Blood Rites 5, page 21
“I told you it might take a while,” Yvila said, tossing her long, straight black hair over her shoulder casually. “There’s a whole other library on the other side of that portal and I’m afraid it isn’t nearly so well kept as this one. But look!”
Yvila jumped off the living catalogue, which now looked more like a swirling vortex than a reference tool and strode toward Belladonna. Selena followed as the upiór woman passed the table she had been investigating.
Bella’s heart began to hammer against her ribs as she took the proffered scrap of paper from Yvila’s fingers. She couldn’t read the writing, but the sense of power from the paper was palpable. Her fingertips tingled where they pinched the page.
“What is it?”
Yvila’s grin stretched wider across her pretty face. “Your spell,” she said. “Written in the language of my people. Humans aren’t the first beings to toss about the idea of banishing the gods, you know.”
Bella’s fingers trembled. “That’s impossible. How would Lothoss have an upiór ritual in his book?”
“You will remember that I mentioned the possibility of sealing the mortal world against all gods,” Yvila said, sitting across from Bella. She wrapped her fingers around the baroness’s wrist so tightly that Bella could feel the throb of her pulse against the pressure of the upiór woman’s grip.
“Yes,” Bella said, shuddering at the thought. She’d only just reestablished a connection with her family’s patron deity and couldn’t bear to think of losing him again so quickly. Even if he did have a terrible memory. She said, “But you warned that it would be dangerous.”
Selena sat beside Yvila, folding her wings tightly against her back so that she wouldn’t bump the upiór woman. The succubus gazed at Yvila with her red-tinged irises dancing in excitement.
“I got the idea from an ancient text I found,” Yvila continued, “which suggested that the gateways between the realms was closed once and could be closed again. This would seal my people into your world permanently, as we can no longer return to our home realm. And it would seal the deities of the divine realm out—so long as there aren’t any gods or goddesses who have already breached the threshold.”
Bella shook her head. “They do not seem able to physically do so,” she said. “Other than Felina… but she was always a bit different. Besides, Rowan said Felina has returned to the realm of the gods.”
“Sanguiana is here,” Selena said with a shudder, reliving a horror from her past. “I do not relish the idea of trapping her in here with us.”
Yvila’s ageless brow furrowed. “You’re certain?”
The succubus bit her full lip and gazed at the upiór woman with fear brimming in her eyes. “I do not think she has much power beyond Castle Ravenhold,” she said. “She is bound to that place, somehow. Yet I know she is here. She is… bound to the demonic realm. In this body, I can feel it. I cannot explain how I know.”
Yvila nodded, then turned to Belladonna. “And Valka?”
“So far as I know she has not crossed the threshold into our world in a physical form,” the baroness replied. “Though she is strong enough to manipulate the physical world from her place in the divine realm. If Sanguiana has been able to cause this much devastation in our world, being a comparatively weak deity, I tremble to think of what might happen if we invited Valka into our realm.”
Yvila plucked the paper from Bella’s fingers and pressed it onto the table. “This is the answer,” she said. “The spell in Lothoss’s book must have been derived from this one, though I don’t know who would have translated the original upiór text for his clerics. It was well hidden in our archives. If not for a clue in the original text, I never would have found it.”
“You’re sure this is the same spell?” Belladonna asked, hope rising in her chest.
Yvila nodded. “As soon as I found it, I recognized the wording from the ritual you showed me. There are many problems with your translation, which I’m sure is why Lothoss is struggling to interpret the archaic language. With this, I should be able to help you to decipher the ritual in its entirety.”
“What are we waiting for?” Selena asked, bounding to her feet suddenly. “Let’s bring it to Lothoss!”
“Yes, let’s,” Bella said, breathlessly. “If we can complete this ritual… perhaps bind the banishment spell to an amulet or a weapon… We can deliver it to Lazarus before he has to face Sanguiana in open battle.”
Yvila squeezed her hand, and the women stood as one. “I will help you to do this, Belladonna,” she said. “We are bound to one another by blood, and I would do anything to help you. But I fear I have to ask something of you in return.”
Bella felt a chill pass over her as the upiór woman fixed her with a hard stare. “What?”
“You must close the gateway between the worlds as soon as Sanguiana has been banished,” she said, seriously. “I do not believe this world will survive another breach of divine power.”
Dread followed Yvila’s words as Bella understood their meaning. She would be able to help Lazarus to banish Sanguiana. But only if she broke the bond to her own god as well. The realization settled like a rock in the baroness’s stomach.
“Come,” she said, avoiding confirmation of Yvila’s request for the moment. “We have much to do, and little time left to do it in.”
Yvila and Selena shared a look, which wasn’t lost on the baroness. But her friends chose not to say anything as they filed out of the arcane library with the precious scrap of paper in hand, heading back for Blackwood Manse and the difficult task ahead of them.
As they walked, Bella couldn’t stop the spiral of thoughts that attempted to drag her down into despair.
23
Divine Guidance
Lothoss welcomed Bella and her friends into the hidden shrine room with his divine presence tingling in the air. The constant, gentle whisper in their minds felt like a guide leading them forward. To Bella, Lothoss’s presence felt warm and familiar, like a grandfatherly figure holding out his hand, promising to guide them through the temple of knowledge in which the god of wisdom was most at home.
Leaving the depths of the upiór's enchanted library behind them had been a relief for Bella, as if prolonged visitation in the realm of divine traitors might taint her somehow. When they returned to the shrine room, and the book of Lothoss, she found herself drawn to the ancient text that seemed to pulse with a deep, inherent power.
Bella had been a bit worried that Lothoss might be upset when the upiór woman revealed where she had discovered the original spell, as if Lothoss might feel he was being accused of stealing the spell, all those generations ago. Yet, When Yvila knelt before the shrine and explained the source of the banishment spell, Lothoss was thrilled rather than agitated.
This told Bella that the god had no idea the upiór were theorizing about creating a realm without the divines.
She didn’t have the heart to tell him, either. Not yet. And she was grateful that her vampiric powers came with significant mental shielding, so that she could hide her whirling thoughts from her patron.
Taking the spell book from the shrine and holding it against her chest, Belladonna breathed deeply of its esoteric scent. “Alright,” she said. “I’m ready. Tell us what the spell is supposed to say, Yvila.”
As she, Selena, and Yvila gathered around a rustic table which her butler, Victor, had begrudgingly agreed to have brought down to the shrine room, the book opened to the page that was supposed to describe a ritual meant to dispel false deities. Bella took another deep breath, wondering if it was Yvila or Lothoss who made the book flip through its pages as if by ghostly fingers.
It doesn’t matter, she told herself. If this ritual can potentially weaken Sanguiana, we must do it. I’ll deal with everything else later.
Lothoss's voice resonated in Bella’s head, and she spoke for him so that Selena and Yvila could understand. Yvila, in turn, corrected the translation from her parchment, much to Lothoss’s delight. Bella could feel his excitement and gratitude like a warm glow in her chest as they made their way through the text.
Oh, it does feel good to solve a puzzle, Lothoss said in her mind. I must admit I have missed this sort of thing, being bound to the divine realm. There are few mysteries left to us here…
Guilt riddled Bella’s conscience as they worked through the ritual, and she found herself fumbling Lothoss’s instructions more than once. He was as patient as an old professor, though, and his presence filled the room with a sense of wisdom and authority that all three women found easy to accept.
Lothoss began to explain each step of the ritual, referring to Yvila’s translation where the spell book became hard to follow. His instructions were clear, his tone imbued with the gravity of their task, yet there was a lightheartedness beneath his stern professorial demeanor, and Bella sensed that he was enjoying the project.
“This first section,” Lothoss said aloud, using the power of the shrine to manifest a voice that all three women could hear, “refers to the crafting of an amulet of pure silver. I believe your healers wear a symbol of the twin gods of divine healing which would be suitable. Or you could have a blacksmith or jeweler create one for you. The amulet must be etched with sacred glyphs in order to act as a divine conduit—both to open and to close the portal between our worlds.”
“I wouldn’t want to deface one of Eslyn and Elysia’s pendants without being able to ask Aria first,” Bella said. “But we should have time to have Kellam forge a simple amulet for us. With the trade route between Crimson Keep and Bleached Bone Beach open now, the silver shouldn’t be a problem.”
“At the dawn's first glimmer, in the hearte of a hallowed grove, kneel before an aulter of puritye, bearing the sylver amulet,” Lothoss read from the spell as it was written in the book. “This is self-explanatory I assume. Any altar to a god or goddess of the divine realm will do, so long as it has not been corrupted. Raise thy voice unto the heauens, supplicating the true deities for their guidance and protection. This does not have to be a formal supplication, if I remember correctly, but a formal prayer may help more divine beings to listen.”
Yvila nodded. “That is what the notes in my version of the spell say. They have a brief prayer of supplication here.”
Bella glanced at the sheet of paper where Yvila had been translating her text. “O Divine Guardians, who watch over us from realms beyond our ken, we call upon your might and wisdom,” she began, reading it out loud.
Yvila put a finger to her lips. “Best not to invoke the prayer before we need it. I’m certain it will work.”
“Yes, that will be fine,” Lothoss said. “Your first step will be simple enough, once you have the silver amulet.”
Selena pushed herself back from the table and stood. “If there’s nothing for me to do at the moment, I can bring the order to your blacksmith, Belladonna.”
“Yes,” Bella nodded, a smile twitching at her lips. “Tell Kellam what we need. He’ll probably welcome the excuse to step away from his duties for a moment. He’s not going to have many opportunities to do so while we’re gone. Thank you, Selena.”
“You may wish to wait a moment, young succubus,” Lothoss said. “There is another item we must collect. A crystalline droplet collected beneath the lunarye eclipse, symbolizing the convergence of astral forces, untarnyshed by worldly blight.”
Bella tugged at her hair in frustration. “When is the next lunar eclipse?” she said. “We don’t have time for this!”
Lothoss chuckled, and the baroness felt his laughter as if it happened within her own chest. He said, “Sometimes I forget how impatient you mortals can be.”
“What is a crystalline droplet?” Selena asked. “Is that the item from Moonglen? With the weather workers destroyed, I should be able to find my way there. Though I’m not certain I’ll be welcomed with open arms the way I am now.”
“The spell is purposefully obscure on this point,” Yvila said. “But from what I have gathered, there is a flower native to the Moonglen area which the locals call Crystal Drops, a small white, bell-shaped blossom that grows in carpets during the spring. I’m also not convinced that the celestial restrictions are necessary to the success of the spell. I believe that whoever first came up with this banishment ritual wanted to make it seem more complicated than it really is.”
Lothoss was silent for a moment, but Bella could sense the god of wisdom considering this possibility. “It is an ancient tradition,” he said. “To tie ritual to the patterns of the sun, moon, and stars… But there are no such heavenly bodies in the divine realm. I cannot see them having an effect on our side of the equation. What you suggest is certainly possible, my upiór friend.”
Bella felt herself wince at Lothoss’s friendly words to Yvila, knowing that the upiór held no love for the gods. But Yvila did not seem bothered by his familiarity.
“The bigger problem,” she mused, “is how we are going to harvest Crystal Drops in the middle of winter.”
Selena sat upon the edge of the table and inspected her nails, frowning as if she were deep in thought. “Aria keeps dried plants and herbs in her apothecary, does she not? What are the chances that Crystal Drops have a medicinal property she might be interested in? She’s not here to show us, but her apprentices might know.”
Bella’s heart surged. “Selena, you’re a genius,” she said. “Of course, we must check with Aria’s apprentices before we send anyone off to Moonglen. Are there any other herbs or flowers in that list of materials?”
Selena looked up from her long, talon-like nails and smiled primly at the baroness. For the first time since she’d discovered Lothoss’s tome, Belladonna felt as if solving the mystery of the banishment skill was more reality than dream.
Guided by the spectral voice of Lothoss, the women put their heads together and pored over the instructions, gathering a list of everything they would need to perform each task.
Between Lothoss and Yvila, they rewrote the ritual in the simplest terms possible. It took a few hours, with Selena running around Crimson Keep to collect various materials and reagents, but in time they had a collection of items to work with that both the god and the upiór woman were passably confident could be used.
Spectral tears were collected in a tiny glass vial at the statue of Nocturna. Lothoss was able to convince Nocturna to perform a minor miracle for Selena. Fortunately, the succubus had spent so many hours watching over her shrine, while they had awaited Gisele’s return, and she’d spent much of that time praying to or just talking to the goddess, Nocturna had developed a connection to the succubus woman. The goddess of death and disease, often a maligned and forgotten deity at the best of times, was able to channel enough power to the statue to make the stone weep glittering drops of spectral essence, which Selena collected in her little glass vial.
They did find Crystal Drops in Aria’s apothecary, both dried and preserved in liquid. A nervous young female apprentice gathered the items for them, glancing furtively at the demonic messenger woman all the while she worked, and—Selena chuckled at this—she made note in a ledger of how much and what the succubus had requested in case Aria wanted to charge her for it upon her return.
The final two items, ‘a relique sanctified by the wisest beings’ and ‘the rarest incens'd resin, imbued with the spirituous essence of sylvan guardians,’ according to the notes in the margin of Lothoss’s spell book were to be found on sublevels one and two of the tombs beneath Blackwood Manse. Yvila collected these, a small stone statue sacred to the upiór scholars that depicted a genderless being in a meditative pose, and a cone of incense distilled from the fermented root of the ancient trees in the underground Night Forest.
“More proof that the original author of this spell was one my own kin,” she said, a bit smugly. “Considering no humans—and likely their gods—have been aware of us for thousands of years.”
Bella tensed at this comment, worried again of Lothoss’s reaction. But he only chuckled and agreed, “We are all very fortunate that your long-lived species have memories to match,” he said. “We gods often forget the minutia of mortal lives in the scope of eons. Though we do sometimes become immersed in a particular time in the mortal realms, focusing our attention like the most fanatical of scholars, when we arise from the haze of obsession the details become lost to us once again.” He sighed. “Had you not reawakened my interest, Belladonna, I may have forgotten my dedication to your family and my duties in the mortal realm. It is a bittersweet bond that binds us.”
The comment stung Bella, who had spent her entire life yearning for her family’s patron deity to acknowledge her presence. Lothoss loved her, of course, and had been thrilled to have his shrine revived. But she didn’t like the feeling that, despite the depths of her feelings for her god, she was little more than a devoted pet to her divine leader. A pet who would quickly be forgotten, replaced with a new obsession…
Perhaps if we are so easily forgotten, it would not be such a bad thing to sever our bonds to these gods, Belladonna mused, feeling suddenly conflicted.
After Selena and Yvila had left to collect the necessary items, Bella sat with her back to the shrine, leaning against it as if the stone might comfort her.
“You are troubled, child,” Lothoss said. “And I believe I know what troubles you.”
Bella squeezed her eyes shut, a rush of anxiety flushing through her veins. “How can a god understand the troubles of a mortal?”
Lothoss chuckled. “You still think of yourself as a mortal,” he said. “Yet I can see the bond that ties you to that other, forbidden realm, and the eldritch magic that promises you a life far beyond that of moral women.”
The torches in the shrine room flickered, casting orange light and black shadows dancing around the chamber. She sighed. “I forget,” she said. “Though I must perform heinous deeds in order to fulfill my bond to that being. Perhaps I will never truly understand what I have done until my mortal years are long past, and I have seen my loved ones wither and die, leaving me to the fate I bargained for. All for what?”
