A deep, slow breath is heard, followed by an equally deep exhale.
Day was dying as the sun's long fingers slipped off the very last edge of the plane as the witch slowly ebbed around the fireside. Smoke rose thick in the small clearing, far away from the edges of Jastrey. Long parted had the dark woman been, sequestering herself away in a deep seclusion. Bones, still raw with flesh, sat in small rotting and fly infested piles around her. Despite the gore, they seemed to have some reason to their pattern, neatly laid out in various piles in a circle around her. In a small cage made of twine and twigs, rats scurried around. Squeaking sharply in that way animals do when they can feel fright, fear.
Nothing but her lips could be seen from the black folds of her hood, as the crooked dolls at her belt and bones about her neck rattled. Her long fingers reached over the fire, encanting something dark, in demonic whispers. "Shillrack, akthar nilkognig ellumnim..." Her lips cracked in wry grin, a darker smoke hissing forth from the burning logs.
Above the fire was a cauldron held by wrought-iron legs, dangling from the trigular structure and boiling hot over the flames. "Shillcan nar'ran, ellumnim....." The words hissed from her lips, the encantation continued. From the palm of her other hand she reached to grab from the small gathering of leaves and various dried mushrooms and fauna, sprinkling the mixture over the boiling concoction. The substance held a deep purplish and red color. It's thickness bubbled like syrup, smelling rich and succulent, like cooked red meat over open flame.
Having dashed the last of the dried mixture into the boiling thick sludge, she removed it from the flames, and tipped the cauldron to poor the thick liquid into a large, shallow bowl, the juices steaming and cooling in the cold night air.
At long last the woman slowly curled her palm about the cage with the rats. Lifting it from the stone, she moved back her place in front of the fire, the dirt there now indented with the pattern of where she had knelt night after night for seeming weeks on end. And there she knelt once more to take part of her fast.
Set before her now was the rat filled cage, five of them darting and scurrying over each other, their squeals and shrieks elevated as the clawed to get free. Next to the cage was a simple silver goblet. Akon pulled her long blackblade from her side, and placed it in front of her knees, long fingers reaching to her hood of which she slowly drew back to rest on her dark, leather plated shoulders.
Her lips strayed open as she exhaled lustfully to the sky. "Let me see...." She whispered, as if to some secret lover in the night. "Let me see...." She then ceremoniously drew her dagger from her belt, holding it level with the ground just above where the flames licked the air. She drew the blade slowly, as if the very act of unveiling it were sacred. She then set the sheath beside her, and drew the tip of the blade along her left palm, letting it slide along her flesh, rending it open and bloodied. Her lips curled into a grin, seeming to revel in the slight pain of it all. She then switched the hilt into her blooded palm, and slid the blade along her other palm, setting the dagger pointed towards her on the dirt at her knees. There she remained knelt, face upturned towards the sky. "Reveal to me all that is hidden...let it leach into my soul...." She whispered, dragging her bloodied palms down her closed eyes, coating her face in her own blood. A long slow exhale escaped again as her hands then reached to place the silver goblet right before her.
She opened the top of the cage, reaching in without looking to find in her grasp a wriggling struggling warm body of one of the vermin, grabbing it by the back, and lifting it to hold its neck and body between her palms. "Slirack! Nikthar!" She hissed, a quick crack of the creature spine, as the small animal's struggles ceased, crushed in her grasp. The dagger was once again raised in her left hand, the tiny neck of the animal slit as the blood of the small creature was let to dribble free into the goblet at the witch's knees. Four more times was the process repeated, until a slight gathering of blood was kept in the silver basin.
The carcasses of the small creatures were placed neatly in yet another pile at the woman's right, the dagger placed with point towards her at her knees. Then placed the woman her palms at either side of the goblet, partaking of the only sustenance she'd allowed herself for the last weeks, tipping it back as her lips parted to accept the lifeblood. Opening her mouth to let the still warm liquid slide down her throat, she shuddered audibly as her lips closed to swallow. Blood had been all her tongue had tasted these passing nights, her movements slow and hazey from the fast.
At last her hands reached without sight towards the cooling bowl of hot bloodied syprup and herbs, grasping it at either side to lift it slowly above her head. "Silnais kalicktum shilnak ellumnim....." She whispered, then tipping her head to the full moon as it cleared above her in the now dark and clouded sky. At the moon's shining, so did the woman pour the still steaming liquid upon her upturned visage, mouth open in a euphoric gasp, covering herself in the thick blood of countless prey, soaking her from head down in the syrupy substance. "Let my ears be opened..and let..me see..." She sayed hushed in lustful tones, begging the ritual to open her senses to the nether planes, seeking a connection at long last to those hence passed.
(Commune Spirits)