Page 67 of Insidious Monsters
He grinned. “Of course. Make yourself comfy.”
We took an armchair each and he poured the tea.
“Help yourself to milk and sugar.” He slid a cup my way and waited for me to add both before speaking. “Now, symbols throughout history have meaning and most are universally recognized, like the ankh symbol on the man who tried to kidnap your friend.”
“It was an ankh and a zigzag.”
“Yes, two symbols combined as one.”
“What does it mean?”
“The ankh means many things: life, male or female genitalia, and it can also represent the sun rising over the horizon. The zigzag is often used as the symbol for lightning, energy, and movement. Together they could mean the energy of life, or life force being moved or siphoned.”
I sat forward. “Okay. That makes sense as this Holy character is draining mystics.”
“Hmmm. But only your necromystic could see the symbol on this man?”
“Right.”
“And the other symbols you sent me? The ones the mystic ghosts had on their wrists.”
“Archie saw those too.”
“And Devyn just sent me another image found on one of the survivors. One they all could see.”
What was he getting at? “You think the fact that only Nandi could see the first symbol has significance?”
“No. Mystics can see things regular humans can’t. The human who attacked your friend must have used powerful glamour to make his face look like someone she knew. The tattoo may also have been hidden by magic, but your friend somehow managed to see past that. It was probably weaker than whatever glamour he used on his face.”
“And the ghosts’ tattoos weren’t hidden.”
“No. The tattoos on the dead mystics were different to the one on the cultist. They could mean sacrifice or givers of power. Which makes sense considering they were being fed on.”
But there was skepticism in his eyes. “What are you thinking?”
“Honestly, it feels like a mash-up job to me. Like someone grabbed a book on symbology and created their own using whatever they could find. Symbols can provide cohesion, give a cause a focus, an identity. There are no powers in a symbol other than the oneswegive it.”
“Are you saying the Holy just made up these symbols so the cultists had something to believe in?”
“Yep. I think you’re wasting your time focusing on the symbols. They’re not going to help you find this guy. The passage you sent me, on the other hand. Now that is intriguing.”
My pulse sped up. “You can read it?”
“I identified the language as cuneiform, Sumerian, but it’s encrypted.” His eyes lit up. “Cleverly so. I’ve been working on trying to find the cypher.”
“Sumerian? I was expecting you to tell me that you didn’t recognize the language at all, considering it was found in the eldritch realm.”
His eyes went round. “Really, wow. Where did you find it?”
I sighed. “Long story short, my mother was killed in the eldritch realm, and I found it on a gravestone someone planted in the last place she was seen.”
He scratched at his chin. “Now that is creepy.”
“Right? So, how does this someone know Sumerian?”
“The eldritch world is merely a different reality, August, and it may share many elements with our world including language.”
“Yes. Luphin understood me and spoke to me in English.”
