“You’re certain that he can be turned to the light, despite his unique status?”

“I can try, master, but he’s already been touched by the dark; it will be difficult.”

“Very well; how goes your primary objective?”

“Not good – the map was wrong. The Shadow Academy looks very different on the inside. But, I admit that I have not had the chance to explore as I’d hoped. They’re keeping a close eye on us; I think they already suspect one of us.”

“This is a long term mission, my apprentice; do not be hasty. If you truly believe they suspect you, then it is best to lay low for now. I trust your purpose has not yet been discerned?”

“I shall continue to be discreet, master; fortunately, the dark ones have not figured out the reason for my being here. With any luck, they will never find out until it’s too late.”

“Very well, my apprentice; and, remember, the boy is not your priority. Turn him to the light if you can, but don’t force anything. We’ll speak again next month.”

“Yes, master.”

She reached into the underside of her bed and pulled out a map of the Shadow Academy’s interior. Much of it was wrong or horribly outdated. She had no use for it now. She scowled and burned it in her hand with but a single thought. No one could be allowed to know why she was here; too much hinged on her shoulders – too many lives depended on her success.

The Lightbringer’s Chalice was somewhere inside the San Jose Shadow Academy.

Finding and securing it was her responsibility.

Hers.... and no one else's.

If she succeeded, then the Light Mages would claim victory against the Dark Mages once and for all. And this stupid war would finally end.

----------------------------------------

“Today,” Lady Victoria began, smiling even as the woman on the table screamed and begged for mercy. Her head snapped to the left for a moment, eyes widening for a moment and narrowing the next, as though something caught her attention; not a moment later, whatever it was that’d stolen her focus disappeared. And so she turned to face me again and continued, “You will learn to cast your first spell.”

Ah, I’d been wondering when I was going to learn some actual magic and not just torture.

I nodded, but otherwise kept my mouth shut as Lady Victoria turned to the… object of our experiments, the woman who struggled so fiercely and so harshly that she cut open the skin of her wrists and ankles, where the chains wrapped around her limbs. Blood seeped from her wounds, but not enough – I figured – for her to bleed to death before Lady Victoria and I began our gruesome work. In fact, she was doing herself the opposite favor, prolonging and exacerbating her agony.

Lady Victoria held out her right hand towards the woman, but kept her eyes on me. “Now, repeat the words after me, sweetie; and make sure to say it exactly as I say it, alright?”

I nodded and gulped, and reached into the folds of my cloak for the wand I’d kept within. Lady Victoria’s eyes momentarily drifted towards the magical stick in my hand, before ignoring it entirely.

She then reached out and grabbed the screaming woman by her left shin; Lady Victoria’s massive hand with its long fingers easily wrapped around the appendage. She then turned to me and smiled. And then, she whispered, “Akk Ezeru…”

And the air itself seemed to shudder and writhe in torment.

But it was the woman, herself, who screamed the loudest, lurching forward against her binds, ripping open the skin of her wrists and ankles. Her eyes were manic, filled with tears and fear and anguish. Her whole body shivered and blood streamed out of her nose in a bloody line that dripped onto her bare chest. She began convulsing, blindly lashing out in jittery, snapping movements.

Lady Victoria chuckled. “This is the Bone Curse, sweetie; it’s one of the most basic offensive spells in a Flesh-Crafter’s repertoire.”

She let go of the woman’s shin and took a step back. And, like a puppet with its strings suddenly cut, the once-writhing and screaming woman fell back onto the metal bed, foaming and bleeding from her mouth. The rising and falling of her chest told me that she was still alive, but was probably unconscious. “The spell causes sharpened spikes to grow on every inch of bone across a target’s body, piercing them from within; the spikes increase in length and number the more magic you pump into the spell. Of course, it only works through direct touch. Try it, sweetie.”

I gulped. My hands shook as beads of cold sweat ran down the side of my face. I breathed in. I can do this….

I had a wand in my hand. My magic wasn’t going to be rebelling at any point.

And so, I reached out with me left hand and wrapped my fingers around her shin as Lady Victoria had done. The woman’s skin was cold, but also covered in sweat. She’d soiled herself. I ignored the stench as best as I could. This was nothing, after all. Things were about to get even worse than the woman could possibly imagine. It would be better, I mused, if she simply died immediately. At the passage of the thought, my eyes widened briefly. I could kill her – end her misery. Lady Victoria said that the damage done is dependent on the amount of magic I pump out. If I send enough magic out, then the spell might just kill her immediately… maybe.

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I raised the wand and focused. My eyes narrowed. I have to say the words exactly as Lady Victoria spoke them…

“Akk Ezeru….” A wave of power streamed from me, flooding out of my core and gathering into the wand. It was my magic, a fragment of it, given form and purpose. They awaited release – captive as they were. But I gathered more, forcing out as much magic as I could. When I began to feel the strain of doing so, a gathering pain that began at my forehead, I stopped.

And then, I released the spell.

My left hand and the woman exploded. Bright crimson blood, flesh, and bits of bone scattered everywhere, hissing and steaming and splattering the walls of the chamber, and everything in it, in red. It took a moment for the pain to really sink in and register in my mind. I raised my hand to my eyes and briefly marveled at the smoking stump of mangled skin and flesh and bone, spurting blood as I held it aloft. “Oh….”

I should not have done that.

My fingers were gone, along with the rest of my hand. Up close, I could smell the burnt flesh and skin, almost akin to roasted pork. Just the very thought of it made me sick in my stomach.

And then, I fell to my knees and screamed.

Beside me, Lady Victoria cackled and howled with laughter. Through the tears and snot, I glanced at her and saw that she was unmarred and unsullied by all the blood, gore, and viscera that’d been scattered all over the chamber by the explosion. Her moonlit white hair swayed as she laughed – not a single fleck or drop of blood on it. She looked at me and shook her head. Her crimson eyes blazed. “Oh, my dear sweetheart; you’re too merciful. I saw it in your eyes, sweetie; you didn’t want her to feel any pain, did you not?”

She shook her head and walked towards the metal table, where the chains lingered amidst the smoking and hissing remnants of what was a person a few moments ago, now nothing more than a mass of torn flesh and splayed guts. “Look at this mess; still, if anything, that mistake of yours tells me your magic is… incredibly intense and voluminous. Your reserves are barely affected – outstanding.”

“I would say that you need to work on your control, but… your wand should’ve taken care of that. Mercy, my dear little student, is a detriment. But, I believe I shall forgive that lapse for yours, for now; after all, the path to becoming a Dark Mage is long and cruel – tiny little bumps are to be expected along the way.” Lady Victoria’s voice was almost ghostly and ethereal, and sent shivers running down my spine with every word.

I breathed in and out. My whole body shook as wave after wave of pain flooded me from the stump that was my left hand. Still, I held myself and just barely succeeded at keeping my screams at bay, reduced to whimpering sobs. My tears stung my eyes and all the snot that streamed from my nose made breathing difficult. Still, I forced my breaths to slow down, and the rising and falling of my chest grew steadier with every passing moment, despite the pain.

“Unfortunately for you, sweetie,” Lady Victoria spoke ominously – with a hint of annoyance in her tone. Though, she seemed more amused than she was annoyed. She raised and held out her right hand over the steaming pile of guts and blood on the metal table and closed her eyes. And then, all the steaming blood and gore and guts and bits of bone that had been scattered across the chamber stirred. The bloody rivulets began to move, crawling and writhing. Her blazing crimson eyes snapped open. And Lady Victoria smiled at me as she spoke, “I shall have to ween you out of your mercy. And that will be an even longer and harder path.”

My eyes widened as the woman, whose remains had been splattered all over the chamber by my botched spell, slowly reformed before my eyes. Her bones were the first to be reassembled, the cracks disappeared as pale-white parts attached themselves together, guided by Lady Victoria’s will. After that, were her nerves – bundles of fibrous things that looked almost akin to the branches of a sickly and thin tree. Once the nerves were fully formed, her organs were next, slithering and writhing into place; her muscles came next, torn, fibrous pieces melding together to form greater wholes. Her skin came last, appearing over the blood-red musculature.

It was… amazing, fascinating, and frightening all at once.

She was dead.

The woman was supposed to be dead.

I had granted her the mercy of death.

But, even that was not enough.

Of course it wouldn't be enough.

What kind of fool was I to think I could outsmart my own mentor?

The whole process happened in less than ten seconds. And, by the eleventh, the woman was screaming again – eyes wide with confusion, panic, and unbridled fear. Lady Victoria sighed and snapped her fingers. And the woman’s screams were muffled as her lips disappeared and her mouth became naught but a single patch of skin without an opening. And then, Lady Victoria did the same with her eyes, shutting them away forever underneath a layer of skin.

Somehow, her screams seemed even louder, despite the lack of a mouth.

My mentor beamed, smiling as she leaned back. "Ah, that's much better."

She turned to face me and loomed. "You'll eventually learn to do the more advanced tricks, like this; for now, let's settle with doing the Bone Curse correctly, okay sweetie?"

I gulped and nodded, my body absently shaking from the pain that covered my left arm, radiating from the smoking stump where my hand used to be. Lady Victoria nodded, still smiling, "Now, try again. And make sure there are no happy little mistakes this time, okay?"

Tears streamed from my eyes and snot from my nose as I pushed and forced myself up onto my feet. "Yes, my lady."

I walked towards the woman and, very slowly and carefully, extended the stump of my left hand towards her. I placed the the smoking tips of flesh and bone against the skin of her shin, wincing as a flash of pain raced across my arm. I gulped and slowly breathed in and out, forcing away the anguish that threatened to overwhelm what little remained of my consciousness. And yet, I couldn't back down, no matter how much I wanted to just drop on the floor and sob till the pain goes away.

I couldn't stop now.

I couldn't stop.....

I could not allow myself to stop.

The world seemed to calm and slow down as my eyes drifted shut. The words of the spell lingered at the edge of my lips. The power stirred within me, begging to be unleashed. "Akk Ezeru…."