"Please don't kill me." That voice, I still hear it in my dreams, "My name is Serrah, I have a small baby." I tried to concentrate on what I was doing and ignored her words. It was like the worst stomach ache ever (so bad my insides quivered with each breath, I know because I could actually feel them with each breath), the scroll was thankfully written clearly. The ritual involved drawing a group of runes on top of the cage in my own blood (the only good thing about getting stabbed in the stomach), and having to infuse them with my own essence. This ritual I haven't used in years, its one of those things you start people off with before you learn how to do it with well I like to think of flare, but primarily its more of a brute force exertion, more dangerous, but doesn't require ritual, such is the nature of ritual spells, safer but require set up (so ideal for traps, not for when you are freaking dying).
Killing Serrah was hard, my hands were shaking and I had to redraw the runes multiple times. Also if I'm being honest it was also difficult to complete a ritual to murder a small terrified mother (Valrya would later admit she had this woman kidnapped specifically because I could not easily justify killing her). She pleaded as I went about it, with each finished rune and spoken word her cries got louder. She shook the cage and screamed. I tried not to look at her, she was a non entity to me. Her daugher was young, not more than a year, she had a husband who worked as a guard for a local mechant. I ignored it and kept going, eventually the runes glowed bright on top, she screamed one final time and then the cage ignited (oh thats something else ritual necromancy is, extremely messy, I mean now I can rip a soul out of a person with little effort and you don't even know they are dead until they slump over). I felt her memories flood my mind, giving birth, looking at her baby with love, passionate moments with her husband, it was overwhelming, I felt myself screaming without hearing it. Sometime during the flood I passed out, when I awoke the wound in my stomach was healed. I also felt invigorated inside, in a way I was sickened at what I had to do to live, at the same time I could feel the power of it. The cage of Serrah was coated in her blood, her skeleton still clutched the bars.
Valrya would retrieve me later with a smile, "You did well under pressure Trezlan."
"I'm a murderer now."
"You already were, but now you know the power in murder." She was smiling, a terrifying thing, "You're well on the way though Trezlan, now we just need to work on your technique, trust me next time it shall be less immediate". She left me there laying on the floor next to my first victim, I didn't hear the door lock just close. In the coming weeks I would be Valrya's slave, she beat me, she taught me, and in the end I showed her my thanks by murdering her. But I'll get to that for now I need to rest, remembering Serrah is painful, I'd like to say I did right by her daugher and her family, I didn't, but I'd still like to say it. Maybe I'll rewrite this and Serrah will become a sick murderer and it was me or him, yeah and maybe I can just believe that one of these days, but one of the things about taking someones life by necromancy, you just can't forget who've you taken. Till tommorrow journal.
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