His revolver, which was emblazoned in golden Enochian symbols, went into his reading desk’s left drawer after he had hung his jacket, scarf, and flat cap onto the wooden stand beside the door.

Elmer sat down before his curtain-covered investigation wall, and his desk, which now had four gray candles, all lit, in a diamond shape on it.

He unfastened his collar’s button, his striped tie of brown hanging loosely from his neck, as he took out the small piece of paper containing the reaper’s prayer and put it in the center of his altar.

A momentary thought of how he’d ended his conversation with Pip crossed his mind at that moment, when he’d settled down a bit, and he was unable to keep himself from heaving out an exhale in exasperation.

Sure, it had only been a few months that they had both not seen each other, but still, Pip had just arrived in the city. Elmer felt he should have given his friend more of his time. It did not matter what topics their discussion would entail. It did not matter how heart wrenching they were. He had to—

Did it not, though?

No, it did! It actually did matter.

His state of mind was not currently of the strength to engage in subjects that touched upon his past experiences as an Ascender.

For one, there were a lot of things to talk about, and Elmer felt that the more he told Pip about, the more questions he would get from his friend, which would lead to more questions he couldn’t answer—not at this point in time.

He was not ready to hurt his psyche and mess it up more than it already was. He just wanted to focus on one thing, a step at a time.

And that was the train of thought he needed the most currently, considering how he was being sought out by an Ascender who was definitely more experienced, and likely stronger than he. Any distractions would cause him his life.

Yes… One step at a time… Pip and I have a lot of time later on to talk and catch up…

Having closed his eyes and nodded his head in agreement with his thoughts, Elmer unfurled the paper he’d placed on his reading desk, and brought before his narrow gaze laced with tiredness the prayer he’d written in Enochian language.

Practicing the prayer in my mind has helped me grasp a hold of its basic pronunciation… But I doubt that I’m very good at it…

Elmer wandered into his head as his heartbeat hastened somewhat.

Well, I doubt how perfect it’s pronounced matters… Taking Hunter for example, he has a thick accent, so his pronunciation of prayers would be a lot different from that of someone who has no accent, but whatever supernatural elements they had recited prayers for would still work for both despite their differences in intonation…

That should be the same for the Enochian language…

Even if my pronunciation isn’t perfect, as long as the basic vocabulary needed for the words are met, it should work… No… It would work…

With that in mind, Elmer exercised his tongue and cleared his throat, the sensation left behind from turning his voice hoarse having long faded away even before he’d gone to the Market Quarter down at the Merchant’s District.

Stolen story; please report.

After quickly glancing through his written prayer a couple more times in quick succession, he steeled himself, and finally opened his mouth.

“I pray to the mysterious hunter who roams the night. The silent reaper in a pale mask. The Angel of Night. May the essence of the Heavens serve as the emissary of my words, and whisper them into thy ears…” he recited in Enochian, his voice mimicking that of Hunter’s as much as he could. And because of that, his words had come out as a bunch of jumbled up sentences brought forth from the combination of ancient languages lost with the withered history of time.

But as weird as it all sounded coming out of his mouth, each word made sense to him.

Relaxed that he had activated the prayer as deemed fit, he switched back to the normal tone he had for the words of men and said, “Again, do you hear me?”

Unlike before, this time, the flames dancing upon the diamond set candles shivered as though the cold of winter had caught up to them as well. But knowing that natural gusts of air could not reach him where he was, due to the curtains being lowered, Elmer was sure that was not the case.

His prayer recited in Enochian was working!

And at that moment, a high pitched ringing stormed his head, causing him to arch forward and groan softly in pain. But it only took a brief moment, since before he could make an attempt to throw his hand onto his head and clench it tightly, the muscle twisting pang he had been feeling vanished uncannily, and in its place came, in a muffled echo, the words, “Again, do you hear me?”

…

As quickly as the utterance came, so did it disperse, and as well so did Elmer’s thoughts scatter while he gazed with widened eyes at the flames which had long returned to their silent stillness.

Though, he immediately set his mind straight.

It worked…! he voiced in elation inside his head as an uncontainable smile spread his cheeks apart.

But since the man he’d become was the one who no longer took more than a few seconds to relish in the joy of his achievements anymore, he instantly found his brain cooking up new sets of questions again.

Elmer straightened himself on his chair from the forward bent position he had been in as a result of the prior sharp pain he’d felt.

Hmmm… He began to think. Since the prayer worked without my actual name being included in it, then I assume that aliases or self made names works as well… The names I created for myself could be owned by anyone else somewhere in the world, but combining them together for one person was highly unlikely…

Yes… This is a reasonable deduction for the results I got… It also brings up the notion that the essence of the Heavens that carried my words is actually of a high intellect and can decipher abstract words and situations… I created the prayer, and knowing I created the prayer, it heeded for the specific purpose and person the prayer was created for…

This is fabulous…!

If this is true, then I don’t have to worry about messages passed through this prayer getting lost in the supernatural realm or going to another person; it’ll always come to me… Surely…

Elmer took a very deep breath in and out before slumping onto his chair, taking a couple of seconds out of his time to relax. But as soon as all he had to spare was exhausted, he jerked back forward and readied himself for the next thing he was to do.

He put off the lights of the used gray candles and threw them into the waste bin beside his reading desk. Then he made another altar, setting up the new set of blessed gray candles in the same diamond shape as he had done for the last ones, before lighting them up in his usual magical manner.

When that was done, he assumed his praying position once again, only this time it was not aimed at reciting the reaper’s prayer. It was for something different; something he’d not touched upon yet.

After licking his lips, Elmer pinched his mouth for a second then mumbled…

“I summon the emissary bequeathed to me, Elmer Hills, by the Heavens. Come to my aid and take my words to whom I deem fit to receive it.”