"This is a bit more than cellular regeneration." Anabel paused in thought. Her hand gripping her chin and her mouth pinched closed, her lips pulled to the left side of her face.
In that moment all Allistar could think about were his mistakes. He knew, even before he made the first one he would never be able to have Anabel as he had before. He knew she would never want him as she did before. The thought of her devotion and passion for him still made his mouth go dry. But that was the past and this was now, because in spite of everything, or anything to come Anabel would always love him unconditionally but unconditional love still had different levels of meaning. He knew she would never trust him as she had in the past. Somehow that crushed something inside him. Something vital to him.
But the truth was ahe could not help herself. She no longer had a choice of wether or not she could love him. That would always be a constant in her life. They were soulmates in the truest and most magical sense of the word. He had always practiced some form of death magic or another and she had always delved in magics of the soul, mind, and spirit.
They worked countless rituals together and once, when they were very young, only fifty or sixty years old, Anabel devised a way for them to "protect" each other during spell weaving and rituals.
She had literally woven their souls together in seven different areas. These weaves were done with a weave process called diamond suture and were virtually unbreakable.
They could be broken but the soul would be torn and the tear would be impossible to repair completely. The worst part was that the tear would have a corrosive effect on the person that would slowly render them insane.
They were literally tied together. This tie did not mean that they would fall in love with each other but, because they were in love before the tying and the knots amplified feelings that dwelled in the soul and spirit, their love for each other would forever be amplified and manifest as a constant need.
But the intended consequence was also stronger than they could have ever imagined. They essentially performed rituals and spell weaves devoid of any danger or consequence because their souls woven together. The weave was a barrier wall, the knots were hungry wells of magic that devoured any magic deemed harmful or useless to power the weave and even strengthen its intent.
In a word it was diabolical.
"With this magic you can give your minions unlimited power or ability. It feeds itself for both self maintenance and strengthening. It corrects any issues the minion may have had in life and it is self regenerative. Once you have set the initial parameters for the minion it will never allow it to go below those set parameters but it has infinite potential for increase."
She walked over to the far side of the lab, where they kept animals caged, her voice never faltering. She came back with a small animal similar to a rodent. It had jet black shiny fur and vibrant red eyes.
"This is the first animal I resurrected with this process."
Allistar's eyes went wide. He knew the creature was undead but he thought it was born undead not resurrected. His hands reached for the creature without a thought. Anabel gave it over freely.
As soon as the animal was in his grasp he heard a small sound reverberate in his ears like two pieces of wood hitting together.
He looked up at Anabel to see her smiling widely. Anabel looked to Marela excitedly.
"It worked! There was an instant psychic link. Remember what you owe me. I want it now."
She was almost dancing around the room. Allistar watched her thinking about how much their daughter was like her.
"He has not said a word. You are jumping to conclusions." Marela almost punched Allistar as she leaned at him yelling. "Calm your wife and tell her she has overreacted. Why are you standing there like your mute!?'
All he could do was look at her. His mouth was not working because his shock continued to grow as the animal sent all types of information to him about its life, the lab, the house, its abilities. He never had such a strong effortless connection with a minion.
"Sh.. She's right. I.. It's a strong connection. I am still getting information from it." He couldn't help the stutter. Both because it was a lot of information from the point of view of a different life form and because he was still in disbelief.
He knew Anabel was the smartest person he knew but for her to experiment with and then actually successfully execute a magic she did not even wield was beyond him.
Marela sighed. "Fine. Fine. I do not know when I will learn." As she spoke a large, sparkling blue diamond appeared in front of her. It moved to Anabel and she allowed it to stay in one place.
Anabel looked at the diamond closely. She knew it was genuine but she was just so excited she wanted to know every facet as soon as possible.
A small silver drawstring bag appeared the diamond slipped inside it, the strings drew it closed, and it disappeared.
"You should've given me that a long time ago."
"Maybe. Maybe not." Marela shrugged. "I guess you're right. I have not been able to make the amulet."
Anabel rubbed her hands together in excitement. I will start working on the mounting. She looked up at Allistar who was examining the rodent. "There is a serpent and a feline as well."
She pointed to the cages. "They are there if you want them."
Allistar was walking to the cages before she finished. He instantly knew which were the ones he was interested in.
He reached toward both cages, his hands phased out, entered and brought both animals to him. Without a thought both instantly linked with him.
He turned to Anabel in amazement. His eyes fell on Marela for no reason. She smirked. "And those were her first three tries." She shook her head. "I love her dearly but your wife is a freak of nature."
Jolan was doubled over panting, sweating profusely, and clutching his stomach because it was painfully spasming. He would freely admit since his injury he had not been very active but he never thought he became completely incapable of the simplest activity.
Of course he was over simplifying, Amethyst had not cut him any slack, but he felt it was better than thinking his family was trying to kill him.
He received his injury when he was performing a new ritual he created. If it had worked he would have been able to ride a specific river of time. One that flowed through several dimensions that he had known very well. He originally thought the error was in his runic work and casting now he understood he entered a time stream that was both too powerful and too turbulent for him.
Different time streams flowed in different ways. Some only through the present, or only the past, or only the future. Some flowed in, or even through, more than one and possibly in different directions.
His mother examined the stream he was almost lost in and she found out that it flowed in present, past, and future but it was unique and powerful in that these flowed simultaneously in adjacent positions. This uniqueness caused the river to be extremely volatile. And because he had never imagined it possible he was not prepared for it.
The time river swallowed him and clung to him with a grip he never felt before. He grew old, young, and was reborn a multitude of times. So many times and so quickly he was almost ripped from existence.
If he didn't have an overprotective mother he would have never have existed. She had a strong tether tied to his soul and had wards on him telling her his condition and whereabouts at all times.
Maybe after the millionth simultaneous rebirth, death, infancy, and old age his mother reached in, defied the time current, and pulled him out. The time in the river is what hurt him so badly, just like staying in water for long periods makes the skin wrinkle and change staying in such a time stream has its effects on both the body, soul, and spirit.
His mother explained it as his spirit being knotted and his soul saturated. His soul essentially "dried" eventually but those knots in his spirit seemed irreversible.
Until his mother found the ebon water.
"How long are you going to stall? When mom finds out you are this weak you will be on bedrest for the next two hundred years."
"Ame don't provoke your brother."
Amethyst looked at her father sitting a distance away reading, waiting his turn. "Provoke?!?" she snorted twice. "Is it really provoking when he is in this condition?"
Allistar looked up at his children, his expression impassive, slowly blinked twice, then returned to his reading.
Amethyst let out a resigned sigh. "Fine! Work with daddy for a while. I will practice here and then we can pause for lunch." She poked his finger into his chest. "After lunch I want to see the Jolan I know."
He moved her finger from his chest and half walked half stumbled to his father.
Allistar didn't look up from his book. "Center yourself and meet me on the soul plane."
Jolan nodded. He sat down clumsily, crossed his legs, and began meditating. Once his mind was clear he centered it on his being. He looked at himself. Who he was, who he could be. His physicality, his mentality, how his perceptions were formed, what defined who he was, what made him unique to other living beings and what made him the same.
Once his focus was sharpened to the finest of points he delved past his soul wall and into his soul sea. He looked upon the brilliant multicolored sky that shone from high above and the placid water the color of the softest clearest green.
He breathed in the tranquility and found his internal peace. A door opened at his command and he entered the soul plane.
The soul plane had a myriad of levels, each corresponding to a specific state of being. He was now centered and focused on who he was and what made him who he was so he entered the plane standing on a vast calm black body of water.
He saw his father sitting just above the surface a few yards from him. Jolan took a step, dark ripples moved from him and with each ripple a loud, ear splitting, boom was heard. He instantly froze and wanted to face-palm. He rose a few inches above the surface of the water and walked continued to his father.
He sat in front of him and mimicked his position. As soon as Jolan was in position Allistar opened his eyes. It was still startling, even after three hundred years, to see that his father's eyes were red instead of crystal clear blue.
"You need to re-learn time swimming. Once you can swim through time again everything else will fall into place for you. It is like re-centering yourself.
"I am not the time sorcery you are but you and I have the same foundations in time magic. So begin by reading my time lines first then move up to my time stream and understand how it interacts with my time lines. Allow all of this to lead you back to who you are. Allow it to put the missing puzzle pieces back into place."
Allistar closed his eyes. "Do you understand?"
Jolan closed his eyes. "I do. Thank you for reminding me."
Jolan focused his time sorcery forward. He had not been able to perform any sorcery or true runic magic since the accident so to say his technique was rusty was an understatement. Silvery runic lines shimmered forward, made contact with Allistar's personal fate wall and dissipated across Allistar's being.
In other words Jolan did not enter his time stream or touch his time lines. Jolan allowed his magic to disperse and drew it back to him. He sent out a new stream and the same thing occurred. He ended up trying four times before he managed to strum the first set of Allistar's time lines.
The reverberation of the lines sounded in Jolan's soul, allowing him to "read" them.
After this success everything else was made easier. He was quickly able to access all of Allistar's time lines and he understood how they interacted with his time stream. It took him two attempts to access his time stream. He understood that this was due to trauma from slipping into that turbulent stream so many years ago.
Once Jolan entered his father's time stream it was like all that Jolan was and would be streamed towards him. He was confident, he understood minute detail that he couldn't even see a few seconds ago. It was as if knowledge suddenly birthed from nothing within him and in an instant he was back to ninety percent of who he was before his accident.
He felt so empowered and elated that he almost lost focus. He calmed himself and focused on his task. He wanted to gain five percent more before lunch.
He should have started here instead of trying to break himself against the wall that was his sister.