Inheritance - The Dark Sorcerers: Book 1

Chapter 31: Teachings of the Darkness

My heart fluttered with excitement at the word "practical". "How old are you?"

His eyes widened with surprise. Then he threw his head back and laughed. "Curious little thing, aren't you? Of all the things you could've asked ..." He chuckled, and I crossed my arms indignantly. "I celebrated my eight thousand two hundredth birthday last year."

My mouth rounded into a silent "O". "By the Light, you're a fossil."

He grinned. "Do you know what the secret to immortality is, little Sorceress?" 

All right, time for my first lesson.

"Non-magical blood?"

"Ironically, yes. Non-magical blood mixed with the essence of Darkness itself." He started pacing, deep in thought. "Light is ephemeral, always produced by a source, whether it's a torch, the stars or the sun itself. Darkness, however, is eternal. It's always there: in the shadows you cast by walking in the sun, and in the night sky as a blanket for the sparkling dots of starlight. If it's deep enough, it can absorb all the Light. That's why in the beginning, there was only Darkness, and there will be only Darkness in the end." 

He looked up, amber eyes locking with mine. "And in those everlasting properties, I found my answer. To become immortal, one must submit oneself to the Darkness, immerse oneself in it. Yet, having magic in your blood poses a problem in that the bodies of Dark Sorcerers are already used to the presence of Darkness, and those of Light Sorcerers succumb to it."

"So that's why the Purging requires non-magical blood," I whispered, fascinated despite my deep-rooted aversion to Immortals. The White Sisters had always said that immortality was a curse rather than a blessing, and only those with an insatiable thirst for power and a great fear of death would commit to a never-ending lifestyle. I agreed with them; I'd rather live one lifetime and be content with what I'd got on my deathbed, than to live a thousand lifetimes searching for more and never being satisfied.

"Indeed," Cain confirmed. "During the Purging, the Sorcerer drinks the blood, and its purity is like nectar for bees; the Darkness will be drawn to it. However, the non-magical properties of the blood trigger a chain reaction in combination with the Sorcerer's Dark magic. Since the blood is not suitable for controlling magic, the Darkness is given free rein and will consume all of it until all that's left is Darkness itself in a liquid form, which will then start to spread through the Sorcerer's body. When that happens, the body will do the only logical thing to prevent that pure Darkness from poisoning the Sorcerer: it will die."

I nodded, knowing this part. "Only to be reborn, because true Darkness cannot die." I frowned as I remembered something. "Now that I think about it ... Was Commander Yasir an Immortal?"

"Yes." He grimaced at the question in my eyes. "You probably wonder how it was possible for your friend to kill him, right?" When I didn't respond, he sighed. "By now, you must know that the weapon your protector carries is not an ordinary spear. After all, it is the same weapon that succeeded in killing Dragons for the first time in history."

"It's enchanted," I said. "With a Sure-Strike spell. But the enchantment had almost faded before Salena Néyrtifi renewed it, so ..."

A muscle twitched in his jaw. "The spell has nothing to do with it, although it was a foolish act of Salena to renew it. A weapon like that should never be in the hands of Man." I quirked an eyebrow and he crossed his arms over his chest in response. "First of all, Iain Kingsley's spear is not made of common steel, but of a rare type of metal called rodamantium. This metal is nearly impossible to destroy and it's so sturdy and sharp that it can slice through rocks if the person wielding it is strong enough. And second, the metal absorbs Darkness."