To Sup on Blood

"Faye, darling, come down to eat!" Harpo Souldancer called from her spot at a small wood stove. The time was late for supper. Vokylm, the quiet silver eye in the sky, had just spun past the sun in their eternal celestial dance, but she wanted to ensure everything was perfect. 

"Kurrain, dear, how is the bitter melon coming along?"

"Almost done," her husband, crouched by a bed of coals in the center of the hut, replied shortly, tossing the wrinkled vegetable and soft fried egg. Harpo couldn't help noticing how tightly the man's hand was wrapped around the pan's handle. She gritted her teeth, refusing to show the anguish lurking beneath the surface. Tonight was special. She couldn't ruin it. 

As smoke spiraled out of the flap in the ceiling, stretching into the darkening like a long, wispy arming begging the slowly rising moon for succor, Harpo heard her daughter's rhythmic footfalls on the floor above. Thanks to their contributions to the people of the Weitiao Woods, the family had been granted one of only three two-story houses in the quiet town of Stalkbound. The other two belonged to Berach Nuthatch, the town's leader, and the Dromal family, who farmed jade in a large clearing just beyond the town's walls. "Is that lamb I smell?" The young girl, barely twelve, asked excitedly, appearing on the stair landing and scurrying down to the first floor, taking two steps at a time. Her cream blouse was spattered with dirt from her time outside, and her wheat-colored hair, which she'd put into a bun this morning, was mussed and frazzled, looking like a forgotten onion pushing out countless sprouts.

Her heart tweaked painfully at the sight of her daughter's gentle smile, beaming like sunlight from a freckled face of faintly greenish-gold skin. Like sunlight-given flesh. By the spirits...can I do this? She shook her head. I must. It's for the salvation of everything we hold dear. Still...Faye is so young.

Grease hissed from the pan atop the woodstove, searing the back of Harpo's hand. The lamb reminded her it was time to come off the heat. Despite Faye's youth, the girl had developed some decidedly adult tastes. Kurrain had told her many times that the townsfolk cast odd looks his way when he requested bitter melon from the traders; it wasn't a popular flavor amongst the Tan'iir of Stalkbound. And Harpo hadn't met many children who drooled at the sight of freshly cooked mutton. But they were Faye's favorite dishes, so they were a natural choice for tonight's dinner. Kurrain glanced significantly at Harpo and flicked his eyes toward the smoke hole. Craning her neck, Harpo saw darkness overtaking the sky and ground her teeth. No stars gleamed from the shadows of the great expanse above their heads. The Vokyth, spirits of light who dwelled within the points of light, had hidden away in anticipation of tonight's astral event. We don't have long. Her eyes rested on Faye again, and she forced a bright smile. "Yes, my sundrop! We have lamb and bitter melon for dinner. And your father made his famous cream and toffee mooncakes for dessert!"

After Harpo placed the pan of still-sizzling lamb chops on the table, forgetting the damp rag she'd always place beneath it, her daughter slammed into her with a hug forceful enough to make the woman stumble. "You're the best, mom!"

Harpo involuntarily sobbed, disguising it as a laugh as best she could before caressing Faye's forehead and cheek with her thumb. "Anything for you, my sundrop," she managed, feeling sick. 

Kurrain crossed the room with his pan and doled out melon and egg to each of their plates. "Let's eat, hmm? I'm starving!" He sounded chipper as ever as if what awaited them after dinner wasn't enough to twist his stomach in knots. She only needed to look into his eyes to see the same haunted expression she wore buried behind a mask of joy. 

Serving the lamb, perfectly cooked, crispy golden-brown on the outside, and juicy pink inside, it fell off the bone with every slice; Harpo settled into her seat and waited for her husband to broach the subject, as they'd agreed. 

Faye waited until all three of them were served and ready to eat to lift her first forkful to her lips. The young girl made exultant noises as she chewed, savoring the combination of flavors and textures. Harpo wished she could eat with such vigor. She picked at the food on her own plate, pushing the melon and egg around in the sauce and juices from the lamb. 

"Something wrong, Momma?" Faye wondered, her beautiful, innocent eyes boring holes into her center. "You made such a delicious meal. Why aren't you eating?"

"Say, Faye," Kurrain interjected, saving his wife from answering. "After dinner, Momma and I have a special project, and we were wondering if you wanted to give us a hand?"

Faye dropped her fork on her plate. "You mean it? I can help with one of your experiments? I'm gonna be a bona fide allighemist!"

Kurrain chuckled with a breezy ease Harpo envied. "Chemist, sundrop. You're thinking of alchemists, which aren't real," he chided playfully. "But, yes, we need your help with a crucial experiment."

"Then I'll be the cutest lab rat you ever did see!" Faye cheered, scooping up her fork and digging into her meal with redoubled vigor. 

Kurrain and Harpo shared a sickened look, but her husband set his chin and nodded. 

By the time Faye had polished off her serving, Harpo had barely touched hers, and Kurrain had finished maybe half before his stomach threatened to rebel. We're out of time. Shadow coalesced around the hut. The comet would be in the sky at any moment. 

Quenching the fires with a bucket of water, the two chemists ensured they had everything they needed before leading their daughter underneath the house, where they'd constructed a bunker specifically for their experiments. It was twice as wide and tall as their living space, tables were strewn at odd angles around the circular space, dominated by a mess of notes, star maps, and implements, a testament to many long nights spent worrying at this issue. To the left was a vast, intricate telescope, ordered specially from the Phoenix clan, its viewing lens disappearing out of the ceiling, where it emerged in their garden, obscured from their neighbor's view by several clumped bushes. If anyone in Stalkbound knew what they were meddling with down here, they'd be run out of town quicker than they could say "ruined reputation." Kurrain sat before the sighting lens and fiddled with the contraption, aligning it to see when the comet, Kōrikōsen, crossed Vokylm's glowing face. Even now, the blighted comet, placed in the sky by ancient Maho-Fashi hundreds of years ago, passed over the land, waking cursed seeds, which sprouted into horrible monsters fueled by blood magic. 

Harpo led Faye to the other side of the chamber, filled with a large metallic cylinder covered with various tubes and wires. One metallic arm plunged through the ceiling and joined the telescope protruding into the night, disguised as a tree. Dully glowing faelamps set into the ceiling cast an eerie glow over this portion of the room, the light seemingly sucked towards an airtight container of tinted glass on the farthest table. Harpo could barely see the movement through the clouded surface, but she didn't need to see to know what was contained within. An isolated, free-roaming Maho spirit roiled inside the jade-infused glass, craving release but unable to break free. It had taken them many months of experimentation to extract such a pure specimen, and now they could use it to end Kōrikōsen once and for all. All they needed was a vessel. Harpo's fingers dug into Faye's shoulder as she stared at the metal contraption, realizing at that moment how much it resembled a coffin. A coffin I'm about to lock my daughter in. 

She had to be mad to even consider using her beloved sundrop as a vessel for this endeavor. Truthfully, Faye was their last resort. They'd pitched it to several Tan'yuivar, the rare, blessed Jadetouched Tan'iir, but they'd either laughed off the notion or demanded they cease their foolishness. Maho was something to avoid trifling with, they said. 

They'd then turned to the Dromals, trading Faye's hand in marriage to the Dromal boy for a large quantity of high-purity jade. It wasn't meant to be a permanent arrangement. Once they'd destroyed the comet, the Souldancer family would be too famous for the farmers to risk enforcing the contract. But, they'd needed the jade and lacked the funds to procure it through the usual channels. However, despite its potency as Maho's antithesis, the jade itself was too brittle, unable to handle the amount of energy the machine would channel. They'd needed something living, with enough resiliency and potential power to complete their duty. With Tan'iir out of the question, they'd needed something equally rare, like Faye. She'd always possessed unusually powerful Lifeshaping, the power some Tan'eryth, the wind-born Tan'iir, were born with, and what's more, she was the only known Tan'iir who had ever been born to a mated pair of other Tan'iir. The spirit's blessing, which determined when parents would birth a Tan'iir instead of a child of their own race, had never before fallen on the Spirit Folk. Children born of two Tan'iir, which already had low reproduction rates, always emerged as either human or Phantael. There were no exceptions to this rule until the Souldancers came along and brought Faye into the world. That had to mean something, right? 

"The moonlight is shrinking, Harpo. Kōrikōsen approaches," Kurrain said warningly. 

"Alright, Faye, your part in this experiment is simple," Harpo explained. "All you need to do is stand here in this cylinder. It will be very dark, and you may feel hot, but no matter what, you just have to stay still. It shouldn't be very long. Okay?"

"Just stand there? That sounds too easy! What's the catch?"

"_Uh..." Harpo's voice caught in her throat. "N-no catch, sundrop. Very simple! I trust you can handle this."

"Ooookaaay!" Faye sang, stepping into the cylinder. "I'm ready, momma!" Harpo hesitated for a moment before closing the door. "Remember, Sundrop, no matter what happens, I love you, okay?"

Faye's reply was buried under the clang of the heavy metal coffin slamming closed, latches locking the girl inside. Harpo activated several lightning-infused crystals settled around the device with swift kicks. A low hum sounded through the chamber as the device powered up. Harpo yanked a lever on the wall, and in the world above them, a large dish opened, capturing moonglow and absorbing the divine energy from its light and reflecting it down towards the focal points on the device through a series of mirrors. 

"Momma?" Faye called, her voice barely audible above the din of machinery shifting. "My skin is tingling!"

"It's okay, baby! Everything will be okay!" She lied. There was no way to know what the mingling energies would do to their daughter. Harpo felt a twinge of regret, but it was already too late. "Just think about taking all the energy inside of you and pushing it up towards the sky! Like you're trying to make a flower tall enough to reach the moon!"

The hum became louder still, and Harpo watched the jade nodes start glowing with harsh white energy one by one. When the last one lit, Harpo blew out her breath and whispered the activation word. Faye started to scream. "Momma! Momma! It hurts! My skin is on fire! Please let me out! I don't wanna be an Allighemist anymore!"

 "I can see Kōrikōsen's edge meeting the moon! Is it charged?" Kurrain asked over their daughter's scream. She couldn't see the tears streaming down his cheeks, but heard them spilling over his words.

Energy swirled in the chamber like a great gust of ethereal wind, flowing from the machine, from Faye. It was aimless for the moment, begging for release, for a purpose. Their weapon, derived from ancient diagrams found by miners excavating a ruin dated back before the Fracture, needed a target. "Harpo! It's time!"

Her daughter begged and cried her name, and Harpo froze. What a horrible mother I am. She wanted to let Faye out, stroke her hair, and apologize. But if she did , how many more thousands of people would be slain by that blighted star?

"Harpo!" Kurrain's voice was deeply alarmed. "Kōrikōsen is glowing. I think it can feel the energy we're gathering. I know what you're thinking!" "We'll never have another chance like this again! Our daughter will never forgive us after the pain she's going through! Add the Maho, now!"

Harpo forced her body to respond to her commands, grabbed the container with the Maho spirit, and placed it in an intake receptacle. She watched the Maho spirit enter the coffin with her daughter. The energy in the room thrummed like a heartbeat, powerful enough to shake the bunker with every thump. Faye's screams reached a new level of agony, and blood-red vapor poured from the machine, caught in the swirling tides of power. Harpo thought she could hear words mingled in the hollers, but the lung-bursting screams wracking her daughter were too strong to allow her to talk. At least she didn't have to listen to Faye begging for release anymore. Horrible mother. All she ever did was love you.

"Kurrain! Release it now!" The divine energy from jade and moon latched onto the Maho spirit, destroying it like a pack of hungry dogs tearing apart a rabbit carcass and desperately seeking more. Seeking Kōrikōsen, the great bundle of concentrated Maho energy right above it. Harpo heard the clink of a lever being pulled as her husband activated the final switch, placed near him in case something happened to her. A bone-shaking sound emanated, like a thousand peals of thunder rumbling all at once, as gathered power slingshotted upwards, crashing into the blighted star as it hung in the sky, a horrid blemish on Vokylm. 

Kurrain yelled triumphantly. "We did it, darling! Kōrikōsen is gone!"

Silence swallowed his exultant cheers as Harpo stared at the smoking machine, crushed and crumpled like a paper doll by the release of power. "We did it, Kurrain," she answered slowly. "But, at what cost..." 

To be continued!