True Love and Necromancy [Featured Story!]

Chapter VII

ONE CANNOT STUDY INVOCATION without imbibing a sizable quantity of wine. Luckily for Theodosius, his neighbors were well-stocked.

The majestic and unfathomably wise sorcerer spent the evening poring through the books, hiccuping regularly. He attempted at all times to ignore the terrifying illustrations.

There was little in the way of instruction and much in the way of warning in these books, it seemed, and more than once Theo was called upon by some small, shrewd voice within himself to question his plan. However, each time he reconsidered, Tansy's sad eyes flashed through his mind and he had no choice but to mutter drunkenly with determination and turn the next page.

Theo took copious notes with the purpose of mapping out the ritual, although his handwriting reached a lamentable state of confusion toward the end of the night. The next morning, he nursed his aching head and pored over his written recollections to identify gaps.

"That doesn't seem quite right," he mumbled to himself, scratching out most of a scrawled line. "Err ..." He reached for one of his borrowed books, turned to a page near the middle and frowned. "Hmm. Not very clear. Not very clear at all ... I'll just make it up."

Theo did not open the shop that day. Or the next. He stayed within, drawing upon his imagination freely to construct the missing steps for the ritual. (This sort of creativity is not generally advised in science, but it's mostly okay in magic.)

The most time-consuming aspect of preparing for the invocation would be gathering the ingredients and preparatory materials. Theo finished the draft of the procedure by the end of the second day. Then, he crept into the tiny apartment at the back of his shop and slept a very unsettled sleep.