<h4>Chapter 185: n nc’s Turning Ritual</h4>


    The moon stood directly above the estate... full, white, and watchful... suspended like a celestial judge. Midnight had arrived. The air was dense with stillness. It was not windless, but even the breeze moved with reverence.


    The nc n’s estate was no crumbling relic of nobility... it was a living legacy, centuries old yet immactely preserved. Its grand vis, nestled within the ancient woonds of the north, bore the weight of bloodlines that had survived kings and empires. The n head’s vi, thergest and most secluded, stood beyond a vast circr garden. Stone pathways divided rows of meticulously maintained hedges and perennial blooms, shaped by invisible hands into elegant geometry.


    Tonight, that cultivated beauty concealed a ritual older than any human text... buried beneath years of deliberate design and generational secrecy. Between beds of foxglove, hellebores, meadowsweet, and white roses, something ancient slumbered. Not even the estate’s gardeners would notice the symmetry beneath the soil ... unless they witnessed it before. The garden, curated through generations, had long been prepared for this sacred asion. Yet to the untrained eye, it was nothing more than a tranquil disy of floral perfection.


    A crowd had gathered just beyond the garden’s outer wall... n members, elders, and descendants, all cloaked in silence. No one dared to speak. The Turning Ritual was rare, sacred... and dangerous. Not all who entered its binding light returned as wolf.


    Those chosen from the nc n to participate in the ritual stood still to a side, each draped in ceremonial ck robes, breaths held... as if the very act of exhaling might disturb the delicate bnce of the night.


    From beneath the vi’s great stone arch, Juliette nc emerged. Her figure was ghostlike in the gentle light of the moon. Her ceremonial robe, close-fitted and ck, was inscribed with veins of glimmering gold sigils that shimmered subtly with each breath. Behind her walked La Monroe.


    La’s steps were steady, but tension coiled in her form... shoulders held too tight, eyes locked too firmly forward. Her own ck robe trailed behind her, its golden runes glowing faintly, like a secretnguage known only to the old blood. Her face was pale... not from fear, but from solemn resolve. Even so, her breath trembled visibly in the moonlight. She said nothing. None of the witnesses did. Even the air seemed to hold its breath.


    Juliette led her across the garden’s central path and into the very heart of the circr space.


    There, at the centre, stood the stone tform... a wless b of pale granite, carved from a single block and set within a ring of clipped grass and white blossoms. The stone bore no symbols, no etchings... but every member of the n knew: this was where the Veil thinned.


    La stepped forward andy down without prompting. Still wearing the robe, the golden runes ring briefly beneath the moonlight before being swallowed by shadow.


    With practiced care, Juliette bound her wrists and ankles to the stone using cords of dyed wool... deep red, threaded with ck and silver, each braid entwined with a lock of hair from the matriarchal line.


    From a leather sheath at her waist, Juliette drew the ritual dagger. The de, aged and darkened, bore engravings in the Old Tongue... ancient prayers etched along its edge. Without hesitation, she cut cleanly across both of La’s palms. Blood welled up... thick, dark, and gleaming... and dripped slowly onto the stone beneath her.


    Juliette stepped away, her robes rustling faintly as she crossed the flowered path and joined the silent spectators beyond the garden wall.


    Then, as if summoned by the scent of blood, the twenty chosen n members stepped forward. They had not been selected for status, but for the awakening of an ancestral bloodline... those who bore the rare ability to wield shadow. They moved with quiet discipline, eyes glowing in unnatural hues, and formed a perfect circle around the garden’s edge at even intervals. Each stopped precisely where they had been instructed. All remained in human form, d in ceremonial robes. One by one, they knelt around the circle, facing the stone tform at its centre.


    Then, from the far side of the courtyard, Dominic nc stepped into view.


    Tall and unbowed by time, the head of the nc n wore the long, ck ceremonial coat of the alpha line. His jet-ck hair shimmered beneath the moonlight. He walked slowly toward the circle, every step heavy with purpose. When he reached the garden’s far edge, he stopped, then knelt like the others... bing the final point of the ring.


    No one made a sound.


    Only the faint hum of the distant air could be heard.


    Dominic raised one hand towards the moon and began to intone, his voice low butmanding, reciting the ancient words in the Old Tongue... words meant to summon the Goddess’s gaze. Thenguage grated against the soul, harsh and metallic, like steel dragged across ss. Every head turned instinctively upward toward the moon.


    "Be thaere haligan monan leoman,


    Blodes bendas us bindath,


    We clypiath that Heaheage Eage.


    Tonihte, esc bith tobrocen,


    Sawol bith todaled.


    And an bith edboren."


    The moonlight sharpened... growing heavier, denser. The pale glow no longer felt passive; it became a presence.


    From within the folds of his robe, Dominic drew out a green stone, smooth and pulsating faintly like a living heart. He knelt and ced it gently upon the grass before him.


    The moment the stone touched the earth, he spoke again.


    "Let that blod awan thone weg."


    Without hesitation, he extended his hand and sliced open his palm. His blood flowed down, dark and steady, falling upon the stone. One by one, the twenty members surrounding the circle followed suit, cutting their own palms and allowing their blood to drip onto the invisible boundary encircling the ritual space.


    The instant Dominic’s blood met the stone, it ignited. A deep green light red to life... not in an explosion, but in a blooming. Lines of light raced outward through the grass in both directions, travelling along unseen channels hidden beneath the soil.


    The pattern revealed itself.


    The circle became visible... a vast rune etched in living light, stretching from the outer ring to the tform’s very edge. The garden came alive with glowing veins... circles, lines, intersecting arcs and sweeping loops... all pulsing with deep green luminescence. What had been a tranquil garden was now transformed into a cathedral of power.


    From above, the view would have resembled a gigantic sigil of transformation... drawn with the symmetry of sacred architecture, and the hunger of a predator.


    The green light reached the base of the tform and curved inward, forming a second circle around La. Then, a dome of pure emerald light rose from the inner ring without warning, encasing the tform, and shot straight upwards into the sky.


    Suddenly, La let out an ear-piercing scream. The sound of something breaking echoed from within. Her figure was no longer visible from outside the dome, but her screaming continued... sharp, primal, and relentless.


    Then, the green light began to shift. Slowly, it started turning white from above. Beginning at the dome’s crown, the transformation swept downward. As it moved, the air grew hotter, denser... almost suffocating. La’s cries turned into ragged, feral howls.


    When the emerald dome had fully turned to white, it glowed with such brilliance that it became almost unbearable to look at. The spectators shielded their eyes as the intensity peaked.


    Then, La’s screaming ceased abruptly. Silence fell around the courtyard.


    The white light, fully descended now, lingered over the dome for several long, frozen heartbeats. Then, it began to retrace its path... flowing backward along the rune-lines, retreating from the tform, pouring through the crisscrossing channels, all the way to the circle’s outer edge.


    To everyone’s surprise, the light reached the green stone from both directions at the same moment. The instant it made contact, the stone shattered into powder. A faint gust of wind caught the dust and carried it skyward, where it vanished.


    The rune-light faded. Slowly, it dissolved into nothingness. Only the pale light of the moon remained over the courtyard. The tform became visible again.


    At the centre of the tform, a ck wolfy motionless. There was no sign of La, no trace of the girl who had stepped into the circle. Only the unmoving form of the wolf remained, as still as death.


    Dominic nc stood from his kneeling position. He stared at the tform for a long moment, then let out a quiet sigh of relief.


    The other n members who had formed the circle also rose. They looked pale, drained, their breathing unsteady... as if they had just emerged from a long and exhausting battle.


    Dominic turned towards the gathered crowd nearby and spoke in a firm voice.


    "Only the females may remain. All the boys... leave the courtyard. Juliette, I leave everything in your hands."


    He turned and walked slowly towards his vi. The other males followed without a word, departing in silence. A few women chose to go with them, but most remained.


    Juliette nc walked slowly towards the tform. She knelt beside the ck wolf and began untying the cords that bound its limbs to the stone. Then she removed the tattered ceremonial robe draped across its body.


    From within her own robes, she retrieved a silver bottle and uncorked it carefully. She sprinkled the contents... an iridescent liquid... over the wolf’s body.


    Before the eyes of the remaining witnesses, the wolf began to shift. Part by part, the fur receded, the limbs reshaped, the bones shifted... the ck wolf transformed back into La.


    As she stirred and regained consciousness, she tried to stand... apparently unaware of her nakedness. Juliette was ready. She drew another ck robe from within her garments and gently draped it over La’s shoulders the moment she rose.


    Then, cing a steadying hand on her shoulder, Juliette guided her away from the stone tform, out of the garden, and led her to a nearby vi.