The Sorcerer's Quest (3 page)
“So I should make an alliance with him?” I asked.
“Who are you talking to?” Vactarus asked.
“Merlin. He’s the wolf and he can talk to me.” The
ghost studied Merlin carefully. Merlin sat on his haunches and smirked. I
shuddered.
“I knew a wizard named Merlin once. He stole a cushy
job I wanted. We dueled and when I won, he was supposed to buy the drinks.
Instead, he ran off and left me with the bill.”
“
He did not win the duel
,” Merlin argued.
“I really don’t care,” I told the wolf. Vactarus scowled,
thinking I was talking to him. “I mean… tell me about it later. I’m going to
defeat Magnus and prove myself to be a master sorcerer. If you would be willing
to provide me with something I can use to fight him, I’ll bring your hat back
to you.”
“You?” He studied me and obviously found me lacking.
“You have no chance of defeating Magnus.” Merlin growled at him and he scoffed.
“What are you going to do, wolf, bite me?” In response, Merlin went over to one
of the chairs and sunk his teeth in to the leather cushion. “No!” the ghost
shrieked in utter horror. “Not my custom relaxed leather! It took fifteen
virgin maidens to make leather so supple and smooth that also matched my silk
curtains!”
Merlin let go of the cushion and glared at the ghost
again. “So, you’ll help me?” I asked.
The ghost’s shoulders slumped. “Your wolf is as
uncouth as the wizard I knew who had the same name.”
“
I am not uncouth
,” Merlin assured me.
“He’s not my wolf,” I assured Vactarus.
“In the basement of my manor is a secret room full of
riches I attained from many different worlds. You may have
one
artifact,
only one, and you cannot change your mind later. You can also use the field
behind my house and my ritual room to practice your attack. In exchange, you
will bring back my hat.”
I glanced at Merlin and he nodded. “Deal.”
“Then I will return shortly.” He vanished.
I grinned widely. “Yay! I got my first accomplice! Or
are you my accomplice?”
Merlin just sighed. I didn’t care; I was ecstatic to
be getting a real magical weapon. A moment later, a young girl appeared right
in front of me. This time, I refused to scream. Instead, I mustered every ounce
of manliness I could… and squeaked quietly.
Because the young girl was also a ghost.
Her hair was blond and pulled up in pigtails, her
blue eyes were huge and doll-like, and her pink cheeks were emphasized by her
pale skin. The blue dress she wore was rough on the edges and dirty. She smiled
at me. “My name is Kisha.”
Vactarus appeared beside her and I squeaked again,
less quietly. “Kisha, my daughter, will show you to the vault.”
Kisha blushed, smiled shyly at me, and played with
the hem of her dress. I squeaked louder until Merlin frowned at me worriedly.
That was quite a sight to see, but Merlin seemed to have mastered wolf
expressions.
Kisha waved her hand and started towards one of the
doors. “Follow me.” Merlin and I did.
I opened the door, which revealed a dark hallway.
“So… how long have you been… Vactarus’s daughter?” I asked, using my natural
talent to make everyone in the room extremely uncomfortable.
She laughed. “I’m not really Vactarus’s daughter. I
was already a ghost here when he took control over the manor. When he died, he
sort of adopted me.” She walked through another door.
I heard a soft click as the latch released before the
door swung open. Merlin and I entered cautiously, immediately having to step
down some old, crumbling, stone steps. We followed the steps down until we reached
the bottom. I pulled out my wand and let energy flow through me. Since I was
very against being trapped in the dark, my magic instinctively knew what to do.
The tip of the wand lit up with bright white light that chased away the
darkness.
“
No white magic to see here
,” Merlin muttered
sarcastically.
In front of us was a stone wall with magic sigils on
it. Behind us were only the steps we had descended. “What do we do?” I asked.
Kisha was gone and there wasn’t another door.
“
Unlock the entrance the same way you did with the
syrus
.”
I waved my wand at the wall with the sigils on it.
Reveal
your secrets
. Nothing happened. I tried again.
Please open
. Again,
nothing happened.
“
These sigils are not weak
,
but this door
can be opened
.
You have to really want this
.”
I glared at the wall and thrust my wand towards it
like I was going to stab it. “Open!” I demanded out loud.
Suddenly, a vertical crack formed in the middle of
the wall and grew larger. It was a very straight crack, so I knew it was
intentional. I was very glad I wasn’t bringing the manor down on top of us.
Once was enough for me.
More cracks split the wall until they formed blocks
instead of a solid mass. Then, the blocks rearranged themselves to shape a
doorway to another secret room. I held my wand out to see inside, since the tip
was still glowing. Inside was a larger room, piled high with treasure chests,
weapons, and magical items.
“
Very good
,” Merlin said. “
Now, pick out
something that feels right to you
.”
“What if I pick out something that only does light
magic?”
“
There is nothing associated with white magic in
this room
.”
Trusting him, I got to work scouting out the magical
items. There were crystal balls, staffs, talismans, rings, etc… I opened a
chest and promptly jumped on a nearby table, only to sigh with relief when I
saw that it was merely a mummy. At the angle it was stuffed in the chest, it
had looked like a large doll. “I don’t know what this stuff does.”
“
Listen for what speaks to you
.”
I opened my mouth to argue, only to trip and hit the
floor with a harsh grunt. Instinctively, I reached for the staff I had tripped
over. Two things happened when my fingers wrapped around the wooden rod: I felt
an electrical tingle shoot from the staff, through me, and into my wand; and
clouds formed above us. It began raining inside.
The clouds lit up as lightning started to form.
So I grabbed the staff and did what any reasonable
person would have done in my situation; I ran like my butt was on fire. I
tripped over a chest and ended up rolling the rest of the way out of the room.
Merlin leapt out just as the room lit brightly. The blocks rearranged
themselves again until it was a wall once more and then the cracks resealed.
I flicked my wand until the end started glowing
again. Merlin was still glaring at me. “I didn’t mean to do it.” He turned and
pranced up the steps. His tail was smoking.
* * *
Vactarus, Kisha, Merlin, and I sat at the kitchen
table in an awkward silence. When we had emerged from the secret room with my
new staff, the ghostly hosts insisted we have dinner. Of course, Vactarus and
Kisha neither ate, nor cooked, so they were sitting and watching us. The fact
that the table was covered in dust and set with old dishes didn’t seem to
bother them. Merlin, who was precariously balanced on the chair, had hunted a
rabbit to eat right in front of me. I was eating… an apple and broccoli.
Somehow, I knew if I asked Merlin to share, he would
tell me to hunt down my own rabbit because that was what a sorcerer would do.
That, or conjure one. I looked at the sharp claws of the dark black rabbit
carcass, shuddered, and ate my broccoli. I didn’t want to touch one of them let
alone eat one.
The staff, which was propped up against the chair to
my right, rattled slightly, as if to get my attention. I reached for it
cautiously, and as soon as I touched it, energy shot through me and into the
apple in my hand, which suddenly changed into the drumstick of some large bird.
I really am a sorcerer
! “Look!” I said, letting the staff go and waving
the meat in front of Merlin’s face.
He sniffed it and frowned deeply. “
Tofu
?”
“What’s tofu?” I asked. I didn’t let his hesitation
dampen my excitement. I finally conjured meat and all it took was getting a new
magic tool.
“
Tofu is
…
a very good source of protein.
You did a good job
,” he said, sounding more hesitant than anything else.
That confirmation ramped up my excitement another
notch and I bit into the meat. It was hot and juicy, but as I chewed, it turned
cold. I chewed a little more. And then chewed some more. “Is it supposed to be
so…?” I trailed off, unable to come up with a word to adequately describe the
elastic flavor or bland texture.
“
Yes, it is
,” Merlin assured me. “
We should
find out more about that staff before anything dangerous happens
.”
Having grown up with six older brothers, I was no
stranger to danger. “What can you tell me about this staff?” I asked Vactarus,
picking it up to study closer. The wood was twisted, smooth, and dark with
gold-painted sigils carved into it. They weren’t anything I recognized from my
family’s grimoires, but they were definitely black-magic in nature. At the top
of the staff was a large, crudely-cut, blood-red, clear stone.
The ghost leered at it. “Oh, it has quite the story.
I first came across it on a land that only had women. They got the idea to use
it to conjure men to keep them warm and safe in the cold winter nights. I, of
course, felt it was my duty to take one for the team, so to speak. I showed
them all kinds of fun. In fact, half of them lost their---”
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” I interrupted.
Energy shot from the staff into Vactarus. Unlike my usual magic, which was
sparkly, light, and bounced around freely, this was dark and twisted, like a
thorny vine, and it went straight for its mark. To my shock, the magic struck
the ghost and his mouth snapped shut. No matter how hard he tried to open it,
his lips wouldn’t part.
“Wow. I have never been able to make him stop
talking,” Kisha said with awe.
I set the staff down on the dusty table and wiped my
hands on my pants. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to---”
Merlin made a sound of disapproval.
“I mean… I’m not sorry because I’m a sorcerer and I
have no sympathy.” I picked up the staff carefully and aimed it at the
magician. Kisha and Merlin both ducked under the table, Merlin by diving
gracefully and Kisha… by phasing right through the table. “Be able to talk
again,” I said.
Nothing happened.
I repeated the command while waving the staff
dramatically.
Nothing happened again.
Well, something happened. I shrieked and jumped out
of my skin when I felt Kisha’s ghostly hand gently caress the inside of my
thigh. “Merlin, what do I do?!” I asked, forcefully stopping myself from
crawling onto the table.
Kisha patted my knee and backed off. “Sorry,
handsome, I dropped my fork.”
“You weren’t eating anything!”
“I was planning on eating something, but Vac wanted
to join us for dinner.”
“Merlin!” I squeaked.
The wolf sighed in my head. “
Use your wand
.”
Quickly following his advice, I set the staff down, pulled out my wand, and
aimed it at Kisha. “
On Vactarus
,” Merlin said.
I grunted and aimed it at the magician. “You can
talk,” I said.
A sunny yellow ball of energy popped out of the tip
of my wand, bounced off the table, and hit Vactarus. His mouth opened easily.
He snapped it shut, obviously afraid that I would curse him again. Merlin and
Kisha returned to their chairs. I sat back down in my seat, picked up my tofu
bird, and continued eating. It was foul.
“So, about the staff,” I prompted.
Vactarus licked his lips nervously, which was an odd
habit for a ghost. “The women gave it to me in exchange for my attention, but I
sold it on the next world I came to, which only made sense; it was rubbish at
the time. Then, about a year later and ten worlds away, I met a lovely young
woman whose family owned a winery. We spent many days in lounging in---”
“Get on with it,” I said.
“Oh, yes. Anyway, we married and some old lady gave
it to me at the wedding. I knew it was the same staff because an item like that
cannot be forgotten. It was different, though. There was power in it that was
not there when I first saw it. Someone had used it to do very powerful, very
dark magic, and that left a stain in the wood and the crystal.”
“The crystal?” I asked, looking at the stone on the
top. Although it was shaped like a crystal, I had only ever seen black ones
used by sorcerers and white ones used by wizards. I had no idea they came in
colors.
“Yes, it is a crystal. Surprising, I know; it looks
like a massive ruby. It was white when I first saw it, and it only had strands
of red when I attained it at my wedding. Nevertheless, my beloved and I were
not meant to be. Within a fortnight, she realized she could not tame my need
for adventure and danger, so she asked me to leave. Unfortunately, the girl she
caught me talking to— which was absolutely not my fault. I was seduced and had
no idea her intention was to strip my---”
“Get on with it,” I said.
“Oh, yes. I sold it again, since it was the only
thing I had been able to grab. Then, about three years later, I saw it in the
keep of a most malevolent wizard. The crystal was pure red at this point, and
produced an essence as if it was self-aware.”
I glanced worriedly at the staff, half afraid it
would randomly start blasting curses at us. “So you got it from him?”
“Of course not. I ran away. I had far too much to
live for to risk myself for something I neither wanted nor needed. It was about
two years later that I found it while hunting for the well-guarded treasure of
a dragon. This is the first time I have ever seen the blasted thing ever work
for anyone.”
“Really? Maybe it likes me.” I had never been liked
by an inanimate object before. I took another bite of my meat and was certain
the texture was actually getting slimier.
“I’m confused,” Vactarus said, flinching when I
looked at him. “You said you were a sorcerer, yet you don’t act like any
sorcerer I know. Furthermore, why do you have blond hair?”
“
Tell him it was a disguise spell gone wrong
,”
Merlin advised.
I did, which seemed to placate the ghost. I wished I
could speak in Merlin’s mind like he could in mine. I also wished Kisha would
stop batting her eyelashes at me. The staff rattled, but I ignored it.
I was able to eat about half of the bird before I
couldn’t bring myself to stick another bite of the gelatinous meat in my mouth.
Kisha then showed us to a couple of rooms. Along the way, I noticed an
inconsistency with the mansion. Several of the paintings were clean of dust and
others weren’t. There were books and tea cups left out on tables, but nothing
rotten. If I had to make a guess, I would say the place was set up to look
abandoned.
My bed, though covered in dust, was easily five times
the size of mine at home and infinitely softer than the cold dirt. The dark
walls were crumbling and the grimy window was covered in cobwebs. The hardwood floor
could have used a good sweeping… or scrubbing. I stepped around the large,
dried puddle of blood. Dried blood didn’t bother me; my mother used blood all
the time in her potions. Other than the bed, the sparse furniture consisted of
a small table beside the bed with two lit candles and a chest across from it.
Surprisingly, the chest contained clean, yet stale clothes that fit me pretty
well.
When Kisha left Merlin and me alone without
hesitation, I was relieved. I set my wand on the table and leaned my staff
against the wall next to it. “Can you teach me to talk in your head like you
can mine?” I asked.
He sat. “
You have the skill already, yet you do
not know how to use it. I picked it up naturally because it was my only means
of communication. You released me from the syrus, and in doing so, you bound
us. What all that entails exactly, I do not yet know. All I know is that I am
unable to use magic and I have much to teach you
.”
“Do you always talk so formally?”
“
Yes. Yes, I do
.”
I sat on the bed. “Can you show me a spell to make my
hair black?”
“
I am rather surprised your mother never did it
.”
“She’s done it before, but it always changes back
when I do magic.”
“
I see. The reason for this is your magic itself.
Magic here is not any more limited than it is on other worlds, yet magic users
are. It is only reasonable, for magic users could easily destroy this world if
not kept in check. In fact, one of the worlds I traveled to had a violent hate
for all things supernatural. Their cities were quite fascinating in a
technological standpoint, as they were moments away from technological
singularity, which was the reason for my premature departure. Yet another world
I traveled to was so technologically repressed that the residents of a small
village tried to burn me when they saw my watch.
”
“Um…” I agreed wisely.
“
But I digress. Your natural appearance is
influenced by your magic because that is the nature of this world. This is so
that when you encounter strangers, they have an idea what kind of person you
are. On this world, untrustworthy people look untrustworthy. Therefore, only
you
can change your appearance and you can only do that by changing who you are. In
the meantime, you can simulate such an appearance using illusionary magic.
”
“But that means I need a magician.”
“
Quite right. Unfortunately, I did not expect Vac
to be dead when I thought of him. You will have to live with your blond hair
for a while longer
.”
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t mind my hair color
except that it was another reason for my brothers to tease me. “Tell me about
the world you’re from.”
“
I have traveled to many worlds
.”
“I know, but where were you born? What was it like
growing up? Were your parents wizards? Were they proud of you?”
He sighed and sat. “
I was born on an archaic world
with too many superstitions and traditions. I never knew my father, but my
mother had no shortage of tales to spin. I was told my power was noticeable
from birth and my mother would never admit to bedding a man out of wedlock, so it
was said that my father was a demon. You can imagine the rumors I had to suffer
through. When I was nine, I discovered how to travel to different worlds
.”
“I bet that was scary.”
“
It was rather confusing at first. It began with
astral projection
.”
“With what?”
“
I traveled to other worlds in my mind, which I
learned by accident. Once I met some others with the same abilities, I
practiced and studied the magic necessary to travel the worlds. One day, I told
my mother that I would find a better place to live and come back for her. I
traveled to so many worlds that they began to blend together. It was amazing
and beautiful and lonely. I found a world I knew my mother would be happy on.
It was frightfully boring, but then, so was my mother. I was too late, though.
I returned to the home I was born in to find that it had been passed on to
another family. She had died alone, still waiting for me to come back
.”
“She didn’t have any other children?”
He shook his head. “
I never knew why for sure, but
I believe she was hoping for my father to return. I spent many years after that
traveling from world to world. When I was very lonely, I would settle down
somewhere for a few years, but eventually something out there would call to me
and I would take off again. I saw so many incredible things, so much history
unfolding in front of my very eyes
…
yet there was no one to share it
with. The majesty of the universe was not meant to keep secret
.”
