Ritual in Shadow

The time to begin the upgrade process drew closer.

Gloriana knelt and prayed in front of an altar of the Superior Mother as usual. No one took the initiative to join her. In fact, her pious display attracted a lot of puzzlement from the newcomers.

In the months they spent under her management, Gloriana had never exposed any obvious Hexer traits. Sure, she still possessed a lot of eccentricities, but she never said anything that was clearly related to hexism.

That made it harder to believe that someone as smart and ambitious as Gloriana could also be a woman of faith.

Everyone who was more familiar with her knew better. They automatically ignored her actions and just waited for her to be done with her private ritual.

Rather than staring at his wife's attempt to obtain more psychological comfort for herself, Ves preferred to focus on a ritual that promised to create a more material effect on the upcoming upgrade run.