To have advanced past the first refinement felt good, the new Runes looked great and seemed to hold a lot of opportunities, which prompted me to quicken the amount of research I did.

Month four was a blur of research and beginning to walk, with most of my new spells using the Projectile rune.

Arcana

Spell list

Notes

Necros

Purify (Decay infection)

Weakens or destroys debuff and illness.

Necros

Afflict (Infect decay)

Infuses a creature with insidious Necros, weakening their immune system and natural regeneration.

Spatium

Slow (Decay movement)

Decrease the target’s speed, as long as concentration is maintained.

Necros

Seizure (Infect movement)

Causes the targets external muscles to twitch uncontrollably,

Spatium

Clean (Move decay)

Expel substances of the decay category from the target

Necros

Spread (Move infection)

Force the target to release infected breath, creating a small area in which the rate of infection is increased.

Necros

Protect (Decay projectile)

Destroys a Projectile

Spatium

Evade (Move Projectile)

Moves a projectile in a random direction.

Necros

Eldritch lance (Projectile corruption)

Forms a dart sized construct of necrotic energy, prevents healing.

Spatium

Force projectile (Projectile move)

Forms a dart sized projectile that pushes the target away.

Null

Redraw (Gather projectile)

Pulls any projectile nearby into the hand used to channel the Spell.

My teacher and I were currently testing my Spells on a Pig we bought, which she proceeded to analyze whenever I was done.

Redraw was the only spell that worked with null, which confused me until my question was finally answered.

“Null is the systems Arcana, no person ever exactly understood how null works and what it does, but every mage relies on it to give their spell some type of form. Null is the strongest known type of magic, and everyone has access to it, We don’t focus on it though, because while null is strong, none of it’s effects are unique.”

After thanking her for the information, we proceeded to the days next lesson.

I would create my first tier one spell, transcending what she referred to as chore magic and becoming an actual mage.

The Idea was to use all my Necros runes at once, creating the weakest possible actual Necros spell.

First I entered meditation, observing my now liquid orb of soul and the way my previous spells shimmered inside the surface, a wisp of soul flooding in as the witch killed a rat in front of me, slowly turning a round before it sank and became one with the puddle that was my own.

Carefully, I drew upon the Infect rune, pulling it from the core of my self to the surface, before holding a part of the soul still for it to whisper above.

Next, I took the corrupt rune and added that to the first, this step normally done completely by the system, and holding it felt as if I was stretching my soul, some type of energy building up.

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The third rune felt like it was burning when I added it, holding it but giving some control to the system, so it would translate the runes into a proper spell.

When I finally released it, my mind was about to snap.

The headache knocking me out cold when it came upon me, and a feeling of dread dominating my mind.

I saw people dissolve and forests decay before me, death and decay in the palm of my hand.

When everything quieted down, the system send a message I didn’t expect

Is this what you want?

The question was weird, as if it was written in blood upon blackened parchment.

I took a minute to think, the Idea of decay and death sounded great, especially when the souls would further feed my power.

“It is not.”

Are you scared of the dark? Do you reject this power because you think yourself a good guy?

“Nah, nobody good would invest as heavily into Necros as I did.”

A titan of corpses rose from the ground, eyes of blue flame shining upon me.

“Then why do you reject the power I offer?”

A grin spread across my lips, my body that of an adult in this realm.

“Because I know almost nothing about this world, and four month old children shouldn’t make this big a decision. Also, this is not enough for me, I am greedy, you know?”

It simply nodded, and my heart stopped. My body hurt as I woke up, my eyes burning once I managed to crack them open.

“You fell over quite a bit there, what happened?”

A short explanation and a cup of tea later, she shook her head.

“Right, I forgot about the Avatars. They contact everyone that takes this step, and everyone that agrees becomes a warlock. Great for people with only one affinity, but a waste for someone like you. Now, cast your new spell on that Pig.”

I thought seizure to be bad, but this spell was much worse.

A single touch made it sport a bit of acne, which began to suddenly burst apart and spread further wherever the gathered puss flew, even landing on my skin and forcing me to cast purify and clean to get rid of it before the symptoms set in.

The pig fared much worse, the spread steadily progressing as the area of infection continued to grow.

My teacher tried to heal it with a few different spells, until she finally managed it.

“This would have continued until the infected had no more air facing tissue, and would have taken about two days until it would have died, with a dispel disease, cauterize or other anti infection spell it can be countered at first, though every pustule needs to be cleansed individually. A solid spell if you want to torture someone.”

Arcana

Spell list

Notes

Necros

Purify (Decay infection)

Weakens or destroys debuff and illness.

Necros

Afflict (Infect decay)

Infuses a creature with insidious Necros, weakening their immune system and natural regeneration.

Spatium

Slow (Decay movement)

Decrease the target’s speed, as long as concentration is maintained.

Necros

Seizure (Infect movement)

Causes the targets external muscles to twitch uncontrollably,

Spatium

Clean (Move decay)

Expel substances of the decay category from the target

Necros

Spread (Move infection)

Force the target to release infected breath, creating a small area in which the rate of infection is increased.

Necros

Protect (Decay projectile)

Destroys a Projectile

Spatium

Evade (Move Projectile)

Moves a projectile in a random direction.

Necros

Eldritch lance (Projectile corruption)

Forms a dart sized construct of necrotic energy, prevents healing.

Spatium

Force projectile (Projectile move)

Forms a dart sized projectile that pushes the target away.

Null

Redraw (Gather projectile)

Pulls any projectile nearby into the hand used to channel the Spell.

Necros

Fester (Infect corrupt decay) (tier 1)

Create a curse that turns soft tissue into puss, before expelling it and spreading the curse further.

“Now go home and prepare for the harvest festival, I bet you can’t create a spell that can be used to show off, without making them bring out their pitchfork”

She challenged me, which I promptly answered by becoming unconscious again. It turns out That constantly overtaxing your soul is not necessarily a good idea, though my teacher didn’t expect me to stop doing that, and I was too much of a magic enthusiast to approach this rationally.

Thus, I used the situation of laying there and started meditating, even as I was picked up and carried to my room. My body was shit, barely capable of holding my own head when walking, but my soul was beautiful. It was a pond of gray, with green and purple spells swirling around like fish, and a particularly big one dominating this view.

Soon, my body would be the as beautiful as my soul. All I had to do was grow up.

When asked on how to reach the next refinement, my teacher told me to live my Arcana and not just use them, whatever that meant.

Before that, I planned to learn every basic rune, even if that meant killing a few hundred mice.

It was comforting to think about spells, though the Image of fester infecting the pig was burned into my brain, and every animal started holding a bit of a distance to me, only the nameless cat sitting on my face the moment my mother carried me to bed. As both my parents watched our little game, I caressed his ear and accidentally said my first word.

“Nemo?”

Neither mom nor dad seemed to know what nemo meant, the nothing this word implied just me making fun of her being nameless, though a happy meow seemed to indicate her acceptance of the name.

“Nemo it is then.”

Said my father, mom raising her eyebrows at that.

“Didn’t we say no name for her?”