I’d seen it before and yet watching the Fellowship of Fayum’s ritual again was possibly more disturbing than the last time. I don’t know if it was because I was crouched in a prickly bush watching the outdoor bonfire surrounded by robed cultists, or because Orion was present this time but either way I was on edge.
There was an odd sort of tent erected not too far from the bonfire a little further down the rise. The flaps of it were shut tight and not a single candle was lit inside leaving the whole thing in deep shadow.
My eyes returned to the fire and the cluster of people around it. There were a good thirty of the black-robed cultists and maybe five red robes. A High Priestess dressed in her bright gold robes with the half-skull and dagger stitched in red stood at the head of all of them. Orion stood beside her looking for all intents and purposes like the High Priestess's shadow in his dark cloak.
The only difference between this High Priestess and the last one I’d seen was the lack of the twisted black staff. The flames behind her flared a little, casting waves of light over her and suddenly it became clear why she held nothing. This Priestess’s arms ended in two angry red stumps.
I frowned at that. The other High Priest had seemed to know the cult was just a farce. This one had either believed in it enough to offer her hands to the broth before being raised to her position or she hadn’t had them to begin with. It hadn’t stopped her from cutting off the pinky finger of one of her black-robed followers only moments before with the bladed bracelet she wore tucked neatly into her sleeve.
It was hard to focus on the Priestess however when Orion’s face was finally free of the hood of his cloak.
His face was deathly pale and crisscrossed by matching scars meeting atop his crooked nose. The long tresses surrounding his face were as dark as Frank’s feathers and stood stiff against the gentle breeze teasing the flames behind him. Despite the scars, it was his eyes that were the terrifying part though; they glowed a bright red just as Old Man Wellington’s had.
I’ll admit, he looked completely different than I’d imagined except for maybe the hair. Aside from the scar and difference in eye color, he could have been Kendrick’s twin.
Stella shifted beside me, snapping a twig beneath her paw. We were plenty far away from the gathering and yet I still flinched a the sound. It was the dog that had brought us here. We’d been traveling the same path we’d taken to reach the manor house only for her ears to perk up and her head to swing. Her name had barely passed my lips before she’d taken off at full speed over the dusty sunburned earth. She’d brought us directly here and thankfully hadn’t recklessly charged straight into the midst of the cultists.
The cultists, having sacrificed a body part to the enormous cauldron hanging over the fire already, were holding hands with their neighbors, all of them swaying to the low hymn they were singing. Overhead the brilliant blanket of stars shone bright in the darkness of the outback, not at all hindered by the roaring fire. The intensity of the moment, and not the foul stench carried by the breeze, had me holding my breath as I waited for what would happen next.
A smart man would probably sneak away into the night and find another way back to Stanthorpe but I crouched like a statue instead, unable to look away no matter how horrifying the scene had become.
The hymn came to an end and the High Priestess lifted her arms high into the air until nothing but the crackling of the fire could be heard.
“Tonight is a very special night my children,” she said in a voice that carried all the way to me and beyond. “Melumek has asked of us a new kind of offering. One that will bring him closer to this world and to us. When we give him this most wonderous gift he will reach out with his mighty fist and deliver to us riches we can only dream of.
Standing with me is the bringer of Melumek’s glory. The protector of our fine Lady. She is the holiest of us all and we must pay deference to the man chosen to protect her from all who wish to do her harm. He will guide us through this new sacrament. I beg of you to offer him the same loyalty and reverence that you bestow upon me.
Raise your voices now my children and welcome Orion with open arms!”
The crowd lifted their hands, well at least the ones who had hands did, and sang something similar to the hymn they’d been singing before only this one was faster-paced and didn’t last nearly as long.
Orion stepped forward sending tiny puffs of dirt swirling around his heeled boots. He didn’t lift his hands as the High Priestess had but instead stood patiently, his red eyes sweeping the crowd. It didn’t take long for the same wave of silence to fall in front of him. When he spoke, it was in a gentle voice at odds with every other time I had met him. Even the words themselves sounded like a script coming from his lips.
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“My Mistress and I thank you for your patience. Tonight is the only night in the next twenty years that we can perform this sacred ritual and gift our Lord a sacrifice truly worthy of his grandeur.” He spun in place, showing his back to the gathering as he spread his arms wide, framing the enormous full moon still inching its way into the sky. “Tonight, under the light of this Super Blue Moon, we sacrifice a Champion and imbue him with Melumek’s power.”
My fingers tensed on the spindly branches, snapping more than one as the crowd of robed cultists hollered their sickening excitement. The moment Orion had said the word a memory had come slamming back into my head from a place I’d locked it far away. Orion’s Challenge. A timed quest I’d never completed. I’d been so sure it was a hoax. Just another lie to draw me out into the open so Orion could do away with me like he’d tried to have Ryan do. The threat had been tenuous at best.
With my whole body vibrating enough to make my teeth click I opened my quest menu, navigating to the failed quest log and looking at it more deeply than I had before. What I saw had me slamming my gloved hand into my head with enough force to make lights dance in the corners of my vision. I blinked back pain-induced waterworks and bit my tongue to keep from letting loose a string of finely crafted swearwords. The designers of this stupid window had decided to separate the failed quests into two sections. One for those designated as Main Quests and another for Secondary Quests. It was unnecessary functionality considering they were all bundled together in my active quest menu. I switched back to the active side and found the toggle button to separate quests. It was a lot like the one in my inventory that let me sort my goods by type. One day I might have to sit down and go through these menus with a finetooth comb.
Realizing I had failed two quests and not just one was a blow I had not been expecting since Stella and I had escaped the manor house. So much had happened after my visit with Phlegm down by the river. The goblin tavern had been trashed by ruffians that Nora had gone wild putting in their place, Kendrick had appeared and inserted himself into my life despite my protests, and I had finally told Gabby all the things I’d discovered about her father. It had been a wild ride, one that did not gel well with a timed quest. Not that I would have done it anyway but that wasn't the point.
Orion turned back to his captivated crowd, flinging out his flaming cloak with an unnecessary flourish. His words now sounded far more like he’d crafted them himself. “Kneel as Melumek’s Lady presents us the offering. Remember, keep your tongue in your mouth in her presence. She is not as we are. She is blessed by Melumek himself. An insult to her is to our Lord and will be treated as such. Am I understood?”
Rather than answering him with words the gathered crowd, red-robed and High Priestess included dropped to their knees, bowing their heads at the path they’d left open between them. Orion beamed, his red eyes flaring more brightly than before. He lifted his hands and clapped them hard over his head three times.
The flaps of the tent were flung wide and a small but intricately crafted palanquin was carried out on the shoulders of four animated skeletons. Dragged behind them, his hands bound by a heavy iron chain, was a man dressed in little more than a filthy loincloth. The way his ribs were highlighted by the sparse light and deep shadows made him look like another skeleton. Even his face was gaunt and his eyes sunken so deeply that the sockets appeared only black.
I rose slightly from my hiding place, my eyes locked on what was left of Theo Thundershield.
A hand slapped hard against my shoulder, forcing me back down behind the bush as a voice that tickled the edges of my memory hissed in my ear.
“Keep down you idiot or they’ll see you.”
Stella seemed unbothered by the woman crouching beside me with her face covered by a black scarf. For whatever reason, that put me at ease despite the woman's sudden appearance. The rest of the stranger was covered by a short flowing cloak and soft leather boots.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
“I already told you once before, call me Jitta.”
“Jitta?”
“Yes, now shush. Something’s happening.”
My head whipped back around and I stared through the branches as the skeletons knelt low to the ground. I already knew what was coming and yet I felt something deep inside me tearing apart.
A golden boot appeared through the curtains followed by another and there she was, standing before the gathered crowd with a look of pure indifference coloring her painted face. She’d swapped out her once-pink flaming dress for one that matched the golden flames of the bonfire with only hints of flickering purple, blue, and green flames dancing among the gold. Atop her long sheets of blonde hair was a towering crown encrusted with gems. In her hand was her favored skull-topped scepter.
She looked over the crowd but her face remained stoic until her eyes landed on Orion. When they did a hint of pink colored her cheeks and her lip lifted just enough for me to notice with my high Perception ability.
Miranda flicked her wrist. Pink flames burst from the end of her scepter. The skeletons reacted almost instantly, shifting the palanquin to the side before unhooking Theo’s chain. Together they yanked the man up close to the bonfire where he was forced to his knees, his head bowed over his still-cuffed hands.
Miranda gave Orion a sharp nod and stood to face the crowd, closing her eyes to highlight her dark black eyeshadow, and spread her arms away from her body, a gossamer of gold fabric spreading along with them like wings.
Orion called out from his place behind her, his voice deep and somehow amplified, “The ritual has begun.”