"Must be some kind of spell." I was huddled with other people at Valrym's bar, the entire town was in a cold snap. And by cold snap I mean everything was iced up, there were huge drifts of snow in the streets and even Captain Therod a stalwart of "You guys are acting like small children" was huddled into Valrym's bar. She claimed she had gotten a cold and it was not going away, but we all knew she just didn't want to be out in the snow. Its not like anyone was committing crimes anyway, other than public burning bans.
"Trezlan I know that's your go to complaint, but no its not a damned spell its the weather." Valrym at least was enjoying all his new found customers. I tried to tough it out in my shop, but apparently I have some drafty issues there because it was cold morning noon and night despite all of my attempts to the contrary.
"Weather shouldn't be this damned cold Val, even Therod is suffering."
"Don't drag me into your madness Trezlan." Therod puncutated her statement by coughing several times.
"Trezlan I know what you're thinking, rethink it, you can not defeat the weather."
"Lies Valrym I can defeat anything!" And with that I tossed off my cloak and set out in the snow to defeat the cold weather. I figured if anyone could do it a man who can conjure fire would be that man. Also I had like six beers and this seemed like a good idea, even though I shed warmer clothing before going out in the cold, so good idea is as always relative.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
The Only True Cure Is No Cure
There are always awkward moments after something horrific passes. Those times you aren't exactly sure things are done so you just stand around looking like a moron to make sure nothing else comes you way. That's what happened to me and Mordere post Morley leaving. We just stood there. I mean of course I finally was able to undue the bad magic being worked on Mordere's child, but outside of that nothing. We kind of just stood around looking at each other, looking at the walls (its amazing how many things you can count when staring at a piece of wood paneling).
"He'll be back won't he?" Mordere sounded almost human, I guess caring for a child can soften up even the hardest killers.
"For you? Probably not, for me? Yeah I'll see him again, and again, and again. He didn't care about you so much as knew that you were an avenue to get to me." Morley does a lot of things, caring about the Followers of Fire is not something he'd even think about.
"Is there anything I can do to prevent his kind of magic?"
"Nope necromancy is a bastard like that, blood magic works on just about anything." I've proven that several times already, "Only thing I could think of would be etching into your bones a spell to replinish your life with every life taken, but I don't think anyone would be that crazy especially to do it to a child." Thank the gods Mordere was not that crazy, still the bone etching thing is something I've rolled around in my head before, the major issue of course is when you can see your own bones things have gone horribly wrong and you aren't thinking about etching them with spells. You could try a tattoo or something similar but that can be defeated by other means and its more obvious, bone etching would be damn near undetectable and impossible to get rid of outside of pulling the bones out.
"Thank you for your efforts Lorentino." It was stunning to hear that from Mordere, I was massively perplexed. So I left. Got to go out on top is what I always say! And by on top I mean after bluffing my way past my mortal enemy and allowing him to escape unscathed after causing misery to a small child. You have to redefine top to what fits best!
"He'll be back won't he?" Mordere sounded almost human, I guess caring for a child can soften up even the hardest killers.
"For you? Probably not, for me? Yeah I'll see him again, and again, and again. He didn't care about you so much as knew that you were an avenue to get to me." Morley does a lot of things, caring about the Followers of Fire is not something he'd even think about.
"Is there anything I can do to prevent his kind of magic?"
"Nope necromancy is a bastard like that, blood magic works on just about anything." I've proven that several times already, "Only thing I could think of would be etching into your bones a spell to replinish your life with every life taken, but I don't think anyone would be that crazy especially to do it to a child." Thank the gods Mordere was not that crazy, still the bone etching thing is something I've rolled around in my head before, the major issue of course is when you can see your own bones things have gone horribly wrong and you aren't thinking about etching them with spells. You could try a tattoo or something similar but that can be defeated by other means and its more obvious, bone etching would be damn near undetectable and impossible to get rid of outside of pulling the bones out.
"Thank you for your efforts Lorentino." It was stunning to hear that from Mordere, I was massively perplexed. So I left. Got to go out on top is what I always say! And by on top I mean after bluffing my way past my mortal enemy and allowing him to escape unscathed after causing misery to a small child. You have to redefine top to what fits best!
Friday, December 6, 2013
Morley You Are An Ass
"And now the real asshole emerges." I'll admit I'm not exactly Mr. Civility with my sworn enemy of the centuries.
"You've been here the whole time Trezlan."
"You've here the whole time."
"That doesn't even make sense."
"Doesn't it?"
"Would you both just shut up before I shoot you and find someone else to clear up this necromancy." Mordere ever the mediator. Still I stand behind my assertion Morley is an Asshole, to be perfectly honest I've probably made him sound even nicer than he is in reality. Because in reality he's an asshole of assholes.
"Yes Trezlan do be quiet before I kill the both of you." Mordere fired once, the bullet hit something in front of Morley and shattered. Whatever magic was protecting Morley, it could take a direct hit from a god's own weapon, that was something very strong.
"What in the madness?" Mordere was surprised as well, I could almost see fear in his one functioning eye.
"Mr. Mordere you may be a lot of things, unpredictable is not one of them, now stand aside and let me kill my enemy and then I'll kill you." It was nice to be thought of as Morley's enemy if only because it meant he cared.
"Morley I wouldn't take a step forward if I were you."
"Oh some weak hack of a spell your going to launch at me Trezlan?"
"Launch? No I'm not going to launch anything, what is standing between you, me, and Mordere is a fairly potent blood shield. I used the death of your little assistant here to enact it, so you may have blocked Mordere's shot, but my spell will block your everything." He looked at me with contempt, then again he started that way so maybe I should say, he kept looking at me with contempt.
"You're bluffing."
"Do you really want to test my ability with the memories of our dearly dead master floating around up here? I've got several nasty little spells I'd love to lash you with." I did have a couple I wanted to unleash on him, but seeing as he caught me with my figurative magical pants down, I had to make due with what I had.
"Mr. Mordere you are lucky today, though you weren't my target of course, if you come after me Trezlan's petty bullshit will not be standing between us and you will die. Trezlan please fall on something rusty soon, I tire of you being around out there giving me a bad name." Morley left, I of course did not presume he left so I waited with Mordere in absolute silence for about half a day.
"You were bluffing weren't you?"
"Good gods yes, I don't have a shield spell that could block a cold."
"You've been here the whole time Trezlan."
"You've here the whole time."
"That doesn't even make sense."
"Doesn't it?"
"Would you both just shut up before I shoot you and find someone else to clear up this necromancy." Mordere ever the mediator. Still I stand behind my assertion Morley is an Asshole, to be perfectly honest I've probably made him sound even nicer than he is in reality. Because in reality he's an asshole of assholes.
"Yes Trezlan do be quiet before I kill the both of you." Mordere fired once, the bullet hit something in front of Morley and shattered. Whatever magic was protecting Morley, it could take a direct hit from a god's own weapon, that was something very strong.
"What in the madness?" Mordere was surprised as well, I could almost see fear in his one functioning eye.
"Mr. Mordere you may be a lot of things, unpredictable is not one of them, now stand aside and let me kill my enemy and then I'll kill you." It was nice to be thought of as Morley's enemy if only because it meant he cared.
"Morley I wouldn't take a step forward if I were you."
"Oh some weak hack of a spell your going to launch at me Trezlan?"
"Launch? No I'm not going to launch anything, what is standing between you, me, and Mordere is a fairly potent blood shield. I used the death of your little assistant here to enact it, so you may have blocked Mordere's shot, but my spell will block your everything." He looked at me with contempt, then again he started that way so maybe I should say, he kept looking at me with contempt.
"You're bluffing."
"Do you really want to test my ability with the memories of our dearly dead master floating around up here? I've got several nasty little spells I'd love to lash you with." I did have a couple I wanted to unleash on him, but seeing as he caught me with my figurative magical pants down, I had to make due with what I had.
"Mr. Mordere you are lucky today, though you weren't my target of course, if you come after me Trezlan's petty bullshit will not be standing between us and you will die. Trezlan please fall on something rusty soon, I tire of you being around out there giving me a bad name." Morley left, I of course did not presume he left so I waited with Mordere in absolute silence for about half a day.
"You were bluffing weren't you?"
"Good gods yes, I don't have a shield spell that could block a cold."
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Awkward Necromancers are Awkward
"You're Wrong." We both said it at the same time, though I'll admit his tone was a little more forceful than mine (such is the power of being a super murderer well super murdererer I mean I've killed more people than he has but his candle is burning brighter).
"Trezlan this old man confessed!" I'll admit I didn't have a confession from my mousy assistant yet, but I wasn't running around shoving my pistol in peoples face!
"And he had no access to keep defeating my magical stuff like this mousey girl who I have trapped in a blood magic prison." She attempted to move and looked at me with rising hatred. I'll admit I had hoped to be a little bit better with my dramatic movement than just saying it, "Sweety I don't have to tell you this, but don't even think of stepping out of your cage or it'll fry you six ways from sunday."
"I'm the real necromancer." Both the girl and the oldman spoke at the same time (a lot of that going around).
"Awkward." I had to say something to cover up the silence that had fallen over the room.
"Your damned crusades against magic has brought this on your Mordere, the girl will die." The old man's voice was full of venom.
"You killed my entire family Mordere the least I can do is destroy yours!" The mousy girl also spoke with ferocity.
"You sure know how to piss people off Valerind." He responded by shooting the old man through the head, it was an interesting conversation ender. He took aim at the mousy girl but I held up my hand. "You can't shoot her the prison goes both ways."
"Break the spell, this witch deserves her medicine." I'll admit I didn't exactly know if the prison would block the bullet, especially the kind of bullet the Hand of the Fire God fired, but I didn't exactly want that tested with me in the room.
"After she tells me how to undue the spell." I just let it go of course that the little girl was somehow connected to Mordere it was not the most pressing concern at the moment.
"With her dead you can defeat it Trezlan she will not help you."
"I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN HELP YOU!"
"Sweety think of where you are and who I am, dying was your only option at this point, the question is how you die." Blood prisons can get pretty ugly, this one was no different. To highlight my point I brought the size of the prison down some, it burned her flesh and she howled in pain and then cowered. "See you assume that Mordere shooting you is the way you'll go, I've been at this a lot longer than you have, you want to be crushed to death or burned alive? break the spell."
She surprised me by lunging throught the prison; which lead to her being skinned/burned alive. It was horrific and terrifying. Also really frustrating because I wanted her to break the damn spell. Mordere shrugged at me.
"Well now you should be able to break the spell." I was about to comment when I heard clapping behind Mordere.
"Well you would if you could ever defeat me Trezlan." It was Morley, because of course it was Morley, who else could have taught two insane necromancers? Well except for me of course and I have standards. Sort of. You know what read the next entry!
"Trezlan this old man confessed!" I'll admit I didn't have a confession from my mousy assistant yet, but I wasn't running around shoving my pistol in peoples face!
"And he had no access to keep defeating my magical stuff like this mousey girl who I have trapped in a blood magic prison." She attempted to move and looked at me with rising hatred. I'll admit I had hoped to be a little bit better with my dramatic movement than just saying it, "Sweety I don't have to tell you this, but don't even think of stepping out of your cage or it'll fry you six ways from sunday."
"I'm the real necromancer." Both the girl and the oldman spoke at the same time (a lot of that going around).
"Awkward." I had to say something to cover up the silence that had fallen over the room.
"Your damned crusades against magic has brought this on your Mordere, the girl will die." The old man's voice was full of venom.
"You killed my entire family Mordere the least I can do is destroy yours!" The mousy girl also spoke with ferocity.
"You sure know how to piss people off Valerind." He responded by shooting the old man through the head, it was an interesting conversation ender. He took aim at the mousy girl but I held up my hand. "You can't shoot her the prison goes both ways."
"Break the spell, this witch deserves her medicine." I'll admit I didn't exactly know if the prison would block the bullet, especially the kind of bullet the Hand of the Fire God fired, but I didn't exactly want that tested with me in the room.
"After she tells me how to undue the spell." I just let it go of course that the little girl was somehow connected to Mordere it was not the most pressing concern at the moment.
"With her dead you can defeat it Trezlan she will not help you."
"I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN HELP YOU!"
"Sweety think of where you are and who I am, dying was your only option at this point, the question is how you die." Blood prisons can get pretty ugly, this one was no different. To highlight my point I brought the size of the prison down some, it burned her flesh and she howled in pain and then cowered. "See you assume that Mordere shooting you is the way you'll go, I've been at this a lot longer than you have, you want to be crushed to death or burned alive? break the spell."
She surprised me by lunging throught the prison; which lead to her being skinned/burned alive. It was horrific and terrifying. Also really frustrating because I wanted her to break the damn spell. Mordere shrugged at me.
"Well now you should be able to break the spell." I was about to comment when I heard clapping behind Mordere.
"Well you would if you could ever defeat me Trezlan." It was Morley, because of course it was Morley, who else could have taught two insane necromancers? Well except for me of course and I have standards. Sort of. You know what read the next entry!
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
The Last First Person You'd Expect
I continued my work of trying to defeat the necromantic magic. Mordere sought out the necromancer. His methods left a lot to be desired, like leniency, proof of being guilty, or even I dunno basic tact. Basically he went around shoving his pistol in peoples faces and demanding they pledge loyalty to the Fire God. I was actually worried at some point he'd stick his pistol in my face despite me not arriving at the sick child's room well past when she was sick. Through it all my assistant a mousy woman who spoke nervously was a trooper. We'd see Mordere moving swiftly to and fro screaming at people and then moving on somewhere else. And she just kept helping me try each weird combination of thing after thing, and that's when it hit me who the necromancer was.
I mean it ws right in front of my face the whole time. The only person who could keep defeating my efforts was the one aiding them. Swear to gods I'm the worst observer of people in the world. It should have struck me odd the assistant never left, nor hardly spoke. Those are totally things guilty people do (aside from me who does that kind of thing all the time, well except for the hardly speaking part, and the never leaving, ok nevermind screw you you win journal!). I had to keep my cool though, the lady was quite good at being a necromancer and she'd been in close proximity to me the whole time. So she could have set me up the entire time and I was completely unaware of it.
Which lead to my plan of counter magicing her by pretending to try and help the sick girl. It was practically genius if I don't say so myself. I wish I'd thought of it sooner but again I'm terrible at observing people and should have known the assistant was the necromancer. So over the course of an hour using all kind of subterfuge like "hand me that one, but not that other one" I had delightfully laid my trap for the necromancer, at which point Mordere burst into the room with an old man held at gun point.
"I have found the necromancer!" He declared, the old man look like he'd had a very bad morning.
"Preposterous I found the necromancer!" And then things got awkward.
I mean it ws right in front of my face the whole time. The only person who could keep defeating my efforts was the one aiding them. Swear to gods I'm the worst observer of people in the world. It should have struck me odd the assistant never left, nor hardly spoke. Those are totally things guilty people do (aside from me who does that kind of thing all the time, well except for the hardly speaking part, and the never leaving, ok nevermind screw you you win journal!). I had to keep my cool though, the lady was quite good at being a necromancer and she'd been in close proximity to me the whole time. So she could have set me up the entire time and I was completely unaware of it.
Which lead to my plan of counter magicing her by pretending to try and help the sick girl. It was practically genius if I don't say so myself. I wish I'd thought of it sooner but again I'm terrible at observing people and should have known the assistant was the necromancer. So over the course of an hour using all kind of subterfuge like "hand me that one, but not that other one" I had delightfully laid my trap for the necromancer, at which point Mordere burst into the room with an old man held at gun point.
"I have found the necromancer!" He declared, the old man look like he'd had a very bad morning.
"Preposterous I found the necromancer!" And then things got awkward.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Honesty With a Bullet
An entire day had gone by with me using every remedy, magical side step, and just flat out complete bullshit I could think of. Nothing worked. Like ordinarily I would have easily kicked the necro magic's ass. I would have had it over and done with and been on with my life. But no, not this garbage, whatever the guy had done he had done it well, it also seemed to mutate as I went. Like every time I thought I had it beat, the damned thing would be back strong as ever. I was standing outside of the young girls room on her balcony, if I had a cigar, a pipe or even a rolled cigarette I'd have been smoking it. Most of the rest of the high muckity mucks of the followers had left, it was down to me, Mordere, and the attendant who kept up with my ever increasingly weird ideas.
"You can't cure her can you?" Mordere joined me, he looked as drained as I felt, though he had spent the last couple days riding all over to acquire my ingredients of failure.
"Do you want the honest answer or the one that would keep me from being shot?"
"I have never shot someone for being honest, wait no thats not true I shot a guy because he told me who he was."
"Not really giving me a good reason to be honest."
"Trezlan I will not shoot you, I'm good for my word." I gave him a long look, but I knew I couldn't keep up the charade forever, a long time yes, forever? No.
"I'm trying everything I know and it's still kicking my ass, I'm even going back to extremely unpleasant memories and they aren't helping either. This magic is very strong, but something is pushing back in there." Mordere nodded his eyes almost seeing through me.
"So you're saying someone is working against us within the church." It was not a statement I'd make lightly especially to the man asking the question.
"Has to be, there is no other answer to this, no way could it keep beating me unless someone was helping it along."
"Well then time to go snake hunting." At that exact moment I felt sorry for my necromancer opponent, whatever he was, he would really struggle to keep up with a true master of murder that is Valerind Mordere, but it turned out, well you'll have to read the next entry of course!
"You can't cure her can you?" Mordere joined me, he looked as drained as I felt, though he had spent the last couple days riding all over to acquire my ingredients of failure.
"Do you want the honest answer or the one that would keep me from being shot?"
"I have never shot someone for being honest, wait no thats not true I shot a guy because he told me who he was."
"Not really giving me a good reason to be honest."
"Trezlan I will not shoot you, I'm good for my word." I gave him a long look, but I knew I couldn't keep up the charade forever, a long time yes, forever? No.
"I'm trying everything I know and it's still kicking my ass, I'm even going back to extremely unpleasant memories and they aren't helping either. This magic is very strong, but something is pushing back in there." Mordere nodded his eyes almost seeing through me.
"So you're saying someone is working against us within the church." It was not a statement I'd make lightly especially to the man asking the question.
"Has to be, there is no other answer to this, no way could it keep beating me unless someone was helping it along."
"Well then time to go snake hunting." At that exact moment I felt sorry for my necromancer opponent, whatever he was, he would really struggle to keep up with a true master of murder that is Valerind Mordere, but it turned out, well you'll have to read the next entry of course!
Monday, December 2, 2013
No One Ever Wants My Appraisal Services
"Necromancy."
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure." No one ever asks for my opinion on any number of useful skills I have. Did you know I'm a fantastic wine taster? I am, I can discern the flavor and vintage of any wine that passed by my lips. Also with all my years on this world I can appraise real from fake antiques no issue. On top of those wonderfully useful skills I'm a damn fine business negotiator and I'm a dance innovator! But no, no one ever wants those abilities. It's always for necromancy, when someone absolutely needs my top skills, its always the ones I'm not that proud of.
The person currently afflicted by necromancy was a small child. She was in pain, but not dead, which was weird for Necromancy but not unheard of. Modere is lucky I have such a great memory, or I would have had to return to my shop to get one of my several volumes of work I'd written on the nature of magic, but thankfully for him I remember just about everything I write (more or less except journal entries as my continuity, spelling, and geography can attest to). It was a bit odd the child was not killed outright by the necromancy, but this wasn't a simple soul tap. Someone had linked themself to the girl to make her suffer, one could suggest the suffering was the intent.
"Can you fix it?" People assume that like all magic you can simply counter and destroy bad magic with good magic. Its not true at all, its a bit like asking one seamstress to sew the exact same way a previous one had done, only in this case the seam is someones life, and the sewing a dangerous magical spell that could just as easily kill me as the girl or everyone else in the room.
"Potentially." That was mostly a lie, but seeing as I was with a sin, the members of his higher order and the girl was apparently some big mucky mucks something or other, telling them I couldn't help the young child would get me dumped in a ditch somewhere.
"What would you need?" Mordere spoke for them, it was strange for someone I thought of as being a loner being linked with this group, but horrific things make for strange bed fellows I guess.
"Its going to be a rather long list." And it was, and I'll get into that tommorrow, but just know that thankfully someone else wrote that list because my hand writing as you can attest to is awful beyond words.
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure." No one ever asks for my opinion on any number of useful skills I have. Did you know I'm a fantastic wine taster? I am, I can discern the flavor and vintage of any wine that passed by my lips. Also with all my years on this world I can appraise real from fake antiques no issue. On top of those wonderfully useful skills I'm a damn fine business negotiator and I'm a dance innovator! But no, no one ever wants those abilities. It's always for necromancy, when someone absolutely needs my top skills, its always the ones I'm not that proud of.
The person currently afflicted by necromancy was a small child. She was in pain, but not dead, which was weird for Necromancy but not unheard of. Modere is lucky I have such a great memory, or I would have had to return to my shop to get one of my several volumes of work I'd written on the nature of magic, but thankfully for him I remember just about everything I write (more or less except journal entries as my continuity, spelling, and geography can attest to). It was a bit odd the child was not killed outright by the necromancy, but this wasn't a simple soul tap. Someone had linked themself to the girl to make her suffer, one could suggest the suffering was the intent.
"Can you fix it?" People assume that like all magic you can simply counter and destroy bad magic with good magic. Its not true at all, its a bit like asking one seamstress to sew the exact same way a previous one had done, only in this case the seam is someones life, and the sewing a dangerous magical spell that could just as easily kill me as the girl or everyone else in the room.
"Potentially." That was mostly a lie, but seeing as I was with a sin, the members of his higher order and the girl was apparently some big mucky mucks something or other, telling them I couldn't help the young child would get me dumped in a ditch somewhere.
"What would you need?" Mordere spoke for them, it was strange for someone I thought of as being a loner being linked with this group, but horrific things make for strange bed fellows I guess.
"Its going to be a rather long list." And it was, and I'll get into that tommorrow, but just know that thankfully someone else wrote that list because my hand writing as you can attest to is awful beyond words.
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