34 The secret chamber of the dark flame

“You okay, Ray?”

“I’m fine…” The young necromancer sat up, then bounced to his feet adding: “Armen, your head! You hit it on the statue! Are you okay?!”

There was a silence, then I whispered:

“Remember, Ray. I’m already dead.”

“…” My friend covered his face with his orange cap. “Sorry. Thank you… for protecting me.”

“You’re welcome. More importantly,” I said in a cheerful tone; I raised the stone hand I was still holding. “Those are… masterpieces, right?”

Ray made a painful face.

“It came off, huh…”

“Yeah, it came off.”

We looked at each other. I cleared my throat and pointed at the dark glass door with the stone hand.

“Do you think it’ll be discovered if I hide it over there?”

“Huh… You’re talking as if you’re gonna bury a corpse.”

I climbed the few steps to see the maimed statue, a man with fine traits and a serene expression—why on earth did the sculptor make him stretch his arm? On the plaque, I read, “Year 1926. Cornelius Sunclaw”. I stood rooted to the spot in shock. Sunclaw? Sunclaw?? To think I had crippled one of Linah’s ancestors… I pouted, looking at the poor hand.

“If only we had some glue.”

“Ahem. Wouldn’t that be blasphemy? Anyway, where do you want to hide it?”

“Behind that door.”

Ray arched an eyebrow.

“Behind…? What door?”

I cast him a worried look, then climbed down and fingered at the door, touching it.

“This one.”

Ray blinked.

“There’s nothing there, Armen. Only a wall.”

I stared at him, deeply troubled.

“Did you hit your head, Ray?”

“No, you did,” he snorted back.

“My brain’s not in my head,” I replied absent-mindedly. “I’m certain of it: there is a door here. I’m touching it. There’s even a button inside which says ‘Open’. I’m gonna open it, okay?”

“Are you saying you can see through the door?”

“It’s made of glass. I can barely see through it, though…” I paused. “You really can’t see it? That’s so weird.”

Ray looked at me, then at which apparently was just a wall to him; he asked:

“Can you lend me your eyes?”

“Sure, just a moment, I’m taking them out—”

“Idiot. You know what I mean.”

He took a breath and closed his eyes; the moment I thought I felt a gentle energy caress my core, he snorted.

“You’re right. It’s a door.” He had just seen it through my eyes.

Funny. Why wasn’t he able to see the door? Why was I able to see it?

“Probably an illusion,” Ray said.

“The door is an illusion?”

“No. The wall is. Generally, illusions are a simple alteration of images, so we both should perceive them more or less the same way. But this illusion seems to be different. It’s probably of a higher quality… but only against living beings.”

“Oh…” My curiosity was aroused. What could there be behind that secret door?

Luckily, the stairs were empty around here. Still, while the most skilled trainees were probably already reaching the top, others could catch up at any moment. With no further delay, I focused my gaze on the “Open” button on the other side, and activating my telekinesis, I pressed it. It worked: the glass door slid to one side, into the wall, revealing a room plunged in darkness. Ray approached and stopped in the doorway beside me. I soon understood his problem.

“It’s pretty dark in there,” I said. “Can you lend me that flashlight I gave you for Christmas? I’ll just take a look around and leave Cornelius’s hand—”

I fell silent when Ray, lighting his flashlight around his neck, walked into the room. I felt a wave of pride for my master, who was so courageously fighting his trauma… However, when I closed the door behind, I saw him shrink violently and stagger.

“Ray!”

“I’m fine,” he replied out of breath. He looked at his qi sensor and snorted. “It’s just… the qi pressure is incredibly higher in here.”

What…? I checked my qi sensor. «1485 Mz». Geez. He was right. It had gone up by more than two hundred. Apparently, that was a lot even for Ray.

“I… can’t feel a thing,” I murmured.

“That’s to be expected,” Ray replied as he moved his flashlight to inspect the room—It was small, circular, and basically empty if it weren’t for the many weird inscriptions carved in the wall and the floor. He clarified: “You can’t get tired. But qi pressure still makes your core use more energy than usual.”

“Does it?” I tried to focus on my core and the energy flowing through my body. Was the flow denser? It was, but that was because I had never had such a huge amount of deathforce in my body before. “I can’t feel a thing,” I repeated.

“It’s only natural,” Ray assured. “You’ll get used to your core with time. That’s not something you can learn in a few months.”

That made sense. Strictly speaking, as Natasha would have said, I was but a two-month-old undead cub. There were so many things I had yet to learn. In a way, I was happy my body knew how to circulate my deathforce like a pro without my conscious assistance.

Ray’s sudden gasp made me hurry to his side.

“Ray? What’s the matter?”

The young necromancer didn’t answer and just kept staring at the light of his flashlight. Or more like, at what the light of his flashlight was trying to illuminate, in vain: in the center of the room, a shadow trembling and ascending like a dark flame was twisting on the air, at my eye level, without any support. Glancing at Ray’s livid expression, I worried.

“What’s that thing, Ray? Is it dangerous?”

Ray didn’t seem to hear me. He took a step forward. I grabbed him by the elbow.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Ray stopped, frowning, and finally admitted:

“I don’t know. It’s as if I had already seen it before.”

“… You mean, that dark flame?”

“Yeah…”

There was a deep silence only interrupted by Ray’s breathing. He went around the dark flame at a fair distance, and after carefully putting down Cornelius’s hand on a small projection of the wall, I followed him. From every perspective, the shadow stayed there, wavering like a real flame, except it didn’t create any light.

“Weird.” Ray was whispering, even though our voices were probably unable to reach the trainees going upstairs behind the black glass door. “Those are braenic runes,” he added, looking at the inscriptions. “Most runists don’t use those anymore. Which could mean this room has been built long ago, along with the tower.”

“You mean, Water Li built this? But what for? They could have built an elevator instead, don’t you think?”

Without answering, Ray crouched and caressed one of the inscriptions. It shimmered under the flashlight with a red glint. I heard him suddenly grunt:

“A prison.”

I widened my eyes.

“A prison? This room is a prison?”

I was about to check the door to make sure the “Open” button was still there when I saw Ray step toward the dark flame. I had a bad premonition.

“Wait!” I growled. “Don’t touch that.”

Ray was already stretching a hand. I rushed and pulled it down, then saw him blink as if lost. He was acting strange. And was unusually careless. Was the dark flame affecting him in some way? Was it some ancient relic that could devour the living? In that case, I should extinguish it before he could touch it, maybe pushing it away with my telekinesis or…

“Be still.”

Ray’s order flew through our necro-bond, stronger than ever. My body became as still as a statue while my life-lust skyrocketed to the point my core could barely cope with it for a long moment.

I couldn’t believe it. As my mind was overwhelmed and blurred by my Fury instinct, I saw Ray raise his hand to the dark flame, as if hypnotized. I cursed internally, then remembered I hadn’t been ordered to be quiet, and I tried to open my mouth… in vain. Weren’t orders based on their interpretation? What kind of stupid interpretation did my core think of?

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ray touch the flame. It swirled around his hand. It didn’t seem to hurt him. Maybe I was worried for nothing? But Ray wasn’t being himself. Normally, he would have apologized straight away and cursed himself for giving me orders. Yet he did not. Instead, he kept playing with the black fire…

His breathing was getting heavier. Maybe the flame was dangerous, after all. But what could I do? I was stuck. No, wait, what if my telekinesis wasn’t affected by the order? I gave it a try, grabbed the shadow with my power, and pushed it away. Was it working? Well… How could my telekinesis work on a mass of dark energy, anyway…?

Then, suddenly, it budged. A wave of energy washed over me, and for an instant, all the braenic runes in the room shone dazzlingly. Then darkness fell again, and only Ray’s flashlight remained.

The young necromancer had fallen to his knees. Upon seeing it, my mind, which was still fighting my life-lust, shook in panic. What was wrong with Ray? Dammit. I couldn’t move an inch. Such a troublesome order…

“Why?”

Ray’s question broke the sepulchral silence. Holding his head in his hands, he panted:

“Free… who? Free what? Who…? What on earth is going on?”

Hell, that was what I wanted to know. Somehow, his interrogations calmed me down a bit. He didn’t seem to be hurt. Did he communicate with the dark flame or something? Anyway, he just looked confused.

After a moment, Ray turned around, still on his knees, and realizing what he had done to me, he punched the stone floor out of self-hatred and kowtowed under my astonished eyes.

“Forgive me!”

I forgave him.

And my life-lust soared.

Ray was such a dependable friend… and such a careless master. It took him some seconds to realize he had just ordered me to forgive him, he raised horrified eyes at me and screamed:

“I AM SORRY!”

Tears began to stream down his face. I had never seen him like that. Was it the flame’s effect, the confusion it had awakened in him, or the high qi pressure? Or maybe a combination of all that along with the stress he had been under since I had become a Fury? Whatever it was, just seeing his mortified face shook me to the core.

Maybe thanks to the second order I had received—unless it was due to the dense energy in the room—the first order slowly began to fade. After a while, I recovered enough to move my lips. When I noticed that, I drew a deep breath and was rewarded with a streak of Ray’s lifeforce. Strangely, that helped me get my thoughts together. I gave Ray a distraught look.

The young necromancer was now hiding his face under his orange cap, but I could still see his trembling lips. I managed to articulate:

“Ray—”

“No need to worry,” he quickly cut me off, choking on his words. Seriously, how could I not worry? He snuffled. “Dammit. I don’t know what’s happening to me all of a sudden. I feel as if I had just remembered something very sad and important, yet I cannot remember a thing. I should be very angry at myself for giving you an order, yet part of me is still celebrating something I don’t understand. I don’t understand,” he repeated. “What’s going on in my head? What on the world are the Spawns of Darkness?”

He… really looked lost.

As the first order was wearing off, I managed to crouch to be at his level and took off his cap to see his face. His eyes glinted with fear. He pulled away then stopped. Was he afraid of me? Or of something else? What was I supposed to do when I didn’t even know what that dark flame had done to him?

“Ray, we should get out of here at once. This dark flame—”

“It’s not its fault.”

“… Then whose is? The moment you touched it—No, the moment you approached it, you—”

“It’s not its fault,” Ray repeated.

He wiped off his tears with a wave of his hand, took a deep breath, and stood up, then turned his flashlight toward the flame. It had now left the center of the room and was freely wandering around. As if it was alive.

After a silence, Ray sighed.

“Sorry if I’ve said some weird things. My head was spinning like crazy.”

Thank goodness, he was recovering his composure.

“You scared me half to death, you know. Heh, well, I’m already dead, but still… It’s not good for my heart. Or my core, or whatever. I should have known a secret door in a legendary tower couldn’t be without danger. All for the sake of hiding Cornelius’s hand…” My gaze lingered on the statue’s hand, standing against the wall. I shook my head. “But you’re all right, now, right? Ray? Right?”

“Eh…? Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Really, maybe it’s only me losing my head for a moment. It might be the qi pressure. Or those strange runes.”

“… Sure. Anyway, don’t be so worried about that. It happens to me all the time to forget things I just did or things we’ve learned countless times in class, or things I should know about the world—”

“I know.”

“And it’s not that big of a deal, is it? As long as we don’t forget what’s really precious to us, everything’s fine,” I grinned, trying to comfort him, then took a look around. “By the way, you said something about a prison, before. Do you mean that shadow was a prisoner? Does it mean we’ve freed it? To say the least, it looks quite happy right now. Somehow, I can tell.”

As we followed the shadow’s dance with our eyes, Ray shrugged.

“I don’t remember doing anything to free it. Yet it’s free. So it must mean I freed it.” As he paused, I thought about telling him that maybe my telekinesis had something to do with it, but then dismissed it as unimportant. My friend turned to me with an apologetic grimace. “Sorry, I’m supposed to be the level-headed guy, here.”

“Since when a necromancer is level-headed?” I teased him.

He rolled his eyes and took back his baseball cap from me, asking:

“Are you able to move now?”

I nodded, tried to take a step… and failed. My feet were still rooted to the ground. We looked at each other, and I chuckled.

“What a stupid situation, huh? Well, it might take some time before I can move, so you go ahead and climb the tower. At this rate, if you wait any longer, you won’t be able to show off.”

Ray frowned.

“Don’t be—I mean, I’m not going to leave you behind, what’s the idea. Plus, we’ve gotta find a way to take that shadow with us without letting the others see it. I don’t know what exactly that creature is, nor how it ended up in here but… Dark beings are usually badly treated by the WHO. And it’s pretty clear the one that sealed it was using its energy to increase the qi pressure in this room. As for why… I have no idea. But I want to save that shadow.”

It was rare for him to make such a resolute decision for the sake of an unknown being. I pondered on his words, watched the shadow bouncing on the air like a happy kid, then gave a thoughtful nod.

“Okay. I’ve got an idea. I can hide that shadow. It’s made out of dark energy, right? It’s not food for me, so… how about I let it into my body, then I can let it out when we get back to the Wind House.”

Ray gaped at me.

“You mean it?”

“Isn’t it the perfect choice? As long as it’s harmless. But I have a favor to ask from you before.”

“…? A favor? Yes, what is it?”

My starving eyes pierced his. I breathed in and out before saying:

“Please remember I’m not human anymore.”

Ray straightened up, baffled.

“Is that the favor?”

I snorted with laughter without averting my eyes.

“No. That’s not it.”

Slowly, I held out my hand, palm up, and said:

“Please, give me your hand.”

He stiffened. It was the first time I asked him for permission to eat his lifeforce. Was he going to tell me: no, Armen, have you forgotten you’re a Fury, or… no, Armen, we’re best friends, I don’t want our relationship to be that of a master and his familiar, or…

My ravings sank into oblivion as soon as Ray took my hand. The contact felt like bliss. My mind wavered. I didn’t gulp down his lifeforce, though. Once I overcame my surprise, I gave him a happy smile.

“Thanks.”

I knelt and pulled at Ray’s hand until its palm touched my forehead. My own actions surprised me. Was it some kind of instinctive Fury ritual? Seemed so.

I began to absorb his lifeforce, drop by drop, very slowly. It was incredibly good but… something was missing.

‘The more you trust, respect, and love your master, the sturdier your necro-bond will be, and the tastier your master’s lifeforce will get.’

As Natasha’s words echoed in my mind, I tried to muster all my trust, respect, and love for Ray. I trusted him with all my heart, since he had given me so many reasons to do so throughout the years; I respected his life, his principles, his way of thinking, his knowledge and skills; I loved him, because… he was my best friend. And because I trusted, respected, and loved him, it was my greatest joy to live my second life serving him. Thinking about all of that, I absorbed a drop of his lifeforce.

Something burst out in my mind. The strong pleasure of eating Ray’s lifeforce got mixed with an overwhelming happiness that blinded me and even deafened me for a moment. My core jolted and became frantic, as if I had just eaten a million drops, and for the first time, I could feel how the necro-bond was growing. It had felt so small just a while ago, but now it spurted like a bud that blossoms under the most pleasant sunlight… Just with one drop, one little drop of Ray’s lifeforce, and I had been shaken to my roots.

I finally recovered my senses, let go of Ray’s hand, and looked up at him. His eyes were closed, his face serene. My core vibrated, still willing to convey my most positive feelings to its real owner. I realized the necro-bond wasn’t just a bond that sustained the life of the familiar. It was a bond much deeper than that. And I could barely fathom how deep and beautiful such a bond could become.

I sort of understood that such a growth spurt of the necro-bond must be a very special occasion. Could it be that “Offering” thing Natasha had mentioned this morning? But wasn’t it supposed to come at the end of the Fury period?

At last, Ray opened his eyes. They were shining with deep emotion.

“Thank you, Armen. I won’t ever forget your feelings.”

He was moved. However, I could guess the inner conflict my behavior had provoked in him. In the end, the master was having a harder time than the familiar accepting the reality: I was an undead, and nothing would change that fact. My soul had been put into a necro-core programmed to serve its owner. And my instincts weren’t those of a human anymore.

It was troubling and distressing to think I wasn’t exactly the same as I was before. I was pretty sure that my values and principles had remained the same… except for everything that was related to my master. To deny it by now would be ridiculous. I was finally beginning to understand that. And I knew Ray would not be able to stop me from becoming a full-fledged undead.

I stood up, raised my right foot, and confirmed that I could move again. Satisfied, I fastened my eyes on the dancing shadow and activated my telekinesis. Light as it was, it came flying at high speed. I gobbled it down and put my mask on so the shadow wouldn’t be able to escape. Then I walked to the door and opened it, saying cheerfully:

“Be good, Cornelius’s hand. Let’s go, master Styxer.”

I heard Ray sigh.

“… I follow you, master Moon.”