I’ll be succinct. The family line is a long one, and we have had some involvement in more anagogic sciences since the early 1800’s. We have resources touching on the craft, the arcane, or whatever you wish to call it. Magic. However, all things have a price, and it is impossible to become rich, powerful, wise or strong without paying in some form. For this reason, among others, practitioners rarely ascend to any great status and remain there. But our predecessors tried, they accrued a karmic debt, and they have passed it on to their children, and their children’s children, and so on down the line.
“You caught up?”
“Yeah,” Rose said.
I turned the page.
Perhaps this seems unfair, but modern standards of fair and unfair are just that: modern. In this world I’ve imposed on you, there are very old things, and there are very old traditions. Here, the sins of the father are visited upon the son. Or mother and daughter, rather. Beings as long-lived as powerful Others have trouble telling us apart, when we live and die so quickly and when we often look the same, and it helps to establish a pedigree or pattern. Some have ornaments of office, others carry on with seventh sons. We use daughters, and we keep to a smaller community. If they call you Rose, Elizabet, Frances, Esther, Ruth, I recommend you take it in stride. You are, as of now, simply one piece of a long thread.
My diaries can be found on the shelf behind the desk. I welcome you to read them if they might shed light on matters. Perhaps my own realizations will help you find a way to your own.
Now, I charge you with tasks. To demonstrate the gravity of this, know that you may lose custody of the property if you do not address these tasks. On a graver level, you may well doom yourselves and the bloodline with your failure, depending on how it plays out.
1. Read Essentials. It sits on the book stand. A novice’s guide to the most basic things, it outlines the steps to awakening yourself. Be warned, these steps open the door to becoming Other, in a respect. The oldest of them made agreements in times well beyond us, to guarantee safety and maintain a kind of peace. Foremost among these agreements is truth. Should you lie, you may well forfeit your power for a time. Break a promise or an oath, and you will be forsworn, and you will be stripped of every protection afforded to even the common, ignorant people that decorate this Earth. On finishing Essentials, awaken yourself.
“Oh fuck me,” I said.
“Oh hell,” Rose echoed me.
Conduct the remainder of these steps in any order. Monumental as these steps are, you must be suitably armed against your enemies. You will be asked about your progress with some frequency, and failure to make sufficient progress in the next five years will see your rights and access to this house terminated.
2. Study and enact the ritual noted in Famulus. The familiar is your greatest ally, and will serve as a tool, a wellspring of power, an ambassador to dealing with more abstract things, and will be a lifelong companion. Make this choice with the same respect you would with undertaking marriage, only know there is no form of divorce. The Familiar is to be a part of you for life. You gain their services, and they gain a chance to be mortal, even if it is a small mortalhood, in addition to whatever other terms you negotiate. Do not allow your familiar to take the form of a rat or dog.
3. Study and enact the ritual noted in Implementum. Your choice of tool will shape how you interact with this world, your craft, and will be your badge in the eyes of many. The book is dreary, page on page of examples, but study it thoroughly, for there are many meanings, and a poor choice of tool may well cripple you.
4. Study and enact the ritual found in Demesnes. Baba Yaga had her hut, I have my room. Unfortunately, the rest of the house has been claimed by our predecessors, and while it is a haven, you will need to find your own place to make your own, where the rules bend as you need them to, and where your power is greatest. The three rituals noted here are fundamental in determining how you access, hoard and focus power. Note, however, that your real power will be in how you act with others and Others.
5. Find a good man to marry. By this, I don’t mean that he should be decent and kind. Such may be a detriment. You will need an ally in this, and a man who can support you in more mundane matters will give you strength in this world. I reckon many of the best partnerships in the recent past came about when our family married bastards rather than gentlemen.
6. Attend the council meetings. Second Saturday of every month, at the park, in the twilight hours. In a five year term, there will be sixty such meetings. Miss six in total, and your rights to the property will be forfeit.
“I think I’m faced with an issue, here,” I said.
“You can’t sit through meetings?” Rose asked.
I shot her a look.
She giggled a little, and it was an uncharacteristic, unfitting, nervous sound. “I… I don’t know how to react to this. I tried to make a joke. It’s laugh or cry, right? And I was awfully close to crying before I read any of this.”
“I’m supposed to marry a guy. I’m getting the impression this isn’t the first obstacle I’m going to run into.”
“Gay marriage is legal,” she said.
“I’m not gay.” I said. “I wonder if the lawyers will allow me any leeway, here.”
“The lawyers?” she asked. She gave me a look, eyebrow arched. “Think about it.”
I sighed, and then I did.
“They’re involved in this,” I thought aloud. “Cleaning up after Molly, they know enough to move the books… they’re setting all this up, so things are prepared for each heir-to-be.”
My voice took a more serious tone as I finished “…and the legal documents made less than specific references to debts.”
“They’re not friends, Blake. Resources, maybe, but not friends. We should think long and hard about when and why we contact them.”
I fidgeted, biting my lip as I thought. Unwilling to dwell on it, I turned the page.
7. Finish three out of four of the books in this library. You will need some assistance with foreign languages. Making a bargain with an Other to learn Sumerian may be novel, I know, but it is easier to ask for it to be translated aloud by a servant or summoning.
8. See our bloodline to the end of the fifth year with less of a debt than we had at the start of your custodianship. I’m hoping you can see this through until the end of your lifetime, but I can only focus on these next five years and hope you are on the right road.
Remain out of the north end of Jacob’s Bell until you have completed two rituals and developed a foundation. Stay out, perhaps, even if you have. Some individuals are not to be trifled with.
Make no major deals or bargains. Until the end of the custodianship, you’ll need to run any major deals past Mr. Beasley (including the three major rituals. He will protect you from other decisions, or lend his aid if he can’t, but he will exact a price.
Mr. Beasley, as well as individuals you’ll find in Jacob’s Bell and the surrounding area, is described in a little black book I playfully dubbed Dramatis Personae, when I was younger.