Chương 32: Chapter 31 - The Truth

Grover Northrop's stomach was in no shape to be sinking. He could feel something between his backbone and the skin of his abdomen, but he was pretty sure it wasn't a real stomach any longer, and he hadn't been brave enough to test it by eating or drinking anything. He would leave it alone, to last however long it could last. But something inside him sank when Darius Vasil, Jack Noctis, Cosmo Uhler, and Olivia Oliversen came into the tent, one after another, glaring at him as they came.

It felt like the ghost of his stomach dropped, and because it was a ghost, it could drop much further than a real stomach. They know. He pushed away from the table and let his pen drop. It made a soft thup sound when it hit the papers. Darius and Uhler sat in the chairs across from him. Noctis and Olivia stood behind them. Darius spoke while Uhler pulled out some papers and started laying them over the table.

The diagrams and runes, the scattering of math, Northrop's nearly illegible personal writing, all disappeared below the new layer. Northrop only glanced at the new papers long enough to confirm he knew what they were.

"Miss Oliversen and Master Uhler have been working with the spell fragments that you provided us," Darius said.

"They think they've discovered something interesting. If you want, Mr. Uhler is prepared to walk you through—""That won't be necessary," Northrop said. The words came out sharp and abrupt. Darius raised an eyebrow.

"Forgive me, Mr. Northrop. I'm a little surprised. You've been meticulous when it comes to the magic. I thought that you'd insist—""Mr. Vasil, have you ever wondered if there was a way to torture a soul?" Darius's mock surprise gave way to real surprise. He'd tried to imagine how Northrop might respond to this confrontation, but he'd never considered it might involve a question like that. As always, when confronted with the unexpected, Darius fell back on his natural honesty.

"No, Mr. Northrop. I haven't. I knew the answer to that a long time ago." Northrop grinned with grit teeth and half rotted lips.

"I've been accused of being self-absorbed. She had to confront me with the evidence a hundred times before I conceded the point. Even then, I thought I knew how deep that egotism went. I didn't. I told myself there was no need for me to tell you the truth. I hid behind my certainty that we could find another way." He lowered his head.

"Maybe I wasn't as certain as I told myself I was. The whole thing has been torture." Northrop took a deep breath that he didn't need, put on a new gruesome smile, and looked up. He cocked his head to the side.

"Shall we proceed? At this point, a new torture would be a positive relief."

"We've had experts combing all the records—" Darius started.

"And I'm sure they've told you that there was no way for me to work with spiritual magic. They're correct. I had an assistant."

"Who?"

"A demon. He told me to call him Ambrose." Olivia's eyes widened. Darius closed his and let out a grunt. Uhler covered his mouth with his hand. Big Jacky's reaction was more practical. He turned to Olivia and muttered, "Get Father Thorburn in here immediately. Wake him if you must." She left. Jacky turned back to Northrop.

"You're a greater fool than I gave you credit for, Northrop. What did you give this demon? Certainly not your soul."

"No," Northrop said.

"I gave him the souls of the animals I worked with."

"You took advantage by offering him souls that didn't belong to you?"

"They were only animals!" Big Jacky glared at him. His eyes reminded Northrop of the depth and terror of a formless darkness.

"I didn't kill you hard enough the first time." Darius held up his hand. Big Jacky took a step back.

"And what did he offer you in return?" Darius asked.

"I told you. To be my assistant." Big Jacky said, "Demons never act as assistants. They are never slaves. Offering him animal souls would've been like giving dog food to a gourmand. He wanted something from you—what was it?" Northrop raised his voice: "This one said he would be my assistant." In a quieter voice, he added, "Dog food in exchange for two small favors, so it would balance out." Big Jacky was still glaring at Northrop when Olivia and Father Thorburn entered the tent.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Without moving his eyes from Northrop, Jacky said, "Father Thorburn, have you heard of any demon in the past five-hundred years who goes by the name of Ambrose when in America?"

"Ambrose?" Thorburn thought for a moment. Then shook his head.

"No."

"So he was not a regular visitor?"

"Or he was more creative than most demons." To Northrop, Thorburn said, "Did you enter into a contract with him?" Northrop said, "We had an agreement—""Did you sign anything?" Big Jacky demanded.

"No." Thorburn and Jacky looked at each other.

"He wanted to remain anonymous," Big Jacky said.

"Or he hadn't managed to get to the point a contract was required," Thorburn said.

"The cleverest demons don't start by having a human sign over their soul. They've learned how to work up to things, Jacky." Darius, who'd been listening quietly to the exchange, said, "Perhaps we should ask Mr. Northrop what the two favors were." He looked at his watch. Big Jacky missed the hint, but Thorburn didn't.

"Mr. Northrop?" Thorburn said. Northrop carefully laced his fingers together, leaned forward, and put his arms on the table. While he spoke, he let his eyes rest on the papers that he could see between his arms.

"My magic had hit a stalemate. I could preserve and animate the dead without difficulty, but that wasn't my final goal." After a second, Darius prompted him.

"What was your final goal?" Northrop didn't answer. Father Thorburn said, "I suspect it was immortality." Everyone except Northrop looked at the priest.

"It usually is," Thorburn added.

"Father Thorburn is correct," Northrop said.

"I worked for years, trying to bridge the gap between magic, spiritual magic, and life, but I got nowhere. Then Ambrose showed up and offered his services—""He came to you?" Big Jacky said. Northrop nodded.

"He introduced himself to me while I was in town one day. He said that we were people with a 'mutual interest in magic,' and that he'd like to share at least a conversation with me. When he came to call at my house, he told me what he was, and I realized that he would be able to manage the spiritual magic that needed to be manipulated—""In your spells? You taught him spells?"

"Big Jacky," Thorburn said gently, "I understand this is upsetting to you, but we'll learn more if we let the man talk." Big Jacky opened his mouth to respond but then shut it. He left the table and wandered over to a corner of the tent.

"Go on," Darius said.

"I didn't teach him any spells," Northrop insisted.

"I worked out a way for him to harness the spiritual matter where I needed it without him having to see the diagrams."

"What spiritual matter?" Uhler asked.

"We need you to be specific."

"My soul. The first favor was to fix my soul to my body. A hand mirror served as part of the tether and the trigger. If I died, after a few days, my maid would break the mirror, and I would return." The short silence in the tent was broken by Olivia's scoffing laugh.

"You didn't think that plan out very well, now did you, Mr. Northrop? Here he is!" She motioned to him.

"The smartest sorcerer who ever lived!" Darius wouldn't have thought that a corpse could look more sick than it did naturally, but Northrop managed it. He unlaced his half-rotted hands and raised one to his mouth. His eyes were half closed and focused on nothing.

"It was a temporary expedient," Northrop muttered.

"Of course I was going to build the trigger into a reliable system, but first I had to work out the system and figure out how to raise my physical body so my ability to manipulate magic would be intact and the body itself would be in a livable condition.

"That last part needed a little work," Darius pointed out. Northrop glared at the count with his bright blue eyes.

"I already told you, I died much earlier than I thought I would. Having my soul tethered to my body seems to have preserved most of it, but over time, without the presence of the full soul, it started to disintegrate."

"What happened to the maid?" Uhler asked. From over near the corner of the tent, Big Jacky answered: "I found her a place with a sorcerer that I knew. She served him for five years, then she married and had seven children. Five survived into adulthood. She always seemed to be happy."

"She wasn't removed from her duties?"

"No. She had every opportunity to break that mirror. She must have chosen not to." Big Jacky eyed Northrop.

"She must not have been very fond of you." Northrop grimaced. It was a thousand times more hideous because of his decayed face.

"Yes. Well. I've been told that I wasn't the best of employers."

"Who told you that?" Darius said.

"A friend who was close enough to be honest with me." Uhler tapped on the papers laid over the table.

"What about the spiritual magic used to shift the mansion? Was that the second favor?" Northrop nodded, then leaned back in his chair.

"Everything I told you was strictly true. I decided to set up the crypts to distract the Torr if they ever came, and I used the protected trigger system to make sure that the mansion would shift if the trigger was set off accidentally, but I omitted the fact that it was Ambrose who helped me create the spell."

"What was the spiritual medium?" Uhler pressed.

"My own soul. Again. The scaffold is maintained by the natural magic derived from the property, but a soul was the only thing with enough power to create the tie between this dimension and the place in-between."

"Your soul? The one tethered to your body with the mirror?" Northrop hesitated when he saw the intensity of Cosmo Uhler's expression.

"Yes," he said at last.

"I suspect that was what called my soul back after all this time. When the shift occurred, it required more power than could be drawn from where my soul was, but since my soul was still tied to my body, it could be dragged back into this realm."

"Didn't the spell tethering your soul to the mirror get in the way?" Olivia asked.

"It seems not. You see, Miss Witch, demons don't use magic like we do—" Uhler interrupted: "That is incorrect, Mr. Northrop." Northrop's mouth shut. Big Jacky took a step toward the table. Father Thorburn felt the hairs rise on the back of his arms and wondered why. Uhler nudged his glasses.

"Demons don't use magic like you do. But you were a sorcerer. Witches are different. We're much more like demons. We shape the magic like it's putty, and we know better than anyone—better than even demons would—that there's a fundamental difference between spiritual magic and natural magic. Their natures and properties are completely different."

"Witches have always said that—" Northrop started to say. Uhler spoke over him: "And no one seems to believe us!" He tapped his finger on the table in a series of short, sharp movements.

"If you had told us the truth at the beginning, we wouldn't have wasted all that time and energy." Big Jacky moved closer.

"Can we use this?" Uhler scooted his chair back and to the side so he could look up at Noctis.

"I don't know if we have enough time, Jacky."

"Is there any chance at all?" Uhler nudged his glasses again, then used the same hand to rub his mouth.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"There might be."