Beneath the great orrery that rested in the bowels of the sucken temple that was Lord Orethion's home, a soft chant echoed out over the open expanse, up through the stone spheres, and crashing down the pyramidal walls. With each recitation the air grew thicker, darker, as though it, itself was changing into something solid and mutable. At a wide stone alter, Jun-Tsu lit the flame of the brazier and rested a large stone mortar upon it. Its deep recess appeared like an empty void, stained black by countless callings to the dark powers of the Force. Veins spidered up from the basin, and webbed just to the brim, but no further.
Glass tubes and ampules rested as a complex series of vessels networked into a labyrinth. The stone bowl sat beneath a spout at it's end, and with but a twist of the silver handle, a slow drip of a thin blackness began to seep into the basin. The process of filling it would take an hour in and of itself, but here patience was key. Each part of the ritual must be precise.
As it did so, however, Jun-Tsu took up a large globe, needing both hands to lift it. Resting it nearer to her apparatus, she took a lancet and driving it into the disembodied eye, she ignored the odor, and tipped the orb so that the lancet would rest inverted upon a wide-bottomed urn. Fluid from the eye ran out of the slowly desiccating orbit, filling the vessel.
With knife in hand she then went to a large glob of flesh and carefully she cut away the dead and rotted flesh, driving at the meat that was still somewhat red. The cold of Ziost had preserved it well, a gift from the Dark Side. It took her little time, and so, cutting the red flesh free, she began to cut, then to dice, then to mince. Each time it ground finer and finer until it was like a pulpy paste.
Lifting the eye from its resting place and casting it to the side, she lifted the meat in her hands and with a recitation on her lips she squeezed it through her fingers, the viscus flesh oozing between them and down into the urn. As the two ingredients met the air shook briefly and a black mist slowly rose out of it like vapor. The witch stepped back and drawing her bloody hands into an arcane gesture the tendril of smoke arc back, looping to the urn until all the mist was contained. Taking a stopper she plugged the urn and ceased her intense concentration.
She breathed deeply as she turned to the ebony ore that sat at her left. She checked the level of fluids collecting in the basin. Still not enough. With a few more minutes passing by she simply stood and waited, patiently. All things in their proper time.
When she was satisfied with the progress, she took up the surprisingly light ore for its size, and pulling back her sleeve she proceeded to dipp the metal with her hand into the black void at the bottom of the basin. A familiar numb cold overtook her, and she closed her eyes to saver the sensation. It reminded her of years past, when she swam in pools of this night water, letting the Light be leeched out of her. She stared down into the bowl, her other hand joining the first, and together they seemed to work beneath the lightless surface.
For an hour she stood there, hunched and focused, the black liquid continuing to dripp softly from the spout above. The chanting was broken only once when Jun-Tsu spoke.
"Fa-Lei, bring Vas-Tsu." Her sister did not need to be instructed, and Vas-Tsu was more than willing it felt. She toddled up to the alter before reaching up to have her aunt deposit her onto it. The little girl with a gleam in her eye removed one of her favorite blades, an ancient blood blade. With her aunt's help she cut her hand and let it drip into the dark well of a basin.
The moment the blood hit the surface the air shook once more, and a deep groaning could be heard throughout the chamber as the shadows deepened and seemed to reach for the alter, or perhaps the basin was reaching out. Jun-Tsu let out an ecstatic cry feeling the Dark Side surging through her.
This was the power she had once known, that now resided in her daughter. Palpable and coursing through her body. The veins about her eyes darkened and stretched further down her face. The dark crawled up her hands. Her lips too went from pink to blue to black.
She continued to work at the ore beneath the surface, while her sisters chanted, and Fa-Lei went to the small potted cactus. A lonely candle amid the looming power of the Dark Side. Still, it radiated with all the light of the Force. From it, Fa-Lei began to pluck each needle and flower from its surface. It took several long minutes of arduous, tedius work, but finally it was plucked clean. Into a smaller mortar they were placed and Fa-Lei begand to grind them together with the pestle.
The two sisters worked in tandem while Vas-Tsu continued to hold her bleeding hand over the bowl. Finally, they began to approach the moment. Removing both hands, stained with her work, she took up the small mortar and the urn. With a hand steadied by years of training, and preparation for this moment, she let the two concoctions pour out into the waters surrounding the submurged ore.
As all four ingredients combined, a great wave passed through the chamber, invisible but present. A cry shot out like an angry wind. It took all of Jun-Tsu's strength to stay standing and continue to pour the contents in equal measure into the concoction. The dark power hit like thunder against the seeming barrier of her sisters. The circle of women continued to chant and while within Jun-Tsu's robes flew back and out in a grand fervor, not one hair was stirred on the heads of her sisters.
It took minutes of steeping them together, as the Force seemed to rage up and around the circle, with smaller vessels crashing away, falling form the alter. But finally it was finished and there was silence. The witch collapsed next to the alter, letting the urn and mortal fall from her hands as she breathed heavily.
For a moment there was stillness, none moved.
It was Vas-Tsu who reached down into the now dry basin, and plucked out the long, thin dagger. It was black as night, formed from the single block of ore. Jun-Tsu rested a hand on the floor, and looked below it to see the black spidered veins that had once reached only to the brim of the large stone basin as they arched out now down the basin sides, to the alter, across its entire surface and into the floor, right to the edge of their ritual circle.
"It iz zhe 'Vill of zhe Force'"
