Booshka Krait possessed a class called Eldritch Alchemist and from what I could discern as she lectured us all it meant she created potions mixed from rare herbs and an aspect of mana that made my skin crawl. Her hovel was permeated with the stuff, or that’s what it felt like. I was sure that was a simplified way of looking at it, but watching the old beastkin putter about fussing with equipment that bubbled, spat and leaked multicolored smoke was both fascinating and mesmerizing.

  “We’ll have to prepare for the fact that once the curse is removed whoever or whatever put it on you will likely sense its removal.” Madame Krait jovially commented while twisting a valve on an alembic and muttering arcane phrases under her breath. I felt a worm of suspicion wiggle into my mind as she seemed to be enjoying herself a little too much! I received a notification.

  You are under the effects of Scrying Haze.

  You are under the effects of Astral Obfuscation.

  You are under the effects of Major Mana Maze.

  Davros felt as if layers of heavy blankets were being draped over his shoulders, but rather than warmth each one made him feel colder and colder. It was a bizarre feeling, but Booshka Krait croaked and spat.

  “There, that will keep any unforeseen nastiness from trying to creep into my domain while we work. Wouldn’t want a Wrath Mage to show up and bombard us with any of their twisted magic, would we? The last one who tried proved an interesting dissection, but even their innards only teach you so much.”

  I swallowed and nodded mutely. Booshka Krait waved a hand and the firepit flared up with green colored fire. It made my stomach turn and I reflexively drew back. These flames weren’t right. I could sense they were not even true fire!

  “The rest of you keep quiet. These things are tricky and I must fully concentrate or his brain might explode.”

  “Wh…what?” I squeaked. I made to protest, to stand up and run from the hovel as fast as my legs could carry me. Booshka Krait’s cold, clammy hand reached out and there was a prick as she injected a green glowing serum directly into my neck and I fell into darkness.

  ***

  I was laying in a bed. It was the softest bed in the entire world and I never wanted to leave it. When I peeked up over the covers, there were women bustling about my room dressed in matching outfits. They were smiling and chatting amongst themselves, but I couldn’t understand any of their words. I either couldn’t remember what they had said that day or didn’t yet know the language.

  This was a memory, I knew instinctively, but it was more vivid than any I had ever experienced before. The wood paneling of my room was freshly polished, my toys were neatly stacked against one wall and a shelf holding my books were against the opposite wall. I had so many of each I hadn’t yet had time to play with or have them all read to me yet. I had told Nanny I liked the book about a Beastkin with rabbit ears who liked to steal candied eggs from Cockatrice nests and give them to good children best.

  My Nanny ran into the room, but something was wrong. Her eyes were wide with terror and she started screaming at the maids the same word over and over again, but then red water started pouring from her mouth and she fell to the floor. The maids started screaming next and it frightened me so I started crying.

  Strange people dressed in black ran into my room. They were holding swords. I knew they were swords, because my father had one that glowed. He had showed it to me once and said one day it would be mine. Where was my father now? I wanted him! I screamed and cried louder as the women who had been in my room started falling to the ground, red liquid leaking from their bodies as the men in black hit them with their swords.

  One of the black clad men approached my bed and raised his sword. I drew back and put my hands over my eyes. Then, there were more screams and a man dressed in silver armor burst into my room holding a familiar glowing sword. My father!

  He was angry-so very angry! The men in black tried to hit him with their swords, but they couldn’t hurt him no matter how much they hit him. He was cutting pieces of them off each time he swung his sword and they were bursting apart, their red liquid going everywhere, including onto my bed and onto me! I had stopped screaming. I could only stare in fascinated horror as my Father made every single black clad stranger fall onto the floor.

  My room was on fire, the flames flowing in behind my father. My toys burned. My books burned. My bed started to burn as well and the ceiling above me groaned and I watched mutely as the flames spread until all I could see was fire and my father stepping on the head of one of strangers. A piece of flaming wood fell and struck me on the head. It hurt, but I was too stunned to yell or speak.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Davros!” My Father yelled my name and scooped me up in one arm, his sword held in tightly in his other hand. It was covered in red, its glow muted. My Father said something else to me, but I don’t remember what it was. He was frantic and he kicked my bedroom window, shattering it to pieces and he leapt through it with me still in his arm, my tiny hands wrapped around his neck.

  He landed outside with a grunt, but was running the moment his feet hit the ground. As my Father ran, I was looking behind us at our big house that was now covered in flames. I couldn’t stop staring at it. We ran through a gate and there was a symbol above it. Two dragons, one red and one black, intertwined with one another in a circle.

  We ran for I don’t know how long. My eyes started drooping as the terror and stress from our flight began to take its toll upon me. How much longer would we have to run? Where was my Mother? She always knew what to do. She was so beautiful, so kind, she…

  “You!” My Father stopped in his tracks and my eyes flew open to regard a figure dressed in black blocking our path. They had a hood drawn over their head and their robes stirred in the wind. They were floating off the ground!

  “It ends with you, my Lord.” The voice rasped. It seemed to originate from every direction. “We will Ascend and your son will never Awaken!”

  “The Eye sees you, bastard! I’ll send you straight to Hell with your infernal masters!”

  During the exchange my Father had let me slip to the ground beside him, but only after pressing something into my hand.

  “Be strong, Davros. Don’t be afraid of what’s coming. Count down from ten like we practiced.” My Father whispered his final words to me and he charged the floating figure. I started counting down.

  “10…”

  The figure raised a hand that was covered in blue flame, but in his other hand a strange object floated above his open palm.

  “9…8…”

  My Father roared a challenge and a beam of light erupted from his off hand that struck the figure in the chest. The figure staggered, but an invisible shield of some sort had blocked much of my Father’s attack.

  “7…6…5…”

  Blue flame erupted from the figure’s outstretched hand, but my Father swung his sword cutting the flame attack in two causing it to be flung ineffectually away. The figure held forth the strange object in their other hand.

  “4…3…2…”

  A red beam of light zigzagged from the object, avoiding my Father and striking me in my head.

  “No!” my Father cried. I felt myself being pulled somewhere even as it felt as if something were trying to push into me. The object my Father had placed in my hand grew hot and I was enveloped in a white light.

  The next thing I knew I was somewhere else. Somewhere cold. There was a strange white powder on the ground and I was sitting in it. I was alone save for a forest of trees that surrounded me and my head was throbbing in pain. I cried out for help, but nothing answered.

  Arrgh! Those blasted Wrath Mage contraptions, so that’s what did it? Doesn’t explain what happened to your face though, my boy. Yet, we can’t risk delving any further right now.

  I looked around frantically trying to find the source of the voice, but there was naught but darkness and trees. However after a moment, I recognized the voice.

  “Madame Krait?”

  No matter! Now that I know where the Curse originated from, I can snip it out just…like…so!

  Something was tearing itself out of my mind, but it didn’t want to go. I heard Booshka Krait swear and my vision swam. I was no longer in the forest, but in a wide open room that was all black obsidian, twisting shadows and fire. This was not the place where I had come to choose my runes, this was another place. A terrible, dark place of runes of black fire and pain.

  The fire attempted to surround me, but I reached out a hand and I could sense the mana in the fire was confused, but then began to calm. The flames would not harm me, they were a part of me.

  HOW DARE YOU!? WE ARE FLAME! WE WILL BURN ALL TO ASHES!

  It wasn’t the flames who assaulted me, but something else. That something else attempted to wrest control of the flames from me, but each time it failed growing more and more enraged.

  YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED AGAINST US, MAGE OF THE TOWER! WE WILL CRUSH EACH OF YOU AS WELL! OUR POWER IS NOT SO EASILY CAST ASIDE!

  The floor rumbled and cracks appeared in the obsidian walls and ceiling. The flames surged, but they still refused to touch me. Instead, I reached out to them and they flowed towards me like a thousand serpents. I was surrounded, an epicenter of a tornado created from living flame before they rushed inside me through every pore of my body.

  My Mana Core condensed, filtered and cultivated the flames. An infection was present in these flames. It gnawed and thrashed like a thing alive caught in a trap. Small fragments of something wrong were being removed and purified within my Core. What was left, Wrath Mana, a part of my mind identified it as, was immolated, consumed then pushed into my rune of Flame. The rune felt like it was branding upon my spirit. I hissed in pain as I felt the mana gather until a familiar feeling in my stomach grew. I felt myself about to burst.

  With an inhuman roar I spewed forth flames of darkness and light. As Imbolc’s fire met the cracking obsidian and the fiery black runes there was an inhuman shriek of agony.

  NOOOOO! HOW IS IT POSSIBLE YOU HAVE THOSE FLAMES? MAGE, YOU WILL SUFFER FOR THISSSSS!

  The room spun and seemed to collapse in on itself. I was sucked into the void, but could hear Booshka Krait calling out to me from somewhere in the darkness.

  Focus on the flame, boy! Pull it from your Core and push it into the Void!

  My Core was pulsating wildly, like a rapidly beating heart. It was similar to the time the Corruption had nearly overwhelmed me, but this time the Mana condensed and contracted with each beat of my heart. I needed to slow them down, bring the flames under control, then release them as Madame Krait said.

  I started by focusing on the Mana in my Core. Here was where unaspected Mana resided. It wasn’t until I drew the Mana forth and formed it into the spell I desired that the Mana gained its elemental signature from my affinity with Fire. Gathering Mana from the environment was challenging, but drawing it from within was far simpler by comparison.

  The Mana that surrounded me now was something new. Wrath Mana was mana aspected completely from fear, hatred and misery. The Void was an absence of everything, but this in itself was a conundrum since Mana existed in everything, even within the Void, I sensed. Both were trying to invade my Mana Core, but my Will was keeping them at bay. Keeping the Corruption out.

  I understand now. Corruption is Wrath Mana. Void rushes in to try and fill in the holes the Wrath Mana burns away from my Core. My Mana is attempting to prevent and repair the damage before it overwhelms me. Does Soothe Magic patch the holes caused by Wrath?

  The revelation and the questions did nothing to make my Mana stop pulsing so wildly, but it still gave me a sense of relief to know clarity.

  My Focus narrowed. It was becoming easier to directly influence my Mana Core. The Mana slowed as did my heartbeat. I felt myself calm and I slowly pushed the flames outward. My skin started steaming and my blood felt like it was boiling in my veins, but I remained unharmed. The Void tried briefly pushing back, but it gave way before the purity of my flames. I had successfully cultivated the absorbed flames and returned them as clean and as bright as sunlight. There was a final pop and my eyes flew open.