“In like fashion, may male join with female for the happiness of all. Let this union promote life. May all our endeavors bear fruit, and may wealth and knowledge spread throughout all lands.” He raised the dagger high overhead, then placed it on the altar.
The woman offered the goblet to him. He took it with a bow, sipped, and handed it back. The supplicant drank as well, then turned and brought the goblet to each in the circle, one by one until, at last, it reached me. I brought the goblet to my lips and drank. A good vintage, though I tasted something unusual. A kind of subtle spice, not unpleasant, just out of place. The supplicant brought the goblet to Elaine next, and once she’d drank, on to Jones.
Once all present had partaken, the woman returned to Mathers, who drank once more, then set it on the altar. With a gregarious smile, he threw his hands wide. “Now, let us do that for which we gathered.” Mathers’s voice exploded above the crowd like fireworks.
I blinked.
Something changed, but I didn’t know what.
I glanced at Elaine and found her looking my way. She noticed it as well.
Curious.
Jones took us each by the arm and guided us forward. “These aspirants seek entrance,” he said when we stood before Mathers.
“Have they shown their worth?” Mathers asked, his head high, and manner regal.
“Yes.”
“Then approach the altar,” Mathers commanded.
Jones made us step forward, then pushed us into a kneeling position. I didn’t much care to sit on my knees with an unknown magician in the room, but I resolved to play along. For now.
“You who stand upon the threshold of this hall, know that to enter herein means to undergo certain change. Do you still possess the will to enter?” Mathers’s words crackled through the air.
What the hell? I thought as the echo faded.
“Yes,” I said aloud in unison with Elaine.
“Inheritors of a dying world, why seekest thou to enter our sacred hall?” Mathers’s eyes glowed as if the sun shone in them, though I still saw no magic.
I blinked, and the glow dissipated.
“I seek the light of hidden knowledge and to find that light among your ranks.” Elaine’s voice snapped me out of my reverie, and I repeated her words.
“So be it. I bestow upon thee my blessing.” Mathers clapped his hands. The sound reverberated through the chamber, and I jumped despite myself. “Consecrate them!”
Two of the Order approached. One carried a pitcher of water, the other a small censer, though I’d no clue from where they’d produced them. The water bearer reached Elaine first and held the pitcher over her head and poured a trickle over her. “With water, I consecrate thee. May your old life and old ways wash away,” she said, her voice decidedly feminine.
Suddenly, as if Elaine stood beneath a great waterfall, water engulfed her. It sluiced over her, leaving her brighter and more vibrant than before.
Yet, still, I saw no magic.
Mathers put something in the wine to alter your perceptions, Vex said, making me jump. I’d forgotten about him. Mescaline, I believe.
That explained the strange taste. Few knew of peyote outside of the United States and Mexico, and fewer still knew of its purer form, mescaline. The drug set the mind and eyes at war with each other. No wonder the others thought Mathers so powerful. Unfortunately for him, I had more than my fair share of experience with such drugs, both in recreation and in ritual. For now, I remained convinced that only one other person in this temple possessed real power; whoever closed the circle. I felt nothing now, but I knew they simply bided their time. Otherwise, why close the circle?
I needed my wits about me when they moved again, so I closed my eyes and turned my magic inward, seeking the drug within my veins. Seeding my will into it, I isolated it, and with a thought, burned it from my blood. My vision cleared as the hooded woman stepped in front of me. She held her pitcher above my head and said once more, “With water, I consecrate thee. May your old life and old ways wash away.”
I closed my eyes as the water dribbled over me. No waterfall this time, however, the sudden shock of cold annoyance helped ground me as the aftereffects of the drug left me a bit unstable.
Her task done, the water-bearing woman reclaimed her place in the circle.
Another of the gathered approached, a man this time, holding a censer. They lit a match on its rough side and placed it inside. Redolent smoke poured forth from within.
“With fire, I consecrate thee. May these flames burn strong within your heart,” the fire bearer said, a male voice this time. He brought the censer close to Elaine’s face, and she breathed deeply, her eyes fluttering closed. She still rode her high, and I wondered what she saw.
Do you see that, Aleister? Vex asked.
I blinked. The drug no longer affects me, so no.
Not that. Magic, Vex said, irritated.
I focused, but I still saw no other magic in the room. I don’t see anything.
Concentrate.
I did as Vex asked. Everything fell away, and the thinnest sliver of power swam into view. Thin as a spider’s silk, a red string wove through the room, connecting each person to every other. Except for me.
I encircled a tendril of the spell with my power, careful not to touch it lest its creator sense me. What is it?
The Crimson Thread of Fate. An incredibly difficult spell to cast and maintain.
I furrowed my brow at that. I knew of the spell, though it fell out of fashion centuries ago. The original working bound two souls together and in ages past, magi bound themselves in marriage with the spell. But this was more than a simple marital
