shadows

01

There were three. An old witch. A young witch. An elemental, younger than the old witch and older than the young witch.

But it was the older two standing over the table. Studying the rune. The youngest was sitting with an open notebook, taking notes. It wasn’t any less stressful for any one of the three.

The rune was ancient. Predating the split. Predating maybe even the gods. At least that was Eustace’s opinion. And she had good reason to suspect this. There were spells in the mother grimoire that were much too different from those born of the tongue of the gods. Spells that couldn’t have come from the gods, at least not the way they knew the gods today. And so, it was no surprise that there was two distinct schools of thought among the witches. One which believed that there was more to learn about the gods which explained these divergent spells. Other which believed that these disparate spells predated the gods. Eustace belonged to the latter.

The elementals were simpler in comparison. They followed the breath of the world. They didn’t worship the gods. They didn’t inherit anything from the gods. And so, to the elementals, it made no difference whether the gods were the oldest or there were others before. What did matter was that the gods were powerful. And the knowledge and the arts and the abilities of the gods were lost with their disappearance. And so, they were curious. And open to the idea of bringing back the gods.

“Are we sure?” Eustace asked.

“I don’t know about that,” Krom answered honestly. “Can we be sure at all? Does it even matter? Here we are, anyway. And we wouldn’t be wrong trusting in ourselves a bit. We didn’t go wrong. No obvious mistakes that I could find. We must be right.”

“None I could find either,” Eustace agreed. “Then, let’s call it. We have ourselves a summoning rune. And from everything else we translated, the rite and the rune allow us to summon Tremor. The good old god of war.”

“Old, yes,” Krom said. “Good. I don’t know. We’ll see. Alright then. Shall we get started with the preparations?”

Eustace and Krom shared a look. Nodded. And smiled.

While Emerald didn’t miss a word.

First, they needed a sacrifice. This was an ancient rite. Unlike those of today, sacrifices were big in the ancient rites. Greater the rite, greater the sacrifice. Easy to see what a rite summoning a god would require as sacrifice.

Krom requested an audience with the council of elders. He had progress to report. And all of the elders were very eager. The site was originally discovered by the elementals. They dug up the ancient book. They studied it for months before sharing it with the rest. Krom was just one team working together with the witches. He certainly wasn’t the first to request an audience with the council of elders to report progress. Some had been disappointments. Some had been encouraging. The elders all hoped Krom would be encouraging. After all, a lot of the elders looked upon him favourably.

And Krom didn’t disappoint. He stood tall before the elders. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t stutter. He spoke clearly. And displayed confidence.

“We have made progress translating the book. We have concentrated our efforts on one chapter specifically. The seventh. It is a rite. Describing a spell that we believe is either a summoning spell or an enchantment spell. We have also translated the conditions to be met for casting the spell successfully. I am here to request permission for casting the spell. The ideal time is full moon. Specifically, a blood night. There’s one next week. If we miss this, we would have to wait a long time for the next blood night. If I get your permission, we can start looking for the ideal location.”

This was great news. The elders cheered. Even though they said they needed to discuss, and asked Krom to step out, the decision was clearly made. And that was proven a half hour later, when Krom was called back in. And the permission was given.

“Any other requests?” An elder asked.

“My team would be sufficient for security. I will bring good news to the council.”

-

On the witches’ side, it was easier. Primarily because Eustace was an elder witch herself. And Emerald was a princess, in line to inherit the crown. Also, witches were clearer about ancient texts and rites.

Eustace reported the progress. And the plan. The rest of the elder witches agreed with her. Her majesty, the queen witch, herself agreed with Eustace’s plan. And that was the green signal.

-

A day later, Eustace invited Krom and his team to the blue castle.

That was a strange name, considering the fact that neither was the castle nor was anything else in the neighbourhood blue. The castle was built in a clearing in the middle of woods. A clearing that was naturally formed, and still a perfect circle. The castle was slightly off of the centre. As was the lake. The lake wasn’t wide. But deceptively deep. The surface was green in the day and a steely black in the night. Never blue. And always calm. However hard the wind blew, never could make a ripple in the lake. The clearing itself was quiet as any clearing in the woods would be.

The castle was built over a hundred years ago. And it was still in pristine condition. Such was the enchantment spell cast upon it. After all, the castle was inherited by the princess in line of succession. Currently, it belonged to Emerald. Which was one reason it made for an ideal location. There would be no uninvited guests. Only intruders.

“We should lay the spells with the castle at the centre,” Eustace said.

They were on the balcony of the room that would be Eustace’s while they were here. The balcony looked out to the woods in the direction they had drove in along. The lake was to the right. Far beyond the trees, hidden away, were the streets of the day. They were sufficiently far away.

“My team will watch the woods,” Krom said. “You take care of the clearing. We, you and I, will personally guard the castle.”

“Agreed,” Eustace said.

And so, it began.