The Southern Realm was adorned with a flickering light, a sacrificial altar dripping of blood and the familiar pentagram etched circle scratched into the ground. Lucifer and Leviathan had wasted no time recruiting their fifteen initiates, swearing their oath and loyalties to the new Order of the Brotherhood of the Four Kings of Hell. As the ritual commenced, the crimson and indigo flames burned from the ground to the top of the damp cavern. The immense inferno rose in a circular motion, exploding flames up into the central area of the Courtyard. Heaven and hell…. Fire and ice.
Dantalion held me tight behind the altar, tracing his angelic fingers over the inscriptions etched onto the stone.
"This was our bond as Guardian Angel and mortal soul," his wings wrapped around us as we felt the elixir slowly seeping poison into our blood.
"We brought them down to earth… the angels," I smiled weakly, waiting for his killer smile to appear, melting my heart. There was no smile… there was barely a heartbeat.
From the corner of my eye I watched Erin, Lucia, Druitte, and Sitri followed by hundreds of coven members filing into the Courtyard, surrounding the stone pillars several feet away from where Dantalion and I clung to each other in our final hour.
Professor Good followed behind them, directing the witches to form an interlocking circle around the inferno coming up from the depths of Hell below. The ice had just begun changing back over to snow, dusting the hood of her sea green cloak. Her moonstone and crystal athame pointed downward facing the ground, conjuring a circle of power. The entire Courtyard began chanting, casting a protection circle and reciting The Witches Creed:
"Hear now the words of the witches,
The secrets we hid in the night,
When dark was our destiny's pathway,
That now we bring forth into light.
Mysterious water and fire,
The earth and the wide-ranging air,
By hidden quintessence we know them,
And will keep silent and dare.
The birth and rebirth of all nature,
The passing of winter and spring,
We share with the life universal,
Rejoice in the magical ring.
Four times in the year the Great Sabbat
Returns, and the witches are seen
At Lammas and Candlemas dancing,
On May Eve and old Hallowe'en.
When day-time and night-time are equal,
When sun is at greatest and least,
The four Lesser Sabbats are summoned,
And Witches gather in feast.
Thirteen silver moons in a year are,
Thirteen is the coven's array.
Thirteen times at Esbat make merry,