Werewright Curriculum, Lesson 3:

I admit I’ve gotten impatient after visiting Ms. Walstead. The things she keeps telling me are leaving me frustrated. Clearly I don’t know enough about her or Freestone, and I won’t be at peace until I know enough. So I lost my temper over this one device that ‘I’m not ready to learn about’. He won’t even explain why I’m not ready to learn about it. The gall! His own disposition was unruly as well; he hides it well but his teaching was more curt and formal than usual. Something’s bothering him and he’s not telling me again, I’m certain. Almost as frustrating as not knowing what that device is for.

Friends are supposed to tell friends their secrets, right? So they can help each other? I don’t read much fiction but I know that’s how it’s supposed to go.

As a concession, he’s planning to let me handle a patient on my own before the end of the month, which dominated much of the training session. Lots of review of bedside manner, how to judge whether they’re paying attention to what you’re doing, how to lie or twist the truth quickly and efficiently whenever needed. Fifteen minutes of him coming up with scenarios we might get caught in and me coming up with believable explanations. I’ve found that he’s very good at it himself. I hate thinking that Ms. Walstead had a point but she may have had a point.

The Rack:

A wooden board covered in concentric circles and mathematical diagrams, about six feet by six feet. Circles and diagrams are drawn in several different inks, some black, some red, some silver.

A device for the long-term transformation of a creature. The creature is made insensate, usually through a poppy solution, and attached to the board with nails and twine, usually by the head, neck and limbs. The body is split open entirely, starting from the torso and going up each of the limbs. The diagrams on the board are consulted, depend on the type of creature, the size, and the desired effect. The limbs are modified first. Gravity and manual effort are used to stretch the limbs and horse materials are used to fix tears in the muscle; cork and a milk solution are used to add artificial length to bone. Once the limbs are finished, the organs of the torso are divided, inflated, or replaced. Finally, the head is cracked open and drops of various solutions are applied to certain parts of the brain. The creature is left on the board for the rest of the night to let the proportions settle. The end result is usually a larger and smarter version of the same creature. Not an exact science.

Per Freestone, it’s built on the mathematical and metabiological differences in design between us and the Nephilim. The ones from the Bible? Further details on the topic under “True Nature of the World and Surrounding Environs, Lesson 2”.

‘Bedside Manner’:

• Find excuses to put them under. Explanations work better without a witness.
• Pay attention to how inquisitive they are. Patients who argue easily and ask follow-up questions require a more subtle touch
• Placebos can do wonders to providing comfort. The idea of a draught or paste that cures you is satisfying enough to avoid a lot of questions.
• Sometimes werewrightwork has to be shelved in place of traditional methods to avoid suspicion.

The Siphon:

Terrifying device that resembles a cross between a giant syringe, a drill and some kind of medieval clamp, with tubing leading back to something resembling a handheld distillery. I swear there’s a golden chalice lodged somewhere in there. I’ve seen Freestone tinkering with it over November when he thinks I’m busy. What is he hiding?

True Nature of the World and Surrounding Environs, Lesson 2:

Another round of comparative history. We went into the history of giants. The Greek Titans, the Gaelic Fomorians and Fionn mac Cumhaill, the Norse Jotun, and the Nephilim. I know I’ve heard of them before; I’ve read the Bible cover to back at least twice. But why memorize Genesis when Ecclesiastics is right there?

The question he made me try to answer is why they’re all dead, which…raises a lot of questions, actually. Usually the larger creature wins in a fight; that’s just biology and physics. But there’s been all these discoveries of giant lizards that aren’t alive today, and there’s rumors of bones that might belong to a giant cat or maybe even one of the flying wyrms. Ms. Walstead says the street cats in Boston can be mean as sin; I think a pack of them might win against a single giant cat.

The gods usually beat the giants though. Gods or something like them. Nobody knows what happened to the Nephilim though. They show up in the Bible after the Flood, so they didn’t drown, but there’s no tale of the Israelites slaying them while taking Canaan. Was Goliath one of the Nephilim or was that a separate thing? Freestone knows more about the topic than I thought. He showed me a book - one that I somehow missed back in August? - from an anthropologist who was searching for proof of the Nephilim’s existence. He refused to let me take it home, but he’ll let me read it whenever I visit.

The Walstead Theory:

I took advantage of a lull in the lesson plan to ask his opinion about my appearance. I said I was considering how I’d look when they paint portraits of me and cast statues - which isn’t entirely incorrect. I brushed my hair down more than usual and used a little blush I borrowed from mother’s supply. He thought it was ‘complimentary’. He was already in a foul mood about the Siphon so I didn’t push it.

She has to be wrong. I’d be a fool to misread him so thoroughly. Yet he did seem distracted. Something’s been wearing on his mind, and that might skew the data. I need to be certain. If I get flummoxed by her a third time, I think I might just die.