Saintess Summons Skeletons

“It is complete,” Ihuarah confirmed, standing next to the ritual circle occupying most of the temple’s main hall floor.

“Are the smelly black candles necessary?” Sofia asked, wondering what the hundreds of candles all around the ritual circle were and why they smelled so strange.

“For your first time, they are. They will help you find your way. Our merciful mother’s domain is… Rather peculiar. It would be remiss of me not to prepare at least that much for you, my lady, although I am afraid that is the most I am willing to do, lest I ruin the experience.”

“Alright… Got it. Do I just stand in the center?”

Ihuarah nodded, “Rightly so, I will take care of everything. Have a pleasant trip, lady Sofia.”

A pleasant trip?

Wondering what could be so special about Sorrow’s divine domain, Sofia watched Ihuarah cast a secondary spell overlapping with the ritual circle, and before she knew it, she was standing on the same ritual circle, somewhere else.

Woah. What a smooth transition.

She was in the Recessed plane without a doubt, but it felt very different from Death’s domain.

It had a few more colors compared to Death’s many shades of gray, though they were all in dark and warm tones, mostly blacks, dark crimson and deep brown. Sofia herself, unlike her usual need to form an avatar out of her divine essences light, already had a body and her senses this time. She was a fully black version of her demon form, reminding her of her recent time in the Sunless sanctuary.

Though it’s most likely some kind of shade this time, and not a Sunless? A divine shade?

Although she had her demonic body, it still felt a bit floaty, just as the Recessed and Divine plane always did.

So… I’m in some kind of house?

The room Sofia was in, rather spacious to accommodate the ritual circle, looked a bit like what one would expect from an old manor in the woods. Visible wooden beams, old leafy, spiraling carvings all over the plinths, a stone fireplace, old chairs, a tea table in a corner, shelves stacked with blurry trinkets. There was no sign of the candles but Sofia could still faintly catch their smell. The only source of light was the one tall window in some kind of protruding nook.

My senses can’t pick up anything outside the room. No bones anywhere.

Looking outside, Sofia could only see golden-gray mist, at first, the diffuse orange-ish light coming into the room seemingly coming from there.

Does this open?

Sofia opened the window, the sound of the howling wind becoming louder, and jumped outside, walking on the strange mist with [Dodge-me].

She took a few steps back, observing the window. What she thought might be a house or mansion of sorts turned out to be stranger than she expected. It indeed looked a bit like a mansion, except it was a cliffside-like wall. She couldn’t see too far because of the mist, but she could count at least three rows of windows both up and down.

That’s one tall mansion. I can no longer smell the candles from here.

Sofia wanted to let herself fall to see if she could find the ground, but decided against it, returning inside of the room and leaving through its only wooden door.

Hmm, straight long corridor with no lights. And it looks like there is also fog inside?

Sofia herself was emitting a weak red light, enough to see even in the dark corridor.

While Sofia silently observed the wide corridor, she heard footsteps, faint but seemingly coming closer, someone walking on the corridor’s central carpet.

Is mother coming?

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Sofia decided to wait. A warm light pierced through the fog in the corridor on her left, someone was coming, holding a black candle. Sofia watched as they stepped out of the fog.

It was clearly a woman with long wavy hair, wearing a frilly robe and a tiny hat. But she was like Sofia, a fully black form, with a hole in her chest. Though compared to Sofia’s this woman’s hole was only the size of a coin. Sofia had almost not noticed it.

An actual shade? A previous Apostle?

“Hello?” Sofia tried, seeing that the black silhouette had stopped when she spotted her.

The black woman seemed to nod to Sofia, though it was hard to clearly see, before she started walking again. She walked past Sofia without a word, and continued until she disappeared into the fog again.

Well… That could have gone worse?

It’s the first time I’ve seen someone other than a god in a divine domain. And there are actual colors too.

As expected, mother’s domain is superior.

But hmmm… What now?

Sofia decided to walk in the direction the woman had come from. The wooden floor under the carpet creaked from her steps, and she could still faintly hear the wind outside. After a bit she found another door on her left, the side of the cliff.

She knocked, just in case, and slowly opened the wooden door.

… Classroom?

There was a chalkboard, six tiny desks arranged in two rows, a few shelves stacked with paper along the corridor-side wall, and two windows on the outside, where one could see nothing but the mist.

There were a few light-gray inscriptions on the dark-gray chalkboard, in a language Sofia couldn’t even begin to read. It resembled nothing like anything she knew, but from the way it was put together, with blanks and repeated symbols, it looked like a mathematical lesson.

What the… Is there an actual entire civilisation just living in mother’s domain? With kids that have a need to learn maths?

I always thought the divine domains were all… Well… Empty?

… Is this where lesser demons come from?

Those disgusting things I fought in the temple?

But if that lady from earlier is anything to go by, there are actual people here, very different from those things… Then maybe those are the ‘higher’ demon counterparts?

Hmm… Or are those regular demons and we Apostles are the Higher?

That could make sense. The lady from earlier had a distinctly human frame and size, though.

How strange, and fascinating.

For reasons Sofia couldn’t even begin to comprehend, some things around her were almost too blurry to see, while others were fully clear and sharp. She struggled to see the objects in the tiny compartments under the individual desks, but had no issue seeing the papers stacked neatly on the shelves. She picked one up, it was covered in symbols similar to the chalkboard, seemingly written in some kind of black ink, but the handwriting was clearly messy in comparison.

They really have kids taking lessons here.

That’s… Are these people born here, then?

That might even be why that lady from earlier didn’t answer. She might not even know the common language. She must speak that. Sofia thought, observing the messy squiggles on the page. Perplexed, she returned the paper where she had picked it, and left the classroom.

Ihuarah… Didn’t want to ruin the experience, huh? Well I certainly wasn’t expecting that.

Leaving the classroom, she continued in the corridor. She thought the smell of Ihuarah’s candles was going to guide her, but it was still the same faint intensity so far, having only disappeared when she flew outside.

She passed by another few doors that she didn’t bother to open, she was rather hoping to hear signs of life, and maybe ask her way around. She didn’t hear anyone else for a bit, but she eventually heard some music. The faint sound of a slow melody played on a piano.

The darkness of the corridor and the howling wing made the place feel a bit somber, and the piano’s melody sounded more somber than anything else, yet Sofia felt oddly at peace here. The heavy atmosphere that even herself would have usually deemed unsettling she couldn’t help but find relaxing, like she was walking through her own manor, her own corridors, a safe place that she instinctively knew was free from danger.

As she followed the sound of the piano, taking a turn to the right at a junction in the corridor, it started raining heavily outside. The sound of the rain almost masked the piano, but Sofia kept following it, eventually finding a door to a wide hall. She was on some kind of indoors balcony overlooking said hall,where the piano sounds came from.

There he was, a fully black man like the lady from before, playing the piano on the ground floor. Looking around, Sofia could see multiple similar small balconies, with a few shade people looking over the railings, listening to the music just like she was, no one paid any attention to her arrival.

Hmm? The smell got a bit stronger. I’m probably in the right direction?

Wait. This one shade out there. It isn’t human.

Avian???