“Oh? Would you?”
Katie rolled her eyes. “Did we just imagine you shaking the whole damn house like popping corn?”
I looked back at Brann. He nodded. “Try again. This time look inside yourself. Find your power. Feel it. Then pull it forward, and let it flow.”
Find your power… I’ll find my cryptic fucking power. I closed my eyes, and placed my hands on the box. My jaw clenched, and my brows furrowed... and…
“What are you doing?” Katie asked.
“What do you think?”
“Honestly... I feel you reaching out with your mind... for a drink.”
I had to laugh, because fucking-A if she wasn’t right! She poured another shot, and passed it over. I fired it down. Felt that good burn...
...Fire. Shit, I wondered, where was little Zippo? Now I really had something to focus on. My good old flame app.
I got a tingly feeling as soon as I ‘called’ for him. As I visualized my little flame, he seemed to be hopping up and down, and almost waving little arm-like extensions at me. Growing brighter, hotter...
“Uh, Keira, are you okay?” But I straight up ignored Katie, honing my focus on drawing little Zippo out. He jumped up in the air of my headspace, and I felt a tingle along my arms. I noticed black but painless flames engulfing my arms. It tingled, but the flames felt very much like a part of me.
“The hell?! Your eyes, they’re glowing blue!” Keegan blurted out, eternally unable to keep his mouth shut.
I put my hands closer to the box. The flames focused in a sort of beam, searing a symbol into the box. I recognized it; the three conjoined swirls on the Morrigan’s necklace. A piece of new knowledge trickled from somewhere sealed in my mind. It’s called a Triskelion. More than that, however, an incantation sprang from my lips, as though it was waiting at the door this whole time.
Goddess Morrigan light my way, and guide me on this very day. These hands in which I bear dark flame and that which is mine I now shall claim. Your magic lies within my soul so release the seal and make me whole.
A sudden flash of light preceded a thunderous cracking noise. When the spots cleared, I saw a horizontal gap had formed in the box.
“Hoooooly shit,” I gasped, staring at the box.
“That was fucking awesome!” Katie held her hand up for a distance high five. “Wi-Fi, send!” and I returned the wi-fi sent high five.
“How’s that for looking within?” I said to Brann, as I dropped the metaphoric microphone. “Boom!”
Feeling the Magic
- Keira -
A whole shitload of doubts and fear had burned away in that moment when I felt that power course through me. It felt like suddenly a warrior broke free inside me. I felt fearless, unstoppable, courageous. It demanded me to be all of that, and display these with humor and grace.
I could almost hear the box silently saying ‘open me’! I just hoped I wasn’t getting into a repeat of Pandora’s box. I really didn’t want to accidentally unleash the apocalypse into the world. I slowly lifted the lid off...
Inside the black velvet lined box, we all saw a small silver case, a letter, and a black leather book. I reached inside, gently running my finger over the book. It hummed with a pulse of energy. Carefully, I took it out and set it on the table. It was bound in rich black leather, dry with age, and smelled of dust and juniper berries. I opened the cover, revealing a name written in faded black ink: ‘Morrigan’.
“What is it?” I asked, as I thumbed through the pages, watching words appear and disappear as my eyes flitted across the pages.
Keegan stood up and walked around the table and placed his hands on the back of my chair. As he peered over my shoulder, he asked Brann, “Is this what we’ve been looking for?”
“Yes,” Brann said. “It’s the Morrigan family grimoire.”
“Grimoire?” I asked. “Like an unholy bible?” They all gave me an incredulous look. “What? I’m new to all this. Cut me some slack.”
“Think of it as a Magical Instruction Manual,” Brann said, almost reverently.
“The User’s Guide,” Katie added. “Tailored to your bloodline.”
“Also a kind of history of events that have befallen your family.” Brann flipped pages, slowly taking in words. “It may explain why we were attacked the other night.”
I paused and backed up my chair. “What do you mean attacked? You never mentioned any attack.” Are they keeping more secrets?
Orin looked away, and Weylyn coughed, both looking very guilty. Keegan eyes flickered to Brann. “We were getting to all that, love.” Then the Leprechaun launched into his story about the creepy Slaugh who drugged me at the bar, that part I knew about already. He went into a blow by blow about the battle that followed, and how the Wild Hunt wanted kidnap me. I began piecing together hazy memories, when I suddenly heard something very familiar. “Wait, what? Repeat that,” I said to Keegan.
“…that Evil is coming…?”
I finished the line for him: “‘…and with him, he brings Darkness and Violence.’ Right?”
Brann exchanged a look with Keegan. “So. If you know that, it seems we’re not the only ones with secrets. Care to explain?” I flipped him off… ‘cause that’s the mature, adult thing to do.
“I just didn’t think it was relevant,” I pointed out.
Orin looked at me. “It’s all relevant.”
“For fuck’s sake, just tell us what you know, so we can move forward!” That look on Keegan’s said he was about to lose it big time.
I glanced at Katie, who nodded that I should spill it. I went through the Morrigan vision, and the prophecy that I was the only one who could stop Darkness, Evil, and Violence from destroying all life in existence.
“You didn’t think that tidbit would have been helpful?” Brann said, with a
