Contractbound

It was nine in the evening, so there were still many public motor carriages around. He stopped one and asked the driver to take him to Oosteindestraat. It didn"t take them long to reach the destination. Graham paid the driver and got out of the carriage.

He stood by the street for a while, observing the situation. It was as dark and gloomy as ever, and the people around still looked shady. He took out the ring from his pocket and wore it.

"With this, Val, I should be able to see those pickpockets clearly." he smiled, amused with himself.

After he put the ring on, his body became warmer. He somewhat regretted wearing so many layers. His eyesight also improved significantly. He started walking down the street, heading to the antique store in a small alley. He could clearly see people staring at him, and after a while, some children with questionable motives approaching him. When the children got closer, he avoided them with agility and walked faster towards his destination. In front of the store, he tapped to check if his belongings were still intact.

"We made it, Val, and my coat also made it without extra holes."

He took off the ring, entered the store and was greeted by the familiar smile,

"Welcome. I see you have made up your mind."

"Yes. I"ve decided to tread the path of a Contractbound. What do I need to do?"

Paim got up from her chair and went to a corner of her store. She took out a scroll and handed it to Graham.

"We still have a lot of time. The ritual can only be done at one after midnight," she said matter-of-factly.

"So what do we do in the meantime? And can I open this scroll now? I a.s.sume this is the scroll with the sigil that you mentioned." he was looking at the scroll in his hand. It was the size of a common piece of paper, and the scroll itself was made of leather. It was light brown in color and felt rather heavy.

"Sure, open it. The knowledge of the ritual will be transferred to your brain once you open it. After that, while waiting, we can prepare the ritual materials. You can tell me what we need." she said with her soft, aged voice.

"Don"t you already know what we need?" he asked her.

"No, dear, I don"t. I made a pact with other deities. Some of the powers intersect, that"s why I could also do fire divination if that"s what made you ask." answered Paim, now sitting on a small chair making herself comfortable in the dim room.

"You can be under contract with more than one Deity at a time?" the revelation surprised him.

"Yes, you can, but remember that each contract requires sacrifices." she finished talking.

Graham opened the scroll with both hands. He saw a pattern on it; a sigil. It was the same as the one on the ring. As soon as he saw the sigil on the scroll, knowledge entered his brain. He went dizzy for a while, and after recovering, he told Paim what they needed. He spoke while ma.s.saging his temples,

"We need four black candles, myrrh essential oil..." he paused, "As for the offerings: eyes of a recently deceased person, a finger of a dead infant. Lastly, lead for the seal." he said with horror in his eyes, "How in the world am I supposed to gather the materials?"

Paim only smiled faintly and said, "The ring. That was made from the remains of a deceased Contractbound. It can be used as the offering."

Graham breathed in relief after hearing her answer. He was glad he didn"t have to go to the cemetery and dig the grave.

"I a.s.sume you have the black candles, the myrrh oil, and the lead, then?"

"I do. Now, do you know how to conduct the ritual?" she asked.

"Yes, the knowledge is also here." he pointed at his head. "First, sprinkle the essential oil around the room; that is to appease the Deity. Next place the four candles on each corner of the scroll, facing the four cardinal directions. Redraw the sigil using my blood and place the offerings in the middle. Then, light the candle in the order: North, East, South, and West."

Paim nodded in approval.

"Next, summon the Deity. If the ritual is successful, the Deity will grant the power. After that is done, end the ritual and seal the scroll using lead." he finished speaking.

"Some warnings," Paim said, "Redrawing the sigil is not that simple. You will need a lot of blood, a lot," she emphasized that word, "That"s why you must be in prime condition to do the ritual. And after you"re done, make sure to end the ritual properly. If you don"t, you and everyone present won"t be guaranteed survival."

Graham nodded.

"Now, go gather the materials. The candles are in the drawer, second from the top. Is the third drawer there should be some lead foil. As for the oil, it"s in the backroom, on the table." she gave directions to him.

Graham went to gather all the materials. He was lucky the store was not big, only cluttered, so he could get everything quickly. He handed everything over and asked,

"It"s only ten something now. We have a lot of time. What should we do?"

"Our preparation is ready, so we can just kill time now."

"Let"s play a card game. I"m rather nervous now, I need to calm down," he said. His heart was beating fast. It was a life-changing moment that he was going to experience. There was no turning back once he had done it. He needed to be at his best physical and mental states.

"I have a deck of cards. Let me go get it. We can use that table." she pointed at the table they had used for divination before and got up to grab the cards. She then sat on a small chair and asked him, "What game are we playing, dear?"

"It"s a game called Schildpad, or just Pad for short. Do you know how to play it?"

"No, unfortunately. I don"t really play card games, but I can learn as we play," she said honestly. She was confident in her ability to learn fast.

Graham received the card from Pain and started shuffling. They were only playing for fun, so there was no need to be so strict about the rules. They would just play base on his knowledge. Graham dealt the card to both of them, each getting nine cards.

He said, "The goal of the game is to score as little as possible. The cards" value is just as the numbers show, so a three has the value of three points. Jacks and Queens score ten points. Kings score zero points, and aces score one point. A two scores negative two points."

"So those three cards are desirable, yes?" Paim asked for confirmation.

"Yes, you are correct. Now, you cannot look at your hand. Could you please arrange the card into two rows: four cards in each row? They must stay face down. You"ll have an extra card; set it aside. It is your backup card." Graham explained how to play like he had done it many times.

Paim nodded and arranged her cards into two rows like instructed.

"Now, you can look at one card, but don"t flip it over. Just take a peek at it and remember what it is," he said that as he flipped open the card in the bottom left corner a little. It was a four of hearts.

"Oh, I should remind you not to use your divination power," Graham added.

Paim smiled meaningfully and nodded slowly.

"Each round, we draw a card from the deck. There will be two: the face-down deck and the face-up deck from the cards we discard. You can choose to draw from whichever you want. You go first since I am the dealer." he said as he flipped over a card from the deck and made a new face-up deck. It was an ace of spades.

"Wow, you"re lucky!" he exclaimed. "So as I"ve said before, you can choose to draw a card from the face-down deck or the face-up one. In this case, you have an ace of spades. It scores one point only.

"Then don"t mind if I do." she took the ace of spades and then paused. "What do I do with this card?"

"Replace one of your cards with that. We must always have eight cards at all times. Oh, I almost forgot. If two cards on the same column have the same value, they cancel each other out."

She nodded and proceeded to replace one of her cards with the ace of spades. "I put it down face up, yes?"

"Yes. The game is over when one player has all cards face up. At that point, we count our scores. Now discard the card to the face-up deck."

Paim discarded the card that was replaced by the ace of spades. It was a four of spades. Graham saw the card and on his turn, he took it and placed it at the top of his four of hearts. Now they scored zero. Next was Paim"s turn, and she looked at the card she just drew from the face-down deck with a frown.

"I don"t like this one. What should I do with it?" she asked.

"Discard it, and after that, you must flip over a card."

She discarded the card; it was a ten of spades. She then flipped over a card in her hands and it was a two of diamonds.

"I"m feeling lucky today, dear," she said full of confidence.

Graham drew a card from the face-down deck; it was an ace of clubs! He replaced a card with his new one and discarded it; it was an ace of spades!

"My luck has gone down the drain," he said, scratching the back of his head.

The game went on for several minutes, and after Paim"s turn, he had all her cards face up. Graham had his last turn and flipped over all his remaining cards. It was time for them to count their scores.

"Now, it"s time to count. Do you remember the backup card? You can use it now to replace any card you want." he said as he flipped over his backup card. It was the queen of spades. He discarded it right away and grunted. Paim did the same; however, her backup card was the king of diamonds.

"You are really lucky. Is that part of your supernatural power?" he asked while counting his scores. His total scores were six points.

"Who knows, hmmm," she spoke mysteriously. She got him to help her count her scores, and the totals were negative four points!

"I lost!" he exclaimed.

"Must be beginner"s luck, hehe." she laughed creepily.

They played six more rounds until the time showed fifty past midnight. They stopped playing with the end results: Graham won one out of seven rounds.

"It"s almost time. Are you ready, dear?" Paim asked.

"I am much calmer now."

"Let"s get ready." she cleaned up the cards and put them on a shelf.

Graham, who had been sitting on the floor this whole time, got up and opened the scroll for the second time. Now, nothing happened, since the knowledge had been transferred to his brain. He got curious and asked Paim, "When I opened this scroll again, nothing happened. What if someone else opens this scroll?"

"As long as it hasn"t been sealed, the same knowledge will be transferred to that person."

He nodded and then got up to sprinkle myrrh oil around the room. Woody, earthy scent entered his nose and made him calm. He felt like his throat became clear and his mood became strangely positive. After sprinkling the oil, he set up the four black candles in formation, each pointing to the four cardinal directions.

"Val, I"ll be using your knife again." he burned the blade with a lighter that he had borrowed from Paim for some time and slit his left palm.

"Uhmpf!"

A m.u.f.fled cry of pain escaped his mouth. Fresh blood came pouring out of his open wound. He let it drip on top of the sigil, following along its pattern. He first drew the three rectangles adjacent to each other. Once the blood touched the sigil, it got sucked into it and turned dark red in color. He had to use a lot of blood to draw each part because the blood kept getting sucked away.

After he finished drawing the rectangles, he drew the circles on each corner and inside each rectangle. It took him some time to finish the circle, and he drew the next part: the upside-down crosses and a triangle between. He then placed the ornate ring in the middle of the sigil.

By the time he finished redrawing the sigil, he felt weak because he had lost a lot of blood. Strangely, however, his wound healed rapidly, and only a scar was left. He didn"t ask Paim about it because he needed to concentrate. The calming aroma in the room helped him keep his focus despite losing a lot of blood.

Next, he lit the black candles starting from North, and then East, followed by South, and lastly West. Once the candles were lit, the light bulb that was illuminating the room suddenly died. The candles were the only source of light now. Silence crept into the room. He could even hear his own heart beating faster with each pa.s.sing second. Graham started the summoning chant.

"Thee I invoke, the One born from Fire,"

"Thou art the master of Fire Divination,"

"Thou art the master of Palmistry,"

"Thee, that teachest Logic and Rhetoric,"

"Thee, that bringst Peace of Mind and dispelst Fear and Timidity,"

"Come thou forth, and accept my offering,"

"And grant me your power, worthy of thy name!"

As soon as Graham finished chanting nothing happened for a while. He waited patiently without saying anything. Suddenly, everything went dark.

Whoosh!

Flame came gushing out from the center of the sigil, consuming the ring and spreading around Graham. He couldn"t see anything else despite the fire raging. Everything else was dark. Suddenly, he felt unbelievable pain.

"Aaarrghhh!!!!"

Graham kneeled down and wailed in agony. He felt like a hot giant fork was inserted into his eye sockets, trying to gouge his eyeb.a.l.l.s out. His eyes were burning, blood came pouring out. He covered his eyes with both hands, but the invisible fork didn"t stop. It kept plucking his eyeb.a.l.l.s out until it succeeded. Graham almost pa.s.sed out from the pain, but he managed to stay conscious.

His eye sockets were in great pain after his eyeb.a.l.l.s were gone. But when graham touched his closed eyelids, he still could feel his eyeb.a.l.l.s there. The moment of peace didn"t last long. He felt immeasurable pain shortly after. Now it felt like something was trying to insert two boiling lava b.a.l.l.s into his "empty" eye sockets.

"Make it stop!! Arghh!!!

The pain was almost unbearable. Just when he thought things couldn"t get worse, he now felt pain on his finger skin. He dropped down to the floor. His finger skin felt like being skinned open. Something was tearing his finger skin one by one!

He was almost at his limit. After the last finger skin was torn away, he felt like something wrapped his finger skin with something smooth and soft, but extremely hot. The pain wrapped around each of his fingers on both hands, slowly covering the open flesh. When it was over, the light in the room came back. He opened his eyes and saw no blood anywhere.

The pain was gone! It was like it had never been there in the first place.

Graham panted. He remembered Paim"s words to end the ritual properly. He put out the fire from the candles one by one, starting from West, all the way to North, and moved them away. He then rolled the scroll and sealed it with lead foil.

Once he had sealed the scroll, it burned by itself and the ashes entered Graham through his nostrils.

Paim brought him a gla.s.s of water and he gulped it down quickly. She then asked him while looking at Graham"s now bright red eyes, "How was it?"

"Painful," he answered shortly, still catching up with his breathing. When he had calmed down, he asked with concern, "So is the scroll inside of me now? What about lead poisoning?"

"Don"t worry, dear. It"s not inside your physical body; it"s inside your spiritual body. Congratulations!" she smiled.

Graham nodded.

On Friday, August 30, 1968 EH, Graham Hymes had become a Contractbound.