<blockquote><div><cite>Carni-vore wrote:</cite>(...Oh I see where this is going for Tobi &gt;.&lt;)</div></blockquote><br/>(( I think I have a hunch as well. ))<br/><br/>Turin went to a small table and from the drawer took out a black bag. From inside he took out a purple china bowl engraved with ravens that encircled around the base, flying upwards to the rim. He placed it on the table. Zaida reached into the top drawer of her desk, took out a crystal bottle of clear fluid and poured it into the bowl. She looked at Turin.<br/><span style="color: purple">"Blood, Turin. We need blood."</span>Turin looked aimlessly around the room then cast a worried, blank look at Zaida.<br/><span style="color: purple">"Your blood, Turin. I need your blood."</span>She beckoned for Turin to step closer.<br/>"But I only have enough for myself--I can't spare any--I'll dry up," he pleaded as he took a step back away from Zaida.<br/>From the drawer Zaida took out a small knife and held it towards Turin.<br/><span style="color: purple">"I don't want a bucketful, just a drop. I promise this won't hurt."</span><br/>She made a sudden grab for Turin and managed to get hold of him by the arm. She pulled him to the desk and held his right hand over the bowl, stabbing the small sharp tip of the blade into Turin's thumb. She squeezed two large drops of blood into the bowl and with the knife blade, swirled them around in the water. The shocked Turin jumped back from the table and screeched like a clor. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and sucked the wound, looking like a large draped baby.<br/>"You lied. It hurt! And you took it all," he squawked at Zaida, thumb in mouth.<br/><span style="color: purple">Come, my friend, and look into the water."</span><br/>Zaida placed her palms over the swirling water. Closing her eye, and in a deep voice that was not her own, she began to speak.<br/><span style="color: purple">"Veran-Kaikos-Theon-Anethean."</span><br/>As she spoke the words, the water began to turn black and whirl in the bowl like a captured storm.<span style="color: purple">"Show me, Veran, Dark Lord from above, show me,"</span>she intoned loudly as the water turned to dark silver, and froze like thick ice. In the reflection Turin saw a house appear. It was a small cottage, set in the woods by a stream.<br/><br/>((Hmmm...I might cut that last bit out. For fairness. But right now I have an appointment to keep. ))