It seems that when wealthy pretty people congregate in groups, their intentions are undeniably sinister. It's eerie, I suppose, to see the elite, botoxed and unbothered as they are, meeting in secret underground chambers or rundown diners. Why else would they need to escape their mansion havens or peel off their party dresses in favor of whispered meetings and drab buildings? In some cases, this is an unfair judgment cast upon the elite, as not everything out of the ordinary is composed of dark intentions. But in this case, it was an accurate assumption that something ominous was underway. The council, and its remaining members, were very much embedded in a world of supernatural rites and malevolent beliefs. “Jori, I have a flight booked in an hour, can we speed this thing up? Why did you call us for an impromptu meeting?”, Aarush huffed, annoyance tightening his square jaw. This tightening of the jaw, of course, was the only sign of his irritation. His face had been so frozen in a state of youth, that the muscles no longer pinched the surface of his supple flesh. Ardyn, waif-thin and a redhead now (though only last week she had been blonde), rolled her eyes in annoyance. She wrapped the thick fur coat tighter around her shoulders to shield her from the cold, her patience running thin now that the liquor in her system was waning. She hated that Jori always picked the worse places for their meetings. He liked to claim that meeting in the same places all the time looked suspicious; which he was probably right about. The four of them were not likely people you'd see hanging out on the regular; a glitzy party girl, an uptight businessman, an at home mother, and a cowering scientist hardly had anything in common. Ardyn just wished he hadn't picked an old junkyard to meet up at this time. It was nearing 5 am in August and it was freezing. “Don't act like you can't just call your pilot and tell him to wait. You’re the only one boarding that jet of yours- it's not leaving without you”, she drawled, her voice thick with that sickly sweet southern spite. “It's about the principal Ardyn, we can't just come at the drop of a-” But Aarush was cut off by the wave of Jori's hand, a silencing gesture that even Aarush had to obey. Though Jori was nimble in stature, shorter than all three members with a pair of glasses perched on his nose and waxy black hair that stood on its ends, he was still the most powerful member of the foursome. This leadership was not necessarily a favorable vote, but he was the chosen one and they could not- and would not- argue with the fates. “I’m sorry Aarush. I’ll try to make this quick. I know you all have business to attend to...and families to care for”, he said in a rush, his eyes flicking over to Nandi at this last statement. He undoubtedly was referencing her daughter, sick and laying in a hospital bed. Like always, Nandi was quiet. Her posture attentive but her eyes cast downward. “I didn’t notice it at first, not until I did the math again. In the findings I discussed last week my calculations were based on the assumption that the astronomical changes would follow the same predicted patterns as they always had- as they should have- but...”, Jori trailed off, his hands pausing in his ruffled hair. Jori had the horrible habit of running his hands across his hair or wringing his shirt in his fingers when he spoke at such fevered heights of his study. These paranoid habits concerned the other members of the group, especially since they had been appearing so frequently now. The mid-section of his shirts were permanently bunched in wrinkles and his hair showed the parts of his fingers even when he drew his hands away. But they never voiced these thoughts out loud; lest they be interpreted as a questioning of their leaders' sanity. “...But last night when I went over everything again, I realized that what I thought was a minor change in decimals was a lot worse than a simple miscalculation”. He was silent after this, his eyes dragging unmercifully slow across the three bodies standing before him. Aarush, unable to bite back his impatience any longer, all but snarled his question. “What are you on about Jori? Spit it out”. Ardyn shot Aarush a warning look, one that told him to watch his tongue, and stepped towards Jori. She reached out a pale hand still coated in glitter from her earlier celebrations and rested it warmly on his shoulder. “What is it Jori, baby? Do we have less time than we thought? Cause if we have to host the ritual sooner, I can cancel my trip to Paris next month and stay in town”, she said. When Ardyn put on her southern belle charm and spoke in that soothing voice, like a mother comforting her child, it usually put Jori at ease, enough for him to still his restless hands. But today he was so tightly wound that her display did not affect him. “It's going to be a lot sooner than we thought-yes- but I was wrong when I translated the signs as saying that four souls will ascend after the ritual is performed”, he said, his voice wavering and small. “So, what does that mean? I'm only in London for two days, I should still be back in time for us to perform it sometime this week if it's that soon. It's not sooner than two days, is it?” Aarush pressed; his voice less sharp than before. “No, it's in nine days but that’s not the part I'm worried about”, Jori conceded, his face paling considerably and his dark eyes liquid with anxiety. He looked terrified. When Nandi soke, her voice was so whispered that it almost went unnoticed. Almost. “Not all four of us are going to ascend”, she guessed, though her tone was less questioning and more a statement filled with surety. Jori's eyes widened, the panic so evident now that his hands knotted urgently into the thin fabric of his threadbare sweater. Multi-millionaire that he was, Jori still dressed like the sleep-deprived Ph.D. student he was more than two decades ago before he rose to the rank that he was now. “After reviewing the math- and I'm sure that it's right this time... It seems that only three of us can ascend during the ritual. One of us has to stay behind and act as an anchor” Immediately, Aarush erupted into a flame of anger. “I have given up too much for this already. I have blood on my hands; I’m sure as hell not staying behind-”, Ardyn cut him off with a too-loud laugh. “Oh, shut up Aarush. We all have blood on our hands. It's how we got to where we are today. Even our quiet little mouse who likes to pretend she isn't a product of years of sacrifice-” she narrowed her gaze on Nandi “is guilty”. “We all know who's staying behind anyway, right? Nandi wanted out of this whole thing months ago. She doesn't have the stomach to be in the council anymore”, Aarush spat, cruelly and purposefully, directing his words to the petite woman still in her dressing gown. Nandi, never one to be easily coaxed by Aarush’s comments, lifted her gaze, her yellow-hazel eyes sharp. “I did not want to be part of this-yes- but I have come too far to not ascend. I will kill any one of you before I let you leave me behind”, She growled, her arms crossing in front of her. Her outburst, unexpected and bordering feral, silenced everyone for a while before Ardyn spoke, her voice forcibly neutral. “What does the anchor have to do? Stay behind and hold the circle in place until we are back in our bodies?”, She asked tentively. Jori swallowed so painfully hard that it was audible, his Adam's apple bobbing under the skin of his splotchy red neck. “Yes, but the ritual is not just a blood sacrifice this time”, he said slowly, remembering how the council was once a flourishing group of eighteen. Fourteen years and fourteen sacrifices later they were down to four. “It's a bloodline sacrifice. A total obliteration of the anchors living bloodline since the first of our sacrifices”. Ardyn opened her mouth, ready to speak, but Nandi beat her to it. “But we’ve all had children in the past fourteen years. Does that mean...does that mean they will be killed too?” Jori nodded, too afraid to meet anyone's eyes. “We have nine days. One of us will lose everything and the other three will finally reach the rank of deities”