Chapter 16: Practitioner (7)

I was ill-prepared.  How could I be better prepared?

What I needed… wasn’t a permanent familiar.  No, I wasn’t ready for that.  What I really needed was someone who could guide me.  They didn’t need to be on a permanent relationship basis with me.  It was like dating.  Just… getting to know each other, while still having the benefits of a pseudo-spouse.  

Someone with whom I could kind of ‘break up’ if I needed to.  Not a permanent relationship.  Just a temporary one.  Give and take.  A situationship that could become a friendzone scenario if I wanted it to be.

Like Emyrith.  A lawyer hired by my parents.

I didn’t need an equal partner.  I needed someone to work for me, and give me advice.  A sounding board.

“What if,”  I said, thinking outloud, “I don’t summon something to become familiar.  But to ask if they’d be willing to give it a try?  Like a ‘trial period’.”

“And why would any spirit agree to that, instead of ripping your throat out?”  Myself replied dryly.  “Why would anyone agree to be in a relationship with you?”  He paused, then said like an afterthought, “Assuming they’re even open to talking.”

Me scowled, “Forget the relationship analogy.  I’d be offering them something.  A payment.  Like salami.  But better.”

“Like?”  I asked.

“Like… more salami.”

“Jesus.”  I exclaimed.

I scowled.  “Think about it more like an attorney-client relationship.  Internship except it’s a… mercenary…ship.”

“Mercenaryship and salami.  Real fucking classy.”

…I hate myself sometimes.

But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.  And the rest of myself warmed to it too.

I had the what.  I even had a rough idea of the how.

But who?

I stared at Musok: Bestiary.  Then at the bookcase.

Lwa

Beowulf

Kings, Swords, and Mages

Descendants of the Dragon and Immortal

There were… options.  Even if it didn’t seem like it at first glance, some of those books had to be similar to the Musok: Bestiary.  It didn’t even have to be a bestiary.  A description of Spirits or Creatures, as long as it had their name and the like could work.

Yet, my hand didn’t move.

How could I?

This whole thing started because I wanted a connection with my parents.  To follow in their footsteps, so to speak.  To protect the inheritance, which it seemed like was the summary of their entire lives.  And to be frank, to shove it in everyone’s faces.  That this was mine.

No.  It had to be the spirits outlined in the book.  Korean spirits.  I think.

Or…

My eyes strayed to three books, stacked neatly side by side.

Demons and Devils, Infernal Names, and Infernal Contracts.

I shook my head, putting a stop to that train of thought.  My mother’s letter specifically warned against it.  Besides, if I was this scared of summoning Korean Folktales, I couldn’t imagine the consequences of summoning something along the lines of the infernal.

I dug into Musok: Bestiary.

It took me a while to narrow down my choices.  To me, it looked like the Korean-spirits that I could call upon blended the boundary between Spirit and Beast.  The book referred to them as ‘Animal Spirits’; most of which were benevolent.

My choices were the Magpie, the Swallow and the Fox-Sister.  The criteria was simple.  I wanted a being that was intelligent and could offer more than just knowledge.  I had to keep the possibility of them becoming my familiar open.

The magpie and the swallow were similar.  The stereotypical ‘good samaritan’ type of story.

The magpie couple saved their samaritan from the vengeful snake by banging themselves on a giant bell.  So hard in fact, that they ended up sacrificing themselves.  The swallow brought fortune to the person who bandaged its broken leg, but misfortune to the older brother who purposefully broke it.

Musok: Bestiary further explained about what type of practitioners they’d benefit the most: Divination, Transmutation and other nonsensical things which I didn’t completely understand.  

Serving as divine messengers, they can cross between realms with more ease than other spirits, much like their western counterparts: the Raven.  Furthermore–

I heard myself let out a sigh.  Another reminder of something I should know, but had no time to research.

Then… there was the Fox Sister.

A fox-spirit disguised as a girl, presenting itself to a couple wanting a daughter but only had three sons.  She kept the villagers from being suspicious of an evil-spirit among them by slathering her arm in sesame oil, slipping said arm through the anus of livestock–

“Fucking hell.”

–to pull out their liver.  Tales say she was exorcised by the eldest son.  Some versions include–

I skipped ahead.

Some argue she is a bogeyman, rather than a malevolent spirit.  Summon this spirit with caution.

Something completely out of my depth.

And what the hell was a bogeyman?  Malevolent spirit?

A book caught my eye on the shelf: Genus: The Classification of All Things & In-Between.

Yet another addition to the never ending reading list.

The fox-sister definitely had its merits over the two birds.  She sounded capable, clever, and dangerous as hell.  Whereas the stories about the birds didn’t go into detail about their intelligence, the fox-sister displayed the ability to deceive and strategize.  But I wasn’t going to go around summoning her on my first try.

A plan B.  Scratch that.  Plan C.  

Just in case all else failed.

…Keep telling yourself that, Jain.

I didn’t feel prepared but I also knew that reading anymore would just reinforce the idea of being unprepared.  Funny how the more I tried to prepare myself, the less equipped I felt.  So I re-read the passages regarding the magpie and the swallow.  I looked over the advice regarding the circles –which wasn’t much.

Finally, I started to move.

First, I had to erase the circle.  Something told me these were one-time uses; so much for recycling in the magical world.  I couldn’t find any paper towels, so I wetted a bath-towel and wiped the floor clean.  Taking the chalk in hand, I redrew the circle.  I was confused at how big it should be, so I just made it the same size as before.

Every stroke of the towel.  Every line; I made it slow and meaningful.  With purpose.  Keeping the end goal in mind.

Then came the type for the symbols.

The book went into different Circles –the basic elements of the practice.  Ones for binding, summoning; so many possibilities. Everything began with a plain circle; it was what came after that determined how it would be used.  Symbols which resonated with various forces in the world.

Like the Circle was the most basic battery.  And how I ‘dressed it’ up, so to speak, would determine what kind of circle it became.  Imagine a plain hotdog.  You can turn it into New York style (and if you’re from New York and put ketchup on your hotdog, shame on you) or Chicago style with the toppings.

But, here was the caveat, it didn’t have to be exact.  A pen could just as well substitute an bottle of ink.  Leather could substitute animal hide.  It even specified that payments could be substituted with things that weren’t listed in the book, but you knew that the Spirit enjoyed.  Like… I don’t know, your blood for example.

Or something else.

Neither of the Prerequisites was too specific on this point.  But it said a lot of words like Chakra, Mana, Will, Ki, Intent and the sort.  Like those videogames.  These things could substitute for materials you were lacking.  Powerful practitioners could summon beings even without materials, provided they offered up enough of  this ‘Mana’ as payment.  

In the end, a lot of things were left up to individual interpretation and talent.

Too bad that I didn’t have either.

The magpie needed at least three of the following things to be incorporated into the circle.  A feather, a bow and arrow, a bell, grain and something representing a nest.

I dug around the bedroom, managing to sneak a feather out of one of the pillows.  That was the easy part.  I chose an alarm clock for the bell.

The third and final symbol: the leftover half-bitten slice of bread from my salami sandwich.  To represent the grain.

The book did say I could improvise.

And the cherry on top: A piece of salami in the middle.  The offering.

Then I looked down at the Circle I made.

It felt right.