Omen sat on the edge of the fountain, facing the clock monument, listening to the splash of water and letting it overwhelm the distant sound of evening traffic. It was cold and dark, but the Circle was lit up prettily. The High Sanctuary looked majestic from this low angle, a cross between a fairytale palace and heaven’s lobby.

The Dark Cathedral was also lit up, but this only served to accentuate its severe lines and intimidating splendour. If the High Sanctuary was the first step into heaven, the Dark Cathedral was surely the first step on the way to hell.

Someone sat beside him, and Omen shuffled over slightly.

“They’re worried about you,” Skulduggery Pleasant said.

Omen looked up in surprise. Skulduggery was wearing a façade. Omen had never actually seen one in real life. The clean-shaven face looked real.

“Your headmaster was about to send out a search party,” Skulduggery continued. “I asked him to give me a little time, let me look for you. I told him you’d been through a lot in the last few days.”

“Thank you,” said Omen. “Can I, uh, ask you a question? About your façade?”

Skulduggery smiled. “Sure.”

“When the Supreme Mage did it, when she carved the sigils into your bones, what did she use? Was it her fingernail or a scalpel pen or one of those heat-knives?”

“A scalpel pen,” he said. “You have an interest in the languages of magic?”

Omen nodded. “Though we don’t really get to carve anything in class. It’s mostly just working out angles and depths and stuff. Can she really carve sigils with her bare hands?”

“China? Yes, she can.”

“Wow. I’ll never be as good as her.”

“Probably not,” said Skulduggery, “but it won’t be because you don’t have the talent. You’ll never be as good as her because she’s over four hundred years older than you and she never stops learning how to be better. When she first gave me the façade, it could only be used for a half-hour each day, and it only covered my face. But she’s been adding to it, improving it over the years.”

“It changes each time, right?” Omen asked. “That’s what I heard. Every time you activate the façade, it’s a new face. Why don’t you just get your old face, the one you had when you were alive?”

“I’m not that man any more,” Skulduggery said. “Wearing his face would be no different to wearing the face I have on right now. They’re all masks.” His gloved fingers tapped his collarbones through his shirt, and the face flowed away, disappearing under his collar.