The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

surface was faceted. Thin bands of silver encircled the tube, and when Dee peered into the eyepiece, he discovered it was shimmering and liquid, like mercury.
    “Marethyu brought this back from one of his travels,” Abraham said. His voice was labored, every word an effort. “He will not tell me where he found it, but I suspect it is Archon rather than Earthlord. The Earthlord artifacts tend to be almost brutal in their design. This has a certain delicacy to it.”
    “I can see nothing,” Dee said. “Does it need to be focused?”
    “Think of a person,” Abraham said. “Someone you know well. I would say someone you care for, but I realize that might be difficult in your case.”
    Dee looked into the glass.
    . . . Sophie and Josh sitting at a circular table piled high with food. Isis and Osiris sat opposite them
.
    He jerked his head back and lowered it to the eyepiece again.
    . . . Virginia Dare, in a loose white robe and straw hat, moving through streets teeming with small, dark-skinned people. Red-eyed, black-armored anpu watched from the shadows
.
    “Extraordinary,” Dee said, looking up. “It is similar to a scrying glass. Will it only see people in this Shadowrealm?”
    “If the glass is fed with blood and pain, it will show other times, other places,” Abraham whispered. “I do not feed it.”
    “But
you
have.” Dee spun around to look at Marethyu.
    “Sometimes,” he admitted. Something sad and lost moved behind his gaze. “There are certain people I like to keep an eye on.”
    “I would have loved something like this. I can think of a thousand uses for it.”
    Marethyu shook his head. “It would have destroyed you, Doctor.”
    “I doubt it.”
    “Sometimes, when you look into the glass, you find something looking back at you. Something hungry.”
    Dee shrugged. “As you yourself said, I’ve seen monsters before. And there’s not much they can do to you from the other side of a glass.”
    “They’re not always on the other side of the glass,” Abraham said. “Sometimes they come through.” The Mage turned, allowing the immortal to see his entire body. The left side of his face from forehead to chin and from nose to ear was a solid gold mask. Only his eye remained untouched, although the white had turned a pale saffron with threads of gold twisted through the gray iris. The upper and lower teeth on the left side of his face were solid gold, and his left hand was covered in what looked like a golden glove.
    “The Change,” Dee breathed.
    “I am impressed. Few humans in your time even know of it.”
    “I am not the average human.”
    “As arrogant as ever, Doctor, I see.” Abraham turned back to the telescope and pressed his remaining eye against the eyepiece.
    Dee suddenly found himself wondering who Abraham was looking at.
    “The Change warps all of us sooner or later. Some—like your friend Bastet—it makes into monsters.”
    “Is every Change unique?”
    “Yes, individual to the character. Changes may be similar, but no two are identical.”
    Dee limped over to stand beside Abraham and peered closely at his arm. “May I?” he asked.
    The Mage’s head moved a fraction.
    Dee pressed his index finger against Abraham’s shoulder and pushed. It was solid. Then he rapped on it with his knuckle. It rang with a dull thump.
    “My aura is hardening on my skin.”
    “I saw something similar in a cave beneath Paris.”
    “Zephaniah took the idea for Mars’s punishment from my Change.”
    “And it is not reversible?”
    “No. Generations of Great Elders and Elders have attempted to reverse the process. There are occasional minor successes, but nothing permanent.” Abraham stepped away from the telescope and turned slowly to face Dee. “What am I to do with you, Doctor? I have watched the human world for generations. I have seen heroes and villains. I have studied families and individuals, followed entire lineages for endless centuries. I understand humankind, I know what drives them, what motivates them. I know how and why they love and what they fear. And then there is you. . . . You are a mystery.”
    Dee glanced quickly at Marethyu. “Is that good or bad?”
    Abraham walked to the edge of the tower and looked out at the distant city. “You have no idea how close we came to destroying you,” he continued. “Chronos offered to send Marethyu back through time to kill your most distant ancestor so that we could wipe out your entire line.”
    “I’m glad you