Darkmancer Chapter 9

Note : This story is completely fictional!

When I finally arrived at the repair room, I found Tom working mending a large Sofa from, one of the house recreational rooms. Both Tom and I were members of House Drenda, there were five houses in total. House Drenda, which was a house for people who powers were drawn from spirit, their symbol was an open eye. House Gresham, for those who drew their power from Earth, their symbol was a tree, growing on a mound, on an ivy green background. House Ignitium, for those who drew their power from fire, whose symbol was a yellow flame on a red background. House Axoxis, for those that drew their power from water, whose symbol was a drop of water, on a sea blue background. 

Finally there was House Avarie for those who drew their power from air, whose symbol was a bolt of lightening on a silver background. He melded the broken leg back together, with his powers. When the leg was completely mended I clapped, he spun round and laughed at me, Lucifer still sat on my shoulder jumped off and flew over and landed flat on Tom’s chest. He was still uncomfortable around Lucifer, as her felt a little left out, after all he was my child, my creation, and I had created his soul, a temporary construction of Darkmantic energy which if it was to survive, would need regular infusions every 36 hours. That was if Lucifer didn’t use his powers to much, however, Lucifer had been nearly constantly invisible since his birth, a soul planted into a dead Imp’s body.

“Nice to see you too Lucifer”
Lucifer jumped of him and flew back to my shoulder, which had become a perch for him.
“Tom, I found the Map of the school and this” I took the strange dildo like Ebon’stone rod from my pocket. Tom’s eyes widened at the sight of the strange tool.
“What is it for Sam?”
“It’s used in the creation of an Ill’guard, the black essence is placed in the Heartstone crystal at the end, then its inserted up a mages arsehole, until the Ebon’stone is inside, the with the application of Dark Lightning, the High Magick essence is weakened. With the essence weakened to a certain point, the black essence slinks up the crystal taper and into the Mages Body corrupting them rapidly into an Ill’guard”
“Sounds like fun, are you going to do it tonight?”
“Nope, not tonight, I don’t have the time, I still have some research to complete for summoning class first thing tomorrow. Plus you are busy and I want you there to help me with the corruption”
“Well when do you plan on doing this process on a Mage then?”
“I was think sometime tomorrow evening”
“Do you have a target selected, or is it going to be pot luck who gets turned”
“Much like many of my own actions, I shall follow my whims”
“Well I have a lot of work to do tonight, and so do you, so what are you doing then with this research?”
“Well its on the summoning of celestial creatures from the realm of Mechanus, so I have to make some notes, I can grab a book in the library and head to the room and do my work there. What time did you say you would be back?”
“Midnight by the look of this pile of junk to be fixed”
“See you later then”

I turned and walked out of the office, which true to Tom’s word was packed nearly to the ceiling with all sorts of broken objects. Lucifer mumbled to himself as I walked down the halls, I knew today had been tiring on him and he would soon need feeding, as much of his energy had been drained by the near constant use of his power. With the urgency in mind I grabbed Lucifer of my shoulders, in response he squeaked and held him close to my chest. I grabbed the pendant around my neck with the other, checking all was clear, I activated the amulet and was teleported to the Secret Lab, I opened the door and walked out checked that the resource room was clear, to my shock I was Mr Handel, a History Teacher, sitting at the table with a pile of scrolls and books, I could not leave this set of chambers, Lucifer who was buy now visible, was floating around me waiting to leave. 

I walked back to the Office, up the stairs. I walked in and looked through the titles with nothing better to do I thought I could read one of the many Darkmancer Grimoires that were on the shelves and bookcases. I scanned through titles looking for a decent book. I found 2 that peaked my interest; ‘On Magickal Teleportation’ and ‘On Ill’guard and the creation’ I opened the teleport book and read through looking for a spell of teleportation I could use. I found the explanation of a Darkmancers ability to open a Dark Portal, to teleport anywhere you had already been, our knew well enough, such as through the map, through another dimension. I read on putting everything to memory, I decided to try out the ability. 

Using my powers I opened the doorway, a great black gash in the wall, grabbing Lucifer I walked through, upon entering I became momentarily weightless, and then I stepped out into my room.
It had worked; I had successfully opened a portal by simply willing one to open on the wall to take me form the office to my room. It had been that simple to call forth. I opened the map in my pocket and checked the library, seeing that there was no one in the Celestial section I decided to use this new power to my advantage.

I called another portal and walked through been teleported through to the Celestial section in the library, like the histories section, that the secret rooms where hidden it was most often deserted, but with the map I knew it was safe to use the teleportation to reach this room. scanning through the tomes for a book of summoning, finding a simplistic book on the summoning of a Lantern Archon I removed it and returned through the still open portal back to my room, as soon as I stepped through. As though reading my mind it closed behind me. I went to my desk and made notes, on the Archon and on the ritual for summoning one. While I had this book at hand, I took another sheet of paper and began to change the ritual. I had a new ritual, which firstly summoned a Lantern Archon, trapped it inside a sphere of Balefire, making it immobile and incapacitating, from there I could do what I liked with the creature. Archons of any variety from the lowly Lantern to the Solar’s that ruled entire celestial planes, were comprised of pure High Magick, unlike humans, who all had the seed of evil within them Archons were pure good. However, with my new found abilities I hoped to corrupt one, making it a being of Darkmancy rather then of High Magick. When Tom and I had time I hoped to try out this process. 

I took the map out of my pocket and opened it fully, I looked for a room, with lots of people to appear, as I moved my finger over the map, which started off as a full view of the school, I tapped on an area and it enlarged, zooming in on the common room of House Drenda, I found six people were sitting in the seating area, I tapped on one of the blips, the ink reformed into the image of a young mage sat on a seat, words formed on the edge of the page, written on was his name, age and power. I scanned through many different students, of all different ages, looking for a new potential Ill’guard. I took note of a few potential people and folded the map back. I called Lucifer over to me who had been sat on the bed, curling up like a small puppy. He flew over and landed on my chest, I walked into the bathroom and ran a sink full of warm water and grabbed a hand towel from the railing and put it behind the taps. 

“Lucifer, have a bath, baby”
he dropped into the water and began to splash about a bit, as I ran my own bath, when it was about 5inches deep I turned into a newt and began to swim about. After a good half hour of swimming I returned to my human form and drained the bath. 

I cleaned it and dried myself off, allowing my skin to grow fur to stop me getting cold, the fur coloured white and I walked over to Lucifer, who was still splashing about in the sink. I picked up the towel and lifted him out of the sink and dried him. Carrying out in one hand against my chest as he was falling rapidly to sleep. I walked through the room to my bed and opened the drawer in the side table taking out the clothes that were in it, for the first time I used Tom’s power to re shape some underwear into a small mattress that fitted perfectly into the drawer, I shaped the vests into a blanket and shaped a few handkerchiefs into a pillow, I placed Lucifer down in his little bed and covered him in the blanket before I myself went to bed. I got into bed and for the first time, realised I dint share my sheets with Tom, since we had first made love after that we had shared our bed with each other. I took longer then usual for me to drop to sleep.

I woke up with a start at 5am, Lucifer was pulling at my ear, I spun to see Tom in bed next to me asleep, and a smile crept unbidden on my face. I turned my attention to Lucifer, who was desperately trying to gain it. I realised with horror what the problem was, his energy was dropping low, he wanted feeding, I dropped the fur from my skin and was naked in the sheets. I sat up in bed careful not to wake Tom, lifting the cover from my top half, my chest bare to the environs. Lucifer flew and landed on my chest, crawling up from my waist, up to my nipples. He clamped his toothless mouth around my nipple and sucked like a calf at its mother’s udder, drinking deeply for nourishing milk, however, Lucifer sucked for Darkmantic energy. When I had created Lucifer from the dead corpse o an infant Imp, I had planted in an artificial spirit, without a High Magick essence to place the new spirit around the energy would eventually consume itself and fizzle out. To stop this from happening I had planted Lucifer with the ability to suck at my nipple, like he would his mother and draw out Darkmantic energy. However, he could also draw out the energy of a High Magick essence and grow more powerful. He sucked for a good ten minutes draining energy from me, an insignificant sample of the power from the void, which was now completely under my control. Lucifer flew over to his bed and went back to sleep, I did the same and wrapping a hand round Tom’s waist. Dropping quickly back to sleep, with him next to me.

When we woke later at 8am we had very little time to talk, not even having the chance of a communal shower, we got dressed into the formal school robes. Monday was one of my worst days, the school day started at 9am sharp. My timetable was horrific, 2 hours of Alchemy, although I was a talented alchemist, the lectures and tomes we studied were unbelievably boring. Then we had a 30 minute break, followed by another 2 hours this time of Sorcery, with Miss Agatha Harkness, the oldest teacher here, training us in the correct use of magick, both inside the school and in the wider world, training us in the arts of concentration and helping us to master our innate powers. This was singularly the worst lesson, I hated it profusely, and I already had mastery of my abilities. However Miss Harkness constantly told me, ‘You, boy are no master, you still love to shift. You only have mastery when you hate having to use your power, then you are its master.’ I hated her rants, if we hated our powers that we might as well never use them. We where then given an hour and a half for lunch then we had three one hour afternoon lessons. I had another bout of Alchemy, then double summoning class, where we had to learn to summon extra planar creatures. 

Until this point it had always been Lucas Haas, a stuck up 18 year old mage who had been the best summoner in the class. He was a master of summoning Celestial creatures once he had managed to summon a Hound Archon, one of he higher level celestial beast. Although I thought today I could use a slight touch of Darkmancy to summon a Hereazou. Bound to my will, however, I would need a special tool. I knew where I cold get one. After the first round of Alchemy I returned to the room in a rush and grabbed the key from my chest. casting a special spell to capture any dismissed infernal being and binding it to my will. A Hereazou was a proficient infernal sorcerer with a mastery of air magick. I endured Sorcery, living through near constant shifting, trying to show the witch Harkness my skill, for all my hard work all I got was ‘Humph, a little improvement, more natural, but your still slow to shift.’

Lunch was unpleasant; I sat alone missing both Tom and Lucifer, who still slept in his bed, cast in an unnatural sleep so his power wouldn’t be drained. However, I needed someone to be with, Tom was nowhere in sight. I finished my helping of grass, running down the field still in my horse shape to the building. Changing into a raven as I jumped flying up to the balcony. I landed on the railing and jumped down returning to my human form. Walking into the room I opened the drawer and took the crystal that held Lucifer asleep, with it removed he woke and jumped up at me. 
“Hey, Lucifer do you want to come to class with me, I'm going to have some fun with a Hereazou?”
“Eigh” a yes escaped Lucifer’s lips. 

I allowed him to climb onto my shoulder and walked out onto the balcony, with a shimmer Lucifer turned invisible. I jumped of the balcony and turned into an eagle, Lucifer looked shocked then clamed onto my back, he still knew his mother. I flew towards the western point for another bout of alchemy. 

After alchemy I ran down the crowded halls to the summoning Lab. Mr Witchet the teacher was helping set up Lucas’s summoning ring, to call fourth a Deva one of the highest in the pantheon of celestial beings. I checked the key was still in the pocket, feeling it with a sense of glee the keys presence. I set up my own ring, a ring with a pentagram made of red chalk with a ring of ancient Kelvish runes of binding and controlling around the edge. With it prepared I watched as others summoned and some passed some summoning weak elementals, a few celestials. Then it was Lucas, as he began his ritual I opened my palm. Sending out a Dark Filament one molecule thick towards the ring, slightly touching the edge, cutting up the white chalk mark. With the ring broken I cut of the filament and it vanished. I watched as Lucas failed the summoning, there was a puff of smoke.