Vivian had seen a lot of rituals in her time: weddings, banishments, christenings, summonings, graduations, funerals, initiations, blood libations and Christmas dinners. They all had the same four elements, starting with the set dressing – the flowers in the aisle, the holly wreath, the black robes of Baphomet. Next came the words of preamble that, no matter how you rearranged them, amounted to “we are gathered here today to whatever-it-is-we’re-here-to-do.” Then came the words of the ceremony itself, which could be spoken perfectly well without any of the other nonsense but without which
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