Mooney House was long past its prime, but it still had its uses. It was old compared to most of the buildings in the city, compared to most of the buildings in the New World in fact, but not so old when considered with all the Houses across the sea. Its bricks were specifically selected from the bountiful quarries that the Guild had surveyed and this contributed to its long-standing nature and to other peculiarities that would only emerge once one spent enough time in its confines.
Ty’s late protégé Doug could probably have spoken to that, but the boy had become an unruly weed and had perished for it. It was for the best, Dalia had decided. There were too many wheels within wheels as it was, and she did not need the additional distraction of a rogue initiate almost starting a war with their enemy. Well, one of their enemies. The Guild, and Dalia, had a bad habit of collecting new ones as the decades ticked off.
It remained to be seen whether the VAC had joined that camp or whether it had been a mere folly championed by the worthless spare Xander, who styled himself as co-Chair. She was surprised that Lorna had gone along with it as the Lady-in-Waiting of the august institution once her mother ceded control to her on her 40th birthday. Dalia had known several Lornas and none would have let things come to a head as they had. Perhaps the bloodline had gone stale as of late.
Dalia reached the House at half past midnight and walked around to the back entrance. She placed her token, the original token, into the small door and it opened silently. Ducking her head, she descended into the basement through the darkness, her footsteps landing true despite the lack of light. Upon reaching the bottom, she saw the glow peek under the door from beyond, and she nodded to herself. She had expected resistance from her daughter when she had announced what she had intended to do, now that she finally had possession of the pure Dragon’s blood, but in this, the two were in agreement.
The door opened on its own accord and Dalia stepped through the threshold to see what Ty’s handiwork had wrought. Candles lit the room in a foreboding manner and on every surface, her daughter had drawn the magnificent runes with great care and detail. In the middle of the floor was a circle inside a square inside a triangle, where the final pieces were yet to be placed.
“Well done, daughter,” said Dalia and Ty, who was listening to some Gods-awful music on her phone, removed the white ear buds and smiled.
“Thank you, mother,” she said. “It has been a long time, but my hands still remembered the contours of the Great Circle.”
“I would expect nothing less from you,” said Dalia.
Ty took in the compliment with modesty and bent down to run her fingers along the edges of the chalk lines.
“I am in agreement, that we must do this, but I wonder if we are acting in desperation, necessity, or strength.”
“I think all three,” said Dalia. “His loyalty, his skills, and his tenacity have been sorely missed.”
“I agree,” said Ty. “Although the third of that list you perhaps long for the most. But we have new tools at our disposal at present, do we not? Ms. Stallard has finally been domesticated and Ms. Jacobs has developed into a surprisingly reliable woman of many talents.”
“That may be, but a poker player would not be satisfied with two-pair when a full house was obtainable,” said Dalia. “Now is not the time to be overconfident in our abilities, with snakes in our midst. We must win back the five who voted against me, one way or another.”
“You could just kill all of them,” offered Ty. “You always loved recruiting new members, I seem to recall.”
“Those days are behind me,” said Dalia. “And someone is already doing that work, of this I am sure. Charles, Akash, Laila. Their deaths were not accidents. I intend to find out who was responsible and when I do, I will rip off their toes one by one.”
“Mother!” said Ty. “Please … you should let me do it.”
“Perhaps,” said Dalia. “Look, about your Seat…”
“I accept your apology,” said Ty. “It was the right thing to do. And besides, he may very well win the Gauntlet, anyway.”
“I have not decided if I will allow him to enter,” said Dalia. “He might be better off remaining in the shadows. We can use him in other ways to keep the members in line.”
“That is probably the prudent course,” said Ty. “One more question, before we begin the ritual. Are you not worried about his baser characteristic surfacing again? You had tamed him for a time, but you know what an undertaking that was. Will it hold?”
“I have made sure of it,” said Dalia, who withdrew the three gems from her pocketbook. “In my spare moments, over the decades, I have fine-tuned him to my liking. He will not remember what he had done to displease me and his essence has been pruned so that he will not try to again.”
“I see,” said Ty. “Do you think that was wise? What if he discovers the truth? There could be repercussions beyond your imagining.”
Dalia normally valued her daughter’s counsel, as she provided the necessary counterweight to her and helped her refine her stratagems and her thinking on so many occasions. But on this, she would not hear dissent.
Instead, she placed each of the gems on one vertex of the triangle. And for the inner circle, she withdrew the two last items in her bag, the skull that had been sitting on the shelf in her Guild office for too many years to count and the newly acquired vial of Dragon’s blood. The skull she situated in the absolute center of the assemblage and the red pigment, she sprinkled along the edges of the triangle, on top of all three gems, and finally, on the eye sockets. Ordinarily, the amount of blood necessary for the ritual would be substantially more and would have made creating a new Stone nearly impossible, but thankfully, she had developed a work around.
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“The knife, please,” Dalia said to her daughter, who produced a shining silver blade from inside her jean jacket and handed it to her. She weighed the implement in her hand, and, satisfied with its craftsmanship and balance, kneeled down next to the Great Circle and scored the edge against her index finger. Blood dripped from the wound onto the white chalk, turning the spot red instantly. The crimson spread quickly through the rest of the runes, and, before wrapping her finger in the bandage that Ty had also brought her, Dalia smeared the final drops onto both of her palms.
“Are you ready?” asked Ty.
“Yes,” said Dalia. “It is time.”
She bent down on her knees at the top of the Great Circle, and Ty assumed the same pose at the bottom. Taking in the scene before her, Dalia could not believe that she had succeeded, in this age or at all. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed her hands against the Circle.
A gentle breeze brushed across her cheek, which, of course, was an odd thing to feel down in the musty basement. Dalia opened her eyes to see the runes had begun to glow, but it was soft and faint and looked as if it would go out in a few seconds. This she would not have.
“We offer the Tria Prima and the Blood of the Dragon to the Great Circle, which has no end, which does not end!”
Her voice echoed through the basement, like a singer belting out an opera before the throne, and the light of the circle erupted into a blazing spectacle. She felt herself trembling against its might, and were she a lesser woman, it would have engulfed her entirely.
But she was not such a woman. No, she was a Valkyrie, she was an Amazon, she was the fire. And she would take back what was stolen from her.
“We speak now the ancient words of restoration, of rejuvenation, of reconstitution, to break down the barrier between life and death!”
She nodded to Ty, and the two opened their mouths together in song.
“Fac ex mare & fumina circulum, inde quadrangulum, hinc triangulum, fac circulum & habebis lap. Philosophorum!”
The triangle and the square and the circle all rose up and spun wildly and furiously, throwing off bits of lightning as they did.
“Regem lupus uorauit, & uite crematus reddidit!”
The three gems then began to glow, each sending bolts of color up into the spinning shapes.
“Hic est Draco caudam suam devorans!”
Finally, the Dragon’s blood ignited into a crimson fire. It crackled against the other energies, but it was above them, it was above all.
“Sapientie humane fructus Lignum uite est!”
A thunderous blast ripped through the room and knocked Dalia backward onto the stone floor. Her brow was covered with sweat, her ears were ringing and her heart was racing, but she was alive.
And someone else was, as well.
For in the center of the Great Circle, where before there had only been the constituent parts, knelt a fully formed man, a purplish aura surrounding his body. Dalia pushed herself up, took up the regal walk of ages past, and extended her hand outward.
“Rise again, Lord Theo,” she said.
“Lady Melanie?” the naked man asked, grasping her wrist with his fingers. She pulled him to his feet before studying the rest of him and smiling at his chiseled physique. Even two hundred years of dissociation had done nothing to weaken his features. As eager as she was to drink in more of him, she motioned for Ty to fetch the set of clothes from the corner.
“I have not been called that for many decades,” said Dalia, as she helped the man put on the unfamiliar modern outfit. “So much has happened since you were taken from us. But there will be time enough to fill the blanks. For now, tell me, do you remember that day, on the hill?”
She stroked his cheek, and the man looked at her and then at Ty, before the memory resurfaced from within him.
“Yes,” he said. “They had brought us to the center of the way stones, to laugh and to ridicule. They set pyres around us, as if we were an attraction to be enjoyed by those who were passing by. But the two of us, we persevered. One night, a great storm cloud appeared overhead and an instant later unleashed its wrath down upon us. Together, we lifted our bound hands to meet it.”
Dalia pulled the man who had been Lord Theo into an embrace and let everything melt away. She felt his energy push against hers, like the crackling of the lightning they had captured so long ago. It was a reminder of an age long gone, one that would not be seen again. She wished she could stay in this moment forever and let the rest of the world-
“Ahem,” said Ty.
Dalia pulled back from the man, slightly embarrassed that she had lost herself so easily, and her former lover stepped back.
“Sorry,” she said. “It has been a long time.”
“I’m sure it has,” said Ty. “Let us finish and then I will take my leave.”
“Yes,” said Dalia, turning to face the man. “You have slept for over 150 years. The woman you knew as Lady Melanie is dead and gone. In her place now stands Dalia de Wyck, 13th chair of the Worshipful Company of Alchemists.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Ms. de Wyck,” said the man.
“And you again, Lord Theo Beauclerk. But today, you are reborn.”
She bent down to wipe the remaining residue from the Great Circle onto her fingers and rubbed it against his cheeks.
“Welcome to the 21st century, Enzo Russell.”
“Thank you, my lady,” said Enzo. “What work needs doing?”
“A great deal,” said Ty. “The nascent entity you knew as the Van Asch Trading Company, it has spread its tentacles far and wide, and in doing so, has forgotten its heritage. And our sister Alerion Guild, formed at the dawn of this country. They clothe themselves in the sigils of an order long dead, but they are alive and well, and we have only just undone their greatest attack on us. The homunculus rebels are still on the run. They are greatly diminished, but formidable just the same.”
“Finally, our rival in the East,” said Dalia. “You know firsthand their treachery, and I have spent many decades trying to gain back what was taken. You included.”
“I see,” said Enzo. “Then it seems my resurrection could not have come at a more pressing hour. Tell me, does that snake still draw breath?”
“Who, my father?” asked Ty. “Yes, the Hammer of the East is alive and well. But he has not been seen outside of his mountain estate for many years.”
“There will be plenty of time to deal with my husband,” said Dalia, taking Enzo’s hand. “Tonight is about our new beginning.” She whispered something in his ear that only he could hear, and he smiled. “Wait for me upstairs, would you?”
Enzo nodded and exited the basement through the front. When his footsteps had gone silent, Ty hopped down from her perch on the retaining wall and ambled over to Dalia.
“Mother, I haven’t seen you this way in so long. You’re like a blushing schoolgirl, it’s so … cute!”
“Don’t tease me, Ty,” said Dalia. “Not tonight.”
“Fine, fine. Go on, then,” said her daughter. “I will clean up here, as usual.”
“Thank you.”
Dalia bent down to pick up the charred remains of the three stones and placed them back in her bag, before strolling toward the exit with a stride in her step.
“Will you go through with it?” Ty asked, as Dalia reached the bottom stair. “I didn’t think it was something you would ever consider doing again. Not after what happened the first time.”
Dalia considered the question for just a moment, but her path had been set on this course for so long, and there was no deviating now. After all it had taken to get here.
“Yes,” she said. “I will become a mother twice over, despite the consequences. So much depends on it. Because you and that child, you will change everything.”