Dedication Ritual



The Dedication Ritual is a winter ritual where Mana is contributed by the temple to be distributed throughout the Duchy to ensure good harvests in the fall.

Ritual Procedure
To contribute Mana, blue priests and shrine maidens place their hands onto a red magic carpet and let mana flow through them. Placed on top of the carpet on an altar are several small magic grails representing Geduldh's divine artifact, in which mana is stored.

Having a group of varying levels of mana can be dangerous if the disparity is too great, because the carpet can cause them to unwillingly release more mana than can be done safely.

Story
The Dedication Ritual was the primary reason Ferdinand gave Main as to why he was having her stay in the temple over winter, rather than letting her commute to the temple as agreed upon ealier, fearing that a blizzard could have stopped Main from contributing mana in the dedication ritual.

Shortly before they need to begin the dedication ritual, Ferdinand has feared that Main's replacement ceremonial robes wouldn't be finished in time, but she assured him that they would be. A few days before the ritual is to begin the Gilberta company finished the robes, and they are presented to Main by Karstedt.

On the day the ritual begins, Ferdinand informed Main that he wants her to limit her contributions. When Main asks if this will cause issues for him regarding the Archduke, he informs her that he will tell the Archduke that he deceived the Archduke if they bring it up, assuring her that doing so is the best decision for them at that point.

When they get to the ritual, Main observed that the only people present in the room are her and Ferdinand, when she asked why, he states that if the other blue priests were to see her contribute, they might get jealous due to her mana capacity, and that due to the nature of the dedication ritual, they might get compelled to contribute lethal amounts of mana because of said capacity. Ferdinand then stated that he alone has the mana to keep up with her when she contributes.

After quite a few days of contributing mana, they got close to having filled all the grails, then the High Bishop brought in ten more grails under the premise that the Archduke wanted Main to fill them. Ferdinand stated that he had heard no word of such. The High Bishop questioned whether Main will obey Ferdinand but not him, causing her to divert to letting Ferdinand answer. Ferdinand stated that with the High Bishops permision, they could fill the additional grails the next day. Once the bishop left, Ferdinand stated that the Archduke likely was not responsible for the additional chalices, and that he would investigate once the snow had cleared, and that for the time being they would feign obedience. He then asked Main if she would continue to help him, to which she agreed.