Viktor continued to descend, the voices that seemed to be casting a spell clearer with each step. He still didn't understand the words they were singing; they seemed to belong to a language he did not know. But as he listened to them he felt his scalp tighten and his hair stand on end. Sound leaked like icy liquid from every pore.
Suddenly Viktor realized his teeth were chattering, so he clenched his jaws. Was it really from the cold under the house, or was it due to something else?
The stone steps ended and he began another corridor, this one made of crumbling bricks, glittering with algae and water. The ceiling was covered with cobwebs where the skeletal corpses of their owners could be seen. The light flickered at the other end of the hall. By going down that path, Viktor risked coming face to face with whoever was casting the spell, probably Doctor Tepes, but now he couldn't help himself.
Before he knew it, he was peering around the archway at the other end
The doctor had finished sewing the opening of the corpse and was now making strange gestures with his hands on the body; as the spell increased in intensity. This curious procedure made Viktor's stomach turn. Every gesture the doctor made was burned into his memory. The incomprehensible words of the spell reverberated in his mind as if they were familiar.As the mantra continued, the atmosphere in the laboratory cellar changed perceptibly. Viktor felt static electricity build up inside his own body as if he were trapped in the middle of an incipient electrical storm. He felt the shadows thicken around him. The air itself had taken on a suffocating quality. He looked greasy and tainted.Seen out of the corner of his eye, as he watched the doctor and the ritual taking place below, the impenetrable darkness that refused to disappear from the corners of the vault seemed to run like oil across the ceiling and ruined walls and gradually envelop the room, as if the shadows we
Viktor knew that he should have reported what he had seen that night, what he thought he had seen, to the Inquisitors. But now it was too late. In fact, he should have gone to the Inquisition earlier, after the discovery he had made in Dr. Tepes' library or even before that, when he saw the body snatchers. Of course, it was too late. The consequences for him were too dire and final to consider. No, he should just watch and wait alone and unaided for this to be over.On the thirtieth day of the month, Herwin visited him again. The excuse was that Professor Theodria had sent him to find out what had happened to Viktor and find out what was happening. Herwin was treated unceremoniously and Viktor dismissed him without giving any reason for his recent absence from school.Herwin returned four days later and insisted that they let him in and the two apprentices explain what was going on. On that occasion, a delusional Erich expelled him from the apartment. Herwin stormed of
I can still remember the first time I took the life of another man as clearly as it had been yesterday.I have killed many. The bully Inquisitor, the desperate prostitute, the unloyal soldier, the alcoholic priest, the grumbling ferrywoman, the repulsive and manipulative bloodsucker of the Moroi clan, the rude undertaker, the half-deranged militia soldier, the pompous nobleman, the master of the wizard's guild, my own apprentice, the big-whisked rat catcher, the stupid adventurer who fancied himself a hero, the innocent twins, the greedy thief.But I still remember the first. The first is special.I can still see his face as he strangled him. I can see the red and bulging eyes, the swollen tongue sticking out of the mouth, the puffed cheeks turning from pink to purple. I can hear the husky gurgling sputtering of the man choking and trying to inhale air that will never reach his lungs. I feel his desperate hands hitting m
Viktor arrived at the apartment building as the temple bells struck ten o'clock. In the dark, one of his feet brushed against something hairy and wet. Viktor stopped and took a step back.The unearthly luminescence of the moon illuminated even the darkness of the street, where the light devoid of shades stripped the object of all its color, but in spite of that it was unmistakable.Erich's cat lay dead in the street. His skinny body was unnaturally stretched out. Hideously black blood stained his spiky ginger hair where the wagon wheel had passed over him.Seeing such an incongruous image momentarily distracted Viktor from his own worries and anguish. Erich would be greatly affected. For some strange reason, he adored that grungy stray cat.Viktor bent down and scooped up the cat's body in the cape. The pungent acrid smell of the dead animal assaulted his nostrils even more strongly than the smell of
Viktor turned his head slowly and saw that Erich was standing in the doorway, his horrified face turned into conspicuous shock. For a moment, neither of them said anything. Viktor was busy panting, and Erich was simply too scared to say anything.Viktor's roommate had no need to explain what he was doing there. If anyone had to explain something, it was Viktor. And yet it was Erich, still standing in the doorway and not daring to step through, the first to speak.“I… I heard the cat. He was meowing. M… I wondered what had happened to him. "Viktor glanced at the body lying on the workbench. The front of the ginger cat hung from the edge of the table."Well, now you know," Viktor replied.Erich looked from Viktor to the cat and back to Viktor, the same shocked expression of horror painted on his face."H ... how?" was the only thing he coul
His dreams grew darker, but he told himself it was undoubtedly a simple adaptation to his new gift.Each night, by the light of a lamp, he filled notebook after notebook with notes of his new discoveries. It had been weeks since Viktor and Erich had last attended a class at the magic school.They slept during the day, and when dusk cast its shadows over the city, they ventured outside to discreetly make their way to the warehouse.Each night they followed a different route, sometimes retracing their own steps in order to make sure they did not follow them and to avoid detection. They worked non-stop until the first gleams of the pre-dawn light began to fade the velvety darkness of the sky.And so they continued as the first month of autumn progressed. But life was on its way to the other side of the insular world of darkness they had created, and by the twelfth day of the month the plague had already
After Viktor delivered the letter to be sent to his sister, he and Erich met again at the warehouse. Now, after sunset, the air had a characteristic autumnal chill that suggested the season was about to change again. In too little time the decline of autumn would give way to winter and the dead months of the year. A chilly wind blew in from under the wooden doors and whistled through the slate tiles above the hayloft.They were surrounded by a scene not much different from the one they had discovered in Dr. Tepes's basement. There were trestle tables, covered with Viktor's open notebooks. On a workbench were the instruments of a surgeon. And in the middle of all this was a heavy oak table set to become an autopsy table when the opportunity presented itself.Erich had "acquired" most of the equipment and Viktor preferred not to ask how he had gotten it. Viktor had just told him what he needed and Erich provided it. Around all this he hung a s
Let me tell you a little about the nature of what you vaguely call "magic."I have never liked that word for it because it describes too poorly the reciprocal action of energy that only a few are capable of generating with enough power and control to affect the material plane.Those of us who have been blessed with the ability to control the ebb and flow of Mana do not see the world as mere mortals do. Our minds exist at the same time in the everyday material world and the dazzling magical world that only users of this power can know.This is so in the case of all sorcerers, Wizards, Witches and any user of arcane powers, including those who practice the science of death.The malevolent negative energy that necromancy uses is by far the most dangerous form of magic, but some will say the most powerful as well. But don't get me wrong, negative energy involves both physical and mental sacrifice as it c