They carried the dead into the forest and placed the body beneath the trees. No spell was spoken. The offering was simply returned to the environment from which its materials had already come.
Alastor is the fictional face given to decomposition. It does not arrive from elsewhere. The process is already present in soil, microorganisms, fungi, insects, moisture and chemistry.
Fungi extend microscopic filaments through organic material. Enzymes transform complex compounds into simpler molecules that become available to other organisms within the surrounding ecosystem.
Carbon released through decomposition can eventually participate in other biological cycles. Plants capture carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, using light energy to build organic molecules and continue the circulation of matter.
Biological regulation ends. Internal chemistry begins to change.
Microorganisms transform available organic compounds.
Fungal networks penetrate and chemically process organic material.
Nutrients move into soil, microorganisms, plants and surrounding systems.
Light driven biology reorganizes carbon into new living material.
Natural burial can be understood as an occult ritual without requiring supernatural intervention. The body enters the earth and becomes substrate. Microbial communities consume and transform it. Fungi participate in the conversion. Nutrients move outward into soil and living systems.
The story gives the process a face. The science gives the story its mechanism.
The dead are not summoned away. They are redistributed. Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, water and other materials leave the structure of the individual and reenter biological systems. The boundary between corpse and ecosystem gradually disappears.
ALASTOR IS THE STORY WE TELL ABOUT THIS TRANSFORMATION. THE NECROBIOME IS THE MECHANISM.