The Coven- rupture.

 The door,stood ajar; half broken, like a hard stab or a dark question mark. Amongst the fallen walls, and gaping ceiling; She stood quietly, staring into the rupture, and with it, the sad desecration and wanton ruin that now confronted her. In the pale moon light she could see that the coven room was destroyed. A great gash laid open, with wide ruin everywhere. Even the great oak shield had been penetrated - and with it the seer glass, which now lay obliterated on the high altar floor. All connections would be cut now, the meso threads gone forever. Her immediate reaction was to flee, to re- enter the dark, but that option was impossible. The laminar had been pierced with her entry. If she were to return now, the malevolent magic of the place would follow after her, and enter their world. Oak wood would be destroyed. She could try to counter, there was danger in it, she knew that. But to use shield magic within darkness such as this; meant only that more darkness would come. In spite of the dread that was now rising, she knew that there was only one option- she had to press on, and she had to press on, without magic, and alone.. Moving deftly, as if not to disturb the ongoing tremors of discordant memory spells; She picked through the destruction, circling round the silence of upturned energies that, now hovered ,disembodied, writhing and deforming; even as the walls seemed to contort within the material body of the remaining space. A space which seemed to be imperceptibly shifting from moment to moment; as if something strange, and truly grotesque was forming. She didn't have much time. Soon the dark transformation would be complete, and with it the last threads of the light essence would recede . Then the heathen would come. Whatever happened , She mustn't be here then for that. Already she could feel the once bright great room, beloved to them all, now seething with an unbridled hostile resentment of her. Soon the rejection would be complete. She shook her head sorrowfully“ Angaraad what have you done? “. hadn't Gruen warned warned them ? But the fault of seeking dangerous knowledge had always been too easy and too quick with her sister. The death of the child had just provided a ready excuse. “But still this Angaraad ?” She thought sadly surveying the embers and still smoking chaos that lay at her feet.

The night was stretching, she could feel it, the layers, becoming dense and intertwined, the fibres of the dark separating, flipping under to a darker line. Over head the moon seemed to pivot back through the black phalanges of writhing trees, which even now seemed to growl, in the absence of any wind. The night moon was turning. There was no use lingering, The marks had been made, complete and irreversible magic had been done- soon the waldrag would come. She shivered. Whatever remained of this place was theirs now, to be fouled and irrevocably stained. There had always been skirmishes on the the outer ring,the old ones of told of it, even in the mother's time- but nobody ever thought that the oak heart could fall. The death dogs would penetrate the unter land. It was theirs now. Angarad in her folly had let them in. Why hadn't she waited for the counsel?

For a final time, she looked to the heaped ruins and dark remains of the coven room, the upturned objects of veneration, now blacked and ashed and desecrated, forever beyond repair- the holy scent herb, and it's sweet woody pungence, still strangely present in the remains of once burning air. Her kind would never come to this part of the world again. The only option now was to reach Moriah. But dare she brave the outer rings alone? Without the protection of the counsel or the silver oak?. . These thoughts came brimming now, as she started to retrace her steps; picking a way through the destruction towards the half fallen, once mighty oak door, each step filling her with more despair and dread. All was lost now, her life was forfeit, she was trapped in the veil, with no hope. She was alone. Hopelessness came upon her, now like the ending of all the worlds at once. And with the despair, came a single tear, that hit the floor of ruin. Settling for a moment, before seeping and stretching out, until strangely it started to glow for a moment; like a half second flicker of brief silver.. A withering trace of gently fading light, as if some scent or semi mark, had happened upon it, and seemed to glow up from the floor- struck , she stood still for a moment, letting her eyes focus on the faint and disappearing outline, before moving gently down to examine it further- but it couldn't be? Could it? Was soemthing else other than darkness and Angaarad's folly here tonight? Her heart began to swarm, rising through her , as she now saw, within the destruction the receding silvering half shapes, of serial marks that led out towards, and beyond the door. Something had moved into the forest. A very slight, and gently fading glow, one after the other the unmistakeable, light magic prints of a holy animal . Could the movement of such dark magic have stirred him? Could it really be? “ But she knew it, even before the answer even came- the quickly fading light, told of an older magic. Angaarad the desecrater, was being pursued by the last, and only hope for their kind. .MB