Tell me its a fever dream

That was as much guidance as she could give him. She knew that from there, it was up to him. With the candles and herb lit, smoke billowed gently around the young boy. The hue from the moon making the entire scene almost bluish and unearthly in nature. She leaned back, careful not to inhale the smoke herself. Having seated herself upwind, she got only a light taste of the herb in her mouth. One of them needed to keep full control of their senses. She was here to ensure her son had a safe journey.

The sound of a bird song startled her, it was unusual enough that a bird would sing at night. She recognised almost immediately the song and the colouration of the bird. A Nightingale, a creature that sang at dawn at dusk. It was late, somewhere in the middle of the night, and she knew of no other nightingales around. Its natural inlincination to call for a mate struck her as wrong in the setting. If she believed in omens, she would have thought it meant something. Uneasily, she looked to her son.

Asmodeus left the circle of candles, and moved to where the bird had first sounded. It had fled in the night in a strange sort of glow. It had happened about the same time the intensity of the moon’s glow had grown. Riva shivered, though she hid her reaction from her son. “Describe to me exactly what you see” she whispered, uncertain if he was seeing only the bird, or if the herb was doing its work and affecting the world around him.