HP: Spirit Talker

The next six hours were exhausting for Genosuke and me in every way. Three successive elder purification rituals. After the first two, the girls were horribly contorted, their bodies twisted and turned, ropes running and moving under their skin like bugs. They vomited horribly, and in other ways their bodies were cleansed. Dark blood flowed from their ears, eyes, and noses. And their screams of pain sent shivers down their bodies.

By the end of the third ritual, the dirt was almost gone from the girls, but at the end of the third ritual, a cloud of dirty grayish-red dust fell from both of them and crumbled to the dark slabs of the smooth stone floor. I took turns carrying the two unconscious girls to the font, where Genosuke washed them and the goblins replaced the water with some herbal infusions to purify them. We had a snack of lean boiled rice with sour diluted wine, rested for an hour and decided to continue.

The next ritual required a lot of complicated attributes, a lot of fire, and various trifles like lamps with aromatic oils and dried herbs to be burned in a bronze roaster during the ritual. The ritual of invoking ancestral magic and blood. Long, tedious, hard. The girls glared angrily and mooed into the rags with which they were gagged. After another three hours, when my arms and legs began to shake with fatigue and strain, the ritual was completed with my depleted reserve, and purple fire flared around the girls.

It was a good sign — it meant the birthing magic hadn't completely abandoned them and was responding to my request to bring them back. Too bad the mother isn't here. In the absence of a family altar or a source, the ritual only took my magic from the sagging reserve, but if Junko had been here, the effect would have been greater. But nothing, now I'll eat, meditate, and in the next ritual it will be possible to draw magic directly from the spirit world. I'll hit the seal, destroy the base, and deal with the rest later.

In another hour and a half, the girls were placed on special wooden tables to which we tied them with the same "sun chains". Oh yes, this time they were both completely naked and I, unlike Genosuke who had washed them earlier and probably seen everything, noticed the "master's marks" or taste.

To make it clearer, when I found the seals, I noticed that both of Minhe's sisters had pierced navels, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I mean, it's not like they like it or it's fashion, right? But as it turned out, the navel piercing wasn't the end of it. Both of them not only had their nipples pierced, but also their areolas and genitals.

Again, it's a matter of taste, but that's a bit much. On the other hand, I had a few ideas of what I'd add to the "thank you" list. I couldn't shut the girls up at that point, so I had to listen to a stream of mud, insults, and ridicule. It all came down to how ugly and weak I am in every way, who my ancestors are (they seem to be from another family), what a wonderful master they have, and what he will do to us for "shitty magic over faithful and beloved slave girls".

My reaction to these words was to increase the account of the perpetrator, as well as to think that the girls have clearly "blown the roof", and it is clear why. Genosuke's face as "frozen" from the beginning of our work, and did not "thaw", he almost did not speak, only in the most necessary places sounded his dry voice.

He who has learned meditation, who has learned to subdue his own passions and to look into his own soul, can channel the inner reserves of vital forces and magic, even if it is only a tiny drop. Meditation in all its many forms, even for the ungifted/non-magician, allows one to discover something more within oneself.

For the magically gifted, meditation becomes a clear window through the smoke of everyday life, expanding the range of abilities and perceptions and opening a deeper understanding of the world around you.

Among the pleasant bonuses is an accelerated recovery of the mage's reserve, which I use quite often. But everything needs moderation. For example, I feel very tired now, not so much physically — I have a very well-trained body — but mentally, spiritually, from too much active movement of energy in my aura and channels. It is good that we are finishing — an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and the main problem will be solved.