Chapter 12 – Ritual

Chapter 12 – Ritual

Liria stood in the gray dawn of the Ashen Wastes, carefully tuning over Seris’ words in her mind.

Her younger brother was right, the confirmation of a controlling intellect behind the fragments of the dead god changed everything.

There was no longer time for leisurely experimentation, this was now a race to see if she could purge Seris of his taint before the dead god Vhal did something irreversible.

Her younger brother was safe for now. Probably. The dead god Vhal influenced the world by manipulating Seris’ mana, and his reserves were currently empty.

This bought her roughly half a day. The moment Seris’ mana refilled to meaningful levels, Vhal would be back with a vengeance, and he would not be hiding this time.

Liria exhaled slowly, steadying herself. Speed mattered more than safety now, and that meant making a choice she had hoped to avoid.

The Ritual of Inversion.

Her fingers tightened slightly.

Kaerthis’ amulet was never meant to be more than a temporary place-holder, and Necromancy Negation was still a work in progress that she wasn’t sure about. It could take days for her to get any meaningful results.

This left her with a ritual that might twist her younger brother into something unrecognizable.

The admission was bitter.

“Seris,” she carefully looked him in the eye, her voice low and serious to impress upon him the gravity of his choice. “The ritual I’m about to attempt is dangerous and untested. It will turn your taint into holy power, but it will also change your body. Are you prepared for that?”

“I’m ready.” Seris answered her immediately. A pause. Then: “But how will my body change?”

“I am not sure.” Liria was forced to admit. “The ritual was originally designed to be used on a place of power, not a person.”

She compared the Font of Corruption in her memories to the Font of Light she’d only seen in pictures, mapped how that inversion would translate to a human body, then absentmindedly continued.

“The soul is a microcosm of the land; the same inversion arithmetic should apply if I can keep the feedback loop stable. I believe that your hair and eye color will change. Your appearance would likely become more in line with holy aesthetics.”

She paused, working through the list methodically.

“Your short hair might become long. Your sallow skin and weak body could become healthy. And if you’re short for your age, then you’ll probably become tall…”

Her voice trailed off.

Seris was looking up at her with an expression of adorable confusion, his head tilted slightly to one side.

“Big sister?” Seris ventured. “But those sound like good things.”

Liria replayed what she had just said.

“They are optimistic possibilities.” She said it with as much gravity as she could muster, which was undermined slightly by the fact that she was now avoiding his eyes. Perhaps the Ritual of Inversion wasn’t so bad after all?

She stopped that line of thinking immediately.

“The point is that you will have a completely different appearance after the ritual, and even that is the least of your concerns.”

What was she thinking? Of course it was bad.

“Your personality could change, Seris.” She met his gaze again, her expression grave. “And that cannot possibly be okay.”

Seris’ brows furrowed. He still looked more puzzled than frightened. “But what does that mean exactly, big sister? How will I change?”

Liria pondered how she could best explain this to a child.

“You like bacon, right, Seris?” She asked and got an energetic nod in response.

“How about pot roast?” Seris nodded even more vigorously to this question.

“Then what about me?” Liria had to suppress a blush while asking this question, and Seris’ answer was both enthusiastic and immediate:

“I love big sis the most in the whole wide world!”

The child was just too cute, but this was not the time. Liria fought to keep the corners of her lips from quirking up and solemnly continued:

“Then after the ritual, you could end up as a child who hates bacon, hates pot roast, and hates me the most in the world. That is what it means for your personality to be inverted, so think very carefully about this, Seris. Please.”

“Oh.” His face fell. For a moment, it looked as though she’d told him the world was ending.

The moment was very brief.

“You said my personality could change.” He caught the distinction immediately. “My body will change. My personality only might. So it isn’t certain.”

“That’s correct.” Liria kept her expression carefully neutral. “And that is precisely the problem. There are too many uncertainties.”

In the end, she could only weigh the worst cases against each other and pick her poison. If she used the ritual on Seris, the worst outcome was a corrupt priest: dangerous, but recoverable. If she did nothing and left the dead god Vhal to his own devices, Seris could die, or be consumed entirely to serve as a vessel for the Lich King’s rebirth.

“I will do everything in my power to prevent the worst from happening,” she said, “but we’re risking your body and soul, Seris. Only you can make this decision.”

Seris looked at her for a long moment. Then: “I trust you, big sis.” He nodded resolutely. And that was that.

It was time for Liria to have a good talk with her siblings. She would need their help to ensure the optimal outcome, and she had already kept them waiting for long enough.

But before that, a quick detour. She needed concrete proof that she knew what she was doing. Liria wanted to enter the discussion as an equal, not as their helpless youngest sibling who only knew the world through inherited wisdom and half-remembered dreams.

The Ashen Wastes called to her. It would serve well enough as a demonstration.

Liria dismissed the Blessing of Light’s Quest Window that had appeared in response to her resolution.

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Mythic Quest generated: Cleanse the Ashen Wastes. Accept / Decline

She felt Seris watching her as she oriented herself, her attention shifting outward, past the immediate surface of things. His presence beside her was a small warmth against the cold of the blighted air.

“Big sister,” he said, after a moment. “What are you about to do?”

“I’m getting ready to meet my siblings,” she said. “I’ll introduce you soon. You’ll like them.”

“Your siblings? Like Vaelir?” Seris pouted. “He was mean.”

Liria chuckled and ruffled his hair.