Whiteout III: 4 (Incantations, Candles, and Rope)

4. Incantations, Candles, and Rope

     Standing on the other side of the portal felt strange. We were in a cave with beautiful waterfalls trickling down on all sides. In front of us the blue mist hung, suspended by an invisible barrier. “Is there any sort of laser trap we should be worried about this time?” Asked James trying to break the tension.

     “No. There is nothing preventing you from leaving Shangri-La, only from entering it.” I stared down at the book I had been reading the entire way back. The pages were infinite, and the subsection I had to deal with the yeti was no more than two pages long. There was a sentence about its creation, a small drawing, and then a page full of incantations that were necessary to bind and banish it. The words were simple enough; it was just going to be a matter of getting it to sit still long enough.

     “No sense in delaying. Let’s go.” I shut the book and walked into the blue mist. It wasn’t that I was unafraid; terror filled every part of me. Instead there was no room for any other emotion, which led to a kind of cool numbness. I was alert, but dulled at the same time. The mist enveloped us and after only two steps I could not see for a foot in front of me. “Everyone alright?” I called through it.

     “Can’t see a thing, but just peachy. Ready to get off of this mountain once and for all!” Yelled James from somewhere very far away. Before I knew it the mist faded to gold and in an instant there was clarity. The cave took shape before me, molding out of thin air, and in the center of it was a welcome surprise.

     “Dr. Ventner?” Lopsang called. He stood just where he had when I had left. It was as if he hadn’t moved at all. “Dr. Ventner, you have to go after James, you cannot stay here with me!” James stepped out of the portal behind me, followed closely by Siana. “You’ve already done it?”

     “How long were we gone Lopsang?”

     “Not more than five minutes.” He said, bewildered. Siana took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, laughing as she did so. Lopsang looked at her strangely.

     “Sorry, I never thought I’d get to see your plain. The air is strange here. It’s duller than I’m used to.” I was vaguely sure that it had been an insult, but I was done fighting with deities for the day. It’s never really ended well for me, so now I just harbor a not-so-quiet resentment towards them and bow sarcastically in their presence.

     “Lopsang, this is Siana, she’s a goddess from Shangri-La. Siana, this is Lopsang, he’s a demi-god from our plane. Now that we have the introductions out of the way we need to figure out how much time we have left to plan. Lopsang, how long until the sun sets?”

     “We’ve got about 2 hours left.”

     “Alright, we need to think of a plan, and quick.” I went over to the bags of gear and set to reading the book once more. The yeti is a fearsome beast known for not sharing mercy and wicked claws that adorn each powerful hand. It will kill in an instant without ever giving a second thought. Use extreme caution when in the vicinity of this creature, and if at all possible, avoid it. I read the line repeatedly to myself and found no hope in it.

     The next page read like a scripture, long, and full of fire and brimstone. Half of it was the spell to banish the creature, and the other half was preparations. Most of them were pretty standard, sacred circle, chalk, candles, and rope. It complicated at the last sentence, and it was not what I had expected. In order to bind the yeti, a blood sacrifice must be given, to sate its appetite for eternity. “Well that’s going to be fun.”

     “What is it?” Asked James looking over my shoulder. “I really can’t believe you can read that. It just looks like a bunch of gibberish to me.”

     “Trust me James, you don’t want to go through what I did to read this. It’s not even that compelling.” I tried my best effort at a sarcastic smile, but it did not feel the same. Once again the fundamental part of me that had been able to look at every situation lopsidedly was irreparably damaged. I felt a responsibility to put the yeti down, and it was my all-consuming thought. “Everyone gather around, this is not going to be easy to complete.”

     “Most of this is fairly standard. We are going to draw a sacred circle from the chalk in my bag, there.” I said pointing to a flat spot just in front of the diamond on the floor. “Around it we will need to light four candles for the directions of the compass. These will be lit when the creature enters. They serve as confusion for traveling through the planes. If we send the creature all directions at once it will go into a sort of limbo, where theoretically it will be held.”

     “What’s the hard part?” Asked Lopsang anxiously.

     “Well really there’s two. One: We have to keep it in the circle long enough for me to recite the incantations to banish it, which should take less than a minute, hopefully. The second is that the ritual requires a blood sacrifice in order to be complete. I will have to step into the ring with the creature and let my blood flow into the circle in order to force him off of our plane.”

     “Well at least we’ve got plenty of rope.” Said James upending the bags of Manchester and his crew. He was right, our climbing gear would serve, at least partially for binding the beast, but we had no idea for how long. As far as we had seen it was all powerful, an unstoppable force, and quick. The hardest part was going to be keeping it in one spot through the entire ritual.

     “I don’t suppose you know anything about keeping it still Siana?” I asked.

     “The only thing that might stop it is a meal. It’s been trapped out there all day with nothing to hunt on the mountain. We may be able to distract it long enough to get it tied down, but your ropes do not look strong enough.” She was right. They were enough to hold human weight, but we had no idea the true strength of the creature. “Do you not possess any spells or magic on your plane to strengthen them?”

     “Something tells me my voodoo curses aren’t going to do a whole lot of good here, and there’s a bigger problem. Unless one of us wants to lay down and wait to be eaten by the creature, we have no food to entice it.”

     “That’s not entirely true.” Said Lopsang, throwing a sideways glance at the now decaying body lying in the corner of the room. Only one of Manchester’s men had not been vaporized, but he had shortly bled to death. “There’s not much left of him, but it might be enough.”

     “That still doesn’t solve the problem of the ropes.”

     “With enough of them we should be able to hold the creature. One or two might be easy for it to break, but an entire matrix could almost certainly hold it. At least, temporarily.” We had the means to create a series of pulleys to hold all of the ropes together. It would theoretically be possible, but the strength required was going to be great.

     “With me reading from the book that leaves three of you to hold the creature in place. Even with a massive pulley system the strength required would be unimaginable.”

     “Demi-god and a goddess. Remember?” Said Siana, lightheartedly. With the power of the semi and fully divine it was still a long shot, but we had a plan.

     “We need to set this up now. Lopsang and James, you get to work on the pulleys, Siana, you’re on corpse detail, and I will get the incantations set up.”

     “Corpse detail?” She was offended.

     “Look, it’s nothing personal, but I’m guessing you know nothing about mountain climbing or rope work right?”

     “Yes.”

     “And I’m the only one who can read from the book right?”

     “Yes.”

     “Therefore you’re the only one left to get the bait ready. It was your idea anyway. Just try and plug your nose, it’s only been an hour or so, but it’s not going to smell great.”

     “Fine.” I had made my point. She wasn’t happy about it, but once she set to dragging the corpse, everyone was in motion. I could hear hurried chatter as Lopsang and James quickly designed a trap for the beast. It was followed immediately by the clatter of hammers as crampons and carabineers were strapped to the walls and the floor. I went to our bags and removed all of the supplies I needed.

     Surprisingly we were finished in under an hour and had time to kill. Lopsang and James had designed a series of pulleys that held all of the ropes from the bags suspended from the cavern walls. They were all hooked to three focal points where they would stand and hold the beast in place. My circle was complete, and for good measure I threw in some old voodoo I had learned in my time back in New Orleans for good measure. I don’t put much stock in voodoo magic, but anything to pass the time helped. It also made the trap feel all the more viable.

     With an hour left we had nothing to do but sit and wait. Time ticked by slowly and I gathered us all at the center of the circle. “Lopsang do you know any prayers?”

     “Really?” Asked James.

     “Look, if we’re going to sit here we might as well hedge our bets. We both just discovered that gods are very real, and possibly, although not probably listening. We should hedge our bets.”

     “Prayers for the wrong reason do not end in success Dr. Ventner.”

     “I’m going in with an open mind Lopsang. I’m scared of what’s coming and whatever prayers you’ve got are going to help that.” Lopsang shrugged and joined our hands. He began to chant quietly. I closed my eyes and fell away into it, letting my fear melt away into the soothing sounds of his voice. If that was to be the end, I was going to go out calmly, and with dagger in my hand. I gripped the pearl-wood handle of my knife and felt a melancholy calm grip me. This was the end…