Darkmancer Chapter 3

I woke up at 5am the following morning to find myself wrapped in the arms of Tom, he was still fast asleep. I gently and slowly slipped out of his grasped and got out of bed. I realised that I was standing naked and allowed my skin to sprout a coat of fur, striped like a tigers. I also formed a set of linen breaches form my flesh and snuck out on to the balcony, grabbing my fags and lighter from the table, I walked onto the third floor balcony and lit a fag, dragging deeply and exhaling I sat down and began to think. Then like a tonne of bricks been dropped on my head I realised, alcohol, it set of alarm bells in my head. I never until that moment thought that a single word could cause such panic. One of the reasons why alcohol was banned on site was because of its inherent properties; it generated an internal null-magick effect as long the alcohol was in your blood stream. Then it struck me, I could not contain the joy and began to laugh, loudly, and with such force that the accumulated ash on the ash tray leapt out in small puffs. The potion would have no effect because it was mixed with alcohol, instantly nullifying the effect of the potion. Tom was a Fedaykinm, his love or lust, I was unsure of which it was, had been what had caused us to make the long passionate sex for those blissful 2 hours, ravaging each others bodies. “What’s so funny?” I leapt out of my chair and dropped the fag onto the floor. I must have woken Tom up. He stood in the doorway wrapped in the sheets form my bed. “Nothing really I was just thinking.” “You should come back to bed, its only 20 past 5 and it’s a Saturday.” “Sorry, I'm up and won’t be able to get back to sleep now. I didn’t mean to wake you” “Forget it, but if you don’t mind i’m going back to bed” “Good night” Tom walked back inside and shut the door, I picked up and stubbed out the fag. I walked over to the railing at the edge of the balcony and leapt off the edge, as I fell I willed my flesh to flow into the form of a Raven, flapping I flew into the air. I soared round in a slow arch around the perimeter of the school. I landed by the small lake, my flesh shifted and I turned into a frog. I bounded into the lake in one jump and turned instantly into a large Koi. Swimming deeper into the lake, this was something of a hobby, using my powers to have a bit of fun. This was one of the drawbacks to been a metamorph, tiring of one form quickly, constantly changing aspects, improving muscles to perform task more easily, extending to reach things instead of getting up. However, I basked in the freedom it gave me. Never stuck in one form, never bound by appearances or how I felt, like this I could do as I wanted. I swam full speed to the surface, leaping out and instantly turning back into a Raven. I flew over to the kitchens and as I neared the ground reverted back into my human form, instead of wearing the usual robes, due to it been the weekend we could wear what we wanted, I shifted and covered myself with scales like a snake and walked into the kitchens. It was empty, nothing was ready yet, I was too early for a meal. I decided I knew what I could do, with a few hours until people began to move about now was as good a time as any. I ran of down the halls heading to the library, sinking fully into the form of a giant anaconda. I slithered down the halls into the library, straight to the bookcase, in the back corner of the library. Reverting back into my naked human form I opened the doorway by pressing the gargoyles, which was carved into the bookcase, penis when pushed and released the door swung open and I entered closing the door behind me. I ran up the tight stairs and opened a specific book, in it was the way to activate the nodes, tomorrow in the early hours of the day I intended on becoming a true Darkmancer. I sat at the table and opened the main tome, which was housed in a beautiful glass fronted cabinet, reading through the tome, it sunk into me what I had to do. I walked over to the cabinet and swung open the doors there in the space was a chest, it was locked, I tried all the spells of unlocking and opening I could think of, with no effect. I sat down at the small table, angry, the blade I needed to point me to the exact location of the nodes, and to drip my blood onto the node to link it to my body, mind and soul, was locked inside the chest. I slammed the book shut in rage. Then I saw it, on the front cover I had always thought it was the emblem of the last Darkmancer, a gilt silver key. I placed my fingers and ran them over the surface; the key wasn’t embossed like I had originally thought. It was removable, I worked it until it popped out and the silver key lay in my hand, the gold of the pentagram shone from the deep red of the Heartstone crystal. I walked back to the chest and slid the key into the lock, I turned it slightly to the left, feeling the mechanisms turn; I carried on turning and the lock, with a loud crack the chest opened. Inside the velvet lined chest there lay a small black leather book written in the same runic text and there laid the Ebon’stone dagger, its blade was pure black, flecked with silver streaks and rivers inside, the hilt was carved Heartstone, shaped live a viper coiled on itself up with the end of the hilt been the opened mouth, sat inside the mouth was a flat disc of Heartstone, deep inside the disc, a sliver of Ebon’stone seemed to float inside the crystal, however, the fangs were pointed into the disc, I spun the dagger in my hand and nicked my finger, I spun the dagger round and allowed a single drop of my blood to fall on the disc. The Heartstone absorbed the blood; the sliver began to spin and pointed me in a north-eastern direction. I ran of down the hall following the twists and turns of the sliver of Ebon’stone. It led me to each of the points on the pentagram formation of the School. At each of the points there was a statue of a Kappa, a mythical creature who had the body of a tortoise, but the head arms and legs of a monkey, their skulls were open and filled with water. There was one of these statues in an alcove, at every point of the pentagram. I had to drop a drip of blood into the open head of the kappa because inside the skull of these carvings was a crystal sliver of Heartstone. These slivers were in fact nodes that the last Darkmancer had used. When he foresaw his death he realised he had 2 options, die and all Darkmancy die with him, or bind his powers into these nodes so that some future person could tap into the Darkmantic well of energy that he had created. The last of these nodes was located in the central hall, it was in the central huge statue, one of its finger nails was the node in disguise, I dripped the blood on the node and it shone. The ritual was complete the power was linked to me, after 24 hours I would be able to absorb the powers into my own being, rather then just using the tip of the Darkmancers powers. I looked at the clock, it was 10 past eight, and I ran of down the halls, back towards the housing block in the external fields.