The peace was broken when a huge, dark shape erupted out of the water. I could feel the algae-scented water splash on my face, and I looked up in awe at the towering shape above me. It looked a little like a giant worm, only with five rows of wickedly sharp-looking teeth. I got ready to zap it with the strongest spell I had when I heard the voice again.
Run!
The instinctual part of me did what she said. I took off down the path, careful not to trip over the rocks and roots stretched across the trail. I could hear the worm crashing through the trees behind me, and it sounded like it was gaining.
Up ahead, a woman walked into the middle of the path. She was Asian, dressed in a loose kimono-style robe, and glowed with an ethereal light. Her dark hair seemed to float on waves of energy around her head, and she planted her feet firmly on the ground.
“Behind me!” she commanded.
Again, I did what she told me. I couldn't explain just why, but a part of me trusted her unquestioningly.
She threw her hands up and spoke a word I didn't understand. A wave of pure white light flew out from her hands, and the beast wailed in pain. I covered my ears at the ghastly sound.
I was jolted out of bed by the force of everything. I stood straight up and looked around. Everything seemed normal... the open window, my Tardis poster on my closet door, my huddled form curled up in bed...
That last part stopped me cold. I looked in wonder, not believing my eyes. I was looking down on my own body, chest rising and falling with each breath. It was the strangest thing I had seen yet.
It also excited me. I had studied out-of-body experiences the year before but had never encountered one.
Until now.
I walked out of my room and decided to take a look around. I walked down the hallway and noticed that my footsteps made no sound.
This is cool! All thoughts of lakes, monsters, mysterious women, and the like were driven from my mind as I explored the mansion in spirit form.
I walked past the artifact room and gave the door a wide berth... the jumble of energy coming from in there was a little too much to handle in my current state. I came to the parlor door and decided to try something.
Why not? I thought, and passed right through it.
There was a fire in the hearth, and four figures huddled around it. All were instantly recognizable.
“You'd better have some info on those lakes.” Vincent said. “It's why you're here, officially.”
“Yeah yeah, I've got your damned information.” Trevor replied, annoyed. “It wasn't easy to get, you know.”
“Right, he had to sleep with Lilith. Twice.” Evelyn chimed in.
“Remind me again why I keep you around?” Trevor rolled his eyes.
"Probably because, without her, you really would have had to walk here." came Angelique's reply.
“So, how's she doing?” Evelyn asked, suddenly serious.
“She's doing well.” Vincent said. “Better than I'd hoped, actually.”
“She's already more stable than Sarah Cooper.” Angelique added.
“Yeah, well, that's good.” Trevor said next. “Because the settling is the most dangerous time for these types, and certain people are nervous about entrusting things to you lot, especially after last time.”
“We can handle her.” Vincent asserted.
“Make sure you do.” Trevor said. “After all...”
He suddenly stopped talking and looked around.
“What is it, Trev?” Evelyn asked.
“Somebody's watching us.” Trevor said, and then reached behind him.
“Trevor, wait...” Vincent started to say.
Trevor, however, was too fast. He whipped a large golden dagger around and pointed it right at me.
“Banish!” he barked.
Suddenly I was flying backwards through the air. I hit something... hard... and sat up.
I was in my bed, in my body. A headache started forming at my temples, and I slumped back into my overstuffed mattress and into blissful slumber.
* * *
The headache was a dull roar when I awoke the following morning. At least I know it wasn't a dream I thought. I opened my eyes to see Vincent sitting on the edge of the bed.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Like a were-elephant sat on my head.” I rubbed my eyes... the pain was coming back.
“Here, drink this.”
Vincent handed me a mug of brown water. It smelled like...
“Hot chocolate?”
“You may not have tangled with a Dementor, but chocolate does have healing properties for psychic injuries.”
I took the mug from him hungrily and sipped it. The warm, creamy chocolate slid down my throat and warmed my stomach. I noticed, however, a distinct under-flavor that was anything but cocoa based.
“Is there weed in this?” I asked, pointing at the cup.
Vincent grinned. “Well, there are a collection of herbs steeped in the milk that will help undo the effects of slamming into your body with such force. I just added a dollop of medicated cream to help things along. That, and to counteract the taste of the valerian, which tastes like old sneakers when un-doctored.”
"Thank you for that." I replied with a grin and sipped the steaming liquid again. The headache was already receding, even though the weed hadn't kicked in yet.
“So, how much did you hear?” he asked, somewhat more serious.
I thought hard. “I came in when Trevor was talking about sex with someone named Lilith.”
“So you heard the bit about the settling.”
“I did. Care to fill me in?”
“Okay, first, let me assure you that filling you in on everything was on the agenda for today.” He reached out and took my hand. “After the way we hid the truth about you being the Sorceress, and how well you took it... well, I swore to myself to never lie to you again, even by omission. My love for you transcends time, and I don't want to dishonor that by playing stupid games in the present.”
My eyes started welling up with tears, so I put the mug down to wipe them away. I clasped his hand between mine and held it to my heart. "I love you... so much!"
“I love you too.” He brought my hands to his lips and kissed them. “And we're going to need that love during this next year, because everything says that the first year for a new Sorceress is the most dangerous time in her life.”
“Tell me.” I said resolutely.
“It's a time called 'the settling',” he began, “And it's when you're going to be acclimating to your new powers, and learning to use them responsibly.”
“Which I've already started.”
“And you're doing great at.” He smiled. “Angelique and I have definite ideas on how to help you through this, based on years of solid research.”
“What did Trevor mean when he said 'especially after last time'?”
Vincent took a deep breath. “You're not Angelique's first Sorceress. She's known several, and...”
"And what?"
"The last one didn't go so well."
* * *
When Vincent told me about the afternoon briefing that Trevor, Evelyn, and Angelique were giving, I resolved one thing: that I was going to take it seriously and not get high beforehand. I did fairly well, only hitting Jack's blunt once after breakfast.
He, of course, was baked, but that was his preferred state those days. Everybody has their techniques for adapting to rapid change, and Jack chose cannabis. He also provided an example to measure oneself by... if you were less stoned than Jack, you were probably still able to function. I took one toke to his thirty, so I figured I was good.
I forgot about the drink.
The cannabis-infused cream that Vincent had put in my healing coco was made really strong. The idea was to have to use very little to get an effect, and that's how it was usually employed.
My shock at being slammed back into my body was so severe, Vincent added a little extra to my hot chocolate.
Edible marijuana always took forever to hit me. While most people started feeling something thirty to forty-five minutes after eating... or drinking... it, I never felt the full force until hour number three.
It had been three hours since I woke up.
I had asked Vincent for some very strong coffee and sat cradling it in my hands as things started. A map had been set up with a series of thirteen blue dots, with as many red dots placed on or near them.
Before there were only six... I mused.
Jack and Raina were seated near me, while Vincent stood behind my chair. Trevor, Evelyn, and Angelique were seated facing us by the map. After I sipped my coffee again, Trevor stood up.
“Okay, so you've all met me,” he began. Evelyn elbowed him in the thigh, and he winced. “Er, met us, I mean. So let's get right to things, eh?”
Everyone stared at him, not moving nor making a sound.
“Right!” he continued. “Evelyn and I were able to dig up information on seven additional lake appearances throughout recorded history, which, along with your six, makes thirteen verifiable mysterious lakes.”
“So in addition to South Africa, Brazil, Tibet, Russia, and Israel,” Evelyn continued, staying seated, “we also have ones in Alaska and the mountains of British Columbia here in North America, Ecuador in Central America, one in the aboriginal lands in Australia, one in Romania, as well as a lake that appeared in Norway around the time of Erik the Red.”
“That's twelve, with ours.” Raina said. “What's the thirteenth?”
“There are some who believe that Loch Ness originated as one of these mystery lakes.” Angelique said softly.
“Wait, Loch Ne-ess-ess?” Jack coughed as he exhaled. “The Loch Ness?”
“There are some old, lost local legends about a time before the 'haunted lake' came to be on the land.” Trevor explained. “They say that the other legends, like the one about Saint Columba, were concocted by a nervous church to fool future generations into thinking that the lake had always been there.”
“All evidence of the legends of a time before the lake were successfully suppressed by the church, and no living human soul knows or remembers them.” Evelyn continued. “Except for those in this room.”
“And we only know because a very helpful companionship demon named Lilith was created in Scotland not long after the lake appeared, so she remembers.” Trevor shifted uncomfortably when I grinned at the name Lilith.
“I'm sure we're all indebted to you for your sacrifice in obtaining that information.” Raina gave a wicked grin after she spoke. I had filled her and Jack in on my night-time wanderings over breakfast.
Trevor coughed uncomfortably. “Uh, yeah, you're welcome.”
“We have learned that this did, indeed, match the pattern of a mystery lake appearing near the home of a supernatural creature.” Evelyn continued. “Lilith told us that there was a vampire living in exile near there, not far from the modern location of Boleskine House.”
“Home to both occultist Aleister Crowley as well as rock star-occultist Jimmy Page.” Trevor added.
“However, neither of them lived there when the lake appeared." Evelyn said with an eye roll. "The person in question was a five-hundred-year-old vampire named Fergus, and Lilith had been trying to help him through dealing with the destruction of his life-mate Katherine, a vampire who was over four hundred herself."
"One day he just up and disappears." Trevor said. "Not too many things could take out an elder vamp-like Fergie there, but Lilith never saw him again."
“Couldn't he have moved on?” asked Raina.
“He wouldn't have left Lilith without saying goodbye.” Evelyn asserted. “Trust me, all manner of beings have fallen for Lilith over the centuries.”
“The two households that I know of... the ones in Russia and South Africa... also disappeared suddenly, and without a trace.” Angelique said. “The Russian one was a couple of elder vampires, while the folks in South Africa were Wood Fae who wanted to live in this world for a spell. I wasn't in contact with them when they vanished, and only heard of it years after the fact.”
"The Alaskan lake appeared near a colony of were-bears..." Trevor continued but was interrupted by Jack.
“Were-bears?” the stoned tech genius asked. “Is that people who turn into hairy gay men?”
“No, it's a half-man, half grizzly bear nightmare from hell.” Evelyn said, with a look that said she was talking from experience.
“Woah.” Jack shuddered.
“That's why they settle in the mountains of places like Alaska,” Trevor added, “because they're a fairly scary thing to run into, and don't want large groups of locals forming hunting parties.”
“The lake in British Columbia is just a mile from the border with the northern territories.” Evelyn continued. “It appeared near a small settlement of Amarok in the sixteenth century.”
“Amarok are a variety of large, wolf-like creatures.” Trevor added. “They never become human, so they're not were-creatures.”
“They're actually very peaceful.” Evelyn continued. “But tough. I have no idea who could take out an entire settlement, but they vanished as well.”
“It's like that everywhere.” Angelique said, finally rising. “A lake appears, and soon an established residence or territory of supernatural being is seemingly abandoned.”
“And now one's appeared right next to this residence.” Raina observed gloomily. “Great.”
“No one who has seen a lake when it's first appeared has survived to talk about it, either.” Trevor said.
“Except me.” I said, speaking up for the first time. “I saw it the morning after it arrived. And there's something else...”
I proceeded to tell them about my dream the night before, the one that happened prior to my out of body wandering. When I was done, I apologized about not saying anything until now.
“That's okay,” Vincent said, putting his hand on my shoulder, “you really haven't had time to tell us.”
“A snake-worm creature?” Evelyn said, intrigued. “Well, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster has to come from somewhere.”
“A worm creature and an Asian ghost lady?” Raina said, thinking. “Sounds like a three pizza night for me and Jack tonight!”
“I'll join you.” I said, smiling.
“Actually, we might need you to walk about, out of your body tonight, to take a surreptitious look around.” Evelyn said. “See if you can see anything that would hide from us corporeal types.”
“As long as I don't get banished.” I said, looking pointedly at Trevor.
“Look, all I knew was that we were being spectrally spied on.” he said defensively. “If I'd known it was you, I never would have snapped you like that.”
“Let's get going.” Angelique said, and we all got up. All except Jack, who had to be shaken awake by Raina. I smiled as they stumbled away towards the basement.
* * *
“Okay, just look around a bit...”
I could hear their voices, but only as an echo. I couldn't answer back, because that would have required my soul being in my body, which it wasn't at the time. My body was back in the mansion, within a protective sphere cast by Raina. Within the sphere were Evelyn and Trevor, while Vincent and Angelique were out patrolling the grounds.
They were looking for physical threats. My field of vision was a little more expansive.
I could see spirits moving across the grounds... human spirits on their way somewhere, spirits of animals playing worry-free in their non-corporeal state, and shadowy spirits of the land itself, never taking form but moving over the fields and forests like water running down a stream. The air was alive with sprites, elemental energies that had yet to pick a final form, and they danced like feathers on the wind.
I moved through this like a swimmer through water, mind in constant awe.
Something tells me that this isn't what most people see when walking about witho
ut their bodies I thought. Most of these things seem to not see each other.
But I do.
I eventually made my way to the new lake. I could see the entire lake, even the parts normally obscured by vegetation. Not even the absence of daylight could obscure its form from me, and I almost floated near the shore.
“What do you see? Can you say?” came Trevor's voice.
I'm going to have to explain to him that this isn't like dealing with a psychic I thought. The human voice-box seems to require a spirit, either one's own or that of a guest spirit being channeled, in order to operate.
The surface of the lake was obscured by a dark gray shadow, one that couldn't be penetrated no matter how hard I tried. I floated down to the surface of the water to see if I could sweep away the shadow.
“Don't touch it!” a woman's voice cried out.
I yanked my hand back and found myself suddenly twenty feet away from the lake. I looked around and saw two women standing nearby. One was the Asian woman from my earlier dream, and the other one looked slightly older, though remarkably like the first. They were both dressed in ancient-looking kimonos, and they glowed with a silver luminescence that looked like they were made from pure moonlight.
Who the hell is this? I wondered to myself.
“We are here to do battle with the evil in that lake.” the older one said. “Please ask your friends to withdraw so that we may do our work.”
This is our home. I thought back at her since she seemed to be able to read thoughts.
“And it will be once we're done.” she replied. “Please, we have come because of who you are, and what you have become. We promised another of your kind, long ago, that we would safeguard the future generations. We are here to honor that promise.”
My friends are powerful, even if I am not... not yet, anyway. We can help.
“Others have felt like you, others even more powerful. They have all fallen.”
What makes you think that you can succeed where they failed?
“We may not. But we pledged to fall before you did, and we keep our promises.”
Suddenly, Vincent appeared near us on the path. “Well, who do we have here?” he asked, looking at the two women.
The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Page 5