The Drow Queen of Glaley [Very NSFW]

[Shiori]

"Do we have time?"

[Jassinth]

"I need at least three hours before we can start any rituals," Jass explains, leaving out how he'll have to basically poison himself first. Faster to get his recent meals up than out, alas. "And exerting myself will help. I could simply do sprints but..."

[GamesMaster]

"Then, I accept."

Over the next hour or so, he finds that Tsuki is definitely less experienced than he is, but well trained, especially for essentially a foreign princess. 

[Jassinth]

Jass quietly slips away twice while the two sisters are sparring to be ill, returning the second time with a pot of herbal tea to broth rinse his mouth and soothe his stomach. Seeing that the bulk of the general purpose reagents have arrived by then, Jass calls for the two to cease. "I don't suppose there are any servants, fit and experienced with rowing, for our trip to the shore?" he asks hopefully.

[Shiori]

"I'll ask to borrow the family groundskeeper. He's a burly young man."

[Jassinth]

"Right then," Jass says, breath rushing out sharply. "Right then," he repeats, a hint of the nerves he's been trying to let drift in the wind settling in his voice. Raplin and Maeve, please aid me in this cause. Help me keep Shiori and her child safe. 

[GamesMaster]

Two experts arrive, along with four porters bearing a large, coffin-like box between them. In the yard, where it will be easier to draw a ritual circle, they unpack the contents:

The fresh corpse of a tiger. 
The fresh corpse of a bear. 
Another fresh tiger corpse.
The fresh corpse of a wolf. 

"Is this enough bone and blood?" one of the experts asks, bowing nervously. 

[Jassinth]

Jass had stared at the first box, had his eyes closed for the second and had accepted the results of his careless words by the third. "...yes," he says quietly. "Thank you for your help."

[GamesMaster]

"Anything for House Higurashi, my lord," he replies quietly, sounding a bit relieved. 

[Jassinth]

"I suppose so," Jassinth replies, uncaring if the words are unpolitical. Shaking his head, he moves to the first body, an adult wolf just entering his prime. I'm sorry, wild one. I will ensure your death contributes to the living. Without another word, he gets to work, butchering the corpse with nearly two decades of skill and practice. It takes him two hours to fully process the bodies, creating neat piles of skins, bones, organs, flesh and clay urns filled with blood. He rather doubts the two tigers will be of actual ritual use, given that they're very much not native to the area, but their claws and fangs will serve well to ease the burden of calling forth dire or similar beasts. And, of course, their meat will be taken much better as payment than the flesh of their own kind.

It's hard, harder than he'd have thought it would be a year ago when he last helped Granny Peli perform this very ritual. Helping the archdruid taught him what he needs to perform it himself, yes, but her literal centuries of practice and wisdom cast a misleading illusion upon the difficulty. Still, he does have the knowledge. He has good, even excellent materials. He has two assistants, one deeply blessed by nature and the other... Tsuki is willing and quick to learn, which is no small help in a ritual. It also helps that the ritual isn't that complicated; very few of Ere'lyn's rituals are, given the nature of the goddess in question. Some lines of blood on the ground, bones, teeth and claws arranged in a pattern. More drops of blood, these from Jassinth. Earnest words spoken in cadence. 

A deep growl from the rice paddy nearby, a growl that grips the heart and echoes in the base of their skulls.

[GamesMaster]

Surprisingly, it's not the growling monster out in the paddy that arrives first; while everyone is staring nervously that direction, a keen comes from above as a golden eagle easily eight feet long comes crashing down into the circle, wings obliterating the runes. With another defensive scream, it begins ripping at the meat offering defiantly. 

[Jassinth]

Jass noticed the eagle first, noticed it in time to warn the others even, but did no such thing. Instead, he had stared at the eagle as if seeing a ghost. He tries to speak, to welcome the auran predator, but the words fail to pass the lump in his throat.

Arthur... 

[GamesMaster]

The eagle tilts his head just so, in just the same way, and for a moment, it's as if Jass is seeing his old friend once more. Then the moment passes, and the eagle goes back to tearing at its prey. 

It doesn't have full reign for long. Soon, a fox the size of a wolf comes trotting out of the rice paddy, ready to fight the eagle if need be. 

[Jassinth]

"Tsuki," Jass says, voice low but not bothering to whisper; trying to sound stealthy would just set the two beasts on edge anyway. He gestures at the fox, cueing her to coax them to the meat and organs that hadn't been laid out. Two? At once? Fuck. I did something wrong after all. Or, well, so right it's wrong anyway. 

[GamesMaster]

Tsuki freezes a moment as she sees the red fox, hand over her mouth, then she moves, laying out meat before it and bowing as she does.