Leonardo feels his sisters gaze on him as he draws the next ritual circle. He feels his mothers aura probing her soul, sees Melissa flinching each time, hoping that their Mother wont make sense of it before the ritual is done. He walks over and gathers the last essence, the ivory, bone like cube of the death essence. Reverently he carry's it over to Melissa “Hold your hand out” he demands as she looks up at him, a fragile sense of something akin to hope in her eyes and on her soul. “you understand now daughter.” their mothers voice, sickly sweet and laced with a dark promise. “Our legacy is power. And power is your only hope to be become something that is worth our name” The smile their Mother gives Melissa as she takes the death essence from Leonardo might be the first genuine smile she has ever given her.
“Take the confluence. It is your only chance of having a voice in this world” He says as he kneels down and feeds his mana in to the ritual. The circle lighting up as the death essence bonds with her. Standing up he positions himself between his mother and sister, feeling the their mothers aura fluctuate as Melissa's confluence forms. First confusion, then disbelief, then anger. “WHAT!? What is going on!” she exclaims as three ghostly cubes spear from within Melissa. One like dark iron, one like ivory bone, and one clear and vibrating like glass hit with sound. They swirl around each other merging with a strange humming sound that gets shriller and louder by the second. The emerging confluence essence is a ghostly ethereal white and emanates a shrill screeching sound that feels like listening to nails scratching over a chalkboard. “What is this!” the voice of there mother finally cracking loosing its composure “That's not undeath!”.
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Melissa looks up from the essence to her brother, then to her mother. She reaches for the cube and her mother trys to rush her, fury on her face. Leonardo, stepping in her path, is barrelled out of the way. Her peak category 3 attributes overpowering him with ease, his impact on the far wall cracking the marble. But it is enough. His body taking the momentum from her charge and the fact that she hurt her golden child in her fury stopping her long enough. Melissa takes the confluence essence, accepting it in to her soul. As it sinks in to her body the shrill sound subsides. Instead a deep wailing scream breaks out of her throat, tears streaming down her face. Tearing every emotion free she thought she had buried.
Hate, sorrow and despair. Hate for her family, their legacy and traditions... Sorrow over the suffering she had to endure, the rejections she felt every waking second of her young life and a deep despair over the injustice of it all. But there are other feelings as well. Gratitude for the decision her brother made to change her fate... Hope for a future different from her legacy.
Her wailing scream continues as her mother hits her in anger, as she feels her jaw breaking under the force. It continues as her body changes, advancing to category 1. it only stops when the impurities that get purged from her body as it becomes magical, are forced out of her mouth and she looses consciousness.
