July 13, 2011
And it's something quite peculiar
Something Shimmering and white
Leads you here, despite your destination
Under the Milky Way tonight
The Church…Under the Milky Way Tonight
Aolani, Fairy and Renee and Body Guard and I were busy in the parlor. I don’t know if the NY public library or the Library of Congress had the books we had, but we had an array before us. We were trying to understand the spell Marnie used on Eric. If we could understand the basic components, perhaps we would understand the reasons Eric simply was not Eric anymore.
I personally did not know was worse, having to deal with an inept necromancer who may have conjured an old and vengeful ghost of a witch, or dealing with a rabid werepanther. I shuttered at the thought of what happened to Jason. Poor fellah. You never think you would see an exception to the rule about ‘raping the willing’ but there it was. Can anyone say traumatic? I know you can.
But back to Eric’s dilemma. Having our fearless leader noncompos mentum was a true dilemma indeed. We were at the big table, going through the books, turning pages and scribbling on pads of paper and the hum of Aolani’s lap top was a familiar sound in the parlor. May as well call it the Vampire Science Reading Room.
“I think I found something,” said Body Guard, looking at a tiny, ancient book and a piece of paper with the partial translation on it. I went and looked over his shoulder. The book was ancient, leather bound and the pages were thin, like the wings of a dragon fly. The gold leaf on the edges were worn by the thumbing fingers of many hands and there were several silk ribbons of different colors in it, all sort of fadey and twisted from use.
“Where did you get that?” I asked, squinting a little at the tiny book and leaning forward a little more.
“Had it in our family for years. We kept it because it was obviously very old,” said Body Guard. He lifted the book up to me and I put my finger on the page Body Guard was looking at and I examined the cover. It was stamped the word Malificaria on the cover and I opened the cover and saw the Imperatur, the stamp that said the material within was free of errors of the Catholic Church. I turned the page. In English there was a stamp, printed in England 1822 and a foreward. It was a prayer book for the Jesuit Order to fight the powers of darkness. Well…What was a witch doing reciting a Jesuit Prayer? I gave the book back to Body Guard.
“The prayer goes back to the 1500’s,” said Body Guard. “So it falls in line with the time of the Inquisition.” There you are, I thought. “So here it is: Now I command and charge you, O evil spirit! that you immediately bring to me all that money, and then depart from the circle, abstaining from all noise, terror, tumult, and stench, and if you refuse I will damn you both in body and soul. And abstain from harming any creature or thing, and depart immediately to the place which God’s justice has appointed for you. Depart from my sight and flee from here. This I command in the name and virtue, potency and power, of the most Holy Trinity, the Father +, and the Son +, and the Holy Spirit +. Behold the cross of the Lord! Fly away to other parts!”
“Yeah, but where did all those Christian bits go when Marnie cast the spell?” asked Renee.
“Well, the source doesn’t matter,” said Aolani. “It’s the intent.”
“Besides, the Church was sort of notorious about the use of magik and hiding the source by using Christian reference. So, what have we got Aolani, would it work?” I asked.
“Well, it looks like a warding spell and a binding spell. ‘And abstain from harming any creature or thing, and depart immediately to the place which God’s justice has appointed for you. Depart from my sight and flee from here.’ And then it looks like a justice spell, not just about God’s Justice but personal gain for the sender of the spell, see, Eric said, let’s make a deal…Marnie said what is in it for me…Eric said there is nothing in it for you except you get to live…You can’t offer to make a deal and then not negotiate the terms with give and take,” said Aolani.
“So Eric was making the Faustian deal? Your soul for temporary comfort, that comfort being I won’t eat you today, but keep pissing me off and I will have you for dinner,” I said.
“Right. And since it would be considered a Faustian deal, a deal with the devil so to speak, the witch that used this specific curse would have heard before,” said Aolani.
“When would she have heard it?” asked Fairy.
“When it was used against her,” said Aolani.
“So how do we lift the curse?” asked Renee.
“We don’t,” I said. “The witch who cast it has to.”
“And that witch may not be Marnie,” said Renee.
“Right,” said Aolani. “But casting a spell is more than the use of words, it is all about intent. That is why we see Eric so altered and the spell said nothing about wiping his memory. This witch has real grudge.”
“So what do we do?” asked Fairy. Seeing Eric was disconcerting. He was sweet, sort of innocent, but creepy too, not in a bad way, just a 13 o’clock sort of way when the world seems to be off center and to the left and light not as brightly lit.
“Well, we might be able to protect Eric but unless we break the spell, we may never get him back,” said Aolani.
“Bill…” I said. “This is bad with him. Do you think he knew what he was doing when he sent Eric to the witches?”
“I doubt it,” said Aolani. “Though I would not put it past him to use it to his advantage.” I nodded. That sucked but it was a simple fact, there was no love lost between Bill Compton and Eric Northman and if he thought, as he always thought in his misguided attempts to protect Sookie he could kill Eric and protect her, he would do it. I didn’t like it, because I like Eric, but there it was. Our boys would never hold hands, take long walks together on the beach, look longingly in one another’s eyes or friend one another on Face your Space or whatever social networks they belonged to…
We sat down and wrote up the main things we thought about the spell/prayer and how we thought it would work. I sat down at the computer and emailed Pam:
Hey Pam,
Worked on that spell…got what we think it is, but boy do we need this witch to do her thing…Be careful dealing with her though. By the way, it isn’t Marnie you have to worry about, but the thing living inside her. SO DO NOT KILL HER!!!!! Keep Marnie alive or we will lose that ghost living in her body… See you at the meeting…Come early if you can…
Aslinn
And she did. She came as soon as the sun was down and she was mad!!!! She was impatient with us and even hissed at Aolani…
“Back the truck up Pam,” she said, nonplussed. Aolani had a foul tempered cat so fangs and spitting didn’t impress her much. Besides we were used to them getting all fangy and snarly. “This is the best we have.”
“But it doesn’t say how to cure him,” she said.
“Well, we can’t cure him,” said Aolani. “Marnie has to.”
“Fuck a zombie!!!” swore Pam. Barrister came over to pat her and she shrugged him away. He went and sat down, a little miffed. Then Jessica came in and we knew Bill was on his way. “Do not say anything to Bill about what you told me.”
“Pam…” said Renee, and then shut up.
Bill came into the room and his spidey senses told him something was going on. He sat down and Violet brought him a Tru:Blood and I went over and kissed him. “Have you discovered anything?” he asked.
“We are collating,” I said. Bill looked at me with strange hooded eyes. He knew me, he knew we were further ahead. He said nothing and looked away..Oh let’s play ‘Who’s mad at Aslinn?”…Bet King Bill would win.
We all sat down, taking our place. I sat next to Barrister and he put his arm around me. Butter and Lina and Linzy and Fairy and Raki and Aolani were there, Violet and Minnie and Body Guard and Renee and Westexan were there. Sugar and Sweet came in but was disappointed when they did not see Alcide.
“So what do we think?” asked Jessica, finally seeing Pam was not going to say anything.
“Well, I think Marnie is playing with shit she has no conception of,” I said. “She is lost in her desire for power and she does not know what she is fucking around with.”
“That thing with the mirror? Was that her?” asked Westexan.
“Yeah,” I said. “People believed mirrors were portals between worlds, the world of the living and dead, man and fae, heaven and hell. So this other witch, she was there, and I think she made the knife turn in Marnie’s hand. See, Marnie thinks she will get this power, but she won’t…This spirit will use her up and discard her. We just have to get to her before she kills this witch and gets away from us.”
“And Jason…is Sookie ever going to realize he is missing and in trouble?” asked Violet.
“Sookie has her head so far up her hind end…” said Fairy. Bill gave Fairy a look because despite everything he did love her and he did not like to hear bad things about her. I shrugged and sat back closer to Barrister. I agreed with Fairy.
“What about that doll Jessica?” asked Minnie.
“I don’t know. What the hell is the deal with that thing? Hoyt dumped it at the dump, I threw it in the lake and it came back..It’s like fucking Chucky!!!” said Jessica.
“The next time it comes back, bring it here,” said Aolani.
“I will,” she said.
“And don’t glamour Hoyt anymore,” said Bill, shaking his finger at her. I got up. I had a private bone to pick with Bill Compton. The other girls might over look the whole thing with Portia, but dammit, she was not dinner and that pissed me off.
I went to the sink and began to wash our few plates.
Bill came over. “Leave me alone,” I said.
“Will you talk to me, I have been trying to talk to you since Sunday,” he said.
“Got nothing to say to you. Watch out Bill Compton, that thing between your legs is gonna get you in a whole world of shit,” I said. “Might even embarrass you.”
“How do you mean?” he asked.
“You heard me your majesty,” I said.
“Where is Eric Northman?” he asked.
“You don’t know?” I asked.
“You know I don’t,” he said.
“Too damned bad,” I said. “Go sit down, you are on my last nerve.” He pulled me around and I looked at him. “You gonna glamour it out of me?” He stepped back and let me go and walked away. I loved Bill, but he was standing on my last fucking nerve. I hoped he got demoted soon. I was sort of pleased and excited but now I wasn’t. All I wanted was for him to be back to the way he was and be plain old Bill and be my southern sweety again. Instead I was arguing with him and it made me mad.
This was because I was not willing to see Bill connive to hurt Eric. Like I said, they were never gonna be besties, but we friends with all of them, even if they didn’t like each other.
“So, are you gonna work with Lafayette?” I heard Butter ask.
“I will work with him so long he gets me my maker back,” said Pam.
“You know, Lafayette can’t do anything, even Hey Soos. Being mad at them does not help your situation,” I said, drying my hands. “Though if you get in arms reach of an unarmed Tara, please help yourself to all you can hold because this girl is getting on my nerves as much as Sookie.” Bill looked at me. “Yes, fucking Snookeh, they both act like you guys ought to just drop everything and take care of her and taste the back of her hand for all the trouble.”
“And why is Alcide with her?” asked Sugar. “Is he really falling for Debbie’s shit?” There was a collective groan. The Vampires got a glazed over disinterested look.
“Well, she’s a bad penny,” said Body Guard. “They always turn up.”
“Is there nothing, absolutely nothing you can do for Jason?” asked Barrister to Bill.
“Not much, and I would if I could,” said Bill. “But maybe I can look into it.”
“Snookeh will appreciate that, I am sure,” I said.
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