The Chopping Block

The only thing that seemed to burn was the holy oil, but when it finally fizzled out, she had to stop herself from cursing. It was becoming a bad habit. But this felt like another failure. Voah was certainly no master of artifact destruction.

She gave her best guess to Alexis’ question., "The salt acts like a barrier... I doubt it will have any effect."

She thought for a moment. She supposed that if she soaked the thing in some sort of blessed brine it might have some effect, but again... That would take time.

"But the sword was enough to behead it..." she shrugged.

It was the next logical step.

Once again, Voah removed it from the flames and picked it up. It didn't even feel hot to the touch, just dry and leathery like an old fruit or something. Time to find a chopping block.

A sitting log was setup for the act. With her dagger, Voah carved symbols for the five pillars in a pentagonal pattern and burned some sage directly in the center. She would have used her censer but it was lost near the wonderfall in the ruins of Ypogeios.

When the sage was mostly ash, she spread it around and placed the head in the center.

The rest of the ash she smudged in a line down her forehead.

She breathed... and prayed quietly.

As the sword came down upon the head, Voah felt a chill ring through her bones and spine like some kind of arcane bell…