Monday Morning Magic

NaNo day (technically) 7 and I'm pretty behind at the moment due to thesis and end-of-thesis celebrations, I simply haven't had much chance to write this weekend. Alas, I plan to dedicate a good deal of today to doing so :) 

I've been reviewing a scene from Angst and Egyptology, because Daphne needs to go back over it in Operation Osiris and I don't want to be too far off what I've already written last year. And I remembered how much I really love this scene because it was the first chance I got to play with a Ouija board: 

I wished that Eric could have been with me later that week when I finally managed to stop crying and numb myself from the pain enough to get my head around what I had to do. I had to contact the gods.

And I was hoping that it was going to work.

I’d thrown myself into the work for the Spring collection and avoided Eric as best I could all week while I’d gathered the few supplies that I’d need.

Standing in the flat then, a little after mid-night, with James beside me and Mim dressed to the nines in leather pants and a black t-shirt, I lit the last of the black candles that I’d collected from around the city. In all there were over fifteen of them, sparkling dimly in a circle on the floor around an Ouija board that had been a bitch to find. It was hardly ritual sacrifice or Wicca, but I figured that it was a start and knowing James as I did indicated that it really might just work.

So, I stepped into the circle of candles, set out the Ouija board with its pointer to the centre and took a deep breath.

“James – you and Mim have to extinguish all the candles and get me away from the board if anything starts to happen, something negative.”

“Con, this whole farce is negative – I am the only spirit in this room and you have nothing to suggest that you can contact the Otherworld through this toy. It is just a joke with which Americans like to scare one another.” The Egyptologist scolded, tapping his pipe against his thigh in total disapproval. “Mim might be immortal but even he might not be able to stop what you could potentially unleash if this does work. You could die, you know – malarkeying around with things you don’t understand is a sure way to be killed. You have heard the adage about curiosity – well this is not your precious Wonderland, con, and you will not wake up if something goes wrong.” James looked at me dead on from outside the circle, face illuminated by orange light. “Don’t do this, con.”

I sucked in a breath, forcing down the fear that had settled in my stomach. “No,” I shook my head. “I need to try, I need to understand if we are going to figure out the deal with Mim, Ye Vanck Amun, and Eric. I need to know, James.” And without pausing to let him reply, I placed two fingers from each hand onto the the pointer and closed my eyes. “Spirits of the other world, hear me now, guide me to the gods of the Egyptian pantheon and hear my plea.”

I had my eyes closed, so I felt it rather than saw the candles flare up higher around me, sway in the cold draft that from out of nowhere raged through the flat.

I felt a weight suddenly on the pointer and my heart started to pound heavily as it began to very slowly move around the board, signalling that someone was on the other end.

Ask us what you will, Earth-Walker.

I opened my eyes to see James against the far wall, trapped by some unseen force, silent like his power of speech had been temporarily removed. Mim had transformed into his cat form and sat alert just outside the circle, his mouth opened to show a hint of feline fangs.

The pointer, when I looked down, was not back in the centre after all; it was over a word. I peered down at it and through the glass of the pointer I saw: hello.

Holy shit, my mind whirled, wondering if it really had worked. I glanced back at the gold and black of the Ouija board, fingers flexing as I made myself stay on the pointer when my instincts were to remove them. I couldn’t risk breaking any connection I’d gotten at the moment.

I’d done my research into this before I’d gone ahead and ordered my board, and I knew what to look for and when to sever the connection but this wasn’t it so I forced myself to keep going. I was playing with fire doing this, and I knew it, and Eric would have been horrified, but it was the only way I could think of to connect the Otherworld.

Besides, it was always something I’d wanted to try back home but neither George, Lacey or any of my friends had been game.

“Are you here?” I asked out loud so that both James and Mim could hear.

The pointer moved to the right. Yes.

“Who am I speaking to at this moment?”

The pointer moved again, this time across the numbers flicked across the alphabet pausing to numbers briefly before moving to the next. I followed with my eyes, putting the word together as quick as I could. W - E – A – R – E – M – A – N – Y.

We are many.

I gulped, knees beginning to tremble although I did my best to ignore them.

“You are many. I greet you and beseech you, and ask your favour. Will you answer me what I need to know?”

Yes.

Ok, Daph, just breathe. You can do this, you need to do this.

“Do you represent the gods of the Underworld; will you carry to them my questions?”

Yes.

Ok, so far so good, and nothing had yet happened to force Mim or James to intervene, or myself to break the connection. I was feeling slightly more relaxed in my ability to control the situation.

“I need to know: Who are the Princes of Bast?”

G-U-A-R-D-I-A-N-S.

“Who are they the guardians of?”

The Ouija boards pointer, I later found out that this was known as a planchette,  began to move once more. N – A – I – L – A – H. Then it stopped and slowly edged back to the centre.

I took a deep breath and just stared at the word the spirits had spelt out for me.

Nailah.

James blinked, breaking out of the spell or  just shook his head, horrified. Frazzled as I rarely saw him. “This is not me doing this, con, I swear. The spirits that you have contacted do indeed stem from the Underworld, I can feel it. They are not on the mortal plain as I am.”

Mim mrowled his agreement, bearing his fangs in the direction of the board, waiting for something to happen, I prayed it wouldn’t. But I had one final question.

“Who sent you to me?”

A-N-U-B-I-S.

“Anubis,” I croaked.

“Yes, con, sometimes they are used to contact Anubis.”