A Baptism

[Starfelt 1437]

Spoiler

 

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A scarlet-haired woman moved along the road, sighing lightly as she brushed away the damp hair that had stuck itself to her forehead. Her clothing was thoroughly drenched from the recent downpour. A man walked down the wet road, eyes to the ground though as he neared the woman he’d lift his head and stop in his tracks “Do you need help ma’m?” The woman’s eyes locked onto the man as she took a slow step towards him, nodding her head. Her left hand clutched onto a stave with a metal blade at the top. The man moved closer looking at the female with concern, though as he moved into her path the ginger woman lifted her stave and slammed it downwards into his head, effectively knocking him unconscious.

The man awoke within a dusty cold attic, he was hung upside down his feet bound to a low hanging rafter. A noise echoed out from the darker side of the attic, the same woman slowly moved out of the shadows, towards him. She had removed her wet robes, and instead was dressed in a form of ritualistic clothing, her arms revealed to have various dried blood runes upon them. She withdrew a bone knife from a sheath that hung on her belt, still moving towards the man, her features solemn as she spoke “Zlirt za huk”

The woman quickly slashed the bone knife along the length of the man's throat, blood pouring down his form and into a clay pot placed below him. “Ra’ ozog ruvt garn” She whispered into the man's ear as his body went limp. The woman moved the pot to the side, before removing the binds which strung the corpse up. As it hit the floor she’d grumble “Zven” in response to her words two small creatures charged up into the attic and grasped onto the hands of the corpse, tugging him along and out of the room.


The woman carried the pot down into the lower portion of the home, and then down into the basement. She placed it down in a storage room before turning and moving back out of the house..

-~-

 

The woman stood within her home a few nights later, one other figure standing next to her, however this figure looked less humanoid then the woman.. It stood feet above the woman, and had large horns. The creature simply stood there looking at her as she withdrew a large leatherbound book from one of the nearby bookcases, her hands unclipping the lock and beginning to flip through the rune covered pages. She stopped on one page, and looked up at the creature, her hand extending to gently run her digits over the skull that sat on its head.
“Rozur deth”

As she spoke she’d tear the page from the book, and toss it over into the fire place of the home. She removed her bone dagger from her sheath and drove it into the creatures neck, pulling it out and allowing his blood to spill across the floor of the house. The creatures body fall to the ground with a ‘thud’. She’d shut the book and place it back into the bookcase, leaning down to examine the bleeding wound of the lifeless creature, she withdrew a flask covered with red runes and filled it with the demonic blood, afterwards closing it and wandering off down to the basement.

-~-

The woman stood within her basement, still wearing her bloody ritualistic coverings, though she was visibly different. Her body was more frail, and she had large bags under her eyes from exhaustion. It had been a few nights now, and a storm had arrived and began to bear down upon the small swamp town. Two figures wearing similar styled robes entered the basement area, nodding their heads to the scarlet-haired woman. The woman held the pot of blood collected from the man, she turned and moved to pour it into a large body sized tub. One of the figures approached the woman and offered out the rune covered flask to her. She took ahold of it and poured a good portion of the demonic blood stored within into the pool, the blood mixture beginning to boil within the pool. She’d lift the flask to her lips and take a long drink from it, the blood staining her lips a vile crimson color. “Blood of my first Zar’ei.. A sacrifice”

The woman slowly removed her clothing and lowered herself down into the boiling blood, her face twisting in pain as she held back her cries of agony. She’d lower herself until she floated within the mixture, eyes shut. The figures moved over towards the side of the pool, one holding a pot within his hands much like the one the blood was originally stored within. The other moved to place his hands on the woman's torso, pushing her down under the surface. The woman struggled against the figures force, though with time she faded away and sunk to the bottom. The other figure would nod, before moving to tip the pot he held into the pool, various snakes of differing species and sizes slithered out of the pot and into the pool, sinking beneath the surface with the woman. The pool of blood began to heat even hotter, steam rising off the surface and filling the basement with an awful scent.

As she faded away a voice spoke out from the darkness.
“You seek power child?”

“...I do” She responded to the strange voice

“Power comes at a cost”

“I’m prepared to pay such.”
She responded again to the voice. However as she said such she was struck with visions of a monstrous snake, that stared down at her.

“So be it” The snake croaked before coiling itself around the woman. She could feel the life draining from her as she struggled to breath or move, though moments before she faded, the snake vanished and she was back within the pool, the blood no longer boiling instead it was as if it had turned to ice water. The woman lifted herself to her feet wobbling, though hissed out shortly after, her eyes snapping down to top of her right hand, a marking had been branded into the flesh, that of a snake. From the icey pool a single snake remained, it much larger than any snake originally placed into the pool,its color missing from its scales, they had now turned a ivory white color, the snake slowly made its way up to rest around her shoulders…

[Vindicant 642]

Karyssmov hums as he washes his hands.

[osumanduas 1442]

Moved to The Great Library. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.

 

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