Once again, the witchblade crew doesn't belong to me. Adrienne and the Mithra'ahni do. I made up the whole ceremonial thing out of all the bits and pieces of fantasy I've read over the years. Btw, I added a little something at the end of the previous chapter, cause it didn't fit here.
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Everything in the cave was clear now. The symbols made sense, the faces had definite features. And all the chanting, all the words of the ceremony could be understood.
"Beyond Time. Beyond Space. Beyond Good. Beyond Evil. Beyond the Elements of Nature. We summon the Power that governs us.
Justice. Compassion. Faith. Respect. These are the columns of our order. We are the Mithra'ahni, sworn to uphold the sacred balance.
Take now our offerings. Shape with them the object that will advance Your power through history. Before You we congregate. On the alter before You, in the dish of offering: the ore of metal, the stone of earth, water of the sea. And now we add ourselves."
The tallest of the women drew a large curved knife from the folds of her robe. She brought the blade across one palm, then the other, and handed the knife to the woman at her left. "Blood of the sorceress," her blood dripped from her hands and into the dish on the alter. The next woman repeated the actions on herself.
"Blood of the warrior." The ritual continued around.
"Blood of the healer...the judge....the apothecary...the necromancer...the seer... the shape-shifter...the astrologer...the voice... the keeper of words...the annointer..the keeper of songs...the keeper of the dance...the keeper of stories...the priestess."
"Our blood. Our lives. Our power. Change it now. With the fiery hand of eternity, combine our offerings. By the will of the Mithra-ahni! By the sacred power we call! Let it be done!" Power surged through the cavern. In and through the women and then centering on the alter. The light emanating from the offering, which had by degrees been growing brighter and brighter, became unbearable, and simultaneously everyone screamed- the members of the circle, the two woman watching through the witchblade, and a chorus of disembodied voices that seemed to come from the very stones of the cave. Outside Sara Pezzini's apartment, Ian Nottingham stared through a window, transfixed.
When the light subsided, the robed women were visibly exhausted. The one who was the priestess spoke. Her voice was thin and cracked. "Let the Guardian step forward." A robed girl who might have been Adrienne stepped out of the shadows.
"I am ready."
"You know your duty- to guard this place and the power it holds. You will wait for the wielder. You will know her when she comes. And when she is ready, you will add yourself."
"I understand and accept my task, and the honor it brings me."

Then there was darkness, and the tangible passage of time. A very long time. A hundred years, two hundred, longer. And then Sara watched some past version of herself enter the cave, drawn in by some unknown magnetism. She and Sara were one as the jeweled red eye of the witchblade bracelet opened and glowed. Sara's other self stopped short; caught her breath at the sight. A sound from the back of the cave tore her attention away.
"You've come. I've been waiting. Go ahead. Put the bracelet on. It called you here." She did as the voice told. As its owner stepped forward, dim lights came up in the rough sconces of the cave walls. "I am the Guardian," the owner of the voice continued. "I will teach you to wield the power that has chosen you as its bearer.
The voice and the figure who owned it were identical to Adrienne, but the ancient woman's eyes were strange and wild. She held out her hand, and the Wielder took it. A blur of images followed; the powers of the blade displayed and taught, the oddity of the slight girl commanding and drilling the woman.
Then the scene slowed down again. It seemed the training was over. The two women were speaking, and gradually their voices became audible. "You have your task now, and the tool to see it done. Use it well, as I have taught you, and in turn it will serve you well. I ask that you grant me one thing before you leave."
"Anything you ask of me, teacher." The Guardian pulled the cloth of her robes away from her neck and throat.
"Look at me. Give me to the Blade." She pointed to the hollow at the base of her neck, above her collar bone. Sara could feel the other wielder recoil in horror at the request; she also felt the blade of the gauntlet- it was ready to do its job. The wielder backed away in disbelief. "You can't mean... No! I could never!"
Something snapped in the guardian. Her unearthly calm shattered and she cried out. "Would you deny me? I have given you all I have and yet you will not do for me this one thing?" She looked like a mad woman.
"You...you are my teacher, my mentor, my friend. How could I kill you?"
"No? You would rather commit me to an earthbound hell and leave the witchblade unfinished!? More than four centuries I have waited here for you; suspended outside of time until my sworn duty was fulfilled. All these years in my living tomb, with only ghosts and visions to keep company. My blood completes the blade, and only by its stroke can I be freed. I beg you, do not condemn me to immortality." Sara stared at the tears that ran down the girlish face of the seemingly unflappable witch. She was kneeling at Sara's, at the wielder's feet now. "Please, let me leave this place."
"I will do it. " The words came in a whisper. Sara; the wielder (the two were twisted together once more) brought the Guardian to her feet. Sara kissed the tears off her cheeks and embraced her. In kind, the witch gently kissed her student's forehead, her lips leaving behind the ringed symbol of the witchblade.
Sara took a deep breath, trying to think only of the gauntlet and the blade she held. She brought the weapon down and pierced the throat of her willing victim. A smile played on the lips of the dying woman. As her blood poured out and she fell forward, her voice spoke a final time, from somewhere outside her body. "Thank you, Bless you. Always."
The blade shone red with blood only briefly, and then it was clean, and there was no body on the floor, and the cave was dark.
Sara came to herself gasping and crying. She looked to Adrienne sitting next to her and stifled a cry when she saw the blood dripping from her throat. Sara shook Adrienne until the girl's eyes moved and refocused. She was looking at Sara with a mixture of joy and adoration, tears falling freely down her face. "You have shown me so much!"
"But, I killed you... and..."
"No, no, you never killed me." There was a sharp rap at the door.
"Pez, you in there?"
"Dammit, it's Jake. We'll have to put this off til he leaves. Go to the bathroom. You're bleeding."
"Oh yes. Oh, I am." Adrienne walked off toward the bathroom, dazed.