Final Fantasy XIV –
"A Smile Better Suits A Hero"
magnedhead
Prologue
The large dining hall was dark, the windows boarded up and covered. The long table that usually sat in the middle was leaning against the wall by the fireplace. It would probably be turned to firewood in the days to come. Coerthas was a cold place to live in these days.
Lucilla worked through the cold to trace the ritual circle, occasionally brushing her dark hair back behind her ears. Across the room Cannabree was lighting the final candle. Water-aspected wax did not take well to flame but it would relent eventually. Hezin was overseeing, making sure none of her colleagues made any errors. Should the candles be improperly placed, then at best nothing would happen. Should the circle be incomplete they would all be in danger.
Before long both Lucilla and Cannabree had finished their tasks and Hezin could find no faults in their work. Lucilla signalled for the help to come on. The door that led into the entrance hall was opened and 2 Hyurs walked in, carefully holding a covered stretcher between them. An odour like a hospital started filling the room.
"Aldred, Edwen, if you would place the stretcher in the middle of the circle please." Lucilla says in low tones. The enormity of the ritual the coven was about to attempt was weighing on her mind.
"As you wish, Lady Lucilla." Aldred responded. The two aides did as asked, setting the stretcher down by the 4 corner-markers Lucilla had personally written into the ritual. The spirit would be effectively blind when they dragged it from the Astral Sea. It would need guidance.
Aldred and Edwen left quickly without a backwards glance. Cannabree had not told them the full details of their plan but Lucilla could see they were not simpletons. But they were loyal to Cannabree's decrepit House, and to their curious Lord that rarely attempted to hide his practices. Which House, the Elezen had declined to expand upon and Lucilla had not felt needed to press him on the matter.
"All the pieces are in place. Let us begin." Hezin said, the pale scales on her cheeks reflecting the candlelight. Cannabree finished his own preparations and nodded at the aging Raen. Lucilla followed suit and strode over to retrieve the urn. It was an ancient design, supposedly from the ancient city of Mhachi, designed to contain and separate aether. It was one of the few physical objects Lucilla treasured. Within was contained a very special aspected aether, carefully collected from the near-endless necropolis beneath the Black Shroud. Cannabree reverently removed the hempen sheet covering the stretcher, revealing the focus of their ritual.