Mirabel’s Ritual Workshop: Outdoor Magic
Date: 2025-09-18 17:03
(Mirabel’s Ritual Workshop: Outdoor Magic)
[Thu Sep 18 2025]
A Shadow–Dappled Path Through the Quad/span>The brick-paved walkway cuts across the expansive quadrangle, its herringbone
pattern worn smooth by decades of foot traffic. Ancient elm trees line
portions of the path, their thick trunks casting long shadows that shift
throughout the day, while iron lampposts stand at regular intervals, their
glass globes darkening with age. The surrounding lawn stretches away on
either side, interrupted by stone benches and the occasional bronze statue of
long-dead benefactors, their faces weathered and indistinct. Gothic revival
buildings frame the quad, their limestone facades marked by narrow windows
and carved gargoyles that peer down from the corners, water stains trailing
from their mouths like dark tears. At certain points along the path, the
bricks give way to older cobblestones, and the careful observer might notice
how the temperature drops perceptibly near the eastern corner where the
oldest academic hall looms, its windows reflecting nothing but darkness even
on the brightest afternoons./span>It is afternoon, about 72F(22C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. The mist is heaviest At Hawthorn and Franklin/span>“There’s always at least one or two who turn up late,” Mirabel explains and pins a note to the wall below the contact posting. “Anyway, if we’re lucky, the weather holds up. If we’re not, well–that’s just part of the experience.”
“I have an umbrella just in case. I know it’s been raining a bit lately, this fall.” Buck says as he puts down the point of his umbrella and taps it on the sidewalk.
Teagan slings her bag off her shoulder after sending out another text and rifles around inside. “Mmmm… I might swing by my dorm on my way to my car. I’ve got a poncho there. Not a bad idea to grab it, probably. Well! I’ll see you all at the park.” And she scurries off.
“Good. Right! Let’s see,” Mirabel ventures and adjusts her glasses, squinting at the students. “Do any of you have any allergies? We’ll be going into the wooded sector of the park.”
Nemi shrugs softly and shakes her head. “Allergy free, I’ll meet you all there then?” She asks curiously.
Buck gives a nod, “We’ll see you there.”
Avalon lifts his hand at Mirabel’s question and answers “Iron” glancing at the leaving redhead with a huh, and the same noise given to Buck “It’s just water…”
“Do you want to ride with me, dear?” Mirabel asks someone on the way to her car. “Oh.”
Teagan has, indeed, arrived in one piece. Though with a slight change. A bow instead of the sword. Makes more sense in a park, maybe. She floofs out her sweater a bit for comfort’s sake, adjusts her bag, and angles towards the entrance they were directed to. Or at least where others seem to be gathering.
“Goodness, you must all have flirted with the speed limit,” Mirabel remarks after getting out of her car. “Well, here we are. This is the biggest park in the city, and parts of it are very much a wilderness,” she mentions and gestures towards the greenery. “If anyone gets frightened or cold, the way back to here will be southwest.”
Looking at his phone, Buck looks over at Teagan’s weapons and checks the city map, “Looks like it’s misty over in Elysium, which is northwest of Ivory Quarter. Almost due west of here, so we should be safe unless the wind blows east.”
“How lucky,” Mirabel says and smiles smugly at Buck. After a final look around, she steps off the sidewalk and into the park, beckoning the rest along with her. “Now, when it comes to magic in the great outdoors, keep one thing in mind: the ground remembers. Every footstep, every root disturbed, every drop of blood or sweat that’s soaked into it. When we work magic outside, we stir that memory. If we do it right, the land may answer.”
“Nature demands patience, mister,” Mirabel informs Avalon while trekking towards the wooded area ahead. “Miss Ivorstead, keep up! I don’t want you to get lost!”
“I hear arcanists with mastery do things faster, not slower” Avalon replies back to Mirabel with a shake of his head, stretching both arms before motioning around the park and asking “Are we going any deeper or are we staying around here?”
“The four quarters are rarely polite in nature. The air out here bites, water drowns, fire devours, and earth swallows whole. Indoors you have symbols; outdoors you have the real thing,” Mirabel continues and shushes Avalon. “We’re just waiting for young Nemi to catch up. Anyway, that’s why outdoor magic is less forgiving, and far more honest.”
Nemi nods softly as she coughs a bit, putting her phone away with a smile.
There is a glance toward Avalon as they approach him and the defense of her bow. Teagan gives a slightly surprised, but appreciative nod before glancing down at her phone. She taps something out, but still keeps pace with Mirabel as she listens to the lesson.
“A witch without the wild is a priestess without a temple. This is where that craft began: beneath the trees, in fields under the moon, at crossroads where the authoritarian men dared not tread,” Mirabel goes on, looking to Sophie while she trudges along. “Out here, there are no rules but the ones you can enforce with your will. Nature isn’t evil, but nor is it good.”
“It’s also better done in a proper forest than in…” Avalon says motioning around before finishing “A park within a city…” He says as if he was the one explaining, tilting his head to glance around, only a good couple seconds after saying with a bit of dismissal “At least it feels that way when shifting…”
“Yes, well, I’m not going to drive these restless youngsters to Maine,” Mirabel tells Avalon a little wryly. After venturing further into the trees, she stops and grins to herself. “Well, well. What have we here?”
Buck strolls through the paths as he looks into the trees, mentioning, “I’ve seen a lot of rituals done in this park and others in the city. Old Gran Mary uses a lot of the land in her rituals, and pulls from the ley lines of the waterways.”
Sophie looks around, inhaling sharply, visibly content. Her gaze moves to Avalon but she says nothing. Instead she just wanders along with the group.
“You could leave them alone in there for a whole week, that’d be a lesson they remember” Avalon informs Mirabel, his gaze switching between Teagan and Sophie with a perked eyebrow, asking with a little gruff a quick “What?” Not seeming to pay much attention to the effigy himself
Wandering along with the group, Teagan has tucked her phone away. Her sleeves have been allowed to fall mostly over her hands. It’s warm that way. She looks to Avalon as he asks ‘What?’ and gives a little shrug back to him. The redhead does seem to be working through a few things, but nothing that has her voicing any questions yet. *Yet,* but they may come. Then again, she is… not very magically adept. Even so, when Mirabel speaks up she does look forward and there’s a little frown at the effigy.
Sophie tilts her head at the crude figure, studying the swollen belly and cavernous mouth. “The round middle suggests fertility or harvest. It’s a vessel, made to take in offerings or to consume what is given to it. No eyes, no features, just hunger. That is common in folk magic constructs where the focus is not identity but function. It becomes a container for intent, whether that is to feed a spirit, ward off misfortune, or draw something in.” She looks around, “Wonder what it wants.”
“The seasons change and things die, leaves falling off of the trees. Perhaps this is the renewal and death of the seasons change. Cast off your burdens of the summer and enter the Harvest.” Buck says as he motions to the effigy, “The Wicker Man is usually a symbol of this.”
“Good observations, Miss Callum,” Mirabel says and gives Sophie a weighty nod of approval. She steps around the effigy, treading a little carefully on the rough forest floor. “How lucky to come across this,” she adds with a glimmer of amusement. “Oh, yes–death mustn’t be forgotten. There’s no life without it, is there?”
Nemi nods softly, taking notes on a fresh notebook as she hums softly.
Avalon seems to lose focus of the two girls as they all start talking about the effigy, directing his attention towards the thing, and listening to what each of the participants add, though by the expression of his face only actually getting about half of what they’re really saying. He pauses for a moment before telling Mirabel “But there is… Immortality is a thing” He replies, focusing on the single thing mentioned he knows he can refute, always arguing
It’s a little dark here under the dense canopy, but since it’s still daytime, it isn’t truly difficult to see anything. “Not in nature,” Mirabel tells Avalon primly and puts her hands on her hips. “Now, with autumn around the corner, what *mood* do you all imagine nature is in? Is it bursting with joyous energy and youthful vigor?”
Usually, Teagan would have a notebook out, but she doesn’t like writing in midair as it were. So she settles for her phone. It also affords her the ability to take photos of the effigy from a few different angles. She does approach nearer. “It hungers,” she answers in that quiet voice of hers. “Bears, chipmunks… animals all eating to prepare for winter. It wants to eat, to survive.”
Sophie glances around at the filtered light through the branches, then back at Mirabel. “I think it feels more like a winding down,” she offers. “The trees have given what they can, and now everything is pulling inward, storing strength. Like Teagan asaid. It is not sad, exactly, but there is a heaviness to it, like nature is preparing itself for rest.”
“Yes, very good,” Mirabel says and nods briskly to the students. “See, when we beckon to the land for our magic, we have to listen to it. We have to *know* it,” she continues, gesturing animatedly while she speaks. “Inside, it’s more about our own mood and inspiration. Out here, we are not wholly in charge.”
“There is a busy feel to nature, as all of the animals are harvesting and storing away things for the winter, so it is a time of change. The Ebb and Flow of the seasons is in full swing. Spring for planting, Summer for Growing, Fall for Harvesting, and Winter for staying the hell inside and sleeping until Spring.” Buck says with a chuckle.
Avalon crosses his arms and simply replies to Mirabel “Jellyfish” almost like that single word was an entire argument and he didn’t need to explain. He tilts his head towards the rest, almost surprised that they all seem to be agreeing, as if the conclusion for him wasn’t the same “A lot of species thrive in fall though… Some predators are more efficient and other mammals find it easier to find hiding or food- It’s not heavy or slow or anything… It’s just different”
Sophie glances at Avalon, “You’re a jellyfish.” She says with a smirk and then returns her gaze to Mirabel.
“The predators are also preparing for winter,” Teagan says toward Avalon, absently. “Eating heavily in autumn to prepare for the leaner months.” She gives a small shrug. “They’re more efficient because they have to be. As for jellyfish… you could argue that every ex number of years, they’re a whole new creature even if they’ve just been replacing cells as they go along.” She crouches down near the effigy, searching through the leaves and undergrowth for something like an acorn or similar. Once she’s found one, she straightens and gives it a gentle, light toss into the effigy’s gaping maw. To be polite. Or just out of curiosity. Maybe both.
Mirabel chortles lightheartedly at Sophie. “That settles that,” she decides and continues, “Now, we’re here to perform a ritual. I think we’ve arrived at the general theme of it, so we can move on to the practicalities. Who here thinks they know what the first step ought to be?”
“I could be if I wanted to” Avalon remarks to Sophie with a pointed finger, before he directs his attention to Teagan, lacking a lot of the understanding she might have about the subject, he simply argues “What matters in the reason? If things are thriving and moving fast, it isn’t slow… It’s like calling an evacuation slow, because people are getting ready to leave” Of course paying more attention to arguing than to Mirabel and the class, vaguely answering the teacher, without too much actual focus on the question “Blood?”
“If you were a jellyfish right now, you’d die.” Sophie says to Avalon before commenting to Mirabel, “We need to go find snacks for it!”
Nemi nods softly as she hums, thinking closely as she nods to Mirabel, smiling softly as she raises a hand. “The circle itself? If we are doing one- if not, Materials?” She asks curiously.
“Goodness gracious. I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves a little,” Mirabel remarks and scrunches her nose at Avalon and Sophie. “Don’t we usually begin with–yes! Well done, Miss Ivorstead,” she continues and nods sharply to Nemi. “It’s always prudent to begin by forming a circle. Why do we do this?”
“Looking at where we are…” Buck says as he looks up and around at the trees. “Is this space made sacred? Some levels of starting to weave intent may be useful before we start to do any sacrificial rituals. Perhaps preparing the space.”
As they come to discussing the ritual itself, Teagan goes quiet. She does glance to Avalon, but opts this time to not engage. She’s been disruptive enough in arguing! Instead, there’s looks to the others as they go back and forth with the planning of the ritual. Just soaking it all in as to what’s required. Her phone is held tightly against her chest as she bites the inside of her lip.
“I’d last a little while, I’d not die straight away” Avalon replies to Sophie, seemingly not minding to keep being disruptive of the class. Then, to add another great idea and throw it out there, he tells Mirabel “We can make the circle with blood… I’ve seen it before, and it saves the ritual consuming it from you later”
“Out here, I think we’ll need something a little more robust than that. We’d need to slaughter a cow to get enough blood. It’s not a linoleum floor,” Mirabel tells Avalon and gestures vaguely about the park forest. “Imagine how much it would take to make a circle that’s more than just chaotic spatters and stray droplets.”
Furrowing his brow, Buck motions around themselves at the fallen leaves and pine needles as well as all of the deadfall. “We’d have to clear a lot of ground foliage to make an unbroken circle. I believe the easier way is to do it with our bodies in the way of a binding geometric shape. Symbols have their meanings and power.”
Teagan does finally glance to her phone, typing out a quick message. She looks up to Buck. “I don’t mind clearing the area while everyone works on the rest.” She seems keen to have something to do, in fact, and even starts moving things aside with sweeps of her boot-covered feet. See? Helping.
Nemi coughs and sighs softly. “It’s the basis, a loop, container? Focus mostly. And what we build off of with symbols and where we place the offerings or other materials: She states as she nods. “But that can vary depending on method and such, and intent.”
“Right. It channels everything into a precise area and keeps the thaumaturgical currents from escaping. Spillage, essentially,” Mirabel says and nods to Nemi again. “I prefer not to form a ritual circle out of living bodies. It can be dangerous. Instead, why don’t we use stones?”
“I don’t think these original witches would have been concerned about the amount of blood drawn…” Avalon mutters more to himself than to Mirabel or Buck, maybe adding a hint of mockery in his tone, but nothing too overt. Then he lets out a sigh and asks the teacher, after the rock suggestion “And we stain those in blood?”
“Yes, well, our budget doesn’t cover the sacrifice of livestock for educational purposes,” Mirabel informs Avalon a little peevishly and gives off a huff. “You’re very welcome to bleed on the rocks if you’d like, but it isn’t instrumental to the process. The circle marks our target and concentrates our energies. That’s what matters.”
Teagan just focuses on the whole ‘clearing the area’ thing. If you take your time, sweeping with your feet isn’t too bad.
“Good, Miss Lawson. Try to form a circular outline. It’s not a ritual oval,” Mirabel calls over to Teagan and smiles blithely at her. “Let’s all collect some stones. We don’t need to build a wall, just mark the area clearly.”
“The ritual is going to devour it at some point anyways…” Avalon huffs himself, glancing around as if to start spotting some stone around the place, though not seeming to move to get them, simply locating the things “Whether outside or inside our bodies…” That he says until his attention returns to Sophie, perking his eyebrow once more and asking again, a little less patient “What?”
Sophie shakes her head, “Nothing.” She moves around looking for stones, turning over the soft earth now covered in leaves with her foot.”
Crouching down to look over some deadfall, Buck uses his blade to cut a few branches, clearing some of the area so that there isn’t so many weeds and foliage in the way. While he does so, he picks up some larger rocks and uses them as compass points at the North, South, East, and West.
“If we were proper witches, we’d go a good deal further into the woods and really embrace nature, leaving nothing between ourselves and the open air,” Mirabel explains and stoops to pick up a suitable rock. “But I think we’ll leave skyclad classes off the curriculum this year. We don’t want the attendance figures to drop.”
Fortunately, Teagan knows stage directions well enough that she can etch out if not a perfect circle than near enough. She starts with this as she goes around an area that seems the right size. It’s guesswork, but she’ll adjust however Mirabel directs her. Larger, smaller. And once the primary circle is etched out, she’ll start clearing from the inside out. But at least that overall shape is laid out for the others to start placing the rocks and whatnot into.
Lifting up another handful of rocks to place them in the circle, Buck mentions to Mirabel, “Skyclad classes are probably something left to tutoring and Teachers Assistants.”
Sophie smiles wickedly for a moment as she rubs her stomach, then shakes her head as if refocusing, “Uhm..right. Things.” She brings over some rocks, “Got these.”
Avalon only takes a couple steps back to leave room for the others to slowly build the circle, doesn’t really aid much in making the entire thing, answering Mirabel on the side as he glances around the different people “Might not be a bad idea… Definitely a much better way to learn- At least for certain topics” He waits for a beat before asking then “What ritual are you performing anyways?”
“Of course, rumor has it that Windermere has sometimes harbored fledgling witches who would sneak out of the dorms at night to really immerse themselves in the craft,” Mirabel mentions quietly to Buck and carries some rocks back to the effigy. “Hm? Well, we can call it a ritual of consumption.”
Avalon tilts his head at Mirabel’s comment, having exceptional hearing likely able to catch it, but without referencing it he simply asks “Don’t all rituals consume?” This time looking genuinely curious and less argumentative “I mean… What does it do after consuming?”
“It springs to life and chases down contrarians,” Mirabel informs Avalon and brushes her palms against the sides of her robe. By now, a circle of stones has been placed around the effigy, and she looks over the students. “Good work! And what, then, shall we feed it with?”
“Blood!” Avalon answers as if he had been waiting for this moment, and as if he hadn’t given the same answer and pestered Mirabel about it for a good couple minutes before the question was asked
Once the circle is deemed ready, Teagan steps away from it. And then a couple paces more for good measure. Just to make absolutely sure no one can mistake her for being *inside* of it. She glances down at her phone, then back up to Mirabel. There’s a look toward the effigy. “You could call it a ritual of giving. We are… feeding it. Giving. Thanksgiving is in Autumn.” A little shrug. “I have… some candy with me.” She almost whispers the last as if she doesn’t reeeeally want to offer.
Blood being needed might be one of the only things Avalon knows about rituals, and he’s stubborn and academically lacking enough to keep trying to press the same button over and over again
“I don’t think candy has quite the same magical oomph,” Mirabel admits and gives Teagan a fleeting grin. She squints pensively at the effigy and says at length, “Blood, then. It’s certainly traditional. None of you are anemic, right?”
Sophie laughs, “I’d be awful at rituals if I was afraid of blood.” She glances around, “Kinda a big part of it.”
“We feed it with intent. Sometimes physical objects that we wish to leave behind, an unburdening of ourselves to the sacrifice. Sometimes that is grievances we may have for others, or if we are using sympathetic magic and are willing to taint ourselves with darkness, feeding the maw those we wish it to consume.” Buck says as he settles into the circle, checking a few rocks next to him to make sure they are seated well.
“Well, Mister Ashford isn’t here, and I don’t know if he would fit through the mouth,” Mirabel tells Buck and beckons everyone closer. “We’ve settled on blood. A symbolic amount will do. I don’t want anyone to have to be carried back to the car.”
Avalon closes his fist in a downward motion of his arm, as if he had scored a point. At least in his mind. Before letting out a “Yeah, knew it…” Then he stares at Buck for a good couple seconds, probably uncertain, his answer seems more complete, so he feels the need to say “No, we settled on blood” Offering a nod towards Mirabel he remarks, simply because he lacks any knowledge to argue himself “Listen to the teacher”
Teagan has not yet moved. She just stares at the circle for the moment.
“Don’t worry, dear. We’re here to learn, not to push the limits of magic,” Mirabel assures Teagan and crooks a finger at her. “We’re not doing this at anyone’s expense. There’s nothing to fret about.”
Nemi nods softly as she continues to take notes with a soft hum, she chuckles softly as she nods in agreement with Mirabel. “He would talk a lot but he would surprise everyone with some very good memory work on previous lessons relevant to this one, he’s done that a lot lately.”
Rubbing at the center of her chest, at her collarbone, Teagan stares at the circle itself for a long moment. “If I see any zip ties, I’m gone. And I don’t care if I get in trouble for leaving another class.” Still, it takes her a long moment before she finally takes a hesitant step into the circle with the others.
Sophie furrows her brows at Teagan, “You won’t get into trouble for leaving class for a reason like that. Relax.”
“I suppose so,” Mirabel remarks and gives Nemi a short nod. “Now, magic is all about intent, and we’ll have to make it clear that we’re offering our lifeblood with purpose,” she continues soberly. “We’ll take turns, and each of us will have to put our hand in its mouth after making a cut.”
Taking his switchblade and slicing across his palm, Buck steps into the circle to squeeze out droplets of blood into the maw of the effigy.
“As above, so below. The seasons beckon and call.”
“We call to the spirits of nature, of winter soon, and Fall.”
“We give our very lifeblood, to sate it’s hungry maw.”
“And be with our intent, so does one, so does all.”
He steps back and puts the bloody knife down for the next person to use.
“The land is used to feeling blood spilled upon it, so if we faff about by dripping it on the ground or something, nature won’t see our intent,” Mirabel explains and rolls up her right sleeve.
“Go ahead. You can be next after Mister Ransom,” Mirabel tells Sophie and gestures towards the knife.
“Zip ties?” Avalon asks with a tilt of his head and another perked eyebrow, seemingly confused about the statement. But upon listening to Mirabel he reaches back towards the knife that he sheathed before, bringing it back out and waiting for others to go with their turns “Now, it’s not everything about intent… There’s rules, I’ve heard some bullshit justified under the premises of intent…” He gruffs towards Mirabel, before seemingly dropping the subject into an actual question and prompting “But anyways, if it’s intent and we are feeding it… Shouldn’t we know what we want it to do?”
“Thought you hated phones,” Teagan mutters to Avalon instead of answering the ziptie question. She does watch the knife as it’s set down for others to use. “Doesn’t seem very… sanitary.”
Sophie picks up the knife without hesitation, with a practiced motion she drags the blade across her hand, a thin line of red blooming on her skin. Stepping forward, she presses her cut into the gaping mouth, watching the drops vanish into the woven cavity, “As above, so below,” she echoes, her voice low but clear. “The wheel turns on, and autumn claims its due. We offer what is ours, that the balance may be true.” She lingers a beat, then steps back, leaving the knife behind for the next.
“I do hate them… Most modern tech actually… But my employer requires me to own one” Avalon replies to Teagan with a shake of his head, his eyes moving between Buck and Sophie, asking them “What are you two even reciting?”
“We already have a purpose in mind: to teach these youngsters the nuances of ritualism and give them examples of the considerations that go into a spell,” Mirabel informs Avalon, sounding a little miffed. “Since we’re not actually here to curse somebody with deafness or grant someone protection, it isn’t terribly important to fuel the ritual with a concise goal.”
Nemi follows along as she follows along and takes notes with a soft smile.
“Go ahead, Miss Ivorstead. Your turn,” Mirabel says and shoos Nemi towards the effigy, smiling patiently.
“No one is going to die or pass out like this… They won’t learn the nuances of ritualism” Avalon argues again to Mirabel, it’s almost as if arguing fueled him to keep going every day. But then he brings his own knife to his hand, making a superficial cut on it, waiting in place for Nemi to go first. Then he mentions “I’ve seen rituals explode before, the burns that leaves can help someone understand…”
“Historically, effigies like this and… giving to them was to thank the land for a bountiful harvest and to ensure a… mild winter. It wasn’t so much a ritual like, uh… those done-” Teagan is struggling in her usual methodology to fall back on her more textbook (and arguably mundane, though with ties to the metaphysical) knowledge. She keeps rubbing at her chest as she stares at the wicker creation. “It was a… well, a ritual, but in the lines of… ceremony more than say, spell casting. They did it because they thought it worked and so you keep doing it out of fear that if you stop, you’ll anger whatever gods and spirits kept the starvation and darkness of winter at bay.”
“Very good, Miss Lawson,” Mirabel says and gives Teagan a nod of approval. “And due to the deep roots that these beliefs have in our cultural history, the ritual – or ceremony, if you will – can indeed be used for magic. It’s the language of the land, which has been listening to this for as long as people have had words on their tongues.”
“Word of advice, any kind of fear actually draws darkness closer to you… It feeds on it” Avalon informs Teagan with a bright smile, not even bothering to comment on the rest of what she said, before asking Mirabel for confirmation, as he now has to deal with some blood pooling in his hand “Only feed it to the thing, yes? Not let it fall to the ground?”
Nemi nods softly taking the knife between her and the trees as she steps up with it, moving forwards as she presses the tip into her palm so she can drip blood into the mouth like the others as she sighs. Nodding. “As above, so below…. The wheel turns on, and autumn claims its due. We offer what is ours, that the balance may be true.” She states before leaving it behind and stepping back to bandage her wound.
“Yes, stick your hand in its mouth and let it swallow your blood,” Mirabel says and nods solemnly to Avalon. “Bonus points if you can do it without finding some way to disagree with the effigy and question its decisions.”
Avalon would likely do just as Mirabel said if he had any way to have a conversation with the effigy, or if it had any writting he understood on it. But as Nemi takes her turn to feed it with the blood, he takes a couple steps forward, pressing his big hand against the mouth of the thing and let some of the blood that was already pooling drip into it. Then he steps back to his original position, glancing down at an almost healed palm and commenting “What do I get with those bonus points?”
“A warm and fuzzy feeling of satisfaction,” Mirabel tells Avalon plainly and picks up Buck’s switchblade. “Miss Lawson, have you had your turn yet? I’ll go last.”
“I should have argued with the effigy” Avalon sighs out, going to cross his arms before looking at the blood stains in his hand, and giving it a single lick, before actually crossing the arms
“No.” Teagan has watched everyone else go. She has not yet moved. There is a look to the switchblade and with a closing of her eyes for a moment, she shoves her phone into her back pocket and moves forward, accepting the knife. There is hesitation and only some of it from the idea of, well, having to cut herself. Might be easy for some (especially those that heal quickly!). It does take her a moment but once she finally does draw the blade across her hand there’s a hiss and she drops it rather than sets it down (sorry Buck before stepping up to the effigy with a fist closed around a steadily growing pool of blood that gathers around fingers. A second’s hesitation before she extends her hand into that waiting maw.
Her lips move absently, but she doesn’t say anything aloud. Intent is intent. No one needs to know what she puts into it beyond the blood being offered. There’s a sort of rueful look into the darkness before she steps back, fist closing around the wound again and clasping her other hand over that. Not about to have to try to fight blood out of the sweater later as she retreats, staring sourly down at said hand.
“Very good,” Mirabel says quietly and picks up the switchblade again. Once Teagan is done, she carefully cuts across her left palm, not particularly deeply, and steps toward the effigy with a slightly grim expression. After putting her hand in its mouth, she begins to speak in a low, tense tone:
“Maw that gapes, maw that bleeds,”
“Take the breath that sickness feeds.”
“Flesh grows rot and blood runs thin,”
“Name and promise paid in sin.”
“Hunger swells, shadows weep,”
“What it swallows it will keep.”
As she does so, the darkness tightens around the wicker figure, and it briefly coalesces into the shadowy shape of an obese young woman around the same age as the students.
“There,” Mirabel says at last and takes a step back, wiping her palm on her robe. “That’ll do. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Sophie whispers quietly, “Hester…”
Avalon takes a couple steps back at the darkness starts taking shape, but after Mirabel asks, he tilts his head and points a finger towards the shadowy figure, asking “But what’s that supposed to do? Or be?”
“Never you mind,” Mirabel tells Avalon and gives him a fleeting, humorless smile. “Just an innocuous demonstration to give these impressionable youngsters some inspiration for their own forays into the world of magic.”
Teagan starts to reach for her phone, but looks at her other hand: now bloodied as well. Deeper frown and she just goes back to holding the one she cut closed firmly.
Nemi nods softly sighing as she looks up after she bandages her hand a bit with a soft nod.
“There are many ways to cast a spell, but if you just sit there with your arms crossed and mutter ‘abracadabra’ with a surly face, it’ll take rather a long time to get to the desired resuslt,” Mirabel says, gesturing vividly with both hands. “The more effort you put in, the more ceremony and well-practiced routines you invoke, the better you can channel your intent.”
“Well we made a shadow woman…” Avalon says motioning with his hand towards the illusion, assuming it is done by the ritual and not anything else “But it does nothing?” He asks almost with confusion, once more missing the point that Mirabel has been making constantly. But after her explanation, he seems to ask with curiosity “What about sorcery? Those don’t go through…” And trailing off, he waves an already healed hand around to signal the whole rock display
“In the same way as prayers, rituals, rote chanting, and other ways you see worship and other religions and will working, all of these are good ways to focus your intentions and see those intentions realized into the world.” Buck says with a nod.
“And with that, let’s say that was it for today’s class,” Mirabel adds and sighs contentedly. The illusion, having not been made to last, soon wanes and dissipates. “Well, it wasn’t a class on sorcery. We don’t want these reckless students to bring about the end of the world.”
Sophie seemed transfixed on the shadowy figure, but now it’s gone her gaze drifts down to the ground. The cut on her hand has healed, barely a line left on it, “The end of the world would be terrible.” she manages to say with a soft chuckle. After a beat her smile returns and she looks up at Mirabel, “Thanks for the class.”
Buck gives a tip of his hat, “Thank you, Professor Kane. It’s always a pleasure to sit in on these classes and learn a bit more about my own dabbling in the arcane arts.”
“You’re welcome, dear. I hope you got a few ideas that you can use when you practice on your own,” Mirabel says and smiles pleasantly at Sophie. “Of course, Mister Ransom. Goodness, it does get dark early at this time of the year, doesn’t it?”
Taking out a small handkerchief, Buck starts to wipe off the blood on the switchblade, putting it away after he cleans it thoroughly.
After looking around at length, Mirabel raises her right hand above her head and says, “Fiat lux!”
“But why doesn’t…” Avalon starts before letting a sound very similar to a bah, and trailing off instead of answering Mirabel the question. There’s another glance towards the ground and then he asks, not only the teacher but also the rest of the class “So… Now we go back?”
“We had better get back to the cars,” Mirabel says and turns away from the effigy. “I think southwest is this way.”
Once they’re dismissed, Teagan moves back out of the circle fairly quickly. Well, not too quickly. She actually stops at the edge and makes sure to scuff it over. It’s not like they actually *did* much of anything, but… you know. Just in case, right. “Things get dark here anyway. All the time.”
Buck nods as he glances to Sophie and says, “Sounds good, it’s about dinner time anyway.”
Teagan follows the others as she rifles around in her bag. A bandage is found! And wrapped around her hand finally. As is a little keychain flashlight that she holds between her teeth. Once the hand is bandaged (and she scrubs off her off-hand as best she can) she takes her phone back out. Her little tiny flashlight doesn’t help much, but it’s better than nothing.
Nemi nods softly, thinking for a moment. “So- What did we just do exactly or was that a practice ritual?” She asks curiously. “Just to clarify I did’nt sell my ‘soul’ to a druid or anything…”
Avalon lights up upon listening to Nemi, pointing a finger at her and beaming “Exactly!” Seeming validated with that, he turns his eyes back towards the teacher with a faint smile, he might have been the only to pester, but not alone in the thought
“A practice ritual. Nobody says you have to actually formulate a full-fledged spell every time,” Mirabel assures Nemi and pats her on the shoulder. “But when you do need a tangible effect, it’s important to know how to go about it, isn’t it?”
“The best way to get good at something is to go through the motions many times. These rituals you do every day, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, things like that? Put a little magic in those habits and you’ll find yourself quickly becoming proficient.” Buck notes.
“Do you think the army has to shoot enemies dead every time they run a training drill?” Mirabel asks and raises her eyebrows at Avalon.