Can You Help Me? (Zodiac)

[Madison]

It was somewhere around eight in the evening when Madison arrived at the Honeymead Market. It was a time when the area was relatively quiet unless it was a Friday or Saturday evening and she tended to avoid those nights. Tonight there were people there but not enough to make Madison feel uncomfortable. She preferred not to have to maneuver her way through the crowded halls, getting stuck behind slower groups of people with no way around.

A great deal of time had passed since she had last been there. Back then the place had been new, empty window fronts with signs that designated them for lease. It looked as though every shop now had a tenant. The store she was looking for she found on a mall directory billboard near the entrance. Pandora’s Box. It was down the hall, to the left and then all the way down to the end. Madison started to walk that way and window shopped as she went. She found it odd that there was a tattoo shop as well as a dojo right near the entrance, thinking malls and markets to be more geared to clothing, accessories and toys for all ages. She supposed that a tattoo was indeed an accessory though.

There was a centralized courtyard that even had a few trees. It was pretty, different than the more usual fountain or coin pond. There was clothing stores now off to her right, mostly geared towards men which made sense with them being near a dojo. The store at the corner where she was supposed to turn caught her eye, a familiar name scrawled across the window. Madison hadn’t known that the (a) Grigori owned a galleria and decided that she would stop there on her way out.

At the end of the hall, just like the map had shown her, she found Pandora’s Box. A purple neon sign hung in the window, labeling the shop. Like most people do, Madison looked down as she entered the store and perked an eyebrow at the warning on the purple floor mat. ‘Beware of Cat’ it read with claw marks alongside the words. Madison didn’t like cats, not even the one she owned. Hers didn’t like her much either. It had been a gift from Blake, one she had never named. She looked around for this cat but luckily didn’t see it. Hopefully it was off in the back sleeping or doing something cat like.

The second thing she noticed about the shop was the abundance of the color purple. It wasn’t an obnoxious purple though and the color suited the place well. Madison wandered across the rug that lay over the stone tile floor, depicting different ritualistic look symbols across it. There was a table for tarot card reading off to her left. She had never been one to believe in that sort of thing before she was turned. Now she wasn’t so sure what she though. Before she would have never believed such a thing as a fadebeast existed or that one could teleport themselves using a bound tome. It didn’t seem so far off that a deck of cards in the right person’s hands could tell one something about their life.

Moving across the room, she started to look at a display of various items. She wasn’t quite sure what a few of them were but they seemed interesting enough. The one that caught her eye was what looked like a genie’s lamp. Madison resisted the urge to reach out and rub it, even though it looked like some people had from the smudges of fingerprints near the handle. Was it possible that genie’s were real? Who would have thought spirits of dead vampires long gone would be the key to unlocking the secrets of vampire powers? It was very possible that genie’s could be real. Madison looked at the price tag that sat before the item and shook her head. She wasn’t going to pay that much to find out.

Turning back around Madison looked about the shop, trying to find what she had come here for. There was a reason she had come, to look for books on rituals and maybe buy other items she would need to perform one. Ever since her meeting with Pi she had been heavily contemplating stepping up alongside Asteria to do rituals since Pi hated them so much. While she loved crafting, she realized that there was little need to continue to make the assortment of traps. Madison had quite a collection of them already and didn’t really have much of a use for them. The d’Artois didn’t have any use for them either. It had become a fruitless hobby. Rituals weren’t something she wanted to go blindly into. While she was familiar with a few she hoped she could find a book or two that would help her better understand the history behind them. Knowing that this shop was owned by a vampire from an ad in the business section of CrowNet, it couldn’t hurt to see what they carried.

[Zodiac]

When she had done the layout for Pandora's (and even back to her original shop) Zodiac had laid out some ideas she had formed over her time dealing with people, examples she saw in other such places (stationary and mobile) and a dose of generic psychology. The shop was a subtle gauntlet of sort, made to catch the eyes of those who entered. Unless you were a regular or a soul on a mission it was actually hard to walk a straight line from the door to the counter where an associate would be waiting. So many things to catch the eye which lead to other things along the way. Her Nana called the tactic a gentle net, but what she had been 'fishing' for was not always sales.

If one was patient and watched a new face as they made their way around, you could learn a lot about them before you even began to speak to them.

The woman's eyes- too observant to details. First clue this was not a usual mortal customer. There was no pattern to her steps so this suggested someone who had rarely, if ever, explored a place like this before. A believer? No, but perhaps someone curious. This added to the idea this woman was vampire. Many of them had suddenly had a crash course in realizing the supernatural was indeed real. An idea they were reminded of every time they needed to feed or stayed out past sunrise. So it stood to reason some might decide to see what else could be involved in this new form of existence.

Zodiac had stood quietly in the doorway that separated the main store from the back areas. Ginny was sitting in her arms purring softly under her petting watching as well. The cat served as a judging tool as well for those who entered this place. Too many times a change in attitude of the animal had warned the girl a smiling face meant danger, or a angry soul needed help. She had avoided a lot of physical harm following the clues given by her pet. In fact, the one time she ignored the large hunk of black fur ended up being the night she joined the immortal's club.

Ginny seemed mildly interested, if that. There was no danger here. Just a curious soul seeking something.

Quietly she left her shadow and stepped behind the counter. Iris had joked once she was the 'purple ninja' they way she almost blended into the color scheme of the place depending on her attire. She reached into a file box and pulled out a certain folder and then stepped fully into view and approached the woman. A bright smile on her face as her senses confirmed the visitor was nocturnal.

"It is real, you know," she spoke softly to the woman's thoughts as she approached her. Zodiac pointed to the lamp that had caught her attention after she had sat down the folder and let Ginny down. She reached over and picked up the lamp and held it out for her to look at. "Now, is there a jinn lurking inside? Trust me, if there was I would not be busting my butt trying to make a dollar." She opened the lid to show her nothing was hiding inside.

She sat the lamp down and opened the folder and offered the woman a certificate of authentication. "I got this item in an auction lot and was quite surprised. I had it appraised and discovered it was gold. 22 ounces to be exact. When we close, that goes in the safe, so hence the price tag on it. The fact it resembles something from the Arabian Nights is a bonus and it will not break my heart if it never sells. A nice eye catcher it is."

She smiled again as she placed her hands together and inclined her head to the woman. "Welcome to Pandora's Box. I am Zodiac. So how may this humble mystic assist you on your journey this evening?"

[Madison]

The small baby hairs on the back of her neck stood and Madison fought the urge to shudder. Someone was watching her. Didn't surprise her much really, this was a business and businesses did indeed have employees. Yet a glance over her shoulder showed her no one there. Her gaze lifted up, searching for other cameras and alarms as there had been near the door. Then there was movement out of the corner of her eye. Looking over, Madison found herself looking at a woman several inches shorter than herself.

As cliche as it seemed, the woman looked like a gypsy with her state of dress. Perhaps it was part of the job to give the store more of an authentic feel. There were small nuances that aided the lack of heartbeat in Madison's thoughts that the person approaching her was a vampire as well. Through her experiences, vampires liked to hire other vampires to work for them though human employees were very common. The woman smiled brightly at her and Madison returned the smile with a small one of her own. Her eyes flitted to the cat in the other's arms and the folder in one hand. Hopefully this cat was friendlier than her own.

Madison expected the woman to greet her but was not expecting the quiet voice that filtered into her mind. Periwinkle eyes followed the gypsy's motion as she let go of the cat and set the folder down before pointing towards the lamp with the explanation that it was indeed real. Madison remained quiet as she picked up the golden lamp and offered it to the telepath for closer inspection. The woman's voice spoke into her mind again, explaining that there was no jinn, as she called it, inside. She even opened up the lid so that Madison could peer inside and saw only the darkened hollow of the lamp, nothing more.

The lamp was placed back upon the shelf and the woman offered Madison a piece of paper from the folder. Reaching out to take the paper from her, the blonde brought it closer to her so that she could read what was upon it as the gypsy explained how she had come across the lamp and that it was indeed real gold. Madison's blonde head nodded in agreement when the woman beside her commented on the lamp being an eye catcher. She handed the piece of paper back to the woman, still without speaking.

Finally the other woman introduced herself as Zodiac and Madison realized that she was talking to the owner of the establishment and not just an employee. It never occurred to her to speak out loud when she made her reply, speaking into Zodiac's mind, "It's a pleasure to meet you Zodiac. My name is Madison. I came here hoping to find information that would help me learn the history and act of completing a ritual. There's a possibility that I may be needed to learn them although my talents lie with the mechanical more than the spiritual."

A hand came up to push the long locks of hair that framed the right side of her face back behind her ear. The left side she left down to distract away from the scar that encircled the outside of her left eye. Madison's head turned and her gaze passed over the store once more, "I have tried my hand at rituals some time ago but never delved deeper than what an attunement could provide me. I don't want this to be something I go into lightly and uninformed."

[Zodiac]

"It's a pleasure to meet you Zodiac. My name is Madison. I came here hoping to find information that would help me learn the history and act of completing a ritual. There's a possibility that I may be needed to learn them although my talents lie with the mechanical more than the spiritual. I have tried my hand at rituals some time ago but never delved deeper than what an attunement could provide me. I don't want this to be something I go into lightly and uninformed."

"Hello, Madison." she smiled while listening to the woman's request. Gently, she took the woman by the arm and lead her towards the back of the shop, pausing to place the file back under the counter. Ginny followed them both as they moved. The girl was already watching for signs from the animal about her visitor. The cat was basically a living alarm who had warned her too many times if someone was okay or not.

So far, the cat seemed mildly interested, if that. A very good sign.

"Come sit with me in the parlor. Much more comfortable and private, considering what you would like to discuss. I do employ the living as well as our own, so to see us both simply standing and staring at each other might arouse a bit of suspicion." she explained. Behind a beaded curtain sat an arrangement laid out for more private readings of the cards. Zodiac invited her guest to have a seat while she fussed over a tea arrangement sitting to the side.

"Are you thirsty? I know not all of us can drink what we used to, but I do have tea on hand for my more mortal clients as well as those who can. For the rest of us," she held up a blood pack and sat it into the warming water. "I prefer it more normal temperature myself,"

She then took a seat across from Madison in what some called her 'purple throne' and relaxed. "So, rituals. Well, I can give you the basic history to a degree. Apparently in the past the originals of our kind had the ones we know currently and more at their disposal to work with. Of course, it was a simpler time. The fae were more plentiful and perhaps easier to control. The rituals worked, and worked very well for them. Recently, that ancient knowledge is slowly returning to us. Some rituals work well. A few of them used to work, but recently they stopped giving the results they used to. Why this is I cannot say. Regardless, they can be an asset to have at your disposal, but it is a ..... damaging process to learn. The fae are not so plentiful now and are quite enraged that we dare to summon them for their help. If you loose control of one during a ritual, it will do far more than stick its tongue out at you when it escapes the circle, but perhaps you already know that."

"Like mechanics," she continued. "There are certain qualities that makes some better at things than others. I can advise you what you need to improve within yourself to make your skills with rituals more effective. Me? I am lucky to figure out what end of the TV gets plugged into the wall but others take the oddest assortment of items and turn them into things that work. In a way, mechanics and rituals are the same. A bizarre assortment of items used to create a end result."

Her eye turned to the water and she rose up to pull the package out. "Would you like a cup to take the edge off? And tell me, is my prattling away actually answering any of your questions?" Zodiac grinned as she snipped the corner of the pouch and poured a measure into a waiting teacup.

[Madison]

Madison wasn't used to people touching her but managed not to shy away from the other woman as Zodiac took her by the arm and began to lead her towards the back of the store. They paused near the counter so the gypsy woman could put her file away before they continued into another room separated from the front by a curtain of beads. Madison lifted her hand to push the beads to the side, causing them to click and rub against one another as she passed through them. Like the front of the store, the back room was also heavily decorated by the color purple.

When offered, she took a seat at the card reading table and made herself comfortable in the chair, crossing her ankles over one another and setting her bag alongside the side of it. Quietly she watched as Zodiac started to fuss with a tea kettle. Madison was just about to tell Zodiac that she wasn't able to drink tea, when the mystic held up a blood packet and spoke into her mind. She responded in kind, "Unfortunately I'm not able to consume anything else without getting sick."

After putting the blood packet into the water, Zodiac took a seat across from Madison and began to speak into her mind again. Madison listened intently, keeping eye contact with the other woman to signal that she had her attention. It probably would look odd to anyone else for the two women to be staring at one another silently. Zodiac began to explain some of the history behind rituals, about how once things worked differently than they did now. It made sense to Madison. A long time had passed since the days where rituals and vampires were more prevalent than they were. Two hundred years if what the elders said was true and Madison had found no evidence to prove them wrong. It wasn't surprising that as times changed that the rituals would change as well, especially after having been almost forgotten for several centuries. It was equally as possible that the vampires of today weren't doing everything exactly as the vampires did before the holocaust.

When Zodiac eluded to what could happen if she failed a ritual and let the fae escape, Madison nodded. While it only had happened less than a handful of times, she had been on the receiving end of an angry fae's assault. While the wounds weren't deadly, they were still painful and irritating none-the-less. Zodiac continued to explain that like mechanics, there were certain qualities one could possess to make rituals come more easily. Madison couldn't help but chuckle when the other woman explained that she barely knew what part of the television got plugged into the wall. She knew that the scenario was an exaggeration but understood what the other woman was saying.

The sound of Zodiac's voice inside her head paused as she looked to where the packet of blood was warming and got up to attend to it. When offered a cup of blood, Madison nodded and responded politely, "Yes, thank you. And your prattling is much appreciated. I can't say that I know much about what vampire life was like before the holocaust. Two hundred years is a lot of time for many changes. With how different the world is today from then, it isn't surprising that not everything works at it once did."

"Do you know if anyone has actually translated the fae language as of yet? Madison asked, her expression turning quizzical. "Last I knew, people had pretty much only figured out that certain words are always a part of certain rituals and that certain phrases were people's names or the name of the business. But the person I worked with couldn't tell me exactly what we were saying when we spoke the words. It always seemed strange to me that we're able to perform a ritual without ever truly understanding the language."

[Zodiac]

"Yes, thank you. And your prattling is much appreciated. I can't say that I know much about what vampire life was like before the holocaust. Two hundred years is a lot of time for many changes. With how different the world is today from then, it isn't surprising that not everything works at it once did."

"The same can be said for many things, I suppose. I have a collection of spells my Grandmother handed down to me that had been handed to her by her own grandmother. Some of them she could never get to work, despite the fact she was well trained in such things while others worked with ease." Zodiac explained as she took a pair of scissors and nipped the end of the package open. "Some of the spells my Nana could do with ease I cannot, but others she could not I can. I think it may be a combination of time and the ones doing them myself."

A second cup and saucer appeared and the girl filled them with the warm sanguine. A twist of the wrist stopped the flow without a following drop and she clipped the bag and allowed it to sit in the still warm water. Zodiac brought the cups to the table and sat one before Madison before taking her seat again.

"Last I knew, people had pretty much only figured out that certain words are always a part of certain rituals and that certain phrases were people's names or the name of the business. But the person I worked with couldn't tell me exactly what we were saying when we spoke the words. It always seemed strange to me that we're able to perform a ritual without ever truly understanding the language."

"Is a valid question. I am afraid as of now, we know as much as you have said. I find it curious you can do the same ritual twice, yet parts of it changes, and yet the results are still the same. Double, even triple meaning words? My own fae name matches the fae names of several others, yet their is no connection between us in blood or anything to suggest such a link." she shrugged before taking a sip. "So I doubt for now we shall hear conversations like 'Ryt opet ynes, est? Hahahaha, good one!' or 'Hey, heg face! Kiss my atega!' or something like that."

She sat her cup down and considered for a moment. "Whatever we are saying makes sense to the fae. Doesn't stop them from hating us but if we get the right words out they do what we ask of them, which suggests the words have a power over them. Words of power is something I am familiar with in more human spellcasting. So even if a demi fae would speak to us, I doubt they could tell us much either. No race would think up words that could force them to do something and then let those secret words be known. That, to me, suggests these words are not fae in origin, but something else. And a language of only 46 words? No, there is more to it than that, even if you allow for combinations to make different words. There has to be, so we only have part of the entire language to work with as it is. I think the only ones who could tell us more is if one of the old old old ones could actually return like the old ones have. Lady Noble and Lord Grigori and the others do know some things, but I suspect they are as clueless as the rest of us on some of this, but even then- they ain't talking to us on the subjects to help or clear the air."

She picked up her cup and took another sip. "Is your drink okay?" She smiled.

[Madison]

Zodiac settled a teacup full of crimson vitae before Madison before reclaiming her seat across from the telepath. A brief smile crossed the blonde's lips with a slight cant of her head in non-verbal thanks. She didn't want to interrupt Zodiac's train of thought in regards to the question she had asked about the language being deciphered. Only once had Madison gone toe to toe with another telepath mentally and it was quite difficult to maintain concentration on pushing thoughts into another's head when they were pushing thoughts back. Regardless of the fact that had been an argument and this simple conversation, trying to use mindspeak while being spoken to was like trying to listen to multiple people talk at once.

Leaning forward, Madison reached out to carefully pick up the teacup and saucer. She held the saucer in one hand and kept the other on the handle of the cup, careful to keep the whole ensemble level while she sat back upright. Holding the saucer in her hand in her lap, she brought the teacup up to her face and casually inhaled the aroma of the warm blood. Bagged blood was never quite the same as blood tapped straight from the vein. The smell was different. The taste was different. Even the consistency was a little off. Madison figured that it had something to do with the anti-coagulants used to keep the blood from congealing. She also found it strange that vampires had no problems ingesting the drugs mixed with the blood to keep it fresh but that was another matter entirely.

Taking a sip of the blood she listened as Zodiac began to explain that no further knowledge had been garnered in regards to the fae language. They were still as stumped as they had been when rituals began filtering back into vampirirc society. It seemed a dangerous game to try and play. The fae, while supposedly fewer in number than they had been hundreds of years ago, were still a force that Madison wasn't overly comfortable going head to head with. Since turning and being attacked by several fae in the wilderness, Madison had made sure to spend her time wisely in the woods, never staying past her welcome which was shorter than other instances at times. It didn't seem as daunting when you had only one bound within a circle of power but when the person wielding the power doesn't fully understand the power they hold, well that can be a very dangerous situation.

A chuckle escaped Madison when the comments about hearing people talking to each other in the fae language was made in jest. Then the mystic returned to a more serious note, giving her own opinion on the subject matter. Never having been really interested in spells and Wiccan ways, Madison knew very little about the importance of words in terms of spell-casting. The other woman had what seemed to be a sound opinion on that the vampires probably only had a portion of the alphabet. Or maybe perhaps it was that they had a more complex version of an alphabet. It made Madison think of the Japanese language where kanji could be broken down into katakana and then broken down even further to the base alphabet of hiragana.

When asked if her drink was alright, Madison nodded and carefully set the saucer and the partially empty teacup back onto the table, "Yes, thank you."

Madison settled back into the chair, uncrossing her ankles to cross them back over one another in the other way. She was still leaning forward slightly, not fully reclined into her seat, signifying that she was indeed into the conversation and not just letting the words filter into her mind and out of her ears. Her brow furrowed slightly as the telepath began to mindspeak again, "Have you spoken to many of the elders? I haven't had the pleasure of meeting many of them, though I honestly don't know how many there even are. When you speak of the old old ones, do you think possibly the wraith guides may have knowledge to share? I know they mainly focus on powers but have recently begun to talk about other matters like the Crow. I've never spoken to one myself about anything other than power progression. If they are indeed long dead vampires as well, it's possible that they may remember something about the rituals and the fae."

[Zodiac]

"Have you spoken to many of the elders? I haven't had the pleasure of meeting many of them, though I honestly don't know how many there even are."

"Me? Talk to elders?" the grin blossomed on her face as she tried not to laugh. "Elders don't even know I am alive for the most part and I doubt they worry too much about me. Now second generations from the past I have spoken with in detail. They seem... closer to us in ways. More reasonable and not that smug air about them. There was 7 elders, as you probably know. Cobb is gone, the Lady Quartermaine is either gone or locked in self exile somewhere and where Worthington went to is anyone's guess." She turned her head and in true gypsy style she spit at the floor and made a gesture of contempt. "That leaves 4. I never saw or met Lady Aithne, so that leaves us The Doctor, Mircea and Isabella. If them 3 know anything, they ain't sharing it."

She continued. "Now Elizabeth of the Nobel line, and Habren Ashe of the Grigori I have found easy to talk to, despite the fact they became vampires 200 years before you and I were even born. Elizabeth is just now getting into the idea of rituals herself, so I doubt she'd know more. As for Habren, her and I haven't talked in that direction too deeply so I can't say what she may know."

When you speak of the old old ones, do you think possibly the wraith guides may have knowledge to share? I know they mainly focus on powers but have recently begun to talk about other matters like the Crow. I've never spoken to one myself about anything other than power progression. If they are indeed long dead vampires as well, it's possible that they may remember something about the rituals and the fae."

"I have heard some say they are starting to answer beyond teaching us how to cross the bridges between paths. How true that is, I can't say. Maybe I am not asking the right questions. But if they are talking, then they are probably the closest thing we are going to have access to direct knowledge on how some of this stuff started. Only one that might know more is the Crow person people keep going on about. By instinct, I don't trust it. Too much like Big Brother in '1984'. Again, like the oldest of us, if it knows anything it is not sharing. It has to know far more than it is telling and so far all it is doing is watching us trying to get things right while it plays a referee with the whole picture. Putting penalties on us every time we mess up."

Zodiac sat back and relaxed a bit. "Maybe I am jaded on the subject, but sometimes I feel like we are nothing more than lab rats to Crow. Doing our tricks and not even understanding why and for what purpose. I'd never play poker with the Crow. Sounds like the kind of guy who could deal himself a royal flush every time and you'd be lucky to draw a low pair in the game."

[Madison]

Madison picked up her teacup again and sipped it quietly while she listened to Zodiac speak about the elders. She knew very little about the elders so much of the information the gypsy was giving her was new to the telepath. It didn't really surprise her though that there was a chance that some of the elders knew more about the Crow or rituals than they were letting on. Vampires, in her opinion, young and old were constantly playing the one-up game so if they held information that they thought would be them a step above the rest, it made sense that they wouldn't share with anyone other than their own.

Elizabeth and Zachariah were the only two members she had actually met face to face and both times were rather brief and very little dialogue had passed between them. Elizabeth had summoned her out of the Broussard building when she found herself stuck in the penthouse and Zachariah had purchased her in the Necropolis auction though never claimed his days with her. She hadn't met him though until she put in an application to Docere Labs and all that had been was a simple review of her skills to make sure she fit the job. Other than that, Madison had never spoken to another elder, not even those of her own line except for maybe an instance or two over the CrowNet. But Zodiac had mentioned that Habren Ashe was rather agreeable and Madison knew Habren to be one of the heads of Grigori, her own base bloodline. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to go speak to her familial elder about the way things used to be.

The conversation turned to that of the wraiths. Seemed Zodiac didn't know much more than Madison did. Perhaps she should try talking to one of them herself but she doubted that any information would come easily. It did seem though that Madison and Zodiac had a similar distrust of the one who called itself the Crow. It was always odd to her that vampires fought among one another so easily and yet many so blindly followed the rules and guidelines set forth by a creature that no one to Madison's knowledge had ever met. None of it made a lick of sense to her.

As Zodiac round herself to a conclusion and stated that she may be jaded, Madison shook her head in a negative fashion, "I don't think you are jaded at all. The Crow hasn't bothered to make its existence known to the whole of us. But who or whatever it is must hold some kind of power if it's as omnipotent as it seems to be. Whether or not we should trust that power is another thing. I can see what you mean about being lab rats. Who is to say that this Crow could not wipe us all out if it so chose? Though I'm beginning to believe that like we were when we were human, vampires are on a course of self-destruction."

Madison paused to take the last of the blood from the teacup into her mouth and swallowed slowly. The conversation had gone off course some from the original topic of discussion but she wasn't at all perturbed or put off by that. It was how good conversations were and so far, this had been one of the best conversations she had ever had with another vampire, even if Zodiac was doing most of the talking. Madison really wasn't that much of a talker to begin with.

[Zodiac]

"I don't think you are jaded at all. The Crow hasn't bothered to make its existence known to the whole of us. But who or whatever it is must hold some kind of power if it's as omnipotent as it seems to be. Whether or not we should trust that power is another thing. I can see what you mean about being lab rats. Who is to say that this Crow could not wipe us all out if it so chose? Though I'm beginning to believe that like we were when we were human, vampires are on a course of self-destruction."

Her eyebrow raised at the statement as she stood up and offered to take Madison's cup. "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." The mystic refilled their cups and returned. "Some wise man or woman said that, and it truly applies now. In our case, it is probably even more foolish. The living always seem to thing they are better than they were with each passing generation and that they have become too smart to fall into the traps their ancestors did, but what happens? Plop! Arrogance is one quality the living share with us totally."

Zodiac chewed at a fingernail for a moment while gathering her thoughts. "But what really concerns me is that our (so called) 'leaders' were there. The first gens were there when everything fell apart. They saw it all. So you would think they would be on top of this situation. But they aren't and they can't be. Generation gaps. Granted, they know what could happen, but the ones like us who were born now are filled with that arrogance plus the ever popular 'what the hell do old guys know?' attitude our time is famous for. Any time they try to tell us something, they get shouted down, so no wonder they don't say a lot. My view is they are making plans to keep themselves safe while the rest of us play the sink or swim game. Can't blame them really. Kinda like the old joke about singing to pigs."

She took a fresh sip and looked her guest over. "And I suppose I could argue we are debating several points of the same question here, but we are drifting off track now badly. You came to learn more about rituals. I tell you what, why don't we go upstairs to where I have my alter and I can try to show you some things?"