The Heartwood "my child," the goddess said.

@Eldritch (some pp, let me know if i need to edit) :)

"Eldritch. Eldritch," she whispered again as she nudged the onyx femme with her muzze, trying to rouse her. "Come," she beckoned softly as she turned to lead the way out of the abandoned burrow they'd made their own for the past few days. "Come and see," the witch urged in eager tones before darting from their den. Aphelion squirmed from his perch where he draped about her neck like the finest of jewels, uncomfortable in the cold. 

There's was a strange relationship, snake and mambo, for the serpent should have been still hibernating in this weather by all rights.  Yet, Mati had found him slithering through the snow sluggishly to the east of the Wilds. Her warmth was likely all that kept him alive, inspiring a devoted bond between the two. Aerenys tried to angle the puffs of her breaths on his scales as she loped along, leading her fellow witch to the discovery she'd made that morn.

Soon enough the frozen carcass of the winterworn elk doe appeared on the horizon as a dark blemish against the snow-blanketed ground. Mati slowed as she circled around to the fallen beast's head, its features frozen in an almost peaceful expression of surrender. "A kinder death than Peryite might've given," the Priestess murmured, humming curiously beneath her breath as she stared upon the elk with a hint of fascination. Death did not disturb the night-child. "We will thank the gods by sharing her with Sithis, yeah," Aerenys decided in an excited exhalation, her mismatched orbs of sapphire and amethyst bright with exhilaration at the idea. 

"You should be the one to give her to the Void," the vodou queen's next words were somber, the dark Melonii straightening seriously at the thought. What better way to begin her partner's initiation? "I will help you," Mati offered, her tones implying that Eldritch was always free to decline if she did not feel ready for such a thing. 

The Nightwish stirred drowsily at Mati's nudges, but she followed with keen interest nonetheless, hearing her partner's excitement, this was bound to be fruitful.
The journey was relatively short, yet some way from the burrow. 
And, upon seeing the large form lying in the snow, Eldritch followed Aerenys to the head, seeing the peaceful expression upon the elk doe's face. 
She watched the Priestess's face as Mati murmured and exhaled with glee.
Mismatched Melonii eyes met white, as the witch queen told her "You should be the one to offer her to Sithis."

An initiation? 

At Mati's offer to help, Eldritch smiled with somehow calm excitement, tail swishing with slow eagerness as the fellow night-child responded "I would be more than honored." Her smile grew and she took a couple steps closer to Aerenys - the acceptance of her help.

She'd not have let on if Eldritch declined and she felt otherwise, but the Melonii is rather pleased when she readily and eagerly agrees. The witch would make a fine servant of the Daedra yet, a pupil worthy of pride. It only made her that more excited to be joining forces with the Nightwish, for surely the coupling of such potent and magical bloodlines would make their practice all the more stronger -- the Meloniis needed fresh, outside blood anyways. Aerenys found their inbreeding distasteful to say the least, despite the fact that such was how she had been conceived in the first place. 

Refocusing her attention on the task at hand, Mati stepped forward and observed the slain elk with a keen eye to determine how best to go about removing the cow elk's heart. "It is frozen hard, yeah, but I do not think it will be impossible," the witch murmured with a tilt of her obsidian crown. She bent then and worked diligently at the ungulate's frozen pelt, until she had managed to grab a handful of its skin in her jaws. Then she gave a forceful tug, a wet ripping sound rending the air as she managed to tear into the throat of the frozen grazer.

She continued to pull and tear away at the corpse, welcoming Eldritch's aide if she offered it, until its chest cavity lay bare and exposed -- a mess of red amongst the pale beams of the doe's ribcage. Ruddied and soaked in the creature's blood, Aerenys stopped then to gesture towards the still and silent heart of the offering they'd dissected. "You should give the heart to Sithis, yeah. It holds the echo of her life," Mati instructed wispily, dipping her head towards the snow as she stook a step back to allow the fledling practicioner a chance to spread her wings.

Eldritch stood readily as Mati murmured and began dissecting the elk. Moving in to help peel and tear away all they needed to, she only stopped as Aerenys did, listening with studious attentiveness as the Melonii encouraged Eldritch to offer the heart to the Void - to Sithis. 

With a gentle nod, the Nightwish reached in and carefully pulled the heart from its cavity in one piece, taking it in her maw and placing it on a conveniently placed nearby stone, flattened at the top. With that done, she opened her maw to began speaking, but had a gut feeling to stay her offering words for now. Looking to Mati, Eldritch spoke "Since you are initiating me, will you lead our ritual this time?" She asked, looking upon the Melonii with admiring awe, and a wish only to do things as correctly as possible.

"Of course," the Priestess murmured graciously, her obsidian diadem dipping in a slow nod as she rose again and padded to the stone Eldritch had chosen as her altar. She felt a mild jolt of surprise when Aphelion slithered, the night snake's fawn-spotted scales writhing as he slipped from Mati's shoulders and onto Eldritch's. There was a cold lack of pressure where he usually curled around her but she approved of his acceptance of the Nightwish as one of their own. "There is no one proper way to commune with the gods. Your relationship with them will not be exactly as my own is -- nor as any other witch might have with the Daedra. You will find your path, your practice with time," the mambo shifted subconsciously into teacher mode for a moment, her words soft and encouraging, sensing the stygian she-wolf's hesitance and need for perfectionism. 

Then, with a steadying breath drawn inward, the witch squared her shoulders in preparation and stepped up to the stone -- rearing up on her hindlegs to place her forepaws to either side of the offering, the organ dampening the shale beneath it with a blood so dark it seemed like ink. "Sithis, īlon kirimvose ler kiza kisagon -- ler rual ye glaesagon se sīmonagon sizi jehikarȳ ler sōnar. īlon rigle a skorkydoso stepagon pa prūmia esh kiza dȳñes iemnȳ pa jaelarys kona yel murgho hilagho a. Lo mēre a sagon vasīr davābagon jeva raqnon bē ye." The prayer came in soft whispers of melodic Daedric as the night-child dipped and smeared her berry-stained features in the fresh paint of the elk's blood. She had begun teaching Eldritch the language of their people but she was sure some of the finer points were likely lost on her student.

Afterwards, she lowered herself back onto all fours before turning to face Eldritch -- mismatched gaze rising to meet the hellhound's wintry optics. Her eyes closed after a moment as she moved closer, as if to wrap the dark girl in a lover's embrace. It was not her lips that brushed against the raven's features however but her forehead and muzzle, affectionately rubbing a war mask of blood to match onto Eldritch's features -- both of them dressed up as the brides of Sithis given flesh. 

"Now we feast," Aerenys drawled as she stepped back, eyes opening as she gave her partner a wide grin despite the fact that they were still pressed close together. 

translation: "Sithis, we thank you for this meal -- for allowing us to live and to thrive even in the presence of this winter. We honor you by sharing the heart of this beast with you in the hopes that her death pleases you. May you continue to rain your favor upon us."

Eldritch smiled as Aerenys accepted, moving aside a step or two so her fellow witch could lead the ritual. Her grin became one of touched gratitude as the snake slipped from his witch's neck to her own. 

And as Mati spoke in her foreign tongue, the Nightwish bowed her muzzle with closed eyes, only opening them as she sensed Mati's movement and lack of words. 
The Seer closed her eyes again as her mentor gave her a matching mask of blood, opening her eyes slowly as Mati grinned and announced their time to dine. 
Before she went to tear into the meal herself though, Eldritch padded up to the fallen cow and pulled a good chunk of meat from the corpse, setting it on the altar and lowering here head a tad to say her own prayer:

"Sithis, Darkness, Void. I place this offering before you as a pledge of my servitude, a Seer and a faithful mage to you and all the Daedra in entirety. In the names of the Daedra, so mote it be." She said her prayer aloud, only raising her head and opening her eyes again once she had finished. Only then did she join Mati at the elk and begin to dine beside her night sister.

The witch trotted past the dark hound, to the side of the frozen cow elk -- again overwhelmed at how lucky such a find was, and to find it relatively untouched to boot. She tore into one of the richer pieces of meat, not even bothered that it was cold and tough from the elements. She lifted her head slightly as she heard Eldritch praying and smiled slightly before tucking back into her food, making sure to tear off a few small chunks and chew them a bit to warm them for Aphelion.