6:7
After handing his piece off to Siobhan, Ivan shot back for the surface. The sight that greeted his eyes as he cleared the water was of pandemonium. Somehow in the time it had taken Ivan to swim down, determine the challenge, search for the piece he found, then come back up for air, water rats had swarmed the chamber.
Ivan came up near the wall, across the cavern from where water rats were clustered in a clump around his friends where they were huddled near the opposite wall. In the phosphorescent glow of Siobhan’s alchemy lamp, he could clearly make out the formation of Ben and Prairie pressed against the wall, Patti just in front of them, Dan and Dempsey in front of her, and ‘wall of rats’ of front of all of them. It was one massively screwed up parfait.
He snatched his sword out of the scabbard on his back and swam towards the wall of rats.
“No!” Dan called out, “Don-”
Unfortunately he called out too late as Ivan had lead with his arm and stabbed one of the rats in the back of the seethe. It was a glancing blow, the force of it hindered by the water resistance. It was possible it didn’t even reach skin as the rat’s fur was very long and thick. But it did something because the rat let out a screech and then a noxious yellow cloud rose from it’s hind region. In seconds the cloud had floated over the water and wreathed Ivan’s head.
And then his brain separated from his body and floated towards the ceiling. The stalactites stabbed it and it exploded, like an overfilled bladder, releasing a miasma of swirling colors into the air. The colors resolved into fractals and then those fractals resolved into fractals and then resolved into-
“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttt,” warbled on the air.
“Paaaaaatttttttttttiiiii, caaaannn…”
Flowers, flowers everywhere, colors so bright they burned into Ivan’s retinas. Woooowwwwwwww…
His limbs stiffened and he went rigid. The sword fell from his nerveless fingers. And the water rose up like liquid velvet, swaddling his shoulders and head.
“Whoa, big guy!” Dempsey yelled, snatching the back of Ivan’s collar and hauling his head above water. “Got him!” he called back to Dan who was floating to the right of him with his arms out to hold back the water rats on that side.
On the left Patti floated and sang the line in the Irish Rovers song The Unicorn about green alligators and long-necked geese. The water rats on that side just drifted, transfixed looks on their faces, swaying in the water to Patti’s song.
Framed in the wedge made by Patti and Dan, Prairie had Ben plastered to the wall of the cave. His forehead was pressed to the stone and his eyes were closed. Prairie leaned against him, her head turned so she could rest her cheek on his back. She swayed in the water, back and forth, moving with the ragged breaths he was taking.
Catching the movement as Dempsey pulled Ivan into the wedge, she spread her arm out. “Just set him here next to Ben. I’ve got them.”
Dempsey pushed Ivan up against the wall, facing out.
“Hi, Ivan,” Prairie said in a voice even more gentle than her usual soft tones. “It’s Prairie. I’m just going to put my hand on your chest.”
When she put her hand on him Ivan started, his unseeing eyes searching the landscape only he could see. “It’s okay. It’s just me.”
Ivan settled beneath her petting hand, relaxing his head back and letting his eyelids droop.
“Nope. Do not close your eyes,” Prairie said, tapping his chest. “If you close your eyes it will be worse. You’ve ingested a hallucinogen and your prefrontal cortex is having a little trouble processing. Keeping your eyes open may help keep you grounded in the Real.”
Ivan turned his head to look at Prairie with his hazy eyes. “Pretty.”
“Thank you.” Prairie smiled. “It would be nice if you told me that when you weren’t tripping balls.”
Dan snorted.
Patti kept singing quietly and the water rats kept doing their rendition of preschoolers at a library sing-along.
“Some benzos would be really helpful right about now,” Prairie mused.
“Benzos?” Dempsey had swam slowly back to his previous position next to Dan and placed his shield in front of him as a bulwark between the group and the enchanted water rats.
“Not much counteracts psilocybin which, from how they are presenting, I think Ben and Ivan ingested off the water rats. But benzodiazepine will calm them down and may help. We use it at the hospital when someone comes in on a bad trip. Pretty much nothing else works except time.”
“How much time?”
“Hours. Usually about eight to twelve.”
Dan turned his head to look at Prairie. “We’re going to be without Ben and Ivan for eight to twelve hours?”
“Maybe?” She cocked her head to look at him. “I’m only guessing at what came off the water rats based upon how Ben and Ivan are responding to it. It could be a number of other things. We could try collecting some of it for Siobhan to look at.”
“And we do that by…?”
Patti cut off singing for long enough to say in a sing-song voice, “Do not say by bothering the rats. I just got them settled.” That said she went back to, “Then Noah looked out through the driving rain. Them unicorns was hiding, playing silly games. Kicking and splashing while the rain was pouring. Oh them silly unicorns!”
Prairie joined in on the chorus. Even Dan mouthed along. It was a catchy song!
Gwen’s head broke the surface of the water outside the ring of swaying water rats.
“The fuck?!”
“Shhh!” Dempsey raised a finger to his lips.
“Did you shhh me, Shady?”
Prairie raised her voice enough to carry to Gwen. Her usually soft, melodious tone blended with the song Patti continued to sing, “Do not disturb the water rats, Gwen.”
“What?”
Again Dempsey went “Shhh!”
“The water rats release some kind of drug when they get scared or hurt. They got Ben and Ivan.” Dan explained. “Patti has them calm right now.”
“So, that’s why Ivan didn’t come back down?”
“That’s why.”
Gwen’s “Okay,” was long and drawn out.
“What’s going on down there?” Dan asked.
“We found a door. And maybe a broken lock. It’s stone and someone smashed it. We’ve found some of the pieces and Siobhan is working on putting it together.” She eyed Ivan, taking in his glassy expression, then dove back into the water before coming back up inside the ring of mesmerized water rats. Making a beeline for Ivan she pressed a hand to his chest, just above where Prairie’s rested, in the region of his sternum. A second later she pulled her hand away and snorted. “This man is seriously high.”
“That’s my professional assessment.” Prairie nodded. “Can you help?”
Gwen scrunched up her mouth, considering Ivan’s relaxed features. “Maaaayyybe. Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.”
Treading water hard to keep her position, she laid one hand on his forehead and the other back over his sternum, then closed her eyes. After a minute she giggled. Then she snorted. Then she jerked her hands away from him and reeled back. She shook her head hard and raised her hand to place it on Ivan’s cheek. Drawing back she smacked him. When he didn’t immediately respond she drew back and smacked him again, harder. At this he jerked his head back, hitting the back of it against the wall of the cave.
“Whoa!” He cocked his head and gave Gwen a stern look. “Did you hit me?”
“Yup. You tasting any colors? Seeing any sound?”
Ivan squinted. Screwed up his mouth. Started to deny then pulled it back, raising a hand to pinch her fingers close to each other. “Purple tastes like honey.”
Gwen nodded. “Good to know. So, I’m told you shouldn’t rile the rats.”
Ivan returned the nod, a little slower. “Don’t rile the rats.”
“And don’t interrupt Patti.” Prairie added.
“Don’t interrupt Patti,” Ivan repeated dutifully.
Prairie snorted and looked at Gwen. “I might like this compliant Ivan.”
“Don’t gamble on it lasting. I think I cleared most of the fog from his mind, but I had to leave his brain to process the over-stimulation it experienced from whatever it was he ingested. So he’s going to be a little slow for a few, but hopefully after that he’ll be good. Think of it as waking a toddler and they haven’t quite reconciled that they aren’t dreaming still.”
“Got it. Can you help Ben?”
“Sure.” Gwen rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I’m going to need to process myself first but then, yeah. Let me go back down to let Kim and Siobhan know what’s happening.”
“How?” Dempsey asked.
Gwen gave him a look. “Sign. I’m an Occupational Therapist. D’uh.”
She dove back down, missing Dempsey’s, “Like that’s an answer?”
At the base of the cave Gwen signed that she was going to stay on the surface for a while. Siobhan nodded and gave a thumbs-up. As Gwen swam back towards the surface, Kim came from the right with a chunk of stone. It was the seventh piece they’d found.
Siobhan laid out what they had so far. There was the piece of bas relief Ivan had found with the raised half circle on it that had firm terminations suggesting it wasn’t part of a full circle that had been damaged. Another piece of bas relief had a crux quadrata, the symbol commonly referred to as a crossroad, with a tiny bit of what might be a circle coming off of one of its arms. A raised forty-five-degree angle which could be the section of a triangle was on another bas relief piece. The piece Kim handed off was a half-circle with rough edges on either end which could be part of a broken circle.
One decent size rectangular piece had the letters I and M on it. Another had a letter A. Considering the size of the lintel above the door Siobhan was thinking there was only one other piece missing. She eyed the letters still on the wall, then the ones they’d recovered, arranging the letters in her mind. Her gaze cast over the shapes of the bas reliefs and her mind started making connections. Three dimensional schematics started spinning in her mind, fitting the pieces together in a few ways just to make sure she wasn’t jumping to conclusions. No, she wasn’t. The bas relief pieces seemed to be part of alchemy symbols.
She shifted the crux quadrata beneath the section of triangle, forming the majority of the symbol for Sulfur. Neither side of the angle fit with the slight curve that was attached to the crux. Sliding the crux to the side she tried the broken half circle, fitting the small fragment on the top of the crux to the rough edge of the circle. Success. Then she shifted the half circle piece to the top of the partial circle. It fit to the broken edge. Crux quadrata with a circle on top could be Antimony. But it wouldn’t have the horns. Same for copper. Copper Antimoniate would have a crux at top and bottom. It seemed pretty likely this was Mercury. Or Magnesium. But the crux would have cross bars on the arms if it was Magnesium. It was possible it was Magnesium, but more likely it was Mercury as Mercury was one of the Three Prim-
Son of a witch on a broomstick!
She shifted her gaze back to the triangle that was probably Sulfur. Then the symbol that was likely Mercury. All she needed was Salt and she’d have the Three Primes. Otherwise known as…
She grabbed the A and tried it next to the TRI on the lintel. Fit. And stayed without her having to hold it in place.
Tria Prima. Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt. The Three Primes of alchemy. The elements from which all other things were said to come.
She needed- A half triangle for Sulfur. A circle with a horizontal line through it. The other half of the circle for Mercury. And the letters P, R, and A.
Leaving the stones laid out in the correct order on the cave bottom, she swam towards the center of the space, searching with her light. She closed her hand around a piece with an A on it, then paused. Just beyond it, at the edge of her light there seemed to be a grid or a grill or something in the floor of the cave. Swimming over she tentatively poked her finger into one of the square holes. It went straight in. The grid was approximately four foot by four foot and looked like a drain cover.
A drain cover!
She knew what they needed to do!
Grabbing up the A she swam back to the wall and placed it next to the I and M, then swam out in a slightly different angle searching for the next piece of the puzzle. A little past the center of the cavern she found another forty-five-degree angle piece. She snatched it up and swam back for the wall, reaching it just after Kim did.
Taking the piece Kim held out she nodded. It was a broken circle with a line bisecting it. Success!
She pointed at the lintel then signed the letters P and R. Kim gave a thumbs-up and swam back out. Before heading back out Siobhan swam up to the niches above the lintel and ran her fingers along the backs. She was almost certain that the element symbols went there. But in what order?
Mercury. Salt. Sulfur. Three symbols. Three niches. No indication of which went first.
While she mulled it over she swam back out in search of more pieces. Her light picked out an irregularity on the floor a short swim away. On inspection it was two small pieces of rock which when fit together made the second half of salt. Yes!
Rather than immediately return to the wall Siobhan adjusted her trajectory slightly to the left. Luckily the cave wasn’t *that* big so finding another piece only took a short swim. It was the second half of the triangle for sulfur. Siobhan did a quick inventory. Only needed the piece or pieces of the lintel with the P and R and the piece to finish mercury. Still needed to figure out the order for the niches, but one step at a time.
Shoving the pieces she’d found into her shirt she swam back to the wall, nearly blinded by the alchemical light Kim was holding in front of her as she swam in from the other direction. Kim nudged three small pieces of stone she’d laid out near the door. Siobhan gave them a quick sweep, noting that together they made up the last piece of mercury. She gave a thumbs-up then pulled the stones from her shirt to place them in the correct spots with the other pieces.
That done she pointed to herself and indicated she was going to go topside. Didn’t make sense to waste the rebreather while she was trying to think out the answer to the puzzle of the three niches. Every breath she took from the device consumed a small portion of the formula allowing her to breath underwater and she wasn’t sure how long it was going to last. Best to just go up to the surface to think and breathe.
Kim thumped her fingers against the pieces of the lintel, then pointed her fingers to her eyes, indicating she’d continue to look for the P and R. Siobhan gave a thumbs up then headed for the surface.
The sight that met her eyes as she broke out of the water boggled her. Clustered against the side wall, her crew looked pretty relaxed considering they were surrounded by what had to be fifteen swaying water rats stacked three deep around them. Dan, at the outskirts of the group and therefore the closest to Siobhan, pressed his fingers to his lips and jerked his head to his left where Patti was singing to the rats.
Siobhan removed the rebreather mechanism, sliding her palm under it then situating it against her forehead to maintain a seal. Otherwise she maintained her position. A good enough distance from the rats.
She pointed to Dan and then back at herself. “Can you come out?” she mouthed.
Dan wobbled his hand. ‘Not really.’
Siobhan pointed to the wall where Gwen was doing something to Ben. Then she made a question mark in the air.
Dempsey, who was bobbing near Dan, put a finger to his nose and made a snorting noise, then darted to look at the rats. When they didn’t shift their attention from Patti who was, if Siobhan was correct, singing the Irish Rovers, Dempsey then wobbled his head around like he was drunk.
Siobhan made another question mark. Dempsey pointed at the rats, made a stabbing motion, then mimed fireworks or an explosion, then put his finger to his nose again before wobbling his head around.
It was all Siobhan could do not to slap the water. But she didn’t because rats. She had not signed up to do Charades!
She raised her arm enough to point at the opposite wall, then at herself, then set off in that direction. There was a very slight splash and then Prairie’s head poked out of the water about four feet beyond the circle of rats. She must have dived to go under them. Smart.
Prairie swam over to Siobhan and whispered. “How’s it going?”
“We’ve found a door and some pieces of what might be a release for it. Looks like someone broke it.”
“Can you put it back together?”
“Pretty sure we can put it back together. We may need some glue or compound to hold the pieces together though.”
“Do you have anything?”
Siobhan shook her head. “Not on me.”
“Maybe Ivan does. Give me a sec!”
Prairie swam to within range of the rats, then dove underwater, coming up inside the circle. She swam over to Ivan who dug into his pockets and offered her something. She did the process in reverse then swam up to Siobhan, offering her a metal tub like those pastille candies were stored in.
“Here you go. Ivan says it will adhere even in water.”
“Thanks.” Siobhan nodded. “What’s going on over there?” She indicated where Ivan was resting against the wall beside Ben who was still being worked on by Gwen.
“When the rats get scared they pass gas that has hallucinogenic properties.”
Siobhan blinked a few times. “The rats fart acid?”
Prairie lowered her head to hide her grin. “Pretty much.”
“That’s-” Siobhan curled her lips to not laugh. “That’s a thing.”
“It is.”
“Who got hit?”
“Ben. And then Ivan. If you don’t scare them, they’re okay. Patti seems to have them completely under her spell but even before that they didn’t seem to be openly aggressive. They surged at us and Ben reacted which is when he took the gas attack. But they seemed more curious than anything.”
“Magickal?”
Prairie shrugged. “Who knows?”
“They are very big.”
“They are. But harmless. Probably. As long as you don’t scare them or,” she made a raspberry.
Siobhan chuckled, then shrugged. “Patti seems to have it well under control. So that’s good.”
“Yes. And Gwen was able to fix Ivan. Something about helping him process the stimulus. Which is really good as I was concerned we’d lose Ben and Ivan for hours while the hallucinogens went through their systems. She’s trying to help Ben right now.” Her eyes twinkled in the blue glow of Siobhan’s alchemy light. “She keeps muttering stubborn and thick-headed.”
“Shocking!”
“Right?”
They both chuckled.
“I’m trying to figure out something. Lend me your brain?”
“Okay.”
“We found a lintel that I’m pretty sure reads Tria Prima, which is what alchemists call the Three Primes. Mercury, Salt, and Sulfur. Alchemical theory is that all elements come from these three prime ones. It’s established knowledge that an imbalance of the Tria Prima causes disease. It’s why we can cure or kill with alchemy.”
Prairie looked attentive. “Okay.”
“We’ve also found what I’m almost certain are three tablets, one with each of these elements on it. There are three spaces that the tablets can fit in. I need to figure out what order they go in. I guess I could just *guess* but I’m afraid there might be safeguards against that.”
“What does your gut say?”
“My gut says don’t guess.”
“Okay. So, what are your thoughts?”
“More like chunks of knowledge than thoughts.”
“Okay. What are they?”
Siobhan decided to start with Mercury since it was the first element she’d mentioned. “Mercury represents the mind. It’s all theorized to incorporate a state that can transcend death.”
“Hmm.”
Siobhan shook her head. “I know it’s arrogant to assume you can unlock the gates of death with the right formula, but welcome to the alchemist’s mind.”
“Many people have theories about transcending death. I sure do. I don’t think it’s arrogant.”
“Well, of course you do!” Siobhan rolled her eyes. “You at least have some bases of understanding of death. You walk in it. Or in something close to it. It’s something embedded in your heart and in your Magick. Alchemists don’t have that connection. It’s just an intellectual challenge for them. And alchemists love challenges.”
Prairie remained quietly focused on Siobhan, her expression pulling from the deep well of calm that seemed her center.
“Salt,” Siobhan continued, “is the body. Sulfur is the soul.”
“Interesting.”
“But not much of an answer as to how the three should be arranged.”
“Mind, body, soul?”
“But why that order?”
“Mind at the top, body in the center, soul a fluid thing?”
“Then why not mind, soul, body? Or soul, mind, body?”
Prairie shook her head. “I don’t know. Do you have more?”
“Yes. Sulfur is seen as the element of evaporation and dissolution. Salt is condensation and crystallization. Because salt is solid and crystalized and sulfur is vaporous or can easily change to that state. Mercury is seen to transcend liquid and solid states so it’s known as the agent of transformation. Evaporation, dissolution, condensation, crystallization, and transformation are the major processes of alchemy. So, in Sulfur, Salt, and Mercury you have all the processes. Combine them in different manners and you get all the other elements, including earth, air, fire, and water.”
Prairie frowned. “I’m not sure that information can really tell you how to place the three symbols.”
“Yeah. It’s pretty much just intellectual drivel.”
“Is there any theory or knowledge that argues a hierarchy of the three?”
Siobhan frowned. “Not that I can-”
“How about how the three are connected?” Prairie cut off Siobhan. Really unlike her.
“How so?”
Prairie didn’t give Siobhan time to think, just fired off another question. “How do you see them binding?”
Responding to the abrupt manner Prairie asked, Siobhan spewed the first thing that came out of her mind, “Sulfur is the middle element that connects salt, which is high, and mercury, which is low.”
Prairie settled back with a gentle smile. “There you go.”
Siobhan gave Prairie a dubious look. “How did you know that would work?”
“Sometimes you can’t overthink. You just have to give your subconscious permission to flow.” Prairie turned and smiled at Siobhan. “So what’s the answer?”
“Salt, Sulfur, Mercury. High, middle, low positions.”
“So, go.” Prairie jerked her chin. “Get us out of here.”
Enter The Woods 