5 The Ritual (1/2)
According to Sun Zhu's Art of War, the first step in achieving victory was to know your enemy. This was generally sound advice, especially since the enemy in question was of the otherworldly kind. And it was exactly because of this advice that on the morning after my visit to the hospital, I found myself standing in the first-floor hallway of my house while staring at the glass-paneled door opposite the living room.
”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.