Fearful Symmetry

                                    

                                              
  Submitted for Quest #2: THE ENCHANTED MAIL by TheCRYPTIC_
Prompt details here: http://my.w.tt/UiNb/QlgO8HC3xy
                          


                          
The rented cottage overlooks the famed White Cliffs of Dover. It's falling apart but I'd rather tend to the grounds every day than let the owners remodel it for the AirBnB crowd. Post-Its are strewn about the walls: gardening routines, cleaning habits, delivery schedules, and repair plans. In the bedroom alone, there are notes to remind me about medicine doses, emergency contacts, potion recipes, and spell components. So I'm not completely off-guard when the glowing parchment scroll materializes on my desk.

                          
I prepared this alert just ten months before. It already feels like a lifetime ago.
                          
♅
                          
Sure enough, Stuart the mail carrier arrived with a package for me, just like the note advised. With his usual curtness, he handed me the elaborate sealed box, wrapped in flimsy straw rope. 
                          
The return address is my apartment in the Philippines. The sender's name: "Petey S. Dee". Glad to know I haven't lost my sense of humor. 
                          
Ah, there it is: Baston Ni Adan. Crafted from centuries-old balete wood. Carved in the shape of Bakunawa, the moon-devouring serpent. Now the ritual can begin.
                          
I perform the working at a remote spot near the cliff edge, facing the Channel. My body crumples and falls, hidden by a minor concealment glamour.
                          
Dusk is falling early in this part of the world but in the lower hemisphere, it's maximum daylight. The universe has its ways of balancing things.
                          
♇
                          
Aruni greets me first. They forgo a hug—their astral form is still drenched with sweat from the tantric rites. 
                          
Yonaguska follows shortly after me. He doesn't want to be here right now. Back on the plains, his tribes are facing truncheons and water cannons. An oil pipeline threatens their holy ground. Nevertheless, he understands the gravity of the situation. His people's needs are concerns of the land. The purpose of our gathering is far beyond that.
                          
"EMITWOHS!" Appearing with flair, it's Belle Zebub, direct from her sold-out act in Vegas.
                          
We're joined by Rebekah—or her Neshamah (נשמה) at least— who's disrupted her apocalyptic scholarship in Tel Megiddo.
                          
Brash "Lil Samedi" has replaced his mentor, Marie Laveau, as Houngan of the Gulf Coast, so he represents the Pethro loa.
                          
Aruni's act of cosmic onanism has warped the fabric in the empyrean loom, so that all of us can pass into Nth dimensional space. This reality hack is a must. The cosmos has its ways of balancing things.
                          
♆
                          
First, we gather our powers to renew the seal we cast back in '99. Nobody remembers that Yg-Turazoth nearly crossed over into our plane at Easter Island. We'd like to keep it that way.
                          
Then we remember the ones who didn't survive the encounter: Agent Xu from the State Administration of Esoteric Practices. Professor Reynard L'Effrayé of Arkham. My beloved Cornelia, the Lady Strangewaite.
                          
Next, we recognize the sacrifices we made: Rebekah's limbs. Yonaguska's voice. My intermittent fugue states. Back home, these conditions restrict us. Here we transcend them.

                          
We reached beyond ourselves to contain Yg-Turazoth. The multiverse has its way of balancing things.