Ghost in the Shell

A few days have passed since our heroes’ little theft. Meical goes to see Lucrezia to ask her for more information. He explains that he and his colleagues have found an ancient artefact linked to spirits and Imhotep. He would like to know more about Ardeth Bay. Lucrezia doesn’t tell him much more about the god, but she will use her contacts in Cairo to find out more about the Egyptologist.

Meanwhile, the colleagues go to see Saira for their debriefing. They hand her the book they found in the Electricity Pavilion and tell her about the aether and the android. Whilst the aether leaves her cold, the creature piques her interest. She wants to know more. Is it a golem? Is it a suit of armour? Is it a vessel for a spirit? They suggest they continue working together.

Balthazar realises that the spirits of Edinburgh are conspicuous by their absence. And that is certainly not a very good omen.

Cornie and Willow go to see Ardeth to ask him questions about Imhotep. Their increasingly insistent questions eventually make him suspicious, so Willow uses her Domination. They learn that he is a member of Imhotep’s cult and that he is searching for the scarab to… the power of the Malk wanes and she forces him to forget. The two young women slip away before the scene attracts any unwanted witnesses.

Pidge finds Finn eating a candy apple and gives him some money to keep an eye on Ardeth. He will do so gladly and discreetly. Then the Nos heads for the spiritualist hall but finds only fellow practitioners there, not true mediums.

At the Electricity Pavilion, the show has resumed. It’s a little less impressive, though; the new gloves aren’t as powerful as the previous ones. After her performance, Penance Adler speaks to the audience, explaining her research and that she is looking for investors.
Balthazar goes over to speak to her and notices a necklace with strange engravings surrounding a stone that pulses; the pulsations vary, seeming to speed up as the vampire approaches the scientist, then slowing down again.
Adler explains that, for the time being, her research is funded by Oxford, but that she needs more resources. She is on the verge of creating a form of energy that is cheap and accessible, and which will enable humans to control machines and no longer be dependent on them. It sounds too good to be true, and Meical has serious doubts about the scientist’s professed humanism. It is certainly a half-truth, a marketing pitch, but it is difficult to know more at this stage.
Balthazar hands over his business card and asks Adler to send him a business case as soon as possible.

The group will contact Oxford to verify the young woman’s claims.

Back at the manor, Willow looks through her books on rituals and the artefact. She believes it is a prison to which evil spirits are sent when their hearts are too heavy to enter heaven. All of them? Some of them? How did they escape? Why?

Cornie decides to replicate the experiment she saw in Adler’s vault. She puts her heart into it, and when her machines start up, Balthazar can see that the veil is thinning.