The Foolhardies 5 The Ritual

"How long are you planning to stare at it?" Arah asked in a playful tone.

"Well, it is a nice door," Ty added, jokingly.

"Hilarious," I answered. Inwardly, I was regretting calling the two of them for backup.

Although my hand reached out for the door's brass handle I couldn't bring myself to open it.

"Any day now, Dean," Arah pressed.
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"Give him a break. He probably hasn't gone in since…" Ty didn't finish his sentence.

He was right. After dad's death, the study became a dark and dreary place full of memories of a father I would never see again. It had become forbidden territory. The room you walked by the corridor without a second glance.

But then why was I subjecting myself to this emotional torture, you ask? Because dad knew about fairies long before anyone else in my family did. Hell, he wrote about them in his novels and in his research. He even made a deal with them to sacrifice Luca for me. By simple deduction, it meant there were definitely clues to find in the study.

"This isn't the time to hesitate," I whispered. "It's a time for action…"

I pulled open the door and walked into the smell of old paper and varnished wood.

On either wall of the square space were shelves overburdened with heavy-looking volumes of books and manila folders. At the opposite end of the room was a hardwood table. Its partner was a plush high-back chair. Dust covered the room's only window located behind the chair.

Arah was the first to step into the study, and the hardwood floor panels creaked at her passing.

"We're only searching for information regarding fairies, yes?" she asked as her eyes took in the rows of shelves.

"Yeah… because there's way too much stuff here," Ty added.

Ty's observation was an understatement. It would take us days to sift through all of my dad's notes.

"Why do you think I called you two?" I asked, wryly.

"You will owe us dinner for this, Dean," Arah said.

I nodded. "Sure. Later. Now we have to work…"

Ty joined Arah inside the room, but I idled by the door. I needed another second to center myself because just being in dad's study brought out a torrent of memories to the forefront of my mind, and with these memories came the simmering rage I'd been nursing since I learned about my family's enemies.

I cleared my throat. "Ready player one."

"Ready player two," Arah added.

"Ready player three," Ty finished.

It was our mantra, the words we said whenever we needed to psyche ourselves up for whatever huge task we were tackling. Yes, it sounded super nerdy, but to be fair, we've been saying it since we were nine.

The usual pump-up ritual done, I walked over to the east shelf where dad kept the reference materials for his work and pulled out the thinnest volume in the entire collection.

On its brown leather cover, written in gold script, were the words "Dapper's Fairy Tales Volume I." It was a series of short stories about fairies from all over the world that dad compiled and edited into a two-hundred-page anthology book. It was his very first best-seller.

I flipped open the cover and began to read. Thirty minutes passed before I tucked the book into my jacket pocket. I wasn't sure if any of the fantastical stories found inside would be of any help but there was an interesting bit in there about how iron was deadly to fairies. It deserved more scrutiny later.

Arah, who'd been sitting on the high-back chair, called me over. As soon as I reached her, she showed me the title of the folder she'd been reading.

A STUDY ON THE SUPERNATURAL POWERS OF THE FAIR FOLK AND THEIR WEAKNESSES

The file inside the folder contained articles hypothesizing the supposed abilities fairies possessed.

"Listen to this," Arah began reciting. "Fairy glamour — an illusion used by dark fay to appear beautiful to mortals. However, once a human sees a fairy's true form, the glamour will never again affect them for they will never unsee the ugliness hidden inside."

"Interesting," I said. "How exactly can you see past the glamour?"

"Give me a sec," Arah scanned the document. "Salt… you need salt."

"What are you supposed to do with salt?" I asked.

"Maybe you season them with it," Ty joked from the other side of the room.

I ignored him and kept my eyes focused on Arah. I believe she found this uncomfortable as she raised an eyebrow at me in response.

"You know fairies aren't real, right?" she asked.

Since I didn't actually tell them the true reason we were researching fairies, I brushed off her concern with the lie I'd prepared beforehand.

"Yeah-yeah, for sure. I'm just… I thought that maybe I'd try my hand at writing too… maybe write a novel and help with the bills," I lied.

Arah's eyebrow lowered a little slower than I would have liked it to. It meant I hadn't entirely convinced her. Still, she told me about the use of salt. Apparently, spreading it in a circle around you weakened a fairy's glamour.

Ty's own discovery was just as interesting as Arah's, if not more so. He'd been reading a book called "AN EXPLORATION OF FAIRY PHYSIOLOGY" and found something inside it that he wanted to share with us.

"Did you guys know there are twenty types of known fairies?" he said. "They've got tons of subspecies that make up the whole race."

"You're obviously dying to enumerate them, Tiberius?" Arah guessed.

"See how fast I can do it," Right after he stated this, Ty named all the fairy subtypes as quickly as he could recite them without taking a single breath. "Gnomes-sylphs-undines-salamanders-pixies-brownies-fauns-kelpies-merfolk-leprechauns-sprites-dwarves-trolls-goblins-hobgoblins-ogres-spriggans-dryads-elves-drow, which is a kind of dark elf!" Ty gasped that last bit while his face turned purple.

"Idiot," Arah commented, right before she saw how my own face turned pale, which prompted her to say, "What's wrong with you?"

How could I tell her that my heart rate had gone up several paces at just the thought of how many enemies I would have to fight against? Even if I had an idea regarding who took Luca, twenty fairy types were just too much of a hassle to think about. Obviously, I didn't say any of this out loud so all I could manage was a shrug.

It was just a happy coincidence that Ty's cluelessness caught Arah's attention before she scrutinized my reactions further.

"Yeah, and those are only the known types. There might be dozens that we don't know about," he added.

"Like dragons and giants, you mean?" Arah guessed. "I noticed you didn't mention them."

"They're not in this book," Ty replied. "Maybe they don't count."

It would have thrilled me if dragons and giants didn't exist at all. Twenty monsters to take down was enough, thank you very much.

I glanced over to the remaining books and folders on the wall shelves. Just staring at them was giving me a headache.

"We'll be here awhile," I said.

Awhile was an understatement. It was nearly dusk before we discovered the answer I was looking for.

Inside a cardboard box stashed in the study's corner, Ty found a leather folder. Inside this folder was a pamphlet so old the yellowing pages cracked at his touch. He brought this pamphlet over to us on the table so we could all inspect it together.

"It's in Latin," Arah said, after a quick inspection.

"Um, I can't speak Latin," Ty complained. "I don't know anyone who does."

"Yes, we do," Arah countered.

"Who?!" Ty asked, surprised at Arah's nonchalant response.

"Dean," Arah answered, before turning to me. "Well, what does it say, smart guy?"

I ignored Ty's dumbfounded expression and focused on scanning the pamphlet, whose first out of three pages, Arah was lifting with a librarian's soft touch.

"The Summoning of Fairies Most Vile and Evil," I pronounced.

My eyes lit up immediately. Here was the answer to my dilemma. How do I find a fairy that could take me to where Luca was? The solution was right before me inside this aptly named document.

"Hold on!" Ty called. "How do you speak Latin?"

It was a fair question. Why did a fifteen-year-old like me learn Latin? Surely, reading Latin wasn't required to get top grades? My dad taught me. Just like with martial arts, he believed knowing how to read and speak Latin would prove useful one day. I guess he was right. I explained this to Ty but left out why I thought it was useful.

Inside this appropriately named document was a series of instructions detailing the steps required to summon one of the fair folk to our mortal plane. It goes without saying that I didn't tell my friends exactly what was written but gave them a watered-down version one might find in a Disney movie. I wanted to keep them safe in case something bad happened with my foolhardy plan.

Still, there was a reason Arah was number two in class. She surmised I wasn't being completely truthful and gave me that smoldering look she did with her eyebrow rising to hairline level.

"Dean… you're not thinking of trying this summoning ritual, right?" Arah asked.

"No," I said. One word. That's all I could give her as she was channeling Dwayne Johnson a little too well and it was hard to breathe under her scrutiny.

"Trying something as illogical as this… it won't bring Luca back," she insisted, despite knowing how she thought it might hurt me to think about this. "It won't help…"

"Y-yeah…" Ty added weakly.

"It's not like that," I insisted. "I just… I lost Luca and my mom in a span of weeks. But my dad's still here," I gestured to the mountain of books around us. "I just wanted to feel a connection again…"

Sheesh, I could probably join Broadway with my half-believable channeling of pain and sorrow when what I was really feeling deep down was hope. Although she didn't know it, Arah was wrong. This knowledge was helpful. It was the key to everything.

Both Arah and Ty looked away embarrassedly. My lie may not have completely convinced them but it would buy me time before they thought to stop me. Not that they could as I resolved to enact my plan that very night.

The Summoning of Fairies most Vile and Evil revealed that the time of the ritual was crucial. it had to be during midnight, in the middle of summer. Whether it was a mere coincidence or fate driving me I wasn't sure but it turned out that this day was right in the middle of summer break.

So, that night, once Arah and Ty had gone home, I grabbed all the ingredients I would need for the ritual as well as the survival gear I prepared beforehand and headed out the back door.

After pushing my mountain bike out to the street, I sent Aunt Lena a text message that I'd be sleeping over at Ty's that night. She responded with, "Have fun."

That tiny stab of guilt about lying gnawed at me as I rode my bike across the darkening streets of the suburbs and onto the path heading into Elfwood Forest. However, as the forest's tree line came into sight, I comforted myself with the thought that I was doing this for my family.

According to the summoning book, the ritual must be completed near a ring-shaped formation of stones at a location where nature's influence was strong. Well, I knew a place that fit the bill perfectly—and it was almost midnight when I finished my preparations a short distance away from the Elfwood Circle Stones.

I touched the iron cross and chain I placed around my neck to make sure it was there. As iron repelled the fair folk, the chain would serve as my protection.

I glanced at my wristwatch. It was five minutes to midnight.

Kneeling down, I made sure that the ring of salt I placed in a circle around me remained unbroken. The salt should keep the fairy from playing tricks on my mind. No fairy glamour would befuddle me into fumbling my way to the goal.

I checked my watch again. Midnight was here.

From my pocket, I pulled out a thin golden chain connected on both ends by a round pendant about the size of a poker chip. It was one of my mom's old necklaces. I didn't like the idea of stealing her things, but I needed the necklace as an offering to the creature I would summon. According to the lore, fairies liked shiny things just as much as humans did.

I placed the necklace on the ground just outside my circle of salt. Immediately afterward, I got up, closed my eyes, and with as confident a voice as I could manage despite the foreboding atmosphere, I said, "A scion of House Dapper offers you this gift on this auspicious night. If you accept the gift, then please reveal yourself."

I opened my eyes.

Since, as Ty pointed out earlier, there were many types of fairy, there was a chance that I would summon something completely unrelated to Luca. However, thanks to the super weird mom-and-son talk from the night before, I was relatively certain about my chances of picking the right target.

A satisfied smile grew on my face as I said, "Hello again, Doctor!"

Chapter end