Palla My Love

Echoes

Chapter 5: Echoes

It felt like it was only mere hours before the bell rang, and so it was time for the mages of the academy to get up to perform their monotonous activities. I was already wide awake, unwavered by the bell. I had been trying to raise my mistress from the chains of Oblivion, but no matter what I did it was for naught, I was no necromancer, necromancy had been outlawed since its first spell was uttered. I entertained the thought that one of the Magisters might be able to help me, but the memory of Magister Ilther insisting that I destroy the artifact and feign ignorance at its very existence… they would surely expel me from the Guild if I went to them and then destroy the disc themselves. And with it, my only key to bringing my love to me.

The thought of going to class in my current state seemed dangerous, the practice of magic while distracted could lead to devastating results. I felt exhausted, Magister Ilther was a dull speaker, he lectured us on his specialty, the school of Enchantment. But suddenly a dark feeling cut through my mind and made me truly listen to what he was saying.  

"When most people think of my particular science, they think of the process of invention" he picks up a small black ring and shows it to the class for us to examine. "The infusing of charms and spells to an object." He encloses the ring in his fist and the space inbetween glows a mystical orange, which fades after a couple of seconds. 

"To create a magickal object"  he hands the ring to a student in the front along with a small piece of paper. "Burn this using the ring" 

"Burn it? O-of course Magister" She put the ring on shakily. The girl was Marina, I knew her. She was a small elf girl, "Master of Ice magic" she would call herself. She wasn't physically strong but she had a sharp tongue. Placing her fingertips on the small piece of paper and… nothing. She took her hands off and avoided eye contact with the magister… "I can't". I couldn't help but chuckle from seeing her struggle over something as easy as this.  As luck would have it she heard my laughter and snapped her head in my direction to give me one of her icy glares. I would surely get an earful after class. 

"That's quite alright miss Marina" he took the ring from her placing it on his own hand "In the hands of a novice an enchanted ring could perhaps warm your hands. But in the hands of true talent,"As the magister opened his hand a bright blue flame shrouded the room in a lapis light

"A ring could bake a forest" 

The fat man laughed, "But I'll leave that to class of destruction" the loud bell rang indicating the end of class. "Now if you wish to participate in my enchanting class please sign your name over here" And with his last statement the students got up and left in an organised hurry, everyone except me. Before I even knew what I was doing myself, I got up and wrote my name down before quickly exiting the class.

"Think you can laugh at whoever you want and get away with it servant boy?" Marina and her group of followers stood outside the classroom, this again. "You think because the Head Master thought you'd be better as a student you're protected?" 

"No" my frown had somehow turned to a smirk, as words slipped from my mouth "It's because I am a better student" 

Why did I say that?

Before I could process my own words Marinas eyes shined with an icy blue hatred, her clenched fists held a cold blue glow, she was ready to attack. But just before she could impale me with an icy spike a crowd had formed and with it a teacher. 

"You students there! Off to class now! Before I assign all of you to clean the stables!" 

And with that the crowd dispursed and Marina, not wanting to shovel horse shit for two hours, had already run off with her demoness tail between her legs. Leaving me to ponder my strange behaviour.

After the incident for months I studied the Magisters texts and papers till I was exhausted and when I couldn't anymore I would visit my friend Niqi to gaze upon her mothers glorious statue and regain my stamina to move forward. All the rest of my time was spent with Magister Ilther or his assistants, all my intellect was now focused on the school of enchantment. They taught me how to taste the deepest magicka within an object to bring their power forth. 

In one lesson in particular the magister said something that piqued my interest "A simple spell cast once, no matter how skillfully and no matter how spectacularly has very limited uses" Magister Ilther passed around an enchanted ring and dagger. "but placed in a home, in the arms of a caring master, it develops into an almost living energy, maturing and ripening. You must consider yourself a miner, digging deeper to pull forth the very heart of gold. This is also why Necromatic objects are so dangerous,  they eat away at the masters mind until one of two things happen. It becomes the master or the curse is fulfilled" 

Every night when the laboratory closed, I practiced what I had learned. I could feel my power grow and with the disc. And every whisper of "Palla," delved into the amulet making the amulet feel heavier, scratch at the runes and make the orange gemstones glow slightly brighter. At times I felt so close to her, I felt hands touching mine. But something dark and bestial, the reality of death I suppose, would always break through the dawning of my dream. With it came an overwhelming rotting odour, which the initiates in the same corridor of mine would complain endlessly about.

"Something must have crawled into the floorboards and died," I offered an excuse. The smell of death always followed a necromancer, something I was close to becoming. Yet no matter what I learned, Palla seemed scarcely closer than ever before. 

One night however, everything ended. I was tossing in broken sleep, murmuring her name, the disc bruising my chest, when a sudden lightning flash through the window woke me. A tempest of furious rain roared over Mir Corrup and had thrown my window wide open letting the sounds of the storm pour in. I got up to close the window and shutters, when I returned to my bed, my blankets had been thrown about in the wind and I found the disc thrown to the floor, shattered.

:D