Chapter 21: Risks and rituals 2 (Sophia, Jasmine, and Cassandra)

(Pov Sophia)

May 10th 2026, 06:20 PM

The smell of incense wafted into her nose. She had needed some for the ritual, though supposedly other things worked too. Incense just felt appropriate. She sat on her knees on a blanket in front of the assembled circle. A small bowl of water sat in the middle, a seed for the ice to help the ritual along. It apparently helped lower the cost. Though you could do without it.

The offering had been… frustrating. It had taken longer than normal, but it was finally over. Still, it felt empty somehow. She could remedy that later, hopefully. Either way, all that now remained was the final acts of request, of pleading.

Almost there.

She drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly. It shuddered slightly on the way out. She couldn't fuck up, not now.

She spoke as clearly as she could, projecting her voice into the room.

"Öndu duldra, vetrar-kraptur þinn ek kalla! Vatn er, en ísi þat verða má. Frá jörðu djúpi, stíga upp, stíga upp! Ístréið blómstra ik –”

She stopped, her heart throbbing in her ears, her hands starting to shake.

That wasnt how that word was pronounced.

Fuck!!!! She had to bite back the thought so as not to speak it; this error might be small, but it didn't need to be compounded.

She needed to do something; she needed to act before… before the spirit took offense. She needed options; simply stopping wasn't acceptable; it probably wouldn't like that. She didn't know enough to actually apologize, or if it would even care about that.

Her jaw tensed; this was dragging out far longer than the pause should. Powering through was the only option. She would just have to continue.

“Ek –” She didn't get to properly restart before the sound of wood shattering came from behind her. Twisting around, all she saw was a blur of a person and a hand on her shoulder before she was sent flying backward.

Before she stopped, the room darkened. Something like tar made of pure blackness engulfed her.

Lying there encased in blackness, she heard a voice. Jasmine's voice speaking in what was clearly Runemaal.

—---------------------------

(Pov Jasmine)

May 10th 2026, 06:20 PM

“So what do you say, does tomorrow work? If you wanna join at all that is.”

She wished he wouldn't do that. The qualifier was purely unnecessary. He didn't want to seem pushy, or so she figured. It made it seem like he doubted himself, which he didn't need to. He was already her beau, her fiancé after all. Something would have to be done about it eventually. It just wouldn't do. Maybe it was the entire throuple, or rather, hopefully, quartet they were building. That said, she would like to get to know Chloe better.

“Yeah, tomorrow sounds great. We can get Chloe to join us.”

Jason pushed his hands deeper in his pockets. “Great, then we can go then. I promise the arcade is so much fun even if you might find it a little childish.”

She laughed a little. “I promise, Jason, I don't…”

Noctian hearing was good; by the standards of baseline humans, it was amazing. Slightly, though not extremely, superhuman. Jasmine's head snapped towards the barn, staring at it like she was trying to melt a hole in the barn door.

The words she heard from the barn sent shivers down her spine. They weren't bad, not in and of themselves. No, the problem was that she was hearing them at all, and in Sophia's voice at that.

“stíga upp! Ístréið blómstra ik –” Jasmine didn't hesitate before she bolted for the door. Pulling at whatever magic she could, she started flooding it into the shadows ahead of her. If the thing the girl had been making a pact with got offended, at least it couldn't use the shadows against them.

She threw herself into the door shoulder first. The old wood gave way under the pressure. In less than a second, she found Sophia sitting on her knees in front of what was, for all intents and purposes, a fairly well-made magic circle.

She grabbed the girl by her shoulder and threw her backward into a shadow in one of the corners. She shifted her focus, dragging as much magic as she could into them. She pulled the shadow like tar, enveloping the girl in a bubble of darkness. Hopefully, it should make it harder for the thing to reach her.

Years ago, when Rhea had just gotten back from her own education, she had taught her what to do in a situation like this. The spirit would take offense, and it would have consequences; the question now was simply how much they could be minimized.

The bottomless pit in her stomach felt like it was only growing deeper. She did everything she could to steady her voice.

"Kraptur þinn mikli, heyra orð mín. Blindu duldra sáu þau eigi; fávitinn talaði. Hæðni þeirra binda ek, ísi vafinn. Reiði þína lægja ek bið; gef frest, gef frið." (Your great power, hear my words. The hidden blindness they did not see; the fool spoke. Their insult I bind, wrapped in ice. Your anger to lower I beg; give time, give peace.) She swept one hand outward, pressed the other against her stomach, and bowed until she was staring directly at the floor.

Her breath shook as she waited for… hopefully nothing.

1

2

3

She counted the seconds in her head. It had to be a good sign that nothing had happened, right?

She could hear steps approaching carefully from outside, not close enough yet for her to have to worry about it.

Something pushed against the darkness. She had managed to keep some power flowing through the shadows elsewhere in the room, even with how much of her power was currently protecting Sophia.

Shit.

She barely managed to throw herself back as tiny crystals of ice formed from the very air. Within the blink of an eye, they expanded and coalesced into a vast thorn bush of ice. Its barbs were long and sharp. The flowers bloomed high enough to brush the roof above. The floorboards groaned under the weight of the colossal ice sculpture. The branches had completely enveloped the spot where she had been standing, and one stretched towards the bubble of darkness that protected Sophia.

Jasmine's breath shook as she let it out. It didn't look like the spirit had tried to kill them, at least judging by the fact that none of the thorns had grown in a way to do so. The thing had wanted to send a message. At least nothing worse came from it. It wouldn't do both, she knew that. The spirit would either have created the ice or retaliated directly, not both.

Blinking, she looked around. The floor held, if barely. On the ground by the magic circle, she saw the book, her book, and what had to be… an offering aid.

Jason doesn't need to see that. She walked over, picked up the book, and kicked the thing into some far corner of the room. Sophia did deserve some privacy after all. Jason was shouting from outside, clearly seeing the massive mass of ice through the remnants of the door.

Jasmine could hear her heart beating in her ears. She dropped the magic protecting Sophia, and the shadows dissipated nearly instantly.

“What did you do?” Jasmine's tone was hard and cold as ice as she turned to look at Sophia. The girl looked terrified, shaking like a leaf in the wind.

“I…I… I just thought.” She didn't finish the sentence, taking in the massive structure in front of her.

“You just what? You thought you could just try your hand at something people spend years learning to do safely. What, did you think it was just saying a few words and bowing at the right time?” Her voice rose until she was nearly shouting. “You naive child! Did it not occur to you that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't something you were trained to even attempt?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was! You could be on the floor rocking back and forth from a psychotic break right now! Or maybe it would be nice and only render you blind or migraine-ridden for days!”

The girl was staring down at the ground, eyes hollow.

“Jasmine?” Jason's voice sounded weak coming from just next to the door. His gaze flickered between his sister, her, and the massive ice formation. His complexion was pale, and his eyebrows were creased in concern. For a second, his eyes flickered to the shadows.

That's when she felt it; she never really stopped moving power into the ones closest to her. Shit. They were still vibrating slightly, moving unnaturally. She let out a deep breath, not once but twice before she could get her heart to stop hammering. She needed to calm down, no matter how bad the consequences form this could be. Its not like the girl could have known properly. It was also in part her own fault.

For all that the action was profoundly stupid. The fact that she had managed it at all was impressive. Most first timers supposedly didnt even manage to offend them. Not that this was much better.

“However, while all this was an act of profound naive hubris, it is impressive.” Jasmine's hands relaxed. “Not many can do it correctly enough to even get their attention on the first attempt. I will inform your potential future master about it. She will take it into consideration when she gets here. Hopefully for you, she will.”

“Sophia, are you ok?” Jason's voice carried a combination of concern and confusion as he walked over to her.

“What do you mean future master?” The girl still had an emptiness in her gaze, though her confusion carried through in her tone.

"Yes, potentially." She emphasized the last word. “You should thank your brother for that one.” 

—------------------------------------------

(Pov Cassandra Morris)

May 11th, 01:33 AM

Cassandra leaned harder into him, breathing heavily between the kisses as she ground against the man she was straddling. God, she was so happy he was into it, which was obvious from how hard he was. How she had convinced Thomas to do this, she had no idea.

Her hand pulled at his shirt, trying to pull it off. The process was slow, his own heavy breath tickling her neck. She could see his cum gutters, slightly more, and she could see his navel. An adorable little twist of hair framing the scar.

Almost there.

She could almost see his sternum. Her breath was growing heavier.

Her vision went dark for a split second before images of a farm flashed before her eyes. They varied, focusing on a barn just over from the farmhouse. The images also showed a wide variety of altitudes. Focusing on the main complex itself, the farmhouse and barn, and an overview of the area around it.

The pressure in her skull was almost at a bursting point, an eerie silence settling, not lasting long before a quiet, high-pitched tone replaced it. It grew ever higher in volume until a sign with a town name flashed.

Fairvern Montana.

Cassandra gasped as she shot up in bed. The thin blanket was stuck to her curves, her hand sinking down into the sweat-damped sheets. Her breath was almost as rapid as her heartbeat.

She blinked hard, bringing up a hand to rub the sleep from her eyes. This was bad. It was extremely bad. Someone had tried something and gotten close enough to actually produce a result. They had gotten close enough that one of the neighbors actually cared. Judging by her own current headache, the neighbor that had been entreated had taken offense. Not that she would get a headache from that; however, it was the demon she had made an agreement with only hours ago that had noticed not a more benevolent neighbor. It probably thought giving her a headache was a way to tell her it was fun. Fun for it that was. It probably thought cock blocking her, even if only in her dreams, was fun too.

She threw off her blanket and got up, going straight for the plates containing a mobile magic circle, one designed for the use of magical component offerings. She needed to ask it more questions before it could leave. Finding the same spirit twice wasnt always as easy as one might think. That might mean some half-asleep lieutenant would walk in on her buck naked on the floor doing something that seemed insane, but you had to do what had to do.

It took nearly an hour before she was done. The demon hadn't known much more, having learned its information by word of mouth. But it had given more context; the practitioner had broken etiquette in more ways than one when trying to perform a form of ice galdr with the help of a tomte.

That was useful; the breach wasnt bad apparently. Though not enough for anything permanent, they could still scour the nearby clinics and hospitals for migraine cases or hallucinations. Those were the most likely repercussions. They would also find the farm, but that would tell them nothing about who did it.

Cassandra sat down heavily in an uncomfortable wooden chair in front of the room's small desk. She scrolled until she found the appropriate contact. She held her breath as she hit call.

It took nearly fifteen seconds before it connected. The voice was groggy, belonging to someone who had been rather rudely ripped from the warm embrace of sleep. Yet it contained no less authority than it did normally.

“This had better be important, Cassandra.”

“We've got something. I will have the full report in by morning, but it's safe to say it's unlicensed.”

Neither said anything for nearly half a minute, but she heard rustling from the other end of the call.

“Ok, do that. I will get everything ready on our end. Can you place the site under more surveillance from where you are?”

Cassandra's body felt sore, even worse so her mind felt like it was just on the edge. This wasnt supposed to happen so quickly.

“No, ma'am. It's too far away, and if it is another practitioner, they are going to notice if I go close enough to ask proper questions for any real amount of detail.”

“Ok. Send the report and then get some sleep.”

“Sure, you will have it in an hour.”

The call ended, and Cassandra's shoulders sagged. There was no chance in hell the next few weeks were going to be quiet.