Arcanum 103 Black Magic

"Sure." Helen smiled.

"Sure..." I replied but a part of me really wanted to start reading on inferno contracts... "I might leave early though..... Training with Scarlet in the morning and stuff.." I replied.

"I wonder if we can join you." Jay wondered.

"You wouldn't enjoy it…..most of it is physical exercise..." I chuckled.

"Yuck..." He replied physically pretending to gag.

"But I'll ask her tomorrow morning." I smiled.

"That would be so awesome!!!" Helen hugged me imagining.

"Scarlet thinks I might have a chance against Calista.... but some reason I'm not hopeful...." I added.

"You'll be alright!!!" Helen replied.

"Yeah!!! With personal training from an S class I'm sure you'll beat her." Jay added.

We all slowed down a little seeing a shadowy silhouette knelt down rustling some bushes as if looking for something. Causing us and several other students walking past giving the silhouette a wide berth.

"I think that was Morgana...." Helen whispered to us after walking a fair distance away from the figure.

"Are you sure??..." Jay asked.

"Yeah.... most of her was hidden but from what I saw it looked like her." Helen replied.

"Ohhh well we can ask her later." I said opening the doors to the dorm building.

"I guess so if she meets up with us." Jay said following me in.

"Do you think Grace and Daisy is done by now?" I asked Helen.

"Yeah they are normally done by sunset." Helen replied.

"That's great!!!" I smiled as we made our way up the stairs.

We knocked before entering letting know Grace and Daisy that we've returned. "Hey guys!" They greeted us as we entered Daisy sitting on the floor and Grace lying on the bed.

"Find any cool books?.." Daisy asked us.

"Yeah a couple, what you two been up to?" I replied.

"Just some running and push ups and squats..... Then Grace asked me about my armour.... and we talked about out childhood a little." She answered.

"Ohhh cool!" I said taking a seat next to daisy leaning my back against the wall. "So Daisy..... What other interests do you have aside from training?.." I asked.

"Hmmmmm...." She pondered for a long while.

"Paul of course!" Helen smiled causing Daisy to go extremely red funnily extremely noticeable through her blue skin.

"Ignore her." I said noticing Daisy quieten.

"Ummm..... Back in the Church we had many chores..... We would heal the sick and wounded, help defend the mistreated, Pray to Goddess Serra and spread her word, Normal chores like cooking and cleaning...." She replied with a smile. "It was a quaint life." She added.

"Could you tell me about Serra?.." I asked.

"Ohhh yeah.... she's the Goddess of Life, Healing and light. She is one of the many Good deities also one of the oldest beings in the current pantheon." She explained.

"Ohhh I see....." I replied nodding in understanding.

"Do you believe in a God?.." She asked me.

"Ummmm yeah but it seems way different to what you guys believe in..." I replied.

"Ohh what is it?.." She asked extremely interested.

"It's a religion called Hindu, we believe in one true God called Brahman who encompasses everything in the universe." I answered trying to explain to her.

"Ohhh I get it..... So stories say that a God names Inos created everything from nothing." She explained.

"Yes that would technically be same or similar." I replied.... "But Paul told me that there are Things that predates the Gods... how is that possible?.." I asked curiously.

"Hmmm..... no idea... maybe you should ask him…. It sounds pretty interesting." She smiled.

"Hmm yeah I'll prob ask him when I see him again." I replied.

"Yeah..... Maybe he meant that some things are older than newer younger Gods." Daisy added.

"Ahhh that would make more sense." I agreed.

"So was it Serra that gave you your tattoos??..." I asked.

"Ummm.... no.... when I was in the cult I went under a ritual which gave me these tattoos.... they would normally glow black...but when I embraced the warmth of Serra they began to glow golden and yellow." She smiled.

"Ohhh wow..." I said in amazement.

"Yeah normally followers of deities are given blessings and boon to the followers." She added.

"Ohhh I see, fascinating." I said learning more and more about this world.

"Yah there's loads of Gods here.... for example... there's a good and dark Elven pantheon..... So Elves like Helen and Grace... good elves will believe in a group of good Elven gods..... And dark elves would worship a dark pantheon of Elven Gods." she explained. There's also a pantheon for most races such as dwarves, human and gnomes." She added.

"Ahh interesting." I nodded, "it's the same as back where I'm from.... several other religions as well." I explained.

"So our worlds are similar?" She smiled.

"In some aspects I guess..." I replied, "What about the lights in the sky??..." i asked wondering what they think space is here.

"Hmmmm I don't know actually." She replied, "I've never really thought about the light in the night sky...." she answered.

"Well where I come from.... through Science.... we discovered that each light in that sky is a sun." I began to explain. "And each of those stars would have a solar system each with planets like the one we live on....." I explained.

"Wow.... so there's so many earths around??...." she looked at me in amazement.

"So we discovered there are as many planets as grains of sand on a beach..... But not all of them are habitable....there are so many requirements for a planet to sustain life." I explained.

"I see." She nodded slowly in understanding but looked completely lost.

"Don't worry.... some things are hard to understand or even fathom." I smiled.

"So does your God bless you with anything??...." Daisy asked.

"My faith gives me confidence and strength of push forward and how I should live my life and treat others." I smiled.

"Ohhh that's great!!!!" Daisy switched to a giant smile.

"Yeah..." I smiled in return.

There was a sudden knock on the door, "It's me Morgana." She shouted through the door.

"Come in... its unlocked." Helen shouted back.

"Hello friends!" She said smiling walking in taking a seat next to me.

"Had a good evening?.." I asked her as she sat down.

"Yeah was good..." She replied.

"You got something in your hair." I said taking a leaf from her hair and pocketing it, being too lazy to picket it up if I missed throwing it into the bin.

"Ohhh yeah..... I was scavenging for reagents." She replied.

"Ohhh..... We thought we saw you earlier... but we wasn't sure." Helen added.

"Find anything good?..." Grace asked.

"Not really..... I couldn't find anything!" Morgana huffed.

"Nothing at all?.." I asked Morgana.

"There was some Mushrooms and flowers but the effort to make them anything useful is too much effort for little to no effect." She answered.

"Well.... I guess they wanted the school to be safe.." I replied.

"Yeah.... but I was hoping something at least a little potent.... so poisons are off the table sadly." She shrugged.

"Ohhh you wanted to make poisons?.." Grace asked.

"Yeah.... something to have if the need arises. Not to be used on anyone of course." She said defensively.

"No... I didn't mean it like that... I was wondering if you could teach me some Basic poisons..." She replied.

"Ohhh sure... but again I haven't found anything useful yet…. but when I do I'll let you know." Morgana smiled.

"Thanks." Grace smiled.

"So what is Voodoo Effigy?...." Jay asked Morgana.

"Ummm... My mother calls its Black Magic.... So with a piece of hair of the target... I make a Doll and link the target's soul, so when I inflict a wound on the doll it will do the same to the Targets body." She explained.

"What the hell magic is that...." He said in shock.

"Yeah Mother told me its Old magic.... highly illegal to use." Morgana replied calmly.

"So what does Black Magic do?.." He asked.

"Well..... Black Magic deals with spirits... I can request spirits to help me Haunt, Curse, Hex and many other things to people..... It's not really good in the middle of combat it requires Time and rituals and request assistance from spirit." She explained.

Jay remained silent, speechless seemingly unable to comprehend what she was saying to him. "It's weird stuff... to do with spirits, ghosts and Loa's." She explained.

"Loa's?..." Jay ask completely fascinated.

"They are basically very strong spirits.." Morgana explained.

"So how does it work?.." He further questioned Morgana.

"So... If you want to curse someone or give them bad luck or something... I would set up a ritual and talk to a spirit requesting them to curse my target... If your relationship with the spirit is new you'd tend to need to give something in exchange.... like an Offering or a Task..." She explained.

"Interesting...." Jay replied.

"As I said before..... A voodoo effigy.... all I would need is a strand of hair and with a small ritual I'll bind the targets soul to the doll spiritually.... so any wound inflicted on the doll is also inflicted on target..... But it won't kill them outright...but it can cause minor wounds and inflict injuries to hinder them." She added.

"Her magic is really creepy..." Daisy whispered quietly hoping Morgana doesn't hear.

"Yeah...." I agreed with her but not really surprised.

"I see...." He nodded in understanding. "So..... How are you enjoying life in the school?..." He asked her.

"It's okay I guess... a little boring.... don't really know what to do with my spare time.... Most my day used to be spent doing chores or collecting reagents." She sighed, "Also trying to adjust to 'normal society' has been very hard..." She added.

Chapter end