Prompt

With growing desperation, rough hands set about the rote ritual. Fragrant beans surrendered to grinding teeth and pounding stone, remnants scattering upon the dank air in aromatic puffs. As smoke swirled with inherent portents, a raging heart stirred restlessly. Within the crude lair, imaginings of ruin floated on the fumes of percolating darkness. Scrawls upon stolen parchment told of enemies to vanquish and towns to despoil, but the unseen Taskmaster's demands loomed. Lips curled back in a sou