In her duties, a Guardian must sometimes not only appear to be someone else, she must know how to act like the person she’s imitating. This spell allows her to draw from the memories of the person she mimics.
The person to be mimicked must be within sensory contact of the caster (preferably chained or otherwise detained). This spell is based upon the Life 4 “Doppelganger” spell. While simply aping the shape of another person is often good enough to fool most observers, to the trained eye something is amiss, even if the perceiver has not rational explanation as to why someone is acting differently. Adding the Mind component to the spell allows the mage to pull enough knowledge from the target’s mind to allow her to blend into her surroundings. The knowledge is appropriate to a certain location or set of circumstances, but isn’t terribly detailed or specific; it’s enough to get the “lay of the land” and know the routines of others who frequent the place or situation. This does not give the mage any special skills she does not possess, but allows her to pass herself off as if she belongs there.
Example: Freya needs to get into a locked psychiatric ward. She and her cabal kidnap a doctor who works there, and she casts this spell to become him, focusing on the doctor’s knowledge of the hospital ward. If successful, she knows the layout of the ward, is familiar with its security routines and the other doctors and nurses on the ward. However, she does not gain any medical skill from the casting.
Guardians of the Veil Rote: The Reflecting Shadow
Rumor has it that the Guardians invented this rote in order to infiltrate the court of Queen Victoria, believing that the Silver Ladder were attempting to control her with Mind magics. Whether the Guardians were correct or not has not been recorded, but the rote proved so useful that it has been handed down from master to apprentice since then.
