Remer's appearance meant the reactivation had worked, and that he had now acquired some of the same powers Jon possessed.
The Remer figure seemed to be looking about. His eyes didn't move but his face kept turning to take in the world in which he found himself. When his gaze fell on Jon, or rather on the place where the image of Jon stood, the Remer figure stopped moving. His lips, which were still colourless, formed into a smile.
A mixture of fear and anger welled up inside Jon. He had to stop Remer from getting any stronger, no matter what it took. Mentally he clenched his hands into fists and put all the force he could muster into the effects. The colours became so saturated that the scene looked like a computer-generated reconstruction, with razor-sharp edges and a clarity even the best monitor couldn't reproduce. By aiming all his focus on the area surrounding Remer's figure, Jon tried to erase him by enhancing the intensity of everything else.
Remer's facial features became distorted and the details of the figure slowly began to blur, as if he were a statue made of sand in a strong wind. The surface seemed to dissolve into atoms that were stretched out like the tail of a comet, pulling away from the figure; the smile dangled from the back of the head until it was one long streak, and the connection between the body and its limbs faded more and more. An eerie lament issued from the haze, a sound that seemed to come from a throat that didn't belong to the animal kingdom.
Jon exerted himself even more, but he could feel he wouldn't be able to maintain the intensity much longer. The figure had been reduced to half-size, with its molecules pulled into a long streamer behind it, but Jon couldn't penetrate to its core to erase it permanently.
Slowly Jon felt his concentration weaken. The colours and sharp outlines around him disappeared. The sound emitted by the figure changed, becoming an angry snarl, and Remer's figure began building itself anew, as if it were on rewind. Soon the figure was back to human form, with its features even sharper than before.
'Campelli,' panted Remer's voice after his body was reconstructed. 'Impressive trick, but not a very nice way to welcome a friend.'
In shock, Katherina took a couple of steps back.
A violent spark had leaped from Jon to Remer, hovering between them and growing in thickness and intensity. Remer's body shook for a moment and seemed to shrink in on itself, but at no point did he lift his eyes from the book he was reading.
Panic had broken out among the participants. Some were trying to escape by running for the door, but in the confusion a number of people fell, tripping up those who were behind them. That caused others to flee by jumping over the railing to the terrace below. Still others crawled along the floor or tried to seek protection along the walls or next to the pillars.
Remer's expression was contorted with pain, but he still kept reading, practically doubled up over the book, as if he wanted to protect it with his body.
There were still about a hundred people standing around the dais and taking part in the ritual, either by reading or by supporting the readers. Most of them kept casting anxious glances at Remer and Jon before they once again returned to the text.
It smelled as if something was burning, and the air was charged with electricity, which made the hairs stand up on Katherina's arms.
The spark between Jon and Remer seemed pale. It started very slowly to move at a calmer and calmer tempo, diminishing in size and luminosity. At the same time Remer began to straighten up, and the expression of pain vanished from his face.
Completely new sparks surrounded two other Lectors. Those who were standing too close leaped away, screaming with pain, while some people fainted on the spot. Others in the vicinity moved aside or ran off. A great noise erupted from those who were reading and from others who were talking or screaming and trying to get away. Accompanying everything was an angry hissing from the sparks.
Katherina cautiously backed further away from the podium as she tried to maintain her support for Jon and also take a look around. The others had to turn up soon. It was too late to stop the reactivation, but they needed to do everything they could to limit it. She reached a pillar and pressed her back against it. More Lectors ran past her, headed for the exit. Terror shone in their eyes. She tried to shut everything else out and focus on supporting Jon.
One of the Lectors, the latest to be reactivated, collapsed with a shriek. It happened without warning. He'd shown no signs of weakness or pain before he passed out, and Katherina had the feeling the same thing could have happened to anyone in the crowd.
On either side of Remer two new clouds had appeared. They had human shape, but were not yet fully formed.
Remer smiled.
Jon noticed another jolt in the images, a signal from Katherina which he took to be a warning. He sensed her support grow and he gathered all his forces. The cloud cover became pitch-black and the wind raged through the cemetery. Headstones toppled, pulling up the earth, which was whirled through the air in little tornadoes.
Maybe he couldn't fool Remer again, but the two new arrivals were in for a surprise. Before they were fully formed, Jon ratcheted up all the effects surrounding the figures. He wanted to make them disappear, remove them from the story, erase them like the misprints they were. They started to dissolve. One of them vanished almost instantly, whirled away in one of the tornadoes like smoke into an exhaust vent. The other stood its ground.
Remer was no longer smiling. He looked first at his companion and then at Jon.
Suddenly the headstone next to Jon changed shape, and in fright he lost his concentration. Before his eyes the granite liquefied and the stone changed from a rectangular shape into a cross.
Jon looked about in confusion. More changes were occurring all around him. Railings appeared, the vegetation shot up in some places and vanished in others. The sky grew lighter and the wind subsided.
'This is amazing!' shouted Remer with delight, stretching his arms up in the air.
The figure next to him was now fully formed, and Jon recognized him as one of the Lectors he had greeted in the foyer. The new arrival looked around in astonishment. Behind him three more hazy figures appeared.
Remer laughed. 'You don't have a chance, Campelli,' he shouted. 'Give up.'
'Why?' replied Jon. 'You've already got what you need.'
'True enough. But we still have room for a man like you in the Order.' He threw out his arms. 'Just look what we can accomplish together.'
'You duped me,' snarled Jon. 'Forced me to betray my own people.'
'You had it in you already, Campelli. I just brought it into the light.'
The three figures behind him were gradually becoming more solid.
'And pushed everything else into the dark,' said Jon. 'Katherina, the bookshop, my family. You made me forget my own family, Remer.'
'It won't do you any good to dwell on the past,' said Remer with annoyance. 'Even your father would have realized that. He would have loved being able to step into the story and change things the way we now can.'
'But you never gave him a chance,' Jon pointed out. 'You killed him.'
Remer shrugged. 'It was necessary,' he said. 'We would never have been able to turn him.'
Jon felt anger welling up inside him. With a flash of light the clouds overhead once again turned pitch-black, and lightning shot across the sky with an angry crash.
Remer cast an uneasy glance at the clouds.