Numquam Extinguit — Welcome, everyone. I see some of you already have the visitors’ guidebook — if not, it’s available at the Gift Shop on your way out — and if you’ve read it, you’ll know that while parts of Lanthorn House date from mediaeval times, what we see today was built mostly…

Fold up and eat — “Would you like pepper pony on your pizza?” The child nodded eagerly at her grandfather’s question. “And origami, please?” “Of course. For you, nothing but the best.” He busied himself with slicing and grating and careful arrangement of ingredients before topping it all off with the dried green herb. …

It’s magic — “Three, two, one — abracadabra!” Jimmy tapped the handcuffs with the wand, and they fell open. I raised my freed hands in triumph. The audience erupted in applause. Jimmy bowed, drinking it all in. He never told me how the illusion (“It’s not a trick! I don’t do tricks!”) worked…

Coming to the point — “They’re doing WHAT!!!” Edgar’s training as an actor was paying off again. Every one of the three question marks was audibly straightened. They cowered together at the loud end of the sentence, standing to attention and trying not to shiver. “They’re levelling raised and sunken ironworks,” his wife (who had…

Who knows what may be inside? — The Anarachi Book Of Quells is among the most curious of all religious texts. Adherents to the Doctrine of Anarach revere it, without ever having read it or even seen it: they believe it was handed to Anarach to be memorised, then taken away (or, in some versions of the…

An Halloweenegory — Hey, you, blacksmith. I hear you’re the best in the business, right? In that case, I have a job for you. First, can we go somewhere more quiet? I have trouble with noise, you see. And a few other things. Like, do you see my lips moving? That’s right, you’re…

Homes and Watsup are puzzled — “Homes,” I asked aloud, “what is the sine of four?” “If you were talking about degrees, then from memory it would be 0.069756,” said Shylock Homes. “If your units were minutes or seconds of arc, then I would inquire why you are attempting trigonometry on such tiny angles as only…

Homes and Watsup don’t know what’s coming to them — I hate him. It had started so well. I recognised an intellect comparable to my own: which is to say, superior to the vast majority of humanity. I was surprised, then, to find myself excited to discover that he was also a single man, of approximately my own age, and…

(Or inhisitance, I can’t tell) — “Whatcha drawing there, Marcie?” asked her grandfather. The few curved lines on the sketchpad gave no clues. The nine-year-old did not look round as she stared intently at the tiny thing in front of her. “Wasp,” she breathed, almost whispering. The pencil remained as still as the rest of her. …