THE MOMENT
"I shouldn't have come alone...," Dara sighed when she stepped out of the black portal carrying a red briefcase. A black castle loomed in the distance beneath a blood-red sky. She considered asking Riot to join her; but, Dara did not want to pull her away from practice. And, unfortunately, her errand couldn't wait another couple of hours.
The trek to the castle entrance took nearly an hour through a dead forest. Both the flora and fauna consisted of rotting unlife that left a putrid stench but, Dara felt lucky that was the worst thing she encountered. And, she hoped it did not linger on her clothes.
The drawbridge was down and she walked into the castle walls without fear; but, she stopped in her tracks when she saw someone. He was a mountain of a man that was almost as tall as Dara; and, he was seated. The man was ghostly pale with a bat skull tattooed on his bald head. Dara knew he was a vampire; but, she didn't know what he was doing.
He sat in a lotus position with a flayed corpse lying before him. The corpse was drained of blood and it rested on what Dara's mind could only interpret as a 'pile of darkness'. It seemed to float above the ground with shadows as dark as the abyss supporting it. The vampire's eyes were closed and Dara hoped she didn't disturb him. She took cautious, quiet steps backward while she wondered how to proceed.
"I'm too late??" the thought filled her with worry. She came as soon as she could; but, the idea that it might not have been fast enough began to blossom into guilt. "No..," she shook her head to disrupt the thoughts. "..please don't be too late.." Dara knew what she had to do. She took a deep breath to steel her courage, then walked forward again. She approached the corpse.
"Um...," She was going to say 'hello'; but, the vampire opened his eyes the moment she spoke. He smiled and bared his fangs.
"Hello, Dara. You're right on time...," he said. She looked down at the corpse, then back at him.
"I'm not too late??" she asked. Dara knelt and dropped the red case between the vampire and the corpse. He shook his head.
"I can't start without these," he chuckled. He reached forward and opened the case. It revealed a white velvet interior with what appeared to be a block of glass set in it. He peeled off a single, card-thin node from the top of the stack. He was about to place it in the corpse but he paused.
"Do you want to watch?" he asked.
"I...," Dara hesitated. She didn't know he it was a genuine offer or if he was being polite. "... I don't know what you're doing...," she admitted. It was also a way to check his offer. If he seemed open to sharing, it was a good sign that it was a sincere offer. He nodded and grabbed something from the shadows beneath the corpse. He held up a stretched-out shadow.
"Do you know what this is?" he asked. Dara's eyes widened. In the back of her mind, she felt mild embarrassment for not recognizing it sooner. But, she'd never seen that much gathered in one place.
"Voidsilk!?" she asked. He nodded. Dara was doing her best to pick up witchcraft from whoever she could. Voidsilk was one of the most powerful ingredients when it came to magic. Once she realized what it was, she began to piece together what he was doing; along with what she delivered. She definitely wanted to watch the process.
"You're imbuing it with souls..?" she asked as she sat down on the other side of the corpse.
"Not exactly," he nodded. "It's more like, I'm teaching it to recognize souls."
"Huh?" Dara asked. She knew several uses for imbued voidsilk, but he seemed to be doing something else. He nodded, then reached beneath his cloak. He pulled out a different, smaller piece of shadows. This new piece shimmered with golden sparkles floating in the dark. He held it out in his open palm.
Dara focused her attention on it, then the golden sparkles seemed to jump out of the hand-held abyss and they took the shape of a golden skull. But, the particles rained down from the top. The golden specs appeared to be flowing down as if the skull was created from a perpetual waterfall.
"Is that your Aura??" she asked. She recognized the skull motif from seeing Riot's Aura. He nodded.
"If you feed it enough souls, voidsilk can be used to show off your aura." Dara was amazed. None of her tutors ever mentioned that use; she wondered how many of them even knew about it. But, her delivery suddenly made more sense. It wasn't any average witch that could arrange 100,000 souls on a whim.
"But...," Dara glanced at the abyss under the corpse. "... what do you need that much for?" she asked. He chuckled.
"You mean it's not obvious?" he asked. "Why did you deliver these?" he gestured at the red case.
"My mom said it was a wedding gift," she replied. He nodded, then tugged at the cloth that wasn't sparkling.
"Well, I want to look good on my wedding day...," he winked at her.
"Ohhhhh!" Dara grinned. "You're making a suit!?" He nodded.
"Can I really watch?" she asked.
"Sure," he said. He glanced out past the drawbridge. "No one's waiting on you?" he asked.
"Nope," Dara shook her head with a large smile. "Now I'm glad I came alone."
"Now?" he asked with some concern. "Were you scared at first?" Dara shook her head.
"Nope. But, I landed too far out," she shrugged. "And, I didn't want to bother anyone. Walking through that huge forest alone was sooooo boring."