Chương 41: 39. The descent

The ritual took place where the feast had been held. It was completely redecorated for the ceremony. On both sides, there were audience seats for the common folk to witness the event. They resembled a cross between Colosseum stands and church benches, with special supports for kneeling. The structure was built entirely of dark wood, adorned with beautiful decorations. The entire village sat there.

The lower and closer one sat to the ritual site, the more important they were in the community, with people capable of handling magic sitting the closest. In front of me, closer to the ritual site, was a podium for the priests. It was covered in a thick blanket of moss. There, the clerics of Taipo all had instruments and played the ceremonial music, swaying from side to side in a trance-like state. Behind them was the more interesting part.

It was the space for the chief and the main elders, the five people who had previously sat at the main table. They all rested on massive thrones decorated with elk skulls and moss. Instead of standing on the ground, the thrones were held aloft by ents. Two creatures for each seat. There were four of them sitting there, with the place for the oracle missing, as she was performing the ritual.

Each pair of the four flanked the central space, where two massive ents held up the whole altar of Taipo, which radiated a powerful aura. Now, the most interesting part was in the center. Nine people stood, slightly to the side, each in a white ceremonial gown, each accompanied by a person in brown robes. All the people in brown were kneeling and praying while swaying from side to side in a similar trance as the priests. All except Tom, who was securely restrained and struggling against the bindings.

There also stood Ophelia. A part of her resolution seemed to be replaced by fear, as she was even paler than before, shaking a bit. But her posture was still straight and her muscles clenched like she was about to go into battle. In the dead center stood an altar to the Messenger, taken from the church and carried here. Everything was beautifully decorated. Carved wood depicting elk, but also other forest creatures, both mundane and magical, like Nymphs and Wendigos.

Beautifully decorated skulls with many runes hung all over the place. And the most impressive of decorations were life-like carvings of mythical creatures made from bone. To my surprise, some were carved from a single massive bone, easily as tall as me. In the center, two people were currently singing and dancing. It was Astrid and the oracle. They moved in a hypnotic pattern. Their moves and song were simple, but they seemed to resonate with the strange, ever-present aura of the place.

Q'Shar and I were led to the guest area. We were a bit to the side of the stands. We had a small podium, also decorated with moss, but without a chair. We were on the ground level. Interestingly, the podium marked us similarly to priests, but the placement spoke of lesser importance in the ritual. I took it as a sign of respect, recognizing me as a priest of the dark gods. We thanked the man, who nodded in turn and left us, informing us that we were not to leave the podium under any circumstances during the ritual.

I looked around and briefly met the eyes of the chief's son, who sat in the first row. He seemed to be looking for me, and as I turned, he immediately met my gaze. To my surprise, there was a slight smile on his face. I furrowed my brow. He looked proud of himself, but I could not tell why. I checked Ophelia, but nothing seemed out of place. She was dressed and equipped in the same way as everyone else. The annoying guy turned back to the performance, and without picking up on anything, I did the same.

The women danced as the air and aura seemed to vibrate more and more with them. I let go of my sea of consciousness a bit, letting it resonate with the surrounding energy. The cat did the same, as we too started to sway with the music. The first part seemed to be for everyone to get into the ceremony, as more and more people from the crowd started to sway.

Those capable of magic had an erratic and trance-like nature to their movements, while most of the normal people simply moved from side to side, more to the music than to the aura. After some time, the song was done. Astrid went back to the people dressed in white gowns, standing next to her sacrifice, an older man, looking at her with uncontained pride in his gaze. Only the oracle now stood in the center. The other instruments stopped playing, and only the drums continued beating their rhythm.

The oracle took a dagger with a bone handle. For a second, there was silence. Until she started to sing once again, but this time, her voice was less human, deep and reverberating, like an echo of deep caverns. No sign of her old age showed in the chant. She sang deeply as she dragged the dagger across her palm. She started to sway and dance in increasingly wild and erratic movements, performing moves that should not be possible with her frail physique.

Alongside her movements, the aura shifted, and the drumbeat grew more erratic. It was wild, aggressive, but also heavy and gloomy at the same time. I had to grab control of my sea of consciousness not to enter a blind haze. I saw the cat was also fighting the rhythm. The musicians danced without missing a beat, instruments still in hand. Slowly, the whites of their eyes started to show as they entered a trance in which they had no control over their actions. This story has been stolen from Royal Road.

If you read it on Amazon, please report it Faster, wilder, louder. The music and the oracle sped up the closer she got to the altar. The previously cloudy night sky started to show stars, the clouds forming a circular clearing over the village. Deeper and deeper tones. The smell of moss and the sensation of death were starting to become overbearing. It was amazing, the air felt electric, and the scene was primal and magical.

Controlling my sea of consciousness, I let myself sway as well, a smile slowly forming for what was about to happen. I saw Q'Shar was holding up well, but I saw a bit of fear enter his eyes. I checked my inner self, and sure enough, there was a part of the aura that was trying to rouse fear in the soul. Louder! The music shook the air. The people on the thrones started to sing alongside the oracle, as the ents swayed and rumbled. Their unnatural voices were like the bellow of the largest of horns.

The chosen future priests were the only ones standing still in prayer, looking at the moss under their feet. To my surprise, Ophelia was also in a trance-like prayer, but her eyes were pointed toward the sky. And then— The music stopped. Suddenly, for a split second, the oracle let out a loud, throaty scream as she jumped into the air. For a second, there was a lull. Nothing dared to move. Everything was still, like a loaded spring ready to go into action.

The moment the oracle's feet touched the ground once again, all hell broke loose. The aura abandoned all rhythm, becoming something wild and primal. It caused fear and worship, as nature and death mixed. The hollow part of me felt a pressure. I looked at the cat, but he held firm. He was no novice. Although his eyes were wide and his muscles clenched. People were now screaming and jumping in a wild rhythm, as the oracle, now with her hand outstretched in front of her, approached the altar of the Messenger.

Thunder roared as the clouds moved in a vortex around the clearing in the sky. I could see something forming above us. A small crack like broken glass. I heard an explosion-like sound as thunder roared, but it was not in the sky. No, it was in the forest. Lightning jumped from tree to tree, not leaving a mark, but lighting up the dark woods. With each crack of thunder, in the split second of light, I could see dark silhouettes of men and women wearing massive crowns with antlers.

They were perfectly dark, the light seemingly devoured by them, disappearing into the darkness of the forest as the lightning dissipated. It was amazing. Beautiful. The energy in the air, the reverberating aura. My heart was beating loudly. What would descend? How would it feel? My face was now stretched into a wide smile of anticipation. I hoped the sacred being would not disappoint.

The lightning was now almost constant, showing the unmoving dark silhouettes at the edge of the forest, as the oracle's hand was mere inches from the altar. And then— With a small step. Her hand met the altar. And everything went silent. There was no movement, not of the people, nor of the aura. All was still. I looked toward the sky. And there it was.

The sky split and bent like it was made from glass, now molded by some massive hand into otherworldly shapes, allowing us to notice it only thanks to the distorted light. The stars moved, finally showing an outline. The outline became sharper and sharper, and finally. The creature descended. It was bewitching. I could not place any of the senses I was picking up. The aura was overbearing. The body was both flesh and soul, giving a strange sensation when looking at it. My heart was beating wildly.

Everything in me that was not fear and still aware told me to bow, tremble, and rejoice. But I stayed up with my eyes glued to the creature. I wanted to witness it all. The thing levitated down from the sky. It was similar to the depiction on the altar, but there were differences. It had a wolf and elk-like body, but it was also humanoid. Its hind legs had hooves and were similar in shape to those of a wolf, but longer.

The torso was wide and reminiscent of a wild beast, but the shoulders were wider than the rest, with the front limbs being more similar to arms, covered in brown elk skin but ending in vicious wolf claws the size of sickles. The creature's back was covered in moss. But the most interesting part was the head. The head was as if someone had put an elk skull over an amalgamation of darkness. And then there were the hands. In place of antlers, many arms, all in erratic movements, constantly grasping upwards.

Like the hands of a drowning man, desperately trying to break through a tapestry of the sky, for a desperate breath. It was stunning. There were way too many hands to make sense of their movements. They all seemed to go through one another, but were also physical, not touching each other. The answer was obvious. It was space. An attribute of space. They all moved on trajectories that made no sense in three-dimensional space but were perfectly fine in four dimensions. The fourth dimension was hard to witness.

I glued my eyes to their movement, trying to understand it, to further my knowledge, my comprehension. But how could they not notice it was the space element? How was that even a mystery? Were they blind? It was obviously space. They were moving on orbits. With their movements all elliptical. Yes, it had to be. It dawned on me. I got it! I turned to my friend to ask him if he had noticed too. And in that moment, I understood why no one else noticed the movement. His head was glued to the ground.

The cat trembled in a kneeling position. He was frozen, unable to lift his head. I looked around and saw that everyone else was the same. Trembling, kneeling, not daring to look up. From the villagers to the priests and the chosen. The main elders were all bent in their seats so much that they almost fell from their thrones. The only ones looking up were the ents. The half-dead creatures looked dumbly forward, also frozen. I looked around. There was no one to share in my excitement.

I was the only person standing up. It felt a bit… lonely. But I just turned my head back to the creature, admiring the unknowable, a smile back on my face.