Chapter 3:
"Now Hector..." Sarvis made a gesture towards the other 'people' in the room behind us. "Please, let me ask you a few questions in return." It almost looked as if he was smiling at me in that moment, considering whether you are actually able to smile without a jaw that is.
Typically for me I nodded in response and was awaiting his first question.
"We need to know who you are. So please, tell us... where are you from? If you can already remember..."
I had to think about it for a moment. I really didn't know if I should tell them so easily and decided against it rather easily, remaining without telling them anything about my origin.
"I... I can't recall." I stuttered a bit, not sure whether it would give me away or even enhance the legitimacy.
"No, it's fine Hector. We all know that it is difficult to cope with the situation right after waking up again." He made a suspiciously long pause between his sentences. "Alright then, do you know what you did in your former life? Your profession for example..." His voice remained completely calm, in no way pressing whatsoever. He was trying to show me that I was safe here, so I would come to terms with them as something like a family, as he put it. I didn't know if it might only be a trick, so I acted reluctant. I thought it could be dangerous to tell him too much about myself, especially with my background concerning the Scarlet Crusade.
"Are those robes you're wearing ritual ones?"
I looked down at me and saw the symbol on my chest torn to shreds. It was in that moment that it dawned on me how I was still wearing my old clothing and only the damage done to it kept my identity hidden. For the first time in my life I was glad not to bear it.
Again I took my time to answer
"I..., I was a priest." Knowingly I left out the fact that I was only an apprentice in my former life.
"Terrific!" He seemed really glad to hear about this, "As a priest, please go to my assistant Dueston over there. He is in charge of instructing young clerics and apprentices rising from their sleep here in Deathknell." The high cleric Sarvis pointed with his bony hand to a man wearing a grey and red robe next to the entrance of the church. Come to think of it, it didn't look too different from the one I was wearing. "Just go over and talk to him, he will tell you everything else you need to know."
Not knowing what would happen to me now I turned around and slowly approached the other undead.
Parts of the skin in the face of the cleric were missing, his lips also almost completely rotten away.
He looked at me with this bright yellow glow from his eye sockets, tilting his head slightly towards the side.
The moment I reached him, I was just about to greet him, but he already interrupted me before I could form even only the first word of it in my mouth.
His voice was brighter than that of other Forsaken, somehow strangely inspiring.
"I'm sorry kid, but whatever you did in your former life, you are definitely no priest, cleric or whatsoever... You can't fool me on that part." His words sounded reproachful as if he thought I wanted to trick him into something.
I looked at him in honest shock. Quite frankly stricken silent, I didn't know what to say to him. New whispers arose behind my back from all angles.
"I don't know who you are or what happened to you but you should rather consider talking to Maximillion and Kayla back there that would be suiting yourself better, but I? I can't teach you a single thing. I would if I could." The undead shrugs, "But it just isn't possible."
How on earth did he tell so fast, I was asking myself? The other Forsaken around us overheard what he said of course and were all staring at me now.
I turned around slowly to face the undead in the red and black robe with the staff, just as I was told. The robe looked utterly beautiful with its golden ornaments, even back then I quickly found my fancy for the warlock's regalia.
"Oh my... Oh my. The 'priest' finally shows his true colors." The Forsaken named Maximillion started to talk before I even reached him. His tone was mocking as he held his head raised high.
"I could tell that you were no priest from the moment you entered the room. Now, why does an apprentice warlock try to fool us? What did expect to achieve from playing us for fools?" His voice turned pressing all of a sudden.
And I? I didn't know what to say to all of this, I was no warlock! There was nothing I could respond in honesty. And yet I tried...
"But I..."
"What 'BUT'? Tell me, go on... I won't hurt you, not yet at least..." Something about his words made me shiver and to my surprise it wasn't what he had said.
"I... I can't tell you..." That was the only thing I came up with, actually it was the truth, just as I told you I didn't know.
"Well then... that is at least an answer." The smile appearing on his mouth quickly widens into a broad grim, yet all in all not as if he was about to harm me. This wasn't the face of a madman soon to go on a rampage.
Thinking back, Maximillion was a strange type of person. He easily accepted an 'I don't know', but was growing furious when I tried to tell him that I was once a priest.
"So I assume you are rather inexperienced with the dark arts, am I right?"
I nodded swiftly.
"It would be good if you were able to form a shadow bolt, but I doubt you are capable of that at the moment. Well, well. I can see your strong affliction to the shadows. I feel it quite clearly... You have already performed a shadow spell in your 'former' life, haven't you? You already paid the necessary dues?"
I nodded again, still unsure about my words.
"Don't always nod at me as if I'm unworthy to hear your voice. TALK TO ME, you insolent worm!" he shouted at me, his words filled with sudden rage. He made me take a step backwards without even noticing.
"Ye-yes, my- my apologies, I..., I've already performed this, this magic in..., in my li-life once." I was shaking. Something about the warlock was utterly terrifying.
"Fine then, I guess you should have no problem with learning spells from me..." Now his voice was again perfectly calm, even somewhat gentle, but only moments ago he had such an outburst of rage.
"I have decided!" He spoke these words loud and clear for everybody in the church to hear.
"What... what did you decide?" I was still too baffled about the whole situation.
"Idiot! I have decided to teach you the basics every warlock should know. I see how you are bound to the shadow, but something about this connection seems severed. I'm not sure why, but refreshing the link should be sufficient enough I'd say. And in the end, should you survive, afterwards I will send you to Undercity. There you will learn the rest that you need to know. If you do well, I might even consider recommending you personally. And Kaal Soulreaper always liked the students I recommended to him."
From that point on it was clear to me... he definitely talked like a mad man. And who was Kaal Soulreaper in the first place? At that point in time I wasn't able to imagine how soon I would be allowed to meet a grand warlock as him.
"Now listen carefully. I will make it brief and only say it once." He made a gesture with his staff almost hitting me on the head. I barely avoided it, being too focused on listening for what he wanted to tell me again.
"A strong and proficient warlock will be able to control three core aspects of magic. First of all and the most important by far - the shadows themselves of which I can tell you have already made contact with. You will find this basically to be your trademark for a start. You will be taught curses and other harmful spells to torture your enemy proficiently as you drain away their life's essence. And for the more destructive purposes, relying on some more brute force from time to time, we most commonly are utilizing the shadow bolt, which basically is a jet of darkest magic if you want the easy description." He makes a short pause so could catch up with the things he was saying. "The second type is fire. It is rather easy to control, for it is just as wicked and chaotic as shadows are, though will have to take some time to master it without setting yourself ablaze. Concerning this particularly fun type of magic you will be instructed with everything you need so that you will be able to set your opponent on fire in every particular way you could think of. And the third thing..." He turned around and pointed at the little imp that made squealing sounds behind us, "... will be summoning. Kayla will teach you how to summon your first pet-demon. If you grow stronger and more potent as a warlock Kaal will show you how to summon other creatures from the twisted nether. There are four demons every sophisticated warlock is able to summon, but that still is a long way away for you." He turned back at me with a sleazy smile. "Now... are you willing to learn?"
This question inherited all the fears I've ever had in my life before I died. I stood there for quite a while, completely silent. What should I do? All the questions from my former life that I died with arose out from their graves one more time just as I did. But then I realized it..., how there was no turning back either way. I had lost everything and no matter what I would do, I'd never get it back.
Then again, this would prove to be my chance to make a new start. Life or the 'Un-life' in this case granted me a new chance. The only thing I had seemed to have kept was my potential for magic. Everything else had been taken away.
Quickly it started to grow on me. In my former life, every important choice I had to make was taken from me and somebody else decided what I should do, where I should go. Now I had the chance to make my own choices for a change...
"Are you actually going to answer my question, or do you plan on standing there 'til tomorrow?" The impatient words of Maximillion snapped me out of my thoughts. And not a moment too soon
"I.., I'm sorry." I lowered my head for a moment. But as I pulled it back up, I looked right into his eyes. "Yes, I want to learn from you..."
"You don't sound too confident..., but I'm fine with that." What an arrogant bastard he was. "It's not about the words, but about what you are able to do, right? But well..., I am not going to fool you. You know how shadow magic works so you should be able to conduct your first shadow bolt on your own. Kayla will teach you how to summon an imp if you bring her the skulls of three skeletons from the lower part of the village. She needs them for the summoning ritual. It shouldn't be too difficult so off you go..."
"But..." I tried to say something before I was sent away, but he interrupted me a soon as possible.
"No 'but'-s, just go out there and don't come back without the skulls! Oh and talk to Elreth, she wants something from you too, telling from the way she looks over to you ever since you entered the room." After he had spoken these words he instantly turned around to Kayla and the imp standing behind him. I stood there for a moment in bewilderment still waiting for some more instruction on what to do. But they never followed. I soon realized that the Forsaken wouldn't turn back around again so I took the few steps to the right and faced the undead woman called Elreth. She did not hesitate at all to start talking to me.
"Hello, Hector." Her voice sounded friendly, even a bit pleading as she went on talking. "That is a very strong name." She didn't ask me right away to do things for her, instead she wanted to have some small talk before hand, yet I wasn't so easy with that and hardly answered her at all. I tried to smile at her, it was the least I could do if I'm no good with good words, isn't it? Though on the other hand, I didn't even know whether I was able to smile properly anymore. Above that I started to sense that I would have to live with the name Hector, at least for the moment.
"I may only be the novice of shadow priest Sarvis, yet I am concerned about the safety of Deathknell. So I beg you, when you go out there to collect skulls, bring rest to as many of the mindless ones in the lower part of the town as possible."
"I will do my best." Those remained to be my only words for her.
"I am sorry to bother you even more. But for the sake of my friend Marla I have another thing to ask of you." I didn't quite know what to think about all this asking, but I fell in line. "Her husband died because of the plague the Scourge brought here. He killed her with his own hands. Her last wish as a Forsaken was that somebody would bring him to rest and bury him next to her on the graveyard of this church. He wanders around a little camp south of the village with three of his former friends. You will most likely find him there."
I nodded to show her that I agreed with what she had asked of me to do. I said my farewell to her and left the building. A certain inner reluctance arose towards fulfilling everything that they wanted me to do.
Not really knowing what to do I started making my way towards the ridge that divided the village.
There was a somewhat steep slope in midst of Deathknell, dividing the part filled with mindless minions of the Scourge from the rest. Thus it being significantly lower than the rest making the ridge that much more effective.
I stood at side of this hill looking downwards for a few moments. The remains of the village were infested with zombies, ghouls and skeletons. Yet they didn't seem too aggressive otherwise they would surely have been attacking Deathknell without further hesitation. They clearly outnumbered the Forsaken up here. It would have been nothing short of a massacre.
A single one of the zombies stood quite close to me. I didn't want to head out too far just yet, so if something happened or went wrong the guards of the village could still intervene. At least for the time when I tried to kill the first one I wanted to feel safe.
I approached the creature slowly. All of a sudden it turned around on me. I instantly made a step backwards. It had noticed me!
But... nothing... it just stood there doing nothing. Should I attack, I asked myself. I guessed I would have to try at least once. Maybe the teaching of Whitemane had its use after all. At least I knew how this kind of magic worked and the spell... he called the spell shadow bolt. So I thought this spell would probably do exactly what the name said.
Staying at a fair distance to the monster, I focused on what I wanted to do, that being a bolt of fell magic striking down the zombie. I focused on killing it, laying it to rest. I focused on the creature. Then I thrust my hands towards it as they started to emit a dark violet glow.
The jet of dark magic flew directly towards its target, seemingly unable to miss its destination at any chance.
It hit the undead body piercing through the right side of its chest. The right arm of the creature was blasted off due to the initial impact, scattering splatters of blood near the zombie. The creature fell backwards and lay there without any further movement.
For a moment I just stood there not knowing what to think after I saw what I had done. I was capable of doing such things?
Then I noticed it straight out of nothing it overcame me.
No pain.
The spell didn't inflict any pain on me... So, I must have been able to cast it right. Still astonished by the effect of this shadow bolt I decided I should find another target to try it on. I had to find out whether or not I was able to reproduce it.
The undead in the area seemed to be rather passive to me. As it turned out I was able to pass by at least three of them until I reached the forge. Most of them did nothing more than to look or moan at me from a distance. So I headed straight for the forge having seen from the upper part of the village that skeletons seemed to be gathering near this building. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to go there as quickly as possible.
One of them was standing besides the building next to a small dip, it almost seemed as if it had been waiting for me to come and collect its head. Without much hesitation I decided to cast another shadow bolt at the creature. The jet of dark energy quickly flew towards the creature and hit it successfully. The skeleton fell into its parts right upon impact. Unluckily for me, I managed to hit in the head, sending its skull flying off into the woods. Dammit..., me and my bad fortune.
Maybe I was too focused on getting the skull so that the shadow bolt was driven to the head as a target.
Magic wouldn't be easy to handle, I had already feared as much but by then I started to actually understand what that meant...
If I think back about from the point at which I am now, I have to say it was ridiculously easy for me to control the shadows. I didn't notice that at that time, I was too focused on my situation at hand back then. Though I think it was sometime later... Yes, when I first was told that about one third of all warlock apprentices get killed while trying to perform their first shadow bolt, because the cast goes wrong or the shadows demand their price, that I started getting an idea of what this potential I inherited meant for me. What it was doing for me...
Being able to conduct such a powerful spell this easily made it quite trivial for me to achieve the items that undead woman wanted from me.
As I had all three of them I had already decided by then not kill too many of the zombies around me, as the guards of Deathknell should be able to handle that on their own if they really wanted to. Instead focusing on the other I had been given I left the village towards the south, following the road in search for this encampment Elreth mentioned. The forest around me grew denser, letting almost no light to the ground as the road just continued to go slightly downwards.
I didn't have to search for too long, as it was directly at the next turn of the road.
From the distance I could already see four undead roaming the area.
Damn that woman, I could have screamed once I got there. She didn't tell me which one was Marla's husband...
Knowing the strength of the spells I could conjure I drew closer towards them. They seemed to be rather passive as well all in all. A ghoul from Andorhal would have probably started to attack me the moment I left Deathknell behind.
I took my chances and guessed that they were just as mindless and none aggressive as the zombies up in the village. And I was proven right on that assumption as it seemed I didn't stress my luck too far, for the four undead creatures didn't show any sign of aggressiveness towards me even when I stood right beside them.
So there I was in between them wondering how I could find out who of them was the one I was searching for. But then chance took me by its hand and presented me a faint noise. It sounded strange but as I listened carefully I understood... One of them was saying something!
The uttering came from my right, so I turned towards that direction. A skinny zombie was standing a bit off the side. I got closer to it.
"Maaarlaaaa..." That was his word, nothing more and nothing less. He kept repeating it over and over again. So I quickly assumed I found myself the right one right there.
I took the creature out with a shadow bolt to the chest like I would any other. The jet of dark magic passed right through the body and hit the tree behind him, digging deep into the sturdy wood before eventually evaporating.
I immediately turned around ready to fend off any of the other three, but they just stood there without even the smallest reaction.
"Some friends you got there buddy..." I mumbled to myself whilst dragging the dead body behind me back towards the city. He was far too heavy to carry for me.
I passed through the zombies of the lower part of Deathknell easily, just as I did before, not even bothering about fighting against any of them.
After also having passed the ridge of spears to the upper part I looked around searching for the graveyard that woman had mentioned. I only spotted a single gravestone between the church and the ridge and decided to go there, whether or this would be the right place I should do I said to myself. And it turned out that this 'graveyard' that Elreth-woman had been talking about were only little more than three graves, two of them without a headstone. The other one still open, I threw the undead body into the hole assuming that this should be the grave of this heavy bastard.
Falling for my own curiosity I took a closer look at the inscription on the stone. It read that this was supposed to be the grave of a Marla and Samuel Fipps. Had I just killed a relative? I was a bit staggered by the fact that this could have been the brother my father sometimes had talked about. I always wanted to meet my uncle one day, but not like that...
From that point on there was not much left to do but go back, so I decided to head back into the church and afterwards to have another look at the grave and the body inside of it. Maybe I'd remember one of the old prayers I had read in a book or somewhere...
I checked once more if I really had all three skulls that this Kayla wanted for the ritual, then I entered the building. Luckily for me I had found a little bag on one of the undead as I was collecting skulls. It made things a lot easier...
All eyes lay on me as I came through the door. It almost looked as if they had been waiting for my return. I walked directly up to Elreth telling her that I did as she had said.
"It's good to hear that you put him to rest, I hope he can find peace this time." I nodded in agreement.
She thanked me once more before I turned around and left her, making my way to the other side of the room where the warlock and his assistant were eagerly waiting.
"How did it go, apprentice? Do have everything we wanted?" Maximillion asked me right away, cutting straight to the chase.
"Yes, of course..." The tone of my voice sounded probably a bit too annoyed for my own good as the warlock offered me an angry look for that in return.
"Hand them over..." He extended his right arm so I could give the skulls to him while he already turned around halfway. I gave all three of them to him and he handed them to Kayla instantly.
"So... Kayla will take a moment of two to prepare the ritual..." She put the skulls on the floor behind us in a triangle. "Then she will start to summon an imp from the twisted nether, the home dimension of all demons, a nice place you should get to know some time... If she does well, an imp will appear. If not, maybe something worse smashing us all into tiny little bits..." I looked at him in some sort of bewilderment. He said that all as if it was nothing and it let me wonder if all warlocks were going to be like this.
"When the imp appears, you have to demand from him to tell you his name. It is essential that you do that because if somebody else does it, this demon will be bound to the other person and I don't want to be a master of another imp. I already have eight or nine due to worthless apprentices before you..." He threw a quick look over his shoulder checking whether Kayla was already set or not.
"After you spoke to the little bugger, he will most likely refuse to tell you his name and most likely start to attack you immediately. If that happens, you have to defeat him in combat. It's as simple as that... An imp has not too much stamina, so just hit him two or three times. Once he surrenders, he is bound to tell you his name. Sometimes those old demon-rules come in handy after all."
Kayla started summoning after she had prepared everything without any delay.
"Oh and beg that the demon refuses and attacks, if he tells you his name willingly, you got a wimpy. Those demons are no use at all..." He offered me a twisted smile as he was saying these words.
I still didn't exactly know what to expect, but I had little choice but to roll with it.
A dark portal appeared in between the three skulls, it was the first time I had ever seen one. The whole thing was rather small, but I guess an imp should fit through it easily. It was a total of six magic hands, ripping apart the fabric of our world, tearing it open so that this twisted little creature would be able to slip through.
Only few seconds later a little yellow glowing creature stood in the middle of the skulls making squealing sounds and talking in a language that was not friendly to one's ears. It actually hurt hearing the creature talk. The language inflicted physical pain...
"By the way, that is the demonic language that puny little bastard is talking in. Actually not too hard to learn and understand... but every demon knows the common language. They are more intelligent than they look." Maximillion whispered to me. "Now... go on... this could be your demon!" Maximillion casually made a few steps backwards.
The imp jumped around furiously on the other hand. I could only imagine how the words he was saying were demanding to let him go back home.
I gathered the courage and stepped forward to the squealing little thing. How hard could it be?
"Tell me... your name!" I stuttered a bit, this all felt rather strange at that time. "I will be your new master!"
The imp turned around jumping up and down.
"My naaaame? YOU waaaant to hear my naaaame? SET ME FREEEE NOW! I will never tell you my naaaame!"
The creature started waving his hands letting them emit a fiery glow. Only seconds later a bolt of fire flew past my head and hit the stone wall behind me. I almost didn't catch on to it in time.
From the corner of my eyes I saw how the warlock behind me already started shaking his head.
I thought for a few seconds but seeing no other way I wanted to end this quickly. I concentrated on the imp, but without the intention to kill him. I just wanted to disable him, so I would cast a single shadow bolt at the creature. At least that was the theory behind my plan.
The jet of light was glowing in a strong dark violet as it flew through the room. It hit the creature directly in the face sending it flying backwards and hitting the wall hard.
"I said defeat it, not kill it!" The warlock behind me screamed out loud as soon as the body of the imp came to a stop on the ground, the others in the room all looking at me in a mixture of shock and horror I assume. All of them were staring at me. At that time I wondered whether that was because of the spell I cast, a presumption that was never proven to me.
The imp only slowly got back to his feet. I looked down at it waiting for it to speak up again. But it only sat down on the floor holding its head with both its much too short little arms. I decided to take this into my hands before Maximillion could interfere yet again.
"Now tell me imp! What is your name?" Saying these words somehow felt good, but it is hard to describe the true feeling behind of it.
"Baaaastaaaard! You aaaalmost killed me!" The creature made a few unidentifiable squealing sounds before standing up again.
Within the blink of an eye the demon was surrounded by flames again.
"My naaaame you seek..." The demon squealed unhappily.
"It is Pipfip..."