Blood Magic

   At the same night, Hadassah had started a big fire at the middle of the Battle of Blood, while she was in the possession of little Celandine's body.

  The large vessel on the fire was filled with the sacred water for witches from Black Lake. It was an inaccessible lake inside a forest, only who had witch blood in their veins, could approach there. Beside the pyre, there were some ingredients which she would need to return back to her true self.

"Bonesbane," she muttered and picked up the tiniest bowl contained with a few bone shaped dark green leaves. She stared at the boiling black water for a while, then dropped the leaves into it and chanted, "Confundo."

   The flames exploded around the pyre when the leaves touched the water, her ragged breath quickened. She took a sharp intake and knelt in front of the pyre and picked up the next ingredient. 

"Blood Soil," she muttered and poured the brown soil and tiny pebbles into the hissing water, which she had collected from this battle. 

"Confundo," she chorused shakily.

  Mysterious fog and whispers of spirits began to roam around her and the pyre, she could hear that some of them were protesting. Hadassah glanced around them with a little fear, but she decided to continue and quickly picked the next ingredient beside her.

"Me Cinere," she dropped the gray ashes of her real body into the vessel, which she had been carrying for almost twenty years. "Confundo, confundo!" she mumbled, her little body of possession starting to ache. But she was desperate to finish this process, so she picked up the knife from the ground and stabbed the flesh near of her wrist, bringing the blood over the roaring water, "Sanguinis Pura."

Celandine screamed in pain inside her head. Hadassah chuckled and warned her in a hissing tone, "It is just a simple cut, little soul. I remind you again, it is not time for your screaming, so stop protesting!"

   Hadassah extended her hands in the cold stormy air, her hair moving and she started to chant the hardest and nastiest spell in witch history, only the astringents of extraordinary power knew how to do it.

"O spiritus corporibus resurgent dillecto," she chanted, breathing heavily, blood beginning to drip from her nose. "Auxilium meum verum corpore resurrecturos, anima vero mei resurgent, anima vero mei resurgent," the spell was killing Celandine's body, it required too much power which could be done nothing but her life and she started to sob.

"A-anima vero mei resurgent," she squeezed her eyes because of unbearable pain, grimacing. "Verum corpus meum resurgent, mesirere mei sunt."

The water hissed, the flames were roaring.

"Mesirere mei sunt," she chanted weakly and continued sobbing.

The pyre exploded into flames.

She gasped and Celandine's body collapsed on the ground, not moving anymore.

 Everywhere was dark, because the flames had stopped flickering. A mark in the black sky became visible, a pair of white wings with scattered blood drops. There, in that battle which was wrapped with history, was too quiet, except a lying motionless body on it. Even the wind had stopped, the rustling of dead leaves and stalks weren't heard anymore. 

It remained for a while.

After that, a shadowy figure emerged from the vessel, silhouetted by the dark, slowly stepping out from the vessel. When the dim moonlight fell on her, her whole naked body started to glow, just like diamonds. She had black, straight long hair down to her perfect curvy waists. A flames shaped birthmark was shone in the skin above her pale, round right-sided breast, it looked so mysterious. Her eyes were burning green, her nose was sharp and straight, roman-shaped, her full red lips were breathtaking, she had a little curve in her chin and in truth, her face and body could only compared to a deity.

She was a unique beauty.

  She extended her palm over the white robe, which was lying on the ground and she uttered, "Segestria." The robe was wrapped around her body instantly, in a twitch of eyes. Then, she smugly stepped beside Celandine's body, looking down at her sleeping innocent face without an expression. 

"I am sorry, little Cellie. To achieve something, you have to give something. It does not matter to me who gives it, as long as I take what I want," she stated and turned her back to return in the capital.

• • • • •

 Elijah was standing at the cemetery cave which was under the earth, staring at the dead body of the greatest King Ramos. His eyes were covered with two big white pearls, each for one, according to the traditions for the rulers of Imperium. 

"Father!" suddenly a whisper echoed the cave, making him flinch.

"Esmeralda, is it you?" 

    A girl with two tight braids on her head emerged in that cave, she wouldn't be more than ten. Her smile was cheerful, she looked like a little creature full of happiness. Her full name was Esmeralda Longleaf, she was the only child of Elijah.

"Father?" her sweet voice called out and when she saw him, she ran to him in swift paces and hugged him tightly.

Elijah was surprised, at the same time a little worried, too. He put his hand on her head and said, "Esme, is everything alright? How come you are here?"

"I almost searched the whole Royal Palace for you, you did not even tell anyone where you went," she replied sadly, rubbing her face against his robe.

  Elijah exhaled, it was true that he hadn't informed anybody about that. In this Cave of Souls, only the members of The Royal Committee were allowed, except them it was restricted. When the souls of the Kings went to heaven or hell, their dead body were brought down to this cave and preserved the corpses til the end of the world. Normal people were so afraid of this cave, some of them even thought that it was just a myth.

"You should not have come here in this midnight, my daughter. Cave of Souls is banned for women, you know that," he looked into her big brown eyes.

"You made me worried," she said softly.

Elijah knelt down on the dusty floor and brushed her hair gently. "Esme, you understand that I have many works to get done since the King died. I am sorry that I did not tell you that I came here alone, but you should have stayed in your room."

Esmeralda looked down, then whispered slowly, "Father, I was not feeling well."

"Did you tell any servant to call Master Lei to check your physical condition?" Elijah examined her carefully. "Your face is a little pale, your skin is cold. You do not look like you are having a fever."

"It was not anything like a fever, Father," she pulled aside the cloth near her chest. "It is my birthmark, see? I feel like it is burning. You warned me if something like this happened, not to go Master Lei, to tell you first. See, it is glowing like fire."

Elijah gazed into the flames shaped mark at her skin, thinking why it would be feeling like that. It wasn't possible until...

Suddenly, a thought struke him.

"Hadassah," he muttered her name. "You have returned again."

• • • • •

 Trion gripped the leather belt of his black horse harshly so that it called out a painful neigh, then moved near to the other nine ravens. He was the head Raven of the army under the command of Lord Nrikawn Callan. He covered his face with his black armor, only his eyes could be seen.

"Attention!" he commanded them, all of them were wearing black robes, with arrows and bows in their backs, all sitting on same black horses. Except Trion's robe had a white mark at the shape of a crow at his chest. "Listen, my fellow Ravens. Our identity is - we all are Ravenmen, not some tiny, fuckin' birds! We are neither afraid of dark, nor of some stupid risen of Gods! Yeah, here we are, in front of the entrance of South Leafstone."

"Yeah!" nine Ravens yelled in unison.

"Each two of us are going to send messages to Lord Moriah and his allies' Lords, like we discussed earlier. Understood?"

They all stared at dark, deep forest ahead of them, all of their eyes were fearless. They turned their horses to their leader and yelled, "Yes, understood!"

"Remember, we always begin the war," Trion grimaced his eyes under his hood. "It is not the soldiers who always carry the flag of war to their enemies. It is us, we Ravens! Some of you here might be have confusion in your minds, but I assure you there is nothing to be scared of. We see everything, we see in night, we see in light. We hear a single whisper mile away from us. We all know, Greatest King Ramos is resting in peace and it is Lord Nrikawn who deserves to be the next King!"

"LORD NRIKAWN!"

He threw his palm in the air, "We begin the war!" The others shouted in unison with him, "WE BEGIN THE WAR!"

They all ran their horses in separate ways, sparks of fire from swirling the stones under their nulls. Trion and his close fellow Yokra chose the way to Moriah's castle, their blood boiling from excitement and rage.

   It was true that many people hated Moriah for his nature, but Yokra wasn't one of them. He knew that Moriah worshipped the Lord of Life, he had once seen that with his own eyes. Apparently, he was scared of Moriah. He pressed his chest against the back of his horse, staring at Trion ahead of him, thinking what he should do. If they went to his castle, just the two of them, there would be a pretty possibility that Moriah's soldiers would kill them with their swords, only two of them couldn't have fought with them back.

Yokra decided with an oscillating mind.

He closed his legs tightly around the belly of his running horse and pulling out an arrow from the quiver in his back. He placed the arrow on his bow, extending the string.

He was ready to shoot Trion.