Chapter 3 : The Ritual

I laid down on the bed and waited for Alex to come get me. I waited for about an hour and Alex walked in with a thin, blue, single piece cloth.

"Here, put this on," He said tossing me a pure white cloth like his. I did as he asked and he beckoned me to follow him down to the library. I followed him. We entered the library, he led me to the side he opened what looked like a cellar door and he pulled out a flashlight and we went down the stairs, they were small steps and pretty steep but I kept my balance and we came to a heavy oak door at the bottom of the stairs. He put a hand on the handle and opened the door. I was surprised I saw a small room, candles were hanging near the ceiling on their own will, like in the Harry Potter movies at Hogwarts. Alex entered the room and I followed him. I noticed that their were people, they had hoods, their head bowed. Their was about 10 of them, most of them had different colored single piece clothing just like Alex. He walked forward and I followed him. He filled in a space in the 'hallway' of people and lifted his hood and also bowed his head like everyone else. I instinctively made my way deeper into the chamber.

I walked over to a man at a podium, he was the only one without his hood up. It was a man named Walter.

"Step into the circle my son," He said. I noticed that everyone had moved closer and formed a semi-circle of people. I stepped into the circle. Walter opened a big old book to the middle, he shuffled through the pages for a second or two until he found the page that he wanted.

"Bow please," He said. I got to a knee and bowed my head. It sounded like Walter was talking in a strange language. He lifted a hand and I saw a red orb of light form in his hand. He continued to speak and I heard the others start to chant something. I couldn't make it out or follow it, the chant was too long for me to remember. The orb of light in Walter's hand started to glow brighter and brighter. He said one last word and I saw a few strands of red light come out of the orb and it hit my skin, I felt it burrow through my skin. I felt unimaginable pain, it was so horrible, like my blood was literally boiling. I fell to the ground, still in the circle, I started twitching. I heard the others still chanting above my own screams of pain, agony and cries of mercy. To end my life rather than let me go though this imaginable pain. But they didn't give me mercy. After about a minute the light disappeared, but I still felt the shock and still twitched.

"Stand," Walter said. I noticed that everyone looked at him. I tried, I got to my knees before succumbing to the pain again.

"Stand," Walter said again louder. I tried yet again and got it, I got up slowly but fell a few seconds after standing but I felt arms catch me before I fell on my face. I passed out very soon after that.

I woke up later, I wasn't sure how much later in a bed. The 'bases' quarter, I still had the pure white cloth on. I tried to get up but was too out of it and only had enough will to stay conscious. I heard the door open. I stirred slightly. I saw Olivia walk over with some food on a tray with a drink. She walked over to my bedside.

"Your very weak, your blood was boiled, your body is producing blood at a steady rate, but if you do much you'll pass out," She told me. I nodded, I couldn't talk.

"You've been out for 3 hours," She told me.

"I knew you were special. No one has ever stood right after the ritual, but you did, and you woke up at a record challenging time," She said.

"Don't worry about school or anything, Alex is bringing some personal effects from your apartment here," She said. I nodded again.

"Sleep, you have a decision to make," She told her. I really wanted to ask what she meant by that but I couldn't talk for the life of me. I fell asleep soon after that. I dreamed something I'd never thought I'd dream. I saw 3 different people. Well...Not really that but 3 selves. One of them look like a figure straight out of hell. He was decked out in black metal armor, with spikes coming out of every inch of the armor. My helmet that I was carrying looked like a deamon's face, he was holding a huge black sword that glowed red. Another self was me in flowing light blue robes, clean shaven and and perfect looking. The 3rd self was somewhat like the second but not quite. I had on several layers of light robes of darker and darker purple, I was also holding a sword upside down, I also had base of the neck long hair. It was like they were all talking at once but none of their mouths moved.

"You have a choice to make Valens," I heard them all say at once, I really didn't like all their voices talking at once.

"Wizard," Only one of them say, a light but commanding voice from the figure in blue robes.

"A Warlock," Said a demonic voice that matched the figure in the armor.

"Or a witch," Said the one in purple ropes light heartedly with a smile.

"You must preform a ritual on the night of the full moon," They said in unison.

"That is in 5 nights, each of us will come to you in a dream and further explain the powers that that self knows. On the 5th night you will not dream and you will perform the ritual of the Warlock, Wizard or Witch. If you fail to do this the you will be killed, the magic power that is now in your blood will rip your body apart if not concentrated," They said in unison. I left that dream and woke up.

I looked around. I saw that it was 9 in the morning. I must have really slept. I started to stir and sat up but felt light headed from getting up so quickly. I stood up from the bed slowly. I saw the door open and Alex walked in.

"Hey Alex," I said.

"Whoa," Alex said.

"Sit please before you fall down," He said. I did as he asked.

"Was this the first time that you woke?" He asked.

"I'm surprised that Olivia didn't tell you, I woke up about 3 hours after going down," I said, his jaw dropped to the floor.

"Your kidding right?" He asked.

"No," I said seriously.

"Wow," He said.

"This is the second time I woke up. I had a weird dream," I told him.

"I had that feeling. So do you know which path you will chose?" He asked me.

"I've got 4 nights before I have to chose my path, it sounds like a very important decision and wished that I had a longer time," I told Alex.

"It is a very important dicision. Everyone in this chapter house is a supernatral or magical creature or one nature or another," He told me.

"What would make you?" I asked him.

"Me? I'm a sorcerer," He said.

"I wasn't given that choice," I told him.

"Well, to be a sorcerer you need to be part of a family line of magic. You see a Sorcerer learns spells, not from a book like a wizard, and doesn't require a focus like a witch, it's similar to a Warlock but not quite the same kind of spells. A sorcerer learns spells by getting dreams of words and gestures but the dream ends right before the effect of the spell goes off so you don't know what the spell is going to do unless you use in yourself in real life," He told me.

"Ok..." I trailed taking in what he was saying.

"A wizard learns spells from books that were originally written by sorcerers, warlocks or other wizards that copied from sorcerers. Anyway. A wizard copies the incantation and gestures into his own personal spellbook. A Sorcerer however knows the spell instinctively and doesn't need to keep a spellbook if that individual doesn't want to. A Witch, can be a guy or a girl. They are also sorcerers but they have what we call a focus, it is literally a focus of the witch's magical powers. They learn less spells than a Sorcerer but their spells are a little more specialized or more powerful than a sorcerer's that is why you can be a witch and not a sorcerer. A warlock's spells are some of the most powerful ever created. However a warlock must have the utmost control and concentration or he may suffer greater backlash effects. Usually when you do something wrong in a spell like a incorrect gesture or mispronunciation, nothing happens, however if a warlock misses something than chances are it will hurt the warlock. You taking all this in right?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I am," I said.

"Good. There is good and evil. Everyone no matter what path they chose can be good or evil. A wizard, and sorcerer generally are good. A witch, are about equal with good and evil, a warlock generally gravitates towards evil however. This is because a Wizard's and Sorcerer's spells generally concentrate on defensive and what we call 'enhancing' spells, a Witch is unusual in that most of their spells are dealing with the body, hurting or helping, curing or cursing. Most of the Warlock's spells are offensive and very powerful. Most people who are warlocks are inadvertently..." He trailed thinking of the right word to use.

"Seduced by their own power. They think they are superior to others and that leads to selfish thoughts and actions and they are evil, greedy, selfish and such. But not only a warlock can succumb to evil. Good and Evil are dictated by your own actions humans are capable of unspeakable evil or great benevolence and don't let anyone convince you otherwise," He said.

"How does a warlock learn his spells?" I asked him.

"Hmmm... Well no one is quite sure how they learn their spells, no warlock has ever revealed how," He told me.

"What exactly happened to me in the ritual?" I asked him.

"Well... Your blood was boiled, all of it and your heart was enchanted to produce magical blood. This blood allows for magical gestures and words to have any meaning, without the blood you wouldn't be able to product magical effects," He told me.

"Wouldn't that kill me?" I asked him.

"Walter made it so that you wouldn't but you'll be a little weak for the next day or so, I'm surprised that your up," He told me.

"So how meny people are in this chapter house?" I asked Alex.

"10. Including you. Their's you a nephroite, me a sorcerer, Olivia's a Fey, Walter he's a wizard, Kayla is a nephroite, she is the one at the door. The ones you haven't met, Rayn, she's our medic, a witch. Tol and Gote are Kayla's brothers and are trained by her to be guards they are also nephroites, and last is Progo, he's our interrogator and is a spellsword," He said, that brought even more questions but he already knew that.

"A nephroite is a magical being that hasn't chosen a path, for magic born, they can stay a nephroite but you must chose a path because you were just given magical blood, where they have had it all their lives. And Fey are faries, they are not small as your palm but, they are smaller than most people. They have several innate powers which I will let Olivia go into if she wants to tell you, but she is also a witch, most fey can't chose a path but once in awhile one does. And a spellsword is a combination of sorcerer's magic and a warriors might, another magic born path. A very potent combination if I might add, they don't know as many spells as a sorcerer but most of their spells do happen to aid the spellsword's body, such as increased speed or strength," He told me. I nodded.

"Are you magic born?" I asked Alex.

"Yes I am, everyone here is except for you," He told me. That helped myself esteem a lot.

"Don't worry about it though, you seem to be a fast learner and you'll get the hang of it in no time," He assured me I wasn't as optimistic.

"No warlocks," I commented.

"Yeah..." He said.

"You need an interrogator?" I asked.

"Not really but he is when we need one," He told me.

"So, what exactly do you do?" I asked.

"Well our primary mission is to study the supernatural, another mission that is just a little more important is to protect everyone from hostile supernaturals," He told me.

"So what do you do?" I asked.

"When we are not studying we go on runs throughout the city to look for signs of the supernatural, if we find them, we see if they are friendly, if not, we do what we can to protect those who need it, usually other mortals," He told me.

"Do you fight?" I asked.

"Well...We seek out hostile supernaturals and convince them to get out of town or not to hurt anyone if that's not possible, we try and get them out," He said.

"Ok," I said. So what do I do in my free time since I haven't picked a path?" I asked Alex.

"Well, you can read up on some supernaturals that we frequently encounter, you can read up on your path choices, or you can follow me and I could show you the training grounds, you can train with Kayla. If you want," He suggested to me.