Intimate Friends

Seven

Diana and Amira had a spare room in the expansive house that they kept most of their relics in, usually for spell casting, even having a skylight put in. They also kept various sprays and tinctures, stones, crystals, and spices as well as candles of varying colors. They closed themselves in the room and started to make space in the middle of it for what they planned to do, both sitting in chairs once they'd moved the furniture to sit against the walls. The older woman noticed that her daughter had a distant look on her face and sighed, standing and moving over to place a hand on her shoulder, pulling her attention.

"Hey, I need you present. You know how this works. I'm going to get a photo of your father, do me a favor and set up the candles?"

Amira nodded without a word and stood to start grabbing the candles only to be stopped once again, meeting her mother's gaze.

"Amira, I mean it. You're too focused on the wrong things. Take some breaths and clear your mind, use some of the sprays if needed with something to keep you alert. We're going to find him."

With those words and a kiss to Amira's forehead, Diana turned and left the room, closing the door behind her. The young woman huffed just a bit but knew her mother was right. Before touching the candles she went to the box of tinctures and grabbed the tranquility spray - a combination of lavender, orange, and marjoram oils - and sprayed it over herself in three spritzes, inhaling the scents deeply and letting the fragrances do their job. The next thing she grabbed was the bottle of myrrh, pulling the dropped and placing a drop on her finger to place behind both of her ears. She got another drop and made a small 'x' over her heart with the protection tincture. Finally, Amira grabbed the peppermint extract and placed three drops into the palm of her hand before putting the dropper back in the bottle and rubbing her hands together. Once the oil was rubbed in she brought her hands to her face and inhaled deeply, the fragrance immediately waking her up and making her more alert. She took two more breaths before finally feeling focused enough to move on, though she left out what she used for Diana once she returned.

As Amira began to place the seven candles - red, yellow, orange, green, blue, two purple, and indigo, - there was a knock at the door. She finished her placements before going to open the door, finding Elisha looking back at her.

"I brought you the map you wanted, it should be big enough. It goes down into New York and even Northern Pennsylvania and up through Quebec. Let me know if you two need more?"

Amira smiled and took the map, nodding.

"Will do, but I don't think we'll need anything bigger. It's been just under 48 hours so he couldn't have gotten far. Thanks, mama E."

Elisha nodded and turned to leave just as Diana was coming back, the two exchanging a hopeful look before the latter joined Amira in the room and closed the door, locking it behind them. As Diana began to use the tinctures in the same ways her child did, Amira placed the map inside the circle before grabbing something Hannibal had written and torn it with the picture Diana brought into seven equal pieces and placing each in a candle jar. By the time she placed the mixed papers and grabbed the matches, her mother was ready to go, standing back to let Amira work.

Amira took a deep breath and struck the first match, beginning to chant over each one before lighting both the candle and photo together as she called out every chakra to find her father, starting with red and ending with blue as her mother called out every other one after her until they reached the blue candle and spoke together under the light of the moon and the candles.

"By the fire of his soul, I call candlelight to guide us, so that Hannibal may be found."

"By the stars in his soul, I call Starlight to guide us, so that Hannibal may be found."