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"Ciel... are you sure this will work?" Elizabeth asked for the hundredth time after they made it back to the townhouse.
"No. But it's the first solution I've been offered, so what harm will it do to try?" he answered, shrugging out of his coat and hanging it on the rack in the foyer. He sat the parcel carefully on the table there and handed the instructions to the blonde. "Read over it and ease your nerves. There's nothing there that can make my situation any worse."
She took the paper from him and studied the shaky scripted inked on the page. It was true, she conceded; it certainly couldn't get much worse. She handed the paper off to Menefer with a sigh of defeat and started down the hall to the kitchen. The Egyptian eyed the instructions carefully, nodding and hmmming every few seconds. Then she handed the sheet back to Ciel and put her hands on her hips, a determined gleam in her eye.
"What do you think, Menefer?"
"I think you must believe it will work before you try. Voodoo and Egyptian magic, demon tricks and witchcraft-they are all very similar. If you do not believe the impossible, the magic is weak. If you believe anything is possible, it will become stronger. If you know this will work... I think it can."
"The old woman said you would have to help me with the ritual. Sebastian's very being would disrupt it-"
"Parts of the ritual-all of it, really-are to break your demonic aura," Menefer cut him off. "I read it in that context. The cleansing bath, the incense, the chili powder in the four corners of the house-that is for cleansing and protection, to break a hex. I think she looks at your condition in the light of a curse more than a simple predicament. The instructions say to place a lock of your own hair in the doll before you start the ritual." She reached over and untied the burlap, pulling out the sachet Ciel was supposed to wear. "The ingredients in this are also potent charms for protection. Aside from the crowfoot and yew..."
"How do you know all this?" he breathed, taking the sachet she held out and draping its long leather cord around his neck.
"You forget, I was raised in the Temple of Isis. These things do not change. What was good for the Egyptian is good for the Haitian or the Druid, or any other culture that practices magic. The herb will always do the same things, no matter who is using it. Salt will always be salty. Belladonna will always be poison. The ritual may change, but the ingredients do not."
"What, then, is the significance of the crowfoot and the yew, if not protection?"
"The crowfoot is used to strengthen a marriage or hand-fasting. I am sure she included it because of Lizzie's involvement with you. She called you lovers, did she not?"
Ciel nodded.
"The yew... I am not so sure about that one. It is typically used in rituals for raising the dead. She may have had something else in mind, but were it me making this for an immortal that I know has been changed into a demon against his will... I would intend for it to help reverse some of the damage on your soul. It's still there-" she poked him in the chest with her index finger- "but I think for you, it has always been dark and troubled and she intends to 'raise' it from the 'dead'."
Ciel started for the dining room, Menefer following closely behind. "We need to get Sebastian out of the house for a few days, don't we?"
"It would be in your best interests, I think. I do not believe that this will make you human again-I think you are what you are for the rest of eternity, for better or worse. But I believe this will help release whatever binds you to your body. I do not know if that means you will grow, or if you will leave and come back to us in another body. But yes, we must ask Sebastian to leave for a few days. I will talk to him tonight. Perhaps he can take Lizzie and then she will not have to witness the ritual, either?"
"I think that's a good idea."
The three of them gathered around the tiny oak table in the kitchen beneath Elizabeth's room, the two women sipping on tea and Ciel staring straight ahead at the cabinets on the opposite wall, plaintive at best, considering all the options now lying ahead. What would this ritual do if it did anything at all? Menefer's suggestion that he may leave his own body behind and return in a different one altogether, made him curious and frightened at once. He felt pressure on his hand suddenly and glanced over to see Lizzie gripping his fingers on the tabletop. He forced a weak assuring smile to his face, but the worry in her glowing green eyes did not subside.
The French door in the foyer of the main house could be heard opening some time later, and closing a moment after with a resounding shudder of window panes and a distinctive creak. Ciel's head snapped to, and he realized he had been the only one to hear it. Lizzie's head drooped on the table and Menefer seemed lost somewhere in her own mind. After a silent moment, she shook her head and focused her gaze on the kitchen door that opened into the courtyard between the two houses. She stood and stretched, arching her back like a cat and let out a great sigh.
"I will go and talk with your Sebastian," she whispered, not wanting to wake Elizabeth who still clutched Ciel's hand. Turning toward the door, she reached out and laid her hand on top of the boy demon's head in a motherly gesture of reassurance and disappeared.
Ciel didn't know what to expect when it came to Sebastian's reaction. He assumed the older demon would be indifferent to any path the earl chose, but there was a distinct apprehension in his belly and he didn't know whether to credit the possible results of the Voodoo ritual or Sebastian being displeased in some way with the decision Ciel had made. Rolling his head to and fro and feeling the satisfying crack of vertebrae, he squeezed Lizzie's hand gently and slipped his own from beneath it. He pondered waking her and wished he could sweep her up and carry her to her room like the hero she craved him to be.
Settling for the former, he pushed the locks of blonde hair that had fallen over her face behind her ear and leaned down, pressing a kiss to her temple. She sighed and a sleepy smile spread over her face and Ciel found himself smiling back, just a little, remembering how stubborn and childish she had been and how he had loved her and wanted to strangle her all the same when they were young. Her tired eyes opened and she blinked the sleep away, straightening and stretching much like Menefer had done. "Mennie has gone to speak with Sebastian," he offered, watching her stand and brush the wrinkles from her clothes.
"What time is it?" she yawned, wandering over to the pantry.
"It's around eight, I think. I'm not certain. You dozed off awhile ago."
"I'm going to make some coffee. I'm curious about Sebastian's reaction, even though I know he shouldn't think twice about it..."
"As am I," Ciel confessed, walking over to the door and staring out across the courtyard.
"Marcus..." Menefer approached him as he entered dining room, and pulling a chair out from beneath the huge table, she motioned for him to sit.
"What ever is wrong?" he asked, pulling off his gloves and pulling the tie from about his neck. "This whole estate is smothered in a cloud of gloom and apprehension. I can taste it."
Menefer managed a bright smile for him. "It's Ciel. Well, more it is his 'problem'. He has been offered a solution to it, but we all wonder at your reaction. It is silly, I know..."
"Has he changed? Where is he?"
"He has not... performed the ritual, yet," Menefer explained, perching on the table near Sebastian's crossed legs. "He happened upon a Voodoo woman today while he was out looking for Elizabeth and myself. She gave him some... items, and instructions, and after looking it over, I believe it could work... But Ciel first and foremost, I think, desires your approval. Whether he will admit it or not, of course. And also, she recommended that you and Elizabeth not be present during the four days the ritual will consume. Your demonic aura may affect, or be affected by, the ritual itself. We do not believe Lizzie is ...emotionally stable enough ...to handle the results-that is, if there aren't any."
"May I see these items and instructions?" Sebastian asked, a seething emphasis on his words.
Menefer slid off the table and went to the foyer, returning a moment later with the burlap package and the sheet of paper. She laid it all out carefully on the table before him, then handed him the sheet. "Like I told Ciel, it is imperative that he believe this will work, or it more likely than not, will not work at all."
"What is your professional opinion on the matter? Considering building spells and herbal and mineral lore was your primary concern once upon a time?"
"I understand the significance of each herb she chose. Magic is magic, no matter the user. Herbs do the same thing, no matter the continent. I have never seen such a doll before, but I know what the old woman intends. To burn away Ciel's childish body-in essence-so a new Ciel can be born from it. What do you think? Marcus, your opinion to the boy by far outweighs my own. How will it affect you, to no longer have your thirteen year old master?"
"It matters not to me what Ciel Phantomhive looks like; I am bound to him for the rest of eternity, no matter his looks. I only was wary of the old woman's intentions but if you feel it is a safe procedure and unlikely to harm any of us, then by all means, proceed." Sebastian reached out and hooked his fingers in the waistband of Menefer's slacks, pulling her down into his lap with a seductive grin.
"You must take Lizzie away then, tomorrow," Menefer began but her words were smothered by the demon's lips on her own.
The next morning, Sebastian checked Elizabeth and Paula into a suite at the Hotel Provincial three and a half blocks away. It was no mean feat to get a room during Carnival in the Crescent City, but if he couldn't do at least that much for his master's mistress, well-what kind of demon would he be? Elizabeth wasn't thrilled with the circumstances, but she held back her tears and allowed the bellboy to take her considerable luggage.
"You'll fetch me if anything happens, Sebastian, promise me," she pleaded turning to face him as Paula opened the door to their room and ambled inside.
"You have my word, mistress Elizabeth," he assured her. He waited as she fidgeted with her handbag and brought out a handkerchief. Dabbing at her eyes, she turned the liquid filled orbs up to his face with the most melancholy look he'd ever seen her manage.
"Promise?" she all but whimpered. She couldn't explain why she was so apprehensive about the situation, but fear rose in her belly nonetheless.
Sebastian reached out and wiped a stray tear away from her cheek with a tenderness he didn't know he still possessed. "I promise. Now I must go." He slipped a business card into her hand with the bank's information in case she needed to contact him. "All will be well, I assure you. The worst that can happen is nothing at all." He was gone in a shimmer of blackness.
Elizabeth had never claimed to be an emotionally stout woman, but she let the demon's words of comfort work on her. She locked the door behind her and started taking the more delicate items of her wardrobe out of the suitcases, Paula hanging and folding as she went.
Sebastian, having no need for sleep, required no where to stay during the four days of the ritual. It wouldn't be the first time he'd wandered a city for days on end, and it most certainly would not be the last. He understood Elizabeth's fear for Ciel's safety. He hated to admit it, but he harbored the tiniest bit of fear, himself. He'd seen something as reliable as demon magic backfire on more than one occasion and while he valued both the Voodoo religion and Menefer's knowledge of herb lore and ancient magic, there was still the off chance that something horrible could go wrong and he would not be there to prevent it. It didn't help that the last time he left something completely up to Menefer, she wound up dead...