Deal with the Immortal (2)
Ellen's gaze settled on the figure standing before him, a hood drawn low over its head.
Looking closer, he saw that the face beneath the hood was a bare skull with not a scrap of flesh remaining. Twin blue lights smoldered in the empty sockets, cold enough to freeze the blood of anyone who met them.
The master of the Harryford Dungeon was a Lich, reborn from the lingering grudge of a dead archmage.
"I came here to cut myself off from the outside world. Must you insist on seeking me out again? I'll overlook it this once—turn around and leave."
Despite his appearance, the Lich's voice was measured and refined. There was even a trace of courtesy in it.
Just like the book said. So we can talk after all.
The terrifying rumors surrounding Liches sprang mostly from their nightmarish forms. Of course, most of them had brought calamity on a grand scale. Yet there were also those who shunned all contact so completely that they buried themselves in private domains of their own making. The Lich of Harryford belonged to the latter sort.
"I can help you," Ellen said. "I can free you from the curse of immortality."
There were only two ways to end a Lich's undying existence: shatter the Life Vessel, or lead its soul to true rest. Hameron had once chosen the first path and crushed this one's vessel. That method, however, demanded overwhelming force far beyond anything Ellen possessed. So he had decided on the second.
"What arrogant nonsense. Who are you to claim you can undo my immortality? You ignored my warning—very well. I will kill you myself."
The Lich began drawing in mana with unmistakable intent. Ellen tensed to the breaking point.
Magic of that caliber would erase me before I could even blink.
If the words he was about to speak failed to catch the Lich's interest, he would die where he stood.
"The pinnacle of the magic path!"
Ellen shouted the phrase in sheer desperation. The spell that could have annihilated him in an instant flickered and died. Even he felt the murderous pressure drain away.
"Ahem. I have seen the ultimate goal you so desperately seek—the absolute peak of magecraft."
Only then did Ellen manage to steady himself enough to clear his throat and speak properly.
"You look like little more than a Magic Assistant at best. And yet you dare lecture me on truth to my face?"
Far from being intrigued, the Lich seemed even more enraged. Ever since becoming undead he had sealed himself away here, pouring decades into research for the sole purpose of glimpsing the deepest secrets of magic. Not once had he found so much as a thread. And now this boy was speaking of that very truth.
"I'll prove it."
Without a single syllable of chanting, Ellen cast Light Magic. A sphere of brilliant radiance bloomed above his open palm.
"What—what did you just do? What trick is this?"
The Lich's jaw hung open. The shock was so complete that even a fleshless skull managed to convey it.
"There is no trick."
Next came Aqua Magic. A stream of water materialized in midair and soaked the stone floor. The Lich already knew no artifact had been used, yet he still could not bring himself to believe it.
Ellen continued casting spell after spell, each one without chant or delay. At last the Lich had no room left for doubt.
"How can you use magic without speaking the words of power?"
To stand before someone who had already reached the extreme he had spent so long pursuing felt almost wondrous.
"Let's make a deal," Ellen said. "I will grant you what you desire most."
"A deal? You claim you can drag me out of this curse of immortality?"
A fragile spark of hope stirred inside the Lich, and with it a flicker of excitement.
"What is your other grudge? I can show you the pinnacle every mage dreams of. But that alone would never have driven you to become a Lich."
Bones ground together as the Lich clenched his teeth hard enough to crack.
"I was a commoner, just like you. I knew it the moment I first laid eyes on you. Nobles never enter a place like this alone. The only reason I tried to send you away earlier was because you were a commoner—something like pity, I suppose."
Bitterness toward the nobility and the sorrow of the lowborn colored every word.
"I rose higher than any commoner had a right to dream—all the way to Court Mage. After that I reached the level of a Seventh-Circle Master and earned the title of archmage. Some envied me. Others hated me for it."
The blue lights in his sockets turned cold and sharp, as if he were staring at a particular face from the past.
"Everfeldi Chedleton. That man despised me above all others."
Chedleton? Does that entire bloodline just inherit the hobby of tormenting commoners?
Ellen scowled at the familiar name. Memories of everything Rick Chedleton had done to him rose unbidden.
"He could never open his mouth without sneering 'a mere commoner.' The moment I took the Court Mage's seat, he dropped the mask. He framed me as a practitioner of Blood Magic. Colleagues he had bought testified against me, and I was executed."
The Lich's presence shifted in an instant. A killing intent sharp enough to flay skin poured outward.
"The terms of the deal are simple, then," Ellen said. "I have my own mountain of grievances against the Chedleton family. I'll settle your grudge for you."
The Lich had already witnessed Ellen's power—the Chantless Casting that not a single mage in history had ever achieved. If this boy could show him that, then perhaps he could also reveal the true secrets of the magic path.
"Very well. What do you want from me in return?"
At the question Ellen crowed with silent triumph.
"I'm still only a student at the Magic Academy, aiming to become a proper mage. Thanks to a certain ability, people already call me a genius. But I have a fatal flaw—mana affinity and mana absorption so pitiful they can only be called catastrophic. I want you to fix that for me."
Ellen laid out his true purpose. In Hameron's book the archmage Lich had been described as someone one could actually reason with. To Hameron the Lich had been a threat that needed eliminating; to Ellen he was an opportunity—the one being who might solve the fundamental defect of his talent.
"Kuhahaha! Then the deal is struck!"
The Lich's answer came as a great booming laugh.
A laughing Lich somehow manages to be even more unsettling.
The sight of a bare skull throwing its jaws wide and rattling with mirth was anything but pleasant.
"I know that struggle well. If you fulfill my lifelong wish, I will teach you everything that can help you in turn."
Deep beneath the earth of Harryford, in a place the living world had never heard of, the bargain between them was sealed.