Sorcery in the City Ch. 01

She was at the farthest point of the property from the ruined home, with little time to make her way through the overgrown land to the only place she'd seen Shu. In a hurry and not paying enough attention, she didn't spot the large rock covered in vines before she stumbled into it and over it, landing in a heap on the other side of it. Not her finest moment but it could have been worse ... only a few more scratches and sore shins, but nothing broken. She picked herself and kept going, only to run smack into an even bigger rock, this one level with her waist.

Ooof! Her upper body bent over the rock and her forehead hit with an ugly thunk. Both hands went flat onto the top as she tried to push herself back up, feeling a bit wobbly.

"Fucking hell!!" Opal looked up at the cloudy sky, "Would it be too much to ask for a bit more moonlight tonight, I can't take more of this!"

The clouds parted, the area around her got a lot brighter and clearer, and she thought she felt the rock beneath her hands tremble. WEIRD! She pulled herself up on the rock and carefully stood up to look around. From higher up she could see she was inside a ring of rocks.

"Wow, I bet this is the circle where the fire is supposed to be lit every year."

A voice off to her right responded, "Yes it is."

She screamed, several times, then yelled out "Come on damn it! Stop that!"

"Sorry. I'm not the most considerate of creatures and I've been alone too long."

She saw Shu move out of the darkness, standing just to the outside of one of the rocks. He looked exactly the same as the last time she'd seen him.

"Well it's good to see you are ok ... and I was wondering how I'd find you. Going around calling "Shu ... Shu ... Shu ..." would have sounded strange, so thank you for sparing me that!"

He laughed briefly, "Yes, that is one of the downsides of my name, and has been pointed out by others before." He looked up at her, "Why are you here?"

"I had to know you were safe. It's been a crazy couple of months outside the walls. I was worried about you."

He nodded, "My thanks for your concern. I continue as I always have. I have watched the unworthy battle the shield, but the strength of this place is beyond their feeble attempts to overcome it."

Opal sat down with her legs hanging over the edge of the rock, "About that ... how am I able to get in here when nobody else can?"

"It's simple, you are worthy. I suspect you are more than that, I think you have the potential to be a sorceress ... but I don't think you have any idea about that do you?"

"Ah, no ... no idea at all. Do you believe in that kind of thing? I've heard gossip that members of the Robertson family were witches, that odd activities happened around here ... and Veronica Robertson's will specified some odd stuff too ... but sorcery is too wackadoodle for me, sorry."

Shu smiled softly, "A nonbeliever ... how marvelous ... I do so enjoy educating them."

Opal sighed, "Can't stick around for any lessons tonight I'm afraid, I have to get back over the wall while everyone is still asleep. I don't want to be noticed. Somebody official might want to dissect me if they see I can get in here when no one else can, or at least I'd be questioned for days, not something I want to go through if I can avoid it. Do you want to come with me? I can get you out now, there are places where you can stay. We can take the cat too."

Shu looked at her silently for a moment, then said, "There is time for a demonstration, I think you'll find it enlightening" before he bent over ... and turned into a cat. Actually, he turned into 'the' cat, the one she'd seen by the gate. She could tell because one ear was missing its tip.

Startled, she gasped. "Oh wow, that's a great trick!"

With a loud meow, and an infuriated lashing of his tail, he started to trot off into the bushes.

She pushed herself off the rock but left her hands on it to steady herself. "Oh no you don't! Get back here!"

The cat froze for a second then walked backwards and stopped exactly where he'd been standing. That looked strange, like a movie running in reverse. The trick had to involve video projection it seemed to her.

"How are you doing it?"

The cat just stared at her.

She laughed, "Can you change back into a man? I want to talk with you."

The cat took a deep breath and stood up on its back legs ... and then everything stretched out. Shu reappeared.

"That is so good! Can you do it with other animals too?"

Shu shook his head, looking frustrated. "No. Do you mind stepping away from the altar and walking outside the circle. I'd like my autonomy back please."

"What?"

He waved at her, "Please, come over here. You have no idea what you are doing and I don't want you saying something that will do damage."

She moved towards him, walking between two rocks that marked the circle. Shu grabbed her hands, hoping to show her he was not an illusion, and saw the material that was wrapped around them.

"Damn it! You've marked the altar with your blood. You need to put your hands back on the altar and speak the oath, right now."

"What oath?"

"The words vary, but you need to promise to protect this land ... and you need to mean it. You have offered your blood, your life force. The spirits recognize you, they can find you and follow you now. They can support you or oppose you. Believe me, you don't want them aligned against you. Can you do that, can you promise to protect this place?"

Looking at him, Opal could see he was very upset. If it helped him, she would do what he asked. "I guess ... sure ... it would be nice if this place was left as a park like Veronica Robertson wanted. Is that what you want, for me to say I support that?"

Shu groaned, "Look, this is serious, deadly serious. Your life is in danger. If you are judged unworthy while on this ground you will be ejected from it ... in very tiny, flaming pieces! Do you know why the home here burned down five years ago? When Lady V created the shield that night there were two staff in the house, neither of whom was worthy apparently. They combusted and set the building on fire."

"I read that Veronica died in that fire."

Shu shook his head, "No, she was not in the house. She was in the circle. She created the shield but the cost was high, she gave her life to do it. I cannot enter the circle, and that night I could not see past the stones so I do not know exactly what happened to her."

"Why can't you enter the circle?"

He sighed, "I am not human. I am a cat that can take human form. I was given the ability to change many human lifetimes ago so that I could serve Lady V's ancestors. I am now without a master or mistress, the bloodline ended with Lady V. She was going to free me before she died but she didn't get the chance. I'm stuck here, bound to this land and unable to leave it."

Opal wasn't sure what to think. It was clear Shu believed what he was saying, but was any of it real? She'd seen with her own eyes that something invisible was preventing others from entering, but she figured (like many who'd speculated in the past couple of months) it was some kind of force field created by a practical, scientific mechanism. She'd discounted all the wilder, weirder suggestions ... was she willing to go there now?

"What happens if I make the promise to protect this land? How am I supposed to protect it? Will I get stuck here too?"

"You'll still be able to come and go. Lady V wasn't trapped here. Promise to do no harm here or to participate in anything that would threaten this place and you should be safe. I can tell you what I know, at least you'll be able to appreciate what this place is and why it needs to be protected."

She thought for a moment, and decided she could promise and could be sincere doing it. She appreciated green space in the city, knew areas like this were important refuges for wildlife and that people needed them for their mental and physical health.

"Ok, I'll promise. Just put my hands on the big rock and say the words out loud?"

Shu nodded, "Yes."

Opal walked back into the circle and touched the stone. "I promise to protect this land. I promise not to harm it or to help anyone else harm it."

She felt the stone vibrate and it felt warm, very warm. She quickly pulled her hands away, afraid they'd be burned, but they looked fine.

She heard Shu sigh, "Good. Now let's get you back to your ladder and on your way home."

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Early October 2020

The last five weeks had been amazing. Opal still wasn't sure she was really "all in" on every bit of supernatural lore Shu told her about, but she had seen and done things now that she would never had believed possible before. She would mutter a slightly altered quote from Shakespeare's play Hamlet every time she learned something new:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Opal,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Shu never tired of hearing her say it and he had a thousand different responses to it. Turned out he was a very well read cat, he liked all Shakespeare's works (having read them all the first of many times after they were published in the early 1600's). Opal thought he had a photographic memory, he certainly had exceptional recall.

That recall came in handy as he taught her what he knew about ley lines, spirits, the circle and the altar, the shield around the property, and supernatural things in general. He had his own kind of magic but it wasn't as broad or strong as what a human who could connect with supernatural forces could summon. Apparently Lady V had been a formidable sorceress, the last in a long line of such men and women, and Opal could tell her loss was painful for Shu. Teaching her was helping him, had given him a purpose again.

In return, she brought him new books to read, told him of what was happening in the outside world, and gave him several different flavours of the same cat food she had left with him months ago. He had developed a craving for it, munched it like a snack even in human form. She tried to bring him an iPad but it didn't work inside the shield. It was the same for her phone. She had never tried to turn it on inside before, worried that a cell signal might track back to the property, but she needn't have been concerned.

She'd asked Shu about his human appearance, all scruffy and unwashed. He'd let himself go, his grief showing in how he looked. As they spent more time together, as he began to feel better and laugh more, his appearance changed. His hair and beard were now nicely trimmed, his clothes were clean and neat but nothing fancy, still just a shirt and jeans. Opal liked how he looked now and said so. She could see the cat in him as he pranced around in his human form, basking in her praise.

It had only taken a few days before hauling herself up and over the wall every night got too much. Opal had taken some time off from work and camped out on the property for a week, finding shelter under what remained of the garage roof when it rained. Shu assured her he would keep her safe and she'd slept through each night without worry. They always moved carefully, staying hidden behind trees and all the overgrowth, aware that eyes and cameras were watching the property.

When it came time for her to leave again, Shu had her try out her new skills on the video camera watching the section of wall where the door was. She'd 'glitched it' for less than a minute, just enough time to exit unrecorded. It had been exhilarating and nerve wracking ... she had to believe in what she was doing, in what she was feeling, and that was hard to do. It was a baby step in what Shu told her would be a lifetime of study, but she'd done it! After the first time, it got easier and soon that was her regular way in and out.

There was unfortunately much Shu didn't know. He was trapped on the property and he didn't know how or if Opal could change that. He longed to be able to walk amongst people again, though he'd never been able to wander far or for long from anyone he served. Lady V had been planning to free him, to let him finally live a natural life to its proper end, but that had not happened.

Shu also didn't know what to do about the increasingly odd goings-on outside the shield. Opal told him about Lady V's will, that fires were supposed to be lit every year, oaths were to be taken and blood offered. She understood those actions now as controls to keep supernatural power concentrated inside the circle. The ley lines converged there but stretched out individually under the city in all directions. Without control, and with the shield drawing heavily on that power in the past months, the energy was leaking out in unexpected ways.

The local weather was getting more and more unpredictable and inverted. It was barely Fall, but there had already been several heavy snowfalls at sea level (that melted quickly thank heavens) while the mountaintops baked in hot sunshine. Dry lightning, a rarity normally, was now frequent and when it hit the ground it ran along sidewalks and fences for blocks before dissipating. People were talking about large congregations of wild animals like raccoons and skunks (think of the Hitchcock move The Birds but with 4-legged menacing creatures instead). The news was reporting a string of arsons and vandalism involving water pipes, but the circumstances were odd and Opal was suspicious that the incidents were not human-caused.

It was going to keep getting worse unless control was established. Opal decided she would have to light the fire on Samhain. It would be seen, which would tell everyone watching that someone was inside the walls, but that couldn't be helped. The shield would get a battering afterwards as others tried again to enter. Shu assured her that the shield would hold but she didn't see how the situation could continue like that forever.

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Saturday October 31, 2020

Opal had been camped out on the property for the past two days, getting everything ready. Shu helped as much as he could but she had to clean up and put everything in place inside the circle as he could not enter. He'd heard Lady V's words when she walked around outside the circle before lighting the fire, and was able to repeat them to Opal. Over the past few weeks she'd memorized them phonetically, as she didn't understand what they meant and neither did Shu. He also knew that Lady V renewed her vow to protect the land on the night of Samhain so Opal was ready to do that too.

What Opal didn't tell her feline friend was that she was going to try something more. Shu had told her how during the night of Samhain the boundary between the living and the dead was so thin that if you were strong enough you could contact someone on the other side and talk with them. She didn't know if she was strong enough, but she was going to see if she could contact Veronica Robertson and ask her how to free Shu. If it didn't work this year, October 31 came around again and again, and she was determined to try to help him if she could.

Shortly before sunset, Opal stood before the circle with an unlit torch in her hand and took a deep breath. Shu squeezed her shoulder briefly without saying anything, shifted into his cat form and climbed a tree a short distance away to watch. He didn't like getting close to the circle on this night, at least not for long.

She lit the torch and lifted it to salute the setting sun, then began to walk slowly around the outside of the circle saying the words Shu had taught her. When she got back to her starting point, she walked between two stones into the circle and stood before a big pile of wood. Shu had told her that more words were probably spoken as the fire was lit but he didn't know what those were, so she just held the torch up and repeated the same thing she'd said walking around the circle, hoping that was ok. She pushed the torch under the pile and a few minutes later it was burning bright and hot.

She had to wait until it got completely dark and closer to the midnight hour before she did anything else, so she sat down on one of the rocks and watched the fire burn. Halloween in this year of COVID was a much more subdued night, without trick-or-treating or any large gatherings for fireworks displays. She could still hear the pops and bangs of fireworks every so often but they were few and far between. Shu let out a meow once in a while just to reassure her that he was still watching.

Finally it was time. She walked back to the fire and threw more wood on it. As it flared up again, she walked past it to the altar stone. Shu had made her a small bone knife from the remains of a large bird that he'd managed to catch; she used it to cut her hand. Placing her bleeding palm on the alter she said, "I promise to protect this land."

She felt the stone quiver and it grew warm to the touch. She left her hand on the altar. Shu had taught her how to call upon various spirits to aid her, so she started with that.

"Spirits of air, water, earth and fire ... please hear me and help me. Spirits of friends and family, please hear me and help me. Spirits of the Robertson family, upon whose land I stand and have pledged to protect, please hear me and help me. I need to speak with Veronica Robertson. I summon Veronica tonight. She has left a promise unfulfilled. I wish to aid her faithful servant named Shu. Veronica, come speak with me."

Opal waited, looking around, but there was no response to her call. She said the words again, several times, but nothing happened. Sighing, she lifted her hand from the altar stone and walked back to the fire. If all she did this night was keep the fire going and thereby re-established some control over the power of this place, it would be enough for now.

An unexpected voice behind her made her tremble and her legs almost failed her, but to her credit Opal didn't scream.

"Not too bad for a beginner, but you've still got a great deal to learn."

Opal turned and saw a shimmering shape hovering just above the ground. As she stared, she could see the figure of an old woman ... then a young woman ... the image kept flickering between the two forms. She recognized the young one.

"Veronica Robertson?"

"Yes dear. You called me. Your confidence was wavering all over the place, no focus at all, but your strong feelings for Shu gave you the strength needed to be heard. Heart can compensate for lack of ability sometimes, but it's not good to rely on that. Both in sync is much better."

"Uh huh ... ok ... most of the time I'm just hoping I don't say or do something that backfires in some horrible way, like turning myself or somebody else inside out or something."

Veronica laughed, "I think you've watched too many movies ... and you do not yet have the focus needed to do something like that, so I think everyone is safe at the moment. One day though, you may have that kind of power ... you have a great deal of potential, I can feel it."

Opal sighed, "I'd love to ask you a million questions, but I don't know how long you get to stick around so I have to get to why I called you before you go poof, ok?"

She saw Veronica nod, "Yes, go ahead."

"The city sold the land to a developer. They've been trying to get in for a few months now. The power of this place is not under control, its affecting the neighbourhood in bad ways. It's going to get worse isn't it?"

Veronica sighed, "Damn. The shield will hold but if it keeps getting pushed then a larger and larger area outside the walls will likely become unlivable over time."

"Shu is trapped here. He says you were going to free him but you ... ah ... died ... before you could do that. He needs to be able to leave, it's not safe here and he's alone. Can you free him now?"