Into the Shadows: The Queen in Samite

September 3, 2022·22 min·2 clips

Dean Weston shocks Jake and Edith by saying he has awaited their arrival since they saw the Book of Spells.

This episode of Into the Shadows, a sub-series within the Weeping Cedars audio drama universe, follows detectives Jake Stone and Edith Trevor as they drive to confront Dean Cornelius Weston. Their assistant Lizzie has found a mysterious symbol connecting the dean to an old case involving a dead foster girl. On the drive, Edith coaxes Jake into admitting he is pensive rather than morose, and he reveals that the image of the dead foster girl compels him to keep pursuing the case. Facing the castle-like estate, Jake draws on a wartime memory from the Battle of Cantigny, where he glimpsed what felt like an inhuman, diabolical face in the chaos, to explain the supernatural dread they both feel. Inside, they discover that Dean Weston has expected them for two years, ever since they encountered the Book of Spells. He is affiliated with the supernatural entity known as the Queen in Samite and dismisses the villain Jake calls the Librarian as selfishly obsessed with collecting knowledge compared to the Queen's desire to display her beauty and be worshipped. Weston reveals he had sculptor Zelazny, previously committed to an asylum, released and installed in a cabin on his property to complete a statue of the Queen. He invites Jake and Edith to drink Napoleonic cognac and view the statue together. Jake confronts Weston about a connection to the murder of Martin Goldberg, which Weston dismisses contemptuously. The confrontation escalates when Weston opens a door to reveal the completed statue. Edith is immediately transfixed while Jake, facing away, fights blind against the butler Avery. Jake shoots the dean's prized cognac, spooks the room, and eventually forces Weston at gunpoint to step back. Weston, apparently knowing the Queen does not abide failure, asks to be shot rather than face her. Jake and Edith escape and call the authorities. In the aftermath, Edith breaks down, calling herself weak and useless for being overwhelmed by the statue. Jake reveals his own hands are shaking and his heart was racing the entire time. He discloses that he heard a girl's voice telling him not to look, and understood he would lose Edith if he did. He confesses he loves her. Edith responds with joy, noting her mother will be disappointed, and confirms she loves him back. The narrator closes by noting the Librarian's web still stretches across Weeping Cedars.

As heard by us

A house call that turns civility into a warning sign.

Into the Shadows works best as a house call that slowly curdles. Jake Stone and Edith Trevor drive out to Dean Cornelius Weston's home after Lizzie's old-case discovery, and the welcome they get already feels loaded with the Book of Spells, Mr.

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Why you'd press play

Play it for a house visit where a ledger turns into a quiet summons.

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