Thursday, November 8, 2007

Solomon Ch. 4

Solomon: Chapter 4

Silver looked at Jacob, wearing a look of equally mixed sheepishness and exasperation. He gestured with a "what do you want from me" shrug. "Hey, look. I know it has flaws. At this point though, I think it's our best shot. I'm telling you, I've seen Felicity and she's pretty great at what she does."
"She's ten years old!" It seemed like Jacob was fixated on that for some reason, observed Silver.
"She's already strong enough to require hiding her name, man. It takes powerful mojo to inspire that sort of thing in a preteen."
Jacob shook his head. It was times like these that he really remembered that Silver was only 17.
Silver sighed with an audible huff. "Okay, look. Let's make a deal. You come with me to visit them before you for sure say no. It won't hurt. I mean, they're novices. I'm pretty sure that if things get hairy you can handle it, right?"
Jacob folded his arms. The two of them had by now stopped walking and were having their conversation stationary, facing each other.
"We're going to go today. Right now if possible. Can you communicate with Aidan?"
Silver nodded and produced a small steel mirror from his pocket. It was small enough to fit in his palm, but polished to almost ridiculous levels of reflectivity. He and Jacob made their way down the path, departing from the designated trail when they reached the small stretch of it that went through a local woods. They made their way off the beaten path a few hundred feet, eventually finding a small clearing.
Silver grabbed a stick and sat cross-legged on the ground. Jacob stood off to the side, keeping an eye out for anyone who might accidentally see them and get curious. Silver set the mirror down directly in front of him and used the stick to trace the shape of a circle around himself in the ground. Once the basic outline was completed, Silver began adding to it. All of this was completed in complete silence on the part of both men. Soon enough, Silver had traced a complicated series of regular-sided stars with many strange-looking runes and symbols inscribed in them. All centered around him. And in front of him lie the mirror.
Silver raised the mirror in both hands, moving it until it caught the sun's rays and redirected them towards him. He spoke a string of syllables and the lines traced in the dirt began to glow faintly. He lowered the mirror and looked into it.
"Aidan," he said. "Can you hear me?"
All was silent for a few moments as Silver gazed at his own reflection in the mirror for the better part of a minute. Finally, though, a new visage began to resolve itself in the mirror.
"Silver? Is that you?" The voice was one that Jacob did not recognize. He assumed it was Aidan. He was still on lookout and was thus not able to turn around and look at what Silver was doing.
Silver, however was delighted to see the face of his young friend. Instead of Silver's pale- skinned, blond, blue- eyed face staring back at him, he was seeing Aidan's face. Aidan had slightly more color to his complexion. His hazel eyes were partially obscured by his the "devil lock" haircut he sported. His hair had been dyed a bright, unnatural red color. Silver smiled at the image of his friend in the mirror.
"Hey Aidan. Yeah, it's me. Are you busy at the moment?"
Aidan shook his head. "No, dude. I got nothing really planned for the rest of the day, actually. Why?"
"My friend and I have some business we'd like to discuss with you. Is Felicity there too?"
Aidan nodded. "Yeah. What's this all about? Should I be worried?"
Now Silver shook his head. "No, man. Everything's cool. It's just. . .the sort of thing you discuss in private," he gave Aidan an emphatic look. "You understand, right?"
Aidan nodded. "Right, of course."
"Okay, so is it okay if we head on over there?"
Aidan shrugged. "I guess. Like I said, I don't have much better to do."
"Good," said Silver. "We'll be there soon. Talk to you then."
Silver pocketed the mirror and rubbed out part of the line of the circle with his shoe. The faint glow vanished. Together, Jacob and Silver smudged out the remnants of Silver's spell circle.
The two magicians walked back into the open and Jacob allowed Silver to read the way to Aidan's home. They continued talking as they walked.
"So you really think a ten- year- old girl is going to be able to forge a Pact for us, Silver? And you think that if she is able to do it, she should?"
Silver laughed. "Listen, Solomon. You are getting way too worked up about this. We're on our way to their house for the sole reason of immediately demonstrating exactly why I think it's a good idea. Let's just think about something else until we get there, okay?"
Jacob shrugged. "Fine have it your way," he conceded. "But you're going to have to drive the conversation, because that's very much dominating my current thoughts right now."
"That's fine with me," said Silver. "You said this little stunt was inspired by something Adam did recently, right? Care to elaborate on that, Sol?"
Jacob began to explain. "As demonologists, Master Adam and I sometimes have to deal with some of the more theurgic magicians' delusions for what constitutes 'unacceptable' magic. You know that, right?"
Silver nodded. "Yeah, it sucks. But some people. . ." he shrugged and rolled his eyes. "What can you do, right?"
Jacob continued on. "One such organization is, or rather was, the Holy Order of the Purifying Flame of the One True God."
"What a name," interjected Silver.
Jacob grinned at him. "They were exactly as competent as their name suggests. Judging from their complete failure to know how to properly handle a magician as a prisoner, I can safely guess that their membership was almost entirely composed of mundanes. Their leader, the Inquisitor, was the only magician I was able to detect. From what I could tell, he wasn't classically trained. Probably discovered his talents in the context of a highly religious family and genuinely believed he was a prophet or miracle worker or something. His technique spoke of trial and error and against foes no where near what the magical community at large would generally think of as significant. Probably had some run-ins with a few of the shadier Darwinies and came out on top."
Silver nodded slowly, looking at Jacob rather peculiarly. "Okay. But how does this tie in with what you were talking about earlier? Why you decided to start putting our pact speculation into reality and such?"
"I have a point, I promise," Jacob assured his young friend. "Adam took measures to insure that I would be captured by this group of people. I'll not elaborate any further on what happened during that time other than I'm the reason that their organization should properly be spoken of in the past tense at this time. Afterwards, Adam made some very good points about trust in the magical world. The point is this: He's going to be gone sooner or later. Even if nothing happens to either of us anytime soon, I need to start learning to stand on my own, away from him, soon. I figure it would be best to have a support structure. By forming this cabal, we all agree to watch out for each other. No matter who we end up forming the pact with, all of us will have different talents. The combined talents of all of us will be able to compensate for the weaknesses of each individual."
Silver shook his head. "But that's not all. Everyone knows the main draw of a pact. But there's something else you're worried about, Solomon. Something you're not telling me. What is it?"
Jacob sighed. Silver was the only person in the world he trusted as much as Adam. Maybe more than Adam after what his mentor had pointed out. In the interest of setting good precedent, Jacob decided to go ahead and confide in Silver his alternate motivation.
"I'm a demonologist, Silver. There's always a chance when I summon a demon that I could be possessed. If that ever happens, I want to know there will be people capable of stopping me. People used to working together as a team who will be able to tell if something goes wrong and who know my weaknesses."
Silver wasn't sure how to respond. The two magicians walked on in quiet thoughtfulness for a while.
Between contacting Aidan and walking, about an hour had passed since they had first reached the park. They'd been walking for about half an hour. Jacob was the one to finally break their silence.
"Are we almost there?"
They had moved from the park into a residential area. It was proper houses, Jacob noted. Oh lords and lions, what if they still lived with their parents? This had been a bad idea to begin with and it was still a bad idea now.
Jacob was about to speak again to tell Silver so, but no sooner had he opened his mouth than Silver answered his question.
"Actually, it's this one right here," the blond magician said, walking up to the door.
"For the record, I was against this from the beginning," Jacob grumbled as he grudgingly followed Silver to the door.
Silver rapped sharply on the door twice and it was soon opened by Aidan.
"Nice hat," said Aidan, sniggering at Jacob.
He was, Jacob decided, probably just done with a growth spurt. He was the right age and height for it. He probably had one more big one coming before he was through, though. Aidan's hair was dyed a bright, synthetic shade of crimson and it was styled long in front, a "devil lock" concealing one of his hazel eyes. The long lock of hair in front had had its tip dyed yellow and orange. Aidan was wearing a black t-shirt celebrating the band "Death." In short, thought Jacob, this kid looked ridiculous. His manner and style screamed "plays with matches!"
Jacob's hat, on the other hand, was classic.
Jacob was about to really give this little shit a piece of his mind when Silver cut him off.
"Hey Aidan," he said, smiling. "Mind if we come in?"
Aidan stepped aside to allow them entry to the house.
It was pretty nice. The more Jacob saw, the more he was convinced that kids of this age couldn't possibly be living alone. Not in living conditions this good. Then again, fate magic was poorly understood. It was said to be able to perform incredible feats with almost impossible subtlety if one was skilled enough. Maybe Silver really was right about this little girl.
Aidan closed and locked the door behind them and led the pair into the kitchen. Sitting at the table reading a book that looked far too thick for a ten- year- old girl was a ten- year- old girl that Jacob assumed to be Felicity. She looked both similar and very different from her brother, as siblings often do. She had a head fully of bushy brown hair and was dressed in a simple pink t-shirt and blue jeans. When the three of them entered the kitchen, she closed her book and looked up at them. Her eyes, Jacob noted, were just like Aidan's; a striking shade of hazel, though hers were both visible behind her large glasses.
Silver gestured towards Jacob. "Aidan, Felicity, I'd like you to meet my associate, Solomon."
Jacob bowed slightly and tipped his hat. Fuckin' classy.
Silver continued on. "We're here for a couple of reasons. What we're going to propose is both dangerous and extremely confidential." He paused and made eye contact with the siblings. "If you want us to forget we were ever here and move on, that's fine. Tell me now though, because once this starts you're going to have to follow it through or never discuss it again, one way or another."
Aidan nodded. "I understand. I'm up for it. Sis?"
Felicity waited for a few seconds as she collected her thoughts before responding. "I am capable of keeping a secret. I would not like to betray your trust, Silver. You're one of the few people to have made us feel welcome here."
Silver looked at Jacob, who nodded, then continued. "Very well. We're proposing a cabal. I'd like to extend an invitation to both of you. And I'd like for Felicity to forge the pact. But Solomon would like to see a demonstration of her talents before we agree to anything."
Felicity nodded. "Understandable. Solomon, do you have any dice on your person?"
Dice were the sort of thing a magician carried with him. Well, a serious one at least. If you knew any spells outside of your specialty, you were likely to need them for one of the basic and simple fate enchantments that a non- fate specialist was capable of performing. Jacob reached into his pocket and pulled out the two pipped cubes he carried with him.
"Excellent," said Felicity. "Let's get started."

Word Counts:
-Chapter: 2231
-Total: 7768

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I'll admit that I described Aidan's appearance more than once. I'm not sure where it will go in the proper finished version. Also, the prose and pacing in this chapter blows like ass.

Ryan said...

Every group needs a The Batman.

I liked

"For the record, I was against this from the beginning," Jacob grumbled as he grudgingly followed Silver to the door.

Anonymous said...

hey buddy toward the bottom you used a ten-year old girl twice in a row and i think she is supposed to be reading a book that is too thick for her not to think

Unknown said...

The double ten-year-old is intentional. I'll fix the think-thick thing soon.