Last week, we witnessed Dr. Ashcroft’s frustrations—she knew the River Styx mural concealed an underlayer, but the limits of 1920s technology prevented her from glimpsing more than a faint outline of what lay beneath.
Nearly a century later, Dr. Mira Halstead returned to the mural with her colleague, art restoration specialist Dr. Niko Veyra. Here’s what they uncovered.
Transcript: Voice Memo — Dr. Mira Halstead
Location: Harrowfell Hall, Circular Mural #5 (River Styx)
Date: April 4, 2009
Participants: Dr. Mira Halstead, Dr. Niko Veyra (Barton Museum Conservation)
Mira: Beginning scan. Surface reflectance spectroscopy. Niko, lock the lamp position. Let’s do the left quadrant first.
Niko: All right, we’re pulling the top layer into false-color mode. First pass should give us outlines if anything’s underneath.
Mira: The surface shows soft, horizontal motion—water. But below it, the transitions are abrupt, angular. Like folds of fabric dropping straight down.
Niko: I’ll push the contrast. [keyboard clicks] There’s a sharper edge there. Could be a fabric fold.
Mira: Hold on—yes. That’s a shoulder. Drapery falling from it. A cloak?
Niko: I’ll zoom in on the upper section.
Mira: The posture’s odd, don’t you think? Very…elongated. If it is Charon, it’s unlike any rendering I’ve seen.
Niko: I’m on the hood—raising gamma now.
Mira: Two points, deep in the recess. The eyes, I’m guessing.
Niko: Yeah, the world’s creepiest eyes.
Mira: [laughing] Is that the technical term?
Niko: [laughing] All right—layered pigment with no scatter, edges tightened to a pinpoint. Whoever painted them wanted the effect of live embers burning in the dark.
Mira: Yep, the world’s creepiest eyes. All right—background next. Rotate the frame.
Niko: Filtering out the foreground.
Mira: Hm. Do those look like lights to you?
Niko: Yeah—string lights. Or no…lanterns?
Mira: Lanterns underground…That’s not the Styx. Edge of the scan, bottom left. Niko, zoom.
Niko: Tool shaft. Pickaxe.
Mira: My god. Not a riverbank—it’s a mine.
[02:44 — faint hissing noise]
Mira: Did you hear that?
Niko: Could be the fan in the lamp housing. [brief pause, rustle of movement] Everything looks fine, levels are steady.
Mira: All right, let’s keep going. So, we have a cloaked figure with glowing eyes in what looks to be a mine.
Niko: Finneas’ version of the Underworld? Mira, check out the angle of the grip—the cloaked figure. It’s pulling something behind it.
Mira: Yes, there’s…another outline. Secondary figure, collapsed posture. Let’s bring up detail.
Niko: Enhancing.
Mira: A man, head tipped back, being dragged by one shoulder. Features faint but—hold. Stop there. Nose, strong bridge. Distinct brow.
Niko: Clearer than I expected at this resolution.
Mira: I know that face. That’s Finneas Thorne.
[Recording ends.]
If only time travel were a thing.
Dr. Ashcroft could have had front-row seats when Dr. Halstead and Dr. Veyra uncovered what she could only speculate—beneath the surface of the Styx, a cloaked figure with eyes like burning coals was dragging Finneas Thorne, deep into the mine.
If that were the only appearance of this figure in Harrowfell’s crumbling halls, the story might end here. But it isn’t.
We’ll start there next time.
