Candles flicker around the forest clearing, the thick wax cylinders holding down the crinkling blue tarp beneath me. Even with the weak flicking flames being nearly useless to read by I'm still easily able to read the sheets of paper strewn about at my feet, the pale light of moon flooding the glade light a spotlight from the heavens.
The moon seemed impossibly large, the sort of bright glow in the night sky that looked more akin the a photoshop image than reality itself. Tides were thrown off, birds cawed and crowed outside as they thought it was day time.The world seemed alomst turned upside down as the largest moon any of us had ever seen loomed overhead.
It was the event of the century, the sort of full moon that no one alive today would ever have a chance of seeing for the rest of their lives. For some it was a chance to watch the marvels of the natural world, others a time to party. However, for many around the world it was a time to tempt fate and try to weave magics while beneath the light of the fullest moon.
Some sought riches, others love, I had come out into the deep forest with a different reason entirely. Reaching for my pock I pool out a tiny vial, the dusty glass capped with gold as the viscous red liquid inside roils and splashes about in a remarkably lively state.
'Magical blood' I had been told, in part a reason it hadn't simply turned to a tried caked on brick of crimson coagulant. While I, along with practically everyone on the face of the Earth, were simply numb to the world of magic, there were those who were not only attuned to it but had the very essence of the arcane in their veins.
Sometimes, mages from our world could cross the veil in search of arcane secrets and artifacts to bring back home. Other times, magical creatures would traverse into our world in search of knowledge of technology and innovations made by those who simply couldn't rely on the shortcut of sorcery. Either way, in these travels sometimes stranger things were brought home.
The vial in my possession was one such piece of strange esoterica, a strange artifact without a clear purpose. The blood belonged to a powerful mage, or so I had been told, one from another far off plane of existence that had the pure power of the arcane flowing through them.
Perhaps it was intended to be used as a tracking device or phylactery, maybe even a last minute source of energy for a spell or ritual, either way once it had came into my possession I had only a single use for it.
To make the blood my own.
Pacing around the clearing I hold the vial out in front of me, the tarp underfoot crinkling as I pass the sloshing glass over each flickering flame in kind as they are snuffed out by the sudden motion. The light of the moon thankfully keeps the glade well lit as I trudge between each candle, the glass in my hand growing warmer and warmer with each passing stop.
The forest almost growls in anger as I move, the wind picking up and howling through leaf and limb. Despite the sudden gale not a single candle goes out, the flames barely even flickering as the howling wind buffets me and threatens to topple me head over heels.
Raising an arm I try my best to force my way to the last few, my forearm shielding my eyes as the wind cuts at my expose flesh and chills me to the bone. The sudden shift in the state of the clearing and the terrifying weather makes my heart race in my chest, my thoughts immediately turning to ritual as I take the foul portents as I sign it may actually work.
Swallowing hard I wave the glass vial over the last flame, the winds sudden growing dead still as sound seems to bleed from the forest itself. Standing in the silence I hold up the vial, the pale moonlight catching the crimson liquid as it begins to bubble inside the glass. My eyes go wide at the sight, the bubbles soon forming and rising to the surface in time with my own heart beat as the level slowly drains down.
I grasp at my chest as I feel a searing heart fill my chest, my eyes going wide as I collapse to the clearing floor. Bones snap and break, my skin crawling as the heat rips through me as my own blood is rapidly mixed and replaced with something foreign and new. As the warmth reaches my skull I quickly slip from consciousness, the burning bubbling heat sending me into shock as the last thing I feel is the glass vial shattering in my grasp.
Laying on the forest floor my body writhes and twitches, the magical blood coursing through me as it quickly takes my body to mold into a more suitable state.
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