;however, it then occurred to me, as was oft said of spirits, I could release the souls by simply speaking their names.
last known correspondence of Professor H. Fiendish:
Dear Mr. James,
I write to you from my rooms at the Astor in Shanghai. As suspected from our recent communications Mr. Ho’s condition has deteriorated considerably. Whereas I have decreased my ingestion of the Beige Matters since the creation of my boxes; Mr Ho has been using his ever more potent balms and I fear is overwhelmed by his vision of Auras. During our conversations yesterday he would often look to one side of me and mutter something as if talking to someone standing next to me yet I cannot see. He has been using the matter much longer than me and I can only guess at his abilities.
I told him of my dilemma of the ‘trapped’ Aura and he concurred that it was a serious development that we should find an answer to straight away. On the other hand he congratulated me on my electrified Beige Matter glass sandwich which he likes to call a “Touchscreen”.
At supper tonight Mr. Ho became increasingly agitated and stated something quite extraordinary; he said that when he met me on the boat the first time he was not actually there. He said the Mr. Ho I saw was a ‘projection’ of himself and the whole time he was sitting in his old laboratory. I fear he has gone quite mad with his addiction. How then could he affect the physical world I was in, pass me drinks or carve into a wooden plank? It makes no sense. Along with our ‘trapped’ friend I fear we have gotten out of our depth with this technology and are floundering about. If Mr. Ho becomes incomprehensible I will lose the very impetus for this work. Furthermore it is only his refinement of the Beige Matter that fuels our work and supplies of the handflowers are very low.
It is with these varied troubles besetting us that I made the following proposal, that we return to the Tiger Forest to acquire some more flowers and that furthermore we track down the Monk whose people have been dealing with this phenomenon for hundreds of years and can surely give us some guidance.
To my surprise he immediately agreed to my proposal and said it is ‘exactly’ what we should do! After that he was somewhat calmer and turned his mind to the practical matter of organising our trip.
It is with this knowledge I hope you will forgive that I once again ask you to manage the Fiendish Estate and Laboratories until my return and for how long I cannot say. You manage these things with the same discipline as our father did before you and I know our affairs are in good hands. It is likely to be at least six months travelling to Tibet and learning all that we need to learn. In the mean time I ask that you turn off all the Aura Boxes except for you-know-who. As to your last communication in which you request that you can call the Soul ‘Flossie’ in praise of the barmaid at the Rose and Crown, I see no harm in this. Although it now occurs to me that you could determine if she likes this appellation by seeing how the aura reacts and if not try to settle on one she/he/it likes.
I shall communicate with you as soon as I am able, in the meantime I acknowledge your faithful service,
H. F.