JUDGEMENT IS A BLADE
She is a good sorcerer, but a poor disciple. She finds it difficult to concentrate. When she arrives the bell has been struck—the lesson has already started. The teacher looks at her sideways.
The teacher sighs, closes his eyes, and continues. “Judgement is a blade,” he says.
“When you judge another,” the teacher says, “you thrust a dagger at their chest. It may be that you cause a wound.”
She sits on her meditation cushion, and tries to settle.
“When you judge yourself,” the teacher says, “you stab a sword into your belly. It is certain that you inflict injury.”
Lids shut, brow furrowed, she tries to focus. Focus!
“When you judge yourself for judging,” the teacher says, “you swallow a knife. The blade travels through you, and stays in you. From throat to gut to bowel, it will cut, and cut, and cut.”
For emphasis the teacher strikes his bell: its chime runs up the rafters, then back down again.
“O my disciples, set down the blade of judgement. Take up the bell of understanding, instead. When you understand yourself, you ring a bell in your lap. You feel its voice in your body. It leads you to love and equanimity.”
But she is not listening to the bell, nor to the lesson. She fidgets with the sharp point of a pen in her blouse pocket. What excuse can she make, to leave early?
She is a poor disciple, but a good sorcerer. She has a tendency to hyperfixate. The teacher has taught her, not as he intended—she has an idea for a cursing-spell! She must write it down.
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BROTH TO BLADES
A curse sent by contact.
Pact: a major power of metal, and a minor power of retribution.
Price: a silver coin, covered with the blood of a living thing now dead, offered to a power of hospitality who rules where this curse is cast.
Procedure: a shaving from a bladed weapon that has killed before. Grind this into powder while speaking the third and ninety-third formulas of ill-intent. Mix this powder into the meal of your victim while making the eighth gesture of cutting. Your victim must eat this meal.
For the next day and a half, when you call on your power of retribution and speak the third formula of self-assessment, everything in your victim’s digestive tract is transformed into knives.
It is possible for victims of this curse to perform simple actions without harm, provided they move slowly and are not distracted. Actions taken under stress always hurt—each dealing damage equivalent to three spears stabbing.
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A magic system / ruleset is taking shape in my head:
Spells require pacts with powerful gods or spirits (ie: the real-world idea that magic practice is largely the exercise of diplomacy with entities abroad in the world); and a price (services should be paid for; you want to square accounts with the eldritch as much as possible).
The procedure is how you cast the spell; the bits in italics indicate elements absolutely necessary for the spell, if you must do things quick and dirty—but performing the full ritual is safest.
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( Image sources:
https://www.travelfish.org/beginners_detail/thailand/133
https://practiceofzen.com/2018/01/31/nothing-special/dai-bosatsu-zendo-meditation-hall/
https://itoldya420.getarchive.net/amp/media/les-jongleurs-indiens-eae487 )
