Chapter 66 - The First Ritual

Bjorn, child of chains, knew not his father - some whispered Skorri, others the gods. But his eyes held a storm and his fists closed quick around steel.

He grew with fire in his bones and a hunger in his soul, burning to carve his name in the ice of fate, so all who walked Midgard would remember Bjorn Rosearson

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 6

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Professor Paracelsus flicked his wand, and a half-dozen ritual slates went soaring through the air, neatly landing on everyone’s desk.

“All of your slates are now acceptable for the first ritual we’re going to perform.” He said. “Renard, I know you’re eager, but please, stick to the script for the first ritual. Only modify and practice after class, not during. Once again, if you don’t want to get yourself killed, run the modifications past me first. Now, please put your components on the slate, in the correct places.”

Felix looked down at his pentagram, pleased as punch that he’d gotten it right the first time, but mildly frustrated by how many iterations it had taken for everyone else to get theirs done properly. Was it really that hard to measure angles, put down a hard surface, and draw a straight line? Like. They were all given equipment! Sora had tried to freehand her circle, instead of using a compass. And her handwriting wasn’t even good!

Clearly, yes, if the number of times Paracelsus had made some of them redo their pentagram was any indication.

They’d spent the last few weeks working on the basic theory of rituals, along with preparing the standard components. At long last, it was time for them to perform their first, basic ritual.

Components were important. Chalk to draw the pentagram and circle on the slate, and write out the appropriate hieroglyphs. Then the sacrifices.

Felix put a snapped stick on one corner of the pentagram. The fundamental fuel of fire, wood had been burned for so long that the groove in magic was immense. Fire had been burning wood since before any life had crawled on Earth’s shores - fire, wood, and lightning as the spark.

Bottling lightning was a little more advanced than the class needed, and would make the ritual far more energetic than anyone wanted.

Ash was next. The final product, completion and memory. Felix had a persistent note to research why ash was related to memory, but there was always something more pressing to read. It frustrated him that there were endless things to learn, but only a limited amount of time to do it in. Why couldn’t he learn everything?

Felix was used to other kids having stuff he didn’t. It was just life.

But William Winter managed to make him feel envious in a whole new way. The boy had the entire curriculum placed in his head already. The Winter family had worked out some Light magic to allow for knowledge transfer without screwing up the underlying personality.

Such bullshit. If Felix could get everything already, he’d be able to go so far. As it was, one of his peers had been catapulted almost two decades ahead of the rest of them. 

After ash was water, of all things. It had surprised Felix when he first heard it would be one of their components, but that was what the weeks of lecture were about. Water was supposed to balance the ritual and restrain it. This was a classroom. If they wanted a huge flame, they could replace water with oil, going from suppressing and controlling the reaction, to creating a huge, runaway flame. 

‘Naturally, you run the risk of the flames becoming so large and hot that you become additional fuel for the ritual’ had been Paracelsus’s dry way of letting them know they’d probably severely injure themselves if they tried it. It had been an excellent introduction to how changing the components of a ritual, all else being the same, could dramatically change the outcome.

Even how they collected and treated components changed the outcome. Felix was fascinated - it seemed like the field just kept going on and on and on, with boundless depths.

Salt was a second component for stability, and was the bridge between water and the final control element, wax.

Specifically, candle wax. The simple act of taking beeswax, wrapping it around a thread, and lighting the thread at least once changed it from beeswax - wild and uncontrolled - to candlewax, which was all about keeping the size of the flame small and regulated.

One of their homework questions had been to research why three control elements were used, instead of four. Felix had gotten a djinn grade - thanks to Beatrix and Chris - for explaining that any more control would simply smother the nascent flame, resulting in nothing happening as a result.

Felix put all five components down on his pentagram, and scooted back in his chair. He didn’t want to accidentally bump anything while Paracelsus walked around the room, double-checking everyone’s work.

“Sutter. Well done.” Paracelsus praised with a quick glance at his setup. Felix felt mildly embarrassed at how happy the praise made him. He was being recognized for his work! Yes!

He refused to examine why Paracelsus’s praise meant so much more than the other professors, and the golden-haired man in question moved on to Sora’s.

“Park. Carefully place each component. Your wax isn’t centered properly.”

Sora grumbled under her breath, but moved the wax over.

“Better.” Paracelsus moved on.

He eventually reached the front of the room again.

“Now. One at a time, I’m going to ask you to perform the ritual of small flames. Sutter, you may begin.”

Felix was hit by a moment of stage fright, but was able to quickly wrestle it down.

While magic theory and history had been great for teaching Felix quite a lot of the background needed for rituals, languages was undeniably the star of the show. The small flame ritual was old, and both the runes and the chant were in Egyptian. Newer, more modern rituals used Latin with other runes as the base language, and next season they were going to learn how to transform and translate the ritual themselves. Still, this class was all about the basics, and the basics started with Egyptian - which did not translate well to the Latin alphabet at all.

Felix took in a deep breath, and started chanting.

“ink sa n hka,
ink wab m jb, wab m kht.

Di n i ta khet n ta psdt,
hay n i ta mw r htp,
sdr n i ta ta r mnkh.

Pkhret m pt, pkhret m ta,
ir n i sn m tp sakh.

Nesert wrt, nbt kaw,
ii m hr i,
ii m hr hat.

Khat hr kha,
psdt,
khat hr kha.

di khet pn hay,
di s psd,
di s kha sheps.

nfr pw kha pn,
mn m htp,
khpr m hka.”

Which roughly translated to

“I am a son of magic,
I am pure in heart, pure in body.

I give the substance to the Ennead,
I pour water for calmness,
I lay salt for control.

Fire is in the sky, fire is in the earth,
I have joined them upon the sacred place.

O great Flame, lady of burning power,
Light my face,
Light my world.

Let Flame beget fire,
Great Ennead,
Let fire beget flame.

Let this substance rise,
Let it burn,
Let it become a noble flame.

Good is this flame,
Enduring in peace,
Brought into being through magic.”

Old, ridiculously wordy, and once again proving that wizards had an utterly unhealthy fascination with all things fire. One interesting aspect to transforming the ritual was the invocation of the Ennead. Not in Egyptian? Needed to invoke a different pantheon of gods.

All of the words were carefully rehearsed, but even so Felix’s accent was subpar. Only so many hours he could devote to learning the ins and outs of Egyptian, not when there were so many other things to learn.

Felix could feel his magic slowly, sluggishly leaving him as he chanted. He started to sweat - would he have given enough by the time the ritual ended? Or would he need to start over at the beginning and redo the entire thing?

He did his best to banish that thought as he continued to chant. The chalk lines and hieroglyphics of the ritual circle began to glow silver with magic. His voice went louder and louder, before finishing on one final hka -  MAGIC!

The components vanished in a flash of magic, and a small flame flickered to life in the center of the pentagram, hovering a few inches above the slate. Like a candle, without the candlestick.

“Excellent work!” Paracelsus praised. “Now, focus on your magic. Focus on the connection. Take control of the flame, and bend it to your will.”

It took time - more time than Felix would’ve liked - but he was able to follow the link he’d made to the ritual, and thus the flame, and slowly reached out with his magic. He cupped it gently around the flickering flame, and with an exertion of will, made it slowly move around the circle.

“Good job.” Paracelsus praised. “Now, ordinarily I would have Sutter continue to feed the flame until his magic ran out, but he is lucky enough to be a regenerator. Sutter, when you’re done, disconnect yourself from the ritual.”

Felix could take a hint. He slowly drew his magic back into himself, and without the fuel, the flame flickered out of existence.

“Excellent. Take ten points for that wonderful ritual. Park, your turn.” Paracelsus said.

Felix spent a few minutes glowing in the praise, then a thought occurred to him.

Wait. His magic was actively fueling the ritual while the flame was lit. Why did he think he also needed to supply enough magic during the chanting?

He didn’t even sigh. Felix wiped his ritual slate clean, packed it away, then cracked open his textbook to see what his misunderstanding was - or to check if it was both.

Never done.

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The whole coven met up at the end of the day, as usual. Felix wanted nothing more than to talk about the ritual they’d all just done - but knew better than to jump right into it. Not all of them were as excited about learning new magic as he was, and he knew his moment would come. It didn’t stop him from having it on the tip of his tongue, ready to jump in the moment he got an opening.

It might make him a mediocre friend and a bad listener, but sue him - he was excited about it! It was the most magical thing he’d done, and it had worked, first time!

Sure, the other students had larger, hotter flames, but they inevitably winked out after a few seconds, a minute tops.

“Hey Felix!” Erik waved to him with a grin.

“Yeah?” Felix asked.

“Guess what I got you?”

“What?” Felix asked, curious. Erik wasn’t in the habit of buying people random things, so he had no idea what he’d gotten him.

“A picture!” Erik grinned and slid it over. It was a beautiful picture of Felix at his ritual circle, flame hovering right in front of him. Given that it had just happened a few hours ago, Felix remembered the scene well - and there had been nothing in the spot where the camera should’ve been.

“What- how!?” Felix demanded. Erik grinned.

“I figured your mother would like a picture of you here at Camelot. A little peek into your new world. And how… divination, duh? Aren’t you paying attention?” Erik teased.

Felix was touched, and didn’t miss the looks the girls were giving Erik. Alexandria was definitely developing a crush on the Morsin heir… good for her. Felix idly wondered if she was aware of it yet, then firmly filed that under ‘none of his business’.

Sora opened her mouth, and Hazel, of all people, poked her hard in the ribs.

“No.” She told the other girl. Sora shut her mouth, then Hazel looked around in wide-eyed panic.

“Eeep!” She scampered off a second later like a scalded cat. Vivian sighed.

“Well. I guess I’ll go get her then?”