Gate of Containment

Beginning - Ritual

"Take a sip."

That was what she said at first, soft. It was like a breeze almost. The way her lips moved must have drove men mad.

"I don't want to."

Slender fingers caressed the bottom of my chin. They guided my head upwards, to look at the woman in her sunken face. It was illuminated by the moonlight shining through the windows lining the vaulted ceilings above. Some might say she was beautiful, but others found her gaze frightening. A face hiding a thousand souls.

"Please - I don't want to." My words cracked under the pressure of creeping tears. Yet. . . the woman leaned closer. Her breath wasn't hot like the King or Queens, instead complimenting a bitter winter breeze. Like the breath of the dead. "Please." I managed again.

The tears that began to fall felt frozen on my burning cheeks. "You must, my sweet Eradia." Her tongue rolled the 'r' that graced my name. "It must be done." There was no kindness in her words. No amount of begging or pleading could reason with such a figure.

My own fingers grazed her own. "Marcia, I - I won't. I can't." Those slender fingers slipped through my own. Phased through my own. An unknown, ancient magic held only by the woman now grasping at my throat. Right below my jawline, as to not catch my breathing. It was a threatening grasp - done only to break my will. "Marcia. Marcia!"

Her name bounced off the cobblestone walls that surrounded us. There was no one to hear. Instead, Marcia pulled her lips into a tight lipped smile. Not one I'd ever seen in my nineteen years of life. This was the smile of another. Fingernails dug into the soft skin of my neck, harder and harder until my mouth gaped open. Gasping. Tugging. The silver glint of a chalice snuck from below my jaw and grew closer to my lips. My hand gripped tighter around her own, but they sunk through her translucent grip.

I tried to keep my mouth from gaping, but the struggle for air became too great to fight. "Easy, easy." The chill of pure silver touched my skin, and an unbearably viscous liquid spilled from the edge. It was bitter as it filled my mouth, and as if my body had no control, it seeped down the confines of my already tight throat. As if it knew. Knew its existence - its purpose. It fought the raging tides of my stomach, forcing whatever wished to be ejected to calm. "Easy."

No amount of her calm could ease my anxiety. The tears now falling freely from my eyes as I held her gaze. The way she so confidently looked back. Every one of her movements as purposeful as the last. My body forced an unholy sound as the last drop of whatever hell coated my belly. Her grasp loosened as it emptied, leaving me to slump on the aged rug I'd been eagerly awaiting to kneel on. This is what I had been waiting for.

The Containment.