The last installment! This is the part I wrote today. Stand in awe! In case you're wondering, the spell Numair did was an adaptation
of a Wiccan generic ritual, dumbed down to save time.
In Dreams Part III
It was quite late that
night when Daine finally retired for bed. Numair watched her carefully through the crack in his door, looking for
any signs to give away what she might be thinking. Nothing. She just dressed
and then sat on the side of the bed, her face emotionless.
This couldn't go on. Numair opened the door fully and walked out,
then sat on the bed beside her, wrapping her up in a fierce hug. She didn't make a sound, just ran her hands
up his chest and around his neck, letting him hold her tight.
"You're afraid to go to
sleep, aren't you?" he demanded after a moment.
She was quiet for a long
pause, but finally said wearily, "I don't know what's going to happen when I
dream. I don't know if my dreams are
Chaos-induced, or if it's just my own silly mind." She snuggled against him, and he tightened his arm around her
shoulders. "I don't know if something
happens to me while I'm dreaming, if it will affect me here as well. I'm
all confused."
Numair stroked her hair
comfortingly. He was at loss for
words. What was he to tell her? Finally, he laid her down on the bed, and
lay down beside her, pulling the covers up over both of them. "Whatever happens," he whispered to
her. "It'll happen to both of us."
6
Both Daine and Numair
slept without dreams, to their great surprise. Though the sleep was deep and black, almost like being in a
coma—frightening—Daine preferred it to the dreams she could have had in its
place.
When Numair awoke, it was
dark. A glance outside at the moon and
stars told him it was around midnight—there was no trace of sunlight on either
horizon. A cold breeze found its way
through the panes of glass and nipped at his robe. He shivered, and drew the thing tighter around himself.
Numair knew he wouldn't be
able to get back to sleep. With a sigh,
he sank into a chair at his desk, and lit a single taper, opening a large book
and beginning to read. Purifications,
exorcisms, bindings… He could find nothing that would be any help to either him or
Daine. He finally sat back,
dejected.
He must have dozed off,
because as he tried to think, images danced in front of his eyelids, like a
play on a stage. Memories of his old
life in Carthak; memories of Daine when he had just met her, small and shy; memories
of the first time he had kissed her, how different that had been from any other
kisses he had ever given out or received. An apparition of Lindhall popped up, younger than now, and Numair
realized, even in his half-asleep state, that it was a memory from his boyhood,
his first lessons in magic.
"Spell books will
only take you so far," Lindhall had told him. "Sometimes your need is different than what is written, and you need to
improvise. It is possible to do spontaneous
rituals. Call on the gods for assistance,
if you are nervous, and even if you aren't. You can never have too much help."
That was it! Numair leapt to his feet, almost knocking
the chair over in the process, before remembering that Daine was still
sleeping. He righted the chair, then
turned on his heel and sped to his workroom.
The walls were lined with
jars of herbs and spices, labeled by name and magical usage, as well as ruling
planets and deities. He scanned the
shelves, searching for anything that might be useful. Lemon came down, sage, vervain… By the time he was done, he carried several jars, which he then put down
on a desk in the corner. As if guided
by some unknown force, he mixed pinches of the loose herbs into an aromatic
blend, and tipped the mixture onto a small block of charcoal, set in that
middle of a bowl of sand.
He was just finishing
replacing the jars onto the shelves when Daine came in, looking rumpled. He looked up sharply, then relaxed when he
realized it was only her. She stepped
into the room and peered at the contents of his desk with curiosity.
"What's this for?" she
inquired softly.
Numair finished putting
the jars back, and came to stand beside her. "I got an idea to help you," he replied. "It won't be easy, but it might just work." He turned to face her, and the expression on
the face before him said clearly that she was ready. He sighed and looked away.
"What must I do?" Daine
asked, readjusting her rode around her body.
"Change, for one thing,"
he responded. "Put on all white, and
all cotton if you can manage it. Plant
fibers. As little as you can, so it
doesn't upset the balance. Even just a
shift and a robe. Bare feet. And don't look at me like I'm crazy, I
didn't mean it like than."
Daine smiled teasingly at
him. "I know. Then what?"
He smiled back, and began
walking towards the main room of the tower, carrying the bowl with the incense
blend in it. "Sit in the middle of the
main room," he told her. "I'm still not
entirely sure what I'm going to do, so I'll be improvising. But my earliest teachers told me that
sometimes words straight from the heart are worth a thousand fancy spells from
old books."
She smiled again, and
walked back to the bedroom to change. Numair watched her retreating back, hoping desperately that this would
work.
6
Daine stripped off her
nightgown, throwing it carelessly into a corner, and pulled a thin cotton shift
over her head. A robe of the finest
material she could find came next, and when she finished, she washed her face
and hands in water and herb-infused soap, tying her hair away from her eyes
with a strip of leather.
Numair was in the main
room when she got there, opening the large door that lead to the outside
balcony. The cold air hit Daine like a
slap in the face, but she didn't flinch. "Numair," she called softly, and he turned.
"Kneel or lie down in the
middle of that," he told her gently, gesturing to a circle of stones he had
placed in the floor. She stepped
through, and knelt in the center, facing North out of pure habit. Numair stood before her, and dabbed a tiny
amount of rose-scented oil—her favorite kind—between her eyebrows, whispering
in a language she didn't understand.
He stood at the edge of
the circle, in the north most quarter, and slowly began to walk sunwise around
her, still whispering under his breath. Black fire poured from his fingers as he walked, falling around them to
form a protective sphere that went a smidgen higher that Numair's head. As she watched it grow, Daine realized that
while she still didn't understand the language he spoke, she could tell what
Numair was saying.
"O great circle of power,"
he chanted. "Encompass us and purify
us, and this sacred space. Stand in
strength and power, holding in the positive energy raised within thee, and keep
demons outside at bay. I call upon the
powers of the Elements, of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water to aid us and add magic
to this spell. In the name of Mithros
and the Goddess, so mote in be. The
circle is sealed!"
The power of the circle
flared, then receded to a gentle glow, that pulsed with Daine's breath and
heartbeat. Numair walked again to the
north quarter, and stood with his hands upraised. "Guardians of Earth, spirits of North, be with us tonight. Bring your stability and grounding to the
circle." For a moment, he glowed a
deep, musty green, and Daine caught a tiny smell of moss and damp loam.
"Guardians of the Air,
spirits of the East, be with us tonight. Bring with you your wit and intellect, your sharp purification." The air in the circle stirred, and Numair's
hands glowed a pale yellow. "Guardians
of the Fire, spirits of the South, be with us tonight. Grant us your passion and heat, to burn away
evil."
Daine watched, amazed, as
the candles in the room all flared suddenly, and resumed their normal flame
size, burning steadily. The room seemed
to have acquired a red tint. Numair
turned to the West. "Guardians of the
Water, Spirits of the South, be with us here tonight. Give your cleansing and love, your positive transformation." Blue sparks danced at the corners of Daine's
eyes, and she felt a cool wave wrap around her shoulders, with the light touch
of undines.
Numair stood once again in
front of her, raising his arms and staring at the sky. "Mithros and Goddess," he whispered. "Guide my hands and make my will and intent
pure. Protect us during this rite. Be with us, Lord Sun and Lady Moon!"
Immediately, the
atmosphere of the circle changed, becoming so saturated with power that Daine
choked on her breath. She thought she
felt a hand on each of her shoulders, one hot and radiating fiery protection,
the other cool and nurturing. Numair
lit the incense, and the smoke clouded the air with its fragrant volume.
He squatted in front of
her, and held his hands to her face and closed her eyes. He and Daine both seemed to fall inside of
her, plummeting towards the core of her magic and being. She could feel Numair's magic probing her,
burning out any negativity he came across. But when he came to her head—around the same place where he had anointed
her forehead—a surge of evil, felt violently by both of them, reached out and
fastened itself to his magic, struggling to pull them both down with it. Numair struggled against it, shooting roots
of magic into the earth to anchor himself and Daine.
Finally, slowly, the thing
began to recede. "Oh, no you don't,"
Numair muttered under his breath. He
filled his lungs with all the air he could hold, mentally grounded himself, and
pulled.
Daine could feel the thing leaving her body, although she couldn't
tell from where. When she opened her
eyes again, Numair had his hands clamped around something black, opening his
fingers slowly to reveal what resembled a floating ball of oily tar. He whispered a few words that Daine missed,
then threw up his hands and shouted a word of power.
The thing
disappeared. Numair got to his feet and
walked around the circle counterclockwise, dismissing the elements and pulling
the magic of the circle back into his hand. When finally he returned to the North, he held his hands out, palms up,
and cried, "The circle is open, but never broken!"
The room was dead quiet
for a moment, and Daine began to stand up. The moment she got upright, though, the room spun around her, and she
collapsed back onto the floor in a faint.
6
She awoke in her own bed,
to the sound of Numair, Onua and Lindhall's voices. Daine felt inside herself for the store of Wild Magic, and found
it to be as strong as ever, as did the rest of her. In fact, seeing as it was now around noon, with the sun streaming
in through the large picture window, she was bursting with energy.
She sat up, and the others
finally noticed that she was awake. Numair sat down on the bed next to her, smiling. "Feeling better?" he asked. "Do you think it worked?"
She drew her knees up to
her chest and wrapped her arms around them, like a girl, and grinned at
him. "If as fit as ever," she told him
cheerfully. "Excepting that I'm fair hungry. Isn't there any food in this house?"
This got a laugh from
everybody, and the three left the room for Daine to change. She pulled on the simplest clothes she could
find: plain breeches, tunic and shirt. She was just wrestling into boots when Onua came in, bearing with her a
tray with hot soup and a tall glass of cow's milk. Daine ate them quickly, to Onua's amusement, then bounded out of
the room.
Numair was waiting for her
there—Lindhall had gone home. He caught
her up in a fierce hug, holding her tightly. "Are you sure you're all right?" he demanded, as Onua slipped discreetly
out the door.
"As all right as always,"
Daine replied, hugging him back. She
pulled away from him, and ran for the door. "Let's go riding!"
He laughed, grabbed a
cloak, and followed her, both of them running nearly all the way to the stables.
Finis…
6
Wasn't
that lovely? Of course it was…
Last
chance to review! Do so!!!!!
Thanx
for reading, and watch for more!
-Crescent (;
