Tower of the Watchful Eye

Chapter 7

The rest of the day went smoothly. I had gathered everything I needed and hidden it, along with the scroll, under my bed. I had spent some time studying the spell before I had hit it. It called for a large amount of magic but I wasn't powerful enough to do it. I was hoping to weaken Cathy enough so I could force her out of my mind. I had to cut the study session short when Keeper Anderson informed me it was time for the Coming of Age Ceremony.

The Ceremony was short, only two Apprentices today. Their choices were made quickly and efficiently and the Keeper recorded the choices as the oaths were sworn. We were out of the library and back upstairs before I could get bored.

The Keeper was right; it shouldn't even be considered a ceremony anymore.

He then retired to his bedroom mumbling about 'the damn stairs' so I took it as a sign we were done for the evening. I returned to the bedroom to prepare for the ritual.

I hope you know what you are doing, Cathy nagged.

Trust me. I've memorized everything.

We demons have a saying, she said. 'Never trust a human.'

Well, you are going to have to start.

I rolled up the scroll and stood up from the bed. I placed the scroll on the night stand and dropped to my hands and knees to retrieve the items from under the bed. As the ritual described, I lay the goat's fur out onto the bed ensuring that when I lay down, I would be covering as much as possible. I took the containers of Vlas and honey and pounded them into a paste with a pestle and mortar. I set the mortar on the floor beside the bed and sat down on the goat's fur.

I took a deep breath and opened the vial of blood. The metallic, almost rancid smell made me gag but I dunked my finger into it and removed some blood. It felt almost chunky as I put the cap back onto the vial and drew a circle on my forehead with the blood.

Let's hope that's a perfect circle.

How hard can it be to draw a circle? She asked.

Hard, when you are drawing on your own forehead.

I wiped my finger off on a spare rag I had grabbed for this occasion. I placed the vial on the nightstand before picking up the mortar and pestle from the ground. Using the pestle, I took a scoop of the mixture and opened my mouth but couldn't eat the paste. I took another deep breath and steadied myself before forcing myself to ingest the concoction. The mixture was sweet and bitter at the same time and with the stink of the blood, made me feel dizzy. I placed the pestle and mortar back on the ground and tried to get into position on the goat's fur.

The world went fuzzy as my limbs grew as heavy as rocks. I hoped I was in the proper position.

***

I opened my eyes to the world of my subconscious. The lone tree stood in the middle of the clearing but the whole 'world' was now covered over in a thin haze. The haze was probably a side effect of honey/Vlas paste and I walked through it to the tree.

Cathy, still dressed as 'my wife' from the other dream, was standing half inside the tree with a bored look on her face. The tree had stopped its normal pulsing movement as the scroll described it would. Under the Deep Sleep, my mind would relax and make it easier to release Cathy.

"Let's do this quick," Cathy said in a bored tone.

"And to think, I was just starting to get used to your company," I said sarcastically.

"Don't make me break our deal and kill you," she said.

"Alright, alright," I said holding up my hands in defeat. "So, the set up I've done should be transferring power to me from the world around right now, but it's going to take some time because we don't have other Mages to help me gain power faster. I'm still waiting for the blood of the possessed to work."