Witchwood Graveyard
30th Cylus, 718
30th Cylus, 718
Witchwood graveyard was always a creepy place to visit in the dead of night. Though it had a sombre, respectful aura in the daylight, darkness had a way of stretching the branches of the trees into thin, sinister hands, and perverting the shadows cast by moonlight into bottomless pits. It was easy to see why honest folk wouldn't step foot in there if it could be avoid, let alone show the dead set to rest any disrespect.
But there were some kinds of lowlives who made a trip to Witchwood every so often. Graverobbers, murderers, and perhaps worst of all; necromancers. What better place was there for people who dealt in death to work than a graveyard after all?
Which was why Tio was there tonight, shovel in hand and with his new apprentice Tasha in tow. In the coming seasons he was going to have need for a lot of bodies: Tasha would need some for her initiation and basic training, the experiments he was conducting following VonDwight’s research notes needed some test subjects, and he himself needed to work on controlling multiple thralls at once. Therefor he'd decided that the very first lesson he was going to teach Tasha was how to dig up a grave. It was unpleasant, dirty business for sure, but it would help Tasha to get used to handling corpses and understand that magic was not as glamorous as some people made it out to be. A necromancer who couldn't procure their own thralls was a poor one after all.
“Alright Blondiepop, let me begin this lesson with an introduction to the fundamentals of necromancy.” Tio said with a good cheer that contrasted sharply with the gloomy setting, like a character from a bright painting slapped blindly onto a bleak one. “All magic begins with one thing, a source of power popularly known among us mages as the ‘Spark'. A spark is like an etherial seed, a flicker of power within the spiritual world. I find it helps to think of them like trees, with the ground they are planted in being a person’s soul.”
“The initiation process begins when a master plucks a fruit from their own tree and transfers it over to the apprentice, burying that fruit into the soil of their soul. In the beginning the fruit will be small, but as the mage uses it that tree starts to sprout, growing bigger and stronger as it digs its roots further in. Before long it will be big enough to bear fruit of its own, yet still will be able to grow larger and larger as long as it is properly fed.”
Tasha nodded in understanding, taking in the explanation seemingly without any hint of difficulty. “So if the spark is a growing tree and the soul a field, what is the nutrient within the soul it must feed upon?”
Tio grinned, proud of how quick she was to pick these things up. Tasha truly was born to be a mage. “Aha, excellent question! The spark is fed by that which fuels all magic: a power we know as ether. In truth mages have searched since the dawn of our time for answers on what ether actually is, but few answers have been found. All souls are connected slightly to a dimension of raw power and chaos we call emea, and though we know very little of emea itself, we do know that every soul is able to draw out a little bit of power from emea from their soul. When a spark is introduced it feeds on that ether, and when a mage practises using magic they increase the amount of ether they can draw out of emea, thus giving the spark the fuel it needs to create magical feats and allowing the spark to support itself at a larger size. I'll show you what I mean in a second, but first you need to do some digging.”
Tasha raised a single eyebrow and tried to maintain a collected facade, but the slightest downturn of the corner of her mouth betrayed her. “I need to do some digging? Are you not going to help?”
Tio grinned a cheshire grin and sat down on the stump of a fallen tree, dropping his spade on the ground nearby as he raised his arms back to cradle his head. “Nope. Why would I when I have an apprentice to do all the work for me? Doing the unpleasant jobs on the master’s behalf is all part of the learning process after all.”
There was a flash of indignation in Tasha’s eyes for a moment, but to her credit she stifled her protest and got to work without another complaint. She began the arduous process of shoveling the grave dirt in front of one of the tombstones into a pile to the side, and a peaceful silence, broken only by the rhythmic crunch of soil being scooped up and thrown, settled in. Tio took the opportunity to sit back, relax and stare up at the moon above as Tasha struggled with her digging.
Eventually though the sound of shoveling was broken by the thunk of metal on wood, and Tio got up and walked over to the dug-up grave as Tasha cleared away some dirt to reveal a coffin. Tasha wedged the tip of her shovel into the lid of the coffin, and the two of them pushed down on the handle to lever it open, revealing the half-rotten corpse of a plain, middle aged woman inside of it dressed in noble garbs.
Tasha leaned back at little as the smell of decay washed over them, repulsed but unwilling to show weakness. Tio however smirked again as he stepped closer to examine it. “Looks like we've found the coffin of nobility. Well everyone's the same in death, she'll do just as well as anyone. Although…”
Tio reached out and took hold of the corpse’s hand, which had a peculiar ring wrapped around one finger. It was a simple band of silver, engraved with runes that seemed like some old form of ancient language. Gently Tio prised it off the wrinkled hand and held it up to the moonlight. “Looks like you've dug up something pretty interesting here. Here, take a look.”
Tio held it out to her, and was surprised when Tasha visibly flinched away. Now that he looked at her he could see that Tasha’s face had paled slightly, as if she was a little queazy. Whoops, he should have seen this coming. As much of a natural as she was anyone would be sick when confronted with a badly rotted body, even a trained doctor. He'd been wrong to assume that because she didn't seem distressed the task hadn't distrurbed her.
“Sorry Tasha, my bad. I shouldn't have-… why don't you go sit down by the tree, get some fresh air?” He said apologetically. “Do you want the ring? We can give it a clean first.”
“No, no thank you.” Tasha replied in slightly clipped tones as she stepped out of the grave and went to sit down. “I never cared much for trinkets, and even if I did I don't need to scrounge jewelry of the dead. You can have it; silver is your colour anyway. Think of it as a payment for the lesson.”
Tio gave an over enthusiastic bow. “Why thank you my lady,” he teased in a bad imitation of a Rynmerian butler. “I shall treasure this gift forever.” Tasha’s face lifted up a little into a light smile, which he took to mean that there was no hard feelings about the nausea.
“Anywho, back to the lesson!” Tio exclaimed, hopping out of the grave. “Each spark of magic is like a different sort tree; they all have different properties. The necromancy spark has a variety of powers, but its main one is the power to puppeteer a soulless body, namely a corpse, into moving to its host’s will. Observe!”
Tio held his hand out towards to corpse, like a puppeteer preparing to put on a performance. “First of all I use my mind to dig down into my soul and call upon my spark. My spark is fed ether, and in exchange it forms strings of ether connecting to the corpse, providing it the energy with which to move and…”
The corpse’s hand twitched, and then with a jolting movement the body suddenly sat up as if a bolt of lightning had passed through it. With unsteady balance, as if using its legs for the very first time, the corpse pulled itself to its feet, and stared forwards blankly at Tio.
“Voila! One undead minion!” Tio announced triumphantly.
“My word, it's-... fascinating!” Tasha exclaimed, her nausea forgotten as she dashed forwards as fast as she could without looking undignified and examined it. “So this is an undead… It looks almost alive.”
Tio couldn't help but smile in pride at the eagerness Tasha displayed. A born necromancer indeed! Most women of her background would run away screaming at the sight of an undead thrall, but Tasha looked like a scientist that'd just discovered a breakthrough in their favourite subject. “It is an imitation of life, but nothing much more. A word to the wise though, never animate more thralls than you can handle. Undead all hunger for the life they do not have, and are only kept from acting on this hunger by the strength of the necromancer’s will. Spread that will too thinly and you'll no longer be able to keep them in check, and if that happens they'll turn on you without a second thought…”
Tio trailed off slightly as he noticed the strange look in Tasha’s eyes. She was staring into the lifeless eyes of the thrall with an unusual intensity, as if something she desperately wanted to see lay just behind them but she couldn't quite make it out. It was… a little concerning actually. Something about that look sent a tiny chill running down his spine, but Tio pushed the unease to the back of his mind. It was just a sign of her talent, a show of her dedication to the art. Nothing to worry himself over.
“Anywho that's enough demonstrating. Let's get back to work Blondiepop.” He announced, secretly relieved when his words snapped Tasha out of her stare and back to the present. “We'll need a thrall for your initiation and for you to practice with afterwards, so from now on this one will be yours. But we'll still need bodies for some other experiments, so let's get back to digging.”
“Yes sir.” Tasha replied, seeming just a little more keen to get to work than she had been the first time. She picked up her spade and started digging into the ground in front of the next headstone, and Tio did his best to forget about that strange look.
Nothing to worry about Tio. Nothing to worry about...
But there were some kinds of lowlives who made a trip to Witchwood every so often. Graverobbers, murderers, and perhaps worst of all; necromancers. What better place was there for people who dealt in death to work than a graveyard after all?
Which was why Tio was there tonight, shovel in hand and with his new apprentice Tasha in tow. In the coming seasons he was going to have need for a lot of bodies: Tasha would need some for her initiation and basic training, the experiments he was conducting following VonDwight’s research notes needed some test subjects, and he himself needed to work on controlling multiple thralls at once. Therefor he'd decided that the very first lesson he was going to teach Tasha was how to dig up a grave. It was unpleasant, dirty business for sure, but it would help Tasha to get used to handling corpses and understand that magic was not as glamorous as some people made it out to be. A necromancer who couldn't procure their own thralls was a poor one after all.
“Alright Blondiepop, let me begin this lesson with an introduction to the fundamentals of necromancy.” Tio said with a good cheer that contrasted sharply with the gloomy setting, like a character from a bright painting slapped blindly onto a bleak one. “All magic begins with one thing, a source of power popularly known among us mages as the ‘Spark'. A spark is like an etherial seed, a flicker of power within the spiritual world. I find it helps to think of them like trees, with the ground they are planted in being a person’s soul.”
“The initiation process begins when a master plucks a fruit from their own tree and transfers it over to the apprentice, burying that fruit into the soil of their soul. In the beginning the fruit will be small, but as the mage uses it that tree starts to sprout, growing bigger and stronger as it digs its roots further in. Before long it will be big enough to bear fruit of its own, yet still will be able to grow larger and larger as long as it is properly fed.”
Tasha nodded in understanding, taking in the explanation seemingly without any hint of difficulty. “So if the spark is a growing tree and the soul a field, what is the nutrient within the soul it must feed upon?”
Tio grinned, proud of how quick she was to pick these things up. Tasha truly was born to be a mage. “Aha, excellent question! The spark is fed by that which fuels all magic: a power we know as ether. In truth mages have searched since the dawn of our time for answers on what ether actually is, but few answers have been found. All souls are connected slightly to a dimension of raw power and chaos we call emea, and though we know very little of emea itself, we do know that every soul is able to draw out a little bit of power from emea from their soul. When a spark is introduced it feeds on that ether, and when a mage practises using magic they increase the amount of ether they can draw out of emea, thus giving the spark the fuel it needs to create magical feats and allowing the spark to support itself at a larger size. I'll show you what I mean in a second, but first you need to do some digging.”
Tasha raised a single eyebrow and tried to maintain a collected facade, but the slightest downturn of the corner of her mouth betrayed her. “I need to do some digging? Are you not going to help?”
Tio grinned a cheshire grin and sat down on the stump of a fallen tree, dropping his spade on the ground nearby as he raised his arms back to cradle his head. “Nope. Why would I when I have an apprentice to do all the work for me? Doing the unpleasant jobs on the master’s behalf is all part of the learning process after all.”
There was a flash of indignation in Tasha’s eyes for a moment, but to her credit she stifled her protest and got to work without another complaint. She began the arduous process of shoveling the grave dirt in front of one of the tombstones into a pile to the side, and a peaceful silence, broken only by the rhythmic crunch of soil being scooped up and thrown, settled in. Tio took the opportunity to sit back, relax and stare up at the moon above as Tasha struggled with her digging.
Eventually though the sound of shoveling was broken by the thunk of metal on wood, and Tio got up and walked over to the dug-up grave as Tasha cleared away some dirt to reveal a coffin. Tasha wedged the tip of her shovel into the lid of the coffin, and the two of them pushed down on the handle to lever it open, revealing the half-rotten corpse of a plain, middle aged woman inside of it dressed in noble garbs.
Tasha leaned back at little as the smell of decay washed over them, repulsed but unwilling to show weakness. Tio however smirked again as he stepped closer to examine it. “Looks like we've found the coffin of nobility. Well everyone's the same in death, she'll do just as well as anyone. Although…”
Tio reached out and took hold of the corpse’s hand, which had a peculiar ring wrapped around one finger. It was a simple band of silver, engraved with runes that seemed like some old form of ancient language. Gently Tio prised it off the wrinkled hand and held it up to the moonlight. “Looks like you've dug up something pretty interesting here. Here, take a look.”
Tio held it out to her, and was surprised when Tasha visibly flinched away. Now that he looked at her he could see that Tasha’s face had paled slightly, as if she was a little queazy. Whoops, he should have seen this coming. As much of a natural as she was anyone would be sick when confronted with a badly rotted body, even a trained doctor. He'd been wrong to assume that because she didn't seem distressed the task hadn't distrurbed her.
“Sorry Tasha, my bad. I shouldn't have-… why don't you go sit down by the tree, get some fresh air?” He said apologetically. “Do you want the ring? We can give it a clean first.”
“No, no thank you.” Tasha replied in slightly clipped tones as she stepped out of the grave and went to sit down. “I never cared much for trinkets, and even if I did I don't need to scrounge jewelry of the dead. You can have it; silver is your colour anyway. Think of it as a payment for the lesson.”
Tio gave an over enthusiastic bow. “Why thank you my lady,” he teased in a bad imitation of a Rynmerian butler. “I shall treasure this gift forever.” Tasha’s face lifted up a little into a light smile, which he took to mean that there was no hard feelings about the nausea.
“Anywho, back to the lesson!” Tio exclaimed, hopping out of the grave. “Each spark of magic is like a different sort tree; they all have different properties. The necromancy spark has a variety of powers, but its main one is the power to puppeteer a soulless body, namely a corpse, into moving to its host’s will. Observe!”
Tio held his hand out towards to corpse, like a puppeteer preparing to put on a performance. “First of all I use my mind to dig down into my soul and call upon my spark. My spark is fed ether, and in exchange it forms strings of ether connecting to the corpse, providing it the energy with which to move and…”
The corpse’s hand twitched, and then with a jolting movement the body suddenly sat up as if a bolt of lightning had passed through it. With unsteady balance, as if using its legs for the very first time, the corpse pulled itself to its feet, and stared forwards blankly at Tio.
“Voila! One undead minion!” Tio announced triumphantly.
“My word, it's-... fascinating!” Tasha exclaimed, her nausea forgotten as she dashed forwards as fast as she could without looking undignified and examined it. “So this is an undead… It looks almost alive.”
Tio couldn't help but smile in pride at the eagerness Tasha displayed. A born necromancer indeed! Most women of her background would run away screaming at the sight of an undead thrall, but Tasha looked like a scientist that'd just discovered a breakthrough in their favourite subject. “It is an imitation of life, but nothing much more. A word to the wise though, never animate more thralls than you can handle. Undead all hunger for the life they do not have, and are only kept from acting on this hunger by the strength of the necromancer’s will. Spread that will too thinly and you'll no longer be able to keep them in check, and if that happens they'll turn on you without a second thought…”
Tio trailed off slightly as he noticed the strange look in Tasha’s eyes. She was staring into the lifeless eyes of the thrall with an unusual intensity, as if something she desperately wanted to see lay just behind them but she couldn't quite make it out. It was… a little concerning actually. Something about that look sent a tiny chill running down his spine, but Tio pushed the unease to the back of his mind. It was just a sign of her talent, a show of her dedication to the art. Nothing to worry himself over.
“Anywho that's enough demonstrating. Let's get back to work Blondiepop.” He announced, secretly relieved when his words snapped Tasha out of her stare and back to the present. “We'll need a thrall for your initiation and for you to practice with afterwards, so from now on this one will be yours. But we'll still need bodies for some other experiments, so let's get back to digging.”
“Yes sir.” Tasha replied, seeming just a little more keen to get to work than she had been the first time. She picked up her spade and started digging into the ground in front of the next headstone, and Tio did his best to forget about that strange look.
Nothing to worry about Tio. Nothing to worry about...
