Chapter 20: The Inadvertent Investiture

It was barely three weeks until Christmas, and as the holiday break drew near, so did the final tests of the fall semester. Gerallt was having trouble in Physical Science, and the final was worth one-fourth of the class grade. He'd been worrying about the test and knew he needed to ace it if he were going to bring his grade up to a solid B, his mother's lowest acceptable grade. Although Matt was in Honors Biology instead of Physical Science, he excelled in all types of science and had volunteered to help Gerallt study for the coming test. Both boys were in Matt's room, where Matt was asking his friend questions that were likely to be on the test.

After a couple of hours, they took a short break and went downstairs for a snack to bring back up to Matt's room. As they sat on Matt's bed eating potato chips and drinking colas, neither of them was particularly eager to start studying again. Gerallt felt like his brain would explode if he stuffed it with just one more fact or formula, and Matt was confident that Gerallt could ace the test in his sleep.

Gerallt finally asked, "So, do you want tah do somethin' else? I'm as ready for the test as I'll evah be."

"Definitely," Matt answered. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. Since you've been helpin' me, why don't you decide? Just anything but physics."

"Anything?" Matt asked, perking up. "My choice?"

"Sure. Why not? What do you want tah do?"

"Do you have your amulet with you?"

"Always. Why?" Gerallt raised his hand to feel the hard form of the amulet resting next to his skin under his shirt. "You want me tah show you anothah miracle?"

"That would be sweet, but I'd rather learn how to use it myself."

"But, Matt," Gerallt replied, frowning. "This isn't like one of your games that anyone can play. The amulet is one of the ancient holy gifts that Modron entrusted tah us, and only druidae can use it."

"So, what would happen if I were to try to use it? Would your goddess strike me down with a bolt of lightning?"

"No, that would be Taranis, the god of thunder," Gerallt answered, a bit miffed by Matt's flippant attitude. "Nothin' would happen. Modron knows you'ah not a druid and would just ignore youah prayah."

"Then I guess there wouldn't be any harm in you letting me try, would there?"

"I guess not," Gerallt conceded. "You'll probably just keep buggin' me about it until I show you, anyway. Lock your doah so that no one walks in on us. I'd be skinned alive if this ever got back tah my mothah."

Matt got up and locked his door. "Satisfied?"

Gerallt nodded. "Okay, sit heah on the floor facin' me." As Matt sat down, Gerallt took a coin from his pocket and placed it on the rug between them. He pulled his amulet from under his shirt and held it in his hand. "Okay. I'm goin' tah teach you one of the simplest prayahs, the prayah for levitation. I'll do it first so you can see, and then you can try. I'm goin' tah ask the Goddess tah make the coin float up intah the air." Slowly and carefully pronouncing each syllable, Gerallt said, "Magna Dea, fac, quaesumus, ut nummus ascendat!"

The coin slowly rose until it floated between them.

Gerallt said, "Magna Dea, fac, quaesumus, ut nummus descendant!" and the coin slowly settled back down onto the rug. Gerallt lifted the amulet over his head by its sturdy silver chain and placed it carefully around Matt's neck. "Now it's your turn. Hold the amulet in your hand and repeat what I am about tah say exactly the way I say it. Concentrate on having the coin rise up until it's floatin' between us. Okay?"

"I guess so," Matt replied, a little uncertainly.

"Okay. Repeat after me. Magna Dea, fac, quaesumus, ut nummus ascendat!" Gerallt said, speaking slowly and clearly.

"MAG-nuh DAY-uh, fact, KWEI-sue-moose, ut NOOM-moose..." Matt stopped before the end when he couldn't remember the last word.

"Not bad for a first try," Gerallt said, smiling encouragingly at Matt. "Let's try again. Magna Dea, fac, quaesumus, ut nummus ascendat! And remembah, it is MAG-nah, not MAG-nuh and fahk, not fact."

After several more tries, Matt finally managed to repeat the words perfectly while picturing the coin rising in his mind. The coin still stubbornly refused to move.

"See, I told you. Even though you said the prayah properly, the Goddess knows you aren't really a druid and has denied youah request."

Gerallt reached out his hand to take back his amulet, but Matt wasn't yet ready to admit defeat. He had an idea. "Gerallt, maybe it's just because I don't know what I am saying. Heck, I don't even know what language I'm speaking."

"It's Latin, the language the Roman invadahs spoke when Modron first appeared tah my ancestahs during the reign of the emperah Trajan. In English, the prayah is Great Goddess, we beseech Thee, make the coin ascend. But She didn't ignore youah prayah because you didn't understand the translation word foah word. Lots of children don't fully understand the Latin words when they first receive theah gift and learn theah first prayahs. Modron ignored your prayah because you aren't a druid."

Matt repeated the first prayer, this time concentrating on its meaning as well as its pronunciation, but the coin still refused to move.

"Satisfied?" Gerallt asked, holding his hand out again to take back his amulet.

"Uh..." Matt replied, thinking furiously while still holding the amulet. "Did you have to do anything when you received the amulet? Some ceremony or something?"

"Sure. When you turn thirteen, youah parents hold your Rite of Investiture. You receive your first gift, usually an amulet, and your ceremonial robes. And theah's a big feast with everyone in the colony."

"Maybe I just can't do it because I haven't gone through the ceremony. Is there something that someone says to make you a druid?"

"Of course. It's only been a couple years since I was invested." Gerallt thought silently for a moment. "Okay, I remembah now."

"Well, maybe you need to say that, too," Matt suggested.

"Well, clearly it's important, or it wouldn't be part of the ceremony," Gerallt conceded. "But that's not the reason. You'ah an outsidah."

"Maybe," Matt said, "but maybe not. Let's try it."

Gerallt thought for a few seconds before he reluctantly agreed. "If we do this, if I say the words, will you give up and believe me? The Goddess is not goin' tah be fooled by this. She'll look intah your heart and know you don't really want tah become a druid in her service."

"I still think it's worth a try. Have you ever heard of someone going through the ceremony and not being made a druid?"

"No."

"Then you don't really know for sure. It's like in science. If no one has ever performed an experiment, you don't know for sure how it will turn out. You might be able to guess from what you know, but you might be wrong. If you have a question about how something works, you have to run the experiment and see what the universe answers."

"Well, that might be the way science works, but this isn't a matter of science. It's a matter of faith. I am a druid, a priest of Modron, and I know my Goddess and her sacred gift. You should trust me," Gerallt replied, beginning to feel a little angry and exasperated by Matt's stubbornness. "Let's do this and get it over with. But when you still can't raise the coin, I want you tah give me the amulet and stop tryin' tah be somethin' you aren't. If you truly want tah have the power, you will have tah believe in the Goddess and vow tah serve her. And that's just somethin' I don't see you ever being able tah do."

"Let's just try this, Gerallt, and I'll stop bothering you. At least for today, though I can't promise that I won't think of another thing to try tomorrow."

"Matt, you're hopeless," Gerallt answered, shaking his head. "Okay. It's a long and involved ceremony, but here's the prayah that officially makes you a druid. Touch the amulet." Once both boys were touching the amulet, Gerallt intoned: "Magna Dea, comproba, quaesumus, hunc puerum druidam tuum! There, I have just prayed tah the Goddess tah accept you as her druid. Try floatin' the coin again."

Matt looked down at the coin and carefully said, "Magna Dea, fac, quaesumus, ut nummus ascendat!"

The coin slowly rose into the air to hang, suspended between Matt and Gerallt. At that moment, no one would have been able to tell which of the two was more surprised: Matt that the coin had levitated or Gerallt that the Goddess had answered Matt's prayer.

"Son of a..." Matt cursed.

"Magna Dea!" Gerallt whispered, shocked, confused, and angry. "I don't believe it."

"Neither do I," Matt added.

"Matt, do you know what this means?" Gerallt asked.

"Sure. That you don't know as much about the amulet as you thought." Matt grinned, thinking of how amazing it was to perform real, honest-to-goodness magic.

"No, Matt. It means you ah a druid of Modron. It means that you have duties and responsibilities tah the Goddess. You need your own amulet. You need to be taught the prayahs. Most importantly, you need tah believe. Magna Dea, what have I done? What am I goin' tah do? I can't teach you. I'm goin' tah have tah tell my mothah, and she's goin' tah kill me! I'll be banished foah certain..."

"Hold on a second," Matt interrupted. "Let's stop and think for a minute. You don't really have to tell her, do you? At least, not right now."

"Well, maybe not immediately, but I don't see how I can not tell her. I don't know. This has nevah happened befoah, at least I don't think it has, and I don't know what tah do."

"Well, I do. You're not going to tell your mother until we've had a chance to think it through," Matt argued. "I can't believe you made me a druid just because you said some Latin while we were both holding this amulet. Maybe Modron didn't do this. In fact, I just realized what this reminds me of. Some smartphones come with built-in thumbprint readers so they won't work without the right thumbprint. Maybe you just programmed your amulet to accept my thumbprint or DNA. Maybe your amulet's some kind of advanced alien tech..."

"Matt, stop it!" Gerallt exclaimed, grabbing the amulet from Matt's hand. "We're not talkin' about a computer heah. This is a sacred gift from the Goddess. What you just said is blasphemy, and I can't listen tah it. I got tah go." Gerallt got up and headed for the door.

"Wait, Gerallt. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or do anything sacrilegious. I don't want to argue..."

However, Gerallt had already unlocked Matt's bedroom door and left. By the time Matt jumped to his feet and reached the top of the stairs, Gerallt was gone, having slammed the Mitchell's front door behind him.

"Matt, is everything okay?" Matt's father asked from the living room as his son slowly descended the stairs. "You two get in an argument?"

"It's nothing, Dad," Matt replied, hoping he wasn't lying although he knew he was. He just hoped Gerallt would not do or say anything that couldn't be undone or unsaid. He turned around and headed back to his room. Matt knew it was going to be a long night... for both of them.

The next day, Gerallt was uncharacteristically silent as the Hawthorne and Mitchell children waited for the school bus. Matt tried several times to start a conversation, but Gerallt only responded with single words like ayuh, no, maybe, and uh-huh before lapsing into silence. When the bus arrived, and the boys boarded, Matt sat down in their usual spot. He slid over to make room, but Gerallt just walked past and took a seat near the back.

Tina noticed and took the next to Matt. "What's wrong, Baby Brother? Did you and Gerallt have a fight or something?"

Matt looked at Tina but didn't have a clue what to say. It wasn't as if he could tell her that Gerallt had a magic amulet. And he certainly couldn't tell her about the stupid experiment he'd talked Gerallt into or that his friend was convinced he was a blasphemous druid of the goddess Modron.

"It's personal. I can't talk about it. I promised."

"Well, I hope the two of you work it out soon. You've been inseparable since the day you met, and you'll both be miserable if you don't."

Matt nodded in agreement but was still no closer to figuring out what to do about it. He thought that maybe he should walk up to Gerallt and apologize, but he couldn't lie and say he believed in the miracles of an ancient Celtic goddess. Faith might be adequate for religious believers, but his love of science and engineering told him that having faith was nothing more than believing in the unbelievable when there was insufficient evidence to back it up. Matt wished he could talk about it with Tina and his father, but he couldn't. He'd promised Gerallt that he wouldn't tell a soul about their secret.

The rest of the day was just as bad as the bus ride. Gerallt ignored him in the classes they shared and made a point of sitting with his sister during lunch. Gerallt sat with his back to Matt, and every time Matt looked over at them, Gwyneth was looking at him with a worried look on her face.

During the bus ride home, Matt decided that he couldn't stand it anymore. As they all got off the bus, Matt pulled his friend aside and said, "Gerallt, I can't take this silent treatment. We need to work this out before it goes too far."

Gerallt waited until everyone else had gone inside before speaking. "You know how I feel about what happened, and you made it perfectly clear how you feel. I don't know what else tah say. Accordin' to our beliefs, a druid who stops believin' in the Goddess is an apostate who must be shunned and banished from our people."

"But Gerallt, how can you call me an apostate if I never really believed in your goddess in the first place? You can't banish me or shun me; we're best friends. Besides, if you keep this up, your family is bound to pressure you into telling them why you're avoiding me."

"Maybe you have a point. It's so honkin' crazy; I don't know what tah think. I've always been the black sheep of the family, the one with the least faith, but seein' the Goddess accept you and grant you control of the amulet is really upsettin'. I guess I didn't realize how much I truly believed deep down inside. How can an outsidah pray tah the Goddess and have his prayah answered? But, if there's no Goddess, then what is the amulet and how does it work?"

"I don't know, Gerallt. But if we work together, I bet we'll learn. Just give it some time, and we'll figure it out."

"I guess," Gerallt answered dubiously.

"Anyway," Matt continued, "I didn't mean any disrespect when I suggested that your amulet was like a computer and the ceremony was like getting a user ID and password. I certainly didn't mean to offend you or belittle your beliefs. As Mom always said, 'your beliefs are yours, mine are mine, and neither of us has the right to tell the other what to believe.'

"My mom was always very spiritual," Matt said, "sort of a mix of Native American and pagan beliefs. Dad's different. He was a Baptist until he went to college and began to question how he'd been raised. Now, he's an atheist. If they could get along, so can we."

"I hope so," Gerallt said. "I'm tired of hidin' from outsidahs, livin' in the past, and waitin' for the Goddess tah return while the rest of the world passes us by."

Matt shuddered, trying to imagine how it must feel to have your parents drill that fear of murderous outsiders into you as a little kid. He wondered what his Native American ancestors must have felt when they heard the white invaders say that the only good Indian was a dead Indian. For as long as he could remember, his family hadn't celebrated Columbus Day. Instead, they spent the day remembering the slavery and genocide that Columbus had brought to the European's so-called New World.

"So, are we still friends?" Matt asked.

Gerallt paused for a few seconds, then smiled. "Friends."

"Great! Come on, let's race. First one done with his homework and chores gets to go to the loser's house and pick what we're going to do."

The boys turned and raced for their front doors. Matt won, but only barely and only because he didn't have to open a gate.