The Dark Path

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The Dark Path Page 21

by James M. Bowers


  "Come to the center of the circle." Gen motioned to Beth. She walked to him, careful to keep her arms crossed so she didn't touch any of the plants accidentally.

  "Now repeat the spell I taught you." She cast the spell and the whole world once more shifted almost sickeningly into the aura-weave spectrum. Her headache returned almost instantly.

  "See the green weave of the mint?" She nodded. "Touch the nearest plant and watch what happens."

  She already knew what would happen. She had done this many times already. Though this time, she could see what was going on. She watched as the red flashed through her hand and into the green weave of the plant's aura. The red drew some of the green energy into it. Then the red flooded into the weave of the plant turning it all red. It flashed quickly then the weave turned brown and fell apart. She felt the leaves turn to dust in her hand and knew she had killed the plant. Part of her felt sad that it was gone but another part of her rejoiced in the destruction. She shook her head.

  "The demonic part of you knows innately how to destroy simple weaves. You can stop it from happening though. Try again on the next plant. This time focus on holding the red back away from your hand when you touch it."

  She reached out again and grabbed a nearby plant. The red flashed out from her core again but this time she fought it. She pushed it back away from her hand. Her forehead broke out into a sweat. The red flashed stronger and stronger against the wall she had put up in her weave. She let out a yelp of pain as it suddenly broke through the wall and she heard the plant instantly turn to ash.

  "I can't hold it back! What kind of monster am I?" She put her head back in her hands and fought tears. She felt hands on her shoulders.

  "You are not a monster. Your name is Beth and you are a person. If you want to learn how to deal with this, then we will. You tried a simple wall but that only let the force build up before it was released. This time try diverting it. Direct it into your other hand. Use the red energy to make a small ball of flame in your left hand as you hold the plant with your right. You can do it. Just try." He removed his hands from her shoulders and stepped back a bit. She let her hands drop back to her sides and took a few deep breaths. She reached out again to a mint plant. This time when the red flashed through her weave toward the plant she forced it to flow to her other hand. Sweat once more broke out on her forehead. Gen whispered in her ear.

  "Don't fight it. Let it flow. Build the anger. Direct it. Use it to do what you want. It doesn't have to control you. You can control it."

  She gritted her teeth and for the first time that she could remember, she let down some of the barriers she had put up against letting her anger truly go. The fire coursed through her veins instantly. She called a ball of fire forth in her left hand and it lit before she got out the whole incantation. It burnt a bright orange. The ball was about the size of her head and growing bigger. She fought to control the anger back down. It wouldn't stop. The fire grew and grew till a pillar of it about Gen's height stood in her left hand. The heat of it began to burn the sleeve of her robes. Gen reached his arm into the flames and placed a small orange stone into her open palm. His sleeve steamed when he withdrew his hand. The fire drew into the stone and the stone started glowing.

  "Look to the plant," he whispered through gritted teeth.

  She looked back down and saw that the plant's weave had been damaged by her right hand making a fist around it but it was still alive and healthy.

  "Let go of the plant," Gen whispered again in a voice that felt like ice on the back of her neck.

  She let go of the mint. She suspected that the anger would stop once she let go but it didn't. Her breathing grew shorter and she began to seethe with it. Her vision went completely red. The aura sight spell was broken and the world once again returned to normal, though everything was tinted a shade of red. The stone in her hand was starting to grow painful to look at.

  "Calm down, Beth." Gen's whisper tried to soothe but the cold anger in it felt like shards of ice ripping through her.

  "I can't stop it!" she managed to say between gritted teeth.

  "You must stop it!" The shards ripped through her, even sharper this time.

  "I can't!" she screamed in fear and rage.

  “You must. You aren't ready for this yet.”

  “I can't! I just can't!”

  “If you don't calm down I will have to force you to. It will not be pleasant.”

  “Then do it! If you can.” The last part came out in a snarl. Her eyes turned to him, anger flowing through her and out all around. She felt her lips curl up into a sneer. The anger started to feel good. She could feel it tearing down all the walls she had put up over the years to stop it. She stopped caring what would happen, ignoring the small voice deep inside of her was pleading for her to stop.

  Gen chanted quickly and Beth felt a pain beyond anything she had ever felt before. She looked down and saw Gen's hand was buried up to his wrist into her chest. He twisted his fingers and she felt the pain double. Suddenly the anger left her completely. Gen withdrew his hand and she looked down amazed that her skin was intact.

  "What did you do to me?" she asked. She felt drained of all emotion, just tired. Gen sat down on the ground and sighed. His face hidden by the mint.

  "I should have thought about you not being able to stop that force yet. I'm sorry." Beth slumped to the ground and stared at him. She felt empty of emotion.

  "What did you do to me?" she asked again.

  "I temporarily changed your weave. I drained all your emotions for a short time. They should come back soon." His voice sounded raw.

  "I don't feel anything Gen. I'm just confused because I don't understand what you did."

  "In a way, I've violated you more than those Eremian soldiers did. You will understand shortly when your emotions return. I can see the weave being rewoven in you as I speak."

  "What is this stone?" She held up the painfully glowing orange stone the size of her thumb."

  "It absorbs fire. It's almost to the point of bursting. If you try to put any more fire into it, the stone will explode violently. Of course you can also use the fire inside it instead of your own energy or channeled energy. Though I have a feeling you won't easily run out of that kind of energy."

  "Is that because of what I am?" As the words left her mouth, her emotions slowly flooded back. She felt pain and a violation that was almost like what the Eremian soldiers had done to her. She started crying and was glad when Gen didn't touch her to try and console her. After her tears finally dried, she looked back up to Gen. He sat calmly in front of her, his eyes focused someplace distant.

  "I'm not angry at you," she whispered through a throat that was raw from the tears.

  "I am thankful for that. If there had been any other way to divert what was about to happen, I would have done it.”

  "I want to know how you did to me what you did. I've never heard of a mage doing that to someone else. Is that necromancy?"

  "Not entirely. The concepts you can understand but the spells to do what I did may never be reachable for you. I reached into your weave and undid the part of you that feels emotions. It is a very dangerous thing to do. Anytime you unravel a spell it can all come apart. The same thing can happen to people. If I had messed up at all you would have died or lost use of your mind. I'm sorry but I cannot explain anything else about it to you. Maybe years from now but not now."

  "Will you not show me because of what I am?"

  His eyes finally focused to her. "That is not it at all. What I did to you should never have to be done. It is not something easily learned or easily done. Great healers can do a technique like this. Maybe the healer here can teach you it. It is a bit safer to learn and much more useful. The healers deal mostly with the weave of the physical being, not the spiritual and mental sections. What I did manipulated all three at once. As I said, I must speak no more of it."

  "Where did you learn how to do that?" She was not going to give up on this. The magic he had
done to her had felt raw yet at the same time highly ordered and ancient.

  "Must you really know where I learned it?" Gen looked into her eyes again and this time she saw again the pain that resided there.

  "After what you did to me, I deserve to know," she said. She knew it was a cruel statement but she also knew it would get her the answer she wanted. Manipulation was her game as well as his. She thought it was time she started playing it again.

  His eyes stared off again. "After the war, I came across a man in a small village. He wore robes the same as the ones I wear now, though around the hood were the symbols of necromancy in silver thread. He looked to be about my age and smiled and called to me when I walked by. I learned that we share the same first name and that we were both students of necromancy, though he studied it for reasons he did not tell me. He seemed friendly but I later learned that in truth, he is as cold-hearted as anyone I have ever seen." Gen shuddered a bit. " As I studied with him he eventually taught me what I have done to you. What you have seen me do is only a minor part of it. Though he was my age, he had knowledge that was beyond ancient. I have no idea where he found the books that he had or where he had learned the things he knew. What I do know is that after a few months, he left in the middle of the night saying he had strings to pull elsewhere. I haven't seen him again. Now please do not ask me more of this. I will teach you something else, instead, to help you."

  "Okay, for now, I'll leave it alone. Why did you grow all this mint anyway?"

  "The mint is for the spell I'm to teach you. The spell takes the essence, or life, if you will, of the plant and channels it into you. If the words are spoken one way then the energy goes to heal your physical body. With a minor change though, the energy flows into you and allows you to cast spells even though you had been drained and in need of rest. I will teach you the first use."

  He chanted a long complex string of words that again sounded elven to Beth. She tried to repeat them and after a short time finally said them correctly. When she got the spell correct and put her will and energy to it, the mint all around her turned brown and she felt the energy rush to her. Her bruises healed and she opened her other eye. It felt good to see out of both of them again. Gen looked at her and tightened his lips a bit.

  "Have you always had one red eye and one blue?"

  "No, what are you talking about?"

  Gen reached into a pouch at his side and pulled out a small mirror. He handed it to her and she quickly looked into it. He was right. One of her eyes was the deep blue it had always been, but her left eye was now a deep red that looked almost to burn. The contrast of the two colors added somehow to her beauty.

  "I believe things have changed. That's all for today. Let us get some rest and some lunch. We'll talk more later." Gen stood and helped Beth up then walked with her back to the dorms. He had a lot of research to do.

  XVI

  The Tests Begin

  Gen walked the familiar rows of the library late that night. He carried no candle. He had long ago learned simple spells to let him see in the dark. He found himself standing in the only row of books he had avoided when he had last lived here. The dark bound books that lined these shelves used to scare him more than anything else. Now he felt a sort of comfort flowing from them. He could read all the titles of the books now. He scanned the spines and smiled a bit to himself. He had read most of these from collections taken from enemy mages during the war. He still had them in his library back in D'Nhia. Maybe he would send Beth there after she learned more here at the Schola. He sensed the librarian before he rounded the corner.

  "Greetings," Gen whispered to him.

  "Oh! I didn't expect to find you here." The librarian bowed his head slightly. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

  "I need to see your books on demonology. I see that you don't keep them on the common shelves." Gen smirked a bit. He had never thought, back when he was a boy, that the librarian would have hidden any books. He knew better now though. He had learned a lot in seven years.

  "Of course, Master Gen, this way." The librarian walked Gen toward the back of the library to a small door that appeared between the shelves when the librarian walked close to it. He withdrew a small silver key and unlocked the door. The door opened silently on well oiled hinges. The door lead to a room half the size of the main library. Nearly all the books here were bound in dark materials.

  "What type of demon are you wanting to research?" the librarian asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

  "Greater demons." Gen's answer was not a whisper, and he smirked a bit to see the librarian flinch at his louder tone. They walked toward the other side of the room and the now young looking elf took down a book that was bound in what looked to be red leather. He handed the book to Gen then motioned to a study table set up in the center of the room.

  "Shall I light candles for you?"

  "That would be nice." Gen didn't look at the librarian. He ran his fingers over the spine of the book. It held no title. The material he found was not leather and was warm to the touch, almost as if it was still living flesh. He walked over to the now well lit study table and unconsciously ended the sight enhancement spell. He set the book down on the table and pulled out one of the chairs.

  "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

  "Yes, there is. Sit." Gen looked up to the librarian and motioned with his hand to the chair opposite him. They both sat. "What can you tell me about the student here named Beth? The one that wears red robes."

  "She is only half human. I haven't found much time to study her further than that though. Did you learn something about her?"

  "Those little games used to work on me but they do not any longer. Do not attempt to toy with me again!" Gen's eyes burned the icy blue of anger and he saw the librarian shrink back from him a little. Good. Power and fear were things he knew the librarian respected and understood.

  "I apologize, Master. It is a habit I've had to keep for a long time. I am not used to speaking openly. Forgive me Master." He bowed his head.

  "I forgive you this once. Never do it again or you just may lose the gift that you so recently received." He watched the librarian shiver under his dark robes. "Now tell me what you know of little Beth."

  "I suspect she is half-demon. She was dropped off here when she was very young. Her mother I saw and know to be human so her father must have been the demon. I have not told her my thoughts. She will learn soon enough."

  "She knows now. I have told her today."

  "Very good, Master."

  "I believe that her father was no ordinary demon. As we both know, there are not that many greater demons that can come across. I would like to see if we can discover which one sired our little Beth."

  "Where should we begin?"

  "Let us start on demons that affect emotion. It seems that she has gained that gift from her father." Gen pushed the book across the table to the librarian. "You look. I don't feel like fighting a book today."

  "Very well, Master." The librarian had a sheen of sweat on his forehead as he reached for the book. He started to open the cover, then quickly jumped up and held the book open facing Gen. Fire leaped from the book but Gen was no longer sitting across from him. The librarian felt cold steel against his throat and felt a whisper on his ear.

  "You have grown slow as well as stupid. Why would you try something like this?" Gen's whisper carried an unspoken spell behind it. The librarian froze in place and dropped the book which closed as it fell to the table.

  "He commanded it," the librarian stuttered.

  "Now why would He do something like that?"

  "I have no idea why He would command your death. He has always spoken to me of your potential. I am not one to question His commands though."

  "Well I find that I question Him often. Why don't we go ask him?"

  "W-W-What?!" The librarian's eyes were wide with fear. "What do you mean?"

  "Let's pay Him a little visit. Find out what this is all about
. Now be a good little lacky and don't move." Gen stepped back and rewove the paralysis spell that he had placed on the librarian. He thought it would hold him long enough. He about turned away, then stopped himself. No, there was no room for mistakes here. He wove five more layers of paralysis around his captive then added some traps into them in case he managed to undo some of them. That would hold him long enough. Gen turned the librarian around. He then reached into the open air and gripped seemingly nothing. He did the same with his other hand then made a ripping motion downward. A hole ripped into the air, a window was between dimensions. He ripped the hole wider then pushed the librarian through it before him.

  As he stepped through the rift, he looked around to see the familiar stairs of pure hematite. Green flames poured from the eyes of skulls all along the sides of the stairs. The path led up to a large throne of bone and hematite. A skeletal figure in black robes sat upon the throne. Halfway up the stairs was the jackal headed one. He held a whip ready in one hand and lust for causing pain burned in his eyes. Gen grabbed the librarian by the neck and pushed him up the stairs before him. The Jackal pulled his hand with the whip back to strike but stopped when the figure on the throne commanded. He stepped to the side but glared as Gen walked past. Gen reached the top of the stairs and pushed the librarian down before the throne.

  "Now why would you bother to use a lackey such as this to try and kill me? If you wanted my death you should have come yourself!" Gen stated in a voice that resounded throughout the throne room.

 

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