Promise to the Magic Heart – Chapter 38
Be it hereby declared and ordained, that no practitioner of the magical arts shall dare or presume to employ the lifeblood of any living creature in the casting or working of enchantments, spells, or other conjurations. For such an act grievously transgresses the natural order, mingling the sacred essence of life with arcane forces, thereby diminishing the immortal soul of the victim, rendering it incomplete and maimed in the life to come. Whosoever shall be discovered in willful breach of this solemn prohibition shall forthwith suffer the gravest penalties. The offender shall incur immediate and irreversible excommunication from the Grace of the Goddess of Light. Thereafter, the said transgressor shall be subject to summary execution, and their mortal remains shall be desecrated as a sign and warning unto all who might entertain similar abominations. – Inscription found inside the ruins of the Liopasto
ELA
Tyrell followed Ela to where their fellow Acolytes were waiting for them. Surrounding the Acolytes were the sixty members of the Faithful. Half wore red armbands while the rest wore black. Ela protested the colors. The Red and the Black were Cull’s minions – and they failed to stop the others from rescuing the bitch. Palin argued the link to Cull was important. The former cleric failed, but his failure brought the rise of the Purist movement. The others agreed with Palin, and Ela trusted her friends’ judgement. These friends wouldn’t betray her.
“Everything is assembled, Tyrell,” Tanus said. “Are you ready?”
“Yes. It is time to finish this.” The group split as Tyrell and Tanus walked across the Purist camp to the base of the ruined tower. Tyrell assured her the towers were helpful, but not critical to their plans. She knew he was lying. Well, not lying exactly. More the reassurance one gives a lover that everything will be fine when a new obstacle arises. She trusted him that he could still do what needed to be done.
Just in front of the ruined tower was a square about ten feet on a side drawn into the ground. Standing inside the square were four naked men. From their tattoos, they were early members of the Purist movement. These men were who could be trusted to be loyal, but not with any real responsibility. They were perfect for this part of the plan.
Amar stepped into the square and drew the Gray Dagger. Ela recoiled involuntarily as the blade came out. The ancient weapon was one of the artifacts Tanus brought back from his time wandering the Badlands. He said that one morning he woke up with the Gray Dagger lying beside him, wrapped in parchment explaining its purpose. If the parchment was to be believed, the Gray Dagger was created by human sorcerers during the Daemon War to amplify the humans’ magic and turn the daemons’ magic against them. Amar already proved the dagger’s capabilities by using it to destroy that human ship. Amar walked up to the first man.
“Thank you for your sacrifice,” Amar said. He whipped the Gray Dagger across the man’s throat. Amar grabbed the man, holding him up as the blood poured down his chest. Tyrell and Tanus held their hands up to the gash and cupped some in their hands. They walked to one side of the square, chanted in barely audible tones. They dribbled the blood in the dirt. As they did, the blood thickened into what looked like a red cable. Satisfied, Tyrell and Tanus turned back to Amar. He walked to the next man and repeated the sacrifice. To their credit, none of the sacrifices flinched or cried out as the Acolytes harvested their blood and lives.
Once the square was outlined with red, Tyrell, Tanus, and Amar joined Ela and the others outside the square. Wiping his bloody hands on the Gray Dagger, Tyrell pointed at one corner of the square. The red line smoldered. It reminded Ela of one of those fuses on the human cannon. Such a small bit of fire for such a large event.
“The ritual is now in motion,” Tanus said, “It is time for us to go into the city for the purification of the Crystal Blood.” The Faithful kneeled as Tanus and Tyrell chanted again. The world around them shimmered as the spell took effect. The Acolytes gathered in front of the kneeling Faithful. Ela stepped in front of her friends. She motioned for the Faithful to stand.
“You have your orders,” Ela told the gathered Faithful. “Move silently and swiftly into the city. Once on Aponte Hill, we will find our brothers who have secured the Crystal Blood. Then we will purify her. By this time tomorrow, we will be setting the empire on a new path to regain its soul.” The Faithful kept their stoic masks, but Ela saw the gleam in their eyes.
“Faithful, follow me.”
Ward Manor Happenings – 08.27.26
Obviously, this week’s entry is overshadowed by the loss of Lola as detailed in Monday’s post, but I did want to comment on some of the more mundane items.
Shoe Happenings – I used a pair of Sketcher slip-ons for walking on the treadmill, but it felt like my feet were “rolling” with them. After talking with The Wife, we decided that I should upgrade my footwear. Now, I hate laces. Absolutely hate laces. So, I ended with a pair of Hoka laceless shoes. It’s weird getting used to a tall, springy shoe. On the plus side, I went through a good portion of my morning without needing my standing mat.
Recovery Happenings – The Wife continues with her recovery, with a focus on getting her extension to full. Good days and bad days, which is frustrating because her bad leg is a lot more painful than her good leg. It’s just going to be a process, which she understands intellectually, but it’s trying her patience. Good days and bad days. At least she’s met her out of pocket maximum.
A Few Videos
ASP’s review of the Twin Falls shooting is an excellent and thought provoking piece of all the good and the bad. This is really the event that’s convinced me to get a red dot for my sidearm.
Next is a video from Colion Noir about the recent ruling on the NFA. I’m kind of waiting for all of this to shake out, but I’m fairly certain the Bren will have a can on it within the next year or two.
Because it’s me, here’s a list of anime coming this fall.
This one is just amusing.
For our last video, Hasbro uploaded the entire “Celebration of Life” concert they ran as part of their “Apology Tour.”
Good Night To Our Lola
This wasn’t something we expected. The Wife took our cat Lola to the vet for the cat’s monthly arthritis shot. I was busy teaching an Excel class for the day job. The Wife suspected something was wrong because Lola’s stomach was rock hard.
Just have them give her a look. I said that and forgot about it as I focused on my class. After all, outside of her arthritis, Lola wasn’t one of our cats that I worried about. Which was why The Wife’s next message shocked me.
They looked at her and it doesn’t look good. You may want to come down here.
Fluid in the abdomen and chest. Lots. Vet was pretty sure it was cancer, but the only way to find out was exploratory surgery – and even with that it was most likely untreatable. The Wife made a promise to herself that she would not make one of her cats suffer just to comfort herself – and it’s a sentiment I share. We talked and decided Lola suffered enough. Gods damn it, I hate when it’s time to make that decision. Especially when we weren’t expecting it. I snapped one last picture before we said goodbye.
The Wife told me that she got kitty Lola as a playmate for our dearly departed Titus – who was a kitty himself – so that Titus would leave her older cat Spike alone. Instead, baby Lola attached herself to Spike, which meant Titus was still free to cause havoc.
When I came in to the picture, Lola was less than pleased. I think it took me the better part of two years before she finally accepted me. It helped that I was one of the humans that fed her. Still, The Wife was very much her person. I was just there as a somewhat useful accessory.
Lola was a sassy cat with a croaky meow when one of the other cats got closer than she wanted. I’m going to miss hearing that. I’m going to miss seeing her get into it with Freya – who I think Lola never really forgave us for bringing into Ward Manor. I’m going to miss her dancing on the cat tree when she thought treats were incoming. In short, I’m going to miss Lola.
Ward Manor Happenings – 08.20.26
Road Trip Happenings – Last Friday, The Wife and I decided to trek up to Tampa for the opening of the new Ebisu store. Because Derek is a weeb and they were offering all those wonderful kinds of KitKats that I usually only get at EPCOT. Among other things. Plus, I needed to swing by the office to get showerhead that was delivered there (see last week’s post). So, after making sure to load the rollator for The Wife, we hoped in the Wardmobile and made our way north. No problem picking up the showerhead, we got lunch at one of our favorite places, we made plans to meet up with The Brother afterwards – everything was going smoothly.
Then we got to the store – and saw the line that to get in. The line that went past two large storefronts and to the end of the shopping plaza. The Wife took one look at that line, looked at her knees, and informed me that there was no physical way she could endure that line. Even with the rollator. Disappointing, but we’re not the young folks we would like to be. We agreed to try again at a later date, texted The Brother, and headed over his way. We chatted with him for a bit. It was the first time The Wife and he were able to meet up since her latest surgery. After that, The Wife and I decided to go down to the Tampa 5.11 store, since they were running clearance. I picked up one of their attache cases among the discounted clothes. Did I need the attache case? Nope. After looking at it, my Maxpedition was better suited for getting my stuff to work. I rationalized on it being better to carry my personal laptop for any future trips.
The trip home wasn’t so much eventful as long. Plus rainy. Plus a Friday rush hour. Not a bad day, even if we didn’t get to do the featured event.
Return To Work Happenings – The Wife started back to work this week after being out for recovery. So, it’s getting back into routines that have lain at least partially dormant for the past three weeks. We worked last week on starting to get back to normal, but there are some things that only happen when it’s all “real.” The Wife did start clearing out her emails last week so she wasn’t walking into a mailbox apocalypse.
Voting Happenings – I did my civic duty and voted in the primaries. It was difficult, because, well, let’s just say the slates of candidates were unappealing at best and repulsive at worst. I could opine on the state of the parties in Florida, the need for a jungle primary versus the closed primary system, and more, but let’s just say this cycle is not endearing me to the current climate.
Best Wife Happenings – I walked into my office and found the below note. I will admit to suffering a bit from dust after reading it. I’m really excited to try it out. If it works as well as I expect, that little device will be added to my daily carry. There’s too many times when inspiration strikes and I need to write on one of my stories.
August Anime Recommendations
This first one was a pleasant surprise. I do enjoy rom-coms with adult protagonists, and this one’s premise was more amusing than anticipated.
And talking about interesting premises. This next one’s was very interesting. Just to warn you ahead of time – the ending is ambiguous. Not bad, just ambiguous.
This is the month for interesting premises. And here’s the fantasy entry. It started strong, but sort of petered out in the middle. Not enough to make me want to stop watching, but just as a heads up.
Our final entry is more of a standard high school rom-com with a couple of interesting twists. Not really high on my lists, but it was interesting enough for me to finish.