The bathroom mirror reacts the same way, and its shiny lips speak: "ul zag-ga — za-e izi ba-ab-bil..."

The raven on the paper is ignored entirely: "凡渡洋以牽星為準牽星者以牀牛象牙為板長二尺闊二寸以繩頭係板頭係手自目注視至星之上視板之高低以為程途近"

The drawer slides open to its limit; the face is on the inside, for some reason. "...ante omnia considerare debet. Si cutis rubra est et pulsus fortis..."

On the quarter, George Washington's lips begin to move, and he rasps, "...pāy-e khāneh bar sang bāyad nehād, na bar khāk-e narm — ke zamīn farmān-bardār-e āb ast..."

It does not stop, even after sixty seconds have passed.

Hey, the drawer is speaking Latin! Nico speaks Latin!

...sounds like it's giving medical advice. Nico missed the first few words but the next bit was, "if the skin is red and the pulse is strong...". What comes after that?

"...sanguis nimius est; si cutis frigida est et oculi languidi, phlegma abundat. Ventrem quoque medicus inspiciat, nam in ventre multa signa latent. Si venter durus est et tumidus, obstructionem significat. Si autem..."

"...then there is too much blood; if the skin is cold and the eyes are languid, there's a lot of phlegm. The physician should also examine the abdomen, for many signs are hidden there. If the abdomen is hard and swollen, it indicates an obstruction. But if - "

Nico pulls himself back from listening to it, with some effort. He's getting sick of seeing fascinating new things and having to ignore them _{^{Why did the body he stole happen to come from Lane's hometown? What was Lane doing with those animals? Why is his enemy dressed like that?}} but this would be a bad, bad time to lose focus.

Just a little more, he promises himself, and then you can do all the experiments you want.

He could pull out one of his normal Tarot decks and see how the cards feel about all this, but he doesn't quite dare. Anything that might damage his connection to the Adam deck has to, sigh, wait for later. Just as well; he'd have a hard time settling his mind on one clear question anyway.

The main thing to notice, here, is that each spirit entered into the physical object he called it to, not to the images lying atop them. He wanted to learn that, he did learn it even if there are still variations to try, it's time to move on.

Now the important test. He'll bid each spirit to go, commandingly for the human-faced paper and politely for the other four.

Do they?

"...absinthii dicam: folia eius trita et in aqua calida dissoluta, stomacho prosunt. Radix --"

Each spirit cuts itself off as you bid it, except for the one in the quarter.

"...khāneh dur konad. Āb dushman-e sang nīst, ammā dushman-e ānjāst ke sang o khāk bā ham mishavand..."

This is pretty spooky even by Nico's standards!

Adam will not interrupt, and will try not to do anything Nico might find distracting. He'll...turn his attention back to his book, though he won't bother trying to read anything. This probably isn't as dangerous as it feels, and if it is then interrupting it won't help. He's just got to bet that Nico knows what he's doing.

It's OK, he tells himself. He's made that bet plenty of times before, and always won.

Nico will leave the coin on the bed for now, and firmly direct his own attention away from questions like "How do I find someone who can translate for it?"

Four spirits left when bid to leave, one stayed. Quickly now: what's special about the fifth? Nico lets his mind float, lets hypotheses bubble up from his subconscious unimpeded.

The object already had a human face.

I didn't explicitly warn it that I would later tell it to leave.

...?

Nico stays in that floating space a few heartbeats more, but nothing else suggests itself. No obvious way to distinguish the two possibilities suggests itself either, from what little he's already seen. Neither idea seems unreasonable. Happily, it doesn't matter: neither option implies anything bad for his plan. Speculative Assassination Plan Failure Point Number Two has been successfully overcome.

Now it's time to investigate Speculative Assassination Plan Failure Point Number Three: can he get back to Kyle's body, or has his enemy blocked him?

"Back in a moment," he says to Adam, and then lie back down on the bed. Gradually he'll loosen the bonds that tie his Animal Soul to the other two, and let himself fall into the deep place that lies between human experiences.

He's not going to try to re-possess Kyle, not yet. But he gave Kyle's body a tattoo, his own design with drops of his own blood. He's found it before, here on the underside of the human mind; can he find it again?

Yes, easily. It's still there, totally undamaged and clear in your mind's eye.

...huh.

Nico pulls himself back up into his own body, thinking. He'd worried that she might have flayed off the tattoo altogether. More likely, he'd guessed, was that the tattoo would be damaged, just not badly enough to stop him from finding it. That it hasn't been touched at all is a little surprising. She definitely acted like she wanted to protect Kyle from him, so why not make it harder for him to assert possession? Could this be a trap?

More likely she just didn't figure it out, or rather, didn't figure it out yet. Nico has certainly made some mistakes, these last few days; it's not so suspicious that his opponent would make some too.

So much for Speculative Assassination Plan Failure Point Number Three. Now for a tough one. Speculative Assassination Plan Failure Point Number One: can Nico call a spirit into something that isn't a solid object?

Someday -- likely someday soon -- Nico will use these conjurations to unite the realms of spirit and matter and attain ultimate wisdom. Right now, though, they're pretty useless. Whispering random bits of lore in languages nobody speaks is overt, Nico will give it that; if he ever wanted to abandon secrecy and start working with the CIA, or something along those lines, he'll have no trouble getting their attention.

Somebody tried that in the seventies, allegedly, but all you've heard is that it "didn't turn out well for anybody".

Yeah, Nico remembers. He doesn't want to do magic at other peoples' command anyway, especially not the kind of people who'd wind up working for a government. It's probably even worse than joining the Masons. Though if he needs a force he can pit against them, then maybe...

Anyway.

Whispering random bits of lore in languages nobody speaks isn't the only thing these spirits do, actually, is it. Nico saw it with the plant, and then again with the drawer. First, the spirit starts to talk. And then, to the limits of form it's inhabited, it tries to reach for him.

His original plan isn't lost, not yet. It just needs a slightly different ritual.

It also calls for a little more communication and coordination than he's been doing these last few hours. He'll get Adam's attention, and explain things as clearly as he can. And, ah, as soothingly as he can, given the subject matter:

"The next step requires that we go outside, I'm afraid. I'm going to wade a little way into the cove, and try to call a spirit into it the way I did into these other objects. If it works, the cove will begin to speak, and probably to reach out. I don't know what precise form that will take, but it may be dramatic. If, as I hope, it begins to follow me, then I'll go back into that boy on the hillside, and it will chase after me there. I'll need you to drive us away a little bit, just to get out of the water's path. Once it's past you can go back to the cabin and wait. It should only take a few minutes, and then we can wait out the rest of the lightning."

!!

Okay, what Adam meant before is that when it comes to alchemy he can bet that Nico knows what he's doing. When it comes to going wading in a thunderstorm Adam does have something of his own to contribute. They have some rope in this stupid cabin, don't they?

Yes indeed.

"Boss, wait. Let me at least make you a safety harness."

Unless Nico stops him, he'll loop the rope around Nico's back and shoulders, so that he can drag him to shore and start CPR if something bad happens. Would that even work, if the lake were struck by lightning? Adam isn't sure, but he wants to at least have a chance to try it.

THIS! THIS is what Nico was talking about! Thousands of henchmen will try to kill you as soon as your back is turned, and thousands more will let you walk into your death. How many will make up their own plans to protect you, and then act on them unprompted? In a world full of henchmen Nico has found exactly two, and they both work for him.

Of course Adam can put a safety leash on him. It takes time, and Nico does feel that loss, but some things you just shouldn't discourage. And who knows? It might matter.

After his safety rope is secure, Nico walks out of the cabin, into the rain, into the storm he probably created, or at least precipitated, ha ha. There's a kind of balance to it: the sky is pressing down on him, more overtly than usual, just as the ground presses up. And in the middle there's Nico, closely watched from all sides, broken down and built up, marrying the opposites.

I am an alchemist, he thinks, as he stirs up the feelings he'll need for this next effort. I want to know. Even when I cannot understand, I want to know. And when I cannot know, even then I want to see.

Who was I talking to, in that cabin just now?

What did you hear, when you heard my call?