MAG 138: The Architecture of Fear

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Statement of Robert Smirke, taken from a letter to Jonah Magnus dated 13th February 1867.

## Pre-Statement

Martin confronts Elias in prison about The Extinction. He asks if Peter is telling the truth about anything, and Elias tells him that everything Peter has told him is true. Peter is legitimately trying to stop the end of the world, but Elias is not helping, because his relationship with the apocalypse is complicated. John does not know about The Extinction. Elias has recently had to come to terms with The Extinction being real and he has no real control over what John knows anymore. Martin thinks that Peter wants him to join The Lonely. Elias thinks the decision of joining The Lonely or not is too important to interfere with. Martin then leaves with a decision to make.

## Statement

Robert Smirke believes that his hour of death is approaching. He sees his past hubris in Jonah Magnus. He will not go easy to the grave without giving Jonah one last warning. He believes what they built in Millbank should be left alone. He has lived a long life for someone who has crossed paths with the Dread Powers, but he now believes that he might have wasted his life's efforts. He has begun to lose faith in the idea that there is any possibility of achieving balance between the entities.

Out of all those who Robert has brought into his confidence, it is only him and Jonah who have not fallen to any power, assuming that Jonah has not taken the path of The Eye that has called them both. Robert assumes Jonah can recall what happened with the Reform Club, but there have been other experiments below the streets of London that Robert covered up with churches. When Robert was younger, he would have dreams of strange, far-off places. He believed that they were the entities themselves, in their truest form. He believed that with the right space and architecture, the powers could be harnessed and channeled, but he now believes that it was his own hubris.

So many of those that Robert brought into his confidence had abandoned them, casting about for rituals that he had helped to create. In his discussion with Mr. Rayner, he perhaps extrapolated too much from Rayner's words of a grand ritual of darkness. Robert thought that the Dark was simply one of the powers, so it stands to reason that all of them should have a ritual. He thinks maybe they did before he put them down on paper. He shudders to think of how Lukas, Scott, and others may use them.

Robert should have realized from their first discussion of The Flesh that the powers could never be truly balanced, when new fears can emerge. Robert knows that Jonah thinks the Flesh has always been there, tucked away until its recent emergence, but to grant the existence of lesser power would throw things into confusion. Would you separate insects, dirt, and disease from The Corruption? Robert believes that the only explanation is that it is a new power.

Robert has been dreaming the same dream for months now. He is in an empty house and the sky is dark until it blinks, and then he wakes up. Robert knows what this dream means and he warns Jonah again to abandon any ambitions of wearing the Watcher's Crown. Robert wonders how the powers came to be in the first place, whether they were eternal or created by fear in some grand accident.

Robert is being watched by people everywhere he goes. He tried to dismiss it, but it got too much when his driver turned his head all the way around to watch Robert, looking like a sculptor had placed his head on his body in reverse. He is choosing to believe that the manifestations are unintentional and that Jonah has not sought to implore a dark patron to end the life of an old man. He urges Jonah to not pursue the Dread Powers.

The night before, Robert was woken up by a noise in the drawing room. The noise came again and he called out to his daughter, Laura, to ask if she had woken up in the night, but got no reply. He lit a candle and crept towards the drawing room. In the dim glow of his candle, he could see a figure in the corner, wearing a long nightdress that, at a glance, made it seem like Laura. He asked what she was doing, but she just continued staring into the corner. She began to slowly turn before his candle went out. When he relit it, he could see Laura's face inches from his own. Her eyes stared into his, taking up half of her face or more, bulging out of their sockets. Robert screamed just once, but Laura gave no reply. He wanted to run, but he could do nothing but freeze and stare back at her. After a while, the candle went out and he stood there until morning, only to find Laura gone. Laura claims to have no knowledge of this, having no memory of leaving her chamber. The Eye has marked Robert, and he hopes that his death may be swift. He once again implores Jonah to give up on his research of the Dread Powers. The letter cuts off.

## Post-Statement

Robert Smirke was found collapsed in his study that evening, dead of apoplexy. Martin wonders what the letter means, whether there is a precedent for The Extinction or not. He calls out to Peter, before deciding that maybe he was at a party after all. He thinks that Robert was obviously wrong about balancing the powers, as it would be impossible with so much variation. He does not know what Robert was talking about when he mentioned Millbank. Tim said something about the tunnels under the Institute, but John checked them pretty thoroughly. Martin does not know what Peter is planning, but he guesses that it might involve something beneath the Institute. He hopes that by the time John gets these tapes, he will have something more concrete. He wishes John good luck and tells him to stay safe.