Read Online World of Lupi 10 - Ritual Magic by Eileen Wilks - Free Book Online Page A

address Julia’s family. Do not interrupt. Edward Yu.
    Lily’s father didn’t bat an eye. “Yes?”
    Julia’s memory is not being magically suppressed. Either the vast majority of such memories no longer exist or they are severed from her mind. She does possess some badly fragmented memories from beyond the day when she observed her twelfth birthday, but she is unaware of them. This suppression is her mind’s own instinctive response. No effort should be made to direct her thinking toward those fragments. It is unlikely her mind would survive.
    Lily reached for Rule’s hand and held it tightly. She didn’t speak.
    “You are saying . . .” Edward’s voice broke. “You say there is no hope.”
    There is no chance that conventional human treatments will restore her memory. There remains a slim chance of magical restoration. This depends on whether we can determine what induced her condition and on whether the memories have been eradicated or are somehow severed from her mind. Understand that by “mind” I do not mean brain or the ability to reason. Mind is the product of consciousness combined with memory. It is not a wholly physical construct, but its nonphysical components are largely inaccessible by humans. Ghosts are a projection of mind. Most are uninhabited by consciousness, but not all. Lily
Yu.
    “Yes.” Lily’s voice was husky, as if with unshed tears. She kept a tight grip on Rule’s hand.
    The ghost of Al Drummond contacted you. What did he say?
    “If you know that much, why don’t you know what he said?”
    I sense the constructs you call ghosts, but I cannot hear them. I heard your speech to him. I did not hear his speech to you, which uses channels you would describe as spirit.
    Lily grimaced. “Spirit again. He said Friar was involved and that he’d be working this case with me, but mostly on his side of things.”
    Good. You will need his assistance, limited as it is likely to be. You and Cullen Seaborne are correct in assuming that the attack on your mother involves spiritual energy rather than purely magical.
    “But what does that mean?” she cried, frustrated. “I don’t have any idea what it means when you say ‘spirit.’”
    I congratulate you on awareness of your ignorance. Spirit is capricious, personal, universal, and indefinable. It can neither be shaped through will nor grasped by reason. It is often spoken of in terms of good or evil, and observation suggests that humans in particular access it through this polarity. It is both the product of and the ground for soul. I understand very little about it.
    “You . . .” Rule closed his mouth before he finished that statement—though Sam was probably well aware of what he was thinking. Sam habitually claimed vastly superior understanding of pretty much everything, and not without reason. If the first couple of millennia don’t kill you, you probably do know what you’re talking about most of the time. If the black dragon didn’t understand spirit, who did? Rule kept his voice level. “Do you have a recommendation?”
    Several. First, you need spiritual consultants. Dr. Nettie Two Horses is an obvious choice. I suggest you seek others as well. Second, you need to bring Julia Yu to me on the roof of this building. I will ensorcell her and—
    The outcry was immediate.
    “What?”
    “Absolutely not!”
    “No one is going to ensorcell my sister.”
    “If this is your idea of an expert, Edward, you need to—”
    Madame Yu slapped one hand on the table. “Bah! Stop bleating. You dislike the word ‘ensorcell.’ You understand it not at all. It is a tool, like a surgeon’s knife. It works for good or ill depending on the wielder’s intent and skill.”
    Sam’s chill mental voice took over.
The surgical analogy is appropriate, although in this instance I would liken ensorcellment more to the anesthetic than to the knife. I propose to perform what you may think of as delicate and complex mental surgery on Julia.