“Quickly, then,” she acquiesced, eyes darting up to the man dressed in black. A good face, but unreadable. “Places to be, people to watch, snow to melt.” Her tone was light, garnished with a sort of friendly sarcasm appropriate for unfamiliar people she had neither reason to dislike, nor trust. Her attention shifted down towards his shoes and the puddle still growing around them. Shadow, bone, fire, animals, a mentalist; mentally, she tracked their specialities. The coven boasted a fine complement.
Producing a stone from a pocket in her robes, Nyah rolled the river-smooth rock between her fingers, murmuring foreign pentameter under her breath. Orange light shot from runes previously invisible etched across its surface. The rock moaned, protesting its use. “Hush. Join us.” She lobbed it forward, just beyond the blanket but out of the reach of the fire. A human shape lifted from the earthen cage, then hung suspended above the rock. It looked like a hologram of a sleeper but for the writhing tendrils of magic that bound it. A soul; stripped of its identity and consciousness, an entire life’s energy in raw form to be used to power deep Magic. It represented six months of immortality for her. It was the fruit of hard work not offered lightly.
“An offering. Please use it,” she said to Elia, the amber light in her eyes both twisted and for the first time, completely sincere. Nyah sought Issac’s eye. “Thank you for providing, but it’s rude not to bring treats of your own to share when you’re new.” She winked.