by Ian Rodgers
Almost everything was in place. The first of the final two steps to take was to tie the body to the entity symbolically. An entity that represented war would have blood and rust sprinkled atop the human batter. A god that protected children would have the shredded remains of a doll, or childhood clothes, draped across the magical array.
Tara was a Spirit of Knowledge. And the best way to create a body she could inhabit was to have the ashes of a textbook or encyclopedia placed atop the vessel. Desecrating a book, even for a good purpose, didn’t sit well with me or Tara. But it had to be done. So, I took out a pile of ash and carefully sprinkled it over the top of the human batter. I heard a delicate whimper from Tara as I did so, and even I felt a tingle of sadness.
Lastly, to complete the Divine Flesh Descent ritual, I had to continually chant the name of the one whom I wished to bind into the newly made body. This had to be done the whole time the ritual was working. One could not pause for more than a few seconds. And the ritual was known to last an hour or more as the mana infused the magical array and melded and molded the materials together.
If I could have smirked, I would have. I had the advantage over puny mortals who needed lungs and a tongue to speak. I used magic to make noise. My words formed through my mana interacting with the air, not fleshy bits kept inside mouths. I could chant Tara’s name all day without growing hoarse or losing breath.
“Time to start,” I muttered, and let my mana trickle out towards the array. Upon tasting my energy, the octagon and the symbols within started to flicker to life, while the eight gems glowed in a rainbow-colored cascade. They only light in the cave was coming from the ritual, and the shadows they created were unusual, to say the least.
For Rosa, her shadows gave her different hair styles, or the wings and features of other animals. At one point her shadow had two heads, one of which had insect antenna, six tentacles for wings, and her legs became four fish tails.
As for myself, my shadows made from the mystical light were no less bizarre, but they cut deeper against my mind and psyche. Humanoid shapes, one and all. What I could have looked like had I not been born an Ooze.
I studiously ignored the random shapes, ‘what-ifs,’ and ‘could-have-beens.’ Instead, I focused on keeping the magic flowing through the array and chanting Tara’s name.
“Tara, Tara, Tara,” I uttered.
“Tara, Tara, Tara,” Rosa murmured alongside me, using her own voice to accompany mine. I was touched, and I could tell the Spirit of Knowledge in question was too.
As a Feykin, a Carbuncle’s voice was filled with enchantments, charms, and raw magic. They were prized as singers by many, and, unfortunately had also been known to be captured by the rich and treated as exotic songbirds. Those who heard them would be captivated, like a siren luring sailors to their doom, or a fairy playing tricks on mortals. Every word they spoke had power, and as such, Carbuncles rarely uttered more than a few sentences in their entire life.
Rosa truly loved and cared for Tara like a sister. She wouldn’t have spoken her name aloud otherwise.
I felt a budding sense of hope and anticipation as the ritual continued. The human batter that lay in the center of the magical array was shifting and bubbling. Organs could be seen surfacing in the goop, along with bones and chunks of muscle and crimson beads of blood. It was working!
‘Now, Tara! Start transferring yourself over to the body!’ I ordered through the mental link, and she obeyed. A tether of magic had already been formed between the body and the spirit inside my mindscape, and Tara cautiously entered, traveling along the line of energy towards her body. For the first time in many years, I was alone with my thoughts.
A distinct shape began to take form in the grey mass. Petite, pale, and feminine. The ill-defined shape gained curves and two lumps upon the chest. The head remained bereft of hair, but the rest of the facial features that were slowly coming forth were nigh identical to the face she used in the mindscape.
‘Yes!’ I cheered. ‘Almost there…’
A loud gurgle echoed forth from the forming human’s stomach, and for a moment I thought that it was a sign that the body was nearly complete, that Tara’s new body was experiencing hunger for the first time.
Excitement turned to dread, though, as the gurgling continued, only louder and harsh, and the body started to shrivel up in places, while in others it bulged and swelled like it had been infested with tumors.
The body opened its mouth and let out a scream of pain, and Rosa and I flinched back. Our chanting of Tara’s name stopped in our shock, and we could only watch helplessly as the body was consumed by the very magic used to make it. Parts of it froze, others burned, petrified and crumbled, changed colors, and broke apart only to heal moments later. Finally, with one final screech, the artificial body exploded, showering the cave with bits of slagged, half-formed flesh.
Rosa squealed in fright and tried to dodge the flying globs of pseudo-meat, but one particularly large piece smacked into her face and knocked her out of the air.
“No… curse it all! No!” I shouted angrily, lashing out with a tendril at a large lump of not-quite-human and splattering it everywhere.
(Tara? Are you okay? Tara?! Answer me, please!) Rosa pleaded over our shared mental link, quickly growing more and more frantic as the Spirit of Knowledge failed to answer.
A loud, pained gasp burst forth through the connection, and Rosa and I both sighed in relief when we recognized it.
‘Tara, are you alright? What happened?’ I asked, deeply concerned for her safety.
~I-I was inside the body,~ Tara stammered softly. ~I could feel it. I could feel everything!~ She broke down into hysterical sobs for a few minutes as she recalled having a body, and then experiencing the pain of losing it.
~At first, it felt good. Things were going well. But then the pain started! And I couldn’t maintain the connection! I, I tried to keep integrating with the body, but something was wrong! Something felt incomplete, and was messing with my attempts to bond with it.~
‘Do you have any idea what happened to make the, um, the mess?’ I asked hesitantly.
I heard a few sniffles before she managed to formulate an answer. ~I don’t know for sure. It felt like there was an emptiness inside me? Like a gnawing hole that kept growing and devouring the mana inside the ritual.~
‘Sounds a bit like hunger,’ I mused. ‘Perhaps we need to add more human batter to compensate for the rapid growth of the body. As well as some extra magic, in case that sensation was due to a lack of proper mana necessary for properly binding the materials.’
I looked around the messy, flesh-stained cavern and shuddered. ‘Shall we clean up and try again in a little bit?’
Tara whimpered a little bit, but after a moment to compose herself she sighed and agreed.
~Yes. One more time.~
.
“Sir! I found something!”
A knight looked up from the gruesome remains of a family of five as one of the soldiers that had accompanied him rushed over.
“What is it?” he asked, his tone weary. All of his fear and disgust had been expelled after seeing atrocity after atrocity inside the walls of what had once been the thriving town of Ryegrid.
The soldier snapped a salute. “We found a clue in the Adventurer’s Guild. Please, follow me.”
The knight nodded, and followed the man towards the ruins of the local guildhall. There were a few other people on the streets cleaning up and futilely looking through the houses for survivors.
When traders had come to Ryegrid a few days ago, they had run screaming from it, claiming it had become a bloodbath. It was soon confirmed that the town had been sacked, and all who had lived inside were dead. New Castella immediately dispatched knights, soldiers, adventurers, and court investigators to discover who or what had done this.
The knight, head of the group sent to Ryegrid, wanted answers. One of his cousins had lived here, for Cynthia’s sake! He hadn’t dared to set foot in their home
, for fear of finding him and his family’s corpses as desecrated as the rest.
As he entered the Adventurer’s Guild, his eyes locked onto what was undoubtedly the clue the soldier had discovered.
On the point of a spear held aloft by a grim-faced adventurer was a single golden ring, covered in dried blood and engraved with odd pictograms.
“A Lizardfolk-made ring,” the knight hissed.
“Worse,” a nearby reedy man with spectacle said with a cough to get the knight’s attention. “It’s a Lizardfolk-made ring that belonged to a Dragon Priest, one of their highest religious authorities.”
What this meant went unsaid. Some idiotic party of adventurers had attacked a lizardfolk congregation, and made off with their treasures. And the cursed scalies had retaliated in brutal fashion.
“Fetch me quill, ink, and paper. I need to write a report to the Duke of New Castella,” the knight uttered, clenching his fists so hard his metal gauntlets squealed in protest. “This cannot go unpunished.”
“It might lead to war,” the adventurer who’d found the ring pointed out.
The knight shrugged. “So be it.”
Chapter 13: Scales, hugs, and futures
Two days and seven failed experiments later, and I was this close to finding a way to grow hair just so I could tear it out in frustration.
The Divine Flesh Descent ritual had not worked. Not once. Each and every time I tried, it failed. And I had no idea why.
Alright, so I might know the reason why not a single attempt worked. It was the materials. Other than the basic components, it required rare magical substances I simply did not have a way to get. Dragon scales and Sovereign Whale bones were just the tip of the iceberg! The liver of a Unicorn was doable if I really tried, and maybe I could scrounge up a few liters of Crystal Water with Rosa’s help, but the heart of a Magic Eater and the roots from a thousand-year-old Tree Ent? Not without massive amounts of gold or risking my life multiple times!
Substituting them with inferior items clearly was not going to work. I had to either obtain the actual materials described in Edelhart’s Grimoire, or I had to find much more potent and superior substitutions.
“I’m sorry, Tara,” I muttered despondently as I cleaned up the mess from the latest failed attempt to craft a body.
~It’s not your fault. If anything, it’s mine for trying to cut corners with inferior goods,~ she replied, the Spirit of Knowledge’s own voice trying and failing to mask her disappointment.
(Instead of going around in a blame-circle, let’s just agree that it happened, and we’re going to get it right next time!) Rosa interjected before Tara and I could plummet into a spiral of shame and self-deprecation.
The two of us muttered our acknowledgements towards the Ruby Carbuncle’s decision, and descended into silence. After a while I sighed and stretched.
“I don’t know about you two, but I need a break and some fresh air. Maybe take a stroll to clear my head,” I said aloud, my voice echoing in the dim chamber. Rosa nodded at my side, and Tara expressed her agreement with a hum. We’d been cooped up inside the hollowed-out hill for two days, and not seen the sun since. Plus, we did need to distance ourselves from the repeated failures.
We emerged from the cave to piercing noon sunlight, and Rosa flinched at the sudden brightness.
“Want to see if we can find any neat plants or animals?” I asked my Familiar, and she nodded eagerly.
(I want to chase butterflies!)
“That can be arranged,” I said with a chuckle. I morphed into my bipedal form and slipped on my robe and illusions before heading off, content to amble around aimlessly and enjoy the nice spring day.
As we walked, my thoughts drifted back to the seven experiments, and what we could possibly do to improve it without resorting to rare and expensive materials.
“Could we find some stray dragon scales around the area, or perhaps trade for them?” I wondered. “I mean, Drakon is full of dragons, there have to be a few lying around somewhere!”
~That’s a possibility. But maybe we should consider trying to improve your Planeswalking skill,~ Tara suggested in return. ~You’ve already mastered Astral Projection, after all.~
“Headmaster Arnolt warned us about the dangers of Planeswalking, remember?” I said with a shake of my ‘head.’ “It’s a tempting idea, but I’d rather not try something that even S-rank mages are cautious of doing without first learning all I can about it.”
~That is wise,~ Tara said. ~Based on the information the Academy has on the various realms of the Aether, it is a dangerous place for the unprepared. Although the bits of the Elemental Plane of Earth you saw were rather delightful.~
(Those were just the nice and safe spots you saw,) Rosa said, stepping into the conversation after tiring of trying to find butterflies to chase. (And to be honest, Gaeum is one of the safer Planes for ordinary people to visit. After all, unless you can breathe under water, fly through the sky, or withstand volcanic temperatures, the other realms are not fun places to visit.)
(And back on the topic of find Tara a body, don’t you think you two are maybe forgetting an avenue we haven’t explored?)
“What do you mean?” I asked. Rosa hesitated for a moment before replying.
(I mean, if Tara needs a body, why bother making one and just find a fresh corpse to use?)
“One, because that treads into Necromancy, and is not something I am willing to risk,” I said sternly. “Two, it wouldn’t be a perfect fit. The Divine Flesh Descent ritual’s purpose is giving unusually powerful and unique entities their own personal form.”
~Indeed. Besides the moral issues of using someone else’s body, that ends up being possession, and is just a shortcut for getting a body. There’s a reason other spirits and such don’t use that option unless they have to,~ Tara lectured, backing me up.
~Spirits, like myself, are pure magic given shape. We would corrode any living vessel we would be inserted in if it did not have a proper capacity for storing and processing the vast amount of mana we possess. Maybe we’d get a few months out of it if the body was alive but braindead. Less, if the body were an actual corpse. It’s why demons and such prefer to find tears in the fabric of reality and manifest their real bodies on the mortal plane than have a weakened flesh shell.~
(I see. I’m sorry for suggesting it,) Rosa said sorrowfully.
“It’s fine. You were just trying to help. There’s nothing wrong with asking if it would have worked. Now you know better, and we won’t have to be hunted down by Paladins, Undead hunters, or Selika’s Clerics.”
The tiny gem-studded fairy laughed at that before settling down on my hat brim. After a while though she sighed.
(Ugh! Now that I mentioned corpses I keep thinking about them, and can practically smell them!)
I paused, and enhanced my own ability to detect scents. I sniffed their air with a fake nose, and gave my fake face a worried frown.
“You’re not imagining things, Rosa. I can smell it too!” The stench of blood and rot wasn’t very strong, but it was there, and steadily increasing in potency as we walked towards the source.
Worried, I hurried over to see what was causing the smell of death to permeate the area, cresting a hill and coming to a halt as horror overwhelmed me.
Dozens of corpses littered the ground, some with severed limbs, others with ragged holes in their bodies. What’s more, the bodies were not human, but rather those of around fifty lizardfolk.
“Oh, that’s not good,” I muttered, staring at the massacre. Scorch marks surrounded a toppled palanquin, while the earth was churned up in front of what I assume had once been a procession of some sort, rather than a military unit. The musical instruments and religious paraphernalia lying in the muck supported that assumption.
(Jelly, the ground feels…) Rosa trailed off, unable and unwilling to say anything.
I simply nodded in understanding. “Yes. I feel it too. The earth is tainted. Corrupted. Covered up and cleaned up sli
ghtly, but it’s still detectable.”
(Sour soil,) Rosa said with a shiver.
“This was done by the World Rebellion Arboralnecromancer who chased us back in Orria,” I uttered with a snarl, clenching my ‘fists’ tight in anger. “He just couldn’t leave us alone!”
I looked around, when a flash of dull red caught my attention. I wandered over, and stared down in awe. A large, red and orange egg lay on the ground next to a lizardfolk dressed in ornate priestly robes. A hole had punched clean through it, and whatever had done the damage had also gone through the chest of the dead lizardfolk, piercing his heart and killing him almost instantly.
The golden yellow yolk of the egg had dribbled out of the crack in its shell, and stained the priest and the ground. Despite the fact that a few days had likely passed since the event, I could still detect traces of magical power inside the egg, its shell, and the gooey innards trickling out.
“Is this… a dragon’s egg?” I asked in wonder, bending down to touch the item.
~It appears to be,~ Tara said, also surprised. ~And judging by the garb worn by the lizardfolk holding it, this person was a Dragon Priest, one of the highest religious authorities among the scaled humanoids of Drakon.~
I examined the deceased lizardfolk in the ornate robes and headdress. He had died quickly, judging from the hole through his chest. But for some reason, one of his fingers looked like it had been broken. As if something he’d been wearing had been violently wrenched from his remains…
(LOOK OUT!)
Just as Rosa screamed out her warning, my Danger Sense kicked in, blaring loudly in my mind. I reacted instantly by leaping over the corpse and the cracked egg I had been examining, and somersaulted a foot or two away over the bloody, body strewn ground.