As the Shrike To Your Sharp and Glorious Thorn

Chapter 12: Eternity

Immortality is nothing without you.

Immortality is wasted without you.

Immortality is a curse without you.

If there is no you, there is no me.

"I....I don't want this." Pucca hoarsely forced out, despite the brambles tearing at her throat and jaw.

She had one hope. One insane, improbable, illogical, and spiritually illegal hope.

"I...don't...want...immortality." Her throat was so dry it almost felt like it was splitting into two. "I...don't want...to live...alone."

Her eyelids slid down, and she summoned all the strength left in her being and tore the tangled thorns off of her body with her bare hands.

She could barely feel it, despite the blood oozing from her hands. Blood...blood was good. She would need it.

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind of the fuzz of despair. Ever so gently, she began to coax Garu out of the twisted heap the creature had left him in.

Her touch wouldn't have ripped a spider web. She placed him on his back, straightening him from the fetal position. As Pucca did her best to heal the most life threatening of wounds she brought up as many memories of Garu as she could, holding them close to her heart.

She did her best to examine his character as holistically as she could. For every tender look, or kindness there were moments when he had been abrupt, or even downright rude. Balance was the key, she would only have one shot at this. Two, if she was feeling particularly suicidal. Pucca frowned, pushing that thought aside. Confidence, Master Soo had always said, was a key element when crafting a spell.

Confidence balanced with respect for your power. Bravery tempered by caution. Intelligence balanced by ethics. Strength balanced by wisdom. All key ingredients for creating an enchantment that the caster could smoothly sustain.

The most basic lesson, before she'd so much as conjured a rose had centered around the very foundations of magic.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Pucca had never been very good with this concept. She was brash, cocky, and too powerful for her own good. Her nature was magical from birth, she had been tapping into that her entire life. Her discipline was hard won, born from her own mistakes and miscalculations.

However, Pucca had never been afraid to push the envelope. Her brute strength coupled with her innate connection to magic made her inventive. She was almost always the first to attempt a new spell and rarely did anything half heartedly. She may not have been the best at understanding the theoretical underpinnings of the discipline, but if anyone could carry out an impossible task it was her.

Pucca did wish she'd paid a bit more attention in her theory classes. She was about to take a proverbial leap of faith, based on calculations that were...dicey at best and downright lethal at worst.

As Pucca struggled to extricate herself from the tangle of thorns and brambles that had looped around her legs, she decided to finally make Master Soo proud and do a little bit of planning.

There were a number of concerns that peeked their odious little heads up. Each one planting another seed of anxiety into her chest.

Most obviously, the fear that this would just lead to her dying in the process. No acolyte had succeeded in raising the dead. Even the gods seemed to be unable, or at least had never really tried. They tended to have a policy of not interfering with the natural order of things.