After spending time with Elise at her house, Finnegan couldn't stop feeling grateful that the Universe had brought her into his life, but something still nagged at him. Where was this all going? All he wanted to do was to cultivate his ability as a wizard and become a High Priest. That was why he spent so much time learning from his parents and working on his own to find a higher understanding. He had already reached his Third point on the scale.
There were 10 points of mastery for any witch or wizard. The First point was a dot. It represented a point of being. It represented the Self, and it was often the hardest point to overcome. The Second point was two dots with a line connecting them. It represented becoming, growth, and moving forward out of the Self. The Third point was three dots with lines connecting them, forming a triangle. It represented the connection of the Self, to the World outside the Self, and to the Higher Self. The Fourth Point was four dots connected to form a square. The Fifth was five dots connected to form a five-pointed star, The Sixth was a six-pointed star, the Seventh a seven-pointed star, and so on, until you reached the Highest level, a ten-pointed star. But the thing to remember is that even if you have cultivated your ability to reach the Highest level, the First point is just as important as the Tenth. Regardless of how powerful you were, you were nothing if you did not continue to flow between the lower points to the highest point of mastery. Power comes from within, but it builds upon itself, and though you have previously mastered lower points on the scale, you must continually work at them. Mastery is a life-long objective. Even those who reach the Tenth level must work just as hard to maintain their mastery.
The guests that came to visit all left after dinner. When the last person had left, Finnegan told his parents about the project Elise and he were working on. He also told them he invited her to stay for dinner after they finished the experiment on Monday. His parents were a little nervous about Elise coming over, but when they heard about the experiment she wanted to do, they thought it sounded like a good idea. The slight twinge of relief Finnegan felt at his parents' quick approval was short-lived. When they realized that this was the first time he felt comfortable enough to invite someone over, and it was a girl, they began to tease him.
"Ooh, Finny, this sounds serious. When you get married, can we perform the ceremony. Do you think she would mind to have a pagan wedding? Do we need to wear our white robes or our black, or one black and one white..." They went back and forth with sarcastic, breathlessly amorous voices.
Finnegan just rolled his eyes. He knew they were only trying to get under his skin. He cleaned up the dinner dishes while they were still making imaginary wedding plans for Finnegan and Elise and went to his sacred space. Their laughter continued until he was out of earshot.
Elise seemed like she didn't know very much about religion in general. Finnegan hated to have purely religious conversations because they could become too deep too quickly, and it was difficult to steer the conversation back to something more mild. But maybe, just maybe, she would... well, that's not something I should speculate on.
Finnegan instead turned his attention to the trunk his grandmother left him. It had an old lock on it. Finnegan went to his desk and pulled out the envelope with the letter in it from his grandmother where she expressly stated Finnegan was to have the trunk. The key to the trunk was inside. He took out the key and opened the trunk, halfway hoping for something miraculous to happen.
The lid creaked open anti-climactically, and inside were some old leather-bound books with etchings of the Tree of Life and the Horned God and the Triple Goddess symbol on them. He took them out one by one, inspecting the covers and setting them aside. There was an athame, a blade with a black handle with both edges sharpened. There were several containers of varying size and decoration filled with different stones and amulets without cords. It was filled with lots of candles and incense sticks and oils. And there was a special feather pen, carefully wrapped in a leather skin, and some blood-red ink and some leaves of bamboo paper. All of these things were very useful, and probably extremely sacred to his grandmother. They were probably things she used often, and took great care to preserve. So, no miracle, but it was definitely special. Finnegan sat reverently for a while, sending his thoughts to his grandmother's soul to thank her for these gifts and promising he would do his best to honor them.
Finnegan slowly and methodically replaced the items back into the trunk. When he got to the last leather-bound book, he decided to sit back and look through it. It was a Book of Shadows. His grandmother had taken very detailed notes of the spells she worked, her process or preparation, the materials she used in every craft or spell or ritual, and even the outcomes. Finnegan didn't read every page thoroughly, but just as he was about to put it down, he found a page that was titled 'Transformation Spell.' He lingered over this one for a while longer before putting everything away and going inside to get ready for bed. As a rule, Finnegan never took his arcane items out of the shed unless he was going to perform a ritual or spell in another location. He made a wizard's bottle, that he buried under the earth at the entrance of the shed, which sealed his protection spell. No one could enter the sacred space if they had malevolent intentions.
Although, sometimes, there was a ritual or spell that needed more room than the small circle the shed would allow. That was when he would take to the forest.
...
The next morning, Finnegan awoke to the sound of classic rock music blaring through the house. He got dressed and walked into the kitchen where his parents were singing along to the song that was playing and dancing around while they prepared breakfast. His dad was at the stove, flipping pancakes, and his mom was on deck ,ready to pour the batter for the next one and decorate the one in the pan with fruit and chocolate chips.
He wanted to ask them what had them in such a good mood, but there was no point with the music as loud as it was. And he would only disappoint them if they didn't get to finish the song. Finnegan just went to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup before taking a seat at the table. The song ended, and Finnegan's dad turned the volume down before the next song started.
"Hey there, Finn. Good morning!" his dad said cheerfully.
"Want some pancakes, hun? theeey're freeesh!" his mom drew out the words to try to make the pancakes more enticing.
"Sure, I guess. What's the special occasion?" Finnegan asked.
His mom pouted. "Hmph! Why can't I just want to have pancakes on a Sunday morning? I tried to make waffles, but I can't remember where I put the waffle iron. I need to use that thing more often to justify keeping it around."
"Alright, alright, but what's with blasting music this early? You guys seem more chipper than usual today. It's kind of freaking me out."
"Okay, you caught us," his dad held his hands up in mock surrender. "The truth is, your mom put out this morning, and I really gave it to her." His dad winked at Finnegan and reached out to give his wife a gentle squeeze on her buttocks. His mom giggled and smacked his hand away.
"Ugh! Don't tell me that! What is wrong with you? I'm definitely not hungry now." Finnegan took his coffee back to his room. The music resumed at a high volume once his door was closed.
Finnegan's room was a mess. He didn't usually keep it picked up, but he thought maybe, Elise would want to see his room. Not that it was anything special, but if they had to retreat somewhere away from his parents because they wouldn't stop embarrassing him or interrogating her, this was the only place they could go. He couldn't take her to the shed, and his parents would torment them everywhere else.
He started by picking up his laundry and stripping the bed. If he washed the sheets and cleaned the clothes littering the floor, maybe the smell in here would improve. He piled everything into a laundry basket and carried it to the laundry room to start the first load. Once that was started, he went back to his room and gathered up the trash that had accumulated under his bed and on his bedside table. He tied up the trash bag, and got the trash from the bathroom across the hall too. He put a fresh bag in both trash bins and straightened up the shoes piled in the floor of his closet. Almost every pair was accounted for except for his black combat boots. There was only one. The mate wasn't anywhere in the closet. Eh. He tossed it back in the pile and closed the closet door.
There was a large plastic container sitting on top of Finnegan's dresser where he kept his pet ball python, Dolores. He cleaned off the top of the dresser and decided to clean out Dolores' habitat too. He removed the lid of the container and found her coiled up under her log. He gently stroked her to let her know he was there, and when she lifted her head to look at him, he slid his hand underneath her and lifted her out.
"Hey, Dolores. How are you, pretty girl? Are you almost ready for a meal?" Finnegan cooed at her and then set her on the floor. While he was removing the old substrate and putting fresh substrate in, he let Dolores explore. She couldn't leave the room if he closed the door and rolled up a towel to keep her from squeezing under the door and getting stuck. When the habitat was cleaned and reassembled, Finnegan had to pull Dolores out from under the bed. She liked to discover new places to hide under. While he was down there, Finnegan found the mate to his combat boot and a pair of earbuds and a couple tee shirts that had gotten kicked out of the way and forgotten.
He pulled Dolores out from under the bed and sprayed her down with some lukewarm water. He wiped her with a towel he kept on the dresser just for Dolores, and placed her back in her habitat. Finnegan tossed the boot back into the closet, placed the earbuds on the bedside table, and went back to check the laundry, taking the shirts, from under the bed, and the towel he used for Dolores with him.
He continued methodically cleaning his entire room until he stood in the doorway and surveyed it, trying to look from Elise's perspective. Maybe she would be impressed. At least she wouldn't smell anything unpleasant. And if she doesn't like snakes, I can just cover the habitat with a blanket.
Suddenly, he realized how hungry he was. It was almost 3 o'clock! He didn't have breakfast and worked through lunch. Man! Feeling satisfied with his room, he went to the kitchen to make something to eat. At least his parents were gone or hiding out in the basement. As long as they weren't in the kitchen.