Body Surfing

current—which is basically all consciousness is —is pretty much a guess. But look.” Q. scrolled through a few pages on his computer. “This is from the preface.”
    The Definition of Magick
    Magick is the highest most absolute and divinest knowledge of Natural Philosophy advanced in its works and wonderfull operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult vertue of things, so that true agents being applied to proper patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced; whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; theybecause of their skill know how to anticipate an effect which to the vulgar shall seeme a miracle.
    “This got me thinking. I mean, what if the Mogran are just another natural phenomenon that we haven’t learned to understand? The ancient Greeks used to think lightning was thrown by Zeus and earthquakes were caused by Poseidon. So let’s say that the Mogran really are nothing more than an electrical current that’s somehow managed to jump out of a person’s brain. If that’s true, then it’s logical to assume this current is subject to the same laws of physics that apply to all electromagnetic energy, which means that once it’s outside the body it’d be dispersed more or less instantaneously along the earth’s electromagnetic fields. But electricity’s not like water. It doesn’t just spread out. It’s actually drawn from one pole to another, negative to positive, positive to negative. So, after the Mogran leaves one person, it’s more or less forced to—”
    “Jump into another?”
    “Another person,” Q. nodded, “or something that’s such a powerful conductor it can direct the energy away from the body.”
    Suddenly Jasper understood. He held up the doctor’s necklace. “You’re saying that these things, which I guess some alchemy guy cooked up in his medieval lab, actually worked?”
    “Well, I imagine it took a lot of trial and error. Who knows, maybe it was just an accident. Maybe a Mogran tried to jump into some king’s head, but he was wearing a gold crown and that deflected him.”
    “But how would the king find out?”
    “Maybe he didn’t. Maybe only the Mogran knew what had happened, and did some investigating, and ended up leaving a few traces of what he found in someone’s head, and over the centuries those traces morphed into these.” Q. pointed to the sigil in Jasper’s hand. “You guys do that, you know,” he added in a quieter voice. “Leave memories behind. When you jump.”
    “You should see what you leave in us.”
    Q. nodded. In a voice that was half fascinated, half wary, he said,“The doctor told me you can remember everything from everyone you’ve been in. Is it true?”
    “I’m not sure if remember is the word I would use. It’s more like I can’t forget. Even if I wanted to.”
    “But you’re still in charge, right? It’s not like you’re three or ten or a thousand different people. Right? The others are just, I don’t know, data. You’re still Jasper, right?”
    Jasper took a long time to answer. He wanted to assuage his friend’s fears, but he didn’t want to lie to him either.
    “I’m doing my best, Q.”
    Q. was silent a moment, then nodded. He turned back to the screen.
    “So. We usually just dismiss this stuff because we assume there’s no such thing as demons. But now we know there really are demons, and that got me thinking. The way these sigils are made, they’d basically just act as a deflector. They’d shoot the current back out into the world, where it’d just end up in someone else. But I’m thinking that with a little modification, we can actually trap them inside it.”
    Jasper tensed slightly.
    “Don’t worry. Even if I had one, I couldn’t, like, suck you out of Larry.” Q. brought up another page. There was a drawing of something that appeared to be an old-fashioned jar on the screen, sealed at the top and covered all over with more funny-looking signs.
    “According to the Key , King Solomon enlisted the aid of seventy-two demons to help him build the Temple and defend the kingdom of Judea from attacks. When he wasn’t using them, he kept them sealed up in this jar. Again, everyone gets all caught up with the magical signs. But the jar itself? It was made of the same alloy as the sigils.”
    Jasper stared at the drawing. “I don’t get it. Wouldn’t that just, whatever you said, just suck the demons in and spit them out again?”
    “It