Mind and soul

Wounds were closed and Socio was back in Vale. Shar'tok wanted her to rest, but something bothered her too much. She couldn't stand still. She couldn't focus on anything.
Shar'tok was handling some offical bussiness with council of the Empire, so Socio was alone first time for a few weeks. Vale seemed to be calm, but she felt it was just temporary. These days she didn't feel good being alone, even whens he sometimes felt she needed her own privat time.
There was already rumours about alliance army to be gathered. Socio was ofcourse ready to stand up and defend her home, no matter how weak she felt inside. But this feeling inside of her head, she had to get rid of it. How could she fight properly if she couldn't focus enough to make a clean kills on the random trespassers she met in Vale?
Socio had some time to think in The Hinterlands and she was sure the feeling had something to do with Zul'Gurub, if not even Blood God himself. She noticed when she was closer to Zul'Gurub, she felt like her sould was ripped in two different ways. Dark cloud inside of her head somehow told her to go inside. Her senses told her to get away, run as far as possible. Socio was scared and she didn't know how long she could fight back. She was afraid she'd wake up again in Zul'Gurub, like she did earlier.
Socio didn't want to offically ask help from Empire. She didn't know how they would have taken it. Maybe they'd rather kill her, than free her from this curse, this madness. Empire didn't like the weak. Ofcourse she needed some help to prepare some other rituals, but she hadn't told everything about it to the others. She was studying ancient tablets in the Vale, about powerful ritual wich could help her, but she needed to walk alone to the end. It was the final solution she tought.
She had been studying about rituals to pull her own soul away from his head. She knew it was risky, but at least she could be free from crawling claws of Hakkar that scratched inside of her head. If she'd fail, she wouldn't fight back anymore. She was so tired.
As part of the ritual Socio had prepared a cage to her soul. It was a staff made out from darkest iron ever seen. It looked very simple, almost useless. Before the ritual Socio added some protective talismans to it. She also tied her own red hair to staff's handle, like she had stuided from the tablets.
Socio's hands were shaky when she was ready to start the ritual. Sun was setting down and she was alone, only animals made some noices around her in the jungle. She had drained and collected some blood from the trespassers after she had come back to Vale, now she poured it around her, making a circle where she was standing still. She took some bone dust and threw it to the air above her head, while chanting some old trollish spells and calls. Socio kneeled down and kissed the ground. She was summoning a totem, that would grab her soul to itself.
Then, suddenly like intented, Socio felt some powerful force striking to the top of her head. She dropped down to the Vale floor, leaning her palms to the ground. She swallowed the moan of suprise, accidentally biting her tongue. Bright light was flashing on her eyes and her ears just picked up loud sound of electrical humming.
Socio looked up. It was dark, sun had gone down, but her soul lightened small area around the totem. It was floating just above it, bright, yellow and white. She was suprised to see someones soul looked so simple. Carefully Socio moved her hands towards it and took floating ball of light between her palms. She gazed it for a second, almost hypnotized, before locking it up to the ring at the head of the iron staff. She did that without any feelings.
The totem had disappeared, leaving a burning mark inside the bloody ring. Socio put the staff to her back and made her way back home. She felt much better, but also somehow emptier. But she knew there was no other choises.