Xander Stone
Location: Base - The Quarry
Phase: Night 1/2
Time: 20:41
Day: January 12th
The door slams shut behind me, and I shamble upstairs to my room and crumple onto my bed.
Without a doubt, that was the tensest walk I have ever had. Still, I need to get up at some point. Clapping my hands to my cheeks, I stand up and open one of my two suitcases. Inside are the basic materials I need for my mother’s spell; however, they will be used for a different occasion today.
I pull out a syringe and tourniquet and begin my work.
~~~~~~~~~~
I stand in the living room, a bowl in my hand filled with blood. The dull scratching of my feet on the floorboards and my finger tracing crimson circles and glyphs onto the carpetless wood mixes with shuddering breaths, shaking the dusty air. The lights are on their lowest setting; while I have little need of illumination, this is a ceremony I cannot afford to fail.
With a final drop, I finish the circle, and place my catalyst in its center---
A single arrowhead stained blood-red.
Are the sigils correct? No, they have to be; this is the tenth time that I’ve checked them. I can’t afford to dally any longer. A single step brings me to the edge of the circle.
I raise my right arm, palm outstretched toward the circle’s center.
Ye first, O silver, O iron. O stone of the foundation, O Archduke of the Contract.
Prana circles and flows as if it had never stopped, joining the blood in my body and air in my lungs.
Hear me in the name of my great teacher, Stone.
This is a step I cannot take back.
Let the descending winds be as a wall.
This act is no mountain of devotion to be scaled.
Let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve.
It is a chasm of despair I dove into in a mad quest.
I am risking my life in something that I do not understand, for something that is not guaranteed.
Five perfections for each repetition. And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead.
Within mere seconds, a being greater than I could ever hope to be will step forth.
—I announce.
Let thy body rest under my dominion, let my fate rest in thy blade.
Even so, I must strive; not to be the greatest, or the strongest, but to be worthy of my own name.
If thou submitteth to the call of our ritual, and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond!
Once again, I will bind another.
—I make my oath here.
I am the person who is to become the virtue of all Heaven.
Once again, I will be bound.
I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades.
Here and now, I will shatter my chains!
Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words, come past thy restraining rings! Guardian of the Heavenly Scales—!