It was well past midnight.
Before there were over one hundred people here, now only he. Before the room was filled with music, now silence. Before the room was lit by hundreds of candles, now they were beginning to fade out one by one.
And the moonlight, his only bride caressing his face as he waited face pressed to the table.
"It's always the same. I lost all hope and still... and yet every time I linger for a different result, maybe this is the year.
Are they right? Maybe magic it's not written in my destiny. It has become my obsession with every failure, the more I want to try. Always the same result. I must be insane.
If I tell them I've succeeded on their own, will they believe me? No. Impossible. Someone who has no knowledge in front of them will think I'm kidding. All I have to rely on is me."
He heard footsteps coming from behind but did not turn around. He remained with his head on the table, his eyes closed, his face stopping behind him, touching his shoulders and massaging them tenderly.
"It's time. Wake up." It was Christina's motherly voice.
She wore a dark robe that under the fading light of the moon creeping thru the windows reflected an azure blue.
"I'm not sleeping, I'm just...thinking."
"I know my mother's dearest, but you have to get up and follow me."
"I understand."
He got up and followed his mother to the entrance of the basement, stopping in front of the door.
"Wait here. They will come after you."
Konrad didn't answer, he kept his head on the ground when he heard Christina come in, closing the door behind her.
Ephemeral minutes passed but they felt like eternal moments, he wanted to rush inside to be done with it. Go to his room and sleep, to pass everything like a page in a forgotten diary.
The door opened wide. Two figures wearing the same clothes as his mother's came out one after the other, each holding with both hands a white candle with carved blue symbols, emitting a deep red light.
In addition to their robes, their heads were covered, faces hidden by white chalk-colored masks, devoid of emotion and facial expression, with only holes for eyes with red circles around.
He followed them inside. With each step he took, he went deeper and deeper into the darkness, except in the center of the room where there were two-floor lamps and three other figures.
The door closed behind him. The path was guided by the two who were a step in front of him, bringing him closer and closer to the three figures.
He knew who was in the darkness around him. Surrounded by other members of which his family was between them. The light of the candles reflected on their masks then as they passed by returning them into the obscurity of darkness.
Arrived in front of the three masked people. The one on the left holding a simple wooden box without any distinctive symbol, the one on the right holding a piece of black cloth, and the one in the center holding his hands hidden under the robe.
"Let's begin." the voice said in a hoarse tone so serious yet so familiar but impossible to discern. Probably a noble from the party.
The one on the right approached, tying the piece of cloth around his eyes. Konrad wanted to know who it was but it didn't leave a hint, did not speak a word, and were gloves.
"Our laws allow the introduction of new members in the Circle from an early age, from seven, up to twenty-one. Crossing this barrier makes your efforts of awakening in vain. Now, for the last time, you have to go through the awakening ceremony.
In case of success, you will be received in our midst as one of the Chosen, but if it results in failure you will be forced to leave the room and keep the existence of the Circle a secret. Is everything understood?"
"Yes."
"Now follow my words."
"Well, here we go again…"
After the tenth failed ceremony, he lost all hope and became routine. Even so, his heart pounded incessantly, seeing the lights from the candles of the guides, from the two candlesticks in front of him, and then how he heard a key turning.
What he couldn't see was the one in the middle who took the crystal from inside the box and brought it in front of Konrad's hands.
"Stretch out your arms! Show me if you deserve to be one of us! Let the crystal test your worth."
Konrad touched the stone with both hands, trying to focus on it.
He heard from his family that when you awaken your powers you feel the power in you being absorbed in the stone, but he did not feel anything.
He never felt that sensation.
After more than a minute of wrapping his hands around the so-called crystal.
He already knew the result.
"The ceremony resulted in a failure. Konrad Erhart, you have exhausted your last chance to become a member of the Circle of the Chosen. You will be guided to the exit."
Those who brought him in now guided him outside. closing the door behind them, leaving him with the blindfold on.
"I failed again," said Konrad in his mind "Even though I've heard it so many times...No matter how used I should be, it still feels like a blow to my heart. It almost makes me cry. I want to fall asleep, think about everything with a clear mind tomorrow "
Unfolding the cloth from his eyes, he glanced back at the closed door and went to his bedroom. He felt that he needed nothing more than a long sleep until the afternoon.
When he reached the bedroom, he did not light the candles, groping through the darkness, he was satisfied with the moonlight that lay on the white sheets of the bed.
He took off his jacket, leaving it at the edge of the bed, throwing his shoes beside the bed without paying attention to where they were going, his face buried directly into the pillow.
He tried to fall asleep by rolling on both sides but could not barricade his thoughts in the corner of his mind, all screaming back at him asking to be released.
He couldn't stand it anymore, he got up at the edge of the bed. Leaning under the bed, lifting a plank from the floor, removing a key, and then covering the hole.
Going down to the first floor, he walked lightly so as not to wake those asleep, slightly turning the key in the door lock, but in vain in his efforts, the usually unnoticed sound now was colossal, reverberating throughout the corridor.
Lifting the handle to avoid the sound of the door scratching the floor. Inside, he perched in front of the library, pulling out several books from the top row, making enough space to grab the hemp bag hidden inside.
At this time no one was patrolling the inner perimeter of the estate, and no one was going to patrol until the basement meeting was over.
Now was a perfect time.
Going down the steps, he went out into the garden, took a lamp, extinguished the flame inside, went through the hedge, climbed the walls of the estate, jumped, and ran as far as he could into the heart of the forest. Stopping only when he no longer the outline of the building.
He took a deep breath as he sat down at the base of an old oak.
Unpacking the bag, he pulled out a book, a white piece of cloth, a light brush, a knife, a tinderbox, and a glass.
Opened the tinderbox, inside the striker, flint and two fluffy balls of cotton. Using the striker and the flint he lit on fire one of the cotton balls to light the candle inside the lamp.
He spread the white material on the ground, setting aside the pieces of twigs and leaves.
Relentlessly browsing the yellow pages of the book covered in worn leather, he finally found what he was looking for.
He put the glass between his legs and with the knife, made a cut in his left palm, letting the blood flow until it was full. Taking the unused piece of cotton from the tinderbox and squeezing it tightly in his palm.
With the brush, he began to replicate the symbols as quickly and consistently as he could because the crimson liquid changed its consistency with each passing minute.
Starting with a heptagram captured in a double circle containing strange symbols in between. Each point of the heptagram is connected to the others.
Under each point drew a seal. After the seven seals, to the center of the figure drew another circle that filled it with the remaining blood connecting them to each seal.
Throwing the brush in the bag, he took the book with both hands, looking for a few seconds at the cloth soaked in blood, turning the page and reciting without pause.
Thee I invoke, the Bornless one.
Thee, that did witness the Seen and the Unseen:
Thee, that did guard in the Night and keep the Day safe.
I invoke Thee, the one who guards over the Seven Laws.
Over the law of Time.
Over the law of Space.
Over the law of Creation.
Over the law of Life.
Over the law of Balance.
Over the law of Destiny.
Over the law of Chaos.
I invoke Thee, the Terrible and Invisible Safeguard: Who dwells in the Void Place of the Spirit.
Hear me.
Hear me and my petty request.
I shall exchange the spark of my life upon the grand of this humble one wish.
Thee the one who saw the Primordial Existence and maintain his Word.
Sent the one messenger to heed my wish.
At the end of the incantation, he waited for something to happen.
Anything really.
Demons coming out of the cracks of the earth, the wind hissing like a storm, the animals howling in the distance. He left home just for that reason, for the potential harm that he may inflict. But nothing.
Solemn silence, the clear sky, and the most welcomed coolness of a summer night.
"It didn't work out this time either, maybe it's better that way. From now on I need to find something else to focus on."
Picking things up, he went back to the studio, still no guards. Took a candle from the hall, and lit the candles in the candlestick on the desk one by one.
Putting the bag back and placing the books one by one in their place on the shelf. He heard footsteps and whispers outside the hall, the meeting was over people who stayed overnight went to their rooms.
He decided not to go upstairs to the bedroom.
Sat down at the desk, relaxing his shoulders, rubbing his neck, and resting his head on the back of his chair.
"If one door closes, another opens. If no door opens, I'll make my own door. I will not stop... Now all I have to do is see how to postpone this marriage... I should start with Thomas, Toothy is the one who—"
"You and your thoughts in complete silence. You got over it pretty quickly." said a voice with no well defined tone.
Konrad opened his eyes and looked ahead, inspecting the entire room with a few short movements, straightening his back and keeping his hands under the desk.
"What are you doing here? If you want to talk we can do it in the morning...
"Don't be scared. The knife in the drawer won't help. I am here just responding to your invitation."
"How does he know about the knife?! No... Wait... He's been here before, waiting for me in the dark. Of course he knows. But I didn't invite anyone to the party and no one asked me for a tour? It makes no sense!"
"You were clearly thinking to reach for that knife. We entered together. I just didn't say anything along the way."
"But where is he?" The voice is not heard from any direction. It sounds muffled."
Konrad tried to get everything through the train of thought, initially believing that one of the magicians below was invisible and playing tricks on him.
He had rarely seen anyone do magic in front of him since he was a child, everything was possible tonight, but he understood immediately that it wasn't the case.
"On the road?... Together?" He understood how serious the situation was. How useless it was to reach for the drawer.
He was stuck, he didn't understand what to do, but all he could do was push thru.
"You are the demon I called in the forest."
"Indeed I am the spirit that answered your call, I'm glad you got caught up quickly."
"How may I address myself?"
"We are not created by a name, so you don't have to use one. Now. You know why I'm here, right? Do you know the conditions of the deal?"
"Yes. A wish in exchange for my soul. The pact created reduces your lifespan, considering how complicated desire is."
"You are right. More or less. Listen carefully because I will only repeat the rules once."
"Can I write down the rules while I'm being told?"
"You can do whatever you want in the meantime. If everything is to your understanding, I'll recite the rules."
As soon as he heard Konrad, he took a piece of paper and a pencil from the first drawer, bringing the candlestick closer.
"I understand. You can start."
"The contract is established between the forces of the Seen and Unseen World. And it does not involve any of the seven Laws born from the Primordial Existence. The soul of the summoner being bound in the contract is connected to a spirit formed in one of the free worlds.
By summoning a spirit, the summoner accepted the establishment of the contract, which is impossible to annul.
The summoner is free to ask for any wish.
The summoner may ask for a wish that affects the Seen World and his body, but it is bound to his spirit.
The summoner will get exactly what he wants under the power of the means by which he has expressed his wish.
There was no limit to the means by which a wish can be expressed.
The content of the wish is limited to the maximum knowledge held by the summoner and will not extend beyond that. The exception is for the demand for knowledge then the knowledge wished upon will not extend to larger than the scope of the world they live in.
The summoner's wish cannot affect anyone but him.
The wish cannot be changed once it has been presented to the spirit unless it violates the existing rules.
If the summoner's wish violates the rules, the summoner must ask for another wish.
The contract is fulfilled by separating the caller's soul from his spirit after the retrieval time.
The summoner will be guaranteed a time until his soul is retrieved from the moment the wish takes effect.
The time until retrieval, increases and decreases in inverse proportion to the importance of the wish for the summoner.
This time period will be determined after the summoner addresses his wish to the spirit.
The time period is fixed and will not be altered by any factor including the summoner's request.
No member of the Unseen World will artificially try to reduce this time period or retrieve the soul of the summoner prematurely.
The summoner is the only one responsible for maintaining the integrity of his spirit and body, premature death will result in premature retrieval of the soul.
The damage that compromises the stability of the soul-spirit-body relationship, reaching their complete separation from each other will lead to premature recovery of the soul.
Damage to the body does not lead to premature recovery as long as the spirit maintains its integrity.
The deterioration of the spirit that brings separation from the soul brings premature recovery.
The soul of a Deity will be separated from the soul even in the absence of a body without the need of a Soul Retriever.
The affinity of the spirit to any of the seven Laws does not alter the contract.
Gluttonous Spirits do not alter the contract.
Spirits who have an affinity for Primordial Existence cannot initiate contracts.
Hollow Spirits have the option of becoming Soul Retrievers.
Now that you know the rules, tell me your wish."
Konrad wrote down everything as accurately as he could, but many of the things he heard were things he had heard for the first time. At the same time trying to think about the wish.
"I wish I could practice magic the way my family does," Konrad said, shaking from every joint. "If I can practice magic, I don't care how many years I have left."
He tried to stay calm but his heart was pounding and he felt like a child receiving a present.
"Impossible." the demon replied to his despair.
"Why?" Konrad asked, looking down at the ground with his hands between his legs.
"The magic you're referring to is related to the unseen world."
He saw how his last hope was carried away by the wind before his eyes. For this moment he wanted to sacrifice everything and now he was in vain.
"Do I not think that my spirit has any affinity for Primordial Existence? Konrad replied with a small smile.
"We wouldn't have gotten this far if it had been the case."
"Then my wish... My wish — hmm — my wish is: Why can't I practice magic?"
"The answer is that you can't practice magic because you have a Hollow Spirit. Magic uses the energy of the soul which is unlimited.
The spirit captures a limited amount of energy. Through continuous use the amount of energy that can be captured by the spirit thus increases and so does the power of the user's body. It is also the essence of being, in other words, all that one means as an individual.
Every living creature has a soul, but not every living creature has a spirit. The spirit is the link between soul and body but also a wall, so to practice magic it is necessary to create a connection between soul, spirit, and body.
The Hollow Spirit does not capture the energy of the soul and thus cannot create a connection between the three components."
"Then why don't you just create a connection between soul and body by completely bypassing the spirit?"
"It will result in the immediate destruction of the body. The soul is needed to create life not to sustain it but will remain connected until the death of the living being. And the spirit needs a constant connection to a body or nurturing environment."
"I understand... I never had any hope. I was deceiving myself. But now is not the time, we have to discuss payment." Konrad replied now with his hands relaxed beside his body and his eyes on the ceiling.
The silence was disturbing now with no options and his life reduced to a few years in vain.
He had fallen into deep thoughts trying to make sense of the situation in which he had led himself.
He had not asked for anything exaggerated and deliberately asked for answers and not something tangible just to make the retrieval period longer.
"Time until retrieval six months."
"Six months!!! I think you are joking!! Just for a question?! Everywhere I read it was at least. Damn it." Smacking his hands on the desk, he stood up from the seat and shouted into the deserted room.
He threw himself back in his chair, rubbing his forehead. "Damn I got myself in..." then raised both hands in the air and asked, "Why only six months? It's just a question. And the answer was not so complicated."
"The time until retrieval increases and decreases in inverse proportion to the importance of the wish for the summoner."
"Right... Importance is not complexity... You said I had another choice. 'Hollow Spirits have the option of becoming Soul Retrievers.' What does a Soul Retriever have to do?"
"If you agree to become one you will find out."
"I have to collect the souls of those who have passed the retrieval period, right? Is there any benefit?"
"If you agree to become one you will find out." the demon repeated.
"At least explain what I get from doing this. I don't want to spend the last six months beating the world up and down." Konrad said to the demon who had enough of his game.
The demon did not answer Konrad, becoming confused. "Are you still here? Demon?"
He waited in silence for a minute, beginning to scribble on the corner of the paper, believing that the demon was waiting for his answer and not answering any more answers.
"It is one of two possible choices. You can choose between them."
"I understand. If I choose the second option, will it cancel the first one. Am I right?"
The demon did not answer but Konrad took it as a hint that the demon had left, he thought things couldn't get any worse.
"I choose to become a Soul Retriever."
The moment the last word left his mouth, the back of his left palm lit up, it did not catch on fire but instinctively tried to extinguish it by shaking it in the air but to no avail.
He quickly realized that he was not burning it seemed more like it was an engraving. The pain was unbearable, penetrating to the bone. A sigil marked his skin with an inexplicable dark light, it was tar-black but it illuminated the whole room.
He got up from his chair, trying to circle the room just to forget the pain.
A few steps and the pain disappeared, watching over the sigil on his hand almost becoming complete following the intricate lines intertwining with unknown symbols.
The more he looked and tried to understand what the seal meant, the more he felt a pain in the back of his skull. His eyes were in pain tears cascading down his cheeks, begging him to look the other way, but he couldn't be more fascinated.
The light gradually began to dissipate. The moment he passed the hand past the candlestick to look more closely at the seal. Inspecting the light for a few seconds, a shock passed through his arm and spread throughout his body.
He first lost control of his arm by falling on the desk and trying to move it with his other arm, at which point he lost control of this arm as well.
The left foot, followed by the right foot, falling like a stone to the ground.
Every second he lost control of his own body, all the contractions in his muscles disappeared.
His face touching the floor, his sight, and hearing leaving him, leaving him captive in his own body.
His lungs gave way, breathing harder and harder, leaving the last air in his lungs burning him deeply, feeling his heart pierced by thousands of needles without stopping.
He tasted death without realizing it, and without warning, everything stooped.
He looked ahead in the infinite darkness.
He tried to stretch his face with his hands but couldn't because he didn't have hands, he tried to move forward but he didn't have legs, and looking down he realized that he didn't have a body.
The sounds of the night no longer accompanied him, replaced by the solemn cryptic silence.
He tried to shout but was in a vacuum.
A black figure inexplicably flooded the vacuum with dark light, changing its shape a million times per second, always without a well defined face, approaching but not stepping as if it was floating in a vacuum, or maybe Konrad was the one approaching it. He couldn't tell.
"Your role is to retrieve souls. An avatar of ours in the physical world. Your life will be dedicated to our goal.
The Retriever of Souls is exonerated from the period of recovery, this becoming indefinite.
The Retriever of Souls has a limited time to get closer to a soul that has reached its term. When he gets close enough to the soul, the period will be rearranged by extending or shortening the period to a fixed amount.
The sigil attached to the body of the Retriever of Souls is proof of the contract.
The sigil allows him to overcome the communication barriers of his world.
The sigil allows the Retriever of Souls to see to spirits of the living and mark those who have passed the retrieval period.
The sigil is a method of retrieving the soul.
The sigil brings immunity to the Retriever of Souls against any ability held by the to be retrieved soul that could influence or affect the Retriever of Souls but is manifested only if the ability or knowledge is used directly against the Retriever of Souls.
The soul he chooses to retrieve is the choice of the Retriever of Souls.
The Retriever of Souls has the right to information regarding soul retrieval by interacting with one of the Princes through the Guardian Spirit.
The one in your world calls himself Seere. He's one of the many people spread throughout it. He is the one assigned to you.
The sigil will retain the number of recovered souls. You can exchange the proof of a retrieved soul with certain...benefits. For some of them, you will need more than one proof.
The Guardian Spirit has no intention of protecting the avatar so take care of your body. Its role is your monitoring.
If the Retriever of Souls does not follow his obligations, will lead to the immediate recovery of the soul, the disintegration of the spirit, and the occupation of the body by the Guardian Spirit.
In short, if you don't do your job, your soul will be ours. Your spirit will be crushed into nothing. And your body will be our vessel, occupied by your Guardian Spirit.
If you are thinking of escaping. You have no escape. We know everything about you, we know what you're thinking, we know what you're doing at every moment.
Remember this."