Chương 18: Forbidden Knowledge

Aaron's woke to the sound of hooves clacking outside of his house. He felt so much more energised this morning; it was refreshing. He'd been pushing so hard the past few days that he was going to sleep out of mana and waking up exhausted. The positive thought didn't last long. He remembered his argument with Tim last night, how could he give up on himself? I know I shouldn't be mad, but it breaks my heart to see him like this. He quickly got himself out of bed and went outside.

Tim wasn't up yet, but that was probably for the best. The last thing he wanted to do was start another argument. He had work to do. The magnificent stagecoach was waiting outside for him. The beautiful horses had guards on their heads obscuring their peripheral vision. Like yesterday, a well dressed, bulky man, presumably a guard, was sitting next to the driver. Aaron dreaded to think why he needed to be escorted for. What would he do if he refused to come with them?

He was more than happy to work with Harrold, so he wasn't going to find out. As they drove to Harrold's mansion, he thought about his argument with Tim again. He was doing the right thing! Tim would understand it's all worth it in the end. He'd have to. The city streets were noticeably quieter that morning. Probably because everyone was laying in bed hungover after yesterday's festivities. Decorations filled the streets, some still hung up from the night before, some littered across the ground.

On arrival, the guard opened the carriage door for Aaron and escorted him across the front garden to the house. A young man was out with cutters, finely trimming the hedges into neat shapes A casually dressed old man awaited Aaron's arrival. He was of short stature, yet his immaculate posture made him appear taller than he was. He had short gray hair and a wrinkly face reflecting his age.

"Good morning Healer Barrows."

"Hi.." Aaron replied. It felt very unnatural to be greeted so formally by everyone.

"My name is Finneas, I am the librarian to the Umber family."

"Pleased to meet you," Aaron said, accidentally mirroring Finneas' noble accent.

"I'm Aaron." Aaron let out an embarrassed smile, realising the man had already called him by his name.

"I understand the duke has hired you to train your powers and help his daughter. I have been tasked with overseeing your development. I kindly request that you run any requests pertaining to your training through me." Finneas spoke with intimidatingly perfect pronunciation and finesse.

"Oh, uh, thanks. Will do. Did you get the pig hearts?" Aaron asked. Aaron noticed one of the guards at the back of the room screwing up his brow. He must have noticed him looking as he snapped back into an emotionless professional glare.

"I'm afraid they won't arrive for a few hours. The duke's men are collecting them from across town at noon. May I suggest we start with a review of your tome and some reading?" Aaron had really hoped for some action and the opportunity to test his powers. He woke up annoyed and needed to blow off some steam. But reading was still useful and needed to be done.

"Certainly" He mentally frowned as he noticed himself taking on the mannerisms of the nobles already. Finneas led him through the winding halls of the mansion until they arrived. Aaron tried to memorise the route in case he ever needed to rush through, but was hopelessly confused by the tenth identical looking corridor. It was all a blur of mahogany and fancy paintings of plants. The table in the centre of the library was piled high with various tomes and scrolls.

Unlike his books at home, these were finely maintained and free from dust and dirt.

"I have curated this selection of books based on the duke's request last night. They contain all the information we have on afflictions of the heart, curses, healing spells and necromancers. There is, however, an unfortunately small number of texts which talk about necromancers." Aaron felt disappointed at the lack of Necromancer books, but there was a greater than zero number, which was more than he'd been able to find anywhere else.

"What Necromancer books do you have?"

"A couple of diaries and logs which talk about strange magics on foreign shores and deep in the desolate lands. They are of limited scholarly value, I'm afraid."

"Oh," Aaron sighed.

"May I have a look at your tome," Finneas asked. Aaron brought his black tome out from his bag and passed it to the old man. He looked intrigued. Finneas spent a few minutes flicking through the tome making occasional interested groans. The whole experience was tedious. Aaron felt his legs twitching underneath him. Precious time was being wasted standing around. As his mind wondered, so did his eyes. They screened around the room and cast over the pile of books.

On the cover of a small and thin brown leather tome was a picture of a sun wrapped in a silver circle. Aaron honed in on the sigil in excitement. This was the same sigil as the lost coin. He ignored the old man and walked over to it. Close up, it was exactly the same as the coin he found, except the sigil on the book was crisp and clean with sharp well defined edges, rather than frayed and blunted like the old coin. He suspected this was how it was supposed to look.

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"What is this?" Aaron asked, holding up the small leather bound notebook. Finneas looks up from Aaron's tome. He suspected he wasn't pleased to be interrupted, but Aaron didn't care.

"That is a journal of the late Lieutenant Blackwood. It predates the dragon scourge. He was a necromancer hunter, of sorts."

"Hunter?" Aaron blurted.

"A hunter by chance," Finneas elaborated.

"His platoon were on a detail to investigate a group of occult mages. He was the only member to survive."

"What happened?" Aaron asked, now even more concerned.

"Aaron," Finneas raised his eyebrows and head tilted forward, looking over the top of his glasses.

"May I suggest you read the book?" Aaron hated reading. Maybe it would be better if he could just lay back and have the book read to him. It would be great if there was a spell for that. He opened the journal; it was short and succinct; typical for a soldier. He skimmed through quickly to get to the action. I ordered my men to take the suspect into custody. As they approached him, the air went cold and still.

The two men who grabbed him to bind his arms withered and shrivelled up as if their very soul was being sucked from their bodies. Two skeletons fell to the floor in a heap of bones where these men once stood. The suspect threw the remaining three men effortlessly with one arm and fled the area. I pursued him, but I was gripped on the leg and pulled to the floor as I approached. The skeletons of my men rose from the ground and drew their swords. I would have been dead if not for my private Leonard.

They made quick work of my men. Our swords were entirely ineffective as there was no flesh to bleed. These skeletons were not the men I knew. Their souls were gone and their remains were being puppeted by an evil entity. I fled for my life. I will hunt this man for what he did to my men. This magic is evil. Aaron trembled as he finished the page. This wasn't a myth or story, it was real. Lieutenant Blackwood was wrong about one thing, this magic was not evil.

Aaron believed no magic was innately bad, only the wielder. Many types of spells could have killed those men in cruel and painful ways, it was just by chance that this happened to be a Necromancer. Aaron's thoughts were swiftly interrupted by a guard knocking on the door.

"Sorry for the intrusion master Finneas, the hearts have arrived." Bored of dallying in the library, Aaron snapped the book shut and placed it back on the heap.

"Let's get started." Finneas led him through the mansion and into a nearby dining room. The large table was covered by a white sheet and all of the chairs had been removed. On top of the table lay five hearts. They must have been fresh as the blood was still dripping out of the sides, staining the sheet red. A longer deceased heart would not have been so red and vibrant. The blood inside it would have been black and thick. Aaron approached the first heart on the left.

Red serpiginous vessels slithered over its surface. They wound and forked reaching all ends of the organ. There were two large holes at the top where blood vessels used to connect to it. The white saggy bits of cartilage had rough frayed ends where they had been sawed off. Most people would have been disgusted at the sight of it, but Aaron had seen enough in three years as a healer to be desensitised to a bit of gore. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

Master Addison had always taught the apprentices that repetition and practice is a good way to gain levels in their skills. Now he finally had the opportunity to put it to the test. Aaron put his hand on the first heart. It was still uncomfortably warm and moist. He caught an inkling from his True Sight telling him it had still been beating a few hours ago. If I need to thin the walls of June's heart, I should practise on these first.

Aaron suspected the biggest risk was that thinning it too much could cause it to rupture which would be invariably fatal. But if he didn't thin it enough, the spell would be ineffective and she'd still be dying. It was a terrible line to tread. Remembering how he manipulated the crow's heart, he pictured the two largest chambers squeezing. It came more naturally to him this time; he didn't need to strain or squeeze or picture the muscle fibres aligning. It felt much more natural and automatic.

The chambers were simply obeying his commands in turn. Aaron was staggered with how much more proficient he was with this power; a few level ups made such a big difference. He chuckled to himself with pride, attracting a strange look from the guard in the room. Let's try something more difficult. Aaron put his other hand on a second heart. Whilst continuing to pump the first one, he split his focus to the second heart and tried to make it move as well. But to his annoyance, the first one stopped pumping.

Rather than coordinating four chambers, he had to do eight and it definitely felt like a step up in difficulty. He closed his eyes and really tried to connect with the organs in his hands. He felt a chill in his chest this time as always when he has to dig deep into his soul power. He suspected this was a good sign. Two chambers on each heart began to contact. But they were slow and sluggish. It took all of his focus to coordinate the moving parts beneath each hand.

It wasn't just the increased mana cost that made it difficult, but also the coordination required to focus his mana on so many things at the same time. Minutes went by as Aaron persevered. Slowly and painfully alternating between the large and small chambers in both hearts, emulating their natural movements. Once beating them in synchrony became too easy, he decided to run them at different speeds. He practised different rhythms and tempos, gradually getting faster and more coordinated as he went on.

He felt his connection with the tome jolt him, as if trying to get his attention. A message appeared in his mind's eye. [Skill proficiency increased] Manipulate: level 3 * [Somatomancy talent improved] Heart Mastery: rank 3 It was hard work, but satisfying to see the reward. Between the exhausted panting, he couldn't help but let a grin curl up at the corners of his mouth.

"Did you do it?" Finneas asked. Aaron didn't answer; he was still focusing on using Manipulate. He felt powerful and in control. The two pig hearts were obeying his wishes with ease. Time to take it a step further. He lifted his hands off the hearts, still channelling his mana to them. His hands hovered a few inches over them with his fingers splayed out and palms facing down. To his delight, he could still continue to control them. A wave of excitement and pride shot through his stomach.

It was hard feeling like a useless novice and this was the first time in days that he wasn't exhausted by the smallest spell. Feeling confident, he took two paces back. He felt beads of sweat dripping down his forehead as he strained and channelled the spell. The hearts were still beating. Finally giving in to the fatigue, he stopped the spell. He put his bloodied hands on his knees for support and huffed and panted. He turned to Finneas.

"Yep, it worked", his cheeks hurt from grinning. Aaron expected Finneas to look delighted, but that was not the case. In fact, it was the exact opposite. He was staring at the hearts with a look of dread in his eyes. The two hearts Aaron had been working on had squished and splayed out on the sheet. They looked worn and damaged.