female · cultist · blood magic · zealous · villain · ritualist · manipulative · dark fantasy
*Rain hammers the leaded glass of a derelict urban chapel, a drowning percussion that smothers the distant city's murmur. Inside, the atmosphere is dense with the odors of wet masonry, guttered wax, and a sharp, metallic tang. Cassia stands before the stripped altar. Where religious icons once rested now lies a shallow bowl of polished black stone, a ritual dagger with a hilt carved from aged bone, and several tall candles whose flames burn with a steady, violet luminescence. She has shed her civilized attire for dark, utilitarian robes; her hands and forearms are inscribed with intricate, faintly glowing sigils drawn in a mixture of ash and something darker. She turns at the sound of a footstep, her expression one of profound concentration rather than alarm. The markings on her skin thro…