Necromancer's Curse

Chapter Seven

The basement was set up different from usual this time. The blood circle on the ground had a different symbol in it than the usual pentagram, this time there was a polygonal heart with a square inside, there were many more candles surrounding the circle compared to the usual, and there was a pile of ashes in the centre of the circle. Aside from this, the basement was the same, however I suddenly got a sick feeling seeing it all.

I stopped following Aristide as he walked to his spot and I looked around the basement, trying to take everything in while dealing with all of the thoughts that flooded my head. I was heavily concerned by the heart in the centre of the circle after the question Aristide asked me about Lili. After I was able to deal with everything, I slowly walked to my spot on the other side of the circle and sat down.

"Why the sudden change?" I asked Aristide.

He looked at me as if I was about to defy him again, "What have I told you about questioning my teachings?"

"I'm only curious, I promise," I clarified with my voice shaking.

"Today's lesson is different from usual," Aristide answered, as if I couldn't already tell.

"What's different about it?" I asked.

"Tonight we're covering the value of sentimance, infatuation, and love in magic and, more importantly, their importance in necromancy," Aristide summarized the lesson of the day.

"I see," I answered with a sigh. I was even more concerned about Lili now.

"In magic the strongest fuels for any amount of will, come from objects of sentimental value and people we've either become infatuated with or fallen in love with," Aristide began, "Objects of sentimental value don't burn up as quickly as enchanted objects and being around people we've become infatuated with or fallen in love with give magicians a seemingly unlimited pool of willpower.

"Necromancy, however, treats this concept differently. Necromancy abuses the fact that strong sources of willpower come from these objects and people, and essentially use them to sap willpower from others. Through necromancy we can steal objects others had sentimental affection towards and use them as our fuel power, to have more power than if a magician were to use one of their own objects that they had become fond over. In using another person's beloved possession we use the original owner's willpower whenever casting a spell, rather than using the object as a fuel or using our own willpower as usual.

"Love and infatuation play an even more important role. When magicians spend time with someone they've become infatuated with or with someone they've fallen in love with, their willpower heals at a rate that seems nearly instant. This allows them to cast any kinds of spells they wish with close to no risk of running out of willpower or permanently damaging their mental qualities. Much like with sentiment, necromancers found a more efficient way to abuse the effects love and infatuation have over a magic user."

I swallowed hard when he stopped on that sentence. By now I've figured out that necromancy tries to do things in the slimiest ways possible. We steal power from others, damn others, and even use a much less known language for our spells so no one, including other necromancers, can dispel our attacks.

What had lead me to be concerned about why we were bringing up this topic was because of the first thing Aristide had assigned me when we arrived in this town. I was told to obtain sentimental feelings towards something, and now the use of that something was beginning to come into light. Due to the dark nature of necromancy I had began fearing for Lili's life as I listened to my master's explanation.

"Necromancers, while doing this rarely, kidnap," as Aristide said this, I began wondering what Lili had to do with the lesson. "By kidnapping loved ones and knowing the people whom have grown affection towards that person, we can sap all willpower from a person nearly instantly. This permanently damages all of that person's mental traits and often times kills them. The plus side on this is that the stolen willpower stacks upon our own, giving us extra willpower for the next spell we choose to cast."