Tales of magic: grimoire of transmogrification
Chapter 23
__________________
Arc 2 - "The hunter and the beast"
Chapter 7- "The woods II"
__________________
"For what reason do you take up your sword?"
The little boy made a funny face.
"Well, it's to be like you."
His old man laughed. The king of Pridon actually laughed. It had been a long time since when he last heard that voice laugh. The last time he heard his father laugh like that was an event that had long since faded from the young prince's memories.
Since it was such a rare thing, the prince decided to laugh along with his father.
They both laughed and laughed, until the king became sick of it- which was barely a moment later.
"Do you know why I laughed, William?"
"Why?"
"Because you can never be like me. You are just too weak."
~From the days of William Sharpside son of King Edmund Sharpside II.( 1867, Pridon.)
__________________
1st May, 1886.
East of Weidson.
1886.
_________________
02:49 AM
He inhaled it in for a moment. Then he opened up his mouth, letting out a puff of smoke.
"Dad, you were always a piece of shit."
The woman to his right just stared at him with a confused expression. She held a sleeping black wolf in her arms.
'She looks cute like that....no, no. My head isn't right. She's still a monster.'
"Who the heck are you talking to?"
"My dead dad. Forget about it. How's the wolf?"
The wolf had had its head teared up several times, although only two soul-link tags were used up during the fight.
'She died twice. Good thing Clock managed to buy Silvie some more time.'
"Okay enough. We can't keep doing this though. You'll have to get serious eventually."
"Ahh..but they're just kids. We can't go all out on kids."
"You literally killed the Beast. She was a kid."
"I didn't kill her."
There was a brief awkward silence.
"Anyways, I want to know mademoiselle, if you are up for a stroll in the woods. Just the two of us."
"Why do you know French? And why the woods? What kind of date is that?"
"So you will go with me." William smirked.
"No. I won't."
'She isn't smiling. Lancaster was right, I don't have a chance.'
'But that doesn't matter right now. Margaret is on my side. She's working alongside me right now. There will always be plenty of times to try again.'
Margaret checked her pocket watch again.
"You know, it's strange that you check that thing all the time."
'She still thinks I don't know her Title. Damn she's stupid.'
"Erm..."
'Before she finds an excuse, I'm just going to say this.'
"We could just exchange vows, shake hands and kiss. The demon says the spirits would accept that. And then we would be partners.."
"Stop. It's just the handshake, you fool. I know about that already. But I don't want to."
"Why?"
'Am I too ugly? It's understandable that way. My body is generally disgusting, and I think I'll get sick and die soon anyways. Doesn't matter though.'
"It's none of your business." Margaret barked at him.
Silvie woke up and looked around curiously. Noticing that there wasn't a threat anywhere, it simply went back to sleep.
'The girl sounds serious. I should stop.'
William took another puff of the cigarette before pointing to the forest not too far away from where they stood.
"It's not a date. It's a hunt."
"What?"
He dropped his hand.
"The stroll in the woods. We're leaving Silvie at the base, so she can rest. Used too many spells on her..."
Margaret stared blankly.
"I wonder why you saw it as some kind of romantic date? Could it be that you're fallen for me?"
'I know I said I should stop, but I can't help it.'
"!!" Margaret stomped on the ground furiously. Apparently she was so pissed she couldn't even put it in words.
"Let's go, before our prey escapes."
Silvie jumped out of Margaret's arms. It's eyes were bloodshot as it sniffed around, alarmed. William quickly scooped it up and started to caress it's fur. The canine calmed down in a moment.
'Quill called you a dog, honey. He'll pay for insulting you.'
__________________
Outskirts of The Screaming Woods
Pridon.
__________________
Jordan sneezed. He wasn't exactly cold, but he wrapped himself with a blanket.
The demon was long since gone, but he was still wide awake. Even in the dead of night, he was capable of staying awake. How? He was busy.
Jordan had spent hours of his life awake at odd hours of the night writing his books or reading. He had to do so, because he had to go to school and work at the bakery too. He was used to waking up or sleeping at irregular times, and though Risa always said it was bad for his health Jordan didn't stop.
Though he wasn't writing his storybooks or doing late night schoolwork, he was still studying something completely different. Magic.
Jordan took in massive amounts of information from his Knowledge, picking and choosing spells to learn and trying to get an understanding of exactly how magic works. He discovered that his Knowledge was very limited.
The previous night, Jordan had also stayed awake to study magic. Back then he had focused on searching for a spell for binding spirits and learning the language of the spirits. This took him most of the night. He had also managed to learn a spell that chases spirits away, but he knew that there were only so many spells stored in the Knowledge.
Now, he was sure. He had spent four hours combing through the Knowledge, Writing down every single spell inside. Now he had run out of spells; there were no more to write down.
However, spells weren't the only things he could learn from the Knowledge.
'The Knowledge differs from Mage to Mage. I have an incomplete Knowledge just like all the other Mages. I'm guessing the spells outlined in my version of the Knowledge are tailored to fit the types of spells I can cast easily. Which means the same for Lancaster. The Enchantments I have have nothing to do with measuring Power.'
That wasn't the only thing he learnt from the Knowledge.
The spirit gods are three in number. They are Light, Darkness and Chaos. They're supposed to preside over matters of the spirit realm as it relates to the connection between worlds. Yes, there are other worlds. Hundreds of realms...My Knowledge doesn't say anything about the beings that populate each realm or the kinds of things they can do. Nothing about why these realms exist in the first place, or how.
But that's not useful information. I know, Journal. The thing is- there is no more useful information in there. It's all babble about building and creation magic. Nothing about how powerful the spirit gods are or what abilities they have.
'Useless..'
Jordan lay down flat on the grass. He stared at the skies for a minute, before turning his head around, and taking in his surroundings. His eyes drifted to the markings on the dirt.
It was a special spell formation drew by Lancaster earlier.
The wards were set up so they could detect animals too and so far they hadn't been set off.
'Animals should have crossed it by now. Unless..'
Jordan stared at the runes.
'Those things probably had another function that Lancaster didn't tell me, but I don't have the skills to figure that out. Yes, drawing runes is supposed to be my specialty but somehow Lancaster is better than me at even that.'
'Why is he so good at every thing?'
"I hate your guts, Lancaster! You're nothing but a stupid idiot!"
He yelled at the top of his voice. There were no replies.
'Just as I suspected.. The spell can block the animals from coming close to this place. It blocks 'evil eye' or whatever Lancaster called it.'
Jordan checked his pocket watch.
2:55 AM
It was steadily approaching the other Mage's turn.
'If I heard him right, we're rotating the watch. I'm tired of staying up so his sleepy ass can rest.'
He got up and stared at the boy's smug face as he rested on the tree bark.
"Lancaster!"
"I'm already awake."
"What? For how long?"
"Long enough to hear you badmouthing me. Anyways, I guess it's your turn to go to sleep, hater."
'Why?'
Jordan's coughed a bit and then shook his head.
"I'll read a bit before I sleep." He said while unzipping his bag and taking out the journal.
'I didn't spend time memorizing the spells. I just Wrote them down as I saw them in the words of Magic in the 'Ancient Books' or the Knowledge. I'll have to study my spell book to properly learn the spells.'
"Go to sleep, boy."
'Who's boy?'
"I just told you that.."
"Irrelevant. Go to sleep, now. I know you've healed your wounds but it's stupid to be awake this late for no reason. Go to sleep!"
Jordan kept quiet.
'I'm supposed to be his partner. We're supposed to be working together...but then again, I don't know what he knows. And I'm nowhere as powerful or as resourceful as he is. I'm just weak..I don't even have the courage to talk back..'
Journal, I'm being a wimp again, right. I should implement
operation insignificant question...I still want to find out his true identity, or why he's like this...And I won't come close to finding anything out if I remain a wimp.
I'll do it, Journal.
I'll challenge Lancaster.
"No. I'll read."
"Okay then. I don't care much about your health anyways. Just don't kill yourself or go mad; it'll be inefficient for me."
'What?'
_______________
3:03 AM
"It's cold." Margaret shivered.
She walked alongside William, as they navigated the Screaming Woods of Weidson.
'Looks like you didn't dress for the occasion, miss sexy dress.'
"Yeah. It is. It's also very familiar. It makes you remember the good old times, right? Back when we first met."
"William, that was just last week!"
Her eyes widened all of a sudden. A thick fur coat was placed over her.
"What's this?"
"It's a coat, what else? You're cold, right? Take it and quit complaining. Don't worry, I don't need it."
William grinned the moment he saw her smile. She looked away.
"You know, back then I didn't think you would be so..."
"So?"
Margaret frowned.
"You really don't want me to complement you."
"Umm.. please go on, ma'am."
"I didn't think you could be so kind and...normal. You are killing people for a living, after all."
'When did she get that idea from?'
When she got nothing but silence from William, she cringed.
"Umm...well, you are killing people to survive...I just thought you would be more heartless, that's all."
"There's no such thing as heartless. If you don't have a heart, then you're dead."
"That's not what I meant."
William grinned at her again.
'Ahh. I see. She took me for some cold blooded killer. Everybody's mistaking me for Ein nowadays.'
"I've killed many people, woman. The thing is, most of the people I kill aren't really people in my eyes. They're more like wild animals."
"Disrespecting the dead is wrong..."
"Says the Sanctuary of Light. The dead were once living. The fact that they're dead doesn't suddenly make them gods. If I die, for example, tell me you won't curse my grave."
"All the respect I have for you has evaporated. I just might do that."
"Ha ha ha ha! Good one!"
Margaret shot him a look.
"Oh.. you're serious." He paused.
"Alright my lady, I won't insult them again. The point I was trying to get across was that I don't enjoy killing. It's not right. I only kill people when there's no other option."
"And there's no other option other than killing these kids."
'I don't get it. You agreed to help me kill them. Why now? Why do are you having second thoughts?'
"You and I know there isn't. If we don't kill them, someone else will. And If they don't manage to kill them, these 'kids' would commit murder anyways, because like me and you they're damned if they do and damned if they don't."
She was still silent.
'It must be nice to be so.. normal. I fail to understand why she's not like I am, especially after being a Mage for so long. Margaret, we are the evil ones. We're wicked because we are. We got powers from a demon. There's no way....'
'There's no way you're still believing you could get out of this without blood on your hands.'
_________