"What's his name again?" I ask Amiyah as we stand outside of a home that looks abandoned. The rest of the houses in The Coven look presentable, but this one does not. It looks creepy. The trees and grass are overgrown, windows are broken with tarps to replace them. The wood looks like it's being eaten away by termites. The point is—it just doesn't look safe.
"Benjamin," Amiyah replies. Before we even reach the door, it swings open. A messy-looking old man walks out holding a cane. Patches of his hair are missing, his clothes look like they haven't been washed in years, and his beard needs a serious trim.
"What'dya want, Amiyah?! Who's this scrawny girl and pretty boy you bringing over?"
"Nice to see you too, Benjy, the scrawny girl is Alyssa Valentine, the uh…the other one is her brother. She needs your help."
"It's okay to call me pretty." Elijah pushes his hand through his twists.
"Alyssa Valentine? Why does that sound so familiar? Besides the Valentine part," Benjamin asks.
"She's Helen's daughter."
He laughs to himself. "And what help could I potentially give the daughter of the most talented magic user this coven has ever seen? It's in her blood."
"On the contrary, sir. I'm not as talented as Helen. I need your help to stop her. She's going to destroy Athys, and a lot of other countries as well. I have to learn how to perform: Divine Possession, or Soul Transfer—as it's named in Helen's grimoire. I need to possess her body."
"Ha!" He shouts. "I hope she succeeds. Screw you royals." He slams the door in our faces. I don't hesitate for a moment to walk up to it and bang on it.
"I hate what my family has done too!" I shout. "I won't stop until I fix every wrong they've committed. But first, I need to right my own wrong. I let her out, she's my responsibility."
After a few moments, he opens the door. "Come in, just you. No one else."
I wave Amiyah and Elijah goodbye, all the while terrified at the thought of being in this creepy house. Am I judging? Maybe.
"Explain your situation to me," he says closing the door behind us. "Everything that's brought you here. I'm curious, what makes you so different?"
I pause for a moment just to take in the surroundings, the inside isn't too different from the outside. Much like Charlotte's house was—books are scattered everywhere. Bags of trash and torn papers fill every inch of the floor. I don't know where to sit, so I just stand.
"Where do I even start? Helen sealed herself within me using that spell; I have this mysterious ability to absorb magic and seals." I show my palm. "And I somehow released Helen back into the world. Or maybe she found a way out herself…? I'm not sure."
"Light and fire? There's never been such a combination, consider yourself rare. Those two together would produce something similar to Holy Fire, no?"
I nod my head.
"I also notice you don't call your own mother: mom."
"She's not my mom….I-I don't have one. But, back to this spell. I need to learn it as quickly as possible."
He sighs and maneuvers through the trash-filled floor and over to a wooden table that doesn't look sturdy. He pushes all the books filling the seats onto the floor and gestures for me to sit.
"Chaos magic is not something you should be eager to learn," he says as I walk over, trying not to step on his things.
"Why's that?" I ask.
"First, it's not for us to use. We must give an offering in order to harness the power."
"An offering? Like sacrifices?"
"You can call it that. There are two steps to be initiated in order to start. You must sacrifice your blood first. A purposeful slash to the hand. If you're chosen, you're on your way to learning."
The old Alyssa would run away at this point. But this new me cares less and feels a deep-seated responsibility to fix this mess. There's a part of me wondering if I can trust him though—If he's telling me the truth. I need to learn more about him but I don't want to seem pushy.
"On my way to learning? How long will this take?"
"You said Helen sealed herself within you?"
"Yes." I nod my head.
"Then you should be able to perform an inverse spell. Two auras that were once bonded together never truly separate. A small percentage of her aura is still within you. It'll allow you to call upon her and her soul. The inverse spell works as a sort of signal fire."
"So it'll be easier for me to learn then?"
"Precisely, as well as, you can keep your body."
All of my worries just went out of the window, well, not all, but some at least. "Then teach me, please! When this is over, I'll make sure you have any amenities and luxuries you'd like!"
"You royals." He scoffs. "I'm fine with what I have!"
"I'm sorry. It was just my way of thanking you."
"There's no need to thank me. Teaching someone chaos magic is not something to be thanked for. Helen is the one who taught me, of course, who else? The things you see….and experience are nothing short of horrid."
"I was wondering how you knew so much. You were one of her followers? I thought you all were banished with her?"
He nods his head. "I'm the last one left after Charlotte's death. Luckily Maria and I grew up together. She has a soft spot for me. I was also allowed to stay here because I was the only follower of Helen's that learned chaos magic. It's such an old form of magic that no one outside of Helen and myself knows it. Maria thought I'd be useful someday—to someone. And maybe she's right. I swear she's some sort of seer. I'll help you. But I'm not responsible for what happens once you open that door."
"I understand, and thank you, Benjy."
"Benjamin," he corrects me. "No one calls me Benjy besides the demigod girl.
Demigod….? Is he talking about Amiyah? I brush past it and hold out Helen's grimoire. "Do you need her spells?"
"No." He shakes his head. "It's all in my mind. We'll start with the basics of what's required to perform the spell before we attempt any offering. Are you able to harness both of your seals at the same time?"
"Um, slightly, I think." I feel embarrassed. "I've been training with Amiyah but I kind of cut it short when I decided to do this."
"It's understandable, you were only born with the light seal. Learning another seal on top of that is tricky. I've never come across anyone with the ability to absorb magic. It's possible it comes from your parents both possessing light seals? It's the strongest seal, yet still so mysterious. And it only being a bloodline seal for your family makes it impossible for anyone else to study."
"I hate it," I say. "I want to know why me, why did it have to be me out of all people? And I know no one knows the answer to that. I just have to keep going and make something out of it."
"I stopped asking 'why me' a long time ago. Instead, I ask what is it trying to teach me. All the years of solitude, being shunned by my own family, and community for siding with Helen. Everything that's led me to her daughter showing up on my doorstep. There's something there, you know?"
"So you believe in fate?"
"No, not fate. But, I believe it all happens for a reason, as painful as it can be." He stands up from the table and heads to the patio in the back of the room. "Come take a step outside with me."
We walk into a beautiful garden where luscious flowers are blooming. This part of the home looks like it doesn't belong here. It's filled with an array of colors and smells like heaven compared to his house.
"Do you ever get used to this? The beauty?" I ask.
"Never." He smiles. "These are my people though." He points to the flowers. "I keep to myself and tend to these flowers. But, take a seat in the dirt, legs crossed." I do as he instructs, he tells me to differentiate between the two auras within me. If I want to harness Helen's aura within myself, I need to first learn how to harness both seals on my palm. I turn my palms over so they face the sky. He tells me to activate only the light seal.
"Are you sure you want to do this here? Last time a fire burst from my palm….and we're in a garden."
"Don't worry, none of the natural life here is affected by seals."
"Really?!"
"For some strange reason, flowers, bushes, trees, grass. They're all unaffected. I trust you. Just breathe through it, find only the light aura within your body."
I do as he says, with my eyes on my palm praying that the fire seal doesn't activate. My light seal glows white for five seconds before the fire seal begins to shine. I start to panic, ready to stop, but Benjamin shouts for me to keep going. A small flame bursts into the air but I keep pushing through, trying to only concentrate on the light seal. I slow down my breathing—close my eyes, centering all of my attention on my palm, and only the light seal. After a couple of moments, I open my eyes to see only the light seal shining….I get too excited and the fire seal begins to glow before I stop completely.
"Not bad," Benjamin says. "We'll continue with this for the next few days."
Two days go by, and Benjamin is comfortable enough with me to allow Elijah to visit as well. We've been staying with him, helping him clean up a bit to make space for us. He's a wonderful cook—no surprise. He also has a lot of strange books to read. A lot on history—history before multi-seals. The struggle for power even predates us. I've been using my time to study the possession spell in-depth as well. Mainly how to go about performing it. Benjamin has instructed me to use the knowledge he's teaching me on aura control and projection to call upon Helen. I need to solely focus on her aura within my body, at which point a link will be created between us where I'll be able to 'pull her out of her own body.' As Benjamin puts it.
At this point, I've gotten a grasp on activating one seal at a time. And now for the first time, he has me activate both at once. I do, and a small ball of white flame floats in my hand. But I feel the urge to do something else—extinguish it. I'm not sure why but the thought just popped into my head. And for a split second, I swear I saw a damn fedora again. I ignore it and focus on my palm. I use my absorption ability and my newly found skill over controlling aura to make the flames disappear.
"Fascinating!" Benjamin says proudly. "Now it's time for you to do the same with your natural aura energy. You've seen people able to make their natural aura visible? You need to learn how to do the same. This lesson is to teach you to differentiate between your own aura and the aura within you that belongs to Helen. We'll start small—build it within both of your palms. Go inward and focus on your natural energy."
From my training with Amiyah to this, I have better control over my aura. I'm not ashamed to say that watching Helen fight has taught me a lot as well. Seeing someone do things in your body you thought you could never do.I channel both auras into my palms, I feel two distinct energies within me. My right palm shines with a yellow aura, and my left is purple.
"Which one is mine?" I ask Benjamin.
"Your aura will manifest in your dominant hand—yellow. It's a strong aura." He says. "I'm not surprised, Your family is known to have a firm grasp on all things aura. You're ready for the offering now."
"That's it? That was so quick. What do I need to do now?" I ask. He draws a symbol on a sheet of paper. "Draw this in your blood," He says handing it to me. It's a circle with four squiggly lines on the outside that look like long 'S's' stretched out. There are also dots placed at seemingly random points.
"I just want to say that I don't approve of this," Elijah says walking over to us.
"What's going to happen again?" I ask.
"If accepted, you'll feel a rush of energy surge throughout your body unlike anything you've ever felt, your wound will also heal. Try not to enjoy it too much, it can be addicting."
"And what happens if I'm not accepted?"
"Your hand will bear a wound that will turn into a scar. Those who aren't accepted can never be accepted."
"Who does this accepting?"
"A demon." He says bluntly. "A high-ranking one we believe. After this, there's one more step to achieving chaos magic. We'll cross the bridge when we get there."
Elijah shakes his head and sighs deeply. "Alyssa, are you sure about this…? I'm assuming whatever got into Father was one of these things?"
"Harris was possessed?!" Benjamin asks, shocked.
"By a demon named Lilith," I say.
"Lilith?! How could she possibly possess a Valentine? The light seal and Valentine blood should negate her. It's the reason she went after your mother. Helen was born outside of the family, and all she needed to do was taint her with a shadow seal."
I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm too focused on what feels like giving my soul away.
"We need a knife," I say. "One thing at a time, okay? Let's focus on this."
Benjamin tells Elijah where to find a pocket knife, he grabs it and brings it back to me. I cut the tip of my index finger and draw the symbol on a piece of paper. "What now?"
"Slash your palm the bears your seals. Place your palm on the paper and pour your natural aura energy, that would be your yellow aura.
I slash my hand and place it on the piece of paper. From the soles of my feet to the top of my head, it feels like my blood just rushed. It's—It's euphoric. The tip of my tongue tastes like something sweet, my ears ring in a light tone that sounds like a note being played on a piano. All of this is followed by a lightheaded feeling and a tingling sensation on my palm. It ends abruptly, I turn my palm over and the slash is healed.
"It worked…?!"
Suddenly there's a knock on Benjamin's door. He goes to answer yelling the entire time that he wishes people would leave him alone. David rushes in.
"It's Helen," he says. "She's killed King Ramon of the Urbenheyer family."