Chapter 18: 18. Prepared

"Hello," I greeted the old man behind the counter. "I don't know if you remember us, but you helped out me and my girlfriends last December?"

He looked over his glasses at me, then Susan and finally Melissa. After just a second or two he stated, "You purchased a silver brooch. You said you were going to use it to capture a demon. I trust the brooch worked out to your satisfaction?"

I grinned, "Good memory! And yeah, it worked perfectly."

"Excellent," he smiled politely. "I'm pleased to hear that. So what can I do for you young ladies today?"

Melissa replied, "We're in the market for another brooch, or an amulet, or a medallion or something along those lines."

"Silver, bronze, brass, something that could be worn or carried?" Sue added. She glanced at me and asked, "What were the other requirements?"

I counted off my fingers as I recited the stuff Lily said. "Solid metal, not plated. Silver, brass, or bronze. Gold is too expensive. Total weight a hundred to two hundred grams. We need a flat surface on one side so it can be engraved. Hundred years old or more, man-made rather than machine-made."

The shopkeeper looked thoughtful, "I take it you've got another demon you wish to capture?"

"Yep," I grinned. "We're not going to make a habit out of it, just finishing some old family business."

"Hmmm," was all he had to say about that.

He still had that thoughtful look on his face as he was quiet for a few moments. My intuition thing wasn't actually giving me any hints, but I figured he was either trying to remember if he had anything in his shop that would work for us, or maybe he was starting to think about suggesting we speak to a mental healthcare professional.

It was about half past one, on the last Saturday of September. Amber was working, otherwise she'd have come with us as well. Not that we expected anything exciting to happen, but she was part of the team and all. Unfortunately Sunday was the only day nobody had to work or attend classes, and the antiques place wasn't open on Sundays.

"I might have something for you," the old guy finally spoke up.

He moved to one of the nearby display counters, it was half full of old coins and half full of military medals. Crouching down, he opened a drawer beneath the counter and came up with a small cardboard box. He set that on the counter then dug around inside, and finally pulled out a white envelope. In that was a chunky medallion of some kind.

He put a square of black cloth on the counter then took the medallion out of the envelope and placed it on the cloth.

The metal was kind of dull brown in colour, it was about two and a half inches across and an eighth of an inch thick. The side we were looking at had some fancy engraving on it, though it was kind of dull and worn.

I could make out a ring of leaves or vines or something, and inside that was probably some kind of coat-of-arms or whatever, like a shield and a lion and some other weird beast. There was some lettering, maybe in Latin or some other old language. Instead of a hole or a ring, the top of the disk had a flat bar of the same kind of metal stuck on, so you could loop a ribbon or whatever through it.

Susan asked, "May I pick it up?"

"Yes," the sales guy nodded.

Sue carefully picked it up and turned it over so we could see the back. There were some faint scratches and stuff, but it was otherwise plain which was perfect for Lily's needs.

"What is it?" Melissa asked. "Some kind of military award?"

"It's not military, but it is an award of some kind," the sales guy replied. "It dates from the mid-eighteenth century, but the condition is quite poor and much of the engraving has faded. It's not worth much, but it is solid bronze and I believe it meets the rest of your requirements?"

I nodded, "Ok. We'll take it."

He took it back from Susan and went to tuck it in that envelope, but I asked "Could we get a fancy little box for it? Would you have something like that? Like I guess it doesn't have to be all velvet-lined and stuff, but something a little nicer and box-like instead of an envelope?"

"Very well," he responded.

That took another ten or twelve minutes, for him to find something that fit the medallion and would keep it safe and secure. And keep us safe from it, once it was all full up with demon. The price was pretty reasonable too, the medal and the box together cost less than two hundred dollars. That was like a tenth of what we paid last year for that fancy silver brooch. And with that done, the three of us headed back out to Melissa's car for the drive back home again.

"That went pretty well," I grinned as I rode in the back seat. "A whole lot cheaper than last time too. I hope Armaros doesn't get upset that we got him budget accommodations."

Sue smiled, "I have to wonder what that guy thinks of us."

Melissa laughed, "We don't have to wonder. Mara, what did your intuition tell you? Does he think we're nuts?"

"Dunno?" I shrugged. "I didn't get a read off him. He seems nice enough though, and he helped us out so that's the main thing."

When we got back to the house I put the medallion and its box away in our bed-side table, next to Verothilas's brooch and that gold necklace Lily enchanted at the new moon. Then I joined my girlfriends as we got some drinks and relaxed together in the living-room.

"So what else do we need to get?" Melissa asked.

Sue pulled her phone out to check the list she'd made, "That's almost it? Lily wants some big candles we can use outdoors. I was thinking of those ones they have for backyard parties, like a big candle stuck on the end of a bamboo pole? Then we can just plant them in the ground and they'll stay put. She needs eleven but we may as well get a dozen of them, just incase."

She continued, "More salt of course. I think we should probably just get a whole box for the trip since Lily's probably going to use most of it making a big circle. And she wants chalk? I'm not sure what that'll be for, she's not going to draw in the dirt with chalk. But we can get some kids driveway chalk, like at a toy store?"

"So salt, chalk, and candles and we're all set," Melissa stated.

I added, "And food, but obviously we won't get that till the day before."

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Sue grimaced, "Or on the way there. That whole week's going to be busy."

Me and Melissa both nodded in agreement.

I managed to score the same cottage for the next new moon, but that was happening just a few days after thanksgiving. Mom invited all of us over to her place again, but it was going to be a lot more crowded this year. Last time it was just mom and me and Melissa, this time there'd be six or seven of us instead of three. Mom and Carol, plus me and Melissa and Susan and Amber.

Grace was invited, but she hadn't given us an answer yet. Like she definitely wasn't going to see her parents for thanksgiving, it was more a question of whether or not she wanted to come hang out with the rest of us or if she'd be uncomfortable and preferred to just chill out by herself for the long weekend.

The other thing that took some negotiations to sort out was which day we'd be doing our big thanksgiving dinner. It was an issue because Amber and Susan were supposed to do thanksgiving at the Dubois house.

We ended up planning it so the four of us were going to my mom's place on the Saturday, coming home Sunday. And Amber and Sue would be around the corner for that big meal on the Monday. Then Wednesday we were heading out of town to the cottage. The new moon was on the Friday, but Lily planned on doing the ritual and stuff at midnight Thursday night. And finally, we'd be coming home on the Saturday.

That was another thing where we didn't know yet if Grace was going to come with us. We'd invited her, and it didn't make too much difference either way. But if she was going to come then we'd need to buy a fifth set of everything. And Melissa suggested instead of taking her car we should probably rent a big SUV or whatever since her car was too small to fit five people plus all the gear and food and firewood. That wasn't a bad idea anyways, now that we knew about the rough dirt roads and stuff.

So we were kind of waiting on Grace's decision on that, before we knew what else we might need to buy and if we needed to rent a bigger car. She promised to make her mind up by the end of next week, both about thanksgiving and about whether or not she'd come to the cottage with us. So we'd have time to sort out the rest of the details either way.

"Did Lily say anything about that medallion?" Melissa asked after taking a gulp of her cola. "Or does she have anything else to add, while we're talking about plans and lists and stuff?"

My demon mom had actually been fairly quiet again the last four or five days, but I didn't want to mention that to my girlfriends. I knew it had something to do with her pen pal, but so far Lily hadn't told me what was wrong. Still, I wanted to check in with her though, just to be sure she was ok.

"She didn't say anything when we were out buying it," I replied. "I'm sure it's fine, like if it wasn't good she'd have said something. I'm going to pop in and talk with her anyways, so I'll let you both know what she says."

The two of them waited quietly as I let my eyes unfocus and pulled myself back inside. My surroundings went dark as it suddenly became night-time, and there was a slight chill in the air to match the one that shot up my spine as I looked around.

I was back on Thera again, in the atrium of the villa. Just like when it happened seven or eight weeks ago.

My heart started to race once more. It felt like autumn in here now, just like it was outside. And there were clouds in the sky, obscuring most of the stars. Fortunately I could still see ok in the dark, my demonic night vision worked just fine here. Wherever here was, assuming here was even a real thing and not some kind of weird dream or hallucination.

Just like the last time this happened, it looked like the villa was all intact and stuff. There were even different plants in the planters around the sides of the atrium, like someone was maintaining them and changed them with the seasons or whatever.

I felt a big urge to call out, to see if Lily's daughter was still here. Like I really wanted to warn her, to save her or something. But I remembered what Lily said, that if I saved demon-Mara then maybe I wouldn't exist. And that would upset my mom and Lily and my girlfriends.

The other thing I remembered from last time was as soon as I tried to move I ended up in Lily's apartment, so for now I didn't move. I just sort of looked around, and tried to see if there was any clue about why I was there.

At first I didn't see anything that seemed out of place or whatever. I twisted around, behind me was a white marble bench or sofa kind of thing that I remembered was nice for lounging on. Especially if you had some blankets or whatever, so you weren't just sitting on the hard stone.

It was still there, but something was definitely unusual about it. It's like someone had graffitied it with black writing. Like charcoal or a thick pencil or whatever, someone had been writing on it. Actually the first thing I thought of was high-school, like being bored and writing or drawing on my desk.

I was still trying hard not to actually move, so I was kind of awkwardly twisted around and it was really hard to read what was there. It took a few moments to even figure out half of it was in some strange language, like ancient Greek or whatever. Actually it crossed my mind, maybe it was literally ancient Greek.

Then one long word caught my eye, and I felt a shock of adrenaline go through me. It was enough of a surprise that I lost my balance and had to shift my feet to stop myself falling over, and that broke whatever kind of dream or hallucination I was in.

Just like that I was in Lily's apartment, facing her big leather sofa. My heart was racing again though, because I was positive I just saw Armaros's true name scrawled in black letters across the white marble bench in demon Mara's atrium from two thousand years ago.

My demon mom was looking all surprised and worried again, she was asking what happened and where I went and all that stuff. I kind of ignored her though as I slumped down onto her sofa, my head felt like it was spinning as I tried to make sense of what I saw.

I didn't understand how it worked, but if I really did figure that name out in my sleep then maybe I did it during a dream. Like if I was dreaming of being demon Mara then maybe I figured it out in her villa, and wrote it out on the marble bench thingy.

In the end I finally told Lily, "It's ok, I'm fine. I just took another little detour over to Thera on my way in here. I didn't see your daughter, and I didn't try calling her or whatever. I was just in her atrium for like half a minute or whatever, before I came here."

She gave me a worried look, "Ok Mara. I'm glad you're all right. I hope that doesn't happen again though..."

After that we talked about the medallion thing and our plans for next month and the other shopping we had to do. From the sound of it, everything was coming together and it was going to be pretty straightforward. It'd be busy, but we figured it should all work out fine.

With that sorted out I asked, "And what about your pen pal? Is everything ok there too?"

My demon mom's cheeks turned dark and she replied quietly, "She has finally agreed to stop bothering me. So that problem has been resolved at last."

I leaned closer and gave her a hug, "Aww, I'm sorry Lily. Now you're worried you're going to miss her?"

She flustered and made a half-hearted attempt to deny it, before she gave up and went quiet.

I kept my arms around her as I said, "Remember, me and the DLP are all here for you if you ever want to talk."

"Thank you Mara," Lily said as she put on her big tough demon act. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

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