Chapter 1: The Book of Decadence
Deidra fell for so long she was beginning to suffocate.
“Maybe the pit goes on forever?” she thought curiously. Even though she was plummeting to her death she still was calm.
“This is for the best,” she sighed. Once she hit the ground she would no longer have to worry about anything. Her mind drifted to thoughts of her life. She tried to think of all the happy moments, but she couldn’t think of anything. Her entire life was a waste. It was filled with nothing but misery.
As depressing thoughts went through her head, a change in the air woke her out of her reverie. She turned in the sky to gaze at the expanse below her. A large pile of corpses and skeletons, stacked hundreds of feet into the air, laid below her. She was about to collide into them. She closed her eyes.
She smacked into the tower and felt excruciating pain before the life faded from her eyes. She died instantly. Her corpse rolled down the mountain of bodies for hours. It miraculously avoided getting stuck as it made its way down, deeper into the pit. Her body picked up speed before bumping into a skull. It went soaring through the air before smacking into a wall. Her body slid down it, ending up in a location far away from any other corpses.
Deidra’s body landed on top of a thick, dusty book. Her blood poured onto it, drenching it completely.
After sitting in the darkness her body turned greenish-black. Her skin became marbled as the blood vessels began breaking down. Fluids drained from her eyes and nose, seeping into the soil and the book below.
After an unknown length of time, insects located her body. They crawled through and ate away at her remaining flesh, turning her body into a skeleton.
It was at this point that the book, miraculously intact, shone. A baleful aura was released from it that seeped into Deidra’s bones. Deidra’s skeleton trembled. Tendons and organs were created from nothingness. Skin grew back and covered her body once more. An evil presence permeated through her newly created flesh.
The body raised a hand to its face.
“How am I still alive?” Deidra thought bewildered. All she remembered was smacking into the ground. The next thing she knew, she was here, completely free from pain.
She rose to her feet, stepping on the fluid-stained book in the process. She picked it up. The words on the cover were scribbled in an archaic language but she instinctively knew what it said.
“The Book of Decadence,” she breathed. The book filled her with mixed emotions. She felt a deep fear for the book, but at the same time she felt a deep attachment to it.
“Am I alive because of this book?”
She heard of the magical treasures contained in the world of Aeron. She knew this book must be one of them. She could think of no other reason as to how she survived the fall.
She opened the book and turned to the inside cover. The following words made her shudder:
Book 1: Summoning
Book 2: Bones
Book 3: Pain
Book 4: Siphoning
Book 5: Disease
“There are more?” she wondered, knitting her eyebrows. After thinking for a moment she turned back to the cover. At the very bottom she noticed a “1” engraved on the book. She owned the first of the series.
She flipped to the first page and read the words:
“There are six elements of magic,” the book opened, “Water, fire, wind, earth, light, and darkness. At least that’s what people think.”
Deidra frowned, “What is the book talking about? There are more than six elements?” Even though she never met a mage in her life, the basics of magic were common knowledge.
“There are forbidden types of magic too,” the book continued, “Magic so powerful and so deadly that it was outlawed by the gods. The elements of blood, death, and life.”
“This book is one of the few remaining that teach these dark arts. Once you have bound the book you will walk down a path of power. None will stand in your way. They call us heretics but they are afraid of our might. Read carefully and the world will be yours to control.”
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Deidra sighed before closing the book. She didn’t want to control the world. All she wanted right now was to die. She set the book aside. She was tired.
She walked around the mountain of corpses, searching for an object. After looking around for a while she finally found a rusty dagger. She immediately plunged it into her chest.
“Just as I thought. It doesn’t hurt,” Deidra exhaled. No blood poured from the wound. After a few seconds it closed. She changed her grip on the weapon and slammed it into her head. Her consciousness didn’t even fade. She was immortal.
With a tired sigh, she began walking around the pit, trying to find a way out. After searching for weeks she gave up. There was no escape.
“What do I do now then?” she pondered, “Do I just sit here?”
She closed her eyes and sat against the wall of the cavern. She would lay there until she died.
Deidra sat unmoving for a month. Dust covered her body. Eventually, her eyes snapped opened.
“I can’t die of starvation either,” she concluded. After a month she didn’t even felt a trace of hunger. She couldn’t even sleep. Instead, she went into a strange state of awareness, not really asleep, but not really awake either.
The world truly was cruel. She wanted nothing more than to die, yet the world wouldn’t even allow that. Maybe the book would have the answers she was seeking. She flipped through it. The book contained very detailed explanations on how to summon and control the dead. There was nothing about ending her life though.
After a moment of hesitation she brought her dagger to the book. She stabbed at it, only to have the dagger deflect off of it. She groaned inwardly. How could she expect her dagger to destroy a magical artifact?
She was running out of ideas. Maybe magic could kill her, but she didn’t know any. The magic contained in the Book of Decadence was all summoning magic. There was nothing directly offensive.
Deidra sat down and pulled out the Book of Decadence.
“At least I have something to read,” she mused. The book explained that only someone with very strong death element could bind with the grimoire in the first place, so she didn’t have to worry about lacking talent.
The first chapter explained the importance of being able to sense the element of death. Luckily for Deidra, she was surrounded by it. Thanks to the book, the stench of the dead didn’t bother her at all. She grasped the concept quickly. With just a thought she could sense any dead bodies in the vicinity. According to her calculations, there were approximately a hundred-thousand skeletons sitting inside of the pit. For some reason, none of them completely decomposed.
Deidra read further. According to the book, after being able to sense death, one could begin to control it. There were two paths. She could attempt to summon and control the undead that existed in other planes, or she could inject her magic into corpses and control them that way.
Conjuring the dead from other dimensions was risky as you could end up summoning something beyond your strength to control. On the other hand, summons were usually stronger than the undead that were made from existing corpses.
After some thought, Deidra decided she would follow the second route. There was already a large amount of dead bodies in front of her. She might as well take advantage of the situation.
She paused. It was bizarre how the vast amount of corpses didn’t disturb her. Was this another effect of the book? She shook her head. It wasn’t important.
Deidra walked around to the body pile. The book said that the fresher the corpse, the better and stronger the undead would be. She decided to start with one that had been rotting for a long period of time. That way, if she lost control of it, she believed she would be able to fight back. Not that it could kill her anyways.
After searching for a while she found what she was looking for. A skeleton with no discernible age or gender. The bones were brown from sitting in the dirt for so long.
Deidra took a deep breath. She gathered the death elements at her fingertips. With a thought, they coursed from her fingertips and began making their way towards the bones. They covered the skeleton in a malignant aura.
She concentrated on the task for two hours, but in the end nothing happened.
“Why didn’t it work?” she thought, puzzled. She turned back towards the book.
”Oh!” she exclaimed in understanding, “I didn’t see that part.” She was missing an important aspect of the ritual. Emotion. The Book of Decadence explained that strong emotions were needed to make the revival a success.
Deidra was puzzled. What emotion should she use? She wasn’t happy. She wasn’t sad either. She felt nothing inside.
After lapsing into thought, an emotion rose to the surface. Hate.
She grit her teeth. That’s right. Hate was an emotion she hadn’t allowed herself to feel in ages. Hate towards Gregor and towards Martha. Hate towards the world.
She trembled in rage and injected her magic into the skeleton once more. This time it reacted instantly. The bones shook and vibrated with great intensity. The magic changed the skeleton, turning it from a faded brown to a brilliant white. The skeleton’s limbs were connected by magic. In an instant the ceremony was complete.
The skeleton immediately knelt on one knee, head bowed in subservience. Deidra was satisfied, but felt fatigued, a feeling she hadn’t experienced since she was revived.
“I’m too weak,” Deidra muttered. Just awakening one measly undead made her this tired. Luckily, the book told her the phenomenon would not last. The more she used her magic, the stronger she would grow.
Deidra looked up towards the sky, the pit loomed above her. An idea formed in her mind. She knew how she could get out.
Magic swirled at her fingertips once more. She would continue her practice until her plan could come to fruition.
That’s exactly what she did. For three years without rest Deidra practiced her magic. Her control over the element of death grew at an exponential rate. There was one side effect though. Her state of mind. Hate filled her thoughts every second of the day for the three years she practiced her magic. The desire for vengeance began to permeate her very being.
“As soon I get out of here you’ll pay!” a sixteen-year-old Deidra swore. Her desire for vengeance didn’t extend just towards Gregor and Martha, but towards the very world itself.