THE OUROBORIAN PRIESTESS

 

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PART I : THE RITUAL

 

A bank of oppressive fog rolls into the room.

A proud viscanti emerges from the haze. Holding herself with a graceful stance, she walks forward. As she stops, her grey eyes look around pondering her surroundings with reserve. Her fiery red hair is loosely maintained in place behind her head with an emerald and onyx ritual dagger. Her small pale silhouette is cloaked in long dark silken robes held with small jackal-shaped gems.

In a longing gesture, she raises her arms. The sudden movement makes her sleeves roll down, denuding decaying white arms harder than stone and colder than the grave.

In a solemn voice, Ouroborian Priestess Euphrasie n'Kylbar says, "Gather, DisOrder, and venerate the ever changing chaos! Venerate the true Lord Legion of multiple voices and infinite erudition! Attend and auscultate the secretive dialects spoken by the mighty Ouroboros. Devour a sight of instability."

Euphrasie lays many stunned serpents before her chanting long hoarse notes ending into dissonant hisses, eyes staring in front of her into intense concentration. Before laying the last serpent, Euphrasie nimbly catches an exquisite ritual dagger of jade and emerald from beneath her apparel and cuts a grievous wound into the serpent.

Ouroborian Priestess Euphrasie n'Kylbar chants, "May the blood of the reptile quench my thirst for an instant, may it fill my system in voluptuous Change as I take action apprehending the will of the Lord Legion."

The Priestess bitterly cuts her tongue in its middle with the dagger until her mouth is filled with a dark liquid that begins to heavily drip on the ground.

She kneels before the Font of Unquenchable Hunger and, with a tremble, plunges her arms inside the pitch black waters. Closing her eyes as her blood drips into the Font, Euphrasie elegantly extracts a carved iron chalice depicting a disturbing scenery of cannibalism from the Font. She moves back of a few steps and deposes it before her.

Euphrasie n'Kylbar takes a small flask from her pockets, and as she pours its content into the chalice, the air fills with a strong scent of datura infusion. Euphrasie emits an insistent guttural chant and many violent hisses elevate themselves from the ends of the Temple as a reply.

She takes the expiring serpent and, from its gaping wound, completely empties its bloody internals splattering with a sickening sound into the datura concoction.

Ouroborian Priestess Euphrasie n'Kylbar says, "Hear us, Lord, as we wish to grow closer to You. Push our consciences to another state of exaltation and Inspiration. Assist the rebirth of our insignificant mortal shards into more cunning and worthy ones."

The temple starts to rumble as the very stones begin to heave in anticipation.

Euphrasie closes her eyes as she approaches the chalice to her lips and leisurely ingests the preparation.

Her breath quickens tremulously and her shoulders retract back and contract forth in a tensed demeanor. Euphrasie instantaneously opens immense eyes glowing of an alien deep jade hue and observes you with malign mischief. She drops the chalice to hit the ground with clamor.

In a maddening cackle, Ouroborian Priestess Euphrasie n'Kylbar says, "I devote my Inspirational Hunger to serve You. We realize the strength contained within each one of the living beings... the strength... accessible with only an ever consuming voracity. I pledge..."

With apparent delight, the Priestess frantically sighs and cackles as she carves a deep and sinuous wound inside each of her forearms with the dagger. She takes one of the stunned serpents and presses it against the wide bleeding wound of her right forearm. She delightfully handles and presses the reptile until it is worked far beneath the skin and forms a light serpent-shaped protuberance. After scarifying her left forearm with the same treatment, she raises her head revealing a look of euphoric madness and starts to apply infected rusted metallic threads inside both lacerations.

The bracelets of rusted wire on each wrist begin to unravel sending tendrils down her arms that begin to clumsily stitch the wounds.

The snakes start to writhe under her flesh as the opened flesh closes.

Disturbingly, Ouroborian Priestess Euphrasie n'Kylbar whispers, "I pledge my being to the only true Divine Lord Morgfyre and His teachings. I shall grasp a different understanding of my surroundings, travel where no one has ever been in His name to acquire always more lore and power. This ambition will make me ascend, create, destroy and redo anew everything that I touch. This world will be changed and warped in instability, destroyed and recomposed in His mighty name. It will always be reborn more inspired and changed than before."

She then brandishes the ritualistic dagger with both hands high in the air and rapidly pushes it into her chest pouring a warm tide of blood around her. She fiercely grins as she digs the stain of the dagger even further inside her ribcage and turns it painfully. Then, she carefully gathers the remaining serpents in front of her.

Laughing maniacally, Ouroborian Priestess Euphrasie n'Kylbar says, "We shall be reduced to naught and be given rebirth with stronger aims. We are to honour His unending cycle of all things..."

Looking to fulfill her suddenly violent desires, the viscanti Priestess plunges her hand in the bloody hole cut inside her chest and lets a maddening cackle as she pulls her own beating heart out. Euphrasie sinks it into the Font of Unquenchable Hunger and fills the gaping wound of her chest with the serpents left. Many voices suddenly exclaim themselves in pleasure twisted with agony from the mouth of Euphrasie.

She slowly inserts a large sharpened metallic thread covered with infectious elements across the wound to hold the flesh into place.

Euphrasie n'Kylbar erratically exhales breaths of cold convoluted clouds from her chapped bluish lips. As the Priestess suddenly trembles and falls to the ground, the alien jade hue expands from her eyes into an aura that floats eerily above her body lying in a massive pool of blood, slowly fading away.

The attendance proceeds to the offering of the remains to Lord Morgfyre with satisfied smirks upon their features and excited cackles.

 

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PART II: THE SERMON

 

Lord Morgfyre and the Engine.

Pronounced on Shanthin 319.

 

Solemnly, Ouroborian Priestess Euphrasie n'Kylbar says "Sombre welcomes, citizens of the Engine."

Thunder begins to roll low in the dark sky just above your head. You feel your blood freeze within your veins as an eerie presence renders the air heavier around you.

Thoughtful, Euphrasie says "This month we are gathered as necessary cogs to a cycle of production. We are part of a gigantic machination that used to cause terror in the eyes of the other organizations. Will our dominion extend its claws and prosper far beyond expectations? It essentially depends of every individual it is composed of and their capacities, but mostly, their willingness to grow..."

A rush of fearful adrenalin overtakes your senses as you are violently blinded by a sudden crackling lightning strike that lands right beside you in a deafening clamour.

With cold austerity, Euphrasie says "Every cog will influence the others near it for the better or the worse, to be functional it must be perfected to its fully developed potential. It will inspire the others to surpass themselves after they have seen what one can build." The Priestess raises her hands, loosely clasped together, in front of her for the audience to glimpse at. She carefully opens her palms to unveil a small device composed of five immobile cogs of different sizes. One, situated in the centre of the device, slowly starts to push onto the others around to move. After a moment, the cogs are all turning, slowly forcing on each other to advance.

Turning her scrutinizing sight upon the attendance, Euphrasie says "I wish to pronounce some thoughts regarding the teachings of Lord Morgfyre and how they directly relate with the growth of our industry as a whole, beginning with the individual."

She then presents her opened palms before the assembly so that they may all witness the progress of the machinery. The cogs are now working at an always increasing speed, until one particularly weak and neglected cog loses its grip and goes fluttering asunder under such pressure.

Eyes twinkling with malignant mischief, Euphrasie whispers "The initial step is to hunger, to serve your ambitious projects and your most sombre wishes. Fill the desires that arise out from the depths of your beings. Work your way towards the strength, the knowledge and the power without ever being satisfied of your position. A mighty Engine does not stagnate, it always aspires for more and so do its citizens."

Your whole being almost shatters into madness as your throat dries and your lips begin to chap under a sudden feeling of unquenchable thirst. An insatiable hunger plagues your internals and lures you into consuming all that currently surrounds you.

Glaring angrily at you, Euphrasie exclaims "Leave the regrets or the whining to the the weak beings and become whom you wanted to be, may it be an artist, a scholar, a fighter, a politician, an influencer and more. Always perfect what you do. The ways to provide strength are infinite if each one of us is applied to add their talents to the service of Magnagora."

As you close your burning eyes, wishing to soothe your raging fever, you see a vision of a legion of serpents. Teeth plunged deeply into you, you see them consuming you almost entirely beneath your closed eyelids, arcs of pain seeming to race through your nerves. Before you can even manage to scream, you blink and the vision disappears from your sight.

In a powerfully booming voice, the Ouroborian Priestess says "Be inspired and imaginative. Do not be a complete tool for the desires of the others and think by yourself. If you see that progress can be made in a direction that no one else thought to accomplish before, undertake it. This is what leadership is based upon, innovation and sometimes risk. Open the new roads of knowledge for the next generations of Magnagorans and mold new horizons like the architect you may be, hidden inside awaiting to be discovered.

"Do you know what legendary artistic productions are made of? All I know is that they were not main-streamed. They are legendary because they have initiated a new current not similar to anything already existing."

In a booming voice, Euphrasie says "With all of our hungering and inspired citizens, there is no doubt we will be able to change our situation and evolve even further. We ought to bring chaos in the Basin. We are the mighty product of the Taint and the Soulless, we reject dogmatism, received ideas and false values. This City is a product of change and the Engine is an endless wheel of ever changing cycles."

The earth beneath your feet trembles and cracks dangerously as a multitude of nefarious voices cackle and scream before fading into eerie silence.

Shivering, Euphrasie intones "This period is considered calm. I say it is the end of an era, we must destroy what we were bound to previously so we can rise from our ashes, replenished and mightier. We must simply not let go of our hold to the tenets of Hunger, Inspiration and Change. The future is ahead of you, taking a form only with your will."

Lowering her voice, she says "Thank you all for your attendance and meditate upon my words."

Euphrasie whispers "Walk well bearing malevolent darkness."

The gracious viscanti brings her fingers together to reverently form the unbroken circle of the Ouroboros.

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