"Heh I was wondering when you'd ask me that! It's that old book!" My dad said and pointed towards the huge tome sitting atop our living room table. The tome that my mother's letter was in.
I turned over a few pages but...
"Are you kidding me? The pages are blank."
"Yes! Isn't it wonderful? You can only read this book if it acknoledges you as a member of the Wodin family! There should have been a ring inside your envelop."
I grudged but took out the ring from my bag and gave it a look.
"Go on. Put it on." My father nudged me.
I couldn't take my eyes away from the blue inscription, reading "WODIN". I was repeating it inside my head, over and over. That was the God from which my mother's family got it's name.
"Wodin" I finally said outloud and put the glistering ring on my right's hand ring finger.
The pain was unbearable.
The minute I put the ring on, I felt it strangling my finger as if it was trying to cut it by becoming smaller. And then my whole body weakened while blue sparks came out of the ring's shining inscription. My head also felt like it was about to explode.
The blue sparks, that would have been pretty as hell in the dimlight of the living room, had it not been for the searing pain I felt, targeted my eyes and with a fast and sweep motion rushed towards them.
When I say it felt like hell, I was understating the feeling. My eyes felt penetrated, cut in half, then they felt like they were melting away. The heat radiated inside my skull and I fell over and started shaking.
My poor father tried to hold me down only to be hit by a force field as I was struggling and twitching uncontrollably.
Suddenly, I felt calm, serine.
A male voice, that radiated inside my head said to me in a robotic tone.
"I recognize you as a member of the Wodin family. Daughter of Angelica you are to inherit me. Will you accept the responsibilities and benefits of becoming my master?"
The pain was gone but I still felt dizzy. I thought this book would be the key to learning about my power so I was ready to say yes.
"Are you Magus?" I asked the voice inside my head.
"I am A Magus. Magus's are grimoires. Books of magical knowledge and power."
"Oh.... and what's your name?" I felt kinda stupid conversing with a book but if Alexa, our dumb personal assistant had a name so would this beautiful and magical artificial intelligence.
"I have many names, as many as my users." The Magus told me, in an unemotional tone.
"Then how about I name you... Wiz?" I kinda liked that name, came from wizard. Quite fitting for a male magic book if you ask me.
"I accept. Thus our contract is formed."
As these words formed inside my head a tornado of energy surrounded me and the book that was once on the table now appeared floating in front of me.
"Adolpha Gray of the Wodin family, may the knowledge hidden inside me, of things both physical and magical be of service to your aims."
His voice stopped being robotical, it started reminding me of the voice of Mark, my best friend and when he finished saying that to me, the book suspended in midair suddenly became dust, a million gazillion blue and sparkly particles of dust that surrounded me in a vortex.
The particles danced in the air and then finally were absorbed by my right hand forming a tattoo behind my ring finger. It was the picture of two crows facing each other.
I was so grateful. For this power, this knowledge and the fact that I wouldn't need to carry a thousand pounds book everywhere.
"I-Is it over?" My father scaredly came closer to me.
"Yeah... Dad... I need something of you..."
"What is it sweety?" He asked concerned about me.
"I need to eat something. I feel famished."
I truly did. I was starving. I wanted to get the Magus-thingy, get over to the great tree and then pick up something for dinner, but that final experience broke my will and made me succumb to my hunger.
"Ahahaha" my father broke down laughing. And then I laughed with him too. This was truly a feel good moment.
My father offered to get us dinner at my favorite burger and BBQ place, the Texas Bullevard, because I had a rough day and I "deserved it". The plan was to go there and after that investigate the tree and stay up till late. I liked the plan, the plan seemed great.
We drove towards the huge, texas style BBQ joint that was just outside town, listening to old country songs and feeling great about ourselves. My father started singing to "Sweet home Alabama", even though he was from New York.
We reached the place, ordered our favorites, he got a double crispy chicken and bacon sandwich and I got the baconator, a beautiful burger with 8 slices of crispy bacon and 8 slices of cheddar cheese.
Don't judge me. If magic exists, I bet there will be a weight loss spell.
While we ate we talked about going to the great tree.
Everyone from Hillsborough Meadow knows it. It's a huge, old oak tree a top a hill, next to an abandoned church. It's supposedly thousands of years old and there are oh-so many ghost stories about it, since it used to be an execution ground back in the olden days.
My father shared a story about it I had never heard before. Apparently there was a witch trial here.
"We've all heard about Salem, but to be honest sweetie this one was just as brutal. The great tree's roots were painted red with the three girl's blood and their heads hung from it's branches."
"Were they really witch- I mean Wiccans?"
" Nobody knows. Your mom and I debated on the subject... But I don't think so." My father delved deep into his thoughts. He was like that.
But then his eyes grew bigger. He got up and waived at a person behind me and when I glanced back I saw Mark coming our way.