You’ll create a much stronger circle, but again, only for demons.
“The interesting thing about circles is that even someone relatively weak can hold a circle against someone quite powerful like my father. That’s because a circle is a natural shape. Nature wants to see a circle maintained, so once it’s in place it’s virtually impossible to break from the other side.”
She reached forward, passed a finger through the salt. “I just broke the circle.”
Paul asked, “How powerful is your father?” Paul had learned there were three kinds of practitioners. There were hedge witches and minor practitioners who knew instinctively when they were in the presence of another practitioner, but nothing more. Then those like Paul and Katherine who could spot another practitioner, but could also read their level of capability in comparison to their own. McGowan and Colleen fell into the third category. They were so powerful they could hide their level of capability from everyone else, though they couldn’t hide the fact that they were practitioners from another practitioner.
She shrugged. “I don’t really know, though all my life I’ve noticed many practitioners look upon him with a kind of reverent awe. So I think he’s pretty serious stuff.”
She sighed. “Back to circle school. Keep in mind that if I hadn’t kept feeding that circle power it would weaken, and with some effort you would have eventually been able to reach the salt and break it. An alternative is to push a lot of power into a circle after initially setting it, then leave and forget it. It’s like putting gas in a car, the more you put in the tank, the farther it’ll go, or in the case of a circle, the longer it’ll last after you’ve left it. But it’ll eventually weaken, and can then be broken.”
Abruptly she stood, offered him a hand. “Here, you make a circle around me.” She helped him to his feet.
She got a broom and a dustpan, swept up the circle she’d made. “Why can’t we just use that circle. Seems a waste of salt.”
“That’s another thing,” she said. “It can be salt, chalk, precious metal, silver, a bunch of stones, almost anything will do. A precious metal is best, depending upon what you’re trying to contain, salt is second best, and you can reuse the salt, but you must construct the circle if you’re going to set it.” She finished sweeping up the salt, then sat down where the circle had been.
He took the canister of salt, poured a reasonably accurate circle around her and sat down on the floor facing her.
“Now I want you to think of the circle as an impregnable wall, all the while concentrating on the salt as the foundation of the wall.”
He focused, recalled the invisible wall she had created around him.
“Now start drawing power,” she said. “It doesn’t take much, and don’t feed it into the salt. That’ll just blow the salt around. Instead, start feeding it into the imaginary wall. The salt is only the foundation. There’ll come a moment when the wall is complete, and you’ll know it on an instinctive level, then pick a word, and seal the circle.”
As she spoke he saw the wall forming, not in any visible sense, but with his newly formed arcane senses. And when the moment came, as she’d told him, he knew it in his bones. He said, “Ok,” and the salt scattered as if blown about by a breeze.
She helped him sweep up the salt and he laid down another circle, and again she sat within it. “This time use a trigger word, something stronger than ok .”
He tried “Abracadabra, fiddle-de-de,” and nothing worked. Each time he set the circle, and each time the salt scattered.
They’d set the salt one more time, and again she sat within it. She said, “You need to focus better.”
She said it just as he was ready to set the circle, and angrily he shouted, “Bullshit!”
“What do you mean?” she asked angrily. “I’m not bullshitting you. Everything I said is true.
“The interesting thing about circles is that even someone relatively weak can hold a circle against someone quite powerful like my father. That’s because a circle is a natural shape. Nature wants to see a circle maintained, so once it’s in place it’s virtually impossible to break from the other side.”
She reached forward, passed a finger through the salt. “I just broke the circle.”
Paul asked, “How powerful is your father?” Paul had learned there were three kinds of practitioners. There were hedge witches and minor practitioners who knew instinctively when they were in the presence of another practitioner, but nothing more. Then those like Paul and Katherine who could spot another practitioner, but could also read their level of capability in comparison to their own. McGowan and Colleen fell into the third category. They were so powerful they could hide their level of capability from everyone else, though they couldn’t hide the fact that they were practitioners from another practitioner.
She shrugged. “I don’t really know, though all my life I’ve noticed many practitioners look upon him with a kind of reverent awe. So I think he’s pretty serious stuff.”
She sighed. “Back to circle school. Keep in mind that if I hadn’t kept feeding that circle power it would weaken, and with some effort you would have eventually been able to reach the salt and break it. An alternative is to push a lot of power into a circle after initially setting it, then leave and forget it. It’s like putting gas in a car, the more you put in the tank, the farther it’ll go, or in the case of a circle, the longer it’ll last after you’ve left it. But it’ll eventually weaken, and can then be broken.”
Abruptly she stood, offered him a hand. “Here, you make a circle around me.” She helped him to his feet.
She got a broom and a dustpan, swept up the circle she’d made. “Why can’t we just use that circle. Seems a waste of salt.”
“That’s another thing,” she said. “It can be salt, chalk, precious metal, silver, a bunch of stones, almost anything will do. A precious metal is best, depending upon what you’re trying to contain, salt is second best, and you can reuse the salt, but you must construct the circle if you’re going to set it.” She finished sweeping up the salt, then sat down where the circle had been.
He took the canister of salt, poured a reasonably accurate circle around her and sat down on the floor facing her.
“Now I want you to think of the circle as an impregnable wall, all the while concentrating on the salt as the foundation of the wall.”
He focused, recalled the invisible wall she had created around him.
“Now start drawing power,” she said. “It doesn’t take much, and don’t feed it into the salt. That’ll just blow the salt around. Instead, start feeding it into the imaginary wall. The salt is only the foundation. There’ll come a moment when the wall is complete, and you’ll know it on an instinctive level, then pick a word, and seal the circle.”
As she spoke he saw the wall forming, not in any visible sense, but with his newly formed arcane senses. And when the moment came, as she’d told him, he knew it in his bones. He said, “Ok,” and the salt scattered as if blown about by a breeze.
She helped him sweep up the salt and he laid down another circle, and again she sat within it. “This time use a trigger word, something stronger than ok .”
He tried “Abracadabra, fiddle-de-de,” and nothing worked. Each time he set the circle, and each time the salt scattered.
They’d set the salt one more time, and again she sat within it. She said, “You need to focus better.”
She said it just as he was ready to set the circle, and angrily he shouted, “Bullshit!”
“What do you mean?” she asked angrily. “I’m not bullshitting you. Everything I said is true.
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