Curtain Call

Curtain Call is the seventh Widdershins book and the end of the Deadly Sins arc. It is also the longest book by quite a bit. It sees all the protagonists of the previous books teaming up to face off against every deadly sin in reverse order ending with Lust.

Blurb
The spirits of emotion that power Widdershins, England's most magical town, have been overtaken by the dark forces of the Seven Deadly Sins. The only ones who can save the place from itself are daring bounty hunter Harriet Barber, her friends, and Jack O'Malley: the town's uncertain, untrained, and utterly unwilling new guardian. They may have everything they need to save the day, but when you're fighting monsters of your own making, your own worst enemy may be yourself...

Plot Summary
At Eddie and Cat’s farm, Nicola Barber and Harriet Barber say goodbye to their family and head back to Widdershins with Sidney Malik and a pack of sandwiches. The same morning, Jack O’Malley is woken by the buggerups warning him to leave. Meanwhile, Ms Acedia takes Henry Barber and Izzy Holt to her basement, where she has prepared a summoning for Wrath. Now in Widdershins, Harry and Sid prepare for whatever may come next. They share a tender moment, but are interrupted by Nicola before they can go too far.

Ms Acedia shoots Henry, which is enough to release Wrath and it escapes. Mal and Benjamin Thackerey sense a magical disturbance just before Wrath bursts into the house and sets it on fire. From across town, Nicola, Sid, and Harry see the smoke and rush over. Harry enters the burning building and saves Mal, Ben, and Heinrich Wolfe from a remnant of Wrath. They escape the building, but not before Mal doubles back to save Wolfe’s violin.

Outside, everyone gets introduced, but Harry and Mal are immediately at each other’s throats as she calls him a Witch. He reluctantly leads the way towards where Wrath was summoned, but gets scared and runs away when he sees Acedia’s basement. Wolfe follows him, while Sid, Nicola and Harry go down to find Henry and Izzy. Izzy writes down the binding spell to give to Mal, and goes with Nicola to take Henry to a doctor.

Wolfe finds Mal sat on a hill planning his escape from the town. Wolfe says he’ll support him leaving, but will stay himself to help people. Mal explains he doesn’t want to be a Witch because they’re evil, but Wolfe says he believes in him, and together they can prove the stories are wrong.

Harry finds Verity Cunningham and lets her know Henry’s been shot, and Verity quickly agrees to help. Sid receives a map imbued with Curiosity showing the location of all the Sins across town. Mal reveals he can see a magpie-shaped buggerup following Sid around, which is the cause of his pickpocketing habit. Verity and Harry reach the others and Verity is thrilled to see ‘Benji’ her favourite cousin is there, to the amusement of everyone. Sid explains they need to desummon the Sins in reverse order, but first they need to go to the Widdershins Anchor.

At the Anchor, a magical blue door appears for Mal. Wizards are unable to enter. Ben draws the summoning circles he needs and Harry brings the binding spell to read for Mal. Mal and Harry enter the door, and the others head off to deal with the Sins. Mr Luxuria watches unseen from a nearby café. In the Witch Space, Harry and Mal find a present containing a note from the Mountain Witch, a music box, and a blue scarf.

Wrath
Wolfe, Sid, Verity, and Ben go to the prison first where Wrath is encouraging angry people to riot at the doors. Ben and Verity start to succumb to wrath, but Wolfe is able to talk them out of it. They break into the prison and head to the control centre for the magical loudspeakers. On the way, Sid sees Lei Feng in her cell. She asks for him to let her out to keep her safe, but he refuses. She hugs him, pickpocketing the keys without his notice, and is seen by Thomas Macavity in a nearby cell. Wolfe asks if Sid is still in love with Lei, and he explains he likes Harry now but is afraid to tell her. They reach the control room and Sid gets Wolfe to play his violin to calm to crowd outside.

In Witch Space, Mal copies Ben’s design to draw a summoning circle for Wrath on the floor. Wolfe’s playing weakens Wrath’s power enough for it to be summoned by Harry reading the binding. Wrath taunts Harry about Henry being shot, and she gets angry, weakening Mal’s attempt at a binding, but she is able to overcome it. Mal manages to bind Wrath and it disappears, but Harry remains angry at herself for almost ruining things.

Envy
The outside team head to the Royal Theatre to confront Envy. Sid insists to Verity they will become friends by the end of the day. At the theatre,a large queue of people wait outside, who are being selectively allowed in, increasing the envy of the others. They see Dominik Voss arguing with the ushers, and confront him in the alleyway. He promises he is trying to help and Wolfe convinces the others to allow him.

Sid leads the way backstage, and they find Envy controlling people as puppets and making them perform on stage for an audience. Sid becomes jealous of their chance to perform on the big stage and Envy senses his presence, stopping Sid, Verity, and Ben in place with the spotlight. Envy taunts Ben with how unimportant and unmemorable he is, before sending him to sit in the audience and using Sid and Verity as puppets. Ben succumbs to jealousy watching in the audience.

Envy forces Sid and Verity to perform dangerous magic tricks. Voss tries to convince Wolfe to escape together, but he refuses, and goes to try and disable Envy’s spotlights alone. Envy catches him and tries to attack, but is interrupted by Voss begging it to take him instead. Envy switches the two spotlights to Voss and Wolfe, dressing them in costumes, and forces them to duel to the death. While it is distracted, Verity breaks free. Voss is about to kill Wolfe, when he manages to break free of Envy’s control. Envy promises him he can have all the stolen talents back, if only he kills Wolfe, but Voss refuses again, saying he wants to try to be a good person like Wolfe. Envy tries to make Wolfe kill Voss, but Verity attacks it using a sandbag and frees them both. Envy is weakened enough to be summoned to the Witch Space.

In the Witch Space, Envy steals the written binding and tosses it out the circle, forcing Harry to chase after it. While it has Mal alone, it taunts him about how he was forced into this role and stuck with it forever. He finishes the binding but is affected by Envy’s words.

Back in the theatre, Wolfe asks Voss what he plans to do next and, when Voss says he plans to stay in Widdershins, entrusts his violin to him for safekeeping during the rest of the adventure.

Gluttony
The outside team head to the Hotel Gula. Inside the Witch Space, Harry and Mal examine Alexa King’s phone. It projects onto the floor and they manage to find a video of Alexa as an adult. In the video, Alexa explains she’s not sure Nora Fenton will be able to see the video she’s sending but she wanted to talk to her again. She shows off the bakery that Philippe left her and updates Nora on all the others. She finishes by saying Nora’s whole family go on to do really well and she wanted to thank Nora for believing in her and inspiring her because defeating Gluttony was only possible by everyone working as a team.

Meanwhile, at the Hotel Gula, Gluttony has destroyed the outer wall and is having food from different times thrown to the hungry crowd outside. The gang sneak in through a window into a bedroom that is rapidly changing style as it flicks through time. They hide as Mr Gula enters and takes out a tray of food from the room. Ben comes up with a plan where they should disguise someone as a waiter and put some of Verity’s sleeping potion in the food to drug Gluttony. Sid volunteers to be the waiter but Verity argues, saying he’s useless and warning him again Harry was going to get tired of him. Sid accuses Verity of being jealous of him, starting a huge argument that gets them caught by Mr Gula. He and the other staff haul off the group, but Mr Gula pockets Verity’s sleeping potion. Gluttony prepares to eat the gang, but Mr Gula throws the sleeping potion into its mouth, making it throw up and weakening it enough for Mal and Harry to summon it to Witch Space.

In the Witch Space, Harry gives Gluttony the sandwiches and her and Mal are able to successfully pull of the binding while it is distracted. They bond over Harry’s stupid one-liner and somewhat apologise to each other, perhaps inspired by Alexa’s words about teamwork.

Pride
The outside team arrive at the University of Widdershins, but find it deserted. When they venture into the main body of the university underground they discover everyone has become trapped in reflections. Verity and Wolfe become trapped too, leaving just Ben and Sid. Sid realises Pride can’t get them if they feel bad about themselves and they make a plan to go and insult Pride to defeat it.

They find Pride in the Dining Hall which it has filled with mirrors. Pride starts to flatter Sid but Ben interrupts, saying Pride won’t want them because they’re useless. Ben explains how they’ve barely made it through the entire day and keep messing things up, and Sid admits he never actually graduated. His confession inspires the people trapped in mirrors to also confess the things they’re ashamed of, allowing them to break free. Ben has a bit of a breakdown and his utter lack of pride in himself weakens Pride enough Sid is able to drag him away to safety. They explain to Wolfe how to escape and he reluctantly admits he is sad that as Mal is finding himself, he will need him less, which is enough to break the glass. They hurry to try and get Verity to break free too, but she doesn’t want to say anything bad about herself. Pride chases after them, and Sid encourages her, saying he believes in her. Verity complains that of course Harry likes him more than her because he’s such a hero, and admits to being jealous and lonely just in time to weaken Pride enough to let Mal summon it to the Witch Space.

In Witch Space, Pride uses a shard of mirror to blind Mal with the reflection of his own spirit. It tries to tempt Harry by taunting her about how she’ll never be as famous as her grandfather, but Mal interrupts, making fun of Pride. Harry joins in and helps Mal to his feet, allowing him to desummon Pride.

At the university, Sid reports the wizards are all so drained by Pride they can’t do much, but they’re going to send whoever they can to secure the Anchor. He confesses about never finishing his degree to Verity, who finally agrees to call him Sidney. Sid starts to tell Verity about what happened with Ben in the Dining Hall.

Sloth
In the Witch Space, Mal accidentally knocks himself out with the Sloth lamp oil. As he does, the outside team approach the Lamplight Factory and are engulfed by a strange fog and decide to try and walk towards a light they can see in the distance.

As Mal falls unconscious, Harry is also engulfed by fog and finds herself with Mal watching a memory of him as a child being given by the orphanage to Ms Acedia. She knows he is a Witch and takes him to Widdershins to try and break the sins binding, but it fails because she doesn’t know she needs the original Witch’s bloodline. She throws young Jack into a cell for a long time while she works on what to do next. Harry tries to talk to Mal about what happened, but he lies on the floor and doesn’t want to talk, saying he wants to give up.

In Widdershins, Wolfe and Sid struggle with the long walk and soon Wolfe falls behind. Sid gets frustrated and runs back after him, leaving only Ben and Verity to go on alone. Verity tries to cheer Ben up talking about family hikes when they were younger, but she becomes worried about how down on himself Ben is. When Ben starts to disparage himself she becomes furious, saying she’d never let anyone else talk about him that way and she believes in him. They continue walking with new determination.

Back in the memory, Harry gives Mal a pep talk about how he doesn’t have to face his problems alone. As he takes her hand, the memory finally moves on and the door opens. Enid O’Malley, the cleaner Ms Acedia has hired, comes to clean the room. She bonds with young Jack and begins to worry about why he’s being kept in the cell, so she offers for him to come with her. Young Jack sneaks out on her cleaning trolley and together they leave Widdershins.

As Verity and Ben approach the light, they realise it’s a lamp being carried by Ms Fairbairn. She’s been wandering the fog landscape for a year without rest after Sloth attacked her. Ben and Verity start to collapse, but Ben uses the last of his strength to grab Verity’s dart shooter and hit Ms Fairbairn with a sleep dart. Harry and Mal wake up from the memory just as Fairbairn collapses and the fog disappears, revealing everyone has only walked a few metres after all. Verity handcuffs up the sleeping Ms Fairbairn so she can collect the bounty afterwards, and asks the others to let Ben sleep for a little bit before they move on.

In Witch Space, Sloth lets itself be desummoned without a fight. Harry apologises for seeing Mal’s memories and agrees not to talk about it again.

Greed
While Ben and Sid are having their worldview exploded by the information that Verity and Nicola used to date, Wolfe is drawn aside by Luxuria in disguise as beautiful redheaded woman who asks him to walk her home for safety. Luxuria hypnotises him to find out how they are stopping the Sins, and finds out that Mal is aromantic and asexual, so it won’t be able to control him. Wolfe returns to the group disoriented and unable to remember where he has been. Sid’s stealing habit seems to be getting worse as they approach the bank, where Greed is.

Inside the bank, Macavity’s gang are busy stealing what they can as Lei cracks the locks. She gets stuck on the vault door though as there’s some magic she doesn’t understand involved. The gang try to sneak in but Sid’s buggerup steals the screws of the light and it falls to the ground, alerting Macavity and Lei. They’re both shocked to see Sid. Macavity’s goons tie up Wolfe, Ben, and Verity, and at gunpoint force Sid to help Lei break into the vault. Together, they realise since Sid’s buggerup is a half-summoned spirit, they might be able to summon all of it and use it to help open the lock. It works and the magpie spirit appears and opens the door. Macavity barges past and brings Sid with him into the vault, but then Greed appears and slams the door shut before Lei can follow. Macavity’s goons take the money and run away. Lei considers grabbing some money and leaving, but instead decides to untie everyone.

Inside the vault, Greed influences the buggerup to steal more and more coins for Sid, increasing its power. Sid talks to the buggerup and promises to accept it and stop treating it badly if it stops stealing and opens the door for them. It agrees and as Sid runs away, Greed is weakened enough to be summoned to the Witch Space.

In the Witch Space, Greed warns they are playing right into Luxuria’s hands by binding it and says if they desummon it instead it will give them the information they need. Harry is tempted, but Mal refuses and binds Greed by himself without Harry’s words.

In the Bank, Macavity wakes up to find all the cash back in the security boxes. Sid and Lei shut him in the vault to wait for the police. Verity handcuffs Lei for the police to collect, but leaves her business card, telling her to look her up and become a hunter with her once she escapes.

Lust
The outside team head to the Anchor to confront Lust, but are confuse by how small its influence seems to be on the map. At the Anchor they find several student wizards unconscious with Sloth. Inside the Anchor, they find Mr Luxuria and Ms Acedia by the uncovered mouth of the Anchor. Mr Luxuria captures the team with magic and brings them down. Ben tries to warn Ms Acedia not to trust it but Mr Luxuria silences him. Moments later Ben is proved right when Luxuria pushes Ms Acedia down the hole. At her death, Lust’s influence seems to weaken and so Mal begins to summon it to the Witch Space, accidentally tearing his friends’ spirits with it. He looks up to find Harry has disappeared.

Lust explains it has put Harry out of the way and starts to explain why Mal shouldn’t bind it immediately. Although it has no control over him, it recognises that he still loves Wolfe and Ben, and reveals it has trapped their spirits in cages. It threatens to pull apart Wolfe’s spirit and Mal backs down. It begins to break the bindings on the other sins in order to absorb their power and be able to influence all humans.

Harry wakes in a romantic dreamworld created by Lust with a replica of Sid. It takes her through different romantic scenarios, but they’re all so unsuited to her she quickly realises its fake and breaks out. She sneaks up to Mal and opens the music box he was left, halting time and opening the other Witch doors. He explains what’s going on and she realises the only thing they can do is for her to get out of Widdershins through one of the doors, which will give him enough time to finish binding Lust. He says he can’t do it alone, and she explains he doesn’t have to, he can use the strength of their friends too. She disappears out the door just as the song finishes and time restarts.

Mal breaks the cages holding his friends and uses them to bind Lust. He tries to open the door Harry went thought, but it’s closed. He then realises his friends are faded and hurries back to Widdershins to put their spirits back. There’s an explosion of light and he wakes up to find everyone is alright, but Sid immediately wonders where Harry is.

On the other side of the door, Harry wakes up in the middle of the jungle, and plants grow over the door sealing it behind here. The End.

Characters

 * Nicola Barber
 * Harriet Barber
 * Sidney Malik
 * Jack O'Malley
 * Heinrich Wolfe
 * Benjamin Thackerey
 * Ms Acedia
 * Henry Barber
 * Isabelle Holt
 * Wrath
 * Verity Cunningham
 * Luxuria
 * Lei Feng
 * Thomas Macavity
 * Dominik Voss
 * Envy
 * Gluttony
 * Pride
 * Margery Fairbairn
 * Enid O'Malley
 * Sloth
 * Greed

Cameos / Short Appearances

 * Florence de Montfort
 * Nora Fenton
 * Edmund Barber
 * June Barber
 * Annie Barber
 * Cassandra Barber
 * Catherine Barber
 * The Purple Hippo of Happiness
 * Frank
 * Spot
 * Mayor Robert Hackett (possibly in the audience at the Royal Theatre?)
 * Alexa King
 * The Butler / Mr Gula
 * Rosie Bell

Locations

 * Eddie's farm
 * Offices for the Removal of Dangerous Malforms
 * Acedia's Lair (Finch Street)
 * H Barber Office
 * Widdershins Anchor
 * Witch Space
 * Gibbet Street
 * The Royal Theatre
 * The Hotel Gula
 * The University of Widdershins
 * Lamplight Factory
 * Widdershins Bank
 * The Island Anchor

Website
The bonus content for the website after Curtain Call was:


 * 6 pages of character Q&As - this included a 1 page comic about how Mal got his nickname and a 1 page body-swap comic.
 * 11 pages of guest art - including 3 1-page comics, and a replica of Alexa's apron.

Book
The print and PDF releases of Curtain Call included a 4-page illustrated 'Tourist's Guide to Widdershins' annotated by Sid. This includes an illustration of Swift's Apothecary and a map of the University and the Depths, helping set up for Hangman's Knot.

Release
The Kickstarter to fund the print release of Curtain Call ran from 20th July - 24th August 2018, and 590 backers pledged £20,658. The unique reward for this campaign was a double-sided acrylic keychain of Mal and Harry. It's super cute!

Easter Eggs / Trivia

 * The speech bubble reading "We're definitely not doing the right thing, but it's too late now" belongs to William Sharpe, referencing his mind control work with Dr Flack.
 * Some of the background staff from Piece of Cake also appear in Curtain Call at Hotel Gula.
 * A Fourth Anchor Society poster is outside Acedia's lair.
 * Acedia found out Mal was back in Widdershins through the same malform removal advert that Voss used to find Wolfe. The same newspaper page is visible pinned to the wall in her lair, with the section that would have Mal's name in circled. Harry can be seen examining it later on, meaning she knew there was a connection between Mal and Acedia before the Sloth flashback.
 * Wolfe passes a pub called 'The Anchor and Door'. Although Widdershin's hasn't had a Witch in so long nobody knows about the door until Mal unlocks it later this book, it's a cool detail showing the history of the town.
 * When Verity first appears in this book, the page has a lot of purple tones and she is in front of a mirror, foreshadowing how Pride is the sin that she has the most trouble with.
 * Several police officers that appear in this book also appear in other books. For example, the man Verity fights in the corridor is the same man Knotty drugs in Hangman's Knot. Poor guy can't get a break I guess.
 * The colour palette changes by scene depending on which Deadly the gang is dealing with next. This is most obvious in the page transitioning between Wrath (red) and Envy (green), or if you zoom out on the website archive.
 * Mayor Hackett can be seen in the audience at the Royal Theatre.
 * The podcast Alexa listens to about Gladys and Edie Shaw is the same one Eliza does in the Modern AU.