Hieroglyphs
“One must always be careful when it comes to ancient artifacts,” said Azarias.
He and Luke Lester were standing in the ancient Egyptian gallery of the Cassandra museum. Surrounding them were statues and friezes that had been removed from burial sites dating from before the time of the Great Pyramids.
“But these are surely just relics,” suggested Luke. “It’s not likely, is it, that they would continue to have any supernatural power in our own day?” Luke looked at the hieroglyphs that covered the adjacent sarcophagi and canopic jars.
“On the contrary, my dear fellow, they have lost none of their potency because of their age. Simply recite any of the invocations on any artifact you see around you, and you may quickly find yourself in the presence of forces — evil forces! — that you would otherwise never have expected to invoke.”
The two stood in silence for a few moments.
“I’m not sure I believe you,” said Luke.
“Ah! Well! Then you have simply proved what I’ve known to be the case for some time now; in fact, since first I came to join the Fratrum Simulacrorum.”
“And what is that?”
“Simply this: that the devil has never achieved a greater victory than in convincing the people of your generation to disbelieve in him, and in all of the dark forces that he controls.”