The Ritual

Jannis watched the young woman as she flighted up the stairs, the Aspis shouting dissonantly at each other. He pulled a dagger from his belt and pressed into Gwyn’s hands before heading to the girl’s aid.

“I would hope a fisherman can use this!” He yelled back as he rounded the corner to meet the woman.

Gwyn unsheathed the dagger given to him, though it handled more like a sword in his hands. It was a carving knife, curved with one bladed edge. He most definitely could use this.

Jannis crouched down to meet the young student at her level, “Are you alright?”

Licia strained in the darkness before remembering she still had possession of her aetherically-charged lantern. Jannis was guiding her back to where he first shouted at her, and she pulled the small jar from her pocket to get a better look at her savior.

“Ah!” An aged, white muzzle appeared before Licia, “Please, mind where you shine that!”

“Sorry!” Licia responded, lowering her hand away from Jannis’ face.

The two hurried back to half-wall Gwyn was hiding behind, with both he and Licia locking eyes as she slid herself down next to him.

“This can’t be normal, right?” She asked, not expecting any serious response.

“About as normal as getting sucked through the bottom of the lake, I bet.” Gwyn retorted, “What was that you did back there, anyway?”

“We can talk after we deal with the remaining Aspis.” Jannis growled, baring thick canines, “Gwyn, stay next to the girl and handle anything that may slip past.”

Jannis pulled out a tome that, to both Gwyn and Licia, seemed impractically large. The remaining Aspis cultists, including their assumed leader, had ascended the stairs and were slithering toward the group, shouting in their foreign tongue. Jannis opened the book to one of many bookmarked pages and placed a dry paintbrush onto it. Aether coalesced on the hairs as Jannis pulled the brush away from the book.

“Kraftur!” He shouted, slamming the book shut and shooting his brush-arm toward the rapidly approaching enemies.

The aether in the brush flashed briefly and shot forward, rapidly increasing in size and speed as it traveled toward the serpentine figures. Finding purchase in the vanguard Aspis, the aether crackled as it pushed through the body and continued toward the next enemy in line, the one with the headpiece and staff. The cultist leader was able to resist the aether, only being knocked off balance. However, it was forced to bear witness to the first Aspis slumping to the ground, a clean hole where their midsection used to be. Two more cultists rushed in from behind, each clutching daggers pointed toward Jannis.

“Falla!”

Jannis’ magical barrage continued, this time swinging his brush in a downward motion. One of the approaching Aspis stopped in place and fell forward, as is pushed down from behind. It attempted to bring itself back up, but an invisible weight prevented it from moving. Within this brief span of time, the final aspis reached Jannis and attempted to puncture the canid. Using his tome to deflect the initial strike Jannis grappled the attacking arm and threw the creature behind him, leaving it in front of Gwyn and Licia.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Gwyn shouted, “You can’t make it slip past you!”

Gwyn held the knife in both hands as he scanned the body in front of him for any potential weak spots.

‘Snakes are like fish, and this thing is at least half-snake. That must count for something.’

Gwyn tried to keep himself between Licia and the aspis, but he knew if it wanted to it could stab right over him with no trouble. He turned his head to confirm where the young woman was only to see her run right up to the enemy.

“Scintilla!!”

Licia crossed her arms before throwing them above her head, right in the eyes of the aspis. As she shouted, sprites of aether danced in front of the aspis before erupting in rapid flashes. The aspis dropped the dagger before clutching its face, blinded by Licia’s display.

“Now!” she shouted to Gwyn as she ran to the discarded dagger.

Gwyn ran up to the creature and aimed where he assumed the collarbone would be. Finding purchase within the upper torso Gwyn mustered a little more strength to guide the blade up-and-across, a secondhand maneuver trained over hundreds of fish. Licia, dagger in hand, returned to the aspis to assist Gwyn. While lacking in firsthand experience, she more than made up in fervor as she took to stabbing at the lower half indiscriminately, and the duo made short work of this second aspis.

Jannis walked to the cultist trapped under his magical weight and raised the closed tome over his head. With a muffled crack the third aspis was dead, but in the confusion of the initial attack, Jannis had lost sight of the cultist leader. Jerking his head from side to side, he confirmed there were no other individuals on the upper level save him, Gwyn, and Licia. Looking down toward the center of the antechamber, the final aspis was dragging the charred remains from Licia’s initial explosion toward a large brazier.

“Hey!” Jannis shouted, “Down below, there’s one left!”

Before anyone could react, the cultist leader pulled a dagger out from one of the bodies and stabbed itself in the gut. Freely bleeding, the aspis started chanting a single phrase repeatedly. Jannis, being the closest to the stairs, sprinted to try and drag the creature away from the brazier, but as he reached the top of the stairwell the cultist fell forward.

As soon as the body touched the brazier, an unnatural stillness took over the room. One by one, all the torches in the room dimmed, even Licia’s aetherical lantern. A red haze permeated from the brazier, encroaching onto the rest of the chamber.

“No…” Jannis whispered “That is rotweave, we need to leave. NOW.”

As if on cue, a dull rumble enveloped the entire room. This was different from the initial quake that started off these events, nobody was losing their footing. The ground vibrated beneath them, almost buzzing, and the rumbling was decidedly coming from the brazier and the rotweave. Gwyn and Licia cautiously gathered around Jannis at the stairs, watching the brazier without blinking.

Holding their breath, the rumbling slowly gave way to silence, and the silence gave way to a loud crack. The brazier fell into a sinkhole, more red haze creeping out of the opening. The metal bowl clattered against the wall over a dozen times before the sound became too distant.

…

A noise returned to the sinkhole after an extended pause.

A scraping noise.

Followed by labored breathing.

Gwyn, Jannis, and Licia could only stare as a colossal reptilian head emerged from the rotweave, tongue flicking in the air.

Its eyes staring back at them.