a tainted monolithic wand
marble 80 darkessence 1 silveressence 1
A smooth granite wand has been forgotten here, darkness staining its surface.
Shaped from coarse grey granite, this wand has been styled in the ancestral fashion of forestals, with its length, weather-rounded shape and simplistic carvings lending an air of antiquity to what is no doubt a far more modern implement. Spirals and whorls resolve into carvings of recognisable creatures; there the wolf and here the squirrel, beyond stands the tree and yonder flows the river and so on until the antlered stag and double-crescent moon rise above all at the apex. Soft, gentle light pools within the carvings, tracing the totemic images with the faintest touch of moonbeams on stone that despite or perhaps due to its subtlety, promotes the carvings into stark contrast with the dull grey of the stone. Darkness has stained this token of reverence, as veins of corruption have climbed most of the way up the length of the wand, choking the smallest figures in shadow and stretching threatening fingers towards the greater ones who fail to notice their doom.

a haunting crystallized songbird brooch
gems 40 marble 40 silk 10 bluetint 10 sapphire 10 diamond 5 pearl 5 spectre 2 darkessence 1
A crystallized bird-skull brooch glitters here, eyes hungry and hollow.
Bleached beyond blemish, the white skull of a songbird is entombed in a jagged and glittering mass of milky white crystal, transforming a grim omen of death into a captivating brooch. Tiny filaments of platinum have been painstakingly applied to the angular crevices where jutting spires meet, contrasting with a starscape of individual golden pinpricks atop each pointed termination to impart the illusion of multiple layers of depth. Inconsistent opacity and variations in the application of the layers of crystal create a ghostly countenance, heightened by the hungry, haunting eyes of once-brilliant sapphire that glower at the back of its hollow sockets and the deathless absence of light sealed within. In order to provide structural stability to such a fragile piece of jewellery, the brooch is backed with a setting of platinum-banded steel beneath a cushion of dusky indigo silk, which is itself speckled with shards of diamond and pearl.