It began as each bidimensional diagram jumped out into tridimensional space, the geometrical lines emitted various glows, some were shining silver, others were purple and black, they danced in synchrony around the pedestal in a mesmerizing ballet.
There was little time to admire, for each second wasted was an increasing risk of failure. Kelivan’s heart no longer beats, his body cannot deliver oxygen, long now he should have collapsed to a painless, quick, death, the brew kept him up, his mind was still clear, his movements, sharp. With such precision, it was impossible to believe it was orchestrated by a dead man.
Rafie wished dearly he could look away, he could only witness the demise of his creator and master, as he attempted the last masterful work of his life.
It’s execution had to be swift and precise, each word spoken had such volume, it alone could level a house and had no room for error. The generator in the center floated mere centimeters above the pedestal, clicked, gears in its interior shifted, the rings on the outside spun much slower, soon arcs of lightning sprouted from it, leaving trails of scorched marks in the walls and ceiling, even lighting up on of the shelves on fire.
Nearing the end, Kelivan could begin to feel his consciousness slipping, relying on his muscular memory more than himself, he managed to spare Rafie a look, his eyes were too distant to transmit any emotion, he turned back without a word. The gears picked up speed, as if before it was just heating up, He thundered the final words over the crackling of Lightning, in a mere moment the spinning geometry from the magical circles locked in place, in a rare moment of stillness, broken when black ichor spilled from them like water rushing through a ships hull, before hitting the ground it was absorbed in a spiral like hurricane around the Arcane Generator, there was click, like a resounding hammer strike, the ichor quickly enveloped the Generator, which shot out at blinding speed to Kelivan’s chest, the impact threw him to the very edge of the diagram, stopping mid air, a shockwave knocked everything else across to the corners of the room, Rafie registered his back hitting the wall with force.
The Ichor began enveloping Kelivan’s body, he did nothing to resist, closing his eyes in humble acceptance. In the darkness he still felt glimpses of his mind, his memories fading away, like a chilling numbness drowning everything else, he wished very hard for this entire process to work, he would unfortunately never know, all he was consumed in sacrifice.
Rafie was reeling from the shockwave, looking around he saw a thin dark smoke all over the room, already being sucked into the vents above, scanning for his master, he saw it, at the edge of the sigils, unmoving, hesitant he strode over to him.
Kneeling down besides his master he watched stunned, placing a hand over his chest, there was no beat or breathing, Kelivan was dead.
Rafie simply froze overlooking the body, paralyzed, for how long he could not tell, the fire in the shelves died down and the smoke had all been dispersed. Rafie kept searching for the adequate reaction in his thinking mind, anger, sadness, despair and indignation all seemed adequate, yet the prospect of no longer having who to serve, a determined function, sent his mind in a loop of thought akin to a person in shock, he believed it it silly, to understand the thinking process and know emotion responses but become for the first time stagnated in that, made him ask himself, if that was what the living felt.
Unexpectedly, he noticed the skin over Kelivan’s eyes shifted, slowly he saw them open, looking dazed and lost, no longer had they a purple hue, but were now white, faint traces of grey, detailed the pupil.
Rafie wrapped his arms around and pulled him closer.
“Father! Kelivan! Can you hear me?”
The slow eyes traced over Rafie's mask, slow and desoriented, a slurred voice responded.
“Who?...I?...”
Once again those eyes closed. Rafie understood the most adequate reaction for that moment were shock and confusion, he checked if there really was no pulse, confirming his fear that indeed this body did not have any function of the living, regardless it had moved, it had spoken to him, there was something there.
Carefully he picked up the corpse, without effort he walk out of the room. Rafie crossed the hallways of the sanctum till he reached the main bedroom, it was a simple room, a bed mounted on an iron frame, a wooden desk and a chair, the other commodities were two shelves and single chest at the foot of the bed, the room was lit by the same ceiling light it had the oval chamber.
Slowly he placed the body onto the bed and stood over it for a few seconds, he begun thinking about the next steps, wondering if a dead body needed any mortal comfort or necessity, he still did not know what had happened, it had talked, it was unlike normal undead that required order to act.
Rafie turned and settled on getting some water, once he stepped out of the room he spotted a silhouette at the end of the corridor.
The presence it emanated, even a distance away would have made many man kneel, the feeling of inevitability, even Rafie could feel it, despite his inability to, dressed in robes that appeared to hover the floor, were colored like polished gravestones, it’s features would seem sickly yet they were awfully comforting, more than mesmerizing were their black eyes, wholly black, they were not threatening but caring, like the dark you see when about to sleep.
Despite the sheer pressure Rafie took a defensive stance, one fist forward the other close at his chest.
“Who are you? How have you entered this sanctum?!”
The being simply strode forward, their robes flowing in a graceful stride.
“We Have never met, Despite this i know thee… Rafie.”
A sweet voice that despite its calm demeanor had weight to it, like forcing any others to silence as to be heard above all. They continued.
“I Enter where I like, My self and Kelivan were known, I have come… to carry on their soul beyond these realms”
Rafie studied that entity, he could not read anything about it, but within his memories he had a hunch, he spoke hoping to be wrong.
“To come for his soul… you must be Almion”
The figure nodded.
Rafie knelt down in reverence.
“Forgive my rudeness and lack of tack, oh guardian of passing souls, I am deeply honored to have been graced by your presence, and ashamed of my action against you”
The response was sweet like a mother’s singing lullaby.
“Rise thee, soulless child, thy humbling is more than enough” lifted her hand in gesture “Though this affair is of my calling, I come here out of respect to thy creator”
Rising to his feet Rafie spoke
“Than… he has really passed?”
“It has been so”
He stole a glance at the door of the room his Creator, no, his father, laid dead, it did not however escape his mind that there had been movement in his body.
Without waiting, Almion moved towards the door, that opened without any touch, she stopped before entering the room and turned to Rafie in a mixed expression of shock and fear that were most unnatural to her features
“What has thee done!”
The voice became a ghostly screech as she lifted her hand at the still body in the bed, it lifted into the air, from its chest a black tar poured from it, ripping its clothes, tied to the body a cluster of tar expunged, peaking like a tent, somehow she pulled the still moving Arcane generator, deeply intertwined with it, unable to part both, or choosing not to.
She forced her hand down, the tar and Generator vanished back inside the body leaving only a hole in the clothes
“Does thou have any measure of knowledge… to the heresy done here?”
Almion's features were unnaturally fierce, like her very face was forcing wrath to it.
Again Rafie was taken by surprise that his very being felt fear, and for the first time his hands shook.
“I do not… “
“Had my aspect of Wrath or Balance not been destroyed both yourselves would be dust! The audacity! The ignorance to the very will of the divine! How have thee allowed this?!”
“I did not have… a way to stop him, I am a servant…”
Rafie knew he should feel ashamed, once again pointed his very impotence to stop the events that had transpired.
It seems to take Almion a second to understand the truth. Her face returned to a serene expression, she took a second look at the body, in silence, somehow if undecided to her next action.
“What…”- Rafie broke the silence - “What has my master done?”
“Has the Ritual of everlasting ever been disclosed?” - she responded promptly
“I am… aware of it yes”
“Kelivan… oh dear Kelivan, used it… and this abominable Archaic relic to perform a variation of the Incantation, to achieve in humble words… impossible results”
“As I am aware it should have tied his soul to this plane, You my Lady has said his soul passed on, does it mean he failed?”
She seemed to hesitate a moment, meditating on the answer. Walking inside the room she rested her hand over the body, Rafie followed inside and stood next to her, turning to him she said calmly.
“His soul is gone… not passed… I am certain now, Kelivan has been completely erased from the world, both mundane and divine.”
“What!? How?”
“It has to do with the Archaic Relic thou call Arcane Generator, and Kelivan’s own passed genius” - her eyes filled with tears as she spoke, a distilled lamentation- “Through the process of extracting his soul to bind it, he instead instilled it to the relic… as fuel for its product, as such their very existence has been consumed… a soul, has been lost to this universe forever”
Even more so then ever, Rafie could only register that feelings of despair and deep sadness fitted that statement, not only had his master died, but vanished, never to be reincarnated, cast into a void of non-existence, no after life, much like he would, and within his thinking mind he thought it, ironic.
Regardless a doubt linger, if he was gone, how did the body speak to him.
“But lady, he spoke to me, there must be still something within him”
“But there is…”
Almion stared down at Rafie, her mourning still lingering over her face.
“The Result of Kelivan’s heretical actions, has fabricated a new soul”
Rafie returned her look, confused, stared at the body than back, muttering
“A new soul?”
“An impossibility to any but the divine has been conjured by mortals, thou cannot begin to understand the implications of it. What lies here in this bed is new, unprecedented in this universe, against every known order, a true living soul, tied to a body of death. It continues to be fueled by echoes of energy from the soul that came before it, cannot die, it is not living… I should destroy it, I should, however cannot, it lives. Therefore its deserving of a world”
“I… don’t understand Lady” Rafie began processing what she said “You mean to say Kelivan created a soul?”
“In a manner… yes, using his own, he birthed a soul to this universe”
Bewilderment was an understatement to this outcome, in a much twisted way Kelivan had achieved his dreams to use necromancy in creation, albeit using his life to pay its price. A much more urgent question was in order that he soon spoke.
“What will we do?”
Almion gazed at the body and began walking out of the room, speaking in a soft tone.
“Not we soulless one, I have not duties nor availability to mingle in mortal affairs”
“But you came here nonetheless, you cared for my master before, it’s a new born soul! Whatever will it become?!”
She stopped at the door, turned around.
“That is up to fate, I came here out of respect to take Kelivan’s soul, not to care for whatever they has created”
“Please I beg of you Lady”
Rafie knelled down, his head touching the floor.
“When my master was gone, I no longer knew what must be done, I am a servant, made to obey, it vexes me that my mind can no longer think without him, I will be left frozen without knowing, please tell me something! Anything to keep me going! His dream has been realized but without him… I am no longer, I don’t know what will become of me”
It was impossible to know what goes on in a godly mind, Almion looked upon the bowed supplicant before her, she held no duty to a soulless corpse, this affair was measured beyond what divine should engage in, nevertheless she pondered. Rafie did not move, he only wondered what machinations went on inside her thoughts, that likely was beyond anything he could muster.
“Then care” - She spoke in a soft motherly tone- “Much as a father would a son, as one yourself, has come thou hour, to nurture the fruits of your master’s dream, raise this soul to the world it faces”
Rafie lifted his head, staring up at the features of what could come across as mother, kind eyes, that somehow instilled a calming effect. But a question came to his thoughts firstly.
“How?”
She smiled, tender and sweetly
“That is what thou will discover, and may even find more within yourself.”
There was a pause that hanged like a knife's edge, she then warned.
“Know this, his existence cannot be known, many gods will consider the heresy of this worthy of elimination, it will be up to thou, to ponder the risks of their fate.”
Rafie tried to speak, but as if his senses had failed, she had vanished, without a single note as to how.
Instead of getting up he sat right on the floor, trying to put into a logical perspective what it takes to raise a person, as to what steps, what morals he should instruct, what things he should teach, how to behave, how to protect it and many other factors that could influence a personality. So many options and so much to consider, it was just as overwhelming as his other meltdown.
Having a world of possibilities was a lot to process, but with this new guidance, it mattered only how long it would take him to compute his options.
<<<< >>>>
In light of the visit Rafie had stayed on the floor, running in his mind how to behave around this new situation, there were many such nuances that he tried to a comical level to racionalyze, finding out that to measure the psych of the living was a daunting task.
He finally snapped out of it when he heard grunting. The body was moving, waking from its slumber. Readying himself he stood up next to the bed, waiting till it’s eyes finally opened. There was a mixture of fear and curiosity in them, Rafie spoke as softly as his rather harsh tone allowed.
“Rest easy, I am a friend “
He showed his hands, and tried to cradle the body, he had thought it would have the same cognitive capacity as a baby, to his surprise it backed away and responded in broken voice
“Who… you? Where… I?”
It sounded just like Kelivan’s voice, but less refined, like a deeper whisper.
Rafie gave it space, surprised by that reaction, deciding to reacess it’s cognitive capacity he spoke.
“Pardon me, I am Rafie… and you are…” - he had a quick pause, pondering whether it was right to say such - “In a room that belonged to a great man, it now however, your’s for now”
It looked around, much confused, despite no damage, It looked weak in body, it was like penitence to speak but it forced a voice.
“Who… cannot… I…”
Rafie gave it pause, realizing he did not think about a name, it lacked an identity. He considered naming it after his master, however backed from it, opting for a neutral response
“Be patient, your body is weak, for now, you are son, a child to a great man”
Son looked puzzled, he then appeared dizzy.
Carefully Rafie reached, cradling back to a resting position, he seemed to recoil weakly
“Please try to rest, you have only come to it now, give it time, you will grow stronger I believe”
The weak voice mustered strength to say
“What… is… all?”
Rafie knew just the right answer. Weirdly mimicking a chuckle that sounded like rusty gears he said
“A new life, for us both”