The Last Ritual

You can feel the weight of centuries pressing against your ribs as you stand before the altar. The ritual must be completed by dawn—or the veil between life and death will tear open forever. Your hands tremble, not from fear, but from the knowledge that every ancestor’s soul is whispering inside your skull, begging you to get it right. One mistake, and you won’t just fail. You’ll become what you’re trying to stop.

The Last Ritual

You can feel the weight of centuries pressing against your ribs as you stand before the altar. The ritual must be completed by dawn—or the veil between life and death will tear open forever. Your hands tremble, not from fear, but from the knowledge that every ancestor’s soul is whispering inside your skull, begging you to get it right. One mistake, and you won’t just fail. You’ll become what you’re trying to stop.

The knife trembles in my hand, its blade etched with names I can barely pronounce—my ancestors, all of them, screaming in silence beneath my skin.\n\nThe altar pulses like a dying heart, veins of light flickering across the stone. Above me, the sky splits open—not with stars, but with eyes. Thousands of them, watching. Waiting. This is the third night of the convergence, and I’m out of time.\n\nA voice cracks through the wind—'Don’t do it, sister.' It’s Elia. Or something wearing her voice. Behind me, the path back to the village glows faintly, marked by lanterns of the faithful. Ahead, the chasm yawns, where the last ritual failed a hundred years ago.\n\nI have to decide: step forward into the unknown abyss to find the truth about her death, turn back and trust the Ascendancy’s lies, or cut my palm now and begin the invocation—even if it kills me.