The Serpent of Mercury is the penultimate stage, and its authority is called the Cycle: to the bearer belongs their share, and with it the subordinate powers of Preservation and Choice.
The mythical form is complete: a giant serpent without scales, whose surface is densely covered with patterns and symbols. These symbols are wheels bound to one another, and each differs from the rest: each signifies its own possible future.
The rite of advancement offers two paths, and both are terrible in their own way:
to find a way to draw out all memories from oneself, and after taking the potion to pour them back in;
or, with the help of the Pothostoronnii path of the Seer during the ceremony, to roll back to the state of an embryo, losing all memory, and awaken the full depth of knowledge buried within.
The composition is strangely personal: one's own umbilical cord left from birth, or the remnants of the shell. A path that works with the cycle requires that with which the bearer began.
