The Legend of the Spectral Seal
by JHB (nywrite@yahoo.com)
The stories which follow are from the Halloween Anthology Project in the Garden of MC, created in the hopes of encouraging the writing spirit that infuses the place. My thanks to the Priestesses, Admins, and Mods who let me start this trouble in their midst, and even facilitated it.
It was forged in the darkest regions of the ancient Mayan Empire, long before the Europeans even knew they existed. Made of gold, but containing unidentifiable trace elements and human genetic material, the medallion known as “The Spectral Seal” was rumored to have been used in ceremonies by rogue mystics, ceremonies that the royal medicine men—who were known for ripping the beating hearts out of living human sacrifices—considered to be inhumane and reckless.
The Seal disappeared around the time of the Conquistadors, and has surfaced mysteriously in various times and places in the intervening centuries. It has two known properties: it renders any object upon which it is placed invisible; and any human whose bare skin touches the medallion immediately loses her or his will, a condition that seems to last for minutes, hours, days, or longer, though nobody knows why it varies so. There are legends of other powers being attached to the Seal, but little corroborating evidence.
What follows are various accounts of people who have found, used, or known of “The Spectral Seal.”