Two weeks had passed, which meant that Glitnir could return to his Wonder and continue fixing the Shadow Box with Cornelius. He had even located his father’s toolkit, in case any of that would help the assembly at all. The routine for going up was the same as usual. He grabbed his scales somewhere in the city, said his magic words, and braced himself for the feeling of being slung through space.

When he arrived at the courthouse, Cornelius wasn’t waiting in the lobby as usual. For a moment, he panicked, unsure of where his ancestor would be, but then he remembered: right, the workshop. The question was, could he remember where it was without Cornelius’s guidance.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to. Cornelius was waiting in the basement foyer. “Ah, you’re being timely for once. Do you want to keep working on the Shadow Box?”

“Yes, of course. I really want to see what it’s like when it’s done.” Glitnir looked around. “Which way was it to the workshop again?”

“This way,” Cornelius said, gesturing to the closest hallway on the left. “Fifth door down.” He started walking, and Glitnir followed. “What is that box you brought?”

“A toolkit. Screwdrivers and wrenches and things. It might help with putting things together,” Glitnir said.

“I see. Good foresight on your part. They are most likely to be in better condition than what I’ve been using,” Cornelius said. He opened the door to the workshop, where some of the tools and pieces seemed to have been moved around. Glitnir decided that Cornelius had probably been working on his own while he was absent. “Are you ready to get some work done? We may come close to getting the Shadow Box in working order today.”

“That’s exciting,” Glitnir said. “Really! I want to see what comes out of this.” He set his toolkit by the boxy device and opened it. “So… where do I start?”

The two men got to work, screwing reflectors and other components into place and replacing pieces that had burnt out long ago. After a while of work, Cornelius broke the industrious silence. “Have you been experimenting with your magic like I told you to?”

Glitnir nodded. “Yes! I’ve found more willing subjects than I thought I would. And also some unwilling ones, but they kind of had it coming.”

“Good! What do you think it does?” Cornelius asked.

“It puts pressure on people, literally. And it also makes them think of things that they’ve done wrong, I think. Am I close?” Glitnir’s eye contact shifted from the device to Cornelius.

“Close enough,” Cornelius said. “Specificially, it brings major sins to mind and inflicts the feeling of pressure you mentioned. If a person does not considered themselves to have sinned, they experience a general feeling of guilt and having done something wrong.” After peering at something on the machine, he added, “There is another Knight trick you ought to know about.”

“What’s that?” Glitnir asked, setting his screwdriver down for a moment.

“It’s called an aspect. It’s a special power that is unique depending on the order of the Knight using it. You’ll have to ask the others what their aspect does, but Knights of Mars gain the ability to turn mild damage into energy. While major injuries are as dangerous as they always are, small hits will give you a surge of energy and motivation. Does that make sense?” Cornelius reached over and tapped Glitnir’s signet ring. “To use it, you touch your ring and focus on the energy of Mars. You’ll feel it when it’s active.”

“That would have come in handy a little while ago,” Glitnir said, thinking of all the battles he could have used the aspect in. “But what do you mean, ‘focus on the energy?’”

Cornelius waved dismissively. “When you look for it, you’ll feel it so you can focus on it. It’s really quite simple.”

“For you, maybe.”

“I’ve already been through all the training. It’s your turn to learn, boy,” Cornelius said, sliding a metallic connector towards Glitnir. “Attach that right there.” After a few more minutes of tinkering, Cornelius spoke once more. “You know, I think I’m getting tired of calling you ‘boy.’ I know you as the new Knight of Glitnir, but I think I deserve to know your true name. Would you mind telling me?”

The request seemed fair enough. There was no risk in Glitnir revealing his name to his ancestor, who was definitely on his side. “Silas Bright is my name.”

“Silas… it’s a strong name. I think it suits you well.” Cornelius put one hand on the Shadow Box and leaned forward to look at it more closely. “I think we might be just about done with the repairs. We can go install it now.” He picked up the Shadow Box. “Follow me.”

The duo continued down the corridor till it ended in a large room that the door had been torn off of. “What a shame,” Cornelius said. “We ought to repair that door when we can. It needs to be strong to keep things in.”

“Keep what kinds of things in?” Glitnir asked.

“Nothing too dangerous. Consider it potentially very active spiritual phenomena,” Cornelius said. He entered the room and walked to a pedestal in the center, placing the Shadow Box on top of it when he got there. “Bring your toolbox. This is where we install the device.”

“You say that like that makes any sense. And I had the toolbox this entire time.” Glitnir went to the pedestal and placed the toolbox on it next to the Shadow Box. “So, what next?”

Cornelius reached down and opened a cabinet on the body of the pedestal. “We’re going to adjust the connections and get this device running again. We will not use it today, but activating it will be a milestone.” He began to pull cords out of the cabinet. “One device down, some more to go.”

“Why can’t we use it today? Does it have to do with the ‘active spiritual phenomena?’” Glitnir watched the cords come out, trying to figure out where they all connected to.

“You could say that. Let’s just say that it’s not a good idea to open the box unless you are truly ready to face yourself and deal with some unpleasant matters. If you’re not ready, you’ll be in for a terrible shock.” Cornelius gave some of the cords a tug to make sure that he had reached the ends of them. “Come down here and help me connect these wires to the base of the box. It’s color coded, so it should be simple enough.”

After some plugging in of cords and screwing in of connectors, a light on top of the device lit green, and Cornelius let out a cheerful cry of victory. “It’s ready! A thousand years later and it works like a charm.”

“We did it?” Glitnir stood up and looked at the top of the machine. “Oh, wow, it really is lit up! This is great!” He ran his finger along the seam where the top and bottom of the box met.

Cornelius grabbed Glitnir’s hand. “Don’t touch it! If you open it, you’ll activate it, and I don’t think you’re ready for that just yet.” He released Glitnir and pretended to wipe sweat off his ghostly forehead. “Our work is done for today. Now, what I want you to do is go home and prepare yourself for a confrontation. Prepare to have your mind and will tested. It will be very trying on you, even distressing, but you will certainly emerge from it a stronger person.”

Glitnir felt some concern as to what kind of device he had just rebuilt that could inflict a distressing confrontation on him, but if he were to be tested in the style of his predecessors, he would grin and bear it. It was both worrisome and intriguing, but the intrigue was winning out, and he would do his best to get psyched for his trial.