Magic. People tend to have preconception about magic. The most prevalent idea about magic is that we magic users just wave our wands, or staves or whatever magical foci you use, say some obscure spells and voila, magic happens. And yeah, sure, that’s how you see us magic users do it. But what you do not know is why, and most importantly, how we are able to do that. Behind the whimsical nature of how we perform our magic, there are centuries of spell research involved, thesis presented, proven, dis-proven and re-proven again and again until a single spell is perfected so that we can just wave our wands, say the spell and make the magic happen.

People say “Any advanced enough technology is indistinguishable from magic”. I say the reverse is also true. Delve deep enough into any magical theory and it’s no different from any science of its own. There are reasons why it’s a swish and flick, and not, let’s say, half a circle counter clockwise and a jab. Why you ask 20 magic users to cast a flame spell and you get 40 different ways of producing the same effect. Or how different classifications of magic users are just way to designated which school of magic someone is specialized in.

But I’m rambling. One tends to do that when one is performing a mind numbing task, even if such task involves writing runes of your blood in a basement in order to shed your mortal coil to appease a rampaging spirit. Did that get your attention? If you must know, necromancy isn’t even that illegal. Restricted, sure, but so long you did your paperwork. Oh you were asking how did I get here? Well you see, when a cultivator and an alchemist love each other very much, they applied for a ceremonial ritual…. Oh you mean why I am writing runes in my own blood? Well, for that we need to go back… Huh. I realized I don’t even know how long I’ve been in this place. I can’t sense the flow of time, nor the flow of magic. Well, whatever time it is, this story begins in 3 weeks before Halloween. Samhain, All Hallowed Eve, whatever you wanna call it.

= Wednesday, 9th October =

"Nope. Not feasible. Too dangerous.” I slid the folder back across the table towards my cousin Elise.

"The fuck you mean by that?” Elise asked as she leaned over, snagging a few of my fries when she grabbed her folder. At least she was careful not to disturb the salt circle on my napkin.

“Remind me, where did you get this info?”

“I know a guy.” She huffed, annoyed. “Everyone knows a guy.”

“He trustworthy?”

“I know where he lives.”

“Right so what do you need me for? You got the info, you know a guy. Just get it done.”

“Two things. I need you to double check the Contract I need to Propose. Two, I’m not so sure I’m the only person my guy sells the info to.”

“Right. I’m doing your homework again.” I push up my glasses in intellectual superiority. “And bodyguard duty on top too.”

“Don’t make me hurt you.” Elise waved my own fry at my face.

“Alright, fine.” I took another sip of pepsi. “You got the Contract?”

“We still have 3 weeks.”

"Oh for fu…” I trailed off as I noticed the waitress approaching.

“Any coffee for you kids?”

“No thank you. But another bottle of pepsi and a glass of ice cubes would be nice.”

“One strawberry milkshake for me.” Elise waved.

“Alright, be back in a jiffies.” The waitress noted our orders and sauntered off.

“Soooo…..?” Elise asked.

“Okay so, why this thing? I know you’ve been looking for a Spirit as a power source but in this case however, the Spirit you intend to contract is rather young, so its sentience should not have been fully developed.”

“Yet, it’s the last of its kind. Untapped potential. Literally a gold mine right there.”

“Also untamed and uncontrollable. Sentient Spirit, we can bargain with. Wild and non-sentient however, is just asking for trouble.”

“Which is why I am asking for your help.”

“Uh huh, sure. How much are you going to pay me?”

“20G and a date?” Elise leaned over and took another one of my fries.

“30, and half up front. You still owe me 15 for the graveyard job.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Any argument was put on hold as the waitress came back with my pepsi and Elise’s shake.

“Awww come on hun, no family discount?”

“30 is already including the family discount.” I downed the glass of pepsi in one go. Gotta go now if I want to get things done on time. I stood up and packed my bag, carefully sliding the napkin with the salt circle inside. “And get me your Contract draft tomorrow. And don’t forget my fee. I gotta go prepare.”

After putting a 20 bill on the table, I left. As I approached the door, I heard Elise yelling “You didn’t say no to a date!”

She is just doing that to embarrass me. Ever since we were little she had always been trying to get a raise out of me. I gotta admit it was embarrassing the first few times, but as we grew up together I got used to her antics, even as she up the ante and got even more brazen with her jokes. Putting aside the facts we are cousins, I don’t even like her like that, ya know? She’s like that annoying little sister you never have but we are family so you make do.

Before I knew it, my feet had carried me to Jack’s. Jack’s Secondhands and Knickknacks is a great place if you want some esoteric stuffs as gifts for your wine aunts who are into tarots and crystals, but those in the know also know it’s just a front for the real stuffs in the back.

I circled ‘round back and knocked on the door, 3 quick knocks on top, 4 on bottom and 2 taps on the knob. Turned the knob counter clockwise for half a circle and pushed. The door shuddered with the thud and the light outside seemed to be sucked into the space inside. Confidently, I stepped into the storage space filled with all kind of alchemical ingredients in various types of jars and headed to the counter top.

“Is junior in?”

The skeleton mannequin pointed toward the basement stairs, as it always does. I nodded my head in thanks and walked down the stairs, me feet made as much sound as I could. Jack Jr. always was too engrossed in his experiments to actually man the store. Had it not for him supplying the best ingredients for a fair price, I doubt he’d even have survive for so long.

Old Man Jack opened this little store since forever ago, way before I, or maybe even my father, was ever born. Us wizards live for a good while longer than most average human, but Old Man Jack was considered old even by our standards. All I know is that Jack’s Secondhands and Knickknacks has always been here, and has always been the place to go for your alchemical needs. Of course, people from Family and Clan like us, we have our own channels. But I’m not using Family’s resources for this job.

Anyway, Old Man Jack is gone. Junior inherited this shop a decade back, and has been running it well so far. Wasn’t as sociable and amiable as his Old Man, but you can’t complain about the quality of his products.

“Junior.” I nodded to him, only receiving a grunt in return. “Bad time?” I asked.

“Not on you.” He sighed. “Stuck on this formula for a while. Anyhow, what do you need?”

“A set of level 3 exorcism, Abrahamic. 27 candles, 9 from Black Wolf tallow, 9 from Flame Bee was, 9 from Snow Whale oil. Purified Void Salts, 500grams. 2 sets of Purified Silver bracelets. Oh, and I’ll need 5 sets of Silver knives too.”

“Right, be right back.” Junior took a note and disappeared between the shelves. He returned a few minutes later with my order in an inconspicuous brown paper shopping bag.

“How much do I owe ya?”

“Seven fifty. New gig?”

“Elise.” I put the money on the table.

“Ah. My condolences.”

“Yeah.”

“If you find something interesting, bring it back, I’ll give you a discount on your next order.”

“Sure. Later Junior.”

He waved me goodbye as he returned to his enchantment table.

= Thursday, 10th October =

I awoke to the ringing of my cell phone. 5:13 AM. It was Elise.

“What ya want?” I hate it when my sleep is interrupted.

“Pack your bag, meet me downstairs, we are heading to the airport.”

“Wha..?”

“You know the guy I told you about yesterday? The guy who sold me the info? Turned out I was right. I wasn’t the only one he sold the info to.” Elise said in a single breathe. Her words flowed from one of my ear and out the other. I picked up most of the gist of it though.

“Slow down I just woke up.” I had to suppress a massive yawn as I stare blankly at the ceiling. “Right, see you in 5.”

With a wave of my hand, my work outfit flew out of the closet onto my bed, and another wave sent my purchase from Jack from the work table into my business bag. I had spent most of the night before carving runes and imbuing the knives and bracelets with several formations. People have the misconception that silver is good against monsters, but no. If you need to cut a monster down, steel is just as good as silver. The only difference is that silver and gold, noble metals, are non-transmutable.

Any magic imbued in gold and silver will hold, while iron and steel can’t keep the magic from dissipating. Some Hunters from way back then used enchanted silver arrow tips to hunt werewolves and the myth just kinda spread even to this day. Most likely they had enchanted their arrows to prevent Lycans Regeneration, but normal people can’t see the magical enchantment, only the silver arrows. Hence, the myth of silver for monster. But unenchanted silver is no different from steel, so going around waving a piece of silver in front of a werewolf is just suicide with extra steps.

As my mind was lost in thought, my body already went through the motion of getting dressed and packing my magical items into the bag’s special compartment, sealing it with a handsign for extra security.

My door is locked with a Blood Seal, the small teeth on the doorknob greedily sucking the blood on my thumb as the house sealed itself down to anyone not of my blood. A simple wipe over my thumb healed the wound as I walked over to Elise sitting in a rental car.

“Right, wake me when we are there.” I told her as I toss my bag in the back and sat down for a nap. I can tell she wanted to yap a lot more, just to vent about being duped but I’m not interested. Whatever she wanna tell me can be done once we board the plane. Right now, I need to catch up on some much needed sleep.

I awoke once again as the sounds of airplane flying blared overhead. My body just went into autopilot, going through the motion, as I have done a dozen times before. The special compartment of my bag cannot be seen, and won’t show up in a scan, x-ray, thermal or infrared. It wasn’t until I sat at the gate that I looked at my ticket.

I’m going to Bend, Oregon. Home of the last surviving Blockbuster. Both the site of the Spirit Contracting Ritual and the Spirit itself. I can already tell this is going to be a long night.