un: shadowheart | text

[tocastashadow]

I'm looking for a healer. A professional, mind, not an overconfident buffoon with an ice-pick.

There must be medical techniques in other worlds that don't exist in mine.

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[tocastashadow]

I'm familiar with such things. [All too familiar.] I have no fear of the dark.

[She may have been forsaken by the goddess of darkness, but she spent a lifetime worshipping her. She knows what it is to live in darkness, and she knows what it is to draw on darkness for one's power.

But there are some lines she's unwilling to cross again.]

What would this dark spell-craft involve, exactly?

[matermali]

[ Vanessa can't help but wonder just how far into the darkness this woman has tread. ]

I cannot say for certain the details, as I have not attempted to remedy something of this particular nature. But I may be able to communicate with what is inside of you, to banish it or force it into a sort of slumber. Something much more involved than what you saw at the entrance.

[tocastashadow]

It isn't going to involve human sacrifice, is it?

[Gods know she's killed in Shar's name, and committed torture in Shar's name. But she never wants to hurt an innocent again, not even if it would mean saving her own life.]

[matermali]

[ The scoff is soundless, but perceptible, as Vanessa shakes her head. She can understand why the woman might worry about such things, given what was required simply for her to gain entry. ]

No matter how I may seem, I am no witch. Such deplorable rituals are for those who serve the prince of the pit, which I assuredly do not.

[ Despite her absolutely having undertaken Satanic ritual, and this may not be so far off from that...

Except he isn't here, so she'll make her own like she has everything else. ]

But it may involve blood.

[tocastashadow]

[She vaguely wonders who the 'prince of the pit' is. Asmodeus, maybe, or Belial. Isn't the Pit of Flame in Belial's realm? Not that it matters; she understands Vanessa to mean that she doesn't worship devils.]

More than devil-worshippers practice human sacrifice. But I take your meaning. As long as the only blood involved belongs to you or I, I'm not opposed to the idea.

[She raises an eyebrow.]

What would you ask in return?

[matermali]

[ How much human-sacrifice has Shadowheart encountered to consider it such a possibility in various circles? The world she comes from seems incredibly brutal, even by Vanessa's standards. It will be a curious thing to eventually learn if there is anything beautiful for the woman to recount. ]

Ask?

[ An understandable assumption, but this seems the sort of thing that would benefit all, really. Vanessa is paid enough in company, so long as the woman doesn't end up dead (or worse). ]

For your faith, I suppose. It is not an easy thing to trust another with your own trials.

[tocastashadow]

[She lets out a short, humourless bark of a laugh.]

You're right about that. Faith is no easy thing.

[Vanessa truly expects nothing in exchange for this service she offers? Well then. As long as no one else is getting hurt, Shadowheart would be a fool not to at least see what these unconventional methods entail.]

But I'm willing to try.