LADY CRANOIA

 

"Take me! Take all of me inside youu. Purge life out of this body. Seize my spirit, bottle my soul, burn it! Strip me of my skin", she moaned softly with pleasure while he kissed her in an uncultured manner, his big hands around her waist.

The people roundabout them were about two dozens. Beautiful people. They had on black tailored suits; the men. And the women, sombre dresses.

"Freue mich sehr für meine Tochter …" (really glad for my daughter), Cranoai's Mom, Thora, broke the tense silence in the room and everyone turned to pass a stern frown, index finger fixed tight on their lips. She pouted.

"Deaaaaaar … from the deepest bottom of this dark heart”, thumps chest, “I give my life unto you this day", she repeated after the hooded Clergyman standing in the circle with them. He was clothed in a huge black cape.

 "I submit my dãmned soul to you, my sturdy bones and blo. ody flesh", he uttered turning a page from an ancient book stretched above his old shaky hands and she repeated, eyes locked into her Lover's. 

"Blood in your mouth ...", she whispered and drums sprang alive, fixed in an unusual rhythm, "my flesh under your teeth", the rolls became louder and faster, "Soul zapped into yours", the whole room was suddenly filled with ethereal voices. She increased her voice a tad higher trying to match the fast rhythm, "SPIRITS BOUND TILL ETERNITY!!", and the rolls seized.

The voices traveled across the room. Their essence, unseen but wild zoomed into her. About six women in the clothing every woman had worn for the event, rushed in with trays of four candles. Inside the circle made by the people, they surrounded the couples in the middle with red candles then immediately burst into melodious yodels, the attendees joined in and the rolls continued. Everyone felt the change of atmosphere once the candles lit themselves one after the other. The yodeling increased; the groom's feet left the ground, his neck was sharply twisted by unseen forces then after some seconds, it returned to its position. On a spur of moment, the white of his eyes were shaded black and the pupils turned crimson.

As if on influence, the people rushed into a bow, smacking their foreheads against the rough ground until blood spilled as a symbol of reverence and loyalty.

The six women who had initiated the ambience, formed a single line then left the room in slow but uniform steps.

With an eerie voice, the clergyman declared in Latin, "ET LABRA EIUS TANGAS, TRADE EAM DOMINAE PRAMTDEA PRO EMUNDATIONE, UT ANIMAM TUAM PURIFICET USQUE IN AETERNUM!!" (and you may now touch her lips, deliver her unholy spirit unto Lady Pramtdea for cleansing and purify your soul until eternity!!). 

His feet; her lover's feet, touched the ground in an instant and Cranoai moved to caress his face. Lifting her chin, he placed a gentle kiss on her lips and she moaned in surprise then suddenly howled in pain. He deepened his right hand in her belly as she shrieked the loudest, her black dress soaking in thick blo. Od with every passing second. He continued to kiss her whilst she screamed and struggled to leave his strong arms. 

Thora felt something cold slide across her cheeks when the screams had faded out. Once the high-pitched wails had died.

Everyone including her, rose from the ground to their feet to chant the final ritual pattern, "Denique, nondum amissa, requies erit nostra vice", a strong wind whooshed into the room, its force capturing her lifeless body midair; Thora burst into uncontainable tears at the gory sight of the body's condition. Ancient voices whispered sacrilegious utterances; her body transforming into a stony statue of smiling Cranoai and for the last time, her voice was heard again. She screamed. She screamed her mother's name. 

The candles flicked off just then and everyone left the gothic church in happiness, leaving helpless Thora in the midst of a thousand statues belonging to several sacrificed women. Very young women.

She never imagined it to be like this. She always thought the sacrifice would be a channel to vast powers without the involvement of death. 

Sobbing, she crawled towards her daughter's statue, "Ich hätte nie gedacht, dass es so sein würde", (I never thought it'd turn out the way), she whispered in the ancient Germanic language, her trembling hands locked into Cranoai's stony feet with self-reproach and bitterness.