A day and a half Senani travelled by wood and stream. Yet nary a soul did he see.
By mid-day, Senani came across a rather large hole with a finely crafted roof within view. The roof stood twice his height below the surface of the dirt.
Senani approached the hole and began to evaluate the portion of roof that he could see.
Visibly, the roof appeared to be in a very good condition, though quite covered in dirt and dust. Senani could not see a single sign of wear.
With the limited information and even more limited time, Senani gaged the distance down to the rooftop, stood back a way and ran as fast as he could toward the hole. As he arrived, he jumped out and tucked his legs under him, carefully bending them back out as the prepared to land on the rooftop below.
As Senani prepared to land he straightened his legs back out, leaving them somewhat relaxed, yet not relaxed enough that he could not support any weight.
Senani took care to land on the balls of his feet, with his knees still partially bent. As he landed, he allowed his legs to collapse back down and rolled over, quickly tucking his head in toward his chest and rolling forward until he landed on his butt.
As Senani's butt hit the ground, he pushed his legs down and popped back up and continued to run.
As Senani again found himself running, he cautiously slowed down, steadily ensuring his footing on the rooftop.
Now that he had safely arrived on the rooftop, Senani began to evaluate his options for entry.
Senani could clearly see that the building appeared to be in a hollow of sorts. If he were to move to one of the sides, he may be able to climb down and find a doorway.
This was an option he did not desire as he was unsure how easily he could get back to the rooftop and did not desire to become trapped within the building.
Entering through the roof proved far more difficult than expected as the roof proved to be far more durable than it seemed was possible. He was unable to damage the roof with any of the items he brought along with him.
This left Senani with the only option of climbing down.
Senani removed a torch from the bag of provisions he brought down with him and used his flint to light the end of it.
He then went to the edge of the roof and used the light to peer around the building.
This brought a smile to Senani's face, as the first wall he went to have a large double doorway in the middle of it.
To Senani's surprise it was only 15 feet down (457 cm.)
Senani threw the torch away from the building and began to lower himself down carefully at the doorway.
He then carefully let go and bent his knees as he landed, again landing on the ball of his feet.
Senani picked up the torch and moved toward the doors, carefully grabbing the handle and attempting to pull outward.
As the door began to creak open, Senani cautiously began to move inside.
To his utter disappointment, this was clearly not a school. The building was far to small, and inside there were a few piles of bones, one lay nearby and the other lay within a section of the room that was decorated with blood red symbols drawn all around it that appeared to be otherwise empty.
Senani first moved toward the bones that were outside the symbols. He found himself hoping they at least had a dagger or some other item of use within them.
This again disappointed Senani, the bones were of an ancient human. They were housed within a set of extremely soft, immaculately clean black robes.
The robes were completely unadorned. From his visual inspection, the only other item of note was a necklace around the neck of the deceased.
The necklace quite resembled the one Senani currently wore, though in its center, it housed a metallic black cube that glistened in the torchlight.
Senani removed the robes and placed them and the necklace within his bag. He then moved on to the other set of bones within the room.
As Senani crossed over the symbols within the room, he could feel the stones in his pocket begin to grow hotter.
As he reached into his pocket to remove them, a mist began to form the shape of a human over the bones.
"Why do you seek me, young blood mage? No, that doesn't seem correct. A blood mage would have the soul stones in his amulet. Otherwise there would be no gains.
Let me guess then, an adventurer, a graverobber? Perhaps a member of the templars?
Speak quickly, if you have any desire to leave this place alive."
Senani began to visibly shake as the voice emanated from the mist. His voice began to creak as he spoke.
"I am Senani Soth. The church of Hukrat received word that a school of wizardry had become visible to the outside world. I sought to plunder it, and use its knowledge back to bring magic back to the world and hopefully bring life back to the castle that my people and I reside in."
A hideous cackle of a laugh emitted from the mist as it replied, "Many templar came from House Soth. I see their crest upon your armor, but without the templars shield, there is nothing you could do to me were I to decide to attack.
You say you wish to bring magic and life back to the castle that you reside in, what do you mean? Surely magic is alive and thriving as it always has been?"
Senani began to regain his composure as he barked back, "My people came upon an abandoned castle. It has many automatons within it that don't allow us to enter very far within.
Magic is outlawed, none know how to claim the castle, and if they did, the church would hunt them down and kill them. I told you who I am, now who are you?"
The room grew deathly silent and the mist began to move around the chamber.
As the mist reached the symbols, the voice began to scream as if in agony. It then darted back to the body, responding in a determined tone.
"I am the blood mage Necrideon Grey. I've been imprisoned within this chamber for more than a thousand years. How much more I do not know, as when the guards here died, I lost any method of keeping track.
The body you see is my own, and upon its finger lies a ring. I want you to remove the ring and place it upon your own finger."
Senani realized he knew nothing of magic, if he were to do as the apparition desired, perhaps it would take his body, or he would be cursed for all eternity.
Those were the fears going through his mind as he moved to the bones and removed the ring from the finger. As the touched the bone of the finger, it instantly turned to dust.
Senani then placed the ring on his left ring finger, just as it had been on the skeleton.
"Your clearly not a wise man. There are many spells a blood mage could place in a ring like that to force you into submission as a slave or a host. Though lucky for you, not even one of them would allow me to pass through the symbols on that floor.
So, here is my proposition, house my soul within the large empty soul stone in your pocket. Use it to summon me once you get back to the castle, and that ring and all that lies within it, and on my body, here will belong to you.
I will also be in your debt and will be in your service for a period of no less than 10 years should you manage to summon me."
Senani had no idea what to expect Necrideon to say but being in Senani's debt was definitely quite low on that list.
"I know nothing of magic, how can I summon you? What use is all the things your offering me, remember, I am not a mage? For that matter, how can I trust you? You're a prisoner, trapped within a square of symbols."
Necrideon went silent for quite a period before he spoke again.
"Gather my things and put on my robes. With the ring upon your hand, they will do you no harm. Once you do, I will make everything clear to you."
Senani did as requested. As he touched the robes, the remaining bones turned to dust.
"Within the right bottom pocket on the inside you will find a vial. Remove the stopper from it and touch the empty vial to the dust from my bones."
Senani again did as requested. When the vial touched the bones, it absorbed every speck within it.
"That vial now contains the essence of my body. If you touch that large soul stone to me, I will be forcefully drawn into it. Take me to the castle, and place the soul stone into that vial, and you will create a phylactery.
A phylactery is the only thing known to be able to house the soul of any creature and allow them to reform their bodies time and again. It is the ultimate for of advancement for a mage, and this form is typically known as a lich. It virtually allows us to be immortal.
The guards left that in my pocket in order to taunt me, as they knew that if I bound my soul to it in here, it would do me no good. It can not leave these barriers with my soul within.
That is my phylactery. It was for five thousand years before the templar caught me.
Control my phylactery, and you have control over me, as within it is my essence. Crush it, and I will live no more. This gives you all the power in our relationship and will ultimately bind me to you for as long as you desire.
Before you ask, I tire of these walls and I realize you may choose to bind my soul to the soul stone and claim my power as your own.
The necklace that I had around my neck once housed a lich of similar power to my own, I truly understand the temptation to do so. But to be blunt, even that would be better than to continue living as I am.
Touch the soul stone to me, use the largest one, or you will be unable to contain me.
When your ready to summon me, place it within the phylactery. It matters not how long you wait.
Its that simple. In the meantime, that ring is a dimensional storage device. It has many high-level books of magic, though I believe I left an introductory to blood magic volume within it.
Should you decide to practice blood magic, those robes and the necklace you bear will aid you well. In the absence of blood magic, they are simply pretty blood red robes.
I would also advise you to take the filled soul stone with the brightest glow that you currently have in your pocket and place it in your amulet when you exit the runes.
It will protect you from magic, as well as many physical attacks and allow you to utilize blood magic without drawing upon your own life force.
Whoever made those soul stones will come back for them. Soul stones are far too precious not to."
Senani took awhile to digest all that had been said before he replied.
"Why would the soul stone allow me to leave the runes with your soul within it?"
Necrideon replied "In the stone my soul will be in an inactivated state. Think of it as a battery. Unless its power is placed in an item that can use it, it's merely that, power."
Senani had no reason to doubt Necrideon's words, and he truly did not see a downside for himself, nor did he want the others to see the apparition before he had decided what to do.
As such, Senani did as Necrideon requested and placed the large soul stone to the mist, and it began to disappear as the stone began to glow.
Senani returned the phylactery with the lid upon it into the pocket he had removed it from.
He placed Necrideon's soul stone into another pocket within the robes.