Overview
Giles Mercer was an actor of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane — and a cultist of the Aeternum Choir. He discovered a fragment of the Canticle in an obscure folio, wove it into an interpolated monologue for Sheridan’s The School for Scandal, and bound the cursed text to his dressing-room mirror as a ritual focus, using the understudy Edward Lynley as his vessel. Each delivery of the monologue folded the evening back on itself, trapping the theatre in a resetting loop. A note hidden behind the mirror’s frame, addressed to a fellow member of the Choir, marked where his loyalties lay.
The Interpolated Monologue
The closing lines of the monologue, as prepped for the Drury Lane climax (The Scandal Beneath the Stage) — the only recorded text of the Canticle fragment Mercer wove into The School for Scandal:
"Let the curtain fall… …but let the Voice rise. Let the stage reflect… …what was always beneath."
Anyone who heard the monologue mid-loop found its lines rising unbidden in their own mouths — the ritual seeking any voice to complete itself.
Appearances
Connections
People
Knows
- Slade NPC warmFellow Æternum Choir member in the Drury Lane company; Slade carried the key to Mercer's chest1 session: The Scandal Beneath the Stage
- Eliza Sharpe NPC neutralFormer affair ended in a public shouting match and a thrown wineglass
Places
Haunted by
- Drury Lane Theatre Location hostileMercer bound a fragment of the Canticle to a mirror inside the theatre, using it as a ritual focus to trap the building in a time loop1 session: London
Organisations
Member of
- Aeternum Choir Faction hostileCultist; bound a Canticle fragment into a working ritual at Drury Lane1 session: The Scandal Beneath the Stage