A folktale from a village up north speaks of the Eclipsal Ritual. Listen closely, for this village has since migrated elsewhere unknown and this is the last remaining copy of it.
The Eclipsal Ritual may seem fabricated to your eyes, but reality is relative.
The Eclipsal Ritual is a method for someone to grant themself a wish by meeting the Deity that the village worshipped and asking her for their wish. The Ritual can be very easily completed or near impossible, but regardless the first step is to enter a deep trance through meditation.
As a sorceress, I have been rejected by the village and now walk through this empty home alone. I look after their empty fields as penance, but this is penance not for my sorcery but for people lost long ago to the ritual. If the only way to share this warning is to an ear that refuses to hear it as anything more than fiction, I am willing.
I have ensnared memories from some already lost to the Eclipsal Ritual; this is my shrine to the fallen. Come visit me if you need what you call evidence, I will show you the macabre visions I see every night.
I have spent so long trying to convince others not to fulfill the Ritual in their desperate bids for luxury, but my attempts have only earned my sorcery’s exile from the new village, so far away from where we once all lived. Where the other villagers once lived.
But they have cast me, the Sorceress, the one person who knows anything of what happens in that trance, away from the rest of the village. They left when I was in the forest gathering herbs. They only left me a crumpled letter about their migration.
It didn’t tell me where they were migrating to.
My past may seem fabricated to your eyes, but reality is relative.
I will describe the memories housed in the shrine honoring those lost to the Ritual. Believe them to be fictional, or not, but heed my warning against committing this Ritual.
The memories are from the eyes of each victim.
Case #1: Amaya
[Amaya appears to have had already commenced the meditation before the start of this memory.]
The vision from the memory is black for three minutes until light floods the entire view. A figure crouches in the middle of the light but only its silhouette is visible. The light dims, and the figure’s features are clearer. The figure’s features are impossible to describe as they phase in and out.
Amaya lets out a scream.
Amaya: You- you have flowers growing out of your sockets!
Figure: Why have you come?
Amaya: I…I wish to complete the Eclipsal Ritual.
The figure appears to laugh.
Figure: Eclipse was what they called me. They called me a Deity.
Amaya: You…you are the Deity that my village worships?
Figure: Yes. I…
Amaya seems to have taken a step forward as the view moved closer. The figure freezes mid-sentence, then collapses and vomits black liquid.
Amaya: Oh my god.
Amaya starts hyperventilating.
Figure: Do you know why I’m a Deity, child?
The feature earlier described by Amaya phases back into view. The flowers are rotting.
Amaya: Oh- oh god this was a mistake-
Figure: Your village sacrificed my innocence, my life, for my deification. I was always a good child, the very embodiment of perfect.
Amaya: Please, I’m so sorry, please just let me go home. I didn’t know.
Figure: You have come for a wish. But you are not worthy.
The vision blurs slightly at the edges.
Figure: I will grant you peace. Nothing more, nothing less.
Amaya: What? Oh my god thank you thank you-
Figure: Sleep now, child.
All light is extinguished. Amaya’s cries are silenced.
Figure (supposedly): You had a dark soul. But rest now, child. This is something I was never given, so cherish it.
Amaya’s cause of death is listed as a heart attack.
Case #2: Sierra
[Sierra appears to have had already commenced the meditation before the start of this memory.]
The vision from the memory is black for five minutes until light floods the entire view. A figure crouches in the middle of the light but only its silhouette is visible.
Sierra: Have you seen my sister?
Figure: Why have you come?
Sierra: To find my sister. Where is she? She…she left us after she went through this ritual.
Figure: Your family claims it to be a coincidence. Do you not trust them?
Sierra: I do, but…but I still want her back.
The light dims, and the figure’s features are clearer.
Figure: Such purity.
Sierra: I’m sorry?
Figure: Speak, child. What is your wish?
Sierra: I told you, I just want Amaya back. She’s my sister.
Figure: I see. Step closer, child.
Amaya seems to have taken a step forward as the view moved closer. The figure collapses and vomits white liquid.
Sierra, after a minute of silence, in a tentative tone: Are you okay?
Figure: I apologise, child.
Sierra: …You can’t bring my sister back?
Figure: I have waited far too long for my peace. I cannot give up this chance.
Sierra: What do you mean?
Figure: Only a pure soul may be deified.
The light suddenly grows much, much brighter. Only the silhouette of the figure is visible.
Figure: My life, my soul, was sacrificed so I may become a god. Every moment in this cursed existence… I have grown weary of these chains.
Sierra: Wait, wait please don’t-
Figure: And as follows, only a pure soul may take over them.
Sierra screams.
The view moves downward, revealing a wound in her chest. No blood leaks out.
Figure: Goodbye. I wish you luck in your new duties.
Sierra screams again.
The view fades away, but the audio remains.
Sierra, supposedly: What did she do to me? I….it’s so loud. I hear everything. It hurts- it hurts it hurTS EVERYTHING HURTS-
Closer examination discovered that plants had sprouted into Sierra’s heart, killing her instantly. A new scar was also found on her chest.
Her cause of death is listed as divine intervention.
Case #3: Qiana
The vision from the memory is black for five minutes until light floods the entire view. A figure crouches in the middle of the light but only its silhouette is visible.
Qiana: I come to ask for a wish.
The light dims, and the figure’s features are clearer. The figure’s features are impossible to describe as they phase in and out.
The figure appears to cry.
Qiana: …I…. [Qiana exhales]…I wish for immortality.
Qiana steps forward. The figure appears to then collapses and vomits grey liquid.
Qiana hesitates.
The figure appears to beckon to Qiana with an outstretched hand(?). A single violet gem in it phases into sight.
Figure: Take it quickly.
Qiana steps forward, grabbing the gem. The figure appears to scream. Qiana rips out the gem.
The figure, shrieking: Consume it! Consume it and gain your wish before I drain your life away, you ingrate!
Qiana stares at the gem, then consumes it.
I gained immortality. The ritual worked.
But the Deity’s scream haunts me every night. Of course, I had already done my own investigation and seen the others’ memories, so her scream only joined the chorus of despair.
I wonder if it was worth it. I only asked for immortality to warn others of the Eclipsia Ritual.
But I’m so tired now.
I see why the first Deity, Eclipse, saw death as freedom. Is it not a respite from this hellish reality?
Of course, reality is relative, so you may not think similarly.
But I do.
I saw with my own eyes how much the Deity suffers. I’ve seen those rotting blossoms crawl out of her eyesockets. I’ve seen the clots splay outside her white veins.
Being a god was never a gift, never something to be celebrated. Or maybe it is; maybe gods above us all laugh and bath in righteous glory, but not the Deity. Maybe this is punishment for the murder of Eclipse from so long ago.
But this, is this not punishment enough? For crimes from so long ago? Was it long ago? I don’t know, immortality blurred reality.
I think I released a spell one day to remove everyone’s memory of the Eclipsia Ritual, and with it any memories of me, Sierra, Amaya, Eclipse and any other soul lost to the Ritual. They no longer know me as Qiana, but as the Sorceress. I compelled them to move elsewhere- did I? I don’t know. What’s the time? I- how long have I been here typing? Why am I typing anyway?
…Oh. Of course. I was documenting the Eclipsia Ritual.
This will be the last document about it, I have destroyed all other traces of it. Believe it fiction, or not, but the Eclipsia Ritual dies with me one way or the other.
Do your part, I beg of you. Don’t ever let anyone else complete the Ritual. I’ll do my part, erasing everyone who has already completed it.
I’m prepping to complete the ritual one last time. I’m going to meet Sierra, or whichever soul was forced into deification after her. I’m going to ask for one more wish.
Previously, I asked for life.
This time, I’m begging for death.