"Seventy-five thousand volts," Brian stated as he examined the nasty-looking black stun-gun he was holding. "They claim it won't do any permanent damage to humans. No need to worry about that with you. It looked pretty painful though, and electricity is one of the few things you're actually vulnerable to."
I groaned as I lay on the cold cement floor. My head was throbbing and my ears still had that buzzing noise echoing in them. I'd only just woken up, and I wasn't thinking that clearly yet.
"A word of warning to you child," the fae added. "You're inside a containment circle, and I wouldn't try to leave it if I were you. Actually to be clear, it's two circles. The inner one is meant for isolating and imprisoning demons, and if you were more like Ninaya then I'd be confident that was enough. However, on the off chance that you might be able to breach the demonic containment circle there's an outer ring that employs divine magic. I think you know what will happen if you touch that one."
I slowly pulled myself up into a sitting position and rubbed the back of my head as I looked around. The ceiling was bare wood joists and exposed wiring, the walls and floor looked like poured cement. There were a couple well-windows near the ceiling, and from the light outside I had a feeling it wasn't too long till it got dark out.
In a far corner was a standard furnace and water heater, and another corner held an electrical panel full of circuit breakers. There were some wood shelves along one wall, loaded with cardboard and plastic storage boxes. A bare wood staircase to one side led upwards to a closed wood panel door. Brian was sitting on the bottom step, still holding the stun gun as he watched me.
It seemed pretty obvious I was in the basement of someone's house. And sure enough I was in the middle of a large complicated circle. It was marked out in what looked like black paint on the bare cement. Finally a quick check of myself revealed I was still wearing the same outfit I had on at school. Sneakers, leggings, a comfy t-shirt, and of course my oversized blue hoodie. I couldn't see my backpack anywhere though. I figured it probably got left behind in the school library.
"What did you do to Kirstie and her family?" I asked as I continued to rub the back of my head.
Brian shrugged, "What do you care? They're just humans. Sort of."
I frowned, "At least two of them are Socha's followers, whether they know it or not. She won't be pleased if you've hurt them."
"Followers of chaos embrace chaos," he replied. "They don't look to their goddess for gifts and favours."
That earned him a cold look from me, "I sure hope you remember that when you have to eat those words."
Brian laughed, "Idle threats child. You've got delusions of grandeur if you think you have any hope of beating me, let alone Socha herself."
The fae's expression turned hard as he added, "You think you're something special just because Ninaya messed up a few runes and Socha's new body got unlocked ahead of schedule? Think again. You're just some worthless human boy who stumbled onto powers you can't even comprehend. You're nothing, little man. A nameless orphan who's only purpose was to keep that body alive and warm until its real owner was ready to move in. And now she's ready."
"The casual transmisia isn't winning you any points Brian," I grumbled as I tried to force myself to stay calm. "So how long are you going to keep me waiting? And can I get some water or something?"
He got to his feet and shook his head, "Nope. I'll have something ready for later though, in case Socha is thirsty after her arrival."
Without another word he headed up the stairs, then closed the door behind him leaving me alone in the basement.
I sighed and got to my feet then paced around nervously as I took a closer look at my immediate surroundings. I couldn't pace far though, the circle was only about three meters in diameter. And apart from the fancy markings there wasn't much for me to look at.
Thinking about my situation, I figured there was a good chance my family and friends were already on their way to save me. They'd know I was missing, and Kaylee would tell them I was last seen with Kirstie. Assuming Brian was using the Winters' house, it shouldn't be too long before a group of angry angels, witches, and werewolfs showed up at the front door.
Then my gut lurched as I realized it wouldn't be that easy. Either this wasn't Kirstie's house, or Brian got to Kaylee so she couldn't tell everyone where to look. That thought left me worried about my girlfriend, and I paced a little quicker as I fretted about her. I was worried about Kirstie and her family too, for that matter. If this was their house, then odds were Brian was being a pretty awful houseguest.
After a couple minutes I forced myself to stop, then took a few deep breaths. Panicking wasn't going to help, so I tried to be calm and think my way through the situation instead. I carefully moved closer to the edge of the circle so I could get a better look at the markings. I slowly made a full lap around as I did my best to decipher the runes and symbols that Brian said would keep me trapped, and by the time I was finished I had to admit he was right.
The inner circle was something I recognized from that old wizard notebook, it was the sort of thing you used to entrap a demon and keep them sealed inside. It was just as effective at blocking demonic magic too, so I couldn't enspell Brian or teleport myself to freedom. As a half-demon there was a possibility I could get myself out of the inner circle, but that's why the outer circle was there. It wasn't so much designed to keep me prisoner as to overload me with magic if I managed to escape.
It would be like when I shorted out May's spell in her classroom back in June, only worse. That was a goddess accidentally putting a bit too much power into a privacy spell, but this was deliberate. And judging by the amount of magic Brian pushed into that outer circle, I was sure it was more than enough to blow open both sets of containment runes in my chest. That would free Socha and end me, but it'd also hurt a whole bunch. And Socha would probably be unhappy to arrive and find her new body suffering from burns and stuff.
On the other hand it also sort of explained why Brian didn't just do the ritual immediately. He probably needed a nap or something, after dumping so much power into the circle. Or at least he'd need to wait a bit to recharge before he was ready to use more magic.
I finally sighed and moved back to the middle of the circle, then sat crosslegged on the floor. I could feel some growing anxiety again, knowing I was trapped with nothing to do but wait for Brian to return and get on with killing me. And I was still trying not to worry too hard about Kaylee or Kirstie or anyone else he might have hurt.
My eyes closed as I took a couple more deep breaths, then I decided there was only one thing I could do. I needed to put my plan into action, before Brian returned.
Without my laptop and all my notes and stuff I had to rely on memory, and I hadn't actually finished working out some of the details so I was going to end up winging at least some of it. But I couldn't just do nothing. And I was determined not to let Brian or Socha win.
I kept my eyes closed and focused my senses inwards, like Nina told me back at halloween. I searched deep within myself until I found that shard, and once I had it in my mind's eye I got to work. I soon lost track of time as I slowly, deliberately focused my magic on that divine artefact in my chest. Using everything I'd learned, everything I'd read about divine and demonic power, I started trying to make subtle changes to the thing that was supposed to be the root of Socha's divinity.
In a way it almost seemed a bit anti-climactic though. Like there wasn't going to be any big magical battle, I wasn't duelling Brian or Socha. This was a conflict I'd win or lose all alone in somebody's basement, and even though I was doing magic, it was invisible. Even the effects would remain unseen, since I was focused on a small object that would remain forever buried inside my body.
My plan didn't do anything to the shard's function as a root of Socha's divinity, what I was focused on was how it was a fragment of her soul. It was also part of my soul, or maybe even the source of my soul, since I didn't have a human one. And finally, the fact that it had been inside my body, potentially influencing me all my life, worked both ways. That meant I'd been influencing it too. Or at least, that's what I hoped.
All I needed to do was strengthen its connection to me, and weaken or break its bond to Socha. And based on everything I'd read and learned over the past month, one way to speed that up was to bathe it in my own concentrated energy while I worked on it.
So that's what I did. I gathered up all my magic as best I could, then started carefully pushing it into the shard. To help with my focus I imagined some metaphorical concepts, like having my magic change the shard's colour to a nice friendly pink. In my mind's eye I added a cute white bunny, and some pale blue highlights to accentuate the pink background and white bun. The actual physical object might have even taken on those traits, but nobody would ever see it.
At the same time I thought about the sort of things that I felt represented me, my values and beliefs. Like helping people, caring for people, not wanting to upset or anger people. How great bunnies were. Helping trans people. How much I loved my parents and sister, my girlfriend and the rest of my friends.
I tried to manifest those thoughts and values into my magic, so that stuff would also get imprinted deeper into the shard. I wanted to make it a foreign and uncomfortable place for Socha, by making it so completely 'me' that even if it didn't reject her she'd want to avoid it regardless.
I kept it up for as long as I could, before I felt myself starting to tire. I slowly let my focus and magic fade. And at long last I opened my eyes, to discover it was completely dark in the basement. I had no way of knowing how late it was, but from what I could see out the small well windows it was past twilight and into evening.
Then right on cue the basement door opened and Brian came down the stairs. He was carrying a box of red candles in one hand and a lit candle in the other. Ignoring me completely he moved around the circle and set up a total of nine candles around me, lighting each one and using some melted wax to stick it to the concrete floor. Then he moved to stand at what I figured was the north end of the circle.
"Any last words child, before you're gone and Socha takes your place?" he asked with an excited smile.
I shifted around so I was facing him, while still sitting crosslegged in the middle of the circle. My heart raced but I did my best not to let on how scared I really was. I'd done everything I could, and now I'd either find out my plan worked, or I'd die.
My eyes locked on his and I took another deep breath, then with as much confidence as possible I stated "Nina's right, you really are a dweeb."
Brian scoffed once, then raised his arms and began the ritual. He alternated between whispering and chanting, and I recognized most of what he was doing. Some of it was in fae which was harder to understand, but the demonic stuff was straightforward. Same with the chthonic and latin parts.
I was just starting to wonder how long it was going to take when he seemed to get to the peak, and I felt the magic sink into my body. It burned, but more like a slow steady burn instead of coming on suddenly and overwhelming me. And from the way it felt I could imagine all those protective runes in my chest lighting up then gradually crumbling to ash, rather than flaring apart in a sudden flash or surge.
It still hurt though and my jaw was clenched, so were my fists. I struggled not to cry or anything, and ended up closing my eyes to try and hold back tears as the heat continued to build. And I thought of my parents and my little sister, my girlfriend and all my other friends.
The pain seemed to go on for ages but it was probably only a minute before it was over. All the containment and binding runes were gone, and the shard was completely free. I almost let out a sigh of relief, when more of those hidden memories suddenly flooded into my awareness. Stuff from the past six months that had been buried deep was suddenly restored, and once again I was nearly overwhelmed. But before I could even begin to deal with that I felt something else.
I felt Her.
Along with Her came a massive surge of power. It seemed to pour into me from every direction at once. Divine energy flooded into my arms and legs, my head and my torso. It surged through me and into the shard. I felt Her presence, Her consciousness as it flowed into me alongside Her power, and it was all trying to centre itself in the shard.
Even worse, I felt something already present inside the shard seemed to be welcoming Her in. Somehow I knew that presence had to be the shadowy figure from my dreams. It was a piece of Socha's consciousness, the part of herself that had been influencing me all my life. And now it was helping guide Her into my body so She could replace me.
Despite my fear and the pain I'd just been through and how I'd tired myself out earlier, I focused once more and started pushing back. I thought about my family and my friends again, my beliefs and my values. And I called on my magic once more too, I focused what power I could on the shard to keep it connected to me rather than Her.
She wasn't in the shard yet, but I could feel Her pushing. And the piece of Her already in there was still pulling, trying to help Her get through. Meanwhile that flow of energy was building inside me with a growing pressure. I still had my eyes closed and fists and jaw clenched tight, as I struggled to keep hold of myself and my core.
Every time I felt Her pushing inwards from another angle I pushed back. And when I felt the part inside the shard pulling at Her, I did my best to block that too. At the same time I continued to bathe the shard in my own energy while maintaining that focus on those things that were most important to me. I called on the training I'd received from Club Luna, allowing me to concentrate on both the magic, my family and friends, and my core values all at the same time.
Her presence continued to grow stronger within me. She hadn't connected to the shard though, I blocked every attempt She made to anchor herself to it. In a way it reminded me of playing video games with Nina and Melanie and Cerys, having to block and defend and being aware of all the different angles instead of getting over-focused on any one thing. Meanwhile the pressure She was causing continued to grow, and it started to border on a new kind of pain. And all the while that power kept flowing into me, it felt like the shard was almost ready to burst with energy.
There was one final intense push, which I felt like a wave of flames in my chest. I bit back a cry as I put everything I had into pushing back, then it was over. The pain ended, the pressure let off, the flow of power tapered off to nothing, and it felt like things had settled back to normal.
Socha's presence was gone, her consciousness flowed back out of me, away to wherever it came from. And as Socha faded, that small piece of her inside the shard seemed to collapse and crumble. It dissolved away into nothing as the goddess's consciousness returned to the heavens. The power remained though, rooted to that shard in my chest. But Socha herself was gone.
It took me a couple more deep breaths to calm down after that ordeal. I was still stuck inside the circles Brian set up, and for that matter I needed to do something about him. So I mentally shoved the entire ordeal aside so I could deal with it later.
I finally noticed Brian had stopped his chanting, and opened my eyes in time to see him sink to his knees and bow.
"My Goddess," he said in a soft reverent voice. "As you can see, I alone have completed your rites. And I alone welcome your triumphant return."
That almost made me smile, like he was so confident that he'd been successful he didn't even try to check or verify who I really was.
Without saying anything I got to my feet and walked to the edge of the anti-demon circle, then reached out and took hold of it as if it were a solid thing. Or solid like tissue paper anyways. I gave it a slight tug and the magic collapsed, drawn into me. There was no chill down my spine, my hairs didn't stand up, and there was no pain at all. I knew I'd dispelled it, but without any fanfare or symptoms.
Then I did the same thing to the outer circle, which was even easier since it was designed to pour its power into me. With both circles gone I was free, and I stood in front of the fae as he prostrated himself on the basement floor before me.
I looked down at Brian and shook my head, "Nope. I'm still Cass, and you're still a dweeb."
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"Seventy-five thousand volts," Brian stated as he examined the nasty-looking black stun-gun he was holding. "They claim it won't do any permanent damage to humans. No need to worry about that with you. It looked pretty painful though, and electricity is one of the few things you're actually vulnerable to."
I groaned as I lay on the cold cement floor. My head was throbbing and my ears still had that buzzing noise echoing in them. I'd only just woken up, and I wasn't thinking that clearly yet.
"A word of warning to you child," the fae added. "You're inside a containment circle, and I wouldn't try to leave it if I were you. Actually to be clear, it's two circles. The inner one is meant for isolating and imprisoning demons, and if you were more like Ninaya then I'd be confident that was enough. However, on the off chance that you might be able to breach the demonic containment circle there's an outer ring that employs divine magic. I think you know what will happen if you touch that one."
I slowly pulled myself up into a sitting position and rubbed the back of my head as I looked around. The ceiling was bare wood joists and exposed wiring, the walls and floor looked like poured cement. There were a couple well-windows near the ceiling, and from the light outside I had a feeling it wasn't too long till it got dark out.
In a far corner was a standard furnace and water heater, and another corner held an electrical panel full of circuit breakers. There were some wood shelves along one wall, loaded with cardboard and plastic storage boxes. A bare wood staircase to one side led upwards to a closed wood panel door. Brian was sitting on the bottom step, still holding the stun gun as he watched me.
It seemed pretty obvious I was in the basement of someone's house. And sure enough I was in the middle of a large complicated circle. It was marked out in what looked like black paint on the bare cement. Finally a quick check of myself revealed I was still wearing the same outfit I had on at school. Sneakers, leggings, a comfy t-shirt, and of course my oversized blue hoodie. I couldn't see my backpack anywhere though. I figured it probably got left behind in the school library.
"What did you do to Kirstie and her family?" I asked as I continued to rub the back of my head.
Brian shrugged, "What do you care? They're just humans. Sort of."
I frowned, "At least two of them are Socha's followers, whether they know it or not. She won't be pleased if you've hurt them."
"Followers of chaos embrace chaos," he replied. "They don't look to their goddess for gifts and favours."
That earned him a cold look from me, "I sure hope you remember that when you have to eat those words."
Brian laughed, "Idle threats child. You've got delusions of grandeur if you think you have any hope of beating me, let alone Socha herself."
The fae's expression turned hard as he added, "You think you're something special just because Ninaya messed up a few runes and Socha's new body got unlocked ahead of schedule? Think again. You're just some worthless human boy who stumbled onto powers you can't even comprehend. You're nothing, little man. A nameless orphan who's only purpose was to keep that body alive and warm until its real owner was ready to move in. And now she's ready."
"The casual transmisia isn't winning you any points Brian," I grumbled as I tried to force myself to stay calm. "So how long are you going to keep me waiting? And can I get some water or something?"
He got to his feet and shook his head, "Nope. I'll have something ready for later though, in case Socha is thirsty after her arrival."
Without another word he headed up the stairs, then closed the door behind him leaving me alone in the basement.
I sighed and got to my feet then paced around nervously as I took a closer look at my immediate surroundings. I couldn't pace far though, the circle was only about three meters in diameter. And apart from the fancy markings there wasn't much for me to look at.
Thinking about my situation, I figured there was a good chance my family and friends were already on their way to save me. They'd know I was missing, and Kaylee would tell them I was last seen with Kirstie. Assuming Brian was using the Winters' house, it shouldn't be too long before a group of angry angels, witches, and werewolfs showed up at the front door.
Then my gut lurched as I realized it wouldn't be that easy. Either this wasn't Kirstie's house, or Brian got to Kaylee so she couldn't tell everyone where to look. That thought left me worried about my girlfriend, and I paced a little quicker as I fretted about her. I was worried about Kirstie and her family too, for that matter. If this was their house, then odds were Brian was being a pretty awful houseguest.
After a couple minutes I forced myself to stop, then took a few deep breaths. Panicking wasn't going to help, so I tried to be calm and think my way through the situation instead. I carefully moved closer to the edge of the circle so I could get a better look at the markings. I slowly made a full lap around as I did my best to decipher the runes and symbols that Brian said would keep me trapped, and by the time I was finished I had to admit he was right.
The inner circle was something I recognized from that old wizard notebook, it was the sort of thing you used to entrap a demon and keep them sealed inside. It was just as effective at blocking demonic magic too, so I couldn't enspell Brian or teleport myself to freedom. As a half-demon there was a possibility I could get myself out of the inner circle, but that's why the outer circle was there. It wasn't so much designed to keep me prisoner as to overload me with magic if I managed to escape.
It would be like when I shorted out May's spell in her classroom back in June, only worse. That was a goddess accidentally putting a bit too much power into a privacy spell, but this was deliberate. And judging by the amount of magic Brian pushed into that outer circle, I was sure it was more than enough to blow open both sets of containment runes in my chest. That would free Socha and end me, but it'd also hurt a whole bunch. And Socha would probably be unhappy to arrive and find her new body suffering from burns and stuff.
On the other hand it also sort of explained why Brian didn't just do the ritual immediately. He probably needed a nap or something, after dumping so much power into the circle. Or at least he'd need to wait a bit to recharge before he was ready to use more magic.
I finally sighed and moved back to the middle of the circle, then sat crosslegged on the floor. I could feel some growing anxiety again, knowing I was trapped with nothing to do but wait for Brian to return and get on with killing me. And I was still trying not to worry too hard about Kaylee or Kirstie or anyone else he might have hurt.
My eyes closed as I took a couple more deep breaths, then I decided there was only one thing I could do. I needed to put my plan into action, before Brian returned.
Without my laptop and all my notes and stuff I had to rely on memory, and I hadn't actually finished working out some of the details so I was going to end up winging at least some of it. But I couldn't just do nothing. And I was determined not to let Brian or Socha win.
I kept my eyes closed and focused my senses inwards, like Nina told me back at halloween. I searched deep within myself until I found that shard, and once I had it in my mind's eye I got to work. I soon lost track of time as I slowly, deliberately focused my magic on that divine artefact in my chest. Using everything I'd learned, everything I'd read about divine and demonic power, I started trying to make subtle changes to the thing that was supposed to be the root of Socha's divinity.
In a way it almost seemed a bit anti-climactic though. Like there wasn't going to be any big magical battle, I wasn't duelling Brian or Socha. This was a conflict I'd win or lose all alone in somebody's basement, and even though I was doing magic, it was invisible. Even the effects would remain unseen, since I was focused on a small object that would remain forever buried inside my body.
My plan didn't do anything to the shard's function as a root of Socha's divinity, what I was focused on was how it was a fragment of her soul. It was also part of my soul, or maybe even the source of my soul, since I didn't have a human one. And finally, the fact that it had been inside my body, potentially influencing me all my life, worked both ways. That meant I'd been influencing it too. Or at least, that's what I hoped.
All I needed to do was strengthen its connection to me, and weaken or break its bond to Socha. And based on everything I'd read and learned over the past month, one way to speed that up was to bathe it in my own concentrated energy while I worked on it.
So that's what I did. I gathered up all my magic as best I could, then started carefully pushing it into the shard. To help with my focus I imagined some metaphorical concepts, like having my magic change the shard's colour to a nice friendly pink. In my mind's eye I added a cute white bunny, and some pale blue highlights to accentuate the pink background and white bun. The actual physical object might have even taken on those traits, but nobody would ever see it.
At the same time I thought about the sort of things that I felt represented me, my values and beliefs. Like helping people, caring for people, not wanting to upset or anger people. How great bunnies were. Helping trans people. How much I loved my parents and sister, my girlfriend and the rest of my friends.
I tried to manifest those thoughts and values into my magic, so that stuff would also get imprinted deeper into the shard. I wanted to make it a foreign and uncomfortable place for Socha, by making it so completely 'me' that even if it didn't reject her she'd want to avoid it regardless.
I kept it up for as long as I could, before I felt myself starting to tire. I slowly let my focus and magic fade. And at long last I opened my eyes, to discover it was completely dark in the basement. I had no way of knowing how late it was, but from what I could see out the small well windows it was past twilight and into evening.
Then right on cue the basement door opened and Brian came down the stairs. He was carrying a box of red candles in one hand and a lit candle in the other. Ignoring me completely he moved around the circle and set up a total of nine candles around me, lighting each one and using some melted wax to stick it to the concrete floor. Then he moved to stand at what I figured was the north end of the circle.
"Any last words child, before you're gone and Socha takes your place?" he asked with an excited smile.
I shifted around so I was facing him, while still sitting crosslegged in the middle of the circle. My heart raced but I did my best not to let on how scared I really was. I'd done everything I could, and now I'd either find out my plan worked, or I'd die.
My eyes locked on his and I took another deep breath, then with as much confidence as possible I stated "Nina's right, you really are a dweeb."
Brian scoffed once, then raised his arms and began the ritual. He alternated between whispering and chanting, and I recognized most of what he was doing. Some of it was in fae which was harder to understand, but the demonic stuff was straightforward. Same with the chthonic and latin parts.
I was just starting to wonder how long it was going to take when he seemed to get to the peak, and I felt the magic sink into my body. It burned, but more like a slow steady burn instead of coming on suddenly and overwhelming me. And from the way it felt I could imagine all those protective runes in my chest lighting up then gradually crumbling to ash, rather than flaring apart in a sudden flash or surge.
It still hurt though and my jaw was clenched, so were my fists. I struggled not to cry or anything, and ended up closing my eyes to try and hold back tears as the heat continued to build. And I thought of my parents and my little sister, my girlfriend and all my other friends.
The pain seemed to go on for ages but it was probably only a minute before it was over. All the containment and binding runes were gone, and the shard was completely free. I almost let out a sigh of relief, when more of those hidden memories suddenly flooded into my awareness. Stuff from the past six months that had been buried deep was suddenly restored, and once again I was nearly overwhelmed. But before I could even begin to deal with that I felt something else.
I felt Her.
Along with Her came a massive surge of power. It seemed to pour into me from every direction at once. Divine energy flooded into my arms and legs, my head and my torso. It surged through me and into the shard. I felt Her presence, Her consciousness as it flowed into me alongside Her power, and it was all trying to centre itself in the shard.
Even worse, I felt something already present inside the shard seemed to be welcoming Her in. Somehow I knew that presence had to be the shadowy figure from my dreams. It was a piece of Socha's consciousness, the part of herself that had been influencing me all my life. And now it was helping guide Her into my body so She could replace me.
Despite my fear and the pain I'd just been through and how I'd tired myself out earlier, I focused once more and started pushing back. I thought about my family and my friends again, my beliefs and my values. And I called on my magic once more too, I focused what power I could on the shard to keep it connected to me rather than Her.
She wasn't in the shard yet, but I could feel Her pushing. And the piece of Her already in there was still pulling, trying to help Her get through. Meanwhile that flow of energy was building inside me with a growing pressure. I still had my eyes closed and fists and jaw clenched tight, as I struggled to keep hold of myself and my core.
Every time I felt Her pushing inwards from another angle I pushed back. And when I felt the part inside the shard pulling at Her, I did my best to block that too. At the same time I continued to bathe the shard in my own energy while maintaining that focus on those things that were most important to me. I called on the training I'd received from Club Luna, allowing me to concentrate on both the magic, my family and friends, and my core values all at the same time.
Her presence continued to grow stronger within me. She hadn't connected to the shard though, I blocked every attempt She made to anchor herself to it. In a way it reminded me of playing video games with Nina and Melanie and Cerys, having to block and defend and being aware of all the different angles instead of getting over-focused on any one thing. Meanwhile the pressure She was causing continued to grow, and it started to border on a new kind of pain. And all the while that power kept flowing into me, it felt like the shard was almost ready to burst with energy.
There was one final intense push, which I felt like a wave of flames in my chest. I bit back a cry as I put everything I had into pushing back, then it was over. The pain ended, the pressure let off, the flow of power tapered off to nothing, and it felt like things had settled back to normal.
Socha's presence was gone, her consciousness flowed back out of me, away to wherever it came from. And as Socha faded, that small piece of her inside the shard seemed to collapse and crumble. It dissolved away into nothing as the goddess's consciousness returned to the heavens. The power remained though, rooted to that shard in my chest. But Socha herself was gone.
It took me a couple more deep breaths to calm down after that ordeal. I was still stuck inside the circles Brian set up, and for that matter I needed to do something about him. So I mentally shoved the entire ordeal aside so I could deal with it later.
I finally noticed Brian had stopped his chanting, and opened my eyes in time to see him sink to his knees and bow.
"My Goddess," he said in a soft reverent voice. "As you can see, I alone have completed your rites. And I alone welcome your triumphant return."
That almost made me smile, like he was so confident that he'd been successful he didn't even try to check or verify who I really was.
Without saying anything I got to my feet and walked to the edge of the anti-demon circle, then reached out and took hold of it as if it were a solid thing. Or solid like tissue paper anyways. I gave it a slight tug and the magic collapsed, drawn into me. There was no chill down my spine, my hairs didn't stand up, and there was no pain at all. I knew I'd dispelled it, but without any fanfare or symptoms.
Then I did the same thing to the outer circle, which was even easier since it was designed to pour its power into me. With both circles gone I was free, and I stood in front of the fae as he prostrated himself on the basement floor before me.
I looked down at Brian and shook my head, "Nope. I'm still Cass, and you're still a dweeb."
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