A Seal of Sacrifice
“Do you think they’ll hear me?” The Keeper repeated her question, over and over; her voice trembling in the dark of her bedroom. The quill in hand worked feverishly over the page, etching line after line of memorized geometry she knew. Her geometries. The ones she’d crafted for herself cycles ago in the darkest pit of her life. The geometries that kept her from ending herself so long ago. Her lifeline. “If I offer up something good enough... something dear enough, they’ll hear me. Right? They’ll listen.” She’d spent the last day or two aimlessly wandering. Both physically and mentally. Sacrifice. Such a heavy word for something she was so new to. Loss wasn’t a stranger in her life; in fact, it was more of a constant companion. She’d never had to give something up before. Not willingly. Now, she had to make a choice of what to offer from her meager stock of things she held dear and she had to do it quickly. Before the irritation got much worse or she was thrown out for being too slow. She wanted to do this right. Sure, she could off someone and be on with it, but that didn’t click with her. The gesture wasn’t personal enough. Teal eyes scanned the lines of her work, examining it. It was good. She could work with this. Each of her hands hovered the open tome on her bed, weaving the lines to life. A summoning. One she hadn’t brought herself to do in weeks after the loss of her tattoos. “I only just got the replacement ink, too.” A familiar chirp cut into her murmuring, snapping her from her thoughts. “...Chubs.” The Carbuncle nudged towards her hand, rubbing into it with another cat-like trill. The gentle gesture brought a weakness to her and she felt the sting of tears in her eyes. A familiar mirroring her own image. A reflection of herself inside and out. Her truest thoughts and feelings showed through Chubs to the world, whether she intended them to or not. If she liked someone, if she hated someone, if she wanted to investigate something and needed eyes elsewhere-- all of it went through her Carbuncle. Her head sunk over the tome, opening herself to the tears she’d been holding back. She’d sever that link tonight. Before any one learned of it and how much it meant to her. No more tattoos, no more tomes, no more Chubs. From her pocket, she’d pull a small bag of iced cookies and two vials; one a shimmering blue and the other an inky black. Opening the bag in front of the Carbuncle, she watched as the familiar plucked up one and began to nibble across the edges as it always had; the crumbs falling to the bed underneath. Her head hung low again and flung the blue vial from her hand, shattering it against the far wall. She took the gem seated on her forehead and opened the hidden compartment, filling it with the black vial and changing its appearance to that of a hardened gem of blood. It snapped back in against her gilded forehead. A fail-safe. A slow, agonizing, maddening death should she fail to upkeep her oath going forward. For now, she’d begin with Chubs and see where that got her.
(( Internet has been out, so the timing is a little off on this. @the-faceless-ffxiv))
