Aquitain had watchedeverything and was watching now. He saw her hesitate. ‘What’swrong?’
She was surprised tohear his voice at first, then remembered that even though the CatMother possessed him he could somehow see what was happening.
‘I can’t remember theopening sequence,’ she said. ‘Is that bad?’
‘Yes. It might be. Thesymbols around the urn were protective and were probably designedto harm anyone not authorized to open the urn.’
‘Now do as I tell you,’he said. ‘Look at the urn carefully then imagine that I’m lookingat it. Good now, rotate it a quarter the way and look at itcarefully and imagine I’m seeing it. Good now do the same for thenext two quarters.’ Miranda did this and waited.
‘There are eightsymbols. That is good. Four of the symbols represent the four windsand the other four represent the four elements. I’ve got it. Atleast I think I have,’ and he sent her an image of a symbol. ‘Thisis the symbol of the north wind, rotate the urn until it facesnorth.’
‘I’m not sure which isnorth,’ she said, a little scared. ‘We’re inside the shrine - Ican’t see the sun.’
‘Don’t panic Miranda.Think of us walking through the village, then up the path, thenseeing the entrance to the shrine. Which way did the entranceface?’
‘East of course, tocatch the morning sun.’ And she rotated the urn so that the northwind faced to the north.
‘What’s next?’
‘Well, you have tostand opposite each of the symbols of the elements and tap the lid.This is the tricky bit. I think the sequence will be stone, fire,water and air. Is there something else you should do before youopen it?’
Miranda thought for afew moments, trying to visualise what she had seen three years ago.Yes she remembered. The shaman had sprinkled water on the ashes tobless them. She looked around the room for a water barrel, andseeing one she went to it, filled a clay cup that had lain near itwith water, and brought it back to the Mother of Cats.
‘Would you bless thiswater please, Cat Mother?’
Jacintra nodded and thewater turned golden for a moment. Miranda returned to the ashes andexcitedly sprinkled water over them, telling them that that theirlord blessed them; then she asked Aquitain to show her the shape ofeach of the four elements. She moved around the urn to face eachsymbol and tapped the lid with her finger. As nothing bad happened,she took hold of the knob on the top of the lid and lifted it off.It worked! She remembered the rest of the ritual now.
She took a handful ofashes out of the urn and sprinkled them over the new pile of ashes,then took a handful of the new ashes and sprinkled them in the urnand mixed them together with her hand.
‘Our spirits are theessence of air, Our bodies are the essence of water, Our lives arethe essence of fire, but in the end we return to the essence stonefrom whence we came. Your Lord awaits! Hasten and don’t look back,for a new future lies before you. So sayeth the Lady.’
The ashes in the urnturned pure black and burst into a cold fire, and the spirits ofthe dead in the room turned to a mist which was sucked into theurn.
‘Well done Miranda,servant of the Lady! From this day forth you are a friend of thecats and you may take cat form at will. Use it wisely. The fate ofyour friend is not mine to decide. I shall return him unharmed. Irepay him for the loan of his body with the loan of mine. He toomay take cat form at will. There is a treasure hidden within thesewalls that may help his cause, however I must warn you that dangerthreatens.’
The spirit of the CatMother flowed out of Aquitain’s body like a mist and disappearedinto the black of the ashes in the urn. The claw shaped amuletaround the Cat Mother’s neck reshaped to Aquitain’s ball of chaosmatter and fell to the ground. The magic symbols on the urndisappeared, the ashes regained their normal appearance and a smallwhirlwind lifted them out of the urn, carrying them out of theshrine and scattering them over the ground. Aquitain changed formto his newman shape and excitedly raced over and hugged Miranda,and danced around with her.
‘You did it! Youactually did it! You were amazing! I’m so very proud of you, catlady. Maybe now that bitch cat will stop pissing on our hideouthatch.’
Miranda was thrilled!Her heart pounded, and she was more excited than she could everremember. Her spirit wanted to take flight. What was it about thiswizard? He scared her at moments, but at other times he made herfeel more alive than she had ever felt. She smiled and hugged himback. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you. How did you work outthe ritual to open the urn? I can’t believe a wizard could do that.That was truly amazing.’
‘It wasn’t thatdifficult. It followed the sequence of the creation myth taught bythe religions in Panmagica. In the beginning the gods created theworlds of stone to represent stability and law but it was lifeless,so in the passion of their anger they created fire, the opposite ofstability, and mixed it with rock to form water; from the waterthey formed the bodies of all the trees and plants and animals. Butthese still had no passion, so in their anger they mixed the fireand the water to form air, and from the air they formed the spiritsof the newmans and instilled them in the bodies of water so thatthey would have true passion. But they found these newmans wereunruly and ignored the gods, so they created the
