Irresistible Indigo (D'Vaire, Book 9)

by Jessamyn Kingley

  “Don’t worry, I’m giving the bulk of my time—since I finished a decent potion—toward the other requirements,” Delaney said. “Okay, so let’s talk about necromancers and whether it’s possible to resurrect a complete shifter. The good news is…I do think it’s possible, and I do believe I can create it. However, I can tell you this won’t be something that all necros can do. Not only does it require a great deal of ability, you also need concentration. To manage this, you’re going to have to cast two separate spells at the same time. We’re taught in school how to manage as many as possible at once, but as sorcerers in the real world, we focus on one at a time. This would be equivalent to splitting your power to manage two massive spells.”

  “So, for someone like Chand who has two separate halves—one necro and one demon—would it be easier or harder?” Alaric asked.

  “Easier. Way easier. His demon might actually be the difference because he can use his demonic power to keep his necro spells evenly split,” Delaney explained. “In simulations, if the magic isn’t split dead even, the beast portion of the resurrection fails one hundred percent of the time. My thought is, I might be able to develop a potion which makes it easier for a caster to split their magic that way with no wavering, but since your power is tied to your soul, it could be very dangerous.”

  “Without a potion, is there anyone besides me who can accomplish this?” Chander asked.

  “Honestly, at this point in my research, I doubt it. Maybe if you’ve got some die-hard necros who’ve spent their lives studying magic, like perhaps the two on your staff, they might be able to do it—but your average necromancer? No way.”

  “In simulations when you complete it, what’s the composition of the beast? Does it differ from living shifters?” Mac asked.

  “I’ve been using dragons because obviously I have access to six of them here, and I can take the essence of the natural power of your beasts to run the simulations. I’ve been using the fallen knight spell as my base. What I’ve found interesting is, if you resurrect a dragon fallen knight, the abilities don’t cross lines. It kind of works like the Lich Reaper. Grymmie has his human form and in it, he can use invisibility but in his skeletal form, he can’t. Resurrected shifters would work the same. So there won’t be any invisible dragons soaring in the sky.”

  “There are seven D’Vaire dragons now that Mac has joined us,” Brogan pointed out.

  “Yeah, I can’t use Aleksander in the simulations. I tried. His beast’s off the damn charts. He threw all the results off. When you use his dragon and the spell isn’t done correctly, it’s the beast side who wins out even when you give the fallen knight half of the spell a head start. Our king’s way too damn powerful.”

  “That’s both cool and scary,” Mac remarked. “Not really surprising I guess, considering his dragon dwarfs the house. I swear I peed a little the first time I saw him shift.”

  “Think about what it was like for a dorky sixteen-year-old wizard seeing it for the first time,” Idris commented.

  Delaney lifted a hand, which Idris dutifully slapped. “Same thing happened to me. So, we’ve talked about the spell. Let’s talk about part two of this scenario. If you successfully reunite man with beast, then what happens? The spell for fallen knights erases all memory of their previous life. In my simulations, I can bypass certain variables for the purposes of research, but real life doesn’t work that way. Decisions need to be made about how we design this. Can you squeeze dragon training into a spell, or is it something which will have to be learned after resurrections? Is that something the fallen knights are willing to do, considering all the diverse types of shifting they’d need to have knowledge of? As a sorcerer, you wouldn’t know the species of the new fallen knight’s beast until after they were resurrected with the current spell I’m using. Do we design it to say only dragons or only these types of shifters? Will shifter communities cry foul over being excluded?”

  “The question which pops to my mind as a dragon is, how dangerous is it to the new fallen knight? Can it kill them as it has living men shifting for the first time?” Mac asked.

  “After the resurrection sickness has passed, it can’t. I did research on how dragon shifters lose their lives going through the process of summoning their beasts for the first time. It seems like—and you guys are the experts so correct me if I’m wrong—but it’s from the fall, right? Whatever happens between man and beast which makes it fail, generally happens while high in the sky. A fallen knight wouldn’t die from a drop at any height. He might break every bone in his body and really hurt until it all knits back into place, but his life isn’t going to be in danger,” Delaney responded.

  “You’ve got it right,” Brogan commented. “That’s why there are dragon trainers out there who prefer not to allow men and women to fly at their first shift. I think it’ll eventually become that way for all of them and if it prevents people from dying, I’m all for it.”

  “I guess the question is, how long does a fallen knight have to get their training in before their dragon, for example, would fight their way out?” Chander asked.

  “It’s a good question, but I don’t know how to answer it,” Mac said. “Dragons grow slowly, and that’s why we don’t shift until around a hundred. I’ve heard of people who have waited up until fifteen years later but after that, the dragon’s going to force his way out, even if it means he kills the man he shares his soul with. Uniting someone with their beast is a lengthy process for dragons because of the potential danger, but it could probably be done a great deal quicker. You start feeling your beast probably in your twenties, although I’ve heard of people who begin it earlier in their teens, but we’ve always required decades of training as we learn to live with the entity inside us.”

  “We know from Duff that Kellas cats shift for the first time somewhere around twelve or thirteen. Their beast is small, so it’s easy. There’s so much variance in shifting, but it’s due to the type of animal and the danger it poses. If you were a fallen knight and didn’t have to worry about death, I’d think you could speed it up easily,” Brogan remarked.

  “They’d figure it out swiftly if they failed even once, and fallen knights are nearly as powerful as sentinels in body and mind,” Alaric stated.

  “They’re certainly given an ability to concentrate and succeed far above the average person,” Chander said after a sidelong glance at his mate.

  “I think, given all this, if we consulted with trainers in several of the larger shifting communities, we could add at least some basic information into the spell itself to prepare the fallen knight. Then we could follow up with classes or maybe even a seminar for resurrected shifters,” Delaney replied. “We can always alter our approach if we find out from the trainers that we’re oversimplifying the process.”

  “It’s not part of your project, so I’d be happy to take on that task,” Chander answered.

  “I have a question, though I think I can already guess the answer,” Renny threw in. “What about current fallen knights? Could Chand go back, resurrect their beasts, and reunite them?”

  Delaney shook his head. “I love the idea, but I don’t think so. I’ve done a lot of research on shifting, on beasts, and what happens after they cross the veil. What I’ve learned is a beast and a man share a soul. They stay together in death. There’s a beautiful story written by an ancient necromancer who was named Aemilia. She spent a lot of time shadow walking, and she told tales of seeing all kinds of magnificent beasts. Cats curled with men and women riding dragons. During her lifetime, no one understood shifters because they didn’t know about them, but she recognized the relationship between these animals and their human counterparts. It’s not pairing up a random animal and man—you’re resurrecting two parts of one soul. Since fallen knights have no memories of their past, it’d be impossible to even begin to know how to find who or what their beast was. I think casting a spell where you ask Fate to find the beast is opening yourself up for all kinds of problems. Let’s say,
for instance, you were mated in your previous life. You were tied to not only your own animal but your mate’s. What if the wrong beast got into the wrong person? I have no idea, and I’m not sure I’d want to find out.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought, but I wondered how the simulations worked out,” Renny replied.

  “I don’t even know how to put those parameters in. Even if you could figure out what kind of beast they were, I think you’d have to shadow walk to find their animal. Then you could begin the process of reuniting. Where would you start looking?” Delaney asked.

  Chander shrugged. “Beats me.”

  Chapter 19

  “Delaney, I think you have a good grasp on what your next steps are. Idris, do you want to give us an update on your project?” Vadimas asked.

  Idris sucked in a deep breath. Brogan was in attendance, and Idris wasn’t quite sure how to ask him to leave. The last time they spoke with Dra’Kaedan about it, he preferred to keep Brogan in the dark so his hopes weren’t raised over something that was still a large work in progress. All Idris could do was try and be as diplomatic as possible. “Should we ask the non-sorcerers in the room to leave? The shifters were able to help Del with his project, but they might be bored listening to a bunch of magic stuff.”

  Brogan grinned. “It’s okay. Dra’Kaedan already filled me in.” He turned to the blond in the chair next to him. “Pro—Dra’Kaedan can’t manage to keep secrets from his mate.”

  The warlock’s mouth thinned in irritation. “I’m pretty sure that’s a con.”

  “I disagree,” the dragon shifter replied.

  “Fine. Con—Brogan never lets Dra’Kaedan live anything down.”

  “It’s weird when you guys refer to yourselves in the third person,” Renny remarked.

  “Everything about them is weird,” Dre’Kariston countered. “Let’s get back to Idris.”

  “Let’s start with the spell itself,” Idris said. “To understand how it worked when cast to make the potion, I put it straight into the simulator without any modifications. It requires a minimum of a hundred or so warlocks as is, with a mixture of both light and dark. There are no specifications on whether it should be half or more of one than the other, so I tried it a few different ways. What I discovered was that no matter how you broke it down with light and dark, over seventy percent of the time, the person they tried to give immortality to died in the process.”

  “I guess that answers my question about why this spell wasn’t taught to us as children and why it wound up forgotten. Those odds are terrible,” Dre’Kariston complained.

  “Well, that fucking sucks,” Brogan stated.

  “You think Idris just ran those simulations and he’s done?” Dra’Kaedan asked.

  “Of course not. The first thing I needed to figure out was what portions of the spell were intrinsic to making it work and what was causing the deaths. The base of it is, you essentially give the person a potion which is a mixture of a tiny sliver of all the souls involved in the casting of the spell. The more powerful the sorcerers, the bigger the potion you get.”

  “What does it do to the casters who are giving up a portion of their own soul?” Alaric asked.

  “Nothing. It’s a tiny fraction. They needed a great deal of people because they weren’t warlocks like Dra’Kaedan and Dre’Kariston.”

  “So, Dra’Kaedan and I could cast it with only the two of us? We’d need a dark warlock, wouldn’t we?”

  “You definitely need dark and light magic. When I tried it using them alone, it failed one hundred percent of the time. I haven’t quite figured out why yet, but that’s the reality and no, you need more than two casters. Your ancestors were using more than a hundred, and we’re not talking about each person casting a small spell. This is emptying the tank to slice away at your soul where your magic is rooted.”

  “How many casters would you need?” Mac asked.

  “It depends on the casters. After running about a million or so simulations, what I found is that a lot of the people they used contributed nothing. It was lost as the potion was created. That’s why they used so many people—they knew there was a great deal that would be lost as the spell funneled into a drinkable vessel to grant immortality.”

  “Which explains the deaths. Casting like that would have created a highly unstable cocktail,” Chander replied.

  “Exactly,” Idris responded. “It was essentially a crapshoot. I’m not sure if they understood that, because I can’t imagine anyone signing up to drink this shit if they understood how magic works.”

  “I don’t understand how it works, so can someone give me more insight here?” Mac asked.

  “Happy to. When you’re casting, we emphasize efficiency. There are two reasons for that. One is that if you aren’t wasting magic, you can push yourself to stretch your power as far as possible. The second, and probably most important, is that all the extra magic you use can alter your results,” Idris explained. “Think of it like this. When you’re cooking something, you want the right amount of eggs, flour, or whatever. If you put in the wrong amount, your cookies taste like ass. So, if you create a potion with all this magic swirling in the air, it’s impossible not to change your creation.”

  “The only time it’s safe to over-cast is if you’re healing someone. Excessive magic in such a case will only result in perhaps a sense of euphoria or feeling refreshed,” Dra’Kaedan added.

  “In healing, it’s actually encouraged not to hold back because it can literally mean the difference between life and death. Healing spells are also simple. The magic has a single purpose, and that is to mend. Something as complicated as a spell to give someone immortality needs to be exact,” Dre’Kariston said.

  “It’d be like trying to turn someone into an apple and instead getting a fruit basket,” Renny remarked.

  “I get it. A guy wants to be warned before he finds himself with a banana,” Brogan replied.

  “Is there anyone here who doesn’t think he’s talking about a dick?” Alaric inquired.

  “Behave yourself, Lich Sentinel,” Chander drawled out. “I’ve filled a few rooms with dark magic in my day, given the right circumstances, but when approaching something like this, it will take a precise mix.”

  “I’ve been experimenting with the spell cast with our group here minus Renny and I’ve found that it also matters how the magic is added. Dark can sometimes eat light and vice versa,” Idris commented.

  Brogan frowned. “Why did you leave out Renny?”

  “At a magical level, he’s an extension of Dra’Kaedan, so they’re attached at the soul. Renny gets his power not from his own core but from Dra’Kaedan providing it. To cast this, Dra’Kaedan would need to pull from his very deep well. He can’t do that while simultaneously replenishing Renny,” Idris explained.

  “I’m confused. Chand can potentially split his magic into two equal parts to resurrect a man with his beast. Why couldn’t Dra’Kaedan cast two equally powerfully spells at the same time?” Brogan asked.

  Renny patted Brogan’s arm. “Two reasons. Dra’Kaedan needs all his power to dredge up a sliver of his soul. Second, even if he didn’t, for me to peel away a sliver could potentially be fatal, should my well of magic not be correctly replenished. No one in this room is going to allow me to take that kind of risk.”

  “And I think we’re going to need Renny on the outside, casting,” Idris revealed. “Here’s the deal. What I can tell you is that not one of the wizards in here can currently do this. Magic comes from the soul. We’ve been over that. Del and I are on our way to fully connecting, which we will do after we become High Arcanists. We’ll accept what’s inside us, and the marks on our arms will change to reflect the color assigned to us by Fate. Vadimas is prepared to do the same after our rituals. Until that time, we’re useless when it comes to Immortalis. That’s step one. Step two is carefully layering our specific types of magic into a completely stable potion. The by-product of all that casting is going to create swirl
s of color. I think your cousin Scheredin is going to need to be there, along with his familiar and Renny, to make the potion visible to us as we build it. One millimeter of the wrong person’s magic, and this shit can kill.”

  “Sounds easy,” Dra’Kaedan teased. “So, we’ll ask Scheredin and Brexton to start attending our meetings then?”

  “I think it’d be beneficial for them to do so. Perhaps they can come up with a spell that doesn’t add any color feedback which also illuminates the potion while cutting through all the smoke and shit we’ll produce. Chand’s magic alone is black as night when he’s casting with his demon, and he’s going to need all his juice,” Idris said.

  “You guys really think you can do this, don’t you?” Mac asked in a somewhat awed voice.

  Idris nodded and kissed Mac’s surprised mouth. “I intend to do this.”

  “I’ll be happy to start working on the spell you were talking about,” Renny commented. “I know Scheredin’s the warlock, but it might be easier for him and Brexton to funnel through me. My magic is a pale gold, so if we can add a higher level of translucency, then it should be the easiest to illuminate with.”

  “I like it being funneled through you anyway. Make Scheredin responsible for nothing but replenishing you and Brexton, if possible. Your well is larger than Brexton’s because of who your warlock is. It’s a steep ask of Scheredin to try and keep you filled, Brexton filled, and cast himself,” Dre’Kariston remarked.

  “I’ll get their input too,” Renny promised. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to help.”

  “I know Derwin’s your friend, but I’d prefer if he was left out,” Dra’Kaedan stated.

  “No worries, I don’t even want my familiar knowing about what we’re up to with this,” Dre’Kariston said before Renny could reply. “Secrecy is paramount, and the reality is, Derwin chooses when and where he behaves himself. He can’t be trusted to take part in something so intricate.”