| Soren Ruka |
| Rusty Keys Used Bookstore: Upstairs Living Space |
"Mmm..." Soren hummed from her throat, lightly musing over her predicament. Knelt on the ground, her torso was pressed tight against her legs, her face so low to the ground her nose nearly touched the floor. This close to the planks, Soren could easily inspect the tiny, crystalline grains that made up the edge of the the small salt circle.
Here in lay the problem. Every time she bent her face closer to the ground, her dark locks would fall away from her back and into the ring, little crystal cubes sticking onto strands of hair. She'd raise her head and shake the locks behind her, only for them to disrupt her inspecting once again when she bent her head floorwards.
An easy solution would be to tie her hair back, but bands restricted the free motion of her hair, not to mention pulled strands at the scalp, pulling them out before their time. Thus Soren recently took to allowing her hair to be tie-free... yet it was getting in the way of something as simple as a salt circle. "Mmm..."
If I use chrysanthemum powder... its too fine, too delicate, my hair would displace anything drawn with it. This wouldn't do at all...
Aha... An idea crept upon her. Raising her upper body, she carefully gathered her hair and tucked it into the back of her shirt.
There we go... Content with her solution, Soren lowered her upper body once more, this time able to eye the salt ring without hindrance. Using the back of her nails, she patiently scraped any stray salt crystals back to the ring. The more precise the ring, the stronger the spell's effect would turn out.
Finally satisfied with her
ring, Soren reached into her pouch and removed a small packet of folded paper. Pulling back the folds revealed a fine, pink powder.
Chrysanthemum powder. With her left hand, she removed from her belt a long metallic stem, which at one end was a small divot, making it look like a
spoon. A spoon for a mouse, perhaps. The tiny depression made it easy to remove just a pinch of the powder, and then place it on the wooden floorboards exactly where Soren wanted it. It took longer than if she'd used her fingers, but the symbol,
♃, within the salt circle came out looking that much more precise.
When she'd finished, Soren raised herself up fully, taking the weight of her body off her shins. The tall girl shifted a step to her right, looked straight forward, looked down at her work, then sat cross-legged. She faced her palms upwards, thumbs sticking out, putting the right one over the left one. Back ramrod straight, Soren kept her face strictly forward before clothing her eyes and exhaling deeply.
"
Lora Santum, Anos Santum, Lora Santum..." she repeated the chant softly.
It was a chant for protection, a chant for abundance of goodwill in this time of darkness. The news only ever talked about the dark things, the assaults, the murders... it upset the owners, her employers... she couldn't change any of it, but she could call for good energy to find them, her, this store. It was something, at least.
