The Forgotten Tales: Black Magic

'''So - this story takes place few weeks after Five Ravens. Now, Basil and Jack have an unusual training session. I hope you'll enjoy it.'''

Chapter One
„You want me to do what?!” Basil Hawkins almost choked on his morning coffee, when his friend Jack Rakan explained to him what is his request.

It was a regular Monday morning. Yes, it wasn’t a busy day and Basil didn’t have anything important to do but he wanted to devote this time to his magical research and maybe inventing some new spells? Theo could also use some quality time with him; recent events forced the daughter of Aphrodite to remember things she wishes would never happen. Although the morning was slow and quite boring, Jack’s question made Basil instantly awake.

“Teach me magic.” Rakan replied.

“Jack,” Basil sighed. “if you want magic, better go to my grandfather. He’s a much better teacher.”

“No, not like that.” Son of Ares shook his head. “Look, Mr. Falcone already taught me something.”

As he said that, he raised his palm over his cup of tea.

“Calfacio!” He said and the liquid started to bubble and the steam came out of it. Basil recognized simple heating spell. Certainly impressive, coming from a guy who never showed any interest in magic whatsoever.

“So?” Basil lifted his eyebrow, looking at his friend. Jack certainly lost a lot of energy performing this simple charm; he was sweating bullets, his face was pale and his hands were shaking a little. “Why do you need me? Practice and soon you’ll master more magic.”

“No. I mean, like, your magic.” Jack replied. “Teach me Magia Erebea.”

The silence that fell after that sentence was so tense, Basil could cut it clean with a butter knife.

“Sorry, could you run that by me again?” Son of Hecate said. “Because I think I misheard you.”

“You didn’t,” Jack replied. “teach me Erebea.”

“Jack…” Basil let out another sigh. “Did somebody smashed your head with a club during yesterday’s training? Because right now, you’re asking me to teach you the most dangerous magic in history! And you can’t even maintain a simple Calfacio! Have you seen yourself? You look like you’ve just returned from a dinner with Hades.”

“I know…” Jack said. “I know, man. Listen, I realize that I’m not the best in magic, but remember what you told us? How Erebea works? I don’t need to know spells – I just need to find a way to counter them!”

“So, you want to use the strongest magic as an anti¬-magic?!” As crazy as that sounded, Basil had to admit it wasn’t stupid; his most dangerous technique, Dark Magic, involved reducing magic into pure energy and absorbing it into one’s own soul, thus becoming the embodiment of said spell. Jack was correct in his analysis: it is the most efficient way to counter magic. Yet it had one flaw – the soul becomes very fragile after prolonged usage of Magia Erebea. There was a chance of burning down the essence of life which resulted in never obtaining Elysium. Also, user’s emotions had to be restrained all the time or else the dark part of Erebea would come out and completely mess up sorcerer’s personality.

“Jack, I will hate myself, but… that’s clever.” He said.

“So…”

“No. I don’t say yes. It’s clever, but it’s dangerous.” Basil said. “If you were at least a legacy I would be able to incorporate some abilities that would help you, but since…”

“Since I’m not experienced with magic, I have to become its primary target.” Jack said. “Basil, listen mate, I’m not stupid. I know what the risk is but since you’ve declared Magical World War One we have no choice but to embrace the mystic arts. Listen, it’s like an RPG: you’re the wild card, the joker, you can easily replace each and every one of us. Theo’s the support – her healing skills are outstanding and she can fight. Even Seth has a role – her imagination can go wild and create a variety of spells.”

Damn Napoleon. As always, he was right when it came to warfare.

“And then there’s me – the tank. Brute force which absorbs most damage from the team.” Jack concluded. “So, if we are heading for the magical war, I need a way to absorb magical damage. Amulets and runes won’t be enough.”

“Okay, Jack, fine!” Basil said. “If you want to throw your sanity and life away, I can teach you Erebea. I just don’t take responsibility for what may happen to your body.”

“I know that.” Son of Ares replied.

“Fine then.” Basil said, raising from his chair. “It took me ten years to invent, complete and master Magia Erebea. Since we don’t have that amount of time, we’ll use the Chamber of Chronos. I’ll see you there.”

*

The Chamber of Chronos was a place for the ultra-fast or ultra-long training sessions. It was the pinnacle of Temporal and Spatial Magic; from the outside it looked like a regular snow globe with a beach and a resort nearby. Inside, it was a time-delayed zone where one could set the amount of time which was suppose to pass inside. In reality, it could be only a minute and inside a month would already go by.

When Jack activated the Chamber, Basil was already inside. He was having a relaxing sunbath. He had nothing on except sunglasses and black boxers. He looked more like on vacation rather than a trainer or a teacher.

“Come on, really?” Jack asked.

“Hey, I’ve been here for two weeks.” Son of Hecate replied. “I’m just going to catch some tan and join you in a moment.”

After a while, both men met at the patio having a hearty meal consisting of bread, meat and cheese. Jack wasn’t exactly eager to eat immediately after breakfast but Basil insisted. He claimed that it will take him a lot of energy to pass the first part of learning Magia Erebea.

“So, what’s the training?” Son of Ares asked, munching on his toast. “Except, of course, eating this stuff.”

“You’ll see.” Basil replied. “I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

After second, larger breakfast, Jack and Basil went to the beach. Son of Ares was already excited and eager to learn with his sword drawn.

“Okay, what am I to do?” He asked.

“Remember when you asked me why do you need a big breakfast?” Basil asked and Jack nodded. “Well, we’re gonna burn a lot of energy during phase one.”

After he said that, Jack was pushed to a rock wall by one of his spells. It was so fast, son of Ares didn’t even realize. The only sign of attack was a burn mark on his clothes.

“And if not…” Basil grinned. “Well, I hope you enjoyed your last meal.”