Chương 20: Rotting

The faint smell of rotten pig tickled Aaron's nose as he looked at his tome. Finneas and Harrold were huddled close behind him. On the somatomancy page, the bottom row had three boxes, Heart Mastery, Bone Mastery and Flesh Mastery. They looked the same as before, except they contained a rank; 4, 0 and 2 respectively. There was a key at the side of the page which said tier 1 next to the three masteries. There was a thin faded line linking the three masteries to a box above which said Lesser Animate Corpse.

On each line, the words "Rank 5 required" were written. That makes sense, Aaron thought. He could see that he would need a certain amount of proficiency in each of the three masteries to successfully animate a dead body, although he had no desire to do so. There was a second box on the same row as Lesser Animate Corpse, called Manipulation Mastery. The key at the side indicated these were tier 2 talents. Aaron knew from being a healer that these were novice rank talents.

He'd need to progress to journeyman to access anything in tier 3. Within it there were five white empty squares and some words briefly explaining what it does. The writing was extremely small. Improve the caster's ability to manipulate heart, bone and flesh but an additional ten percent per rank and reduce its mana cost. This sounded useful to Aaron as it would mean he could practise more and potentially increase his proficiency faster. Although it had nothing to do with curses, so couldn't help Tim.

Finneas pointed to the five white boxes within Manipulation Mastery.

"The Gifted can invest their into these boxes as their souls grow in power. They can specialise and focus on one type of magic with precision." Aaron knew all of this, but appreciated the explanation anyways. Master Addison never took the time to explain these things; he was left to figure it out on his own.

"As you get stronger, you will be able to store more mana," he continued, "You will learn to gauge how much mana you are storing and when you are close to being able to invest it."

"So do I need to stop casting spells in order to save up my mana?" Aaron asked.

"Not quite. It's not so much mana you are investing into talents. It would be more accurate to describe it as potential mana; raw power." Aaron had figured most of this out on his own, but it was nice to have it explained to clearly.

"Got it!" Meanwhile, Harrold had pushed to the front and was reading the next page of the tome. On the left was the Teratogenesis tree, but Aaron's attention was drawn to the Consumption tree on the right. This was new. There were no tier two talents on the Consumption page. Instead, a line connected Corpse Draining to a greyed out box on the tier three line. Similarly, there was a tier 1 talent, which Aaron had never seen before, called Vitality draining, which also connected to an undiscovered tier three talent.

The mission log from Harrold's library wrote about a Necromancer draining two soldiers, turning them into skeletons. Was this a high tier Consumption spell, but trained and more powerful? Aaron wanted to use his power to heal and couldn't think of any good reason for draining someone's mana. Or vitality as the tome said. On the Teratogenesis page, there were three skills in tier 1, Augmentation Mastery (rank 1), Amalgamation Mastery (rank 0) and Corruption Mastery (rank 0).

There were three tier 2 boxes above, linked with a rank 5 requirement. They read: Augmentation Enhancement, Manipulation Enhancement and Lesser Curse of Rotting. Aaron stared at the lesser curse. He had no idea that he could learn to curse people. In fact it was a mystery where curses came from at all; no one seemed to know. Perhaps if he trained his ability to curse, he would learn how to also remove them. This could be his way to get back on track.

They had been reading for a minute or so when Harrold interrupted the silence.

"Well that's an easy choice then. Manipulation Mastery is the best way to help my daughter. You'll be able to train with the hearts for longer and with greater skill."

"Hang on," Finneas said, "Surely we need to augment the heart to return it to a normal state rather than manipulate it? Moving it won't be enough, we need to change it entirely." Aaron sensed that Harrold didn't like being corrected. He turned to face his librarian.

"Nonsense, he needs Manipulation mastery. He's been casting Manipulate all this time. He doesn't even have a spell that Augments. Isn't that right Aaron." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Aaron hadn't told them about his interaction with the thief. Not only could his Manipulate skill be used to move things, but it could also strengthen and augment them. But he didn't feel like it was a good time to disagree with Harrold.

What Aaron really wanted was to pick the curse. It was the best way to help Tim, although it would be difficult to persuade Harrold that it could help June.

"Actually, I think that Lesser Curse of Rotting is best. If I learn more about curses, then maybe I can remove the curse from her heart." Aaron knew the curse on her heart was nonsense, but he felt that he could help her without investing more into Manipulate. Any decision he made to invest power into talents was irreversible, so he had to be certain it was what he wanted.

"Are you sure you're not saying that because of your brother's affliction?" Harrold folded his arms.

"I have informants all over the city. I know you've been searching for information about curses. It wasn't hard to put it all together when we found out your brother is sick." Suddenly it became hard to breathe. His collar felt tight and constricting and his heart skipped a few beats. It was only a matter of time before he found out about Tim. But it still made him afraid.

"I keep my family and business separate. I'm sure you can respect that."

"I told you not to lie to me Aaron." Harrold's hissed.

"Would you lie to keep your family safe? Be honest with me."

"This arrangement won't work unless I can absolutely trust you. I'm afraid we are going to have to do things differently from now on. I have men stationed outside your house. If you betray me, you won't have to worry about any curse harming your brother." Aaron had to muster up all of his strength to keep calm. He knew he was at risk of being threatened if he didn't do what he was told, but he hadn't expected it so soon. Especially not over something like a talent choice. Harrold leaned in close.

He put hand on Aaron's shoulder, pinching so tight that it hurt.

"So Aaron, which box is best?"

"Manipulation Mastery," Aaron conceded. Harrold smiled back and broke the tension with a hearty chuck.

"Well that's fantastic news! Go ahead. You just need to picture the box in your mind's eye." Aaron did as he was told, thinking only about Tim's safety. As soon as he had an opportunity, he would rid himself of this tyrant. He should have listened to his brother and maybe he wouldn't be in this mess. He felt like a fool. Aaron closed his eyes and pictured the tree of gray boxes. He could feel the potential mana flowing through his body, desperate for somewhere to go.

He could see all of his options in his mind's eye, as if the tome was projected into his head. He was desperate to learn about curses, but instead directed his power into Manipulation Mastery. It wasn't what he wanted, but he had little choice. After a few moments, the itchiness he felt went away. It was replaced by vigor and energy. Aside from the temporary boost to his mana regeneration, which he was expecting, he didn't feel much more powerful for investing the mana. But that made sense.

Each talent was only a small boost to his strength, and he knew marginal improvements over time added up eventually. He looked down at the book on the Somatomancy page but the Manipulation Mastery box did not change. A faint glow came through from behind the page. Something was wrong. Harrold came charging in, almost knocking him off balance. He flipped the page.

[New skill discovered] Spell Name: Lesser Curse of Rotting Spell school: Curses Spell class: Necromancer Level: 1 Use: Innate Casting Despite not seeing the page directly, Aaron could feel in his soul what had happened. He hadn't meant to invest his mana in learning a curse, but his soul must have responded to what he desired, rather than what Harrold was making him do. He should have been happy about getting the talent he wanted; it was the best way to help Tim after all.

But the look in Harrold's eyes made him fear for his life. He scanned the room for ways out, but the guard was standing in front of the only door. Escape would be impossible.

"You stupid, snivelling rat!" Harrold screamed.

"You dirty peasant. You are the filth beneath my shoe. How dare you defy me!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take that talent. Honestly, I tried to take Manipulation mastery." Red specs of mana started swirling around him and his eyes turned completely black. Of course he had magic. He grabbed the front of Aaron's tunic and lifted him above his head, as if he was a rag. The floor vanished beneath his feet. He flew over Harrold's shoulder in a blur of cobbled floor, ceiling and shadow. Brace. He barely covered his head with his arms before the wall smashed into his skull.

The room went white and he collapsed to the floor in a heap. A high pitched, thin wine screeched through his ears drowning out everything but his racing heart.

"Wait a moment!" Aaron gasped as Harrold marched over. His vision returned just enough to see Harrold's boots stomping over.

"This isn't what I meant to happen. I tried to put my mana into the one you asked for." Harrold didn't stop. His collar was gripped by a fist and he was yanked up against the wall. He flailed his legs looking for the floor below.

"But you wanted to take the curse to help your brother!" The fist compressed his chest against the wall. All he could do was take regular shallow breaths.

"Let's see what you want to do when my men start a beat down on your brother." Harrold gestured to his guard.

"Go and capture the brother. Tie him up in his house and wait for my word." Aaron went to shout but nothing came out.

"Do we understand each other now?" Harrold said, eyes still glowing fiercely with a red hue. There wasn't enough air in his lungs to speak, so he resorted to nodding as much as the space between his head and the wall would allow. The floor crashed into him and he coughed and gasped. The whining in his ears gave way to a pounding headache. What have I done?

"I've had enough waiting. Every day spent here is a day my daughter could die. We start the treatment now!"