The last few fortnights had been a blur, with all the people surrounding him. All the attention, all sorry voices seem to get to him. Not that he didn't like the attention, but this is not what he had bargained for. In all the time that had passed since he was found ashore lifeless on the banks of rienhauch falls, All that time since Austin De Souza tried to remember what had happened since he hit the tarmac en-route to the blood orchid hill to rendezvous with his friends only to end up senseless, he drew a blank.
he tried relays of spells and incantations, but all he drew up was an empty space, a blind spot that he couldn't access, and the effort left him drained to the bone, not that he had much in terms of muscle left, his pale hunched up features gave an aura of a broken soul. With spaces that couldn't be filled, his memory was a dream that played tricks on his weakened mind.
Trauma was the first working conclusion to such an event, victims of a traumatic episode tend to block out the details or the entire event altogether, to prevent the over load the brain can sustain. It is possible to reel back these memories by preparing the mind to handle such immense level of emotional and mental processing.
But this wasn't a case of trauma, it was a memory spell. A nasty bit of magic, it required an alestarian altar to be specific, with chard metacarpal of a first born, the bone of a bastard, essence of a virgin, and the flesh and blood of an unholy host to fuel the spell and keep it going. This particular spell creates the same condition that is generated during a traumatic experience only here it is 10 fold stronger and no physical and therapeutic means can by pass such a spell.
Only way to disarm it is to break the flow of the spell, by dis-mantling the altar or cutting off the supply of the blood from the host, the trick was to find the altar but the slow influx of energy to fuel such a spell made it oblivious to the strongest of tracking spells or summons.
Austin had no intentions to re live those events again, all he wanted was the whispering, the different kid treatment to stop, he was growing sick of playing the victim; he was born a man, not a scared babe afraid of the monster in his closet, he needed a way out and fast.
A sharp jab to his rib cage brought Austin back to hard reality; which was his lab with one of his team members in the middle of a discussion through the protocols of their next project assignment. A way out way just a figment of thought, victim treatment was the acting reality. Every final year apprentices were required to work a project, in fields of choice to be able to graduate. Being a Valkyrie, his life had been laid out by his parents. He was to graduate from the academia and pursue Valkyrie law and summons under the apprentice-ship of his father, who was the elder superior of the houses of the Valkyrie, and later to rise to his position in due time. He and his team had selected to work on the alchemy of regeneration, and they had progressed in generating an active subject from a weak tissue form, and were working in controlling its in-voluntary mechanisms through extra referral spells.
"Did you hear what I just told you? Austin?" peeked a voice at the end of Austin's vision, it was Ria Estherbrook, the brains on his team, somewhat unstable, as if someone had pushed an old mind into a tiny kid, it was unnerving, he just shrugged and mouthed a 'no' she was average height, with a round face contorted into a comical frown and small dark eyes that were fixed in a stare, daring him to say otherwise.
"Pay attention.... As I was saying, All we need to do is establish a stronger neural link with the generated subject... in order to be able to do so .I suggest we stick to basic spells...using charms or cursed objects to control the subject is pointless, they just can be over ridden or lost...it has no bigger picture value...". Ria continued.
"But this is all under the assumption that any form of neural structure that can be controlled to the extent that we are postulating even exists in a fully regenerated subject....why can't be simply integrate a charm....engrave it on its energy source...in that way we can bend the charms to perform through preset specifications...instead of controlling them remotely." Austin argued
"We have been through this Austin...energy charms are quite complex to perform...and they are not like spells or summons which can work on an external energy source other than your own.... Which I might point out can be disconnected if something goes wrong... whereas charms just focus 'your' energy into the whole is working. Emphasis on 'your energy'...that's just too much collateral." She said visibly pissed
"Alright...alright we stick to spells...and by the way with the exception of elemental spells and few basic ones like force fields almost all higher spells require altars..." said Austin as a matter of factly....
"Now you are just making stuff up...somehow I don't believe you....just get to work and before actual neural link establishment with the subjects....Professor Silvia has suggested that we continue to practice neural links amongst us before we attempt it on the subjects..." Ria pointed out
"But then don't we require Miss Rosel to be present to supervise or something?" he asked genuinely getting bored of the conversation
Miss Rosel was a reputed consultant on neurology and behavioral pattern assessment, she was also the leading news anchor with the tribunal news network, and she had been requested by the dean of the academia to assist final year apprentices on issues that dealt with her field of expertise, which arose in their project assignments, which were surprisingly quite often.
"She was supposed to be here an hour back...but Professor Silvia has asked us to proceed without her..." said Ria with an air of authority.
"Alright you know the drill. We will time our link..." she said pointing at her watch.
"..Let's begin and make sure you concentrate on finding my mind...don't go wander off into some else's..." she finished
They got off their stations and went to the Centre of the room, Austin cast a few sound-barrier spells so that there would be no interference, they took their positions, and they both closed their eyes as if in sync.
A force field extended from the participants and merged on contact and simply dissolved into its surroundings, a surge of energy exited on their every heartbeat, images began to flash and blur in Austin's vision, and he pushed more energy into stabilizing the link and concentered it more on holding the connection. With the neural link holding steady, he aimlessly entered and exited her memories as she did with his, there was that one time they got throw out of a coach for being too noisy on their way to the fair, his time when he and had introduced Himself to Ashley remolds the girl from his junior year he had a crush on from the time he laid eyes on her, the feeling when his heart had flustered when she had smiled back at him.
Ria gave a tiny giggle to that memory causing the connection to waver with loss of concentration, both of them again pushed more energy into stabilizing the connection, but Austin started to lose his hold on the link. As the images began to blur, he pushed a fresh force field to maintain the link, sweat ran down his spine, his head began to feel a certain amount of inward pressure, as his heart thumped in his chest threatening to be ripped out from its place, his eyes burnt, and a sharp pain entered his medulla...all images blurred and his head spinned, and he desperately pushed his senses to hold onto the link. Then in a flash a certain cascade of memories intensified and an image cleared as he entered a distinct memory.
He saw it to be night, dark and listless, it was some company parking lot, lights flicked and went off in a distant "damn these lights, where the heck are my keys...." A woman, probably in her mid-20s cursed. A TNN ID badge dangled from her waist pocket, Ms. ROSEL FERNANDES it said. There was a hint of cold drizzle drawing to a chill; fishing out the keys from her right jacket pocket she thrust them into place...the winds screamed and the night grew cold and cruel. A figure materialized from the darks of the night and pulled her by her hair. he flung her on the tarmac, scraping flesh and blood to the place she landed she tried to conjure a shield but and invisible force hit her square in her ribs cracking the bones left intact, she tried to scream but no sound escaped, bloodied all over, the figure moved hungrily towards the woman. In a swift motion he ripped off all the ruminants that remained in the manner of clothing. With his prey naked, he brought down this fist to the woman's face, causing her to gasp in immense pain, unable to produce magic, defenseless, he knelt over and kissed her on her bloodied lips. The figure griped the woman by the wind pipe, in a singular action he lifted her off the ground and thrust her naked form head first into the tarmac shattering her skull. In that instant the images lost focus and the memory dissolved.
A sharp pain entered Austin's head... a gasp escaped his mouth, bile rose to his throat and he hit the stone ground hard.
YOU ARE READING
TO A NEW END.
Fantasyits is a new world since the co-exsistance of various other races of humanity came to light, and within the race of survival and dominance, and the idea of mutual harmony is the lives of 3 different people, torn between belief of their own race, a d...
