(Untitled)

[leucemic_god]

Time: April 20, 2001
Place: Hospital Wing
Status: Private (Loki, Anathema, John, Bill, Sphix, Gabriel ... if anybody else thinks they should be in here, please ask)
Summary: It's been practised on a chicken without a problem, so what could go wrong?

Comments

[dangeroushabits]

John stayed crouched next to the circle, stoically ignoring a nicotine fit and keeping a close eye on the sigils and on the tableau as a whole. Loki was looking a little bit antsy, but he'd have been pretty surprised if that wasn't the case--the undercurrents of power Bill's spell was throwing off had the room thrumming on a sublimal level. Anybody in the Manor with any sensitivity (which was to say, most of the occupants) was probably aware that something was happening up here. They probably should have thought to post a guard at the door in case anyone came to investigate.

It was making him itch, for sure, and the fine hair on the back of his arms stand up. Normally when he got this feeling, he was the one in the driver's seat, so to speak, and it was a little unsettling to have to leave something this big in the hands of...well, a kid with a stick, basically. Not that he doubted Bill knew his business, and Ana seemed to be handling her part just fine too. He just hating staying on the sidelines. He'd never been very good at it. Funny how he kept winding up in this position here at the Manor--but the freeing of Belial, and the unexpected left turn into near-catastrophe that casting had taken, was probably not the best thing to be dwelling on at a time like this.

The circle was behaving exactly the way it was supposed to (which was to say, not reacting at all) and as long as it stayed that way, everything should be fine. He hoped, without a great deal of optimism, that this one wouldn't take too much longer than the chicken version had. The longer a spell took to complete, the more opportunities things had to go pear-shaped.

[anathema_witch]

Stopping herself from shivering at the feel of the magical energy around her, Anathema pointed the wand at the curse Bill had pointed out to her and did the spell she was taught to do.

Everything was going smoothly so far...hopefully it would stay that way.

[no_npc_here]

Bill studied the curse, walking this way and that to get a better view. It didn't help very much. The end (or possibly the beginning) of the next strand that had to be cut was nowhere in sight. "Constantine, could you come over here for a moment?" Bill's expression was fairly blank, but it didn't manage to hide the tinge of unease the redhead was feeling.

"Do you see the slightest bit of yellow-gold anywhere?"

[dangeroushabits]

John shook his head as he walked over to stand beside Bill. "I don't see anything. It's not a visual thing for me." As he spoke, though, he was 'tuning in' on the area Bill was focused on, tracing with his mind's eye the invisible latticework formed by the energy of his circle toward the points where it intersected the ephemeral strands of the Knot. With the atmosphere in here so charged with magical energy, he could feel them in a sense he would have had a tough time explaining to anyone who hadn't done this sort of thing.

The virulent harmonics of Czernobog's energy made him want to wince, but for Loki's sake he kept his own expression neutral as well. "I might still be able to help though. What are you trying to do?"

[no_npc_here]

"I cast a spell that helps me identify which strands of the curse I should cut, and in what order, by turning the next strand in the sequence yellow-gold. Only problem is, I can't find the next yellow-gold strand. By rights the sequence should be following an anti-clockwise spiral, but so far it hasn't, and now I have no idea where to unearth it." Lowering his voice, Bill then continued, "There is another problem - the curse seems to be feeding off Loki, and if I don't cut the Knot properly, it might cause a rip in ...him." Bill struggled to put a name to whatever-it-was of Loki's that was analogous to a wizard's magic and finally settled on "His essence, I suppose."

[dangeroushabits]

John's eyes narrowed. "It shouldn't be able to do that," he muttered distractedly, feeling his way cautiously along the closest strand of energy, slowly building an image in his mind of what the Knot would look like if he could see it. A monotone image, unfortunately, since he had no idea what color any given strand would be in Bill's perception.

The circle should be preventing the Knot from having any effect on Loki at all, but then you had to expect some surprises when you were dealing with mucked-up godly magic. He took some comfort in the fact that there was no sign the Knot had done any of the other nasty things to Loki that Bill had predicted it might. He then put that complication out of his mind; there was no point fretting about it now, they'd already gone too far to back out.

After a moment's thought, he added, "All right, point your wand at where you think the next one should be and make like you're going to grab for it, but don't actually grab. And can you tell me what this particular strand does?" He'd already sussed out the functions of a couple of the lines; as he'd expected, a lot of this stuff was familiar in its essence, just arranged differently than he was used to. If Bill could point him at the general vicinity and give him a clue what he was looking for, he might be able to slide further into the mess and pick out the one that was eluding the young wizard.

He was starting to see where a wand was a real asset in a situation like this, though. Physically, he was still standing at the edge of the circle, but on another level he was right in among the tangles of energy, and if it blew up right now it would be only somewhat metaphorically exploding right in his face. Being able to work on it from a distance would be a lot less nerve-wracking. Then again, from a distance, Bill had apparently reached an impasse, so there was something to be said for getting up close and personal.

[no_npc_here]

"It might. Even with the circle, the Knot is still quite unstable - I think it's one of its inherent properties."

Bill gave a short sigh and said, "Okay, Anathema, just release the spell now."

"It's one of the binding strands of the curse - nothing too major, except for the very fact that it's avoiding me." Make like he was going to grab for it, huh? That was going to be easier said than done. He went over the sequence in his head again, looking at the order from all points of view. Suddenly, the answer popped into his head - it looked unnervingly like an inverted cat's cradle. Bill wondered what the significance was of that.

Steadying himself, Bill said, "It should be right here..."

[anathema_witch]

Anathema released the spell and watched as Bill went to work, intersted in what he was doing. It sounded as if he had found the right strand. With a bit more luck it looks liek Loki would be decursed soon.

[leucemic_god]

The nausea was getting worse and Loki was mostly just concentrating on not letting it show, so he missed most of the conversation. Still enough filtered through to make him aware that things were not going exactly as planned.

This was not a time to get nervous, though. Loki tried to lie still and ignore it.

[dangeroushabits]

Eyes now tightly shut and his brow furrowed with concentration as the Knot was released from Ana's control and started to twist around him, John followed the bright streak from Bill's wand toward the elusive strand that he could now see tucked away just beyond the young wizard's reach.

"Right," he murmured, sounding strangely distant, "you've almost got it--it's just behind these others, here..." Moving with elaborate caution, he slid his awareness between two of the concealing loops and nudged them slightly apart, creating a gap just wide enough to allow Bill a glimpse behind and for the wand's seeking tendril of energy to slip through.

It wasn't easy, or a particularly safe thing to do--the Knot didn't like being mucked around with this way, and John could sense the tension in the malignant strands shifting in not at all reassuring ways. "No rush," he added ironically, unaware that he'd just broken out in a sweat.

[leucemic_god]

There was another uncomfortable twinge. What were Bill and John doing? Wasn't it supposed to be over by now? Loki was sure that it hadn't taken this long to decurse the chicken.

Then again he'd slept through the end of the practise run.

[no_npc_here]

Bill watched with a small measure of grim surprise as two of the strands moved aside to reveal the next part of the Knot to be cut. His breath slowed imperceptibly as he directed the slicing spell towards the little peek of yellow-gold.

There.

And he was in the heart of the Knot.

[theban_sphinx]

Something was going on, and the sphinx did not like it.

It wasn't that bad at first, just a rather annoying feeling at the back of her neck. She tried walking around and arranging her collection of bones and all the other little things she did, but the feeling intensified, until it felt like there were ants crawling under her skin. She hadn't felt it this strong for ages, and the memories it brought up wrapped around her until she couldn't breathe. She should run, she thought, get as far from here as she could. Or maybe that was all this was about, a ploy to get her on the move again.

The itch made thinking nigh impossible, so the sphinx did as she usually did in such a situation; she went to search for Anathema. For all the mortal was too clever for her own good, she also had a wonderful way to soothe the burning.

It wasn't until Sphix reached the hospital wing that it occurred to her that the place was, in fact, the centre of all the irritating activity. The realisation made her stop for a moment. This was all Anathema's fault, wasn't it? She was plotting against her! A flare of anger swallowed the previous fright and uncertainty, and the sphinx shifted into her original form. How dared she! Sphix had been nice to her. Nice! That would end now.

She found the door that separated her from the source of the crackling power, and jumped against it so it swung open. Sphix took in the scene before her: Anathema - she had been right - and two men, one with a stick... and the dying god Loki. They were... were they trying to steal him away from her? Sphix bared her teeth and snarled, which might have been more impressive had she actually been fully lion.

"What do you all think you are doing? Stop it right now!"

[anathema_witch]

Being the only one at the moment not knee deep in strands of the curse, Anathema swung around and looked towards who had just screamed. It was Spix, and she looked angry. Turning to look at Loki, Anathema got the slight impression that he was the reason that she was so angry with them all.

"Sphix, what are you doing here? We are trying to decurse Loki."

[theban_sphinx]

Decursing? Sphix wasn't sure what that meant, and she was too high on adrenaline - and too vexed by the use of her name - to sit down and find out.

"You are doing no such thing", she announced. "And as for why I'm here... Isn't it obvious? I'm stopping this nonsense!"

With that, she crouched, ready to leap and introduce her claws to whoever dared to oppose her.

[no_npc_here]

At the sound of the door breaking down, Bill cursed under his breath. What was it now? He had been used to performing under stress and sudden interruptions, but usually they had more leeway because the cursed objects were, well, objects. This was a very tricky bit in cutting the Knot, and Bill felt his hackles rise as the antagonist snarled at them.

Bill forced himself to stay calm, but when the said party announced that she was going to stop 'this nonsense', he began preparing himself for a hostile confrontation.