Tales of magic: grimoire of transmogrification

  Chapter 47

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  Arc 2 – “The hunter and the beast”

  Chapter 31- “The road ahead”

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  Jordan sat down in front of his usual desk, with a smile spread across his face. He had finally gotten the time to take a look at his book after hours of study.

  His quill in one hand and the empty page spread across the table. Nothing came to mind. He sat there like that for minutes, silently staring at the page.

  ‘What should happen next? I mean, there has to be a good ending right?’ He mused, mentally.

  The page remained empty for another three minutes. Jordan shook his head furiously and stood up from his desk.

  Walking towards his boarded window, he forced it open, letting the moonlight reach his room. The night looked so spectacular, so enchanting...but it might just be his sleep deprived brain playing tricks on him.

  ‘A good ending.’

  He sighed staring at the moon. The clouds slowly moved around, blocking it from the sky. In only a few moments, he saw the moon no more, only stars and clouds.

  ‘Does such a thing exist in reality?’

  Jordan shook his head. He was probably going mad again. Walking over to the table, he stared at his empty page with a fresh set of eyes.

  ‘Ah. This is a story. Things just happen to work out. That’s all.’

  ~ October 1884.

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  2nd April, 1886.

  Weidson, Pridon.

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  Jordan stared blanky and listened. There was no point interrupting him, no reason to raise his voice at him. After only a few days, Jordan believed he had a firm grasp on how this Lancaster thought. He wasn’t a complicated fellow.

  Veronica would be safe, Journal. I’m sure of it. For now, I’ll play along with Lancaster. No. I’m not afraid of him. I just believe fighting him would be futile at this point. He has a plan.. following that plan would ensure the safety of all of us. Including Veronica.

  Jordan scratched his hair and rested uneasily on the chair.

  ‘I almost killed someone. Why the fuck is that popping up in my head now?’

  “.... and I learned something interesting. Right before she slept, she looked at me and told me everything about your little agreement with the Necro-leech.” The blonde musician spoke with glee. He was still sitting in front of the piano, his hands resting on the keys.

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  Lancaster smiled, awfully proud of himself.

  “I’m glad you asked. Your agreement has long since been rendered null and void.”

  “But it’s the greatest pact. It can’t be broken, and if it is, the offender would die. That’s what the Knowledge said.” Jordan was visibly worried.

  “Yes. However, the highest pact isn’t available to Mages such as ourselves. You said “fate as our witness” in lat..I mean, the Words of Magic, right? Fate can’t mediate in an agreement between a Mage and a manifested spirit being. Especially when the Mage in question has no real source of Power.”

  “You’re making less and less sense, Lancaster.” Jordan stared daggers at him.

  “I know. But it is what it is. We are relying on the Demon. So the truth is; we aren’t real Mages. Just Lesser Mages of the Demon of Desire. But we have just as much Power and Knowledge that a normal Mage would possess or probably even more.”

  “So it was pointless?”

  “Yes. However, Necro-leech honoured it anyways, believing you were a real Mage. I opened his eyes though. Told him the truth, but I first made him sign a genuine contract that binds him to serve me for the rest of my lifetime. In exchange, I’m giving him an innocent to prey on for the rest of her life. He saw it as a great opportunity.”

  What.. Journal, why am I not surprised? I mean, he’s done something like this before. However this time.... something doesn’t sit well with me.

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  Jordan got up from the chair and walked towards Lancaster and the piano.

  “Play something relaxing. You can still play, right?”

  “Did I mention that William might be after us now ? We don’t have time for that. We need to decide on our next course of action.”

  “Veronica doesn’t have a say?”

  “She doesn’t want to.”

  Jordan took a deep breath and exhaled. He nodded.

  This is who I am now. I tried to kill someone. I am trying to kill someone. I won’t run away from that. Not anymore. This isn’t about justice or even revenge for Lisa. This is about survival, damn it. There’s nothing good about this. Nothing at all. I’ll stay alive if I follow Lancaster. I’ll die if I don’t.

  “What are our options?”

  Lancaster played a note. And then another. He kept playing, note after note. It became a slow, measured melody. Peaceful and calm.

  Then he started to play faster. The tempo continued to rise and rise and rise. The song was becoming more and more complex as time went by. Soon, the music became chaotic. Sounds were all over the place.

  Lancaster stopped and stared at Jordan.

  “Option one- we take it slow and we achieve almost nothing. Play the long game, hoping that William slips up eventually and we take him out that way. The specifics aren’t too difficult. All we’ll have to do is find a good place to hide, and a good weapon to attack with from a distance. I’ve got a few ideas in mind already. But we’ll need to put heads together to make things work out in theory.”

  Jordan shook his head. Lancaster smiled bitterly in return.

  “I knew you’d say no. Option two is more reckless. We go fast and hard, giving it all we got from the start. We might just take him out in one move, but the more attempts we make and fail the lesser our chances of success. The set up is anything but easy. Nothing safe and secure to be found here, and even if we do get that place to hide I spoke of, it’ll be completely pointless most of the time since we’ll be coming out of it to launch an all out attack. The only other option is to give up and die. So what’s the verdict, champ?”

  Jordan simply nod his head without a word.

  “I know you want the specifics. I’ll give them to you now. Listen closely, because I don’t want to repeat myself. You too, Veronica. You’ll get your body back when you snap out of it, so you might want to understand what I’m saying for your own benefit. We’re going in blind – we have almost no idea what William can do. And that’s the problem. All Mages have some kind of weakness or flaw or at least a certain form of magic that opposes their own. All powerful Mages have a specialty- because you can’t the best at everything. Because of that, we need to find an opening we can target and streamline all our spellcasting and crafting to that opening. Though, with each successive attempt, he’ll get better and better at countering out moves, and we might have to switch tactics, you follow?”

  Jordan nodded. He glanced at Veronica. She (or rather ‘it’) was standing still and stiff. It wasn’t moving at all, but had an abnormally wide smile plastered on it’s face. Jordan looked away.

  That’s not Veronica.

  “We’ll need four things. In order of importance these things are: time, information, resources and Power. We’ll buy time first with a low-risk stunt that’ll leave William scratching his head- or at least keep him busy. The we’ll go into the spirit realm to gather information and resources. We might need some from the material realm too- but with Oliver, money is no longer a problem. Power is the hardest commodity to get our hands on, but it’s not impossible. We’ll just have to be shrewd merchants, I believe you can sell your soul for real, can’t you?”

  “What are you saying?”

  “You’re ready to do whatever it takes, right?” Lancaster raised his voice. Jordan kept silent.

  “I won’t kill innocent people. Hurting them though...but nothing too serious.”

  Veronica shook her head slowly. Her eyes were glaring. Apparently, she still retained some control of her body. But necro-leech still didn’t let her speak.

  “That’s a start. We can work up from there,”

  I don’t want to work up from anywhere. I just want this William thing to end.

  “Three days. That’s as much time as we’ve got to set up the plan, and that’s if the diversion works out well. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to make do with twelve hours- the approximate time it’ll take for William to finish up his little chores and dedicate his time to wiping us off the face of the planet.”

  “Wait..are you spying on him?”

  “I’ve got a few birds in his vicinity. It doesn’t seem as though he’s discovered anything- or maybe he has but he’s playing along. Either ways, I know where he is, what he’s up to and his general schedule for the night. He’ll visit a certain place, and have a good time – his words not mine. I’ve been to a brothel once or twice, I know how much time he’ll spend there. When he’s got time for us, we’ll be in trouble. But by then I should’ve got the diversion set up.”

  Jordan nodded his head twice.

  “What is the diversion?”

  “Illusions and tricks, layered so many times that it doesn’t matter if he can see through some of them. He’ll have to carefully pull them apart so he doesn’t get lost in an endless string of curses. This diversion was a fun little project I wanted to work on, doing it promises to be more fun than I’ve ever had in a long while. Now, any more questions?”

  “When would you free her?”

  Lancaster played another tune. This one was noisy and loud, and without rhythm. Jordan gestured for him to stop, but he continued. The teen slammed his hand against the flat table-like surface of the piano. That still didn’t get his attention.

  “Stop it!” He screamed. Then, Lancaster finally stopped.

  “The noise would end when it no longer serves any purpose. You see, Veronica would have her freedom when it no longer proves to be a threat to her life and ours... Especially mine. For now she’s far more useful to us as an obedient little necrotic spirit trapped in a living body.”

  “My next question. What do we do? More importantly, what do I do?”

  “Prepare to return to the spirit realm. Also, help me set up the diversion. In between tasks you could say hi to your family. Then you prepare your mind to possibly never see them again. I’ll give you a lecture on spirits, and we’ll make as many binding contracts as we need to see that bastard fall.”

  Jordan Middlesworth made his way towards Veronica.

  “I love you. I really do, but... I can’t beat Lancaster. I really don’t want to force you to do things you don’t want to do. Just, don’t go against his plan. I promise I’ll see to it that you get your real freedom.”

  The defiance in her eyes spoke a lot. She was still fighting; just like he was awhile ago. She was fighting for her conscience- for justice. That was the difference between the two of them. Jordan was never fighting for justice- he was working towards revenge.

  He turned his eyes away.

  “You didn’t blush this time, saying something as embarrassing as that. Little idiot.”

  He turned around to see her smiling at him, so full of emotion. She was... happy, and yet sad.

  “I’m not giving up, Lancaster. I won’t be a murderer.” She looked at the other boy with conviction, right before her eyes went souless once more.

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