Blood Magic
Sothus smiled as he watched the images in the cauldron playing out before him. It was too bad about the human knight, but the ape leader who killed him, now there was a subject with potential. Yes, his lifeblood would be very useful indeed. Sothus waved his hand across the image and it disappeared, leaving only the dark red of the blood that filled the cauldron.
The ape’s power did not surprise the blood mage. He’d known the witch who’d enchanted its forefathers, and she’d been quite the impressive spellcaster. It was too bad about the messy end she and her sister had come to. But no time to reminisce. There was work to be done! Leaving his study, he crossed the hall to where his prisoner was chained to the wall. It annoyed him to no end that he did not have a proper dungeon to keep his prisoners in, but full wizard towers were expensive, and he had been forced so far to live in a simple three room house.
But all that was about to change. The town of Femren had been steadily pulling gold from the nearby mines for several years now, but rumors had recently started circulating about the possibility of a newer, richer vein than any of the others. The handful of previous ‘informants’ that Sothus had interrogated had not been very helpful, but finally he was certain that he’d found the right man.
Sothus kicked the man in the leg, rousing him from sleep. “Time to wake up! I hope you slept well.”
“Go to hell!”
“A feisty one, I see. There’s no reason to be like that. Simply tell me what I need to know, and you can go on about your life. Now where is this new vein of gold? And don’t tell me you don’t know. Your friend was very convincing when he told me you were the man to ask.”
“I’ve got nothing to say to you! That gold is mine,” the man replied. “I found it fair and square. You can’t have it.”
“Oh, but I can. And here is why.”
Sothus placed his hand on the man’s forehead and concentrated. The man’s screams of agony echoed through the small room. After several seconds, Sothus removed his hand.
“What you felt there is what happens when a person’s blood begins to boil inside their body. Not very pleasant, is it? But that’s not even the worst I could do to you. Imagine all that blood being forcibly removed from you through your eye sockets, and out through your skin. That is what will happen if you do not tell me what I want to know.”
There was defiance in the man’s eyes, but it faded as he looked up at the cruel smile on the mage’s face. It was clear he would be more than happy to carry out his threat. “Fine, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
“Wonderful. I knew you’d be cooperative.”
Sothus provided the man with pen and parchment, and he drew a rough map showing where he’d found traces of a rich vein of gold.
“I’ve only scratched the surface of it,” the man said. “But I know there’s plenty of it in the ground. I just need to get to it!”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry yourself about that any more. You remember what I said about removing your blood through your eye sockets?”
Now that Sothus knew the location of the new vein of gold, it was simply a matter of extracting it. And while the enjoyment he would get from terrorizing the local miners into forced labor was tempting, the sad truth was that it would take far too long to extract the gold that way. He wanted the gold now! Which meant he would need a spell, a powerful spell, to extract the gold from the earth. And he had been putting together such a spell, but not only was it very complex, but it would require much blood, powerful blood. Luckily, he knew exactly where that blood would be coming from.
*****
Crassus’ shoulder still ached from the knife wound he had received during the previous day’s battle. But at least he was still alive, which was more than he could say for many others. He could still picture Marcellus dying from a sword thrust to the chest. He didn’t know how, but somehow he would make the humans pay for what they had done.
“AAAAHHHH!!!!”
Crassus jumped from his chair. He’d never heard such agony in a scream before! He rushed from his house, looking about for its source. Standing on one of the bridges leading to his house stood a thin, pale-skinned human in dark red robes. His hand was wrapped around the throat of an ape that he was holding out in front of him as if he weighed nothing. It was from this ape that the screaming was coming. And the reason for the screaming? The ape’s blood was being pulled out through his skin, forming into streams that flowed into the massive ruby at the end of the human’s staff, which he held in his other hand.
The ape’s screams ended as the last of his life was pulled from his body, and the human tossed him away like he was nothing. Then he turned towards Crassus. “Ah, there you are. I have been looking for you.”
“What do you want here, human? Have your people not caused us enough pain?” Crassus’ jaws clenched as he fought back his rage.
“Most likely not,” the human replied. “But what others have done to your people or will do to your people is not my concern. My only interest is you. Or more specifically, that wondrous blood that flows in your veins!”
“If you want my blood, try and take it!”
Crassus charged forward. He watched as the human pointed his staff at him, then leapt upwards and to his right, catching a branch and pulling himself into the trees. He leapt from branch to branch, circling around the mage with all the swiftness his people possessed. He was about to leap onto the human’s exposed back when suddenly every muscle in his body cramped up, and he dropped like a stone, landing in a heap on the bridge behind the human.
“Did you really think you could best me?” Sothus asked, turning around and looking down at the ape. “Admittedly, your blood is very powerful, and will be a most useful component in the spell I am working on. But at the end of the day you are nothing but a simple beast. And while others may admire your courage, you would have been much better off running, as fast and as far as your legs could carry you. Oh, I still would have gotten you eventually, but you would have lasted at least a bit longer that way.”
Sothus moved his open palm in a quick circle, then clenched his fist tight. Crassus screamed as the mage pulled the blood from his body, siphoning it into the blood ruby in his staff. Other apes were coming towards him from all directions, but he was not concerned about them. One spear flew towards him, but it took little mental effort to deflect it away. Once he had all of the ape leader’s life essence, it was a simple matter to teleport home.
*****
The preparations for the spell took several days to complete, and even with the ape blood powering his magic, every stage nearly exhausted him. There were points that he almost didn’t think he would complete it, but the prize he was after kept pushing him onwards. It was almost a shame that he couldn’t just use his magic to build a tower, but to create a commanding structure of the sort he had in mind would be an even more extreme feat than the spell he was preparing now.
No, he would have to settle for magically extracting the gold from the hidden mine and then paying to have his tower built. He could already envision it, rising above the countryside, a dark and terrible structure that inspired fear and dread in all who saw it. He would rule this whole region with a merciless, bloody fist!
Finally, his preparations were complete. He stood before the location he had gotten from the miner. He could feel the gold in the earth (and see the signs of where the miner had started working to extract it), and he could sense that there was even more of it than he’d expected. Setting a large silver bowl on the ground, he poured one ingredient after another into it. Each ingredient had been separately enchanted, and now their magics merged and fused, becoming greater than their individual parts. He started his incantations, his chants growing louder and more forceful with each word. He touched the tip of his staff to the contents in the bowl, sending out the last of the ape’s blood into it.
There was a burst of flame and thick, dark red tentacles emerged from the bowl. They arced up into the air and then buried themselves in the ground. The ground turned red as the tendrils spread out, branching and splitting, searching out the gold. Soon the ground bubbled, but not with air bubbles. No, bubbles of pure liquid gold broke through the surface, rising into the air. Once out of the ground, they solidified as they moved to the wagon that Sothus had brought with him for the task.
It took over an hour, but finally all of the gold had been extracted from the ground. The wagon was completely full, and a massive heap stood next to it that would require a second trip to bring home. Sothus was drenched in sweat, and every muscle in his body ached. The spell completed, he dropped to his knees, gasping for breath. And he’d thought the preparations for the spell had been exhausting! But it was done, and the gold was all his. Soon he would have his tower, and he would fill it with mystical implements of the most powerful kind. His power would be absolute!
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