"So nice to finally meet you, handsome one. I bet you must be… Humm what? About 600 years old? I tell you this. You don't look past 200 years, you charming devil."
Smiling wide I addressed the hideous, putrid and rotten mage corpse that was standing in front of me.
It was time to put my bet against the deadly adversary. The Lich was commanding that monotone choir of the hostages.
It was not hard to find the location of the Lich and his hostages.
They were at the center of one of the three petals that were part of the Triskle shaped hedge maze.
All we needed to do was follow the sound of their voices.
Between me and the dead sorcerer, stood seven of the missing security guards.
Including Cínthia.
They all seemed unharmed so far.
The crowd of guards blocked the only passage. We needed to go over them to reach the dark mage.
The creature was standing by the side of a luminous crystal fountain.
Every single member of the security team present behaved like puppets. Their bodies remained in an almost motionless position. Like the wired dolls they stood with their arms resting inert by their weight. Waiting for the command of their master.
Their heads pointed to the Lich.
The cadenced movement of their jaws was their only sign of life. With seven mouths opening and closing in unison. Reciting non-stop the same lifeless melodic chant that led me to them.
The only thing that gave me any hope of finding them alive.
"OH HO MA RA AHH, BO... HO NER IOH JHA...OH HO MA RA..."
Time after time, like repeating a mantra. The guards kept saying that same line in a mumbled and monotone choir.
I knew what they were doing.
It was quite obvious for someone with my training.
They spoke a forbidden spell in a language long forgotten by time. An ancient language that was far older than Latin. Probably the first language ever used to perform magic in human history. Lost for some time, rediscovered and widely spread by sorcerers during the dark ages.
I recognized the dreadful chant, I couldn't forget that cadence of murmurs even if I wanted. Once you learn that forbidden spell you get hunted by it forever.
"The Spiritual Scythe"
I came to the conclusion that the Triskle as an amplifier of good magic would no longer serve its purpose. But, the symbol of the soul could still act as a catalyst for spiritual magic. Serving to direct the soul's energy from the security guards to the reanimated monster.
He was siphoning their lifeforce to prolong his own existence.
So, what I deduced before was correct. It was impossible to summon a creature without a proper sacrifice. The summoning act by using an artificial human was not as perfect as my opponent desired. And the Lich was experiencing a rapid decay since then.
I could see luminous tendrils of living force coming out of the hearts of the guards. Converging to the exposed heart of the Lich like gold threads of light. Linking each one of them to the hideous dead sorcerer.
As I suspected, none of the guards move at all. Nor did they notice my presence close to them.
Despite my apparition a few feet behind their backs, they kept their magic trance. Not showing any reaction.
Even when I talked to their host.
Mindless.
Emptied bodies surrendered in a deep hypnotic suggestion. Trapped in a deadly trance until their bodies ceased to function by the lack of vitality.
But the Lich didn't like to see me at all.
Surprised by my sudden performance the dead mage stopped what he was doing.
I continued to smile. Looking at him in a way that resembled a friend apologizing for being late to the party.
Yet, despite my polite introduction, I was unable to avoid the anger burst of the sorcerer.
His teeth ground and that living corpse hissed showing sharp yellow fangs. While a few droplets of a brown fluid poured from his filthy mouth.
A vision that didn't help to make the thing look less menacing or less ugly.
The angered monster looked at me with his empty skull orbs. He moved his left hand and pointed a boned scepter that he carried to my direction.
From where I was, I could hear the guttural mumbling coming out of the Lich's mouth. And I knew that the dead mage pronounced an evil enchantment.
An enormous blast of destructive dark matter came out of the tip of the magic weapon.
The beam was so fast that I couldn't avoid it.
But that was never my intent.
Surprising the creature, the damned blast passed through me. The dark magic charred the hedge wall behind my illusion. The destructive power of the blast created a hole in the green wall.
At the same time, my mirage began to faint.
Before the creature could understand what was happening, I made my move.
Seizing my opportunity, I jumped from the hedge behind the mage, where I really was.
I landed at the back of the monster and used my scarf to bind the creature's mouth. The force of my impact against his back made the dead mage collapse to the floor.
The Lich's face hit the ground with a loud thud and their fingers tried to tighten the grip around his scepter.
On the creature's back, I pressed my knee to keep the thing pinned to the ground. Pulled the scarf against the rotten flesh, tying it behind its head to gag the monster. Next, I bent its arms backward, tying then together in a tight knot against each other. Then I grabbed and tossed the scepter away.
The colonel entered the place and pronto proceeded to help me finish to immobilize our foe. The creature was debating with violence, trying to break free from the wool scarf.
But the effort was useless, the fabric of my scarf was strong enough to hold the thing.
I gave a soft whisper of relief. I panted to regain my breath.
It was not easy for me to climb the hedge fence of the labyrinth. But besides a few bruises in my palms, my plan worked like a charm.
Of course, the colonel's aid was of the utmost importance. Without the boost that he gave me with his strong arms, I would never be able to grab the ledge of the green wall to climb it.
"That was a nice trick, you need to teach it to me someday."
"Well, the ventriloquism part is easy...but, to be able to conjure an illusion you need to be a real magician."
He looked at me as if I was joking with him.
How could a person be so skeptical having a living cadaver tied at his feet?
I suspected that he, like the doctor, refused to believe in the supernatural. So much that no matter what kind of things or proofs they saw, they would keep denying it.
"Look, there is the source of that blood" the colonel pointed to a wounded student tied at the side of the fountain.
The body of the boy hanged by four iron shackles against the same wall that I jumped off.
The blonde boy had seen better days. The student’s body was almost dry and by the look of things, he held in that place for a long time.
I barely recognized the novice from the photos in my temporary office in the main building.
So, that was the place where the fake "Luciano" was hiding all that time. Poor kid didn’t have a chance.
The blood was pouring from a wound on the right side of his chest. Where a strangely long and sharpen green leaf remained stabbed against his heart.
The boy was alive but in bad shape. There was nothing that I or the colonel could do to save him.
His death would happen in a matter of minutes or seconds.
Whatever the Lich wanted from the novice boy he must have taken. Because that fatal wound was proof that the boy lost all its importance.
"Saint's George's sword,” I said recognizing the leaf.
“ Our lich has a peculiar taste of using plants to kill his victims. But, I guess that his "modus operandi" relates to the mysterious underworld prisoner."
"What about the boy?" asked Sérgio with a concerned look.
"He is past the helping stage. His heart is failing by the massive loss of blood. And if we remove the leaf the blood will spill faster and we won't be able to stop it in time. His body is also too weak. The Lich drained him for a long time before stabbing his chest. That kind of wound is only for theatrical reasons."
I lowered my head:
"I am afraid this is the end for him. The only thing that I can do is to use his powers of leaping to try to reach his mind before he expires. That way he can, at least, give us some clue about what is happening"
I knew that it would be very risky to mix our minds at that moment. Once inside I would lose complete track of time. The flow of time inside someone's mind is dictated by what the owner wants to share. That experience could feel like the passing of days and only last for a few seconds.
But without being able to perceive the actual passing of time in the real world I would have no clue. Nor would I be unable to perceive the proximity of his last breath.
And if he died with me still inside his conscious I would never be able to regain my own.
But desperate times ask for desperate measures.
I needed answers and if that was the only way for me to get them that would be it. I would regret it if I let that opportunity pass.
I had to see for myself what lied inside his mind. And since I am not a telepath, the boy was the only one that could help me leap in and guide me to the truth.
With that thought in mind, I focused on the faint conscience of the boy beside me.
I raised the sleeve of my jacket exposing my naked arm to the cold.
"Luciano or whatever is your name, we need to talk. If you are there please allow me in." as I said that I let his hand touch the skin of my right forearm.
I could not feel anything, then a voice came out of nowhere.
"Thomas...the mosaic…"
"It is not Thomas, it is Roger", I had to have complete access to his mind, but only his power was able to pull me inside.
"Luciano, we don't have much time, leap me in. It is important. "
"Thomas he knows about the mosaic, he knows about the shuffling"
Then nothing, the presence vanished...
I felt a tight grip on my shoulder, it was the colonel.
It was too late I could not do anything Luciano died before he could invite me in.
"Damn it, we got here too late!" I clenched my fists. Frustration taking over my feelings.
"What are you saying? You saved all my guards and we have this creature restrained and unable to do any harm. I understand you wanted to save everyone at the school. But sometimes we need to give thanks to our small victories. And this was no small victory at all."
I stood and closed the boy's eyes, wishing that he rested in peace.
I didn’t know him or his motives. But I knew that he changed. I could see that in the last days of his life, he tried to stop the massacre that was about to happen.
I was sure that Sarah was the reason behind that change of heart.
"He knew everything. In the end, He and Father Thomas were working together against the same enemy that we are. If only I was able to talk with one of them. If I could make them trust me we could have avoided this."
"Roger, I don't believe they were doing something altruistic here. Why would they keep you in the shadows and give you false information? Remember, as you told me, they were the ones that attracted you to the school in the first place."
"Yes, you are right. Let's take our new guest to the library. I need to ask him a few questions before he vanishes. And If we can find Father Thomas 's phone we may have a better clue about what was this kid's role in this play.”
We removed Luciano 's body from the shackles. It was better if no one could see the aspect of the corpse.
Sarah would be very shaken by the news.
The colonel asked for a vehicle to take the body to the morgue.
By an irony, the place where the novice used to hang every day to make his own magic experiments.
I sighed.
I knew that I helped to save all the guards there.
And it was a good thing to see them all regaining their senses and alive.
I observed when the colonel gathered them. He took them to a corner and started to explain to them, in his own skeptic way, what had happened. They looked confused.
But seeing them alive was not enough. I could not stop feeling the bitter taste of failing Luciano. After all, he was only a young boy. A young boy that made terrible choices in his life and paid a big price.
But before he died he pointed me to another important clue
His last thoughts implied that there was some kind of secret about the broken mosaic. It seemed that the window was destroyed to hide that secret. It was possible that father Thomas didn't take a photo of the Lich, but was saving a photo of the mosaic. Maybe he knew that the Lich would attempt to destroy that piece of art. And that could be the reason for the young priest to be venturing so late to the library.
What would be so important to the point of break an important piece of the library's history?
We needed to find that smartphone and take a good look at those pictures if they existed.
And It became imperative to dig more information about Luciano’s real identity. I needed to know his relation with Father Thomas. And at the same time, I needed to dig every piece of information that I could find about the past of that institution.
Unfortunately, without the internet, I could not have access to any outside database.
With time running out, I saw no other effective course of action.
Against my will, I decided to bring the kids on a school trip.
It would be bothersome to listen to the little Imps complain like hell by having to enter holy grounds. They would be very bothered to meet me in a Catholic institution.
But Meab and her rascals would need to ignore that and complete a few errands for me.
And I needed everything done before twilight.
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This episode happens in a very important moment. Grotheske is one year old!! At the exact same time this episode is being published I published the first one. Share, Like, comment to your hearts full. Subscribe if you didn't do it already. Episode 26 will have a lot of things happening.
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