Thread: The Mistress of the Woods (Aldir and Voly)

Moonlight, it was the appointed time then and not just any moon but the night of the first waning moon of summer. The ritual was to be worked anew, a task in which Lyaia was more than happy to go about for that which it granted her. The ruins were near, that place where it had always began and where it always began again which each renewal. The price was a high thing to pay, almost heretical to some but it was something in which the woman was happy to pay. It was something she would pay again tonight and likely many nights hence from now. The tall dark haired woman strode easily through the crooked trees and gnarled moss covered roots that surrounded the ruins, walking with the confidence of an empress in her palace. She was the very definition of womanhood, looking to be in her mid to late twenties and possessing an almost unnatural beauty. She looked rather as though she had been carved from purest alabaster, dark hair flowing freely in the night air. Her features were full and supple, each movement seeming to promise unforgettable pleasures. It was her eyes though that gave off the true eeriness of her existence, the orbs purest white as though she were in fact completely blind. The robe she wore was a simple affair really and was the only article of clothing one might note upon her body. Along her hands and feet, arms and legs, indeed her entire body from the face on down were drawn intricate and exquisitely runes of arcane origins. When the moonlight caught them, they seemed to shimmer briefly before falling mute once more. The Witch of this forest was on the prowl and no beast dared enter the ruins this night, for they knew what dark deeds done there were unnatural and terrifying. Lightly she stepped inside the ruins proper and slowly made her way towards the chamber where her victim was laying. There was a long dormant human part of her that still shriveled a little bit at this, that hated what she had become. It was drowned out by the other part, the part that saw this as nature taking its course and her only resort. She had come too far for second thoughts regarding this, done far too much to give into mere guilt. Lyaia even found that this side of her had come to enjoy the ritual over the years. Soon enough the witch saw her, the gift left to her by the village in order to prevent her wrath falling upon them. She smirked she might as well refer to them as her subjects. For did not kings and emperors demand tribute from their subjects? A share in their harvests? The thought amused her, Witch-Queen Lyaia, it had a nice ring to it if she was being entirely honest. The witch merely shook her head and slowly approached the stone slab and the young woman laying upon it in a state of near unconsciousness. Lyaia raised her hand up gingerly and ran her fingers gentle across the young womans face, the marking across her belly marking her as the witchs domain. Part of her told her to get this over with, but the other part wanted to wait for a bit. There was no sick enjoyment out of just completing the ritual on a blurry minded sacrifice. She preferred when they were lucid, when they could experience the entire thing. It somehow made the ending all the more sweet, the fear and despair of her victims somehow vindicating the entire thing. She crushed any qualms she might once have possessed and placed a hand over the mark on the womans belly with a toothy smile being flashed to the sacrifice. Well now arent you a pretty thing. The last one lying in your place was somewhat plain in the face, but you are cute. Your people spoil me so much. The woman said, circling the bound womans navel with her index finger slowly. Pure white orbs stared down into the currently half lidded eyes of the sacrifice, alight with some bit of elation. As despicable as this was it managed to set adrenaline pumping through her veins, a buzz in her skull. Lyaia liked to imagine this was what it felt like to be drunk on power, on the idea and sensation all at the same time. She could have ended this quickly, but she wanted to hear the pleas, the begging, the rationalizations and the appealing to humanity that was very much shriveled and locked away. So she opted to wait a little longer for the herbs to wear off, reaching into her pocket and producing a smooth white triangular crystal from the pocket of her robes.