Now that the outsiders had opted in it was time to move on to the second part of the ceremony.

“When your name is called, approach the one who called it.” Septis said, “Know that this person serves as the link which will connect you all even in death. Also know that they are all connected with one another, and that, in turn, they are connected to us. If your soul is claimed by a Malaki on the night of the Siren Ceremony, then if it is reclaimed it will find its way to those who survived, and not your bloodline. Should none of you survive, it falls upon our clan, instead.”

Kaara knew what they were all thinking. The first thought was likely that it was outrageous for their souls to be given to the Tibur if they died. The second was that they simply would not die. And the third was understanding why the other noble houses carried a disdain for the Tibur. Not only did they live like savages, but they laid claim to whatever souls were lost during their rituals.

Nobility in the past had voiced the same frustrations year after year, but at the end of the day, no one was forcing them to take part.

Kaara had a small army of the dolls behind her, each labeled with a name to denote who it had been made for. She called each name out and waited for them to arrive.

It took a little bit of time to craft these dolls without magic, but their tribe elder, Shiira, possessed life magic which allowed her to make and infuse each doll with a potent connection to its host.

It was Deka first, he moved to cut himself, but Kaara stopped him, “It’s my job to draw blood from you, not yours.”

“I can make my own doll, can I not?”

Kaara shook her head, “The dolls don’t work unless someone else does it for you.”

“I see.” Deka said flatly, “Then I am in your hands.”

Kaara cut his palm and drained his blood into a small dish. The one who made the dolls linked the soul of everyone they had made the dolls for. For the Tibur children, only the strongest two hunters of each branch in the tribe were allowed to create the dolls for them. For Kaara and Arik, it had been Kaara’s mother, Tika. For Rorik and Tadios, it had been Rux.

Once she finished drawing Deka’s blood, she turned to face his doll. She opened its face like a door, and enclosed a strand of his hair. After which, she dipped her fingers in his blood and painted her distinct rune over its face to mirror the paint she had put on herself earlier.

Shiira and anyone else who possessed life magic had enchanted the dolls to activate once they had been properly painted. The blank face of the doll transformed into the spitting image of Deka. It even grew hair in the same style and color as Deka.

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If he died to a Malaki during the ceremony and someone managed to kill that Malaki, then his soul would find its way to Kaara and any surviving member of the group she linked through the dolls.

If Kaara died, however, that was a different story. Any surviving member in Kaara’s group would immediately be grouped with the nearest surviving link. For Kaara, it was Arik and her group. In addition, Kaara’s soul would specifically find Arik.

In the case that both her and Arik died, then their souls would find Tika, while any reclaimed souls deceased from outsiders would be shared among surviving members of the same group. Those surviving members would also be grouped to Rorik and Tadios.

These dolls they made served not only as links, but as open contracts for the Malaki to take.

Malaki lacked neither intelligence, nor a sense of self-preservation. They were clever, organized, and brutally efficient killers when they were not indulging in their sadistic urges. While some Malaki were creatures of chaos and destruction, others were bound by infallible laws of reality.

Some could not perpetuate themselves unless their victims offered them their souls willingly. Certain types of Malaki were lured by lawful contracts like this one. Especially since a soul given was worth a lot more to a Malaki than a soul taken. Some Malaki delighted in the process of manipulating and torturing their victims until they gave their souls away.

The adults like Kaara’s mother and Rux could not interfere until the group had been whittled down to a third of its original participants. If Kaara or anyone else died during the ceremony, their souls would be consumed by the Malaki that killed them. The Malaki, despite knowing of their ancient tradition, and its purpose to create new hunters, still could not resist its lure.

This was the truth she and everyone else in her tribe knew about the ceremony. The only thing Kaara had not understood until now was why they conducted this ceremony every year.

At one point she thought that the Siren Ceremony could have been a good method of preventing Malaki from attacking cities during the winter seasons while giving experience to fledgling hunters. However, if the point was to lure them here to kill them, then why couldn’t the adults intervene until two thirds of the children had died? And why lure Malaki for only a single night?

Kaara did not want to believe that her parents and others would offer up their children, willing or not, to the Malaki. How could their parents watch a culling game where their children were torn to pieces by the same monsters they swore to destroy? There was no guarantee that they could avenge their deaths and reclaim their souls either.

Not to mention, the linking of souls had never made sense when it came to the dolls. Was it the killing of the Malaki, or the eating of its meat which transferred the soul? For whatever reason, it seemed to be both.

And why did the nobility offer their heirs to such a ceremony? It had been easy for Kaara to understand that nobles who lived in the city often produced a great deal of heirs with numerous partners. Losing one or two to the ceremony was not any different in their eyes than losing them to disease or assassination. However, what about prodigies like Deka and Amaro?

Were their parents really so confident that their heirs would survive? Why take the risk in the first place? All of these questions had always nagged at Kaara over the years, but she had realized the answer recently: The ritual was meant to awaken their Ux. And the nobility would do anything to acquire that power.