Solomon inside of the car was still stupefied with Bessy at his side on the back trembling.
What could be the chances of someone being old as he is adopted? At the orphanage, he never saw someone older than eleven being adopted so he had abandoned all hopes, yet he was still in the car with his new parents going to their house to live with them as… family.
Family. Such a strong and fabled word makes Solomon giddy about finally having one after such a long time of yearning for one, now he just needs to find the person that dropped him in the orphanage.
Although he still hasn’t the courage to call Mister Jesse and Miss Tessa… father and mother, he will do his best to one day call them that.
While he was stupidly smiling, feeling happy for being alive for the first time after encountering the sad reality of Kuntha.
Jesse said without looking back to Solomon as buildings quickly passed by the car’s windows. “Solomon, we will call you of Sol, okay? It will be easier for us and you can call us papa and mama whenever you feel comfortable with us.”
“It is fine Mister Jesse, but I don’t think I can call you two of father and mother yet. It is… embarrassing? I don’t know well how to explain how I am feeling right now.” Solomon scratched his cheeks, also looking at the buildings to hide his shyness.
“We will patiently wait for that.” Jesse laughed. “And aren’t your ghost friend quite special? In my and Tessa’s presence, she is still only trembling instead of becoming a slave. You know well how to make friends, I’m happy for you.”
“And she’s beautiful too. You’re such a lucky man, my son. It’s rare for someone like us to find such a powerful and friendly ghost, later you should tell me how you did do that.” Tessa said in the driver's seat.
Solomon’s merry mood finally disappeared as he finally noticed Bessy’s state and that maybe his new parents didn’t adopt him for the reasons he thought earlier.
He held Bessy’s hand to calm her down and said. “Can you two also see ghosts?”
“Of course we can, silly boy. In the practice of our arts that we hope to you also learn, it is a must-have ability although it is an ability we learn, not born with. And different from us, you can touch and even temporally give substance to a ghost body. Your talent for our art must be really big, but don’t worry.
“We didn’t adopt you only because of that, we just wanted a child to shower with love and you showed up as the most promising one to maybe learn our arts. It’s all just an enormous coincidence.” Tessa stopped the car at a black average-looking building, a usual crystal at its door but green.
Solomon’s puzzled face made Jesse curse at his wife never explaining anything right. “You will see what we are talking about soon, and about your talent, didn’t you think it is strange for an incorporeal ghost still be inside of the car after it started moving without her accompanying us? By touching you, she temporally became a true existence and lost her incorporeal trace, having weight to sit on the backseat. This is an ability no even us have.”
Solomon looked at Bessy, she had another hand on his shoulder and he questioned himself if they could also hear Asmo, but the arrogant voice became silent since his new parents came so he will have to test that later.
Tessa opened the house’s door with a smile. “This will be your new home from now on.”
With his bags in his hands, Solomon entered his new home in tow with Bessy, not expecting what he saw.
As soon as he entered, space rippled and he found himself in a place completely impossible to exit beyond that normal door.
A dark green moon hung on a cloudless sky, beneath it there was an ebony castle with nine spike towers releasing pressure as mighty putrid beasts flew around it.
What seemed to be a graveyard full of walking dead bodies and tombs surrounded the whole area too.
The soil was mushy and it was possible to see dead hands growing from it together with an ever-present chilling mist that hid some other parts of his new home.
Solomon put his free hand over his eyes and took a deep breath to calm down as he does in his dreams, before looking at the scenario once again and at the smiling face of his parents waiting for him to say his impressions about his new home. “It really is… a unique place. The moon is beautiful albeit that color is impossible, although I shouldn’t complain since having a moon after passing a house’s door is also impossible.”
His first urge was to flee but he accepted the risk his parents would be weird after adoption, and their genuine anticipation didn’t make it easier for him to comment on his real opinion about living in such a place.
Tessa bumped Jesse in happiness. “Didn’t I tell you he would like it? Taking twenty years to refine that moon was worthy of every soul I lost doing that.”
“Wait until he sees our pets, oh, one of them is already coming here to greet us,” Jesse all proud said.
Solomon heard an air-tearing sound before a monstrosity he saw many times in his dreams surged at his front. It was completely made of shining white bones of different monsters but arranged in an orderly form to make a draconic shape. On its bone skull, it had two green floating spheres to show the state of its soul more than to serve as eyes.
It was a Skull Dragon that walked on its four paws.
It opened wide its bone wings before roaring at Solomon’s head, an air of pure putridity mixed with magic reached Solomon, making his hair and Bessy fly around. The ghost woman had to strongly grab Solomon to not be blown away for several meters.
It wasn’t that Solomon was courageous that he remained unfazed but he already got bored of Skull Dragons roaring at him in his dreams and his impression of this Skull Dragon was mediocre at best. “Is your pet sick? Its roar seems weak.”
“Oh my, Jesse did you remember to get food to her?” Tessa said while petting the beast and ordering it to go away after it meowed.
“I did, unless… could be your niece stole Skully’s food while we were away?” Jesse was impressed with Solomon’s fortitude, even Jesse himself when younger wouldn’t stay so calm near a high-leveled Skull Dragon.
“That brat! She thinks she can do anything, she was too spoiled by Brother.” Tessa scowled before snapping her fingers and a green spell formation with runic images appeared above her to make a small butler with purple skin, horns, a tail, and a monocle appear. “Setibasan, reduce the wager of my niece.”
The small butler nodded and took a piece of paper and pen from nowhere to record his mistress’ orders.
Solomon immediately recognized the small creature in a formal suit, it was an Imp, a weak demon that to survive is obliged to receive orders from others to not become food. Its weaknesses that Solomon remembered were positive energy and simple water.
Of course, beheading and dismemberment also worked in this weakling.
I think becoming a demon encyclopedia isn’t good for my mental health.
“Mistress, I assume that boy is the child you decided to adopt. So can I stash away those documents?” Seti asked.
“Yes, you can even burn them.” Tessa looked at Solomon and said. “Those documents I am talking about are the information about the other children we were thinking of adopting, we were going to all the orphanages in the Empire to find our new son or daughter.”
“Miss Tessa, why did really you choose me instead of the others?” Solomon wanted to his new parents to be honest with him.
“There were several reasons and as I said earlier it was all a big coincidence. But the principal ones if you really want to know how I and my husband think, it was because you would have more chance of adapting to this space, our home. Did you feel anything since you entered here?”
“Hmm… no?” Solomon checked his body.
“If this is was another person than you entering here, that person would be melting or at least get knocked out unconscious by the energy here and you no even blinked when Skully roared at you, your talent to our art is big or at least is similar to what you are talented at considering that book you were reading earlier.”
“Excuse me?”
“Did you not know? The grimoire you were reading has the same nature as what we, necromancers, do. Can I see it for a second?”
Solomon tried hard to remind of the term “necromancer” but nothing came to his mind, so he just gave the Lemegeton to Tessa while she looked curiously at his signet ring.
“Wow, this is all in a very antique runic language. How could you read so calmly this? I can only recognize some words.” Tessa’s appreciation for her new son just grew as she discovers more about him. “Let me see… yes, this has some information about demons, this is for sure another branch of our magic, Dark Magic, that comes from the underworld. Since it comes from your signet ring, can I assume this is a family heritage?” She passed it to Jesse read it.
“I think so.”
“Then you won’t have much problem learning our magic and dealing with your friendly ghost,” Tessa said with a smile that creeped out Solomon.
Solomon quickly got Bessy behind him, his first reaction was to protect the only true friend he had since a child and despite always telling her to go away, he appreciates her presence for being so important to him endure all the years of bullying.
Jessed nodded in praise of Solomon’s actions and scolded his wife. “Why can’t you ever explain things right? Look at him, because of you he thinks we are going to hurt his friend. Your score as a parent is a pretty round 0/10. Only you to make your son already hate you on the first day.”
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Tessa was trembling and with tears in her eyes from thinking of how her bad habit made her son hate her.
“Miss Tessa, I don’t hate you. I just misunderstood the word you just said. Please don’t cry, it’s my fault anyway.” Solomon felt guilty and tried to appease his new mother, she looked too pitiful…
After some moments, Tessa calmed down and Solomon’s image of his new parents received a revision, he thought at first they were prideful and pompous but actually, they were quite cute with Tessa crying at making a mistake while talking with her son and how Jesse awkwardly tried to wipe her tears.
“Sol, let me end the misunderstanding.” Jesse gave back the Lemegeton to Solomon. “Your friend ghost is feeling fear of us and this space because she is currently still a normal ghost. Thanks to the nature of this place and our powers, they constantly make pressure on her to disappear or become a slave.
“You need to do something to deal with her discomfort. You don’t want to peacefully live here while your friend is suffering, right?” Jesse’s only eye seemed to shine in a testing manner. “To do it you need to learn necromancy from us, even if it means you will have to see dead bodies every day. Of course, you also have the option of letting her go after we erase the memory in her soul, we can’t have someone alive or not that knows about our home, after all.”
Solomon struggled in his heart, this necromancy thing didn’t seem good since it involved using dead bodies. He wouldn’t care much about being always near zombies because of his dreams but using magic to create more of them? “Mister Jesse, to use this necromancy of yours, will I need to kill people to train it?”
Jesse shook his hands. “No, no, no, we wouldn’t make our son become a murderer if he doesn’t want to, and we only kill when necessary to protect our home and family since the Purge some millenniums ago.
“We never go after innocent people to use our magic on, it sets a bad record on the general opinion and also makes it hard to get decent pay jobs. And if you are hesitant about using Dark Magic, remember this family heritage you have is also Dark Magic, so your biological parents also expected you to learn Dark Magic, the only bad thing about it is that it is from the underworld in all honesty, as always weapons “evil or good” depend on who use them rather than their nature.”
Solomon looked at the book and then at the graveyard full of zombies, he switched between them until he saw Bessy’s worried face. “Fine, I will learn necromancy only if Bessy still wants to follow me. I will feel bad later if I give up on my friend just because of some dead bodies.” He turned to her. “Do you still want to live with me? I’m certain you can relieve your boredom in other ways than being near me and having something made to your soul.”
“Just do the thing you need to do already, my head is hurting just like when I still had a brain,” Bessy said without looking at Solomon. “And I had become too attached to you to leave you in this unfamiliar environment without me.”
“Then it’s settled. Let’s just put your things in your room before teaching you necromancy.” Jesse clapped his hands and guided the way to the castle.
The zombies and various rotten monsters amicably greeted Solomon and Bessy, all of them seemed to have a degree of intelligence that the Lemegeton said they wouldn’t have.
“Are you curious about how intelligent they are?” Tessa said with a tinge of pride in her voice. “It’s because we carefully select and nurture our creations, principally Jesse that makes his own zombies from the scratch, later you will understand how many paths necromancy has. If you so wish, it is even possible to reach the peak of necromancy without raising any zombie though I don’t expect you to do so.”
When Solomon reached the castle’s open doors there was an old man with garments mimicking the earlier Imp but with a walking stick to help him walk. “Tessa and Jesse, is that one the child that you chose or just some random child you decided to save on the way? Either way, I need to record him and also the ghost if it won’t become a zombie to my master.”
“Jord, he is our new son, Solomon, and the ghost is going to become his spirit guardian, tell that old hag I don't want her near my son. She is a terrible influence on his education, even more than Ibyr.” Jesse said with a glare to a hidden shadow within the castle that seemed to have scarlet eyes.
“I will be sure to relate that,” Jord said. “What degree of authorization should I give to them?”
“Total, with the exception they can’t go to the sealed dungeon where those two are or to Isabel’s place.”
***
After Solomon dumped his bags in his new room that just had a bed, wardrobe, and a table for studying, he with Bessy went to the place where he will learn necromancy.
Jord guided them there while Jesse and Tessa prepared the place, the stairs seemed endless and the house’s bricks were somehow comforting to Solomon’s tired mind.
They soon reached the training place, and it turned out to be an enormous empty room within the castle with some spell formations in form of pentagrams mixed with runes meaning amplification, protection, and recast spread through the room.
“Sol, since you already can see souls and ghosts, we will start necromancy with you branding your friend with your magic signature to her not be uncomfortable here and have a link to this world beyond her grudges or regrets. The word “branding” can make this process look nasty but it is just the word our ancestors gave to it because of how we treat random souls.” Tessa said with her wand in her hands.
All people in the world have their own unique magic signature that serves to identify someone and make an ID. Solomon wasn’t an adult yet so he doesn’t know how to make his own signature. “How I am going to do that? I’m just fifteen years old.”
“The process is simple if you use base magic, like necromancy, as the foundation. First, enter the spell formation.”
Solomon obeyed her and felt his magic momentarily getting out of control, remembering Asmo’s training and also the basic lessons of his school, he imagined his magic with a malleable form or at least physic form.
He thought of his magic as an ever-flowing river inside of him, the river normally calm would get agitated to accomplish his objectives as it passes for certain points of his body. He locked and opened spaces inside of his inner body to calm the river by forcing it to flow in certain patterns similar to an infinite circle.
Soon the river became normal once again and even more powerful for some reason.
“Sol, with this control of magic how did you not become the best student in your class? I received your grades from the orphanage and can’t understand why.” Jesse asked, looking at the perfect silver flow of magic outside of Solomon’s body.
“It was because I don’t have a good memory. To control any basic element or use simple force magic, you need to remember a good amount of chants and spell formations as they serve to control magic more efficiently. And outside of runic language and my books’ knowledge, those things don’t stay in my head.” Solomon stammered in having his parents know his bad grades.
“So it’s more a memory problem than of intelligence or comprehension? Then to teach you necromancy we will use the old ways, they are harder to master but they don’t depend on complex memorization like knowing how to code the spell formations.” Tessa gave Solomon a sigil, an inscribed symbol, with a dead hand of a monster as the foundation.
Solomon for his surprise didn’t feel disgusted by feeling the putrid hand and rottenness within it, he just wished it was less smelly.
Tessa said. “We used this spell formation to increase your magic since despite your talents, your magic is quite low. To control undead or anything related to necromancy you need to have a good amount of magic, now that your new magic is stabilized within you, we need to mutate it to it be able to use Dark Magic and connect with the underworld, if you are lucky you will even connect with the God down there to make Dark Magic easier.”
Tessa used half an hour to finally make Solomon be capable of absorbing the hand to use it as a sacrifice and ordered him. “Now chant what it is written in this paper.”
As Solomon began the simple chant he felt something inside of him changing and the dead hand melting on his own hands until a dark green symbol with several arrows was what remained on his hand, and even that disappeared when unknown energy penetrated his body.
“Congratulations, Sol. You’re now a necromancer, since you used the old ways you won’t need to learn any spell formation but to progress in necromancy you will need to pass through various rituals like this which you will have to absorb things thick with Dark Magic. Now let me teach you how to brand a soul to you, normally this makes them act like slaves but because she is your friend, I will teach you a brand that only makes the link to this world without touching any part of her free will.”
Tessa showed to him another simple chant thanks to his bad memory and demonstrated to him the inner workings of how his magic must flow to the spell, realizable magic, work.
Solomon after learning, chanted while touching Bessy’s hands as he controlled his magic to not reach any important part of her soul’s body.
Bessy shone as her transparency disappeared and Solomon’s magic signature of arrows appeared on her hands, she was still pale as ever but now she could freely touch other things and switch to being transparent whenever she wants.
Even more proper clothes appeared on her body, a long dress, pendants, and earrings too.
The world now recognized her as a being that existed after receiving Solomon’s magic signature to prove it.
“So much better, I feel even relaxed here.” Bessy gave a sigh of relief and analyzed the signature in her hands with a smile, her hair color was the same as all ghosts still but it was easy now to notice it was wavy. “Thank you, Sol.”
“Sol, sorry to end with the merry mood but we need to know your opinion about where should you study now,” Jesse said with flyers in hands. “You won’t go back to your old school, right? I heard you were bullied there and their quality isn’t up to our standards.”
“Wouldn’t that cause problem for you? I think I still have a scholarship there.” Solomon didn’t want his new parents to go through the hurdle of paying his scholarship.
“Bullshit. We are richer than this stupid, weak country because of Isabel. We can buy your way into any school, giving you a better education won’t ever be a problem for us. So what school do you want? The necromancer school in the underworld,” Jesse showed a flyer reeking death with zombies wailing on it, “or the Imperial Magic School of that Dragon Empress.” He showed a flyer with flying dragons and gold on it.
Who is this Isabel I hear a lot about? Solomon also wondered if his father never heard about the term illusion of choice. “Those are the only ones? I will feel out of place in both of them.”
“Yes, but they are the only ones we can accept that a son of ours can go, unless,” Jessed paused to think. “How do you feel about joining a military school?”
“I will go to the Imperial School.” Solomon resigned himself to his fate of for sure being bullied there for not being as smart or powerful the other students who are part of the nobility, by what he heard even the princes and princesses of the Empire go study there.
“Good. The calendar of the Imperial School is different of your previous school so you will begin two months from now on in the first year together with your peers, until then we will teach you more necromancy and basic magic.”
Tessa made a signal unknown to Solomon. “It’s getting later, you should be hungry by now. Let’s eat before continuing training.”
A snake came from the door carrying a tray of biscuits by magic above its head. “Guys, you have a child now, right? Isabel told me children love biscuits so I brought some.” The talking snake, Monty the Python, a pet of Isabel said.
“That’s lovely, Monty-”
Tessa heard a scream and turned around to see Solomon hiding behind Bessy with a panic-stricken face and tears almost falling.
Everyone in the room with exception of Bessy was stunned.
The boy that remained unfazed by a powerful Skull Dragon was trembling as soon as a cute talking snake appeared.
“... Am I that scary?” Monty the Python meekly asked.
Solomon strongly hugged Bessy and averted his eyes.
Bessy sighed and saw the necessity of an explanation. “Sol has an illogical fear of snakes since a baby, even training didn’t make this fear disappear. But only the snake isn’t enough to him be like this. It’s because the snake is also carrying biscuits, he has an allergy from something in biscuits and he almost died in the first time he ate one.”
“So would he endure being near Monty without the biscuits?” Tessa worriedly asked.
“Most likely, he wouldn’t touch it or be happy near the snake but he wouldn’t be this deplorable.”
“So we just-”
“Oh, I forgot. Solomon also developed something Olivia called partial Neophobia for food because of the biscuits that almost killed him, making him fear that the next new food will kill him, so it is really hard to make him experiment new food, it would be best for you guys prepare for some time the same food he had at the orphanage before he ate the fateful biscuits. He can seem a teenager but is just a handful child.”
Tessa and Jesse had only one thought in their heads as they received a headache. “Being a parent is harder than I thought.” And Jesse especially thought. “So this is why Ibyr is so spoiled, it’s easier to just give what the child wants.”