Brendan finished his pizza and pushed away from the table. "I wasn't talking about one of<em>those</em>types of books..." he said, more to himself than to anyone else as his face flushed again. He straightened up an stretched out. His expression became resolute and in a voice to match, he said, "Well... back to it! I'm not about ready to give up yet!"<br/><br/>He cast a cheerful smile and waved in Alex's direction. "Lemmie know how that book turns out, k?" He said as he headed back down into the basement once again.<br/><br/>To his surprise, it didn't take nearly as long as the first time to flesh out the diagram on the floor. Of course, it helped that there were still traces of the chalk drawing left behind which gave him a sort of template to follow. He then lit the candles and put them in their appropriate places. "Oop! Need to turn off the light!" He ran to the switch and clicked off the fluorescent lamp then hurried back to his spot within the pupil of the eye.<br/><br/>Brendan opened the book and peered at its pages, frowning. The ritual he had tried earlier was intended to be a calling. The diagram acted almost the same way that an official form might when petitioning a court: it allowed the user access to a sort of cosmic forum through using the correct channels. Standing in the ornate circle was how the petitioner became noticed by the powers that be. The eye signified placing yourself directly within their sight. The incantation was, in effect, pleading one's case. You're not exercising "command" or dominance over the natural word, so much as making an appeal.<br/><br/>He had hoped to use this "appeals" process to ask the universe to send him a significant other. Specifically, the foreign words he chanted asked for them to send him just  "a girl friend". It occured to him in the middle of his cold lunch that his request was possibly too vague. Perhaps he needed to make his entreaty more specific to get the desired response.<br/><br/>Brendan reworked his encantation, adding more details about exactly what he wanted in a girlfriend. He thought to himself,<em>"I should definitely make sure to ask that she be hot. Yeah! That's it, a total hottie! She should burn for me... She should have passion!" </em>The boy became rather red in the face while he scribbled down the new words to his chant and he chortled deviously.<br/><br/>Once more, he stood within the eye of the diagram and spoke the incantation aloud. Once more did the chalk glow with green luminescence. Once more... did he feel queasiness wash over him - although this time not quite so bad.<br/><br/>Brendan raised a hand to wipe the sweat off his brow. It was at that point he noticed that he<em>was</em>sweating. An he was doing so quite profusely because the room had grown a great deal warmer than it had been before. He felt as though he was wearing a sweatshirt on the hottest day of summer... and the candlelight seemed to have gotten brighter...