Chapter Nine
Artifact Findings
Jennifer cleared off her desk and lined up all the items in the Artifacts box, setting the stack of papers aside as she conducted some basic tests. Sighing softly at the results, she paused and got in the small pouch, gently taking out the monkey paw and rubbing her thumb against it, seeing if any of the dust came off. She inspected her fingers for a moment before holding out a magnifying glass to inspect both her fingers and the paw itself. Sighing, she then snipped off a tiny piece of the cloth wrapping the stump of the claw to inspect. A moment later, Severus strode in.
"Sorry I'm late. I had a rather disagreeable conference with Rhett after classes got out… mind if I shut the door?" Severus asked.
"No, leave it open, I'm expecting John. He's going to fix the hooks on the potion vault door," Jennifer murmured, taking an eyedropper to the cloth.
"Again? Jennifer, those hooks are made to hold, you really don't need to force them as tight as you do," Severus said disapprovingly.
"Well, I want to be quite certain that vault door doesn't close on me," Jennifer protested.
"Even if it did close on you, Jennifer, I made certain that it you could push the vault door open even if it did by some remote chance get locked while you're in there. You won't get trapped," Severus reassured her in a low voice, but knew from her dubious gaze he wasn't getting anywhere. "So how is it going? What is this?" he asked, looking at the stack of papers.
"That's Paul and Ginger's report. I haven't really looked at it yet," Jennifer admitted with a sigh. "I wanted to look at these with an unbiased eye." Severus nodded in understanding, looking over the papers thoughtfully.
"So far, they seem to match. Ready to experiment with the things you need a spotter for?" he asked.
"Yes, just about," Jennifer said, making a couple of notes on her cloth sample before getting out her wand.
Severus had learned a great deal about cursed items over the years helping his wife. Her interest in them had always driven her forward in the field; she was always excited about discovering any new or innovative way of rigging an item to do any number of vile and sometimes violent things to unwitting victims. In many ways it was probably a good thing that Jennifer had gone into a teaching career, for Severus was quite certain had she taken up a career in items as she had wanted to as a teenager, and she would have likely not been able to resist making a few wicked creations of her own that in turn would have surely taken her down a darker path in life. But at that moment, Jennifer looked quite bored with the items in front of her. Severus became much more alert to compensate, just in case there was an off chance that something unexpected might happen which Jennifer would have not been prepared for. But after twenty minutes of blazing colors from the different levels of detection spells, Jennifer finally made her last notation and pushed it over to Severus, who glanced at it without surprise.
"Identical," Severus said evenly.
"Well, I'm not surprised," Jennifer said tiredly, glancing at the items on the table as she sat down in her desk chair. "And what do we have? One Unremarkable brand leather satchel… probably one of their first models, in fact. An intricate idol made of petrified wood, charmed to have its eyes glow with fire when it's lifted, probably used in some sort of ceremony, although I don't recognize the culture. There's the Aboriginal bowl charmed with spells similar to what we now use on cauldrons, so definitely for potion making purposes. A Native American club with detailed paint, beads and feathers…I'm sure Wind Elk would know for sure which culture, but apparently it's a rainmaking device. A Celtic cross that glows in low light, a sanshin from Okinawa charmed to calm sea dragons, and a balalaika from Russia charmed to show illusions in smoke trails, probably for storytelling. Then we have this gold dusted monkey paw, which had a spell at one point but has apparently been used up; and if we trust the legends the Archives department has on file, it had a sort of wish charm on it which had been used unwisely and in the process got the stigma of being cursed on it. The residue aura of the paw is grey, which would support it being ancient magic, but really, how can we trust a legend like that?"
"We cannot, of course, without more research," Severus mused, Jennifer giving him a look to show just how nonplussed she was about that notion. "For one thing, I'm rather curious about where that idol is from, although I have an guess," he said, looking through her bookshelf thoughtfully and then pulling out a tome.
"Did Paul say anything about that gold sarcophagus?" Jennifer asked, and Severus handed over the report. "Pending?"
"Second page," Severus said, and then nodded to John Carnegie, who had knocked gently on the open door. "Come on in, John."
"Oh, thank you, John," Jennifer said with a smile when she saw the caretaker had several of the hooks in hand.
"'Tis no trouble. I've gotten into the habit of ordering extra hooks just in case," John said dryly, kneeling to take the bottom one out.
"Oh, here is the reference you were talking about, Severus. 'Did rudimentary tests upon the sarcophagus, which appeared to be uncharmed. However, I would like to note here that extensive tests were not done on either the sarcophagus or the mummy due to international artifact restrictions,'" Jennifer read. "Lovely, so we don't know enough about that one to rule it out completely. And isn't it odd that they singled it out?"
"Not really, Jennifer," Severus said. "Remember how much trouble we ran into when Thomas decided to revive his excavation business in the first place? Egypt is quite known for protecting its artifacts, magic or not. I suppose it's rather fortunate that it's the only one of these that originated from the country they were found in… this last one, I believe, is Mayan. See, Jennifer? Note the examples of similar ritual statues," he said, handing her the tome to glance at.
"It's official. Other than being in this sack, none of these items have anything in common," Jennifer said with exasperation. "They're all from different countries… I don't even think they're all from the same periods in time… and although most of them do seem ceremonial in nature, none of them have similar enchantments."
"I wouldn't say they have nothing in common, Jennifer," Severus said, perusing the book once more. "Considering the rarity of these, I believe they're all quite valuable."
"Sounds like someone lifted a museum," John said casually as he installed the new hooks. Jennifer and Severus turned and stared at him. "Your pardon, Professor, I'll be back to my duties…"
"Not at all, John, I believe you have a point," Severus said. "That would explain a great deal, actually."
"It would explain the variety, although it wouldn't explain why that satchel had been brought into the mines in the first place," Jennifer said. "After all, if you had robbed a museum, John, would you carry it around with you?" John hesitated and looked at Severus, but he gazed at him expressionlessly.
"'T'isn't really the sort of thing I would have shopped for, myself. But I'd expect a 'lying low' period filled with lovely chummy mates drunk enough tae forget you slipped out of their sight for half the night for alibis would be customary for anyone," John said. "Then, I'd tuck the baubles away until the Enforcers are off the scent and me buyers are brave enough to sell again… but no, I wouldn't keep it on my person. It might put one in an uncomfortable position."
"There is always the possibility they were using the mine as a hideout, although how the devil they got in there is a mystery. It took days to break into the mine proper when your father began excavating that area," Severus said.
"Actually, I rather had a theory on that one, although it's probably a bit far fetched," Jennifer admitted. "I was thinking that if the monkey's paw was inundated with wish magic like people believed it was that perhaps it still had some power left before they went in there. Perhaps they wished themselves to find King Solomon's mine, and it ran out of power while they were in there, trapping them."
"The what?" John said, standing up curiously, and peering on the table. Belatedly, Jennifer thought to cover it, but it was too late. "Jaysus! Oh, that be the most vile thing I've ever seen done!" he howled in utter horror and disgust. "It's beastly, that's what it is!"
"I'm sure the animal was dead well before they dissected it," Severus said innocently.
"And that is supposed to make me feel better? How would you feel if someone killed you to take your hand for such a wicked purpose? I think I'd fancy any other fate than being someone else's trophy, let alone lucky charm!" John raved.
"It's a good thing our little therapy session for your 'problem' worked then," Severus said evenly. "I could have done the same to you."
"Oh, you're very funny!" John scowled.
"Besides, all the legends say that this particular one was considered a bad luck charm, not a good one," Jennifer offered.
"Good! I hope that poor creature gets its vengeance for what someone did to it," John said hotly, picking up his tool bag. "The hooks are fixed, Professor Craw. I think I'll go find myself something more tasteful to do."
"Thank you, John," Jennifer said, waiting until he was well out of the room before breaking into a giggle.
"Well, that was rather entertaining," Severus admitted.
"I should have been more careful. I suppose it's fairly normal for an animagus to get a bit sensitive about such things," Jennifer said, putting it back in the pouch. "You'd almost think it was a human hand the way he carried on about it. I don't even think it's the same type of monkey."
"Anyway, before we were interrupted, I was about to say that I think your theory is actually rather intriguing," Severus said, Jennifer looking at him thoughtfully. "If they were robbers as everyone suspects, I could see their greed driving them to make such a request from this thing and getting trapped in the process. But first thing is first. Didn't Minister Coffer say he had record of this paw being in the country?"
"Yes, something about the early 1900's, I think he said," Jennifer said.
"Perhaps we should suggest to your father that he should run some inquiries about possible wizard led museum robberies in that time period," Severus suggested.
"Probably a good idea," Jennifer agreed. "But in the meantime, I think I'm going to go to Africa this weekend," Severus squinting in response. "Father wanted these items check thoroughly, Severus, and I can't say it's thorough until I've seen that gold sarcophagus. I'm going to go down there and see if I can't talk them into letting me run some tests on it, or at least give me information on what they've found out if anything."
"Oh, very well, but you should bring someone with you as a spotter in case they do actually let you see the thing, which I highly doubt," Severus sighed.
"All right, Severus," Jennifer said, carefully putting the items away. "I'll mention it to father, maybe he'll want to come or send someone down."
"Sounds reasonable, considering it's his business, and not ours," Severus said evenly. Jennifer smiled knowingly at the reminder.
"Family is my business, Severus. You should know that by now," Jennifer said, picking up the Puzzle Box to bring upstairs with them.
"Yes. Now I know we're in for it," Severus said dryly as the two of them walked out of the office.
Rinan Scur was a swindler, a scoundrel, and a cad; by his own admission as well as accusations. He was not necessarily a smart man; although brilliant in his own fields, and he walked with a cane now having acquired a hobble in recent years. Jennifer knew very well that anyone would be a fool to underestimate him from his weathered appearance. He was a dark wizard of the old school; and not someone to be trusted lightly or completely. But the old wizard was also quite loyal to Thomas Craw, which was one of several reasons that Jennifer had no objections when her father suggested she bring him along. He also knew the ins and outs of negotiating through the Department of Magical Antiquities, and was one of the few people that Jennifer had ever heard of who had managed to keep his licenses after being in and out of jail on several occasions.
Jennifer paused to take a quick translation potion as they went into the office building, pulling at her collar a bit from the warm air while Rinan led them through the halls, darting in and out of corridors until Jennifer wasn't sure which direction was which. He turned down a hall that looked to be a dead end at first, but as they got to the end, Jennifer saw an open doorway, hidden as much by the angle and the statues in the halls as it was by magic. Behind a desk sat a tall, thin man who glanced at Rinan with a rather annoyed expression.
"Good morning, Adel. I'm here with Professor Craw to see the councilor, he should be expecting me," Rinan said casually.
"He isn't in," Adel said evenly.
"He isn't?" Rinan said with feigned surprise. Jennifer studied him curiously before glancing back at Adel.
"No, but I've been instructed to let you see that item you requested to see," Adel said evenly. "You know, you're lucky you sent a tube when you did. We were about to send that sarcophagus to the main council."
"Really? That convinced it isn't magic, eh?" Rinan mused, glancing at Jennifer who was watching the man carefully.
"Yes, very much so," Adel said, getting in the desk drawer for a set of keys and walking them to a back room. It had only a large stonework table as its only furnishing, other than a shelf of wooden boxes. Adel took out a large crate and lifted the sarcophagus out of its plastic wrapping.
"Do you have any list of what's already been tested?" Jennifer asked.
"Not one that we can give out, no, but I can assure you it was quite thorough," Adel said, apparently somewhat offended that she would even ask.
Jennifer quickly put on her gloves, lifting off the lid and setting it on the table, frowning when she saw it was empty.
"Where's the mummy that was with this?" she asked.
"Who knows," Adel shrugged, but then paused. "Oh, you mean the one that was with the sarcophagus when it came in, don't you? That one wasn't authentic."
"It was a fake?" Jennifer frowned, subtly casting a series of detection charms.
"Well, it was a real mummy of sorts, just not one of ours," Adel explained. "It didn't go with the sarcophagus it was in at all, rather I think they were put together hoping that no one would notice, but Egyptologist would be able to tell on sight that the weave of the fabric used was too modern, even after it had obviously been aged. Our feeling that it probably was someone's university project at some point, created to get the feel for how they might have been made in the past."
"I think that would fit with your theory that these may have been stolen from a museum, Jennifer," Rinan mused. "It may have been put together or donated for display."
"Yes, that would make sense," Jennifer agreed. "Do you know if this particular sarcophagus has ever gone through the office before?"
"Not from what we've been able to tell, nothing matching this particular name or time period, but that's really not all that unusual, especially if this has been buried as long as the report indicates. Grave robbers were quite rampant in the nineteenth and early twenty centuries, which one of the reasons is why the Antiquities Service was formed in the first place, to stop all that nonsense. Not that it didn't still happen, both back then and now, although the penalties have grown quite stiff," Adel said expressionlessly.
"Well, I believe we're about to follow up on this museum theory," Jennifer decided with a sigh. "If we find anything leads us to believe it was originally removed from the country illegally, I'll send you a note." Adel smiled thinly.
"Thank you, Professor. It is refreshing to meet someone so honest in this day and age," he said, darting an almost accusing glance towards Rinan.
"Honesty is overrated," Rinan grunted.
"Thank you for letting us in to see it," Jennifer said, ignoring the comment. "And please let the councilor know that I am sorry to have missed him."
"You're awful polite for a Craw," Rinan murmured critically as they worked their way back through the corridors.
"That's because my father has sense enough to marry women that have qualities he lacks," Jennifer retorted with a thin smile. "Besides, just because you happen to be blackmailing the head of magical antiquities doesn't mean I have to act cross to them," she said, Rinan squinting at her. "Well, why else would Adel have thought that the councilor was out just to avoid having to talk with me?"
"You're also too clever for your own good sometimes," Rinan added irritably.
"Well, I didn't pick up all my traits from my mother, you know," Jennifer chuckled as the two of them left the building.
