Chapter 72.2 Poisoning
The purification ritual was no different from the ones the woman had seen before. At noon, in a remote part of the garden, a fire was built, not small, but not very large either. People spread around it, holding simple bowls with gifts — grain and some vegetables, and in the middle, near the spread gifts, was a Japanese man. He scrawled some hieroglyphs on the grass, muttering incomprehensible words that were not threatening.
When he had finished, he lit the fire with a single stroke, without paying attention to it. But the others did, and they looked at each other with different expressions: only now did they begin to realize the extent of this young man's skill and power. Even the feisty Angelica calmed down.
The boy walked in a circle around the fire, approaching each person, bowing, saying something, and moving on until he closed the circle. At his gesture, people stepped forward, held out gifts to the fire, and disappeared in a flash.
The most unexpected part of the ritual was not the burning of the gifts — that was normal — but the fact that Sora took some of the grain in the palm of his hand and raised it to the sun, in whose light the offering disappeared. Then he picked up a bottle of wine, said something, bowed slightly to the side and held it out to someone in a very respectful gesture. The bottle melted in the air. Not burned, but melted. Then, again with the gesture, each of them drank from his cup the water that had appeared there, and the ritual ended with a flash of fire that instantly devoured the rest of the wood.
Everyone immediately felt the effects of the ritual. Along with a slight fatigue and drowsiness, as well as hunger, it was somehow easier to breathe, the world felt a little clearer and brighter, it was somehow easier on the soul. The initiate himself looked much better, and his serene demeanor could be read at once.
The sorcerer who also participated in the ritual, a ninety-year-old man, was so full of energy that he jumped around like a young goat, examining the family, smiling and joking a lot. He even confessed in his voice that he was thinking of arranging with Sora to repeat the ritual in a week for his family and maybe even have another son or daughter.
Monsieur Joseph diagnosed a dramatic improvement in health and energy, and Sora had a complete cleansing of the strange substance. The man explained such a strong effect on himself by saying that for Omyoji such rituals are much more effective because they are very close to the spiritual world, and this ritual is more spiritual than earthly.
European rituals are just the opposite — closer to the earthly, physical plane. Well, whatever. The main thing is that all is well. And Sora himself went to sleep almost immediately after the ritual.
Lucy and Ludovic explained the meaning of the ritual to the children. And also the price such a service would be valued at by druids or master ritualists. The younger generation was particularly impressed by the figures.
***
Seven hours of deep meditation on the verge of leaving the body. Mind and spirit were back to normal after the ritual, but it was necessary to deal with cause and effect, to calm the energy. The most difficult thing was to reconstruct the chain of events at the ball — my memory was "floating" and cut off by dark gaps that I had to search thoroughly.
In the end I realized who the culprit was... the culprit? It didn't matter. That red-haired witch had put something into the wine with a wave of her fan, which turned out to have some sort of mechanism for just that purpose. Looks like I have a few things to worry about in the near future, and the first thing to do is to have a thorough talk with Baa-san.
Why is my familiar hanging around while I'm being poisoned again? Why am I keeping her with me? If she doesn't want to cooperate with me, let her go back to her own swamp!
After all, she can only walk around the world while the Contractor uses his power to break the curse, otherwise she would just sit there as before. Second, I think revenge should be taken. To let such "jokes" go is to appear weak. "The Little Seal of Sorrow" — you could call it a curse, it was once placed on particularly harmful and malicious witches, but not murderers.
The seal forces the target to realize their actions, to truly understand their atrocities in the name of their victims. Feel the pangs of conscience, repent. It's standard for a month. Let him feel it!
[The seal lasted only six days on Lilianna Ternier. Her mother, a very learned witch, recognized her daughter's "mild depression" as a curse and used a secret family ritual to lift it. There were no murders in the course of the lifting, which is usually what happens with curses. In this case, a homeless wandering sorcerer, a dark individual from the bottom of society, is chosen to receive the curse. At the end of the sixth day, the ritual was performed and Lilianna was able to sleep peacefully.
Captured by chance, Lilianna was truly tormented by her conscience. Sent by the Great Light Wizard himself on some terribly secret, unusually important, and simply secret case, Fletcher, the Earthman, had endured mental torture again and again.
He failed, of course, because he didn't show up at the appointed time for the meeting, and the Australian smuggler didn't have much time to waste on this job, besides he already had a much more profitable buyer for a rather specific and rare commodity. Fletcher himself continued to "pour his grief" for another three months, traveling through France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
Just as he was about to board a cruise ship for a round-the-world trip, he was captured by agents of the Order of the Phoenix and returned to the Master...that is, his employer. However, it took a week in St. Mungo's Hospital to get any sane answers from the thief and swindler.
It turned out that the agent and spy during his "tour" not only organized impossible for an ordinary person "battles" with the Green Serpent, but also managed to become addicted to opium. The treatment and restoration of a little man's health cost quite a tidy sum].