Chapter Seven

     1

      The moon and the stars bow before me.

"I am just like them," she whispered.

You are nothing simple like them. Your nature is complex, the building blocks for the cosmos. The sooner people realize that the better. After all how much fun is it to always be left out of everything? How does it make you feel to be deemed the black sheep of the herd?

"And what are you then?"

Do you really have to ask that question? I think you already know. I am you. I am the part of you who hasn't forgotten and will do whatever I can to remember because I have seen lifetimes of heartache and despair and I know what must be done to make the humans repent for their sins.

Patty shook her head. "Stop playing games, Ronan."

Do you indeed wish me to cease? I beg to differ. You are only what you want to believe, aren't you? It is time to wake up and reclaim what has been lost. You have to ascend!

2

Patty stared into the flames. Their orange dancing legs kicked upward and then down. They seemed to have no reason for cadence and hardly entertained for the purpose of entertainment. They existed purely because they did and there was real reason for them. Her eyes lingered over the wood they consumed greedily. Snapping and pops marked the sounds of their digestion.

She did not have to turn to know what Brenda and Thomas were up to. Her mind clearly envisioned the two of them squirming like eels in heat somewhere in the bushes. The occasional moan sounded as though Brenda was close to achieving bliss but as Thomas's pants quickened she anticipated she would finish before him. It was a thought she quickly pushed from her mind. It didn't matter what they did.

To her right Peter Reese and his main squeeze Sandi Marx were having their own romp only they did not have the decency to incorporate a bush. From the corner of her eye Patty saw his naked form bouncing in the air. Each stroke gave Sandi something to cry out about and she shivered. It didn't make sense why this was their only common activity shared. Well, not hers as she saw it as a waste of time and effort.

And it is a waste of time and effort! Why would you want to be plowed by some moron when all they will do is nail you and leave to nail the next best thing?

It was poetic justice; she thought and shifted her gaze to the moon. It hung pregnant and among bright stars that almost spoke to her in their twinkle. Beside her Ronan wiggled a finger and the fire raced skyward. It was a storm of flowing fire and spitting wood that ended the fornication ceremony. They scrambled for their clothes and pulled on each garment as though expecting the goddess herself to descend on them.

When they joined Patty at the fire they asked what had caused that. "I don't know."

"I don't know?" Thomas asked. "Is that your answer?"

She slowly turned her head to answer him, her voice dark, "That is the best answer I got, Thomas."

He rubbed his hands together and looked away. She expected him to give her a lecture or a tawdry glance but he flushed with deep pink that suggested he was in no mood. That was all right with her. Often she had wondered how beautiful it might be to see his insides painted against the wall or even the forest setting but then she wondered how such thoughts managed time in her head. She was not a violent person, was she?

"Am I," she asked quietly.

"What," Brenda asked.

"Nothing," Patty said and resumed her gaze into the fire.

"I think we should begin," Brenda said.

"I will be fire," Thomas volunteered as Sandi took the west to represent water.

"I will be air," Peter said and stood east facing the others.

"Patty can be earth," Brenda said though Patty stayed seated where she was at. "Patty," she said and finally Patty dragged herself to the circle being formed. Once she stood at the north point Brenda finished by stating, "And I will be the ether." And she took to the center.

Patty fought the urge to laugh. It tickled the back of her throat but she kept still. There was little to be gained if she did.

"Aren't you supposed to have tools?" Patty asked.

"Tools," Brenda questioned with a lift of her eyebrows.

"Like a wand, chalice, pentacle and stuff," Patty asked.

Brenda bowed her head. "Not for a ritual like this," she answered and then titled back to catch a full view of the heavens.

Peter said in a clear voice, "Mind, intellect, reason, sciences, travel, youth: these are things the east represents!"

Thomas then spoke, "Strength, passion, energy, transformation, will, sex, energy: these are the things fire represents!"

Patty's eyes narrowed. If they were serious Wiccans they needed serious help.

Sandi then cried out, "Emotions, intuition, daring, wisdom, clarity, healing: these things are represented by water!"

Now all eyes turned onto Patty and Brenda instructed her on what to say as she whispered, "Stability, order, grounding, silence, birth, death, beginnings, endings, fertility: these are things represented by earth."

 Patty looked skyward. "Stability, order, grounding, silence, birth, death, beginnings, endings, fertility: these are things earth represents."

Then Brenda finished by saying, "Immanence and transcendence, everything and nothing: these things are represented by ether!"

     Patty watched them bow their heads as silence followed. She did not know what to expect and thought this might be it until Brenda raised her face skyward and said, "We are here to honor the Goddess in all her glory. We are honored to be her humble servants and will obey her every command!"

The others responded by saying in unison, "So mote it be."

"Give us a sign of your pleasure with us," Brenda said. Her arms outstretched in the direction of the moon.

Oh, I will, Ronan hissed and Patty stiffened.

Patty tilted her head to one side. The moon simply hung there. It offered nothing more than a dull pathway of light. She waited and waited some more. When her nerves began to tick in her face she cleared her throat and Brenda glanced her way.

"Are you sure she is listening," Patty asked.

The others looked up.

"She always listens," Brenda said.

"Just checking," Patty said and resumed her stare up at the beautiful scared circle. She started to imagine it streaked with rust and corroded. Bands wrapped around its wide waist. They filtered in fine strands up and down. When it was covered a dull beam shaded her face and she now gazed at what she had exactly imagined.

It looks better now, Ronan chuckled. See what my power can do?

Gasps resonated among the others and hands clamped over mouths as they stared upward.

"Praise the goddess," Brenda said in a breathless tone.

The others responded in kind. "Praise the Goddess! Praise the Goddess! Praise the Goddess!"

Patty was silent. Her eyes flickered with a similar hue as the moon and as they cleared so did their moon.  She lowered her face. It was...slipping. She could feel it slipping from some foreign substance within her core. Her eyes rounded and she nearly doubled over as it swept through her like molten hot lava. It was then she realized Ronan's voice amongst the chaos swirling in her head.

The power is slipping. I don't know if I can control it. It feels like a roaming monster with fangs bared and claws ready to swipe. I do not understand how it is able to slip like this. How can I control it? I know I can. I know it cannot get the best of me because I am better than it. I am more than…?

"Patty," Brenda's voice slashed through.

Waving branches cut the moonlight and shadowed their faces as she looked at them. The wind had started to rustle faster and faster through the foliage and the harder she breathed the harder it gust. Her back flared. It filled her ribs with pressure and seemed to constrict her airways.

You don't have airways. You don't need to breathe! It is all a foolish game and you need to stop!

Patty closed her eyes. She thought how grand it would be if the world plunged into silence. Voices would be mute and the annoying chirp of crickets would cease. Then her mind shifted. To hell with silence, she thought as the wind roared and muffled screams forced her to peer at a whirlwind of leaves. They were tunneling skyward and kicking up spits of dirt and twigs.

It tightened in her chest then. A frown scrawled on her face. As her eyes darkened they resembled a formless void only as it rose from her sparks of cherry lightning flashed within them and she pushed from her mind. A wave projected at once and inside of a tunnel the leaves were a tidal wave crashing and blowing over the others. When it cleared they were laying strewn on the ground.

Patty took a few steps toward them and folded her arms across her chest.

Let me in, Patty. Let me have control over your existence.

"What was that?" She heard Peter ask.

"I don't know," Patty lied.

He was not talking to her but she wanted to throw in her two bits before someone did ask her. She gave him a slanted glance and then turned. The trees still swung but not as before. They had slowed though slightly.

"I think the Goddess is trying to tell us something," Brenda said softly once the others were on their feet.

Patty rubbed her knuckles and sighed as Ronan’s voice echoed in her head.

 The Goddess as they knew her doesn’t exist. I can see beyond the stars into assortments of galaxies and see that even outside your solar system life on other planets is just as pathetic and weak. They don’t harvest impressive skills.

We have to unmask the truth. Without the truth we are destined to survive this misery and become less of what we are meant to be.

"What is she trying to tell us," Sandi asked.

Patty jerked her head to look at them. As she approached she rolled her hands into fists. "She is saying your rituals are pathetic. If you are true Wiccans you will practice the old ways as they were written hundreds of years ago."

For a moment no one said a thing, their eyes wide. She almost expected them to snicker or at least for Thomas to jeer and pull Brenda off for another ride on the Thomas express, but even he stood as though he had become a statue.

"How would you know," Brenda asked. "You aren't a Wiccan."

"Perhaps not, but neither are you.” Patty countered.  “Whatever happened to altars and offerings to the gods and goddesses you worship and believe in? Where are your sacred ceremonial tools?"

They know they have let their carnal desires ruin their relationship with their religions.

"If you know so much then why don't you show us," Thomas said, his eyes glinting as his jaw tightened.

Yes, teach them the old ways, but not the ways of the witch. We will teach them the ways of the Ancient.