Circles and Changes
WHO: Elaine, Harry, Thomas WHAT: A healing ritual, a metaphysical battle, a new beginning WHEN: Thursday morning WHERE: Harry & Elaine's WARNINGS: magic, fire, suspenseful situations
Elaine knelt as they mapped out the circle, laying out the elements that would encompass it, smiling as she worked. There was a subtle weight in her pocket, the thought of which lent a lightness to her heart, and her eyes danced as she looked over at Harry. She wondered if he had guessed her intentions yet, or if they had been sufficiently busy that his mind had remained focused on other things.
“Could you come over here for a minute?” she asked, gesturing toward the center of the circle. “I need a hand with something.”
Harry had glanced over at her, a curve of his lips. He suspected something merry was afoot, but he had no clue what, yet. Her words called him with a certainty, however, and he gave one more stroke to the glyphs he had laid, before turning to her and striding to her side, walking counterclockwise on the circle, to keep it from even thinking about activating.
“Yes, dear?”
She smiled as she rose to one knee, taking a deep breath as she reached into her pocket and closed her hand around the ring of wood and stone. Reaching for Harry’s left hand, she looked up at him; still searching for the right words.
“We’ve spoken a great deal of the meaning behind these circles, and the significance of this time of year,” she said, “So with that in mind, I have had another circle made. One that, I hope, encompasses all of this and more.”
She drew the ring from her pocket, and presented it to him with an open hand. “I’m ready, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Will you marry me?”
Harry smiled wider as she proposed, and spoke and made him smile wider as he saw the ring, and he sank to one knee and kissed her. “I do so choose. I love you. I will Marry you, Elaine Mallory. Yes.” Three times he agreed, and he grinned as he kissed her again. “I will be honored to be your husband.” He felt a surge of love fill him, and he hugged her close.
She placed the ring on his finger, and kissed him a third time, feeling that love seep into the air; filling the space; permeating the walls and the floor. It was one of those moments, those acts that left a tangible charge in the atmosphere, and she smiled, caressing Harry's face. "I love you, so much."
He hugged her and then groped her ass. “I love you and lust for you and respect you, more than any person alive, I know. And you make me so happy. I’d walk by your side down any path and to anywhere, and I am very proud to walk down an aisle with you.” He grinned wider.
“And I, you,” she said, giving him a playful smack. “But in the meantime...we should finish up.”
Harry laughed. “Good idea.”
* * *
It was only an hour later, as Harry paced the circle, three times, then three more, and then a final three. Three times three times, for heart, and soul, and body. Three times three times, for brother, lover, and father. Three times three times, for truth, hope, and love.
And he spoke the chants as he walked, pacing, his path curling with each turn until he stopped. And he breathed. “It’s ready. As ready as I can make it. The next part is yours.” He nodded to Elaine as he stepped into the circle, taking up his rod and staff, and grounding them in the place appointed.
It was the day of the working, and they were making the last preparations, the beginning of the end of this phase of Thomas’s life, if all went well...
The solstice was coming. Elaine was in the height of her power. She had spent three days cleansing and preparing herself; meditating, praying, resting, and reflecting. Taking in all the positive, nurturing energy that she could hold; letting go of fear.
She was as ready as she could make herself, and she nodded; running the links of her enchanted chain through her fingers like beads on a rosary, feeling the weight of it in her palm. There were very real risks involved in what they were about to do, and likely there would be real sacrifices. But fear was a choice, as were faith, hope, and love. And fear was of no use to her in this. She chose the greater Three.
“Now.” With a loving look, and a warm smile, Harry nodded to her and lifted his staff, inhaling the thrum of life and light as he called on the magic around them and within them, and his will tumbled forth, aimed by sight and words. “Ventas reductas, janua.” Open now, door, by air and will. And the door opened, revealing the room Thomas waited in.
“Enter, Thomas Raith, and leave behind fear. Choose hope, choose life, and leave behind death.” Then he grinned and beckoned his brother in. “Come on. Three circles, no waiting.” He was never any good at solemn ceremonies anyway and he had to be himself today if this was to work.
Thomas stood in the doorway--at the threshold, if you will--his eyes closed in meditation as he listened for the summons. He had bathed to symbolically cleanse himself, using essential oils that Elaine had prepared for the occasion, and he was dressed not in white--which he associated with the White Court--but in brand new, indigo denim, and a silk shirt that reminded him of Neena’s blue-violet eyes. The colors of his future, and the life to which he aspired.
He had been reciting a certain chapter of the Bible, from the book of Corinthians, which had been branded into his memory through the dreams, meditating on it as he waited, and now the closing words of the passage flowed from his lips in invocation as he entered the circle.
“‘...For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.’”
Harry’s staff stuck the floor, and sparks slid around the circle, shivering, then dying down. “There is yet hope in the world. Now get your ass in here before we all freeze and Neena shoots me.” Cool air flowed through the room, pumped up, to help set the stage. It would warm as the ceremony began.
Thomas stepped into the circle, following the instructions that he had been given. He pushed aside all thoughts of anything beyond what was about to happen in this room, before these witnesses. He was as ready as he could be.
Harry stepped into the circles as well, and opposite Thomas, then glanced at Elaine and nodded. “So mote it be. Let it begin.” The words, ceremonial, rolled with the sound of thunder, and fire, and Harry intoned three words and the air itself warmed and shivered with sparkles.
Elaine took her appointed place, and with a flick of her wrist, she drew upon the energy crackling in the air to close the circle. Even as Harry spoke, she was gathering strands of magic from all around them, readying herself to weave it all together to dress Thomas’ spiritual wounds.
Harry raised the ring that Elaine had given him for this purpose, gripped in his hand, and slipped it on. All his magic coiled around him as he looked at Thomas, eyes sliding away from his, not quite ready for that. “And now... memory.” And the ring flared as he activated it, the memory of his and Elaine’s coupling flaring high in him. A spell prepared beforehand kept the love of it hidden, but the lust and pleasure flared high.
Thomas watched Harry’s hands. Elaine’s silver ring only looked big enough for Harry’s pinky, if that, but the thought was gone as quickly as it surfaced; replaced by the sense memory of a woman straddling a lover’s lap, the taste of tasting salty skin, and riding high on the power between her thighs. Yes, her thighs.
Thomas licked his lips as The Hunger slid its eyes toward Elaine, lovely as midsummer itself in a Bohemian sundress of mossy green. Her eyes were the color of a stormy summer sky, but they were focused Elsewhere, and would not Look at the Hunger, nor its host.
Harry increased the power shimmering in the ring, projecting his and her pleasure and lust from closer by, from a target the Hunger could find. And then he spoke softly. “Thomas. Look in my eyes.” And he locked eyes with Thomas, then, and his power flowed forward as his soulgaze locked in.
...he was a man needing to help others, a man who walked the darkness...
.. he was a flawed man who got joy out of beating bad guys and defeating fat cats...
...he feared he would not be a good father, but loved his new daughter and his new fiance very much...
..he loved his brother too, deep down somewhere deep, but that blurred for the moment...
he was a lawyer, and a man, and a father and a lover, and more and less and he threw it all at Thomas then!...
The Hunger sought Elaine’s lover, found him eager and willing. Thomas heard his brother’s voice, and raised his eyes, feeling a pull that had nothing to do with sex. He still held the demon by the neck though he felt almost inextricably entangled by it, like some parasitic twin, and the two creatures looked out from Thomas’ body as one.
In Thomas’ mind, there was a magic mirror, a gateway into another world from which the monster was trying to escape. Thomas sat with his sleeves rolled up, elbow resting on the edge of the mirror like a windowsill, arm-wrestling his inner demon; feet braced against the wall to keep from being pulled through to the monster’s side even as he kept himself between it and all those whom he loved--his brother and Elaine; Corazon, whose heart burned as brightly as Eärendil’s star; Neena, and the tiny seed of hope not yet fully realized.
In his free hand was a length of rope; smooth as silk to the touch, and shining silver with its own light, stronger than the eerie glow of the demon’s eyes. At the end of that rope there was a noose, and while the demon was distracted, trying to gain the upper hand, Thomas flicked the noose around its neck and tossed the end to Harry...
Soul-Harry snatched that noose and yanked, pouring power into his effort, soulfire flaring and rising the instant it was free of Thomas, cutting it off from Thomas, leaving only one way it could go; toward Harry...
And the instant it was far enough, Harry slammed the staff down with a force that rocked the chamber, and fire blazed around the circles, chased by soulfire, three in turn, bound by three, trapping the Hunger away from Thomas as Harry snarled at it and channelled force and power against it...
.. he was a wizard and he would defend and he would help and he would go to war...
Elaine felt the atmosphere change when Harry pulled that ancient spirit of avarice from Thomas’ body, but her eyes were on Thomas now. She heard his scream, and drew a breath; exhaled, and channeled healing energy into his circle--pouring it into the space around him as both a shield and a salve. She caught his eyes, held them, and her power flared, taking them to back to that quintessential plane where she could direct that energy where it was truly needed.
Harry, felt her energy flow, far off, and smiled, and love flared along the soulfire as he stepped forward and his staff lashed out against the Hunger, love and soulfire lashing out not to hurt but to absorb. For hunger, hate, avarice could never be defeated by hate and violence. Only love.
And Harry breathed out all his fear and anger, his pain and misgivings, and opened up and accepted the Hunger, soulfire filled with love embracing it, and for a moment there was a brilliant light, a feeling of something more solid, more intense, more powerful, there. For a moment, there was almost a smile... and then...
...the Hunger was gone...
Thomas felt a deep, cleansing pain as Elaine reached into his soul. He felt intense relief wash over him as he fell away from her gaze just in time to see--or perhaps he only sensed--the Hunger dissolve. He felt tears on his cheeks as love knit him back together, and joy lent him strength. It seemed to him as if he saw the world through new eyes; the flames that encompassed him dancing with colors that he had never even imagined, the glyphs dancing with magic, the circle singing with power. He could almost taste it, like apple blossoms, new grass, and the air after a spring rain.
It was so beautiful that it hurt--and Thomas closed his eyes, dropping to one knee and pressing a hand to the floor as he tried to ground himself.
Harry gently lay his staff down and with one word and an effort of will, let the circle fade. He moved to Elaine and joined a hand to hers, love in his heart and eyes and tired. Very tired. Then he reached out a hand to Thomas. “Welcome home, brother. Welcome home.” And he smiled as he felt hope and love fill him as well. They’d done it!
He kissed Elaine and grinned. “I love you.”
Elaine took Harry’s hand, and reached out for Thomas with the other, helping Harry pull their brother to his feet. She kissed Harry, and embraced them both, feeling warm, safe, and secure in the circle of their arms. She was tired, too, but it was the best kind of tired.
“I love you, Harry,” she said. “And you...” She gave Thomas a smirk. “I think you have places to be.”
“I love you too, Elaine.” Harry hugged them both and smiled. “Neena will be waiting in the outer room. And go, brother. Walk in love, and sex, and fun.” And he grinned.
Thomas held up his hand, fingers parted down the middle in the Vulcan greeting. He wasn’t quite sure that he trusted himself to speak, but really, what more did he need to say?