Chương 65: Chapter 64 - Coven Consternation

At twelve winters, when boys are barely men, Bjorn was called by Stigandr the Drowned - black-eyed raider of the western isles. A thrall's son? A ghost's get? And yet, the drowned man saw promise. Though Bjorn knew no runes, held no staff nor spell-bound charm, he took the offer, grasped it like a hungry wolf to a bone. The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 9 Erik woke up with a smile.

The warm memory of Alex's chaste kiss on his cheek at the end of the date had kept him up half the night, and continued with him into the next morning. The rest of what they talked about filtered through, and his smile vanished. No rest for the wicked, indeed. Erik had letters to write. Erik had a lot of letters to write. It took two more weeks for all the letters to go back and forth, and for tentative arrangements to be made. Now they just needed to get everyone onboard.

Erik sat down at the start of the daily coven meeting, got out his rituals homework - on covens, Paracelsus knew exactly what all of his students were up to - and waited for the right moment to bring up the topic.

"... Brown's sick again." Vivian fretted.

"She was telling me not to worry, but I knew something looked wrong with her. Sweating and fanning herself all week. I offered to make her some tea, but De Lys tried to murder me with her eyes. I want to go visit her later, and…" Erik blinked at what Vivian was saying. That timing was… interesting. He reached into his satchel, brushed his fingers over his violin, and pulled out a reference book. That was very interesting timing. But it wasn't Erik's place to say anything.

For all he knew, Moon or someone else would be listening in. Bones always seemed to know everything. And, as much as he liked Vivian, he had no faith in the girl's ability to keep a secret. The conversation meandered, some homework got done - Erik needed to bop Sora for trying to copy off Felix - and finally, a perfect moment came in Vivian's gossip of who was up to what. How the girl managed to know everything that was going on, Erik wasn't going to question. He was just going to enjoy.

"... and the next time, of course, is the autumn break. Unless you get special dispensation to go home earlier." Vivian said. Erik seized the moment with two hands.

"Speaking of the autumn break, I have something I want to propose to everyone." He said.

"Oh! Oh! Is this the part where we invite Felix and Hazel over? We're doing a human sacrifice this year, right?" Sora said. Erik smashed his head into the table.

"You absolute broombrain." He mutter-swore at Sora.

"Could you phrase it any worse?" Sora's grin was utterly unrepentant.

"Nope! I spent good, hard hours thinking of the absolute worst way to say that." Alex reached over and flicked Sora's ear.

"That was not why I filled you in ahead of time!" Alex hissed.

"Okay… I'm going to give the three of you five minutes to explain, in good terms, what, exactly, is going on, before I walk outta here." Felix said.

"I like you all, you're my friends, but there are some lines. Hazel, why don't you stay as well?" The girl froze, already halfway out the door.

"I've seen enough bodies already." She muttered, and started to slip out.

"You won't see any bodies!" Erik shouted. He heard her footsteps pause, and she slowly pattered her way back in.

"What he said." She jerked her chin to Felix.

"Park." Erik said.

"Oh no. Don't make me fly laps. Anything but flying laps. That's the worst punishment I can think of." Sora's voice was flat, monotone, and not fooling anyone. Even Hazel chuckled weakly at the joke, and Erik could sense the tension ratcheting down.

"Your punishment…" Erik paused dramatically, knowing that he was dancing on the knife's edge. Actually punishing Sora would fuck up their dynamic and the coven's dynamic. But going 'too easy' would also… huh, was there a problem there? Either way, humor was the key.

"Is to not fly laps. Like you asked for." Sora squawked, and there was some chuckling. Excellent. Problem diffused.

"Alright. Human sacrifice 101, since somebody decided to try and cause trouble." Erik tried not to be offended at Felix gathering his supplies, getting ready to bolt. Hazel was hovering, with literally one foot out the door.

"The first and most important thing to note is that the 'victim' is willing." Erik said. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"What." Felix said.

"Yeah. It's usually someone who's lived in the community their whole life, and is quite old. We do one a year, and it's considered a great honor to get to contribute. We're going to learn more later in the year; I can't quite condense a lifetime of experience into three minutes. But basically, growing up, the annual sacrifice is a 'scapegoat'. Everyone's injuries, illnesses, bad luck - everything gets transferred to the sacrifice, before the death of life.

The autumn equinox marks the end of summer, the end of light, the end of life, and the start of the long, cold dark, where death reigns supreme. It's the first part of the cycle, where we 'die', and the earth goes dormant, only for life to spring forth anew in the spring when life comes from death. No sacrificing then!"

"So people spend their entire lives passing all their ills off to the elderly, and when they reach that age themselves, they get to take on the community's problems themselves before passing away." Hazel said.

"Exactly!" Erik said.

"Allergies and broken bones are the easiest to understand. More conceptual problems can also get passed along. They're people at the end of their lifespan. They know they're going to die soon. Alone at home, with their body to be found by a loved one? Or allowed to go out on their own terms, helping their neighbors? They know everyone there. They helped everyone grow up. They attended their weddings. They want what's best for everyone, and sometimes, that can be done with their life.

Wixen lay down their lives for their friends all the time in battles, why is it different to lay down their life for all their friends in a peaceful setting?" Felix was unpacking his stuff.

"No bodies?" Hazel prompted.

"Sora is a broombrain, and forgot the critical part of we want to do our own ritual then and won't be seeing the main one!"

"Oh." Hazel said, slowly sliding back in. Erik had a sudden thought - she was like a stray cat. Wanted some affection, now and then, on her terms, and was scared off by anything. Hopefully she wasn't reading that thought. If she did pluck it out of his mind, hopefully she wouldn't be offended. Practicing his mental shields once again rose in prominence on his list.

"Now that Sora's completely punted the pitch, let me try again. HI! I'm Erik. Alexandria and I were talking the other day about covens, and I think we managed to find a good ritual and timing for it. I wanted to run it by everyone else. A coven focused around vengeance would be ideally formed on the autumn equinox. Here, I ran the initial idea past Paracelsus, and he validated it." Erik pulled out the paper and passed it to Felix. Vivian leaned over Alexandria to read it.

Hazel looked absolutely torn, and Erik had some good ideas what her problem was. Her eyes darted all around, and Erik focused on a set of thoughts as hard as he could, making it easy for her to pick the thought out of his mind. Yes, we'll help you obtain justice, even if you're not magically part of the coven. Trying to keep the rest of his thoughts hidden was harder, and would be far more incriminating. Yes, he liked Hazel, wanted to be her friend, and wanted her to hang out.

But he also knew that, should she slowly be able to come to terms with her past, she'd be quite powerful. That wasn't why he was doing it, but he had thought about it. Erik hated being a Morsin at times. At the same time, if he wasn't a Morsin, he wouldn't have met all his friends. Thank you. The thought was sudden and intrusive, and Erik recognized Hazel's work. He still hadn't told everyone else about her. It wasn't his secret to tell, like Brown's secret wasn't his to tell.

But if you did want to join, we could try to find someone else to make us seven. Erik said. There was no reply, and he fervently prayed he wouldn't need to pull one of his friends or retainers in at the last second to make seven. Or rework the entire ritual the day before they performed it. He had a few contingencies, but…

"This would mean missing the autumn break." Felix said. Erik pulled a face.

"Unfortunately, yes. It's part of why the break is there! Lots of people want to run rituals on the equinoxes and the solstices, and the school calendar is scheduled around it. Two weeks for everyone to go home, prepare, do their rituals, then come back. I know you want to go back home, but this would be super important for us." Erik said. Felix still didn't look convinced.

"We'd be a lot more powerful with a directed ritual, and a binding purpose for the five of us." Alexandria whisper-hissed. Oddly, that seemed to persuade Felix.

"Alright." He said.

"Although… what if I went home first, then swung by for the rituals? Like, I can get to your place from Avalon, right? Just need to walk through the woods for seven hours?" Everyone tried to shout Felix down at the same time. Eventually, some vague semblance of order was restored when Felix kept shouting. Not exactly amazing diplomacy, but in a room filled with young teenagers, it was the best they were going to get.

"Okay! Okay! I get it! It's dangerous to go alone!" Felix shouted.

"However… I do think we might be able to work something out." Erik said. Felix shook his head.

"No, it's fine. I'll just call… that won't work, will it? I'll just write my mom a letter." Felix said. Vivian gasped.

"You haven't been writing letters to your parents this whole time? No. No no no. We are fixing that right now. Your mom's worried about you!"

"But homework-"" No. You are writing a letter to your mother, and that's final. Haz-" Vivian said, only to be interrupted by Erik.

"Don't." His sharp words cut across her.

"Just don't." But Hazel was already out the door.

"By Odin's blind eye." Erik swore. He stood up and closed the door, then turned on the other four.

"Whatever you do, don't poke or ask Hazel about her family situation. I've got no idea myself, I just know it's awful. It's an extremely sensitive topic, whatever the details, just… don't bring it up. Actually… Vivian, I'm pretty sure you're the only one with two parents who are alive and there's unconditional love between the three of you. If you don't know exactly what someone's situation is, just - no, don't go running after Hazel now!" Erik just needed to keep himself planted in front of the door.

"But-" Vivian protested, trying to squeeze past Erik.

"Leave it." Alexandria whispered.

"Humph." Vivian pouted and went back to her seat. She pointed at Felix.

"Be grateful for the parent you do have! Send. Her. A. Letter."

"I will, I will, geeze." Felix said.

"Since we've got a time, a date, and a ritual, do we want to start practicing it?" He said.

"We can go over all the chants now, maybe sketch out the circle."

"This isn't a poop ritual, is it?" Sora asked.

"I swore I'd never be in a poop coven. Because I like you, bossman, but not that much." Basically everyone gaped at Sora, except Erik, who had a familiar-feeling headache coming on.

"Broombrain…" He said, at a loss for words.

"What?" She asked.

"I could totally see us 'mulching our enemies' and 'making something useful out of their bodies' and other such chants going on. That directly ties to the cycle of life and death, the cycles of nature, and poop covens. I'm just checking here that I don't need to veto anything." Erik rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"How you manage to both be so smart and so dumb at the same time I'll never know." He said.

"This sounds suspiciously like the answer is 'yes, remember to catch your leavings at the next new moon'. Bossman. I need a yes or no answer." Sora crossed her arms, and started to tap her foot on the floor.

"If you would just read the ritual that's right there, you'd have your answer!" Erik half-exploded.

"Oh. Oh! Right! Yeah, I can do that." Sora said, leaning over the ritual Felix was studying.

"Wind, water, air, earth, blood, with optional sun and moon. Boss, earth isn't code for…?" Erik sighed deeply, and looked around for support. Vivian and Alex were giggling at him, the traitors, and Felix was too absorbed by reading the actual text of the ritual to notice what was going on." No, Sora, we're not involving any bodily fluids in this one. I don't want to hear anything about water."

"But there's blood here. That's a bodily element. I mean, fluid." Erik leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

"Odin, give me strength." He prayed. Vivian and Alexandria fell out of their chairs laughing.

"Hang on." Felix said, his eyebrows scrunched as he read over the ritual.

"Soil of one's hearth - I have to go home to get some." He hummed thoughtfully, and Erik was torn. He didn't know if he wanted Felix to find errors or improvements to the ritual or not. Like, it'd be better if he was able to improve it, but it also meant one of their basic rituals wasn't the best it could be. Granted, it was a vengeance coven, which wasn't super common, but it was the principal of the thing.

Also, if a first year student with only a few months of training in rituals could spot problems, then they had problems. Erik closed his eyes, and took a moment to curse himself for not double checking everything. Then he started planning.