Which Weather - part two

The whole room was quiet, not just Hes. I was going to ask Hes what was going on but she stopped me with a finger to her lips - I got the message. At the altar, Deidre was busy lighting candles and invoking different spirits with each one. There were four candles for the cardinal points of the compass (east, west, north and south), two candles for above and below, sixteen candles for something I can’t remember, seven candles for archangels, seven candles for chakras . . . I lost count at a hundred. The altar began to look like Methuselah’s birthday cake.
Because of the amount of people in the room and the amount of candles burning, I thought we might run out of air in the room but then I noticed that the wall behind the altar had several windows, all of which were open. It was then that I noticed the sky. It had been a nice sunny spring day when I went into the shop but now the sky was beginning to cloud up. Maybe, a storm was coming.
I could sense that Hes was getting excited. Her grip on my hand was becoming vise like and she started squeezing it to a rhythm only she could hear. Deidre stopped lighting candles and began to chant and wave her arms making symbols in the air. She picked up a wand from the altar and I thought that it was a miracle that she did not get burned or that her sleeve did not catch on fire. She announced that the room was now sealed magically and no evil could get in. I don’t know if it was a coincidence but the sky was now very dark, stormy dark. A bolt of lightning accented the sky. A moment later, the thunder echoed through the room. As if by cue, someone turned off the lights in the room - now we had only candlelight and stormlight.
Hes used her free hand to point to something near the door. Actually, it was not something but someone. A dark cloak wearing person stood there waving his hands and chanting. He too, had a wand, well not quite a wand - more like a staff. He must have shopped in the same store as Deidre because he too was clad entirely in black. I might not have been able to see at all if not for his hair - his long white hair.
He strode to the altar but right before he got there Deidre jumped in front of him.
“As the Gods and Goddesses are my witnesses,” she shouted holding her wand up high, “I, Deidre, high priestess of the coven Seven Nineteen point Two, do challenge you, Mark Darklight for the right to lead this coven.” Mark looked both surprised and disappointed if that is possible. He sighed and looked the crowd.
“So this is why there are so many people here.” he commented. “I had heard rumors that you might do this,” he looked at Deidre condescendingly (which is to say he seemed to be looking down on her, even though the two of them were roughly the same height.) “I had hoped these rumors were just gossip.” He did not seem in the least bit worried that he might not win. “Very well. Let us begin.” He pointed to the crowd. “Which of you will be my witnesses ?” Several couples stood up instantly. He scanned them and gestured to a couple sitting three seats to the left of where I was sitting. “ I choose Ben and Bathsheba.” He declared. They bowed.
“Who will be impartial witnesesses ?” both Mark and Deidre shouted. The two people sitting to the left of me stood up. I began to notice a pattern to the volunteers. My mind had come to a conclusion as to what was next, but another part of me was not buying it. Oh no, no, no, not possible. I looked at Hesp, saw the sparkle in her eyes and the excited look on her face - it was not unlike that of the student who knows the answer to the question petitioning the teacher to call on her. I knew I had to get out of there.
It was at this point, that Deidre pointed her wand at my forehead. There was a flash in my brain and the next thing I knew I was standing up with Hesp holding my hand, listening to the applause from the crowd. Mark and Deidre touched their wands together and shouted: “Now we begin.” A loud thunderclap boomed as lightning flashed through the room.
Mark stood to the left of the altar and Deidre to the right of the altar. We witnesses were between them but not directly. There was a space of three to four feet between the two black clad wand wavers, we were to the side of that space.
Mark struck first, thrusting his staff toward the windows while shouting: “I call upon the elementals of the sky, Wind beings cast aside these malcontents.” A gust of wind came from the windows and blew toward the crowd. Strangely enough, none of the candles even flickered. As I looked at Deidre, I realized why. She was chanting while holding her wand to the floor.
“I call upon the earth spirits to block this gust and to send this evil back to its sender.”
She then turned and gestured to the candles. “I call upon the fire spirits to burn all barriers to the truth.” It might have been me but I swear the candles began to burn brighter.
Mark laughed. “I am the Truth.” he roared and added “I call upon the night to take those who oppose me.” An eerie shadow seemed to appear by the windows. I think most shadows are a bit eerie but this shadow was even eerier if that is possible. Deidre seemed unaware of this shadow perhaps because she was busy calling up a counter spell or perhaps she was already caught by Mark’s spell. For some reason, I felt I had to do something. Normally, I am not the interfering type, as I prefer to let things run their course. This time, however I felt compelled to do something, although I did not know why. I started to move toward the shadow but I found myself held in place by Hesp. She stood transfixed, holding my right hand with both of hers, chanting under her breath. I could not get her to let go of me. I looked at the shadow. It had not moved but it had grown. It was twice as big as before and thus that much closer to touching Deidre. Somehow I knew if it touched her bad things would happen, not just to Deidre but also too Hesp and me.
Time seemed to slow down for me. Everyone had stopped moving as I searched my brain frantically for a solution to this dilemma. I tried to pull Hesp toward Deidre but I might as well have been trying to pull the Sears building, she would not budge. I thought about slapping her or piching her, but some part of me would not allow me to do that. I looked at the shadow again and it was now on the ceiling right above Deidre who was still lost in her chanting. In desperation, I threw my left hand up above my head and shouted: “Stop.”
Except no words came from my mouth. I heard a ‘Pop’ sound in my head and I felt as if something inside of me had been released. I felt unusually light. I noticed my right hand was no longer held by Hesp. I also noticed I was no longer standing on the ground. I looked at Hesp and I could not help but noticed that she was still holding the hand of some guy, a guy that looked vaguely familiar. Before I could totally freak, I heard a chorus of voices calling to me from behind me.
“Sir Jack,” they said. “Do you truly wish us to stop ?” I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to turn around but I did. There standing in front of my eyes, well actually they were floating in front of my eyes - were, well I don’t know any other way to describe them except to say they were spirits. Some looked vaguely human but most just seemed to be made out of energy and as such took whirling shapes that seemed immaterial. They looked so strangely wonderful that I almost forgot what I was doing.
“Sir Jack,” they repeated, “do you wish us to stop ?” At that point there was a thousand things I wanted to know and it all came under one heading.
“If I say yes,” I said, “will you tell me what is going on ?” My voice was pretty calm which amazed me because I felt overwhelmed.
“No,” the spirits chimed as one, “that is not our job. We do not explain things. We make things happen.”
“Did you do this to me ?” I asked.
“No.” was their answer.
“Who did ?” I needed answers so asking questions seemed the thing to do.
“You don’t need to know that, right now,” they answered. “What you do need to do is say these words : Seeg Zaag Down Yup Silencio Return.”
“Why ?” I said without thinking.
“Because those words will make us stop.”
“What’s so special about those words ?”
“They are sacred words of THE LANGUAGE.”
I laughed in spite of myself. “Silencio is a sacred word ? Down is a sacred word ? You have to be kidding me.” I was on a roll. “Return ? These are all English words. Are you telling me English is a sacred language ?”
“No, we are not. These words are beyond time - their sacred meanings are quite different than the English words you refer to.” Maybe, it was me but I thought that the spirits were getting a bit huffy. I don’t particularly like huffiness even in spirits. I usually wind up challenging people who I think are being huffy. This moment was no exception.
“Tell me what Seeg and Zaag mean ? “ I said.
“You would not be able to comprehend their entire meaning in your current form. Would you like to know as much as you can comprehend ?” asked the spirits.
“Yup .” I said.
“It is done .” cried the spirts happily, “ You have said the words. We will stop.”
I felt cheated and tricked. “Hey, I thought I had to say the words all at once.”
“No - you only had to say the words. “ the spirits said, “in no particular order either because these are words of THE LANGUAGE. They move themselves to where they need to be.” The spirits seemed pretty proud of themselves as if they had just taught a baby to speak a word. I was feeling as if I was a baby whose parents had gotten me to say something only they could understand.
“Now you have to choose.” declared a single voice behind me. I turned around and saw a young girl who looked about thirteen or fourteen dressed in a white robe. Strangely enough, I felt bored looking at her.
“Choose what ?” I asked as I yawned.
The voice answered: “Which witch ?”
“Which witch what ?” I asked. My tongue was beginning to be twisted.
“Which witch you choose will determine whether weather is used.” said the teenage spirit a-matter-of-factly. She tilted her head as if she could not believe I could not understand.
“Which witch I choose determines whether weather is used ?” I felt like a parrot echoing her words.
“Or not.” she said calmly. I waited for an explanation. There was none.
“Come on,” she whined impatiently, “Use your wits and choose.”
Her impatience only made things worse for me. I needed to figure what I was doing and to do that I need time, so I decided to ask a question in order to stall for time. I reasoned that this usually works in regular (earthly) situations involving impatient women so why not here.
“So whichever witch’s weather I choose will be done whether or not this witch’s weather will wreck havoc upon others, otherwise if my wits were wrong would whichever witches not chosen choose to accept whatever would be wraught, right?” Even I was not sure what that sentence meant. My teenage spirit stopped for minute to figure out what I had just said. That was all time I needed.
I figured I needed to choose a witch and the only two people I was certain of being a witch were Mark and Deidre. Although Hesp was chanting so maybe she was a witch too. But the only two people who seemed to be using weather were again Mark and Deidre. So really it was between those two. It seemed like an obvious choice - Mark was evil so I would choose Deidre. But what if Mark was evil and Deidre was evil too ? Would the world be better off one way or another ? Come to think of it, hadn’t Deidre put me under some sort of spell ? Wasn’t that why I was in this witness unprotection program ? I decided to choose the one person I could count on.
“Which witch” the teenage pain of a spirit began to ask again. I cut her off.
“Me.”
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Part three will come tonight.