Akilah took the grimoire with her and left the dark basement. 'Finally I found it' Akilah thought to herself as she pulled up a wooden chair in front of a window, using the morning light to illuminate the words.
It was common practice within their family to know how to read a grimoire, since this was a skill that needed to be passed down to future generations. That way if a magic user is born within their family in the future, they can be taught to read the grimoire and harness their powers.
Imara had offered Akilah to teach how to read the grimoire. Even though she only had recessive magical genes. Imara told her that there are a few spells inside of the grimoire that they could activate without magic, but only as a last solution in a dire situation.
Akilah diligently went through all the pages until she found what she was looking for, most of the spells were useless to her as it required a lot of magic. But the one spell Akilah was looking for just needed a willing participant ready to sacrifice their soul. It was a simple yet powerful spell that if executed right can grant the participants wish.
“THERE!” Akilah blurted out.
She had finally found it
‘A fool's wish’
Akilah eagerly started reading.
‘It is said that only someone foolish enough and desperate enough would ever try to do this spell.’
"Foolish and desperate, that sounds like me," Akilah mumbled as she continued reading.
‘The spell consists of three parts.’
'Only three, easy.' she thought, gaining a bit of confidence.
‘The first part is The Summoning, the second is The Deal, the third and last part is The Reward.’
'I feel like I can pull this off' Akilah thought, but before she got her hopes up, she read.
‘Simply summoning X will mean that you have given your life up to X, even if your wish is not granted your soul will be forever lost.’
Akilah reclined back and stared at the decrepit ceiling 'That is why it is called a fool’s wish. Only a foolish person would go through with something as absurd as this. Giving up your soul without even getting your wish granted. Truly foolish' Akilah leaned forward again.
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“Well luckily for whoever X is, I am foolish enough to do this”
The instructions were fairly easy. Akilah simply needed a sacrifice of some sort, the bigger and stronger the better the results would be. She decided that an animal would be the easiest option and since she was not in a good condition, she decided to go for a smaller animal and hope that the spell would still work. After some tries Akilah managed to catch a small rabbit, all that was left was to finish the remaining steps, but Akilah was hesitant, the next step was to skin the sacrifice alive. Akilah could not stomach the thought of doing that, as a result she killed the rabbit first before skinning it. Hoping that the spell would still work despite her decision. The next step was to draw circle and symbols on the ground and place the rabbit in the center of the circle. She then had to wait until sunset and offer her own blood as a part of the sacrifice.
Akilah took a deep breath and grabbed a knife, after she had gathered some courage, she cut her wrists and splatter her blood over the dead rabbit and symbols while reciting the enchantment. Akilah braced herself but nothing happened. Akilah kept on repeating the enchantment but nothing happened.
“WHY ISN'T ANYTHING HAPPENING!?!” Akilah shouted in frustration. But deep down in her gut Akilah already knew the answer to her question.
“It cannot be...” Akilah argued with herself, feeling her heart sinking.
“It is not because...Because I didn't skin it alive, right? RIGHT?!?”
She looked down at the grimoire in her hand, she knew the truth deep down and let out a sigh. ‘I should have skinned the rabbit…’
It was already too late to do anything about it now. Akilah would have to try again tomorrow and do it properly. Annoyed and tired Akilah returned to her grandma's house and bandaged up her slit wrists. Thankfully, she had not cut to deep or else she would not have been able to stop the bleeding. 'Tomorrow I'll try again' she thought to herself 'I will not be a coward this time; I'll do it properly for you Adara'.
Akilah feeling exhausted from everything she had done fell asleep almost as soon as she laid her head down on her old bed.
“Tomorrow,” she whispered to herself before falling asleep “I’ll do it properly tomorrow.”
Akilah had fallen into a deep sleep and had awoke at noon, which was a lot later than she had planned. The labor and neglect she had put her body through yesterday had really taken a toll on her, but Akilah did not have time to rest. She quickly got up, but as soon as she stood up her eyes blacked momentarily, and she fell backwards onto the bed.
Akilah felt a sharp pain in her stomach 'Right I have not had a proper meal in almost two days now'. Luckily for Akilah there were wild berries growing around the house. Akilah wandered around collecting enough barriers for her to eat to keep her energy levels up. Since she was not in a good shape to go and hunt, she used the rabbit from yesterday's failed attempt as bait to lure in other animals for the ritual. She had to be quick about it thought since there wasn't much time left before sunset.