Chapter 10: Ritual At Sunset
“Adam? Are you ready?”
I looked up from where I was sitting at the dining room table to see Joan poking her head around the partly opened main door. Behind her, the day was growing dark. It seemed like only a few minutes ago that I had sat down. Was it that late? Glancing at the sheet of paper I’d been scribbking on I saw that it was largely covered, the work of quite some time.
Maybe I had let things get away from me.
I’d have liked to say that I had sat down and written a letter to my parents, a last message in case the worst were to happen. I’d have liked to say that it was a will, instructions for my friends to help themselves to my few prized possessions. I’d liked it to have been something solemn, something befitting of the gravity of the coming moments.
Instead, due to a lifetime of sci-fi and fantasy, plus hours on Divine Versus lately, it was something else entirely. It was just my thoughts written down as soon as they occurred to me. It might not be important, but if I managed to make it through the coming ritual it would be fun to look back on it.
Superpowers Wishlist
Invulnerability: Having bullets bouncing off me would be awesome.
Lightning bolts? Sith lightning would be cool.
Telekinesis: Could I do the Force Choke?
Intangibility: Be the ghost! Nothing can touch me!
Super Strength? Hercules got this, also awesome!
Sword of light like Joan! Possible, angel blood?
Fireballs! The dream of every D&D player everywhere!
Teleportation! Know that some gods have it, would make life so much easier!
Flight/Wings/Floating: Nope, not going with this one if I have a choice!
Voice of the Heavens! Siren song? Sonic Scream? Maybe just makes me a really good orator? Could I learn to sing?
Fireworks: I think I saw one of the demigod videos online show this off, the ability to create a firework show at will. Could I? Not useful, but cool.
Holy Aura! Do I want this one? Wasn’t there some sci-fi film where a character got this and ended up melting everyone he touched?
Magic missile blitz barrage! Not sure how likely this is, but it would be awesome!
Magic Armour of some sort? Lots of demigods in legends have had this.
A Weapon? Do I want one? Something like Mjolnir?
Cooking? Wasn’t there some Viking god that had a pig that came back to life every time it was cooked?
Flaming Sword, AKA Lightsabre: A classic!
Smiting! Would that be lightning from the sky or just any general bad luck taken to the max?
Healing: Useful, powerful, in demand!
Grow Crops! Bounty of the Earth, the King has this, could be useful.
Immortality, do I want it?
Control of Flies/Frog/Gnats/Locust: Plagues of Egypt, could I do them?
Kame Hame Ha! Would be awesome, would be terrible, unlikely though.
Super transformation? Henshin for the win!
Lions! Don’t lions have something to do with Heaven? Could I get a pet lion?
Servitor angels? Demon summoners can call up demons, could I do the same with angels?
Divine armour! Never mind, already wrote that one down.
Make a sanctuary? Bless an area? Wasn’t there an angel in Canada that did that?
Massive death ball attack? Doubt it, cool thought though.
Minions? Some demigods can call up things like dead souls to help them, could be cool.
Telepathy! Read the mind, control the mind. Do I want that?
As I stood up, I gave my list a last quick look over. Kame Hame Ha, really? Sith and Jedi? Well, it had helped me pass the time.
“Is it time already?”
Without a word she gestured to the sky behind her, a sky already speckled with the first stars to come out. The sun was so low that the bottom of it was already vanishing below the horizon. Just a few more minutes and it would be gone.
“Ah, dusk.”
Here I was, about to gain the sorts of powers that were starting to shape the world and I was . . . what? I wasn’t exactly scared, I would have been able to recognize that. Strangely, the closest thing I could think to compare it to would have been walking into an important test that you weren’t sure you were ready for. That uncertainty if you’d studied the right things, if you’d taken enough time.
“Should I . . . do anything before we start?”
I mumbled inanely.
“There is no need, everything is ready.”
There was a slight rebuke in there. She could see my hesitation, and she was telling me to deal with it. And you know what? She was right! I’d had days to get to grips with this, I had literally spent hours getting beaten up and then healed in preparation for this. Why was I acting like this?
Stepping away from the table I set my pen down and nodded to the French saint.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
She nodded back, then began to walk towards the clearing she’d made in the grass. Wordlessly I followed, doing all I could to try to calm the swarm of moths that seemed to have taken up residence in my stomach. As I walked, I repeated in my head that I trusted her, that I’d known this was coming. But even as I did it my mind treacherously kept bringing up questions in return. Why did I have to go through with this? Why had I agreed? Would this change me, change who I was? Would I be the same person once I had my powers? Would I still be me?
And beyond that, what about what was going to come next? I was going to . . . what? Fight gods? Confront the forces of Hell? Police the demigods of the world? Why? No, more importantly, how? Gods were absurdly powerful! Even if I did have the power needed, did I have the temperament? Was I going to make a mess of it? Oh God, how many people could die if I ended up making a mess of this?
With every step I took more and more doubts rose up in my mind, like weeds growing to choke a garden! My legs became unsteady under me. It was ridiculous, I’d heard about going weak at the knees in fear before, but it was not something that I’d ever experienced. Public speaking, roller coasters, even living through the Black Sun, none of that had ever left me feeling like this did. But now, it was getting hard to just put one foot in front of another.
I was about halfway across the gravel courtyard; up ahead of me I could see the tree trunks laying on the cut grass, the whole thing centring upon an altar-like structure that Joan must have put together after I had left. Upon it was a large shallow metal bowl, its bronze colour flashing in the descending sun. As I looked at it the ritual site seemed to grow in my vision, everything else falling away until it was all I could see. It seemed to loom over me, an almost predatory presence waiting to pounce and devour me whole. My life, my identity, my peace of mind, all of it would be swallowed up by what was waiting for me.
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I suppose one of my legs must have gone out from under me at that point, because suddenly I was on my knees and panting as though I had just run a marathon. The gravel only a couple of feet from my eyes seemed to swim before me as I struggled to keep my stomach from rebelling. Why? Why was this happening now? Come on, I’d known this was coming! I’d had days to get at least some of my head around it! So why was it all hitting me like a truckload of bricks now?
“Easy Adam, easy.”
Even though my heartbeat was pounding as loud as a drum in my ears I could still hear Joan’s words as she knelt beside me. I couldn’t see her, not with my vision blurred as it was, but I could feel the warmth of her hand as it held my shoulder, even catch the now familiar scent of her armour’s metal and the flowery scent that seemed natural to her, as she leaned in closer.
“I . . . I know that this is much that is being asked of you,” she began, and I heard hesitation in her voice for the first time. “I know that you must feel overwhelmed by all this, but I beg you, please be strong!”
“I . . . I don’t know if I can do this.” I admitted, struggling to get myself under control once more.
“Do not doubt yourself,” She declared, her hand squeezing my shoulder. “Adam . . . there is nothing I can say that will completely assuage any fears you might have, but I shall keep telling you this as long as you need to hear it; you can do this, you do not need to fear it! I have faith in you, and I have faith in the Lord, He told me that I should find you, and he would never give you a task you could not surmount!”
There was nothing new to what she was saying, but it was something, something to hold onto, something to cling to. Still, I felt full of doubts.
“Joan, I’m . . . Look, I . . . are you sure it’s me that should be here? I . . . come on, there’s no way it could be me! Are you sure this isn’t just a mistake?! There’s got to be some-”
“Adam!”
The way that Joan cut me off as she barked my name made me think of a drill sergeant. There was authority in her tone, not an authority that she had ever exercised before. Authority I could no more ignore than I could gravity.
“Adam, look.”
With her assurance of my attention, her voice had grown softer, but there was still steel in it that would not let me ignore her. Nor would it allow me to ignore what was in her hand as she held it out to me. It was one of the feathers she had shown me before, but now it was glowing with a soft white light. What was even stranger was that as Joan held the feather closer to me I could see an answering glow emanating from beneath my skin. It was weak, nowhere near as bright as the feathers themselves, but it was there, and it was coming from me.
“Do you see? The feathers call to the blood within you, and there is power there that answers. This is no mistake, Adam; this is what needs to happen.”
She pulled the feathers back, then gently pushed on my shoulder so that I turned to face her. The resurrected saint’s face was close, only slightly more than a foot away from my own. Her expression was earnest, but there was a hint of something else there, not fear, but mayde some sort of trepidation.
“Adam, things are going to get worse in the world. At this moment, all the gods and other legends are taking joy in their new freedom, in having returned to the mortal realm with their true powers. For ages they have been forced to come here as mortals, with dulled memories and diluted emotions. Now they are here unchecked, save for the whims of their fellows.
“Alors, some of them have chosen to enjoy this modern world without disrupting it. They have seen the joys of modern conveniences and luxuries and wish to retain them. Your world has done well to adapt, to house them and even take advantage of them, but there are others that are not so . . . aminable.
“There are gods and monsters that would happily see all civilization crumble to ruin and for humanity to return to wild tribes living in caves and forests. Others would prefer to rule with an iron fist, to allow no civilisation or society not shaped by them to exist. There will be those that covet what a nation can offer them, others that revile the same nation for even existing. There shall be clashes of wills, of ideologoes, of morals, of egos.
“Do you know what will happen then, Adam? Conflict, conflict between gods! Conflict between their followers! Conflict between their servants!
“But that shall not be all. Adam, this shall not be as it was before, when mortals were merely armed with sharpened metal and simple armour. In the centuries that mankind has been free of divinities your knowledge and technology have advanced vastly. Even in less than six centuries, from the time I lived as a mortal, you have gone from hurling lumps of metal with cannons to razing cities from across the world. This time humanity will not be mere pawns for the gods to move.”
She paused for a moment, then her eyes fixed on mine, and for a moment I saw something unexpected in her gaze.
Fear.
“Mortal kind may not be able to destroy the gods with their weapons crafted by science, but you are fully capble of destroying yourselve in the attempt. Mankind’s defiance could leave this entire world a scorched cinder spinning through space.
“Do you understand? We, you, me, the others that will come, we all have to keep the world from going mad! We have to extinguish the small fires before they can grow. I was sent to aid you as I can, but I cannot do it without you, I simply do not have the power.”
She paused for a moment, then pulled back, holding up the feathers again.
“I am a fully mortal soul, even by His grace there is only so much power that can be attached to me as I am. You though . . . you have the blood of one the highest of angels in your veins, and another such is your parent. God himself spoke of the strength you shall possess, and that strength is needed if we wish to preserve this world. Do you understand, Adam? I . . . I cannot do this without you.”
The panic that had been boiling within me was . . . I supposed ‘stilling’ was the best word to describe it. It remained, how could it not, but it no longer seethed as it had. Instead, it just sat there, a lead weight in my stomach, as I processed what I’d been told.
“I know, I know that it is a huge burden to place upon you! I wished to wait until you had your full power before telling you, I thought that it would be easier to bear with the might of divinity within you, but . . . but you need to know. Adam, I shall not lie to you, what is coming will not be easy, it will not be painless, but it is something that needs to be done! If it is left alone then many will suffer, many will die, and I know that you are not a man that will simply allow that to happen, so please, please find your courage!”
If one just took the words on their own, then it might have been mistaken for emotional blackmail. But with that near desperate catch in her voice, with that expression of pleading, with those eyes, there was no way to miss her genuine sincerity.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then I did it again. And a third time for good measure.
It worked because I could feel the tightness in my chest loosening, the lump in my stomach fading slightly. I was still nervous as hell, but I wasn’t having a panic attack anymore.
“O . . . okay,” I managed to say. “I . . . th-think I’ve got it back together.”
Shakily I got back to my feet. Sure, my steps were wobbly, but I was able to take them. All I had to do was follow Joan’s instructions and get through this ritual. Once that was done . . . well, I wasn’t too sure what came next, but getting this done first was at least a step in the right direction. I could do that, I could!
Looking up I got my first good look at the completed ritual site. To my eyes, the resurrected saint had done a splendid job. The basic octagonal layout remained, but now the details were far more refined. Each trunk had a smooth surface carved into its upward face, and every one of them had beautifully detailed carvings inscribed upon them. I could see glimpses of the Enochian I had seen before, but I deliberately didn’t look at that too closely. There were other languages though, I could recognize lines written in the Latin and Greek alphabets. Runes that might have been Nordic in nature, and even something that looked like Egyptian hieroglyphs, but that was it. There had to be dozens of different languages here, each trunk adorned with both the language of angels and the languages of mortals.
“What’s . . . all this?”
I asked, one arm waving to indicate all the carved logs before us.
“Do you mean the inscriptions?”
At my answering nod, she continued.
“Though we seek to awaken the blood in you that is tied to the Heavens, the Lord advised me that your powers are also tied to the earth, or rather to the mortal realm. What these inscriptions do is allow me to use the connections that certain deities have to this plane to strengthen your bond to the Earth. Hopefully, this will increase the strength to which you shall awaken. To do this gods of various types need to be invoked. The names of angels will provide a link to the Heavens, but the names and natures of the gods will provide ties to the Earth. That is the main aim of this ritual, to grant you as many links to power when your blood is Awakened in order to give you the most power possible.”
Okay, that made sense, sort of. It was generally known by now that there where were many factors that tied into the strength of a child of divinity, such as the concentration of the divine blood they held, the strength of the source of that blood, or their own compatibility with it. It made sense that Joan would do her best to make sure that I’d be as strong as I could be; if just a fraction of the stuff she’d talked about was heading our way then I wanted every edge I could get my hands on.
“Earth is connected to the ritual through the invocation of the gods of the Earth; Heaven is invoked through the Enochian names of angels that have pledged their support to this endeavour. Above us the moon is full, and I have inscribed the names of many lunar deities into the centrepiece of the circle. Lastly, there is fire, a fire that burns the wood of an old tree of this forest, a tree that has experienced much of the fury of the elements.”
Joan paused for a moment, clearly taking a certain level of pride in what she’d managed to set up, she then glanced up at the sky and her face set into a determined line.
“It will soon be time, Adam.” She gestured to a spot on the other side of the altar. “Please stand there, I’ll begin to draw in power from the various links that have been made. Once sufficient power has been accumulated, I will pour it into you using the feathers as a channel to tie it to their Heavenly power. The combination and scale of it should be enough to awaken you to the natural peak of your abilities.”
I nodded, then started to make my way over to the spot she’d indicated. Once there I turned back to face her.
“Just here?”
“Perfect!” She replied. “Now, close your eyes, Adam, I shall be empowering the runes, and we need to avoid what happened before with the Enochian.”
Great, so not only did I have to go through a life-changing ritual right now, while I was not at my best, but I also had to do it while my eyes were closed.
Oh well, if that was the worst that I had to deal with in this whole thing then I suppose I should be grateful.