The Curse of Arnford Manor - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Ritual

Functions Room B, "The Arnford", Holliston, NC
July 16th, 1931, 12:17am.

The chamber was brightly illuminated by a plethora of candles and a handful of oil lamps that had been placed all around. The witches had also turned the large cooking pots from the kitchen into makeshift braziers. The large dining table and its chairs had been pushed to one side of the chamber to make room.

In the middle of the room, just in front of the stage, Nina and Swift Coyote stood side-by-side in a large pentacle scrawled upon the floor in chalk. Nina wore nothing but her magic amulet and her black casting robe, with the hood lowered. Clutched in her hands was a modest bouquet, made of flowers that Demi had puckishly pilfered from a garden along the way. Upon her face was an utterly blissful smile.

Swift Coyote was dressed only in his traditional breechcloth, leggings and moccasins. He had marked his body with the tribal designs that had been worn by his father and his father before him. He, like Nina, appeared unusually happy.

Nerine stood before the couple, presiding over the ceremony as high priestess. Demi and Levinia stood off to one side, acting both as witnesses and as Nerine's assistants. Demi, Nerine and Levinia were dressed much the same as Nina, except they had the hoods of their casting robes pulled up.

They were conducting a handfasting ceremony – a witch's wedding, in which Nina and Swift Coyote were forging a lifelong unity together. At Nerine's cue, Demi stepped forward with the coven's athame and held it before Swift Coyote.

"Touch the tip of the blade," Nerine instructed him. He complied. "Swift Coyote, as you stand before the Gods, will you take this witch as your partner and mate? Will you swear upon this sacred athame to love her, comfort her and honor her in sickness and health, for as long as you both shall live?"

"I will," he replied. Without a word, Demi bowed her head and stepped back. Levinia stepped forward, carrying one of the coven's ceremonial chalices, which she held out in front of Nina. Nina reached forward and touched the center of the chalice's bowl with her index finger.

"Nina, High Priestess of Fire, as you stand before the Gods, will you take this man as your partner and mate? Will you swear upon this sacred chalice to love him, comfort him and honor him in sickness and health, for as long as you both shall live?" Nerine asked.

"I will," Nina chimed. Levinia solemnly moved back to Demi's side.

"Your intentions are have been heard," Nerine declared. "The God and Goddess have been called upon to join you in holy matrimony, with the vows you shall make to each other on this night. Swift Coyote, please repeat after me."

Swift Coyote turned to gaze into his bride's doting eyes. Nerine guided him a sentence at a time and he repeated her words, verbatim, "I, Swift Coyote, do recognize in you, my love, the form of the Goddess, the vessel of new life, the gateway to ecstasy; my perfect other half. I promise to honour, love and revere you as both holy and human, for as long as my heart beats."

"Nina, please repeat after me," Nerine requested.

Nina spoke precisely as instructed, "I, Nina of the Coven of the Four Paths, do recognize in you, my love, the form of the God, the spark of new life, the bringer of fulfilment; my perfect other half. I promise to honour, love and revere you as both holy and human, for as long as my heart beats."

"Hold hands," Nerine instructed. Before placing her hand in Swift Coyote's, Nina removed her arm from her sleeve and slipped it out through the part in the front of her robe. She knew doing so now would make later parts of the ritual easier.

Levinia presented Nerine with a long strip of aquamarine silk. Nerine proceeded to bind Swift Coyote and Nina together at the wrist with the strip, as she spoke the final decree of matrimony, "With the fashioning of this knot do I tie all the desires, dreams, love, and happiness of the lives you have freely offered each other. Here, in the sight of your friends and family, the two of you have become one. May your union be forever blessed. So mote it be."

Now husband and wife, the joyful couple embraced and shared a long, tender kiss. Swift Coyote slipped his unbound hand inside his bride's robe, to explore the shapely curves of her waist, hips and ass.

"Swift Coyote," Nerine interrupted after an appropriate length of time. The newlyweds broke off their kiss and looked at her. "As a high priestess of The Coven of the Four Paths, it is my pleasure to welcome you into our order. You are family, now," she said with a broad smile. Swift Coyote nodded in thanks then turned his attention back to Nina.

The other witches took a moment to delight in their sister's wedded bliss before making their preparations for the second part of the cleansing ritual. Nerine relieved Nina of her bouquet. Demi assisted Nina out of her robe, while Levinia helped Swift Coyote undress. They were no simple tasks as the couple had already begun their foreplay. Once the newlyweds were completely naked, Demi and Levinia stepped away to prepare the ceremonial relics.

Public consummation was not normally part of a handfasting ceremony. But in this case, it was important for Nina and Swift Coyote to seal their marriage, physically, in the exact spot where they had been wed.

"Remember, yours is the most important role in the ritual, so no matter what happens, don't stop," Nerine instructed them. "Let us worry about Serina Arnford." Nina nodded in agreement while her husband adored the side of her neck. "Oh, and try to stay within the bounds of the pentacle," Nerine added as she headed over to assist Levinia and Demi with the ritual preparations.

Nina and Swift Coyote's kisses grew more and more passionate. Swift Coyote slipped a hand between their bodies and began to rub Nina's crotch in a way he knew she liked. Most of his fingers stayed on the outside but one moved back and forth between her lips, while putting just a little pressure on her clit. Nina purred in approval.

After several more kisses, she leaned back so that he could enjoy her tits. He removed his hand from her sex so he could knead one of the gorgeous mounds while kissing and suckling its twin. Nina wrapped her fingers around his manhood and began to calmly work it up and down. The bigger and firmer it got, the more she yearned to thrust it into her dripping canal. Swift Coyote began to touch her down there again, this time he actually penetrated her with his finger. Nina couldn't stand such exquisite teasing for long.

She leapt off the ground and wrapped her legs tightly around his hips. Swift Coyote grabbed one of her buttocks firmly, to help support her weight. Her hot snatch was pressed against his adamant rod. In between their increasingly lusty kisses, the two newlyweds began to pant like wild beasts.

"I want you inside me," Nina cooed softly. Without letting go of her, Swift Coyote sat down on the floor, right in the center of the pentacle.

Nearby, Nerine, Levinia and Demi had gathered in a small circle. High above their heads, Nerine held the ceremonial chalice while Levinia likewise held the golden athame. In unison, the three witches began to chant powerful incantations over and over, in an unbroken cycle.

Once Swift Coyote was sitting comfortably, Nina guided his maleness into her womanhood. She moaned as it gradually filled her tingling hollow. Once he was deep inside, Swift Coyote pulled Nina's body as close as possible to his own and the pair resumed their passionate kissing. Nina's hips began to grind industriously against her husband.

A faint rumble could be heard within the chamber, growing louder by the second. The furniture in the corner began to shake and soon the witches felt the floorboards trembling beneath them. Small wisps of white smoke began to rise from the edge of the pentacle inscribed on the floor.

As their arousal built to a head, Swift Coyote was making love to his wife with short, sharp thrusts that rocked her entire body and elicited gasps of pleasure from her lips. They slowed down for a second to embrace and kiss some more, while stroking each other's hot spots.

Then they repositioned themselves. Swift Coyote was moving to take Nina from above, missionary style, when she unexpectedly surged up, forcing him to topple back onto the ground. The wanton gaze in her eyes was almost manic – her voracious libido had taken over. Swift Coyote smiled as he realized he was about to have the most incredible experience of his life. Nina began to ride.

With a hellish roar, a black cloud of smoke appeared out of nowhere, at the far end of the chamber. It quickly spiralled into a huge black twister that stretched the entire height of the room. By now, everything within the room was shuddering.

The smoky twister began to drift erratically around the room. At first, it meandered around in the area it had first appeared, but then it moved perilously close to the witches and the newlyweds. The three chanting witches continued their ritual and didn't react at all to the appearance of the sinister tornado. Nerine held the chalice out in front of her and with a smooth motion, Levinia plunged the athame into its bowl, symbolically penetrating the feminine vessel with the masculine blade.

The twister suddenly raced towards the couple in the pentacle. But before it could run them down, a huge column of protective flame encircled the pentacle. The twister bounced right off it, letting out an inhuman scream of anger. Nina's rational mind had been completely overcome with desire. Her powers over the element of fire, which were intensified by her own passion, were acting beyond her control. Yet they still worked exclusively in her interests. The two lovers were so preoccupied, they didn't even notice the inferno that had surrounded them.

A harsh wind had built around the twister. It was so strong that it threatened to rend the witches' robes from their bodies. Yet they endured it and continued their incantations. Most of the candles in the room were blown out. Soon after, small objects, such as vases, framed pictures and the lanterns began to fly through the air. Before long, the only sources of light remaining were the improvised braziers, which were burning brighter thanks to Nina's magic, and the column of flame.

Nina's autonomous magic began to singe seven-foot-tall sigils for the God and Goddess into the side walls of the chamber. On the back wall, the secret symbol for the Coven of the Four Paths was branded for posterity.

The twister began to lift the chairs near the dining table and hurl them through the air. One of the airborne chairs smashed into Demi, side-on and knocked her to the ground.

"I'M FINE!" she assured her sisters as a nasty cut above her ear began to weep blood. She practically had to shout to be heard over the howling wind. "DON'T STOP THE RITUAL!" Respecting her wishes, Nerine and Levinia continued their chant with redoubled volume.

Outside, dozens of lightning bolts struck the ground in rapid succession. Forces beyond human comprehension were closing the spiritual wound hanging over The Arnford.

Unable to resist his goddess' perfect flesh for another instant, Swift Coyote arched his back and roared like a lion. His massive load of scalding semen rocketed into the vice-like grasp of Nina's womanhood. Nina, who was well into her own climax, continued to shift up and down his hard cock. An innately fantastic lover, she shrieked ever louder as she bought them both to greater and greater heights of ecstasy.

With an ear-splitting scream, the swirling cloud of black smoke began to slow down and dissipate. The winds and earthquake stopped, as did the lightning storm outside. Sensing that the danger had passed, Nina's magic rescinded the column of fire that had been shielding her.

As the cloud of smoke disappeared altogether, a figure appeared in the middle of it, sitting up upon the floor. It was a completely naked woman, pale-skinned, slightly dishevelled-looking, with uncombed black hair: Serina Arnford. Her connection to a source of dark magic had been severed. She was now just a regular mortal.

She remained there for several seconds with her face hung towards the floor. Sitting virtually motionless, she shuddered as if silently weeping. Nerine and Levinia watched cautiously, joined by Demi who had just gotten back on her feet.

All of a sudden, Serina lifted her head and looked over the other people in the room with mad, bloodshot eyes. She hissed at the three witches with bared teeth, before getting to her feet and racing for the door.

"Don't let her escape!" Nerine cried. Levinia extended her hand and summoned a gust of wind to close the doors and block Serina's escape. But Serina was surprisingly nimble and managed to slip between the doors just before they closed.

"Damn!" Levinia cursed. The three witches took off in hasty pursuit. They chased Serina Arnford through the halls of the old hotel, across the wide front lawn and down the hillside road to Holliston proper. Serina Arnford was a superior sprinter to all three of her pursuers and managed to extend her initial lead. Regardless, the witches followed her relentlessly. Demi tried to trap Serina by opening sinkholes beneath her, but she was still a bit dazed from her earlier injury and her aim was way off.

Serina managed to make it all the way to the town center, which was brightly lit by the headlights of many large vehicles. The witches arrived on the scene just in time to see Serina Arnford being blocked by a half-dozen soldiers.

Every lawman in the county, along with the national guard, had been called into Holliston to deal with the aftermath of the riot. Dozens of bloody local men stood in shackles, awaiting transport to some unknown jail. Numerous stretchers moved to and fro, carrying the bodies of the dead and seriously injured.

From the shadows of a distant building, the three witches watched as the soldiers cornered Serina Arnford against a couple of shop fronts. After hesitating for a second Demi began to step forward.

"Wait!" Nerine instructed in a loud whisper.

"We can't just let her go!" Demi asserted.

"If anyone finds out there was a witch coven in town on the same night as this riot, we'll be lynched without trial!" Nerine pointed out, gesturing at her own distinctive casting robes.

The soldiers pinned Serina Arnford to the ground and bound her hands with sturdy iron cuffs. She didn't make it easy for them, thrashing around, snarling, screaming and even trying to bite one of the soldiers. But in the end, she was impossibly outnumbered.

"Besides, they realize how dangerous she is. They'll make sure she's kept secure," Nerine said.

Once she was restrained, a soldier tried to offer Serina some dignity by wrapping a blanket over her, but she defiantly shook it off every time. They led her off to the far side of the town square, away from all the male prisoners. A sheriff, his deputy and a military officer of some kind gathered near her to talk, most likely about what they were going to do with her.

"That's a nasty wound," Nerine remarked, looking at the side of Demi's head. "Let's go back and I'll tend to it. I don't think it's wise to stay here with these guys hanging around, anyway."

Back in The Arnford, Swift Coyote and Nina layed within the smouldering circle of their pentacle. Holding each other in a lazy embrace, they nuzzled each other and shared an endless series of gentle kisses. The silken fabric still tightly bound their wrists to one another.

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"The Arnford", Holliston, NC
July 16th, 1931, 7:04am.

Nerine wandered into the large kitchen to find a freshly boiled kettle steaming near an open jar of ground coffee. She tracked down a mug and made herself a cup. As she did so, she noticed Levinia sitting on the step outside, cradling her own cup of hot coffee while she watched the sunrise.

"Hi," Levinia turned to greet her as she heard her approach from behind.

"Morning," Nerine replied. Levinia shuffled over so that there was room for both of them on the same step. Nerine sat down beside her.

Nina and Swift Coyote were fast asleep in the hotel's bridal suite, having ‘celebrated' their nuptials several times during the night. They still had not untied their handfasting knot, nor had they spoken to the others about what became of Serina Arnford. Demi was resting in a separate bedroom, with one of Nerine's salves already healing her wound.

"Look at that," Levinia said with admiration as she gazed at the golden dawn sky. "I'll bet this is the first good morning this place has seen in a loooooooooooooong time."

"I think you'd win that bet," Nerine agreed.

The curse was gone. Thanks to their ritual, the chapel chamber and, by extension, the entire building had been reconsecrated. Except this time, the building had been consecrated under the practices of witchcraft, not Christianity. The Arnford was now a safe haven for virtuous souls who followed the path of witchcraft. It was a place where their connection to the God and Goddess would always be clearer and hence, it was a place where their magic would naturally be stronger.

"Do you think the challenges will always be this bad?" Levinia solemnly asked after a brief pause. After taking stock of all the terrible dangers they had faced in the past couple days, the time when they had been naive acolytes, so eager to take their places as the high priestesses seemed like a lifetime ago.

"I don't know," Nerine honestly replied. "But I don't think so. What I do know is that we're stronger now than we were before." Levinia thought about that and seemed encouraged.

"You know, with the special connection this place now has with the God and Goddess, it would make a wonderful home for a coven," Nerine casually mentioned. Levinia looked over at her sister with a smirk.

"Oh, really? You don't say," she facetiously replied.

"Actually, I was thinking. All those children Serina Arnford had... they will always carry the corruption inside them, even with the curse gone. If any of those children ever meet up and mate... Well, I just thought that seeing as this is where they all originated from, this would be the best place to base ourselves and keep an eye on things," Nerine suggested.

"And how, pray tell, do you expect we'll be able to afford to buy a luxury hotel?" Levinia asked in a playful tone. "This financial crisis isn't going to last forever. Sooner or later, somebody's gonna want to move back in here." Levinia only mocked her sister because she found the idea so appealing. The Arnford would make an ideal home to raise their daughters in, not only because of its resplendent architecture and wonderful space, but also because of its newfound spiritual warmth.

Nerine shrugged. "The God and Goddess will guide us to a solution, if it's our destiny to find one," she said with a hopeful smile.

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Epilogue

Thirty-four men were been killed in the Holliston riot of July 15, 1931. Dozens more were seriously injured. 162 were charged with a slew of various violent crimes as a result. Due to the misleading influence of the curse, none of the men who participated in the riot could recollect what had happened that night. The massacre received nation-wide press coverage and was blamed solely on the stresses of the Great Depression. As a result, the government responded with a generous amount of funding, geared into rejuvenating the Holliston economy.

As Nerine anticipated, Theresa Colby's recovery from the soul toxin she had suckled from Serina Arnford's breast was dreadfully traumatic. The coven took her unconscious body back to her own bedroom, where she endured three and a half days of fever, chills, seizures, sharp pain and vivid nightmares, before finally reawakening. Nerine remained by her side and administered expert care to her throughout the ordeal. She remained sickly for several more weeks, though she eventually recovered to full health. However, the grief of losing her beloved fiance under circumstances she did not remember, would linger with her for the rest of her life.

After an appropriate length of time had passed since Theresa's recovery, the coven approached Gerald Colby hoping to somehow barter their flourishing corn farm in Nebraska for The Arnford. Gerald Colby would not hear of such a deal. To their sheer amazement, he signed the deed of The Arnford over to them for free. Though he was unclear on much of what had happened the night of the riot, he knew for certain that if it hadn't been for Nina and her family, he would have lost his most precious asset: his daughter. He owed them more than he could ever repay.

The witches sold their farm and lived off the profits. Their mothers moved to Holliston to join their daughters in their grand new home. The coven changed the name of the house back to "Arnford Manor".

After a few years, Demi happened upon the secret door in the original basement, which led to the bunker Riley Vandelul alluded to in his journal. It turned out that the bunker had been converted into a mausoleum, with only a single sarcophagus interred within – that of Marcia Arnford. The guilt of the curse had been cleansed from her bones and the witches believed that she was finally at peace, wherever she was.

Serina Arnford lived out her mortal days wrapped in a straight jacket, in a padded room in an asylum. She did nothing but snarl and spit at anyone who came near her. A century and a half of being at one with a curse had destroyed whatever semblance of empathy or rationality she may once have had. To the administration and the state, she was only ever known as "Jane Doe."

The coven never came across another manifestation that could be traced back to Serina Arnford. As far as the witches could tell, all of her remaining twisted children died as virgins.

Following their wedding, Swift Coyote would lay with each of Nina's sisters occasionally and even had an additional son with Levinia and a son and second daughter with Nerine. But it was not a betrayal of trust because he did so with Nina's blessing. Besides, his affection for the other witches could not compare to the deep emotional connection he had with his wife. Their marriage was blessed with two further daughters in addition to their first, the future High Priestess of Fire.

Swift Coyote was an adoring father to all his children. He taught them the skills of a nimble warrior and how to defend themselves against those who persecuted them for their unconventional faith. The teachings that had been passed on to him from Speaks With Stones were added to the coven's wealth of arcane knowledge.

Nina and Swift Coyote shared a long, happy marriage. They lived together in Arnford Manor for over fifty years, until death did they part.

Arnford Manor is still the cherished family home of the Coven of the Four Paths to this very day. Our heroes' great-granddaughters, Adamine, Ava, Sera and Brooke have grown into powerful witches. Rumour has it that they've recently discovered a young man whose strong seed makes him an excellent candidate to help them become the new high priestesses...

The End

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This story was partially inspired by the wonderful works of Jim Balent and Holly Golightly. Thank you for reading 'The Curse of Arnford Manor'. I hope you enjoyed it.
~Mythical Traveller

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