Simon dipped his finger into the bowl of blood and continued drawing around Sonya.
She sat cross-legged on a broad stone platform, her hands resting on her knees. The wound on her palm had already closed, but the blood she had provided filled most of the circle beneath her.
They had been brought to an isolated part of The Abyss, where black pillars surrounded a wide, sunken courtyard. Deep cracks marked several sections of the floor. Others had been replaced, leaving patches of pale stone among the darker slabs.
Simon could imagine what had happened to the missing pieces.
The nearest buildings stood far beyond the courtyard. Here, the Abyss helped demons whose ancestral bloodlines had partially awakened, or accommodated those approaching an evolution of their own.
Such occasions were rare.
Having all twelve elders present was rarer still.
