Kun leaned forward, extending her cupped palms over the smoldering ceremonial ring as tendrils of acrid smoke wafted up to sting my eyes and nose. I fought back a cough, watching in rapt fascination as the wizened woman began murmuring a strange chant in a guttural language I couldn't hope to comprehend.
The sounds seemed to reverberate through the small space, taking on an almost palpable vibration that prickled along my skin with its strange potency. I found myself holding my breath, overcome with the sense that I was bearing witness to something ancient and ineffably sacred that stretched back to the primordial roots of this land.
After several long moments, Kun's ethereal intonations tapered off and she gradually lifted her head, dark eyes heavy-lidded and slightly unfocused - as if
