"There is a legend," Katerina began, "that every so often the life-force of the Collective begins to weaken because true bonding between couples-and people in general-is not being practiced throughout the infinite parallel worlds that make up the Collective Consciousness. Like all magic, when the magic of loving commitment is not believed in, or not being practiced, it begins to fade and die.

"Without devotion among the people, one to another, the Collective can have no radiance of life. It's said that the Council of Crones perceived the dwindling lifeforce and though they don't openly acknowledge the legend, they know the legend also says the Harmony Ceremony must be performed in such times to receive direction from the Collective.

"The Harmony Ceremony is one of very few ceremonial gatherings of the Council in which a member of the Sisterhood lower than the rank of council member or Crone Mother, such as an understudy, will ever be directly involved. In the Harmony Ceremony, the understudy is included as the psychic medium for the Collective. Few understudies over history have been blessed with receiving the message of the Collective."

"The Council, Crone Mother, and her understudy gather in a special location meditating and chanting for days, or however long it takes for the understudy to be moved by the Collective, whether by vision, voice, or other means. Once the understudy receives some message while in a trance, it is up to the Crone Mother to interpret the purpose within the message, and direct the understudy in the path to take after the Harmony.

"I received the verse of the Sacred Vow, and the Mother said it was to be chanted from within the cottage several times per day while I meditated. She said the vibrational characteristics of the verse would help to heal the bonding rift in the Collective, that it would help restore loving communication and commitment."

As Katerina went on with her tale, the little path wound its way up a grassy knoll, surrounded by some broad-leaf, evergreen bushes. They crested the hill, and Ian was amazed to see elaborate stone formations on a flattened hilltop. It wasn't a singular ring formation of standing stones, as Ian had seen when traveling in certain countries back home. Although there was some circular distribution of the entire pattern, the arrangement was obviously made by several groupings of independent configurations.

The path they had followed to the hilltop split and headed into several

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