Cineris placed the White Mosaic Bird onto the five-point star painting made with blood, keeping it in place with her body weight. Its pupils dilated as its head thrashed around, hitting her arm. It kept violently savaging as its talons dug into the floor, sending shards of wood into the wall where they shattered on impact.
"Thank you… this is the last one…" Priestess said
"Oh great Creator… we are here to offer you this rare White Mosaic Bird for you… to please your being. We beg you to accept it and hear our pleas. Please… we plead that you'd resurrect our Lady, our greatest Winter Knight… for we are in need of serving her. Please heed our pleas. We have continuously sacrificed every year for nine hundred and eighty-four years… sacrificing to you without any fault."
The priestess gripped the sacrificial dagger in both of her hands and placed it over the bird's heart.
The white mosaic bird thrashed its head, hitting the ground and bruising Cineris's arm as well. Its talons dug deep into the floor.
"Please accept our sacrifice yet again." She slowly inserted the dagger into the heart. As it inserted fully, the bird broke its beak strap, but as it was about to shriek, its life vanished before it could. Its head hit the ground as the star glowed and the body disappeared.
The priestess stood up with her cane and looked over the painting on the floor.
Just as she stood up, it glowed yet again. It swirled around its axis on the ground, then stretched into a line and disappeared as it became a small dot.
"I see… Not enough yet this year…" The Priestess sighed and slowly turned towards the door. "Dear… we're finished… remember what you saw here and what I said… and memorize it by heart…"
"I'm tired and I'll go… You can stay here and pray longer."
Cineris looked back at her back and said, "Of course grandma! It was beautiful, I wish I could do it for you, so that you could rest!"
"Ha…ha… Only four years left my dear… only four years."
Cineris smiled and bowed, saying, "Then, please rest well, grandma."
She looked up with a glimmer in her eyes and a growing smile, chuckled, and added, "I'll pray for your health."
"Thank you… then pray for all of us."
Cineris knelt before the holy armor and said, "I'll do."
The priestess smiled, her face wrinkling greatly—as every time she did, time reminded itself that its room is inevitable to escape.
The priestess reached for the handle and walked out of the prayer room.
***
As the priestess walked out of the prayer room, the villagers knelt beside the red carpet, looking at her and awaiting the answer.
The priestess sighed and said, "Not yet this year… Not enough."
Upon hearing the response, some of the villagers hugged themselves, some clasped their hands and prayed, and the rest fell to the ground. All of them wept as the priestess frowned, muttering to herself, "Next year… Next year will be the one. Eventually we will succeed, Just wait My lady"
***
Cineris knelt alone in the dark prayer room, clasping her hands with her eyes closed.
"Dear Lady Winni, I don't understand why grandma felt so hurt but hid it before me. I really don't understand why she is so sad that today's ritual failed. I know that we will resurrect you one day. Just because we failed today, it just means we are one step closer to your resurrection."
"I trust that the Creator will heed our pleas and resurrect you, my lady, so I am not worried at all. Because even if you are not resurrected during my life, then it just means that I contributed a lot to your resurrection."
"You know how I love you. Even if I won't resurrect you during my lifetime, I'll meet you up there in heaven… so I don't worry about it." Cineris smiled as she placed her hand over her chest, bent down, placed her forehead onto the ground, and stood up.
She walked towards the door in the darkness. As she opened it, she saw people weeping on the ground, with the Priestess nowhere in sight.
Cineris walked out of the prayer room with a frown on her face as she looked around, seeing and hearing people weeping. She walked past them hurriedly until she saw a child weeping. She knelt before him and, with a slow exhale, caressed the crying child's hair, flattening his fox-like ears.
With a kind, caring voice, she said, "Don't cry… You don't need to worry about it. Just because she wasn't resurrected today, it doesn't mean we didn't contribute anything to her resurrection."
"If not today, it means that we made a significant step towards her resurrection," she said, smiling.
The child looked up at her, wiped his tears, and nodded.
"Then don't cry, and go have fun. Play around with other children."
She stood up, towering over him in her robes with red stripes on the edges, her face covered in shadow. She patted the top of his head and walked down the red carpet.
The child's eyes lingered as Cineris slowly walked up the staircase to the first floor and disappeared into her dark, empty room.
***
And so, as time passed through the village, Cineris grew, learned and trained in the art of magic, and did her best to help around the village adults. She played with the children and helped the mothers of the village. And so, two years later, Cineris and a group of trained village men ventured out of the village to capture the fourth beast necessary for the resurrection ritual.