The Harrison family came back into play again.
As the other family that originally produced sorcerers, it was natural that they would also have a few old texts or journals with information on it.
It didn't take long for Sophia to track down one of the older Harrison ancestral homes. She was hoping that she would be able to find information here like she was able to do with Elena's journals.
Luckily, the one she and James went to seemed to be abandoned. It was clear nobody had been inside for years, and it didn't seem like anyone was going to visit again any time soon.
There was no secret room for her to discover this time, however. Instead, the books on sorcery were just packed into a box and left haphazardly near the front door. Sophia blinked, a little shocked at how easy it was, but then shrugged and took the box with her. Better it be conveniently easy than challenging and difficult like she had expected.
When she started to read them, it was clear that it wasn't the full collection. The texts and journals she found mentioned quite a few ways to perform elemental sorcery, but only touched a bit on spiritual sorcery. While elemental sorcery seemed useful, overall dark sorcery still had a wider range of uses, so Sophia didn't bother focusing on elemental sorcery much. Spiritual sorcery, however, seemed like the exact kind of thing she needed.
It touched briefly on the topic of souls and spirits, mentioning magic that could strengthen one's soul, as well as bring it back from the brink of death.
While it wasn't exactly what she was looking for, it was the closest she'd gotten so far, so Sophia decided she'd try and search for more texts on spiritual sorcery specifically.
She nabbed James and the both of them went to visit quite a few Harrison properties, collecting magical books as they went along, most of the time stealing them right from under their owner's noses without them noticing.
When she compiled all the books and gathered them together, an answer seemed to present itself.
Leonidas had figured it all out for her already in his journals.
'Strengthening one's soul can lead to the effect of a prolonged life, but what if there was a type of sorcery that could bring one's soul back from the brink of death?
This question popped into my head today, as I had to watch a dear friend die after suffering fatal damage in a fight. Two sorcerer's feuding is never a pretty picture.
While I had to watch the life leave their eyes, helpless to do anything, I wondered why no one had ever tried to find an answer before. The more I thought about it the more I could see the truth in Elena's words about how sorcery and sorcerer's have become stagnant. Becoming self satisfied and unwilling to make new inventions and discoveries.
I have never once believed myself to be as talented as Elena in the art of inventing new ways to use sorcery, but for once I find myself motivated to try. If there was a way to save lives, to bring a drifting soul back and tether it even stronger to its vessel, I owe it to everyone to find out what it is.
Spiritual sorcery is trickier to master given that it deals with the soul, and souls are such fragile, difficult things. My father has always been gifted at spiritual sorcery however, and so he's taught me how to properly use it ever since I was young.
I feel confident enough in my knowledge of spiritual sorcery that I should hypothetically be able to research and rework new ways to utilise this type of magic.
...
My research has finally bore results.
I took some inspiration from Elena, having as many magical beasts by my side as possible while I conducted my experiments. I've been able to refine and tweak a ritual that should be able to tether a soul to a vessel twice as strong as normal, making it so that death would be much harder to achieve.
As death is essentially a soul being severed from its body, after using this ritual, the soul will be much more fused to the body, and so it would be harder to kill that way.
While I haven't done much research beyond that, what I believe is that one day a way to find an already severed soul and reattach it to a body should be possible. I would like to conduct this research myself, eventually, but something dark is brewing and I feel a strange foreboding, like everything I know will be ending soon.
If I am unable to complete the research like I fear, I hope that future Harrison sorcerers will be able to pick up where I left off.'
Sophia was certainly no Harrison sorcerer, but she would be finishing Leonidas' work all the same.