Work Text:
If the secrets of witchcraft are what you seek, Dedicant—and be forewarned, the answers you will discover are not for the faint of heart—then attend me at my temple, lay your offerings of myrrh and yew upon the brazier, and breathe deep of their smoke as you heed these instructions.
First, you must stand before my altar clad only in the sky, for you must descend into my realm as vulnerable as you entered life. Then tie a band of cloth over your eyes, for sight will lead you nowhere in the land Between, and you must rely upon only your spirit to guide your feet. Naked and blind and carried on the fumes of my sacred herbs, you shall find my torch glowing before you.
Follow me down, down beneath the rotten leaves and dirt and stone, and pay no mind to the voices you hear in the darkness—they only seek to tempt you from your journey, and the bliss they offer is but the sparkle of fool’s gold compared to the secrets I will show you.
When we reach the crossroads, I will lay you down upon the earth, spread-eagled at that most hallowed of meeting places, and while you are bare and helpless, I will work my magick. With caresses of hands and goddess’s power, I will draw from your body pleasures and agonies the like of which you have never imagined nor will ever experience again, and each little death will feed my strength a hundredfold. Beneath my touch, you will writhe and beg for mercy, but I will not grant you oblivion until I have wrung from you every drop of ecstasy your pathetic mortal body can produce.
Only when this sacrifice has been made, when you are lying limp and broken upon the soil, then will I bring my lips to your ear, and in the dark of deepest night I will whisper to you the secrets of witchcraft.
And then you will be mine forever.