Era1 Universe: The Global Appetizer Course

Your character finds a crazy clue. What does it reveal?

Peri and Laz stared at the mask on the table in the dimly lit cellar room of the estate.

"So..." Laz hummed softly in deep thought.

"I mean..." Peri trailed off in thought as well.

Neither of them moved. They just stared at the mask like it might do something interesting if they watched it long enough.

Nothing happened.

Peri finally reached out and picked up the mask. "It... looks real."

"It does!" Laz yelped then straightened her skirt out and leaned in. "R-right?"

The mask was real. Peri guessed that much. It sure felt real but she'd never before seen a mask like this in person. It was sort of face shaped... but with a beak. "Laz, I think this is a real plague doctor's mask."

Laz ran her fingers over some of the seams in the old leather. "It does feel real. But... mom said they don't exist. It's purely a myth."

"If it's a myth then why is there a mask? A real feeling one?"

Peri made a good point. Laz took the mask and held it closer to the light. This leather was well worn. It wasn't new. The threads on the seams were old. It was faded. Worn. Used. "You make a point. I know my way around theatre props and costumes and this is far too elaborate for that."

"Exactly!"

Laz sighed and set the mask on the table then leaned on her elbows. "Do you think plague doctors are real? Not just a story?"

"Kind of. Yeah," Peri hummed as she looked over the mask from different angles.

"Why would mom lie?"

Silence hung over the two friends for a long while.

"Maybe," Peri began, breaking the silence, "the plague doctors were bad? Like the jadeites?"

"Says you who thinks everyone has redeeming qualities." Laz laughed warmly. She shook her head. "No... there's definitely more going on than what meets the eye."

"Let's suppose they're real. I wonder if they still exist."

Laz's eyes began to twinkle. "Do you think they do?"

"Maybe they do!"

"What do you think they're like?"

Now it was Peri's turn to look excited. "Maybe they know things even your parents don't know."

"Something even the master healers, the MASTER. HEALERS. Don't know?"

"It could be!"

Laz smiled. "That would be pretty wild." She paused when she heard something upstairs. Quietly she made her way to the staircase and looked up. After listening for a long moment she came hurrying back. "I think someone's coming. Let's hide the mask again and we'll revisit this idea later."

"Good thinking." Peri put the mask back in the box and covered it up. "I'll see if I can find anything in the Crystal Library. Or maybe Snow has some books that could help us."

Laz beamed and turned off the light, filling the basement with darkness. "One day we'll find out once and for all if the plague doctors are real."