CHAPTER 7
The elf covered her mouth with her hands, and the elf only pressed his lips tighter.
- You yourself understand what this means. The elders will not allow an initiated necromancer to live in the Forest. And to neglect the initiation...
"We understand," the elf nodded. "The craving for kindred energy and the impossibility of obtaining it will distort his mind, pushing him to obtain this energy in a natural way. In the most cruel way."
- Yes. I will, as expected, conduct the initiation to measure life - the baby is compatible with it, like all of us. But the rest... It's your choice. Do you need time to think?
"Do whatever it takes," the elf nodded stubbornly, and his wife gratefully placed her hand on his forearm.
- Are you sure? With your position in society...
- Our son will not be a crazy ripper, but he will not grow up an orphan either, healer.
I didn't expect any other answer. Not after a century of this couple trying to conceive. Now all that was needed was to create the necessary seals to connect the baby to the energetic dimensions of life and death.
Taking off my shoulder bag, I placed it on the floor of the house made of living wood to get the necessary ingredients. Looking up, I saw the empty streets of the white-stone city. The perfect walls of two- and three-story houses, but the windows were tightly closed, and only from some of them peered the curious faces of children, almost immediately led into the depths of the house by their parents. There, in the distance, the bright spires of the Academy were visible, and the shielded magic accumulators on the highest of the towers glowed like barely visible blue dots.
"Are you ready?" an old voice came from beside me.
Turning my head towards the sound, I saw the old man in the blue robe that I was tired of. In one hand he held a massive wooden white staff, the top of which was a sharpened blue quartz - the rarest mineral and one of the best accumulators of any magical energy.
"More respect for your elders, rector," I said with a grin as I pulled out a bundle of oblong metal cylinders covered with tiny runes from my bag.
"No way," the old man stubbornly pursed his lips, running his hand over his snow-white beard. "I didn't toil for the Empire for two hundred years so that in my old age I wouldn't be able to say what I want. And the way I want."
He stood up and stood next to the old man. We were both looking at the same thing - a fenced-in area with a large private mansion. Only it fell out of the general "ideality" of the city - almost the entire area seemed to be covered in a viscous dark fog, and the ground, trees, walls of the house - everything seemed to be covered in an almost impenetrable black mass.
"And what is it this time? A failed experiment?" I turned to the old man, looking out for the dark amorphous shadows that kept appearing and then disappearing in this disgusting magical mess.
"Narcissistic magical families, that's what. They were told that their child was incapable of projecting dimensional energy into reality, but no, they were still fools," the old man grumbled, tapping his staff on the perfectly smooth stone of the road under his feet.
— Did they really conduct the initiation?
- Exactly! They are the smartest of all. Their lineage has existed since the foundation of the Empire! And it would be fine if they conducted the initiation with fire - they would burn, and that's where they belong. But no, darkness and Chaos. I feel sorry for the child...
— And there are no adults?
- I've been tired of pitying fools for about fifty years now. There's not enough pity for them all. And where have you been? Meditating on some bush again, I suppose?
- You are exaggerating, rector.
Suddenly the mansion literally exploded in darkness, and from its depths a gigantic amorphous shadow darted towards us, the basis of which was a huge black skull with an open jaw. It was inexorably approaching, causing fear...
Jumping up in my bed, I felt my nightgown stuck to my body and completely wet.
"A dream… Just a dream…" I said out loud, looking around the dark room.
The scurrying shadows in the corner caught my attention. As soon as I looked there, a black skull flew out of the darkness, flying towards me with a nasty squeaky hum.
Jumping up in my bed, I looked at the nasty, ancient electronic alarm clock that was emitting a nasty squeaky hum. Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned it off by pressing the button, and immediately fell back into bed. There was no sweat.
- Shit...
The morning was early, the bed was warm, and I didn't want to move at all. Magic... Energy... I need to remember these aspects better, combing through the elf's memory. Or at least make some kind of summary from that pile of images. Of course, familiar magic may not find any practical application in this world, but even a small amount of understanding can contribute to the quality of my existence here as a wizard.
Having finally woken up, dressed and washed up, I went down to breakfast. What date is it today? Hmm, there's nothing to look at, maybe in the newspaper. But the end of July is definitely that.
I was thoughtful at breakfast, but quickly decided not to get so lost in thought - my parents were worried that I would start "staring into space" again.
"I'm thinking," I smiled modestly in response to the worried looks. "So much different information to comprehend."
The parents smiled timidly, clearly relieved. I should pay more attention to them - even though I didn't have children, I had to deal with parents who were saddened by the state of their child's health more than once or twice.
After breakfast I went to my room to think calmly.
Magic is multifaceted and comprehensive, but upon closer examination, one can draw several conclusions about its essence, if not its mechanics. A wizard, an elf, or any other creature or artifact — all take magic either from external or internal sources. For example, the energy of fire from a fire, or air from air. Internal sources — from the connection of the soul or the simplest spiritual-material structure with the energy dimensions of the world. Yes, purely technically, the energy from the connection with dimensions is also not internal — its source is external. But I did not come up with such a classification, especially since the methods of application differ significantly.
External energy is completely intractable for use in volitional manipulation. Unreasonable magical creatures use it to feed themselves, because some, for example, fire salamanders, have a body that converts energy into an effect. For this reason, the vast majority of magicians and wizards encountered in the memory of the fragments use various seals, circles, rune chains and other products of teeth-grinding calculations to direct the necessary energy into them and create a spell. Of course, you can power a fireball with any energy, and not at all with fire, but it is the energy of fire that will be poured into the structure with almost no resistance, its consumption will be lower, and the result will be better.
Internal - energy that a creature draws from another dimension. It has the same gradation by subspecies, but there are a number of conditions. Initially, only a few creatures are capable of this, and if wizards had not met them, they would not even know about other energy dimensions, but that is not the point. A wizard must first be "connected" to a dimension - initiation. But this can be done in two cases - with the ability to project the energy of dimensions into the world, and with an affinity with this energy. If you ignore these conditions, the consequences can be terrible for both the young or not so talented, and for those around him. But if it so happens that the wizard fits the conditions and undergoes initiation, then he receives a number of undeniable advantages.