Chapter 10. Clarity

HEMOMANCY

Hemomancy is a subset of magic used to make communion with Outer Gods. This heretical set of rites usually demands the blood of the caster or a sacrifice to be channeled into some kind of focus, or container, such as a thurible or reliquary, then its power used to make contact with the Outer Gods.

The effects of this communion are entirely subject to the will of the entity you make contact with, which makes use of Hemomancy a gamble for even experienced priests. Outer Gods are by their very nature unfathomable, and as a result are only somewhat reliable to help mortals.

At best, one will make contact with a benevolent Outer God, who will bless the caster in some way. This "blessing," however, may result in transformation of the caster into a higher being, resulting in several difficulties for them and allies. At worst, the Outer God will simply claim the soul of the caster or drive them insane. Outer Gods may also ignore the plea of a Hemomancer.

Contact with a higher being has a variety of effects on mortals. If exposure is fairly brief or limited, the mortal may experience only temporary effects such as paranoia or nightmares. Prolonged exposure can cause psychosis, blindness and even severe physical deformity. It is also possible that in individuals with exceptional mental fortitude, prolonged exposure with the eldritch will grant them access to knowledge of arcane secrets or otherwise forbidden lore. This, however, will usually lead to conflict with other, unenlightened mortals.

Lilith appeared over the crest of the hill, hand over eye. The pain had somehow become numbed. Adjusting to the notion of only having one eye, slopes and escarpments were somewhat tricky to navigate, but flat land presented no real issue.

Dolorem had no problem seeing her, and he immediately sensed something off, he began to approach, breaking into a sprint once the coppery smell of blood assailed his senses.

He reached Lilith and immediately stopped dead. Lilith didn't speak, tears flowing down her face, not from pain, but to see Dolorem's shock, his own choked gasps. He always had something to offer, some way to help. A thick stake of guilt and shame impaled him. Lilith approached him wordlessly, throwing herself against him, his stiffened body offering as much comfort as stone, the only sign of life in him his violent shaking. Lilith, truthfully, didn't care about the eye, healing or replacement could wait. Now, all she wanted was security, any sense of certainty.

The two collapsed into one another, immovably embraced. Nothing was said. Nothing could be said. Dolorem's arms were around Lilith's shoulders, and behind her he dug his fingernails into his forearms, raking them down the flesh, ploughing crimson furrows. The pain felt like some kind of penance. He hated himself for letting Lilith get hurt, he hated that he knew no healing jutsu, nor had no painkillers to help her. He could do nothing but accept punishment. The wounds healed before they bled, filled by scaly white flesh in moments, wisps of steam rising from them.

"Orochi, heal her, please," He prayed silently. "Dolorem," it said, "Without a transmutation medium, I can only heal my own vessel, by applying a sort of accelerated aging, then reversing the degradation it should have caused to the rest of the body. Without a link to my reserve of magic, I can't use it on her, she'd age decades, possibly die."

"There has to be something that you can do, please!" Dolorem pleaded aloud.

Silence.

"I can offer one thing though, with your permission, I can transmute the gold into a seal, and apply it to a stone replacement, once that is done, it can be infused with some kind of spell to let her see, any healer should know it."

Lilith had passed out, still clutching Dolorem.

"Leave it until morning."

Dolorem tore a strip from his undershirt and wiped it on the sodden grass, wetting it. He gently cleaned the blood from her face, careful not to interfere with the wound. Once he had done all he could, he simply held her, eyes closed but unable to sleep, afraid to ever let her go.

In the morning, Dolorem awoke first, carefully laying Lilith down, putting his haori over her. He went in search of a piece of exposed rock, hoping to find something suitable for The Orochi's ritual. "Does any particular rock work better or worse?" He wondered.

"No, anything will do, the stone is purely aesthetic, the gold is the sealing medium. Mind you, the gold is also partially aesthetic, but the main practical benefit is that pure gold doesn't tarnish. Your seals are made of ink and gold powder, correct?"

"Yes."

"Same theory applies, then. What kind of colour would you like?"

"Would it not be best to let Lilith decide if it doesn't matter?"

"As you wish."

Dolorem set about finding herbs, salt, and willow bark; he wanted to clean out Lilith's wound, and offer some sort of painkiller. He managed to find the willow bark easily enough, but anything else seemed to elude him. Not wanting to leave her for too long, he returned, and made a small fire. From there he boiled the bark, drawing the painkiller from it. It would be cooled by the time Lilith got up.

Lilith awoke about half an hour later, her hand going straight over her wound. Dolorem was somewhat startled. Silently, he offered her the willow tea.

Lilith accepted, smelling the concoction. "Willow bark," Dolorem said, "It'll help."

She didn't lower her hand. Dolorem moved closer, "Do you mind if I take a look at it?" Lilith nodded, but hesitated to lower her hand, it felt almost stiff to her. She did, however manage to do so eventually, a faint feeling of fear taking over as Dolorem made his examination.

Dolorem put all his effort into keeping a neutral face. He didn't want to upset Lilith, and remained as businesslike as possible. "Well, the good news is I've found a way to fit a prosthetic, and there's no apparent damage to the eye socket, so it should fit in just fine without any need for surgery."

Lilith held onto his wrist. "It's ok, you don't have to dress it up, if it's bad," she said, fixing her remaining eye on him. "No, no," Dolorem said, smiling. "I can make one here, I was going to let you pick the colour!"

Lilith didn't know how to react. "You what now?"

"Apparently you can create a stone prosthetic with a seal on it, and then seal a scrying spell within it, giving you back your sight in that eye, possibly better than before. I've heard of shinobi further east doing it voluntarily."

"And a regeneration spell, or a transplant didn't cross your mind?" She asked, incredulous.

"I don't know how to do either of those things, I know how to do most of the other thing." Dolorem stammered, realising how his idea sounded in light of the alternative.

"You mean to say you can take a lump of stone, based purely on colour preference, seal an near-illegal spell into it, and ram it into someone's skull, but can't just heal, like a normal person."

"E-e-essentially."

"I think I married a lunatic." Lilith laughed, gently punching Dolorem's shoulder.

"You're not wrong," Dolorem said, his face reddening.

"It doesn't feel real though," Dolorem said after a long pause, "all of it, not just the wedding, but everything that's happened."

"Well, it has been a busy week, and this hasn't really had a chance to be a normal marriage. Nothing we can control, really.

Anyway, the sooner we get this sword for The Orochi, the sooner we can begin to make steps forward." Lilith responded, gazing into the sky.

"You want to set out already? Even with your eye? Lillith, we have a month to make the journey, there's no need to…" Dolorem began.

Lilith interrupted. "First off, yes, secondly, it's a lack of my eye that's the problem. The sooner this is over, the sooner this is over."

"As you wish."

The pair decided that hiring a cart would be an acceptable risk to move south. Lilith had tied a cloth over her empty eye socket, the covering more for the benefit of others than herself. They paid by means of a letter of credit from Lilith, sealed with the imprint of her Adjudicator's ring. The journey would take four days, almost constant travel. Horses would be swapped every twenty miles, and drivers every eighty. This meant the cargo could move consistently, and more importantly, faster than expected. Both Lilith and Dolorem slept for most of the journey, taking turns just in case the need to react to a situation arose. Lilith showed little urgency in getting her prosthetic eye. She spent her waking hours in silent turmoil. Very little made sense any more.

She looked down at the sleeping Dolorem. He had become a different person. He was doing his best to hide it, but that single minded, closed-off sense of duty was corroding him. She hoped that he'd be recoverable once this was over, if not, Lilith would leave, regardless of how she felt. Even if Dolorem was still buried under the Five-Seals Shinobi, staying would only cause both of them more suffering. The Dolorem she had met all those years ago at her brother's wedding was someone who had to be unearthed, extracted from his world of violent, stone-faced servitude. She didn't know if she could do that again.

She wondered why she had tried so hard the first time. What had she seen behind his facade? Was it intuition, that there was her husband behind it, or was it wanting to believe so?

At one point, while traversing a particularly rough road, neither Dolorem or Lilith could sleep, amid the rattling of the cart. In the half-light, Lilith murmured "What do we do once we get this sword The Orichi wants?" Dolorem leaned forward, and sat in silence for a moment.

"I don't know. I'd like to have my parents buried properly, if I can find the bodies. After that, my only desire is to push back the Archduke's forces, back to the border."

"And Solomon?"

"I was thinking about that. I wanted to kill him, but that achieves very little, logically. If need be I will, but I take little pleasure in the idea. Even after all he did, he made me who I am. He wasn't always like this. Believe it or not, he was like a father to me back before things went bad."

"Hmm?"

"He lost his son before taking me in, and his wife about 5 years ago, that's when things began to change, for the worse. His personality became something entirely different."

"How'd it happen?"

"She was part of a Dæmon cult, they made pacts in return for favours, entirely benign, but our laws are absolute. He spiraled, blaming her for their son's death. Put her to death and carried it out himself. After that, justice became a matter of oppression."

"I had no idea, Dolorem. I'm sorry, it can't have been easy to see that. I didn't mean to press."

"Don't worry, I just don't like to worry others about things like that. Besides, you're my wife, you can ask whatever you want."

"Anything?"

"I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

The Purple Hand sat alongside a collapsed Venari. Her pulse was slow, deliberate, and her blood a thick burgundy. Something was wrong. He opened her eye to make an examination, recoiling upon seeing it had become a deep crimson, with a glowing pupil, like hellfire.

Her eyes snapped back into consciousness. And she immediately scuttled away, breathing heavily, unnatural eyes full of fear. "What happened?" She whispered, for the first time fear was in her voice.

"You tried to hunt down Lilith, and nearly got yourself killed."

"I'm sorry I couldn't do better,'' she said quietly, head bowed.

"Excuse me? Where's the bad manners? The profanity?" The Purple Hand stuttered, flabbergasted.

"My apologies, that's a side effect of my… condition."

"Which is?"

"Vampirism, well, implanted organs from a lower vampire, I get the brute strength and durability, plus, I have control of my faculties, but need blood injections to fuel half of my organs."

"Human?"

"No, chicken's blood... Yes it has to be human!"

"And there it is."

"I don't have fangs, do not ask or I will kill you here on the spot." She said, attempting to blot out any memory of her being vulnerable.

"How'd it happen?" The Purple Hand asked.

"Hmm?"

"How did you end up… like that?"

"There are a lot of insane people in the world, and several all-too-willing to put up damaged goods like myself in exchange for a new test subject."

"Damaged goods?"

"Don't."

"Alright."