Enlightenment - Chapter VII

Chapter VII

Nothing happens.

Extend my arms upward, then make an outward, circular sweeping motion.

"Anh mi sah ko," she chants.

Again. Nothing.

Stupid spirit speaking, she thinks as she tries again.

Her distaste for the subject had dissipated. It wasn't as if it was necromancy after all. When she opened up the spirit speaking book, there wasn't much information within. Even less so than in the disorganized mess in the book of necromancy. It appeared she couldn't write about it without trying it.

Since spirit speaking and necromancy were linked, understanding it would give her a better understanding of necromancy. Added to the similarities that necromancy has to magery, she should be able to write her book while still keeping her hands clean.

"Anh mi sah ko."

Still nothing.

She continued repeating the motions and saying the words as she walked down the road. Walking was supposed to help. The road started at Luna, and if she continued on long enough, it would reach the bridge to Umbra. Grass intruded through the cracks along the edges, but at least it was still nice and smooth.

She would have preferred to have remained close to home, but she no longer had as much privacy as she used to. Better security would be better for business, but there were too many eyes watching and she didn't want to be seen. She didn't know how Stark would react.

It was fun though, watching him ambush the recruits. He told her the first day was to test their awareness of other people, so he threw eggs at them if he could catch them off guard. They did much better the second day, but they didn’t know the eggs were just a distraction for a different test that day. He would assemble or break down a pile of rocks, or move some fallen branches, or make other changes to the surroundings after the recruits passed by. If they didn't notice the changes on their returned, they failed.

And many failed.

He was supposed to recruit nine, but only kept five. Cadence was asked to look for more, so he could fill out the rest. It was nice seeing how thorough he was, but she needed a secluded place to practice.

So she walked. She spoke the words. She made the motions.

And nothing.

It has to be wrong. What kind of spell doesn't need a mana focus or reagents? But she didn't sense any resonance in the book, and the vendor assured her that was all she needed. The spell used mana at least, but it reaches out for the lingering mana in a dead body that was still… fresh. The spell only used the mana produced by the caster if no lingering mana was within reach.

But it did use mana. So it was a spell. A spell like she'd never heard of. It also had multiple effects produced from the one set of words and motions. And for that reason a whole dicipline was based off of this one spell. It would heal the body and summon the spirts of the dead. It would allow communication with that dead soul.

Melfina shudders at the thought, but keeps on chanting. It was just research.

How is this any better than necromancy? Why is it more accepted? It's still summoning the dead. Summoning someone’s soul! Isn't that worse than animating a body? A body is just a body. But the soul... maybe there's a way to apply the healing aspects without the soul summoning.

"Anh mi sah ko," she chants again. She didn't get nothing as expected.

The translucent shape of a man faded into view, fully formed, but lacked any color was only a sickly white.

"OooOOo…llllp me! Help me!" it said as it frantically flailed its arms. Her slight jump mid-step encouraged him to go on. "You can see me! You can see me! You have to help! There isn't much time!"

"Wha... what do you want?" she says as her heart pounds in her chest.

"I was robbed and murdered. You have to hurry! I can't last much longer!"

"Show me the way, I'll gate you to a healer," Melfina says, as the ghost reaches for her wrist in an attempt to guide her, forgetting its hand would pass right through.

"Back this way," he says, as he leads her off the road, toward the woods in the distance. "I don't have much time... my spirit is already losing cohesion. There's no time. You need to deliver something for me."

She runs after the ghost until they reach his body. It looks as if it was frozen mid-fall, held up by the bush beneath, eyes wide with fright. A knife sticks menacingly from his back. Something had gotten to the body afterwards as it was obviously partially eaten, but the noise she had made must have scared it away.

"In my pocket. There's a key with a red ribbon. They took my gold, but they left everything else. I didn't have much with me."

"There's no time to lead you to you my house, so deposit the key into my account. We share it. I'm Forrester. My wife's Sabrina. Leave a note telling her what happened. Let her know that I love her, and that I'm sorry, and tell her that the key is for a chest in The Great Storehouse by Cove. She doesn't know about my full inheritance. Leave your name on the note. I'm sure she'll thank you."

"I will, Forrester. But I can still try taking you back to the healers. Someone can save you."

He shakes his head. "No... I'm losing myself already. It's too late to put me back. And look at my body. There's no way it could still contain me even if my spirit was still whole.” He tries holding her hands in his own, and they both watch them pass through her own. “Sorry… it’s hard to remember. But thank you. I'm glaad you walked by. You'll... saaave... my... fammm..."

He voice faded away and then he disappeared.

Melfina pauses a moment as she stares at his body. She then reaches into his pockets and finds the key and sits down and leans against a nearby tree to write down the notes on the whole experience. No point in hurrying now. She couldn’t do anything more.

He thanked me. Maybe talking to the dead isn't so bad.

Melfina sits in silence after she finishes as she tries to pretend she's conflicted with what she's about to do next.

She takes out the book of necromancy and opens it up.

Just to look.

"Animate Dead" was written across the top of the page.

Ewww! she thinks as she quickly turns to another.

Pain Spike? Strangle? There has to be something in here that doesn't sound evil! Maybe this wasn't a good idea. But... performing spirit speak is so different than reading about it. I've learned more in these few moments than I have in these past days by simply reading the book.

There was a slight change in the way the mana was used when Forrester first appeared. It felt softer.

How can I present myself as an authority, knowing that I've never performed a single necro spell? If some of my conclusions, or even worse, my descriptions, are proven wrong... with something as easy to confirm as this... I'll lose all credibility.

She flips through the book again. What could one spell hurt?

"Horrific Beast" it reads. Her resolve weakens. She reads the description and it weakens more. The names and descriptions of the spells had never really registered in her head. She had only been interested in the mechanics.

A physical transformation! Not an illusion! Why would I want to tranform my body into that!

She drops the book on the ground, disappointed that it has let her down. When she looks down at it, she sees that the pages have settled down onto a different spell.

Hmmm... this doesn't sound so bad. And it looks pretty easy. She mutters the words and does the hand motions without thinking.

Then an odd feeling runs through her. Melfina sits up and listens. She only hears the blood pounding in her ear drums. Her eyes widen as she takes another look at the partially eaten body. She looks at the missing chunks of flesh and broken bones.

You're being stuipd, she tries to convince herself.

She hears a grunt.

Something's there.

* * *

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