Hanging on Bones

Chapter 11: Working Magic

I used to be called Tomas. Yes, I’m quite sure about that. After all, that is what it says on the headstone of the grave I’m sleeping in.

The pillow and the paddings are very comfortable. They are not high quality, but they held admirably well in comparison to the lid. My coffin was definitely made more for show, then to last long years. The lower part has rotten and crumbled off. This allowed me to tunnel my way up to surface. Yeah… It did… right?

My memories are quite vague, aren’t they? Wait, wait… let me think about this….

There’s not much there, huh. One of the few things I remember is that I died in really uncool way. During some kind of festival, I got my fortune read to me by an old man. I was not alone there. I cannot recall their names or faces, but there were five of us at his cram. All of us were drunk as hell. Each received lucky charm that was supposed to protect him or her, but I was the only one who kept it. Then, not ten minutes later, due to intoxication, I tripped and hit my head on cornerstone. Intense pain, ambulance and then nothingness. That was it.

But besides this memory, there’s very little else… Yeah… now I get it. I’m losing my memories, huh. Every time I wake up. With less and less of me each day.

The clearest and brightest thing in all of the memories that are still remaining is that talisman. I can recall it being in my possession even after death. That is quite strange though, since I’m only bones now. I can’t find it anywhere in my coffin either.

Well no use dwelling on this. I have to do something or other. No clue what through. I just have this urge to get out and do it.

Everything is behind mist now. It’s very hard to concentrate.

I’m outside, huh.

The night is beautiful, isn’t it?

…

I was supposed to look for something, wasn’t I? Ah! The talisman!! Yeah! That’s what I have to find!

I’m so slow though… I cannot get myself to move faster than slow shuffle. My mind… everything is slowed down… and I notice things long after I pass them.

My consciousness… it’s like I’m fading in and out.

There are others like me…. Or rather like I used to be… Yeah… Just now… there was one who seemed to be watching me intensely… even stood in front of me… but my ‘self’ was away and my body was simply going through the motions ….

My vocal cords are missing but I could have at least given some signs indicating that I am inside. This skeleton would surely help. Instead, I bet I was mistaken for one of the mindless ones that are roaming everywhere on this graveyard. Maybe this was my last chance before I become mindless like them.

No… No… no.no.no.no.NOO!!

I will not! I have to wait here. Yes. Skeleton with that much dirt on it, must have just left its grave! I still have a chance!

But focus!! Focus!!!

Damn it! My mind slipped and my body strayed away again! I must turn back!

Ah here we are! This place! Yeah! This row of graves! I’m back where I saw her!

…

Ah… it’s not working… That skeleton with mind I saw… it is not coming back…

So long…

Damn it…. This pressure… The sunrise is approaching…

No… no… I have to stay! But the sun… ! I remember enough to know I will die horrible death if I stay any longer damn it… Damn it!!

AH! YES!! That’s it!! YEEES!! That skeleton came back! There are only few graves between us!

Wait…why is it red? From head to toe those bones are covered in blood, huh… And one arm is missing, isn’t it… Damn! I have to focus! We don’t have much time!! The sun is about to get up! We have to hurry or else I won’t make it back to my grave!

No. no way…I missed it? My consciousness slipped? At such an important moment!?!? We were supposed to communicate, but I’m alone again!! Damn it!!! Nooooo way in hell!!!

But wait… something is lying on the ground… there are plastic bags next to that grave! They weren’t there before, were they! I don’t have much time!!

Looking inside the bags I find that everything is covered in blood and tangled up together. I don’t have time to pick through this stuff!

Turning the plastics inside out spills everything to the ground. Some armour, weapon and two pouches!! Eureka!!! My talisman! It was in little bag like that one!!!! But I don’t have time!!

I grab both of the pouches and start shuffling off towards my grave. Damn it! I will not make it!! The feeling of pressure already transformed into physical pain!! Shortly my bones will begin to smoke and if direct sunlight hits me, I will burst into flames!! No way in hell! I will not let myself die here again, damn it!! But my slow gate will not let me get back!!!

The feeling these graves emit though…

Ah! There! Isn’t that stone slab shifted a little bit? Maybe… just maybe…. YES!! There’s a tunnel leading below! Some other poor bastard dug himself out and couldn’t make it back!! Lucky me!!!

Going in, I make sure to shift the slab back to cover the entrance. Would not want anybody disturbing us now would I? Me and my rewards…

Well there’s no way to see anything in this pitch darkness, so I cannot really check the contents but still… If there is talisman inside, I should not have any problems with my memory and concentration tomorrow right? So I guess I will just relax here till the sun goes down. This coffin is made from simple wooden boards. Definitely not something I would call comfortable, but I’m quite sleepy …

……

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…….

The sun is not bright and shiny anymore! Huraaay! I remember! I f**king remember! And my name is Maria for f**k’s sake!!! How the hell I ended up thinking I was guy, damn it!! Still!! Yaay!

Well now. Seems I was really lucky in getting my hands on this stuff. The guy I stolen it from, must be mightily pissed off about it. Well, hell. He might be woman from what I know.

But either way, If I only knew that talismans were so precious, I would never, ever let myself loose mine. Stupid thing really. I dropped it. I simply had too many things to carry and I dropped it.

This is understatement, but I was never good at physical stuff. So when I woke up as an undead, I simply kept my distance from any danger. And at this monstrously huge cemetery, there was plenty of danger. Un-intelligent zombies, skeletons, ghouls and such, were the least of my problems. Living breathing humans were the worst. They came regularly, in highly organized waves, using antique weapons and magic. This was the biggest shock. The magic. Not death, not bare bones, but magic. As an atheist coming from civilized society where technology is on very high level, this discovery hit me like a thunderbolt from the sky. Especially since I know this graveyard. At least two members of my family were buried here. But I was never pious person. The last time I visited was when I was still little girl. After that, school, friends and other stuff took priority.

When alive, I fashioned myself more as a shopping mall fan then book worm. Always being in group of friends, or with a boyfriend, something or other without a doubt stood between me and the violence.

So when I died and was left alone, I discovered myself to be total coward. Keeping to the side-lines and always staying far away from the fights. When anyone came too close, I was hiding the best I could, using even other empty graves and crypts. But this cemetery is huge. It’s so enormous that in order for humans to swipe whole area of other unintelligent undead, they had to spread out very thin. Loosing each other from sight and having no way for help to reach them, they sometimes were waaay to reckless. It was as if they didn’t care if they died or not.

Few first times, I was too appalled to approach even after zombies and ghouls were done goring themselves on remains of those fools. But after a while, curiosity won and I went to check what was left.

Usually, leather armour was in tatters, with some kind of weapon next to it. Armaments of the kind, that I would have to come in close and personal to use them. That meant, only occasional pouch might be of use to me. But they usually contained only some coins, bottles of red stuff that looked like blood and herbs. The fluid proved to be burning me if I touched it, while the other things were useless. Never the less, each time I stumbled on one of them, I took those small bags with me.

One day however, while I was wandering the cemetery, I noticed another fight in the distance. As per usual, quickly finding hiding spot in the vicinity, I kept observing what is going on. To my enormous surprise, there was lone mage fighting two skeletons. They either never separated from at least one guard, or followed behind group that cleaned out surrounding area.

Either way, with no armour whatsoever, this mage would either kill them before they reached him, or would die shortly after.

He destroyed first one with room to spare, but the other one was almost on top of him. As I watched, the spell he was creating exploded in his hands, killing both of them.

After the weeks of wandering, this proved to be turning point for me. I ran over to that place and discovered his corpse to be almost intact. With a bit of embarrassment I stripped him of the robes and everything he possessed. Supporting his long staff on my shoulder while keeping everything tucked close to my chest, I ran for my grave.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Reaching the safety, I closely examined all the spoils. The long robes and staff were emanating this strange, but powerful feeling. There was a thick book inside one of the pouches, and glass with blue liquid mixed among the red ones. With this I might become a mage and defend myself from distance, is what I thought. But I was feeling tired so I put everything inside the grave and went to sleep.

The next night, I studied the book for a while.

Just reading the book for few hours allowed me to grasp the basics and start feeling the pulse. Like that of veins when being alive, the rhythm all around us. Going through my bones in a closed loop, while also seemingly intertwined at random in everything. Seems like me being without heartbeat, proved surprisingly useful in detecting this pulse.

And yet I had to stop my studies in order to make sure everything is safe. It wouldn’t be good for humans to stumble on me when I’m engrossed in book.

Walking around made me wonder at the vastness and complexity of this pulsing web. The cemetery seems like completely different place now.

In my wonderment, I went too far. Before I realized it, humans were on all sides and approaching quickly. I had to run. But that made them chase me even faster. Luckily I knew this area very well now and quickly hid in empty grave I used before. They didn’t notice which one but they knew I was somewhere in one of them. So I stayed.

Night after night they had someone posted in the vicinity. I could not leave.

Few days passed and I understood that I’m starting to fade. Each day, little by little. That shocked me and made me think. There were three possibilities. First one is that it’s happening because I’m not sleeping in my own grave. That is highly unlikely since I’ve spent quite a few days in other graves. The second one is fact that I started learning magic. I believed this reason for few days until enough memories faded that I recognized the pattern. Memories of the talisman don’t fade as easily. It was focal point all of them were anchored by.

And I dropped the stupid talisman when I was carrying the things taken from dead mage.

I was so close to surviving this thing. At least partial safety was within my reach. But no. I had to lose it, damn it.

…

…

…

But what is past is past. I need to focus on the present.

My luck turned for the better yesterday, when I took the bags from that blood covered skeleton.

Ah, I better check on them.

Before climbing out of the grave I was sleeping in, I make sure to check whole coffin once again. I don’t want to leave anything by accident.

Yeah, totally empty. It’s only me and my pouches.

Climbing out is not so easy with one hand occupied, but I will not risk leaving them anywhere. Not after what happened before.

Good long shove and the stone slab shifted enough for me to slip out. It’s nice and quiet today.

I fumble with the first one a bit. Sadly there are only some coins and a glass bottle. With mental sigh, I reach for the cord closing off the second one. It’s much lighter so I should have guessed talisman will be in it.

What? Hey… what’s going on? There is only some stupid scroll inside!

Turning both of the pouches inside out and spill everything on the stone slab. It’s not here… damn it! It’s not here!! Why the hell it’s not here!?!

But… wait… why are the pouches so clean? Where did all the blood go? Why the hell!?

Calm down… calm down…

What does this mean? The blood? Was it the blood that restored me to my senses and not the talisman? But that means… that means I will very shortly start losing myself again…. No … no … no.no.no.nonono!

I got to do something… but I don’t stand any chances in normal fight. I might try to find one of the reckless ones that get themselves killed, but that happens only once per few days. I might lose myself before that….

The magic! I have to learn how to use offensive spells! This book I left at my grave! It should have some! And if it doesn’t, then the scroll I found in the second pouch looks formidable. It will be fight with time, but I have to do it. I don’t want to become like those mindless undead fools that die in droves every day.

Taking only scroll with me, I run for my grave. Yeah, that’s it! No more slow shuffling around!

The fates smiled on me and my burial place is not on the other side of the cemetery. If that was the case, I would spend most of the night on running there.

In minutes, I’m dragging out the book out of the coffin. Everything is there. Even staff is lying beside the grave. With its length, I had no choice but to leave it outside.

Now the hardest part. Working magic. I have to get a hang on it.

Going through the book I skip several dozens of pages to find the real spells. Too little time to dwell on small things.

First thing I try is one of the simplest spells. Lighting a candle. Without any kind of candle I guess I can use simple twig to replace it.

Forming a spell is basically weaving the blue veins of power. They vary in thickness and their pulsing rhythm. Unlike the complicated spells where I would have to make intricate patterns, the spell I’m about to use is easy to manage. It just requires to shift few large, fast beating veins to cross on top of each other, in desired place.

The most difficult is getting them to move. But once I learned that, it is quickly getting easier.

The next hurdle on my path to attack spells is creating my own strings. This drains me quite heavily, but allows to be independent from the environment. I basically have to drag out blue veins out of myself, while molding them on the way. Being integral part of my own being, they regenerate like the blood would if I was alive. Difference being the speed of regeneration.

Extracting them was not so hard. The molding into required thinness and giving them rhythm of my choosing is the nightmare.

Ah I made it! But damn it’s very late already. The sun is about to get up.

Time to crawl down into the coffin and sleep rest of the day.

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Waking up I realize I’m losing my fight with time. The sleep already took part of my memories.

Damn I have to hurry! It takes me two hours to re-learn the progress I lost during the night. And this is the first night!

For now I have to focus on learning.

Due to my practice on my first spell, I have general feel for the thickness and rhythm that is required to get the fire going. To save time, I will just keep working only on fire based spells.

There’s few of them in this book, but I need only one. I choose the simplest ball of fire.

First stage of forming the spell entails moving out my internal ‘soul veins’ by the tips of all ten of my fingers. Then I have to weave them to form a net like sphere. Next at the center of this ball, I start layering plenty of fire veins. This creates inferno inside, which is contained by the net.

This offensive spell is of the simplest possible, normal throw being the final attack.

At my eight try I finally managed to do it. I still have few hours to spare before the sunrise. That makes things a lot easier.

Got to get dressed then!

I’ve put on the mage’s robe and leave the long staff. For this spell I need all ten fingers. This long piece of wood appears to be only enhancing my sensibility to ‘soul veins’ in the surroundings.

Two hours of searching and I find one lone human fighting few of my stupid brethren. To not waste any precious moment I quickly approach into throwing distance and start to weave the spell. I’m nervous, huh… the weaving is going longer then I planned as my fingers fumble from time to time.

Taking quick peek up, I see the moment last of the skeletons crumbles to the ground and the human starts approaching.

Not good! Not good!

I speed up the weaving and start working on core.

Quick glance and he’s almost on me! No damn it!! No!!!!

The sword human swung at my torso was centimeters away, when the hastily constructed net broke under the pressure of flame inside it.

The brightness of resulting explosion blinds me.

Damn… So that’s how the mages die.

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Author: Diferent POV and little bit of plot twist for you. :)

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