No! No more bloodshed!
No more bloodshed!
No more… blood.
Blood!
Jularra looked down at the empty pool, and then back to Vylas and Leona. Leona watched Jularra, no doubt working to develop a plan, while Vylas scanned the room, reviewing the intricate carvings on each tomb like an absentminded scholar.
Jularra produced her dagger and sliced quickly along the meatiest part of her palm.
Blood! she repeated to herself.
Flinging the dagger to the side, she squeezed the wound, making sure blood fell into the empty pool. Once the first few drops successfully landed, she walked to the center.
You’ve raped our blood for centuries. It’s time we reclaimed it.
She fell to her knees and sat on the balls of her feet, her hand suspended over the rock floor.
She stared at the rock, enthralled by its unassuming appearance as it caught and absorbed her dripping blood. Jularra had grown used to seeing it filled with much more blood during her oath renewal every hunter’s moon, but this visit was not to perpetuate the oath. It was to end it.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Only when she claimed the crown as a child was she made to bleed. Her visits at the hunter's moon did not require it—only that she be bathed in the pool’s blood. This time, she was choosing to bleed.
Maybe something will happen by making this offering.
The blood of my complete understanding.
Please work.
As more blood splashed onto the humble stone, a simple bubble appeared within it. It grew, popped, and then—nothing. The small puddle of Jularra's blood rippled slightly and then was still.
This was the Voidwarden’s pool. She now suspected that simply presenting it with blood wouldn’t be enough; wouldn't allow her to invoke anything.
What do I do? she thought with rising panic. What do I need to do?
Her mind screamed in confusion and disorder. She knew she was squandering time and had to calm herself. She let her bleeding hand fall to her side as she closed her eyes, breathing deep, exaggerated breaths. She licked her dry lips, sucking in air and then exhaling in as controlled a manner as she could.
Let it out.
She lifted her head and opened her eyes.
“Gods of the Gifts, I am Jularra, daughter of Amala, and daughter of the Acorilinian Mountains. You have honored me as one with complete understanding of your Gifts. I implore you now for your attention, your mercy, and your guidance.”
She paused to look along the edges of the pool. No change.
“Make me the keeper of this pool. Permit me to call upon this place of power. It has been abused and perverted by its current steward, and by the hand of the ancient Nurudian sorceress, Colendra. She did not, and the Voidwarden does not, serve you or your Gifts. This perversion has gone on long enough.”
Taking another quick breath, Jularra continued.
“Allow me to use this pool as a tool for your future bidding. Let me restore the practice of your Gifts throughout Acorilan. Let me use this domain of power in a way that honors you. That serves you. That serves the Gifts, and the world that inspires them." Her voice grew louder, her rippling disgust for the Voidwarden giving her words more and more bite. "Let me end the days of this pool being an instrument of the Voidwarden’s ego, and let me return it to you. Let me do your work.”
She dropped her chin and frantically searched the pool for any changes. Desperation stung her eyes. Another rapid inspection of the pool revealed nothing.
Then a heavy scrape of metal made her flinch. The voice that followed it left her grinding her teeth.
“I see you’ve brought me no child,” the Voidwarden hissed. Its words stank of feigned disappointment and condescension. Jularra looked, but could not separate the Voidwarden from the shadows across the room.
“Time’s up!” it snapped. The shape of a grin started to poke through the darkness. The shapeless filth started to slink into the light.
But it froze in place as the roof of the chamber began to crumble. Leona had conjured her power. Her usual cluster of smoky rings were spinning about her, basking her in a light that banished the shadows from a massive portion of the Voidwarden’s chamber.
Relief flooded Jularra. She watched Leona, standing at the base of the stairs with her arms in the air, her palms facing the hundreds of stalactites up above. With accompanying ruptures and rumbles, Leona lowered her arms and brought her elbows down to her sides, her palms still facing upwards. With a swift clenching and reopening of her fists, dozens upon dozens of stalactites tore away from the roof of the chamber to trap the Voidwarden inside chunks of stone.
The Voidwarden immediately started to beat and bash against the stone, but it would take some time for it to free itself. It would have to do it with brute force; its shrieks and wails displayed its frustration as it found the stalactites insusceptible to its magic. Leona was buying Jularra time.
Having contained the Voidwarden for a moment, Leona marched over to the pool, never taking her eyes off the sphere of earthen spikes she was controlling.
“Come on, Jularra,” Leona said, calmly but with urgency. “You’ve got to do something. Now. Clear your mind as best you can. We will protect you.”
Jularra wanted to cry that she didn’t know what to do. Instead, she nodded. She didn’t want to distract Leona, or waste the opportunity she'd created.
“Please, Gift Gods, I come to you again,” Jularra resumed. “I ask you to visit me. Visit this place. Inspect my life. Search my soul. Feel my heart. Know my intent. I need you, Gods of the Gifts. Empower me to fight against this contamination on our lands. Let the victor define your truth. Acorilan needs you. We need you.”
We.
The revelation banished her worry and replaced it with humility and calm.
“Help my ancestors!” she cried out. “Help me release them!”
More and more of Leona’s stalactites were obliterated. But Leona grinned at what she
