Syllis wanted to vomit. In fact, she nearly did. Only by placing one of her wavering hands over the front of her mouth could she prevent it.

The scene in front was not one to be seen in the upstairs of a manor. No, this scene was one to be hidden away, out of sight. Something too vividly horrific was to be shunned, banished to perhaps the cellar where Syllis plucked her torch from.

Then again, maybe it was only so gruesome to Syllis. For someone who was forcefully made a kindred, this was the most brutal scene they could view. If it was Aura or Clyde, they might even reminisce.

Syllis was sure that these families that almost ascended even the upper class had instilled the idea of becoming a kindred with their children for years before the ritual. Their children might have even taken part in the choosing of their anathema.

Potential sellers would describe anathema and the children chose the one that resonated with them. It was easy to make such a choice when you cannot see the horror being described, when it cannot hurt you. What was described to be a millipede could instead be a monstrous one, with a torso the size of a thorian tree trunk and a hundred legs each the length of a cane.

Inside, each of these sellers were surely dreading describing their anathema as it loomed behind them, ready to pounce. They would be forced to keep straight faces, not wanting to scare their saviors away. Lest they choose not to buy, leaving them stuck with their demons still.

So it was precisely for this reason that this room, the Boorne family’s ritual room, was located upstairs. No sellers would want to enter the basement. The lack of lighting was so that this eyesore remained hidden from passing eyes.

For the first few moments after scanning the room, Syllis felt dread. ‘I wonder if it would have been better to have never stumbled into this place.’

Though, this feeling quickly dissipated. Despite the horrific theme of the room, there was undoubtedly knowledge hidden within—important knowledge. It would likely pertain to not only the ritual circles but also the anathema themselves.

‘Maybe gleaning the contents of this room will help me uncover more of my ritual, to fill in the blanks.’

Syllis began scanning the room again, now undisturbed by her past trauma. Sill, a hellish feeling settled at the bottom of her stomach. Her heart was beating fast, like the pulsing waves of Asanoch’s false sun.

Several ritualistic circles were drawn onto large, stone plates that rested on top of the wooden floor with white chalk.

One of them was incredibly intricate. Complex shapes composed the outside of the ritualistic circle while runes that seemed like an ancient language lined that top half of the outer circle. Three triangles interlocked to form a unique shape. Each triangle was individually unique with the characteristic of thicker or thinner lines. Depictions of whirlpools stirred around the triad of triangles. In the whirlpools were a dozen small dots, twisting with no rhyme or reason. They seemed scared.

The second circle was less intricate. It abandoned the complex runic language of the last ritualistic circle and adopted a more symbolic approach. The outer ring was formed of an inner and outer circle. They seemed to convey a certain strength, as though they were two sets of bars, designed to encase the anathema within. Teeth, claws, and tendrils were all drawn inside the ring. Like a beast was trapped within.

The last circle was a mix of the two. Instead of the runic language, it held symbols like the second circle. However, these symbols were vague. Unlike the teeth and claws, they did not represent physical objects but instead mixed with each other to tell a story, one which could not be discerned.

Half of the outer circle was a full, thick line. The other was a dotted line with slices in it. Inside the circle was a great void overtop. Depictions with cuts in them drifted across the void. Below the void were several stars. They were not spread out in a distinct pattern, they seemed random. Despite this, they were interconnected with a line running from the first to the last, painting a picture of a large eye. A large beacon shot out from this large eye and pierced the void.

Syllis did not quite know how to feel about these ritualistic circles. They were each distinct from each other, yet they all served—presumably—the same purpose. They were made to transfigure anathema.

‘The teeth, claws, and tendrils should represent Korman’s bond, this is apparent. Although the tendrils don’t necessarily align from what I’ve seen. Perhaps he has the ability, it just wasn’t demonstrated as it isn’t suitable for combat. As for the others…’

Syllis scanned the circles one more time. ‘One of them should naturally reflect Clyde’s bond, it’s his house after all… The eye circle seems to be most likely. The most key aspect of his bond is the ability to push away the gaze of others.

‘As for the last… It must be Aura’s. However, her rifts don’t look anything like those whirlpools.’

Syllis ruminated, the others were easier to diagnose. Being unable to decipher the runes on the first circle meant being left without two-thirds of the puzzle. Though, even one-third of the puzzle should be enough when given a completely understood puzzle to work off of.

The complete puzzle was, of course, Korman’s ritualistic circle. It was easily decipherable. The claws and teeth represented the animalistic features that he could draw out. The outer ring was also easily explained. You needed strength to hold the might of many animals. So, the two circles that comprised the outer ring were made to reinforce it.

Syllis could easily see the anathema that was transfigured within Korman’s body. It likely took the image of a large bear with many teeth and claws, potentially intertwined with vine-like tendrils.

‘It seems that the outside of the ritualistic circle is the shell that must be matched to hold an anathema within. Yes, Clyde’s ring was secare dotted. This represents the illusion of his bond. His afterimages are not inherently real, they do not exist in a physical sense. However, visually they take up space, shrouded the world behind them. His ring shows the duality of his bond, how the fake can be in some ways real.

‘To accompany the shell, there is the inside. The inside seems to represent the abilities of the bond. It is mostly right, but is not entirely accurate.’

The problem of Aura’s circle still thwarted Syllis. No matter how long she thought, it persisted. How could her bond shift, so drastically from the depiction. The others were very good representations. Unless, they were not.

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Syllis had previously assumed Korman to have not demonstrated his vine-like abilities yet. However, this was likely wrong. In reality, he did not have them.

‘Would vines not be an incredibly useful advantage in a fight? To be able to restrain an opponent without using your hands was an invaluable advantage, equivalent to having an extra set of arms in such a scenario.

‘Does the power of a bond change depending on who the anathema is transfigured within? Or had Aura’s anathema grown in between the time the circle was drawn and the time when the anathema was transfigured? Growing in strength could provide the need for a different summoning method. Maybe this is why her creatures emerge from those spatial rifts?’

Syllis was not entirely sure. In fact, she was not even partially sure. Any and all of this ‘knowledge’ was pure conjecture. She would need to first ask Korman about his ability to manipulate tendrils. If he said that he did not possess the corresponding ability, then the theory would be brought closer to reality. Though, it would still likely be far from the real truth.

Using facts and logic to attempt and comprehend the supernatural that could not be entirely known was not foolish. It was foolish to assume that the supernatural would conform to such logic. In actuality, logic was merely a way to attempt and ground unknown concepts in reality.

“Now that I’ve mostly uncovered this mystery…” Syllis mumbled and turned before letting out a quiet self-deprecating chuckle. She knew that such a mystery could not be unraveled at the moment. She might not even fully uncover the truth, up until the day she dies.

‘Still, this is good enough, for now…’

Two flowing crimson sheets were draped across each wall. Small tables were set around the room non deterministically.

Candles were laid out on top of them in an equally random fashion. There were a combination of short and tall candles on each table. One table even had solely small candles. They did not seem to serve a particular purpose—other than to perhaps soothe the people involved with the ritual.

These details gave the room a very ceremonial feel. Though she had not seen a shaman before, she had built an image in her mind through stories from her mother. This room felt like the operating room of one such shaman.

Syllis invoked her bond before raising a small line of ice, sealing the door from the outside world. She scolded herself internally for not thinking of such a thing earlier and meandered over towards an ebony desk in the back of the room. She was curious about the two books that were sat upon it.

The desk was in the center back of the room, it faced the three ritualistic circles. Likely, this is where someone would sit to oversee the ritual.

Syllis set down her torch in a conveniently placed wall brazier and pulled the seat back before sitting down. She picked up the first of two books. She peeled open the first page.

Inside, there were depictions of dozens of ritualistic circles. They were grouped into sections. The first third of the book held circles for the Boorne family, the second for the Thermans, and the last for the Vechi family.

‘I guess that’s the name of Korman’s family.’

Thinking about it now, Syllis found it odd she had not learnt it during the cross family banquet. It was purely because Marvin was so kind and outgoing to her. He did not bother shoving his class in her face. It was his humbleness that made him Syllis’ favorite noble adult she had met.

‘The fact that there are so many…’ Syllis was overwhelmed.

There were many dozens of circles. The secare nymph did not have the most extensive education ever but even she knew that paper and ink had not been around for any more than a hundred years. So the fact that there were over fifty circles for each family meant one of two things.

Firstly, it could mean that the Boorne family, Thermans, and Vechi family all had branches to them with many more members than Syllis knew about. After all, there needed to be many members to warrant so many ritualistic circles in such a short time.

The second, and more likely answer was much more straightforward—the ritualistic circles had simply failed!

This was much more likely. Even if the process of transfiguring anathema now was refined and successful very often for these wealthy families, it did not mean it was always this way. They must have failed a lot at the beginning to get to the point where they were today.

This theory was confirmed upon further inspection. The first ten ritualistic circles for the Thermans were the same, with only slight variations in how they were drawn.

‘This must be them refining the circle after each failure!’ Suddenly, Syllis was overcome with a warm feeling. This was pride.

Syllis felt proud to have unraveled the general meaning of the various aspects of the ritualistic circles. Compared to the near ancestors of the Boorne, Therman, and Vechi families respectively—Syllis had come to their conclusion several tens of years earlier!

Indeed it was not until around their thirtieth to thirty-fifth ritualistic circle that their failures became a rarity. Although, Syllis did have an edge over these ancestors. She had made her theories based on the refined circles of Aura, Korman, and Clyde.

‘Yes, the ancestors needed to build their circles from scratch, without a reference—let alone a good one. There might even be further layers I do not comprehend yet. This is nothing to get full of myself about. Well, I could at least get eighty percent full of myself.’

Syllis gave herself a slight pat on the shoulder.

All three of Aura, Korman, and Clydes’ circles had succeeded on the first try. Their circles had not needed a single refinement. These three families had indeed gotten the art of ritualistic circle down to a science. Well, as close as the supernatural could draw to it at least.

The second book had not harbored any content even remotely as interesting as the first. It only held the invocations that each seller had used to activate their anathema for the act of transfiguring. There was not anything practical to do with such information.

Though, Syllis had mused the thought of potentially memorizing the invocation of Aura to see if she could activate it on her behalf. Despite her rudeness, Syllis decided that it would have been inhuman and that Aura did not deserve the punishment of slowly going insane at the will of someone else.

‘Maybe if her invocation wasn’t so unbearably long…’ Syllis felt lucky that her invocation was only a few sentences.

Syllis snooped around for a while longer, looking for anything she might have missed that had the potential to be interesting. It seemed like the secare nymph had gleaned all the ceremonial room had to offer.

All that was left was to return her torch and pretend she had never stepped foot into this dark room.

‘Actually…’ Syllis had thought of a better, safer idea.

Syllis encased the blazing torch in a prison of ice causing the flame to dwindle, even while it feasted upon animal fat. She then shattered the ice and used a crude ice shard to shave the top of the torch off. She rubbed the sliced and shredded top half of her torch into the grooves in between floorboards. Then, she snapped the handle into several pieces and cut them in half, leaving her with a dozen thin slices of wood.

Now, Syllis would merely need to listen for steps before exiting the room and depositing the leftover sticks into one of the many fireplaces in the manor.

‘I guess Edwards fireplace would be best.’

Syllis gave herself another pat for her way of dismembering the torch. Not only did it prevent servants from seeing her on her way back to cellars, the servants also would not contemplate the empty brazier in the cellar. They would merely assume another servant was slacking off on their work.

‘This is the beauty of individualism! They are not a single entity. Any servant to see the brazier would merely assume it to be the work of another servant when in reality it was me.’

Having finished her task and eradicated all traces, Syllis finally left the room. She was eager to move away from these secretive shenanigans of hers.