Careful this may be your end.

Once soft hands stained with sin.

Chapter 4: First Spell

Age: 11

"I've taught you several techniques, how to keep control of creations, how to praise the god of necromantic art Das-thul and perfected the way you sense the life forces around you but do you know what the most important aspect of necromancy is?" Maria's teacher asked, sitting by the edge of a river seeming to stare at his reflection. They had been traveling for weeks together. They mostly stayed to forested areas but have skittered around the edges of small villages a couple times.

Maria tilted her head up in thought for a moment, watching the leaves of the tree she was under sway gently in the breeze. "Life force spells?" she asked.

"Nope," he responded then turned to face her. "Creature creation, everything you bring back you want to be under control."

"Well of course, you don't want them to frighten people or attack innocent bystanders," Maria said with a slight smile.

"No," was all her teacher said before both stayed quiet for several long moments. "Not going to guess the correct answer?"

"I would if I had any idea what it might be," she said, looking off to the side, feeling slightly ashamed and aggravated. He chuckled and turned back to stare at the water. "Come on Dis Pater, tell me," she said almost pleadingly, using the name he had told her to call him by. He had told her it was his Irish name but since she did not know about Irish culture she had no idea what the deeper meaning of his name could be.

He chuckled again but looked back. "Okay. You want everything under your control but they need to be brought back properly. You can't just bring back someone who sustained heavy decay or wounds. They need to be healed or their decaying inhibited. If you don't they won't survive long. Even worse their brain could rot and that can make it harder to make them follow the contract."

Maria thought about this with a slight scowl. "But the contract is signed by the soul's very blood; wouldn't you have their soul under your control?"

"Essentially yes, you should. Still, though it doesn't work that way. The blood allows you to remove their soul at any time but the rules of the contract make sure the brain doesn't allow the body to do anything it's not supposed to. The part of the brain that controls that though can decay and rot rendering that part of the contract's power useless," Dis Pater explained.

"What are you getting at teacher?"

A wicked smile touched his face. "The best way to learn to care for the body, knowing where to stitch and heal it is to examine a body. A fresh one."

Maria's brow started to furrow in thought until she heard talking. She looked up to barely see two boys weaving through the trees as they walked near the river from the other side, oblivious to their two onlookers. "You mean-" Maria started but he answered her quickly.

"Yes, we're going to kill one. Or more specifically you are going to," he said, that wicked grin appearing again.

Maria stared at him while her heart skipped a beat. Why did his evil ways always do that to her. Maybe she just liked the bad ones, she didn't care though, it's not like he was beating her. He was just a very powerful and magically inclined man with a taste for the darker and more decadent arts. "What do I kill him with? I'm not strong enough to do it with my bare hands."

"Glad you asked," he responded, slipping out what looked like a metal thorn from the sleeves of his robe. "This."

Maria gently took it in her hands and stood, starting to follow the boy's trek from the opposite side of the river. "Hey I'm going to get a drink real quick," one of the boys called out, heading towards the river while the other continued south. Maria hid behind a tree and watched. The boy was probably slightly older than her with a mop of brown hair and dark eyes, his clothes seeming to hang off his lithe frame. Finally he reached the water and knelt down, scooping water into his hands. It was now or never.

Maria launched herself out of her hiding spot and ran. She tried to jump across the river but landed nearly in the middle of it. The boy looked up surprised just as her footing slipped after landing on the smooth river rocks. She started to fall but in a swift motion she extended her arm and aimed so as she went down the metal thorn was impaled through the boy's skull. Maria slowly got on all fours and looked at the boy. His body was halfway in the river, a small current of red flowing from his skull into the clear water, tainting it. She was panting from the adrenaline rush but smiled triumphantly. It wasn't a very clean kill but it was neater then her mother's.

"Hey Mason, are you okay? I heard some loud noises," Maria heard his friend calling out as he neared. She quickly pulled the body completely into the water and ducked under herself. While underwater she closed her eyes and focused on his friend's life force. She could see the outline of his body awash in an orange glow that was a mortal life force. He came near the edge of the river and looked around some. He didn't bother to even glance down at the water before he decided that Mason had taken the wrong trail so he walked back towards the tree-line. She slowly rose out of the water to breathe; waiting a moment to make sure the friend was gone. After those few moments she stood and started the trek back to where Dis Pater was waiting, decided to walk in the water so the blood could be washed downstream instead of staining the grass and leaving more evidence of her dastardly deed.

"Well here he is," she said, dumping the body on the shore beside him.

Dis Pater glanced at the body. "Not very neat but he is certainly dead," he remarked before moving him onto his back and removing his clothes.

"What are you doing!?" Maria yelled, cheeks becoming flushed.

"Well we certainly can't cut him open with his clothes on," her teacher said and after a moment looked at her. "Your cheeks look like roses. Wait, are you embarrassed?" Maria sputtered indignantly then turned away, trying to hide her ever reddening cheeks. Dis Pater burst into laughter. "You are embarrassed!" he shouted out, continuing to laugh. Maria turned away completely. She was angry that her innocence was the reason for his laughter but at the same time she had never heard him laugh and she actually enjoyed it.

Maria placed a hand over her heart taking a few deep breaths before turning back towards him with a glare and a scowl. "Are we doing this or not. I want to see that flesh stripped and sliced apart," she said sternly. His laughter stopped instantly and he soon smirked at her.

"Now that's what I want to hear more of," he remarked, removing the rest of the boy's clothes. Maria did her best to not let the heat come back to her cheeks and kept her eyes above the waist. She didn't have much to worry about though because soon the boy's body was almost demolished.

" And see here this is the linea aspera on the back of the femur. Oh and the acetabulum on the coxal bone. See this neck of the femur just under the head; this is where hip fractures are instead of actually breaking a coxal bone," Dis Pater droned on as his finger danced over the boy's waist and upper legs. Maria did her best to pay attention but she was more interested in his movements as he slowly made cut after cut and stitch after stitch. His fingers turned red as he used his nail to slice open or sear the flesh to remove it but used a normal needle and thread for stitches. He even taught her a few more advanced healing spells he went. She was soon captivated while watching the inner flesh that barely peeked out and the muscles that contracted and relaxed as rigor mortis set in. When he wasn't teaching her though he was humming, it was a soft and seemingly innocent song. It was the same song that led her to him, the one about the London Bridge. While he was focused on that she looked back at the water, intrigued by something she had gotten a glimpse of. She stared at her blue eyes in her reflection, but they weren't so blue anymore. For some reason she couldn't explain they were becoming cloudy, tainted by another color she couldn't tell the exact color in the water though. "Ready for the final lesson?" he finally asked, Maria turning back towards him while he healing the wound she inflicted on his skull and brain.

"Yes," she quietly responded, tearing her eyes away from the body. Dis Pater grabbed her wrist and placed her hand above the dead boy's heart.

"Focus your power. I'll say the incantation," he instructed. She did as instructed and by her own will her hand glowed green before he placed his hand over hers though he did not release any of his power. "Vrátiť dušu. Vdýchnuť život späť do tohto tela," he said slowly, his own words infused with the power that incased her hand. She felt an electric shock run through her hand before the boy sharply inhaled then opened his eyes. She quickly pulled her hand back just before the boy sat up, looking at Dis Pater then his gaze switched to Maria. He gasped and scrambled to his feet, backing up a couple steps slowly before he took off running.

"Seems he remembered you from the attack," he said with a chuckle. "Also, always remember that spell. It doesn't always work but it usually will with recent deaths."

"What did you say? What did it mean?" she asked calmly.

"Return soul. Breathe life back into this body." Maria nodded and finally smiled a little. She had just learned her first necromancy spell.