Velnay stood within the Hall of Periods, the chamber where ceilings curled into darkness. Her pale fingers hovered over the hem of her velvet gown, restless, trembling. Though her hands trembled, her words emerged like carved scripture, solemn and deliberate.
"Let it be inscribed, though I quail — the Canticle falters. If this ritual fail also, then the Black Sun shall taste our marrow next. Witch Raganaite... begin."
The Court Witch inclined her head, her shawl of moth-eaten constellations dragging the very shadows across the onyx floor. When she spoke, it was like ash collapsing inside a long-cold hearth, her tone soft and patient.
"A threadless knot, a verse without its meter, a guest unbidden yet required. Come forth, what Hell cannot write."
The scriptures shuddered in response; words bled down, black veins unraveling. Ministers flinched as flames of negative light licked the shadows.
Blekshta, pale and meticulous, dipped her absent quill into the tar at her spine and hissed:
"Mistake. Ink-birth without precedent. This smears the Pale Script itself."
Sklaidra's cloak of solid night tightened around her shoulders, her eclipse-like eyes narrowing as though she weighed a throat between her fingers.
"A spy. Fifth Hell's hand, disguised. None else could slip the Script's weave so clean."
Jotiena, tall and sonorous, tongue dripping pen-ink as he spoke, let his decrees fall heavy into the air.
"Debate, ministers. Not conjecture. The decree unfolds itself — we must see what shape it takes before redaction. The perfect suitor must come forth. Remember, we have no choice."
From the heart of the unrolling parchment, space convulsed. A wound in the space-time — neither light nor void — unfolded into a presence. In that instant, the impossible appeared: jij appeared there. Not demon, not scripted.
The silence lengthened, brittle. Velnay tilted her head, crown catching the glow. Her wide gray eyes trembled between awe and confusion, and at last she whispered:
"By the Black Sun... what is even that? Who are you, fated from beyond?"
