the place down. It goes dreadfully wrong, calling up a gale of wind and sending the entire hall into disarray, and causing him to return home three hours late after needing to assist in the cleanup. His reunion with Griffin goes well until the next morning when Griffin spots the evidence of his experimentation with the fire spell (a scorch mark on the wall of the kitchen) which he chides him for. Griffin wishes for him to be more careful with the magic, he worries about him and he wants Whyborne to discuss with him first before he learns new spells or uses magic in any way. Whyborne feels that Griffin is being overprotective but tries to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Which is when a letter arrives in the post. A letter from Whyborne’s father, hiring Griffin’s services as a private detective. Griffin was kidnapped by Whyborne’s father and his cult earlier that year, and thus Whyborne feels very protective of him versus his family. Whyborne’s father also saw their interactions after Griffin thought Whyborne was going to die, and then when he did not, so Niles Whyborne knows the true nature of their relationship together, another reason why Whyborne does not trust his father. But they agree to visit with him nonetheless. While they are there, Griffin meets Heliabel for the first time, and Heliabel obviously approves of him, telling Whyborne she thinks he’s very handsome in turn.

Then Niles lets them in on the case itself. There has been trouble at one of the coal mines that he holds a share in, one known as Stotz Mine in Threshold, West Virginia. Strange accidents and disappearances have started happening there, the miners turning to a native legend of otherworldly creatures, and Niles wishes to hire Griffin to look into whether the miners are correct in their suspicions or not. As to his reasons why he believes there might be something beyond the realm of natural reasoning happening there, he produces a stone found in a cave near Threshold, covered in pictographs. Whyborne takes the stone to examine it further, but before he has the chance to do so, the next day he is attacked and the stone taken from him. It is this incident that convinces Griffin to take the case and the next week, he, Whyborne, and Christine (who is on sabbatical while she writes her manuscript on Nephren-ka) set off on the train for Threshold.

As soon as they arrive it is clear that Whyborne is there not as Dr. Whyborne the philologist, but as Dr. Whyborne, son of Niles Whyborne the railroad tycoon. As he arrives he is rushed off to meet with Mr. Orme, the operator of Threshold Mine. Once they arrive at Mr. Orme’s office though, they run into what is a familiar face for Griffin at least -- a handsome man by the name of Elliot Manning, of the Chicago Pinkertons office, the lead of the Pinkertons here at the Threshold operation. Neither Orme nor Elliot seem very convinced that there is anything suspicious going on. Indeed, there seems to be something off about Orme himself, though Whyborne cannot put his finger on it specifically as they are seen off to their hotel.

When they return to the hotel and Whyborne is seen to his room, which has a convenient connecting door to Griffin’s, the pair of them discuss Griffin’s previous relationship with Elliot Manning. Griffin says that he met Elliot when he first arrived in Chicago and yes, the pair of them had been lovers. He also knows about Griffin’s confinement, and Griffin urges Whyborne to play the fool if Elliot tries to warn him about it. After dinner, the pair of them decide to do some investigating at the hotel bar, where Griffin winds up conversing with Elliot and Whyborne on the other hand somehow winds up conversing with what seems the entire population of prostitutes in the town. Once he reveals that he’s not after their business but information on the mysterious happenings of the town, they are all too happy to tell him about the disappearance of one of their friends, Anne, who vanished the morning of her wedding as well as the Kincaid brothers, who were the only support that their family had since their father developed miner’s lung. Neither Anne nor the boys would have gone on their own volition, they reasoned. They also claim the men think the mine is haunted and there was a half-Indian man by the name of Rider Hicks who went up in arms once they found that stone in the mines, tried to warn the town of danger until Orme had him chased out of town. Screaming about winged devils and yayhos -- a local legend that Whyborne supposes must be one in the same. They also reveal that the stone was found in a cave nearby the mine, and as it was discovered the whole expedition party was killed -- all but one survivor, none other than Elliot Manning.

When Whyborne returns to his room later, he finds a note in his room that warns him “Don’t trust any as have been to the woods,” and is simply signed “A Friend”. As he shows Griffin the note and relays him what he learned, they wonder who had left the note, before settling on going to investigate this Rider Hicks. Only to discover the next morning that the company is threatening to throw his wife and child out of their home for his disappearance. Whyborne throws his name around and buys her a few more days at the house, but Mrs. Hicks is not very forthcoming about information regarding her husband. She obviously knows where he is but will not reveal more and hurries off to work. They go to visit Mrs. Kincaid as well, where they soon discover that the men who attacked Whyborne in Widdershins for the stone are none other than the Kincaid boys themselves. When they try to inform Elliot of their findings however, he just comes up with some mad excuse as to why the boys might have wanted to try to sell the artifact on the black market for the money it might have made and does not believe anything further might be going on.

Whyborne next decides to investigate the mine itself, and does so again in the company of Elliot Manning. As predicted, Elliot reveals to Whyborne his knowledge of Griffin’s mental condition as last he had experienced it in Chicago, and Whyborne does his best to act as though he never knew the information. Upon arriving in the mines, they question a man named Johnson, who has claimed to have heard strange sounds down in the mine. A humming or buzzing, like a bee but almost as if the buzzing had words to it. Telling them it would show them a good place to dig. Whyborne thanks him for his help and no sooner does he step out of that area of the mine than does something go awry and Johnson and two other men are crushed and die in a freak rock fall. Whyborne escapes alive but shaken, yet the town is convinced that the fact that he had spoken to Whyborne not moments earlier was a sign.

The next day, Whyborne has asked Elliot to show them the cave where he had found the mysterious rock, this time with Griffin and Christine in accompaniment. As they walk, Elliot reveals that he was the one to suggest Griffin be hired by the Pinkertons in Chicago. He is also part of the reason Griffin no longer speaks with a rural Kansas accent. Whyborne grows increasingly jealous until he is rather short with Elliot, and the other man leaves in a mood. The three of them then decide to split up and transect the area in the directions from the cave mouth, Whyborne struggling with the fact that he is not used to so much physical activity until he randomly slips into a cave below. Christine joins him down the hole and the pair of them discover pictographs on the wall the same as the ones on the stone. The pictographs depicting a crustacean-like creature -- a yayho -- arriving, then interacting with humans, then with jars and with humans that appeared wrong in odd ways, with missing limbs or extra ones or swapped body parts. They determine the cave must still be in use as there are no bats or bugs settled in it. And then something settles in for the attack, something that smells like ammonia, and they struggle to escape, killing the thing, only to discover it was one of the Kincaid boys.

They bring the body back to town, discovering as the doctor opens up the boy’s skull that it appears as though he had been through some sort of brain surgery recently, not unlike one of the procedures depicted on the wall of pictographs in the cave. Just as the three of them are trying to make sense of it all, they are approached by a reporter from the Threshold Times, claiming he has photographic evidence of footprints of a yayho from outside Rider Hick’s house. They arrange to pay the man for the photographs and meet him for lunch for them, though the man never shows, which is suspicious as he had been rather adamant about getting paid for them in the first place. When they go to investigate the newspaper office, it appears he hadn’t been into work the whole day, so they next go to his house to investigate there. The entire place smells like the ammonia of the creatures, the place ransacked for the photos the reporter mentioned, and of the man and his wife there is no sign.

When Whyborne returns to the hotel he catches Mrs. Hicks leaving his room and realizes that she is the one leaving the notes. She reveals to him that everyone who has gone into the woods has returned not themselves. That Mr. Orme has done the same, that he is different, colder now than he used to be. He begs for a way to talk to her husband and reluctantly she lets him know where she leaves a cache of food for him that he might be able to find him that way. Thus do the three of them, Griffin, Christine, and reluctantly, Whyborne, acquire horses to go looking for Rider Hicks out in the woods that evening. Where of course they are come upon by yayhos. Whyborne falls off his horse and down a hill, where he runs into none other than Rider himself, who rescues him from the creature. While they are hiding in the woods they run into the reporter as well, or what is left of him. What the yayhos did to him. Killing him, the pair of them are allowed a moment to talk, in which Rider says that legend says the yayhos came down from the sky for coal and his ancestors learned to stay clear of these mountains. He’s worried they’re going to try and wipe out the whole town to keep from being discovered by the mines. They hate light, but the new moon is coming in three days and that is when Rider thinks they will strike. He also says that Orme is the yayho spy, and nothing can be told to him. They must all leave before it’s too late. He shows Whyborne back to the path before disappearing into the night.

When they try to inform Elliot of their findings of course again he does not believe them, coming up with a logical reason for everything. They know that they need proof if they want to convince him of what is going on, and Whyborne realizes that proof must be something to do with the change in Mr. Orme. Something in his office at home perhaps signalling his change in character. So Christine secures the pair of them, herself and Whyborne, a dinner invitation at Orme’s house. While they are there, Whyborne pretends to fall ill and while needing the toilet, goes investigating Orme’s office. He finds a daybook in which the entries suddenly switch to a different hand, containing entirely different subject entries. Quickly stuffing it in his jacket, he returns to the table and begs leave to return to the hotel early. Early enough that he runs into Elliot leaving Griffin’s room, not having expected to encounter him so soon. As he’s leaving, he reveals that he’s not jealous. Why would he be, when he had introduced Griffin to his partner in the Pinkertons, Glenn?

Whyborne flies into a jealous rage after Elliot leaves. Griffin had told him he’d never had relations with Glenn, that Glenn had been married with children. He fumes about it being adultery and Griffin explains that this is why he had not told him at the time, because he would not have understood that they were just friends who sometimes slept with each other and nothing more. Their argument turns dark, Whyborne not being very understanding of why Griffin might have been secretive about some things and Griffin calling him naive for it, Whyborne demanding him to explain why he should think such a thing and Griffin mentioning Whyborne’s upbringing. How his parents love and support him no matter what and how few others of their persuasion have such a luxury. Whyborne protests the accusations, protests Griffin having relations behind his back, claiming the fact that he had his jacket off was reason enough assume of him being indecent, and Griffin uses it as another reason for why Whyborne is naive. The conversation ends with the words “I’m sorry, but we can’t all be born with a silver spoon in our mouth and a stick up our ass!” directed at Whyborne and Whyborne heating the doorknob so that Griffin could not follow him into his room as he slams it in his face.

The next morning Whyborne is still fuming about his fight with Griffin, but there are more urgent matters as well, such as the fact that Rider Hicks is back and he is no longer himself. He comes to fetch his wife from work and there is nothing that Whyborne nor Christine can do to stop him. Whyborne runs to the Pinkerton office to try and convince Elliot to do something only to find Griffin there. He tells them what has happened and also flings the daybook at Elliot on his way out, his proof that everything is not as it seems. When they return to the Hicks’ house though, neither of them have been seen there all day. When Whyborne finds out that even if he were in his right mind Rider would have been thrown in jail for shooting the reporter, even though it was clearly in defense not only of himself but of Whyborne, just because he was an Indian that had shot a white man, he decides that enough is enough, and decides he has had enough of this town. Returning back to the hotel to book a train back to Widdershins.

As he’s packing to leave, he receives a note from Elliot saying he’s taken a look at the book and needs to speak with him. Deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt -- maybe he really has come to sense -- he makes the appointment. Only to have the man say terrible things to him about the nature of what he believes his relationship with Griffin to be, before drugging and kidnapping him. And when he wakes it is to find himself the prisoner of the yayhos. They offer knowledge, one of them explains to him. Knowledge in exchange for his body. Should he cooperate, they remove his brain and set it aside to somehow travel the stars and learn all about the wonders of the universe, while they use his body for their own means. And if he should refuse then they will force him into the choice anyway. They wish to use his family name and the power that accompanies it to influence the mines and the railroads themselves, and keep their secret safe. Obviously Whyborne is not in agreement with either option, so after a moment he finds some flash powder laying about, stolen from the reporter, and blinds the creatures with it, lighting it afire with his spell before running away and out of the cave.

He almost doesn’t make it, the yayhos catching up to him, but for the appearance of Griffin and his swordcane. Griffin who had been coming prepared to kill the creature that the yayhos might have turned him into. Once he convinces Griffin he really is himself, Griffin breaks down and weeps, apologizing for all the things he had said in their fight, how he didn’t think he was good enough for him and he was scared of losing him, scared he was going to have to kill him, scared he was already dead. Whyborne forgives him and apologizes for burning his hand on the door in return. Whyborne explains to Griffin from there that Elliot is in league with the yayhos, to which Griffin confirms that he knows. Christine had to hold him back from beating him to death to get him to admit that he had given Whyborne over to them.

And then there is an explosion in the town which interrupts their conversation. They hurry back just in time for everything to be chaos. Elliot is trying to keep it all in order, Christine is in jail for causing trouble, and Orme literally transforms into a yayho himself. They rescue Christine and rally the miners to arms. Whyborne casts the wind spell to drive the yayhos back into the mine. They will not stay there forever and they determine there is only one way to save the town for good -- they must collapse the tunnels in the mine where they are hiding and trap them there. While they are preparing for the event itself, Whyborne and Griffin apologize once more and Whyborne explains he was jealous of the handsome Elliot, afraid Griffin would realize himself lacking by comparison. Griffin is stunned, reassuring that Elliot is not handsomer, not in his eyes. Moreover, he loves Whyborne for all of who he is, not just his looks. Whereas Elliot, he reveals, is the one that had Griffin committed. He loves Whyborne because even if he cannot say whether or not he would have believed him at the time, he knows he would have fought for him, and that means the world to him.

They set out to close the yayhos in the mines, Elliot in tow as he begs forgiveness and a way to make amends. He had only been doing what he had thought to be right at the time, and Whyborne believes him, for better or worse. Giving him the benefit of the doubt. Everything goes to plan but then the fuse on the explosives seems to go out. Someone must go into the mines and relight it, and seeing no other option, Whyborne runs back without a second glance, Griffin and Elliot hot on his heels. Once inside, they discover that the fuse had been deliberately cut, and it must be guarded to ensure the explosives detonate in time. Griffin and Whyborne argue over which one of them will sacrifice themselves for the cause before Elliot volunteers himself. To make amends. Griffin accepts the loss of his once friend and agrees to it, dragging Whyborne out of the mine just in time to escape before the whole place comes down on them.

A week later they arrive back in Widdershins, after having to make up some wild tale about what had happened for no one would believe the truth. Whyborne’s father is not happy with the way that matters have turned out, but Whyborne is feeling liberated and decides that he doesn’t give a fig what his father thinks, and returns home together with Griffin to their house and their cat.


STORMHAVEN: BOOK THREE
Book three begins with Whyborne, Griffin, and Christine on a walk one evening to admire the new electric lights when they are interrupted from their evening by the sound of screams. Following the sound they come upon their coworker, Allan Tambling, who works in restoration, standing in the street covered in blood with no recollection of how he got there from when he had been dining with his uncle previously. The screaming is the maid, who is inside the house, having discovered the uncle dead in his study. Allan mysteriously has no memory of what happened nor how he got out in the street, covered in blood. Whyborne has an odd dream of being in an undersea world that night but thinks nothing of it.

Later that week Whyborne demonstrates his further practice with spells from the Arcanorum, this time with a spell to manipulate water, one that should come more difficult than the novice fire spell but he finds really quite easy for himself. It is revealed that day that Allan has been arrested for the murder of his uncle. Later that afternoon Whyborne receives a visitor -- Allan’s older brother, Ernest, who wishes to contract Griffin to investigate the murder and hopefully prove his brother’s innocence. He mentions that there is a missing ceremonial bowl that had been there earlier in the evening, perhaps the motive for the murder after all? He speaks with Griffin in regards to the case later that evening, hesitant to mention it because Allan has been committed to the Stormhaven lunatic asylum in Widdershins for the crime, and he does not want to force Griffin to revisit old memories of his own time in such a place. Griffin agrees to take the case though, and reveals another ‘surprise’ to Whyborne -- his parents have decided to pay him a visit in Widdershins.

Whyborne accompanies Griffin on his visit to the asylum, a good thing he does for Griffin has a hard time holding it together while he is there. While they are riding in, they are greeted by one of the patients escaped from her room, a girl named Amelie, who asks if Whyborne can hear it singing in his dreams too -- Whyborne, who has been dreaming of his mother singing to him in the undersea world, is uncertain what to make of this question. They meet with Allan, ask him of his day and what he remembers of it, before Griffin swears him he will do everything he can to prove his innocence. As they are leaving, Griffin confides to Whyborne with full certainty that Dr. Zeiler, the doctor from the madhouse here at Widdershins, was the same man who certified him insane and condemned him to the madhouse Chicago as well.

Before he can question Griffin further of course he must visit with Griffin’s parents, Nella and James Kerr. Who have brought along with them an unannounced guest, Griffin’s adoptive cousin Ruth, no doubt either to have Griffin meet with her further in the hopes of the pair of them marrying off, or perhaps marrying Ruth off to Whyborne himself. Whyborne for the duration of the visit must pretend not to live with Griffin, for fear of his parents discovering the nature of their relationship, though at least they are staying in a hotel for the sake of propriety, no doubt because they have brought Ruth along with them. When Griffin returns from seeing his parents to the hotel, he explains more of his experiences at the asylum, more of what Zeiler did to him. He is sure that it’s the same man. The same man who not only tried to cure his madness, but his proclivity towards men as well. Griffin reveals that Whyborne is the first person that he has been with since he was released. That he fell in love with him that day in his study after he used logic to reason through magic, even though Whyborne did not quite believe in it yet himself.

The next day they investigate the crime scene and the missing bowl. All that Whyborne has as a description of the bowl is that it has on it a depiction of a sea god surrounded by shark-men worshipers. They do find within the room that the crime had been committed a paper with an eye drawn onto it, one which Whyborne feels is familiar from the Arcanorum though he cannot place it specifically. From there, Griffin takes his family to visit the museum, and though Whyborne does his best to hide from them, he ends up giving them something of a tour himself, though Christine does most of the impressive parts, being the archaeologist to have spurred the Egypt-o-mania in finding the mummy of Nephren-ka. He gets to talking with Ruth about languages and promises her a Latin primer the next time they meet.

That evening Whyborne and Griffin visit the saloon that Allan had attended for lunch before the fateful event with his uncle, but find no useful information there. They find themselves followed on the way back however, and must seek a different way home to keep from leading them back to the house. They fight the attackers and Whyborne uses his water spell to call a wave and wash them away. Which of course angers Griffin, for he has never seen this spell before, and he disapproves of Whyborne’s experimentation. They fight about it, and Whyborne counters with the fact that he had never heard of cousin Ruth before her appearance here either, he is not the only one with secrets. Eventually they choose not to argue, but one thing is clear. Men are after them. Men with tattoos matching the eye on the paper in Allan Tambling’s uncle’s study.

The next day Whyborne goes to visit his father to see if the Brotherhood has any involvement in this. Stanford is there, arguing with his father over money, which Whyborne finds curious in and of itself -- they never used to argue before after all. He visits with his mother and quarrels with his father before getting down to business. Asking first if the Brotherhood is up to anything, before if there are any similar cults to them. As he tells the tale of what all is going on, Niles reveals that the Brotherhood had used Zeiler to help cover up for them for an incident in Chicago, but he was never a member of the Brotherhood despite wanting it. The incident of course being Griffin’s investigation and consequential condemnation into the madhouse. Whyborne is furious but manages to hold it together enough to hear his father out. The symbol they found belongs to the Eyes of Noden, a cult of fanatics that worships creatures trapped within the sea. Whyborne makes his way home to tell Griffin with nothing but guilt though. Not only did his family almost use Griffin as a sacrifice for the Brotherhood, but now it’s revealed they’re partially responsible for his stay in the asylum as well. Griffin does not blame him for any associations with his father and his business though, for which Whyborne is infinitely grateful.

The pair of them visit Stormhaven to ask Allan whether he recognizes the symbol of the Eyes of Noden, but upon showing him the symbol Allan loses all semblance of reason and attempts to kill Griffin. As Allan is hauled off to the fourth floor for the most dangerous patients, Griffin is convinced that Zeiler has hypnotized Allan to behave this way, and charges through the hospital intent on demanding answers of the man to his face. Whyborne forces him to leave before he causes too much of a scene, but they are likely not allowed back to investigate further after the scene Griffin causes.

They go out to dinner with Christine and Griffin’s family which is an adventure in and of itself, but Whyborne is followed after dropping Christine back at her boarding house. Followed by men who seem to know who he is and are after him specifically. Luckily they are carrying guns with them and as they draw on Whyborne he explodes them in their hands before fleeing the scene. More of the Eyes, though whether they are working for Zeiler or for this dweller in the deep they speak of, Whyborne cannot tell for certain.

The next night the three of them break into a property owned by Zeiler which they are fairly certain is where he and the Eyes conduct most of their business. They investigate the house, finding evidence of rituals, and more importantly, the ritual bowl itself. But before they manage to get out, the Eyes return, causing them to run for it, heading for the river, wherein Whyborne loses the bowl as he cannot swim, and truthfully even the best swimmer would have had a problem swimming with such a heavy object in tow. Griffin comes to the conclusion from there that there’s only one thing to do though -- break into Stormhaven.

Whyborne tries to talk him out of it, but there’s no reasoning with him. So he helps construct a plan with him instead. Although Griffin doesn’t like the idea of it, he will use the wind spell to knock out the power, causing enough chaos to allow them to sneak in undetected. From there they might be able to sneak into Zeiler’s office. But first he needs to spend more time with Griffin’s family, this time on the boardwalk. Whyborne is not much for the scene, though Griffin takes the opportunity to suggest they get their photograph taken together, surprising and charming Whyborne in turn. And the next day, they sneak into Stormhaven.

Everything goes mostly according to plan, them knocking out the power, sneaking in, traveling up to the fourth floor so they might travel down to Zeiler’s office undetected. While there, Whyborne finds himself drawn to look into a room, where he starts to hallucinate the sea around them, as the occupant asks him if he too can hear the singing. Telling him the dweller in the deep is coming. Whyborne is shaken by it all but tries not to let Griffin know of his hallucination. They run into Amelie, who helps them break into Zeiler’s office and sacrifices herself to be found by the nurses so that they might have a few more minutes’ investigation time. It’s enough to find in Zeiler’s office a copy of an inscription from the bowl and a translation -- a summoning of the god. From there it’s a mad dash to escape without being caught, which they nearly do not manage.

The next day while Whyborne is trying to investigate the Eyes and their god, he finds himself drifting, when suddenly he is walking in the underground city, following the sounds of singing towards the temple, where he knows he must help Griffin. Only to be stopped, broken out of his trance by Griffin, where he stands in the middle of the street and definitely not where he had been working earlier in the library. Then he must reveal to Griffin and Christine that he is having continuous nightmares of this undersea land, and that these nightmares have started to merge over into the waking world. Of course, as luck would have it, Whyborne is to accompany Griffin and his family to the park that afternoon. Griffin doesn’t want to leave him on his own in case he continues to hallucinate, so Whyborne decides it is for the best. While they are there however, they are attacked by the Eyes once more, Whyborne sinking into the hallucination as he is. While he manages to help fight off the men, the vision fighting to take him over is too much, and he hardly remembers Griffin bringing him home and putting him to bed. In doing so he reveals -- to his father at least -- the fact that Whyborne lives with him after all. Whyborne manages to figure out how to shut the visions out but the deed is done. James Kerr knows about Griffin’s relationship with him and he forces Griffin to choose between his relationship with Whyborne and his connection with his family. Seeing no other choice, he asks his adopted father to leave his house, effectively making Whyborne his choice.

Griffin is fragile after that, begging Whyborne not to leave him. Whyborne promises he won’t, but Griffin asks to follow that what if he never wants him to leave. What if he wants him to stay forever. Forever is a heavy concept, and Whyborne takes a moment to consider it, because he had always considered their relationship as a finite thing, before he tells Griffin yes. “Yes, I-I wish to be with you until the breath leaves my body, until the last stars burn out and the earth falls into the dying sun.”

The next day Griffin has no choice but to leave Whyborne alone again while he works on his investigation. They are so concerned about the hallucinations causing Whyborne to wander off they do not consider the idea of the Eyes coming to take him away -- but they do, with James Kerr kidnapped in their carriage as incentive for Whyborne to listen. So for Griffin’s sake, Whyborne goes. The men take him to Stormhaven, where it is revealed that Whyborne, being a sorcerer, is the last piece they need in what is effectively a magical battery to summon the god. What better than to use Niles Whyborne’s own son for that matter, as Zeiler despises the man. They dose him with a potion to help connect him to the god, before stripping him and sticking him in a room by himself. This is when the god visits him in his mind, choosing the form of Griffin to try and make him feel sympathy for his plight. He does not want to be summoned, it hurts to be called so forth from the depths of the ocean, and he begs Whyborne help him. To stop Zeiler from using him. Saying that he tried to tell him as much before, and now it is too late. Once Whyborne agrees to help him though, he tells Whyborne that the oculares potion they gave him works both ways. He can use it to call on the god’s powers.

So Whyborne does. Breaking himself out of his cell-like room before they can abuse his body or his mind. Amelie appears and gets him clothes (a woman’s dressing gown and slippers) and helps him out of the cell before he proceeds breaking the cells of the other patients open as he leaves the asylum with the strength of the magic pouring through his veins. He can feel the dweller in the deep in his head and it affects his thoughts as he goes, knowing when it breaks the surface of the ocean. Whyborne crosses the grounds to where the Eyes are conducting the summoning ritual and together with the dweller he all but tears the asylum down. Together with the sea god brutally slaying the lot of the cultists, while the patients, led by Amelie and Griffin and Christine, who have made their way to the asylum as well, keep them from starting the ritual to control the dweller. But once they are all gone, the dweller keeps Whyborne’s mind, and he is so filled with the god’s anger and power he nearly forgets himself and everyone he loves. That is until Griffin pulls him back to himself and the dweller slips back into the depths from which he came. He had made a promise to stay with Griffin forever after all, and he intends to keep it.

They start their way back into town from there on foot, Whyborne dressed as he is, until the Whyborne House carriage pulls up and Niles Whyborne appears. Heliabel had woken screaming about the sea and Niles figured this was probably the cause so he had come straight away or else Mrs. Whyborne would never have forgiven him. They speculate as to why Heliabel too should have heard the song, as they gratefully accept the ride back into town.


NECROPOLIS: BOOK FOUR
Whyborne and Griffin have been invited to Christmas at Whyborne House, an invitation no doubt extended by Heliabel for Griffin once finding out that Griffin’s family has turned away from him. Of course, this being the Whyborne family, nothing ever goes as planned, and it is revealed at the table that Whyborne taught his mother the water spell, which both Niles and Griffin disapprove of immensely. They have nearly escaped without major incident before Stanford corners Whyborne in the lobby and throws insults at him for bringing Griffin to Christmas dinner and flaunting his perversions in front of their mother and as Whyborne fights with Stanford and eventually winds up punching him in the face, a mysterious gust of wind sweeps through the front hall of the house and knocks over the Christmas tree there.

Griffin isn’t convinced that the wind wasn’t Whyborne’s doing, but he usually needs a sigil to summon it so Griffin backs off. Griffin is still suffering from the loss of his family after his parents turned him away after learning of his relationship with Whyborne, thus he has started trying to get in touch with his brothers that the has not heard from since he was adopted. When they get a telegram they assume it would be from one of these long lost brothers, only to find it is Christine, wiring Whyborne to come to Egypt at once.

Whyborne is upset she gives no reason for him to join her and fumes about it for the next day, distracting himself as he tries his next spell from the Arcanorum -- to move stone. So he decides to write Christine an angry letter demanding further explanation. Going into her office to figure out where to write her, he accidentally knocks down her piles of mail waiting for her to return. As he’s picking it all up, he happens upon a letter with a coin inside which he opens, thinking that it has been directed to the wrong department. The letter instead is addressed to Christine, cautioning her not to go to Egypt for Nitocris has risen from the dead and she seeks the temple of the faceless god, with an accompanying coin portraying her effigy. Whyborne believes it to be rubbish, but spends the rest of the day researching Nitocris, who he learns to be one of Nephren-ka’s wives, a supposed Queen of jackals who feasted on the dead. Nephren-ka, whose temple Christine has gone to Egypt to try and unearth. As he’s leaving the museum that evening he is attacked by a jackal-man, who happens to be carrying one of the same coins as found in the letter to Christine.

So Whyborne and Griffin decide to book passage to Egypt. On the boat, Whyborne meets the Grafin Daphne de Wisborg, an American woman recently widowed and on her way to Egypt as well. Once they arrive at Port Said, he meets up with Christine and Iskander Barnett, a man who is half-Egyptian, half English, and Christine’s associate in the field. (Although Christine calls him Kander herself, obviously the pair of them being quite close.) Christine explains once they get to Cairo that they are there to investigate the murder of Sayid Halabi. Halabi was a criminal that knew every tomb robber within the area and would inform Christine of the places to dig that he learned from the robbers. He sent word to Christine telling her he needed to speak to her immediately because he had heard she was searching for the temple -- the fane -- of Nyarlathotep, built by Nephren-ka. When she went to visit him though she found him dead and partially eaten as if by jackals.

They go to investigate Halabi’s house and while there, find a note written by him stating that Nitocris has risen and that she seeks the Fane of Nyarlathotep -- “the Queen of the Ghuls has returned and will make a graveyard of the world”. Ghuls are things of Arab legend that feast on the dead, and the three of them suspect they might have been what attacked Halabi and again Whyborne at the museum. While searching the room they discover a trap door which leads down to a series of underground tombs. They encounter a ghul in the tomb, chasing it off. They also find a cache of literature from various eras that seems to be written by none other than Nitocris herself, through her various incarnations -- Whyborne takes some of these back with him to their hotel with him to read further.

Once they are at the hotel, Whyborne runs into the Grafin Daphne de Wisborg, who is soon revealed to be none other than Christine’s sister, come to Egypt after the death of her husband in the hopes of reconnecting with her. While Christine and Daphne begin to reconnect, Whyborne begins to read the books and scrolls he collected. In them they mention the Shining Trapezohedron, the Occultum Lapidem. It seems that Nitocris is seeking this gem through the ages, for with its knowledge she will finally have the power Nephren-ka kept from her and she and her ghuls will be able to spread their feast across the land. Just as he has discovered this he is attacked in the dead of night by a cloaked man who warns them to abandon the search for the fane or they will all die. There seems to have been an attack on Daphne and Christine at the same time as well. They do not let it turn them off their goal though and the next day they set off for the dig site. (Hiring camels for the trip, including a particularly feisty one for Whyborne, which happens to be the same camel that ate his hat earlier in the story, forcing him to wear a fez for most of this book.)

As they arrive at camp, Griffin cannot help but feel as though Iskander is hiding something from them. They set to work at camp, sifting through the dig, photographing their finds, and translating the hieroglyphs on the wall respectively. Christine is doing her best to reconnect with her sister but she confides in Whyborne that she doesn’t quite know how as her parents fought a lot and her mother was a drinker, so she got out of the house when she could, thinking her sister was engaged so she would be married off soon anyway. But her leaving for school caused quite the scandal and so Daphne’s first fiance left her, and it was technically all Christine’s fault. Christine barely knew her when she married the graf. Whyborne councils that these things take time and that she might think about what she could offer her sister in return. It is flattering to Christine after all that Daphne has gone through all this effort, even so much as to learn to read hieroglyphs, to get closer to her again after all.

During the dig they find something which seems to be a wand, which at the touch Whyborne automatically causes a mighty churning of wind to kick up around them. Daphne manages to burn herself on another artifact from the dig, the amulet of Wepwawet, the god of the dead. Whyborne also learns through his translation that there is a demon of the night that guards the Occultum Lapidem, which they must be careful of if they find the fane before Nitocris. Daphne is again attacked in the middle of the night, this time while Iskander is on watch, though he has been supposedly knocked unconscious during the attack. A story Griffin does not believe, as he says Iskander is acting more like someone who has read about concussions than someone who has actually suffered one. Whyborne and Griffin take Christine aside the next morning to ask her how much she trusts Iskander, and divine the truth from there -- that Christine is in love with him, and she can hardly think rationally where he is concerned, even if the pair of them are not together.

While Griffin and Christine quarrel about whether Iskander can be trusted, Daphne starts to come on to Whyborne (yes, sexually). A fact that he doesn’t realize at first until she tries to kiss him. Whyborne all but runs away from the scene of the crime, telling Griffin what happened once he finds him, who laughs and tells him he might have handled it differently, but that he should just give an excuse about obligations back home or something. Later that evening they quarrel about the fact that Griffin had laughed -- Whyborne taking it to mean he thinks the idea of anyone else wanting him attractive laughable. Griffin reassures him that he doesn’t think that way. That he would be very upset if Whyborne were to go about kissing other people. Though he tells him if he needs to experiment with other people, he would allow it, if only so that he could get it out of his system and come back to him. Whyborne reassures him he never would, that he loves him and he has everything he could want with Griffin.

Things are awkward with Daphne the next morning, although Whyborne does his best to explain and apologize. The melodrama of their emotional moment is cut short by the moment Christine is nearly crushed to death when the ropes break as they are hoisting one of the great statues they had uncovered upright. Luckily Iskander is quick to come to her rescue, getting her out of the way before the giant structure crushes her. It only makes Griffin more suspicious of him though, for although Iskander genuinely feared for Christine’s life as he rescued her, the ropes had obviously been frayed on purpose, and Iskander had called out to rescue her even before they had broken. The trouble doesn’t end there, though. That evening, returning to his tent, Whyborne discovers all of his notes torn to shreds, and upon further investigation, a hooded cobra hidden under his bed. Someone clearly means them harm. And for Whyborne, there’s only one thing to do about it. Obtain the wand from their artifacts and learn how to use it so that he can better control his magic and protect the people he loves.

Griffin disapproves of course. They fight over it, spend some time not speaking to each other for it. The men fail to show up for work and it is revealed after some investigation they will not come as a ghul came to steal one of the children of their village from their houses in the night, and they now fear the dig is cursed. Whyborne and Daphne return to feverishly finish the translation that they had started, and upon doing so it is revealed that if the statue of Heka is struck by the spear of Horus, aka lightning, a map showing the location of the fane will be revealed. So Whyborne decides to take matters into his own hands and try out the lightning spell and sets about with Christine in the middle of the night to the statue of Heka and reveal the map. Griffin catches them in the act, and though he is unhappy about them making the attempt he cannot stop them, so he insists he supervises if nothing else. He has cast his lot with Whyborne’s he reminds him, even if he does not always like the direction that takes him, it does not change his decision.

Using the wand, Whyborne calls lightning down onto the statue and reveals the map to the fane. Just in time for Daphne to appear with Iskander, a knife held to his neck, revealing herself to be Nitocris and demanding that they give her the map to the fane if they want Iskander to live. It seems that Daphne, the real Daphne, was abused by her husband, and she did start to research Egypt because of Christine’s connection to it. Which is where she began to learn of Nitocris and her own similarities to her. Daphne did as Nitocris bid her, going so far as to kill and eat her husband until Nitocris joined her in her body. They have no choice but to hand over the map for Iskander’s life, just in time to be attacked by a pack of ghuls. They manage to escape into one of the nearby tombs, where they explain everything to Iskander, including Whyborne’s magical abilities. He seems not to know about any of it ahead of time and they give him the benefit of the doubt. Taking the camels (Whyborne names his Daisy) they follow the tracks of the ghuls across the desert on the track of the fane. Just when they are about to close in on them though, they are caught in a sandstorm, losing all the tracks they had been following in the process.

As if on cue, they also accidentally discover within Iskander’s pack a set of robes identical to that of the man who had attacked Whyborne and Christine that first evening in the hotel, and again outside the tents. It seems that Griffin was right. Iskander tries to explain himself. He says that his mother was from a group of nomadic people known as the Wolves of the West, worshipers of Wepwawet, sworn to guard the dead from the hunger of the ghuls. His mother had given up that life and moved to Egypt until she received a summons back. A summons which she never returned from. Iskander came to Egypt himself to seek the answers of his heritage, and thought nothing of it, working with Christine until after she returned to America with Nephren-ka, the Wolves contacted him. He let the men into camp, his cousins, but they were only supposed to scare them off of their goal. He never joined them himself, and although he had sworn to keep their secret, never took their oath himself. It is not enough of an excuse for Christine herself however, who feels it a betrayal of her trust, and sends him away home while the three of them attempt to continue on without him.

It is simply by a stroke of luck that they cross a line of power and Whyborne manages to point them in the right direction of the fane before they run out of water. Once inside, they realize they have caught up with Daphne, and from there it’s a battle to fight off not only her ghuls but also the magical defenses of the fane itself in the attempt to get to the Lapidem before Nitocris does herself. Defenses such as statues come to life (that breaking/moving stone spell really comes in handy there) and the mummies of the priests come to life again on the defense for example. They catch up with Daphne/Nitocris as she’s just starting her ritual with the Lapidem. Fortunately, it means they stop her in the middle, so she gains power but does not complete the full process before they kill her (or think they do) by collapsing the temple down on her. Unfortunately, it means that they do so by having Griffin touch/connect to the Lapidem and summon the anger of the night demon guarding it. Falling through the floor to the next level below (and yes collapsing the rest of the temple above on top of Daphne/Nitocris), they soon find themselves in the lair of the demon. Who is coming for Griffin and will not stop until he is dead. A demon of the same species as the guardian in the basement, that dissolved Griffin’s partner Glenn alive in front of him.

From there it’s a mad run to escape from the thing before it eats/dissolves them as well. Griffin is terrified of the thing but he does his best to hold it together. Bullets do not work against it, only fire/light, so most of the defensive work is done by Whyborne, who throws their lantern on it and then lights it on fire. They escape outside but know it is only the daylight keeping the guardian demon from following them. They only have until nightfall before it will come for them. Moreover, the camels seem to have run away. It all seems too much, and Griffin attempts to sacrifice himself for them, offering to die so that they might be saved, though of course Whyborne would hardly allow him to do such a thing. The three of them manage to find Daisy and together with her, the Lapidem, and enough water for one day, set off across the desert to get as far from the fane (or what’s left of it) before nightfall. Just in time to be set upon by riders. Riders which turn out to be none other than the Wolves of the West, the shardah-iin, gathered to their aid by Iskander. Iskander had thought to save them from Nitocris and her ghuls, but they ask instead for the aid of the Wolves in defeating the demon, and after some initial pushback they agree.

Whyborne hatches a plan. The Wolves brought a lot of oil to battle the ghuls, and so he suggests they dig a trench to fill with oil, putting Griffin and the Lapidem at the center as bait for the demon, to light the trench on fire once it has come and trapping it inside so that they might kill it once they have. He’s hesitant to put Griffin at such risk, but the other man agrees that it is a solid plan. Unfortunately for them, once they put it to work, they did not count on Nitocris appearing with her ghuls as soon as the sun had set, intent on stealing the Lapidem back and finishing the work she had begun. And while the shardah-iin begin to fight the ghuls and Whyborne takes on Nitocris herself, that is when the demon appears. Everything is chaos, the men are dying, everything seems to be hopeless, Griffin begins looking like he might sacrifice himself for them regardless, so Whyborne does the only thing he can think of. Grappling with Nitocris, he climbs to the top of an obelisk, before he jumps off towards the demon and, mid-air, calls lightning down onto the demon.

He knocks himself unconscious in the process, but when he awakes he finds that he had killed the demon and Nitocris with the lightning. In the process however, he had destroyed the wand, and given himself a pretty awful burn from the lightning. Together with that and a bite-wound from Nitocris, he lapses in and out of fever for the next week, and spends the next few weeks recovering at the hotel in Cairo. He had given Griffin quite a shock, and the other man spends most of that time hardly leaving his side until Whyborne is well enough to be up and moving about again. He gains several things from the experience in Egypt, however. The most obvious being a series of burn scars running all along his right arm, in the odd shape of snowflakes or frost on a windowpane, causing him to have to wear gloves in public unless he wants to raise eyebrows. The second being the push to admit that as much as he had been trying to claim he was a scholar who simply dabbled with magic, there is no denying now the fact that he is a sorcerer.