1629, Fire Season, Disorder Week, Freezeday
Context
Kesten Hulta has agreed to worship Lord Eril as an initiate. Session SA4.16.
Events
Many ordeals begin with woad. In most preparations it is a deep blue colour which is either harmless or gives lye-burns, depending on how it has been finished.
This is different. A bright blue powder that shimmers as it is stirred. The Wyter Priest has it from her clan’s lands. It is mixed with water and ash, first becoming a sludge and then suddenly running free, without warning. The water was gathered by the Priest and she does not say where.
There are several marks she makes, on the new initiate, and on herself, before she nods that she is done.
He lies before the altar, arms stretched forward and out, forming the shape of a Torch. She paints on his back as well, so that when she stands his skin is more blue than not.
Despite the cold of the stone beneath him, he is soon sweating. The Priest watches for a while, and ignores the prickle of the drug on her skin. Her path is more direct, as suits her.
After a while she is sure his breathing has changed. She draws an obsidian dagger from her belt, smashes it into the floor until chips fly, and with the new point she has just made, pricks a simple shape into the skin of her left hand. That, she rubs with blue that has no ash in it, for her own geasa forbid mixed tattoos.
What has taken time for the initiate is instant for her, and she steps with the moment, her mind and spirit falling into a place that has no time or space, but still has distance.
In her right hand is Death. In her left is Truth. She does not sheath either, but Truth is the line she cuts, from the mortal close to her, forwards, and then…
The Truth Rune can be written many ways. To start at the handle is to wield the torch, but as she reaches the point where lines meet, she concentrates. To draw the next from the Hero to the centre would work best for her devices, but that is impossible. He is immovable, convinced of his own perfection. He demands by existing that he be a point of stability. He expects her to approach.
The line must be cut towards him. That is plain.1Berra: I got a fail on opposing Eril to make him come towards the middle, but a pass on turning the line so that it didn’t just go straight to him, and then a 04 on POW vs POW to look at the Hero in the light of Truth. I have no idea if I saw anything. Berra would totally have stepped forward to poke things if she had been alone.
The Wyter Priest steps, in the place without distance. Her wrist turns, her feet get behind the new balance point, and she slices a cut through the world-that-is-not, towards the Wyter. That one is dark, and light, together. Cruelty hides aspiration, or patience conceals ambition. It is difficult to say. He is hidden, and he is revelation.
He is also surprisingly sarcastic about the affair. Do you know what you just did?
Part of him admonishes his Priest. Part of him introduces himself to the initiate, as a spirit. The new one is welcomed within, and the light kindles and tests him.
The Priest ignores that, but turns, and is already back at the meeting of lines. She makes a third cut, and the gem set into the Truth sword flares, showing nothing. Briefly, she contacts the god, and that is enough. Her part is done, and she could fall back into her body. Instead, she looks at the power, considering, for one long moment.
It is unclear what pulls her back. A hand on her vambrace and a quiet, “No, this is a friend”? A quirk of a brow that meets curiosity with the fact she has been noticed? A panicked, What the hell are you playing at? from her Wyter, perhaps.
She wakes in her body.
You stood there in judgement of him.
“Ugh… how’s Kes-the intiate?”
Initiate. Deep in visions. He lives. Don’t change the subject.
“I wasn’t. And I mean, didn’t. I was looking at the god.”
You are absolutely mad.
“Nah. I don’t get to see him often. I want to know stuff. And the light was on him. So for once, I could.”
He wants to talk to me right now, Priest…
- 1Berra: I got a fail on opposing Eril to make him come towards the middle, but a pass on turning the line so that it didn’t just go straight to him, and then a 04 on POW vs POW to look at the Hero in the light of Truth. I have no idea if I saw anything. Berra would totally have stepped forward to poke things if she had been alone.
