[https://i.imgur.com/VGCFMQy.png]
The days that followed seemed to pass slowly, as if even time itself was frozen by the oppressive winter air.
As the first snow fell outside, Refenial sat once more inside, looking at the orb that was his soul.
He felt a gentle swish and scratching within, but with ruthless determination, he focused on his soul, as shown by Old Mother Hecate, hardening against the thing within.
He moved his head, and half opened his corporeal eyes as he looked up at the old crone perched over him on her stool. Her constant drills had got him to the point where he could move slowly and take in the world with his ordinary senses while keeping his soul eyes open.
The old woman gave a nearly imperceptible nod of approval. "Whatever that thing is might be playing feeble now you've shown you can fight back but don't trust it for a second. Mark my words, boy. It'll wait for the moment when you are weakest, least able to defend yourself, and at that moment, it will strike."
Refenial slowly nodded.
"Now we've got that nasty business dealt with for the moment. Let's get onto the meat of scriptic magic."
She half closed her eyes as she focused. Next to them, the motes of mana that forever streamed into the old woman parted, leaving an empty space in the air.
A tiny whispy tendril of Hecate's soul reached out to the mana-free void and started forming a complex 3d weave of symbols in the same script he had seen upon the temple in his dreams, as well as carved into her soul.
"This is a spell form. If I take mana and pass it through the spell form, it will create the effect." She said as she worked.
Refenial looked at it with awe marvelling at its complexity. It was like writing, but unlike regular writing that only goes on a flat page, this had depths and layers as the symbols were subtly connected to the marks surrounding them in all directions.
"The thing that kills most who try to study true magic is that if you start grabbing mana, you can't stop until you connect the mana to a spell form. If you keep sucking up mana, then before you know it, boom. People are cleaning your blood off of the walls for weeks. That's not the only risk, though. If you bugger up the spell form, you can get all sorts of nasty things happening. If you're lucky, it'll just fizzle out. I once knew a hotheaded wizard who tried creating a more powerful fireball spell, cept when making the spell form; he messed up the positioning of where the ball was supposed to appear. The fireball appeared right inside his own skull. He didn't even have time to realize his mistake."
"I can learn to do this?" Refenial asked sceptically, making sure to speak slowly enough to not disturb his sight.
"Sure, if you study hard, in a couple decades, you'll be able to make some simple spell forms."
"If it takes that long, then what's the point? I thought this was going to help me now."
"It will, but first try grabbing the mana around us and moving it towards the spell form. Just remember, once you grab it, you can't let go until it connects to a spell form, and if you hold onto it for too long, you'll explode from the mana."
Refenial reached out with his mind towards the mana around. It felt as easy as breathing to begin bringing some motes towards him. He could understand why people died doing this. He might have tried to reach out when his soul's eyes first opened had it not been for Old Mother Hecate's warnings. More and more motes drifted towards him, although their number paled compared to the number being sucked in by Hecate's soul.
He then gently guided the mana towards the spell form, and with a gentle feeling of connection, Mana motes began to be sucked into the spell form, guided there by Refenial's will.
Refenial saw with his material eyes that a small orb of light manifested in the same place as the spell form, although its light was still much dimmer than the fires.
"That's the light spell. Most apprentices in scriptic magic learn it as their first spell. it's mostly harmless even if you mess it up." She pointed to two nearly identical symbols that sat next to each other. "Although if you muddle these the wrong way around, it also produces something called radiation. Seems fine at first, but that stuff has killed more than one apprentice that thought they'd mastered the spell."
The old woman paused for emphasis before continuing.
"Now, the reason I taught you true magic is because I can create the spell form to connect someone to systemic magic, but I can't get the mana, not without letting the spell keeping me from dying getting even weaker. Now you get what to do, I'll connect you. Let's go outside. I'd rather have more space for this."
Refenial closed his soul's eyes and stood. The pair headed outside to the village green. The mud had long since frozen, and now snow crunched under their feet as they walked. By the time they reached their destination, both were covered in a sprinkling of white from the flecks of snow and sleet that lazily fell from the sky.
[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]
Standing under the endless grey-white sky, they faced each other several feet apart. The air of the village was quiet as its residents huddled together in their homes.
Old Mother Hecate began to form her spell as Refenial quickly opened his soul's eyes.
The spell form she weaved was magnitudes of order more complicated than the one she had used for the light spell. A dense block of script over 25 feet across and just as deep hung above their heads.
"You could count on one hand the mortals who've mastered this spell," Hecate said with satisfaction. "Bring the mana, boy."
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Refenial began pulling the mana towards himself and connected to the spell form. More and more mana rushed towards it, and there was a gentle hum in the air, the snow above them that passed through the spell turning to rain by the time it reached them.
The mana continued to build more and more. The pair stood there for twenty minutes as the hum slowly got louder. Several villagers opened their doors or windows, curious, but quickly shut them again upon seeing the source and the unnatural rain that fell upon them despite the snow elsewhere.
Refenial began to feel warm from the heat of the spell.
"It's done," Hecate said
Suddenly there was a pulse of light in both the material and spiritual sights, and the spell form disappeared.
[Connecting, please stand by]
refenial saw the words appear before his mundane eyes floating in the same place in his vision as he looked around like the words were tattoed to his iris.
After a few moments, the message faded away.
[connection successful]
[weighing soul]
[error, multiple souls detected]
[attempting to determine primary soul]
[scanning souls]
[1/3]
[2/3]
[3/3]
[primary soul determined]
[weighing soul]
[standby]
[soul successfully weighed]
[generating title]
[generating status]
[Welcome to the system, remember if you have any queries, ask a certified system advisor, have a nice day]
As the last message faded from his sight, Refenial looked over to see Old Mother Hecate grinning.
"So, boy, have you checked your status yet?"
"How do I do that?"
"I forget I have to teach you every little thing, no initiative." She sighed. "Focus on the word Status, and it will appear."
Refenial did as she instructed, and a longer message appeared that he could scroll through with a thought, and he began to read.
[
Name: Refenial Crowchild
Age: 10/??/#non-interger error#
Title: Pied Piper
Rank: 1
Stats
Fate: 0
Charm: 0
Mana: 0
Reason: 0
Cunning: 0
Resilience: 0
Agility: 0
Power: 0
Free points: 1
Skills:
N/A
Powers:
Entrancing sound (0)
]
Refenial had so many questions, "Why is it saying my surname is Crowchild?"
"Oh," Old Mother Hecate said, looking slightly embarrassed.
"Well, That's my surname. Traditionally if an apprentice is an orphan, they are adopted by their master." The Old Mother said, looking a little uncomfortable.
"That's neither here nor there, boy. Focus and tell me your title." She said quickly, changing the subject.
"It says 'pied piper'."
"Not heard that one before. It doesn't sound brilliant, but it could be much worse. I knew a noble once who got the title 'dirty thief'. He could only rank it up after he gave up on washing and started knicking things."
"The system says I've got 3 different ages, and it also said I had 3 souls."
Hecate half closed her eyes as she slowly spoke. "That's odd. Give me a moment. It's been a while since I've tried this trick... there we go. I can see your status." The old woman paused as she read it over.
"Refenial, I think it's time we talked about this," Hecate said, her mouth downturned. "I've seen more souls than you've seen sunrises. Your soul, the person you are. That isn't the soul of a ten-year-old child."
"Then, what?" Refeenial asked, his brow wrinkled.
"Your soul, if I was to guess, was that of an adult human, probably male. That other thing that is inside your soul, I've never seen anything quite like it but some immortal souls are similar, though usually less creepy. The boy's soul, the soul of the body you inhabit, it's probably locked deep down in there under the surface with the other soul."
"Why don't I remember any of this? Who am I? That child's soul, whose body I've stolen..." Refenial's mind began to spin as he considered all the implications.
"I can't imagine it's having a fun time being locked in a cage with whatever that thing is inside you," Hecate said in a cool tone.
"Can't we do anything to help it? I've been here living my life, and he's in there being tortured by that thing for all we know!"
"I only know one sure way, and that is for you to die, but that'd release both the boy and the horror. I don't know what that thing'll do if it gets free, but most probably, a lot more people will die.
There might be other ways, but it isn't worth the risk of that thing getting free. It's like I told you before Don't be a hero, be smart. A hero would probably risk everything to free that boy's soul, fail and let that thing out of its cage, damning hundred, thousands, maybe more people to their deaths. A smart person knows the price of a child's soul is a pittance to pay to keep that thing locked away."
"Is that thing in my soul really that dangerous?"
"I'd kill you without a second thought if I knew that would stop the thing I saw from ever getting free." She said without a hint of compassion in her voice.
"What happens when I die, though? I won't live forever. No one does."
"Don't die. Maybe one day you'll learn the spell I have. Maybe you'll make it better, become a true immortal. Maybe you'll die in some stupid moment of heroic self-sacrifice; unleash that thing, and it'll kill everyone you were trying to save." Hecate closed her eyes, looking tired. "I'm an old woman, not a bloody Prophet."
The snow fell softly onto their damp shoulders as they both considered the conversation.
"Go get Obit, we need to connect him to the system too, and I'm not explaining how it works to you pair of idiots twice."
[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]
Refenial went to Obit's door and knocked, "Come in!" a man's voice called out. Refenial opened the door with a jolt as it stuck on the hard ground outside and slipped into the simple house.
The inside of the house was only marginally larger than Hecate's despite the number of people huddled there. Obit and his three brothers, sister and parents sat hugged up to one another next to the fire. Nearest to him was Alton, Obit's father, who had been willing to take Refenial in when he'd first arrived in the village.
"Refenial, have you come to see Obit again?" Alton asked warmly.
Obit looked up from the huddle with an excited expression.
"Sort of; Old Mother Hecate wants to see him."
Alton nodded, his face growing sombre. "Come outside with me for a moment. I want to talk with you."
Alton and Refenial stepped out into the snow leaving behind the warmth of the family abode.
Alton opened and closed his mouth several times before finally speaking, "The Old Mother came to the village when my Pa was a lad, about your age." His face shifted uncertainly. "We all knew she was something powerful, something dangerous, but she left us, folks of the village, well enough alone other than to trade, so we did the same in kind. You've probably spent more time with her than everyone in the village combined."
The man shifted on his feet restlessly. "I want what's best for my son, Obit. I know he's not cut out to be a farmer; head's too in the clouds. When he came back with that book, me and the wife, we were scared, scared of what'd happen to him if he disappointed the old mother, so we did what we could to help him. Then he starts getting lessons from her, and now he keeps talking about getting a titled by her. Like that's a normal thing to offer a farmer's son when there's nobles out there killin each other just for the chance. I've thought about taking my family and leaving more than once, but I see Obit so happy. I can't crush the boy's spirit. You're his friend and know the Old Mother better than anyone. Can you make me a promise that you'll do what you can to keep him safe?"
"I promise." Refenial said soberly, hoping he wouldn't later regret his words.
"You're a good lad. If things ever don't work out living with the Old Mother, remember you're always welcome at my door. Farmings hard work, but it's honest." Alton said as he gave Refenial a fatherly pat on the back. "Now, let's get that son of mine. I don't want to keep the Old Mother waiting."
[https://i.imgur.com/3vZaHAB.png]