《Danse Macabre and Unlife》Chapter 10 “Apprentice sister”
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After Tikka had left, her daughter hopped up and flew over the table and tackled Viktor to the ground with a squeal.
The ferret peeked over from its mistress’s previous hiding spot and watched as Sisa hugged the fallen necromancer. “Paley, Viktor! Viktor, Paley!” she shouted while she nuzzled her head to Viktor’s chest. Just as normal, she had gotten what she had wanted and more, learning even his actual name.
Viktor patted Sisa’s back and laughed, both in relief and at the antics of his new apprentice. “Come now, get off me!” He said in between bouts of laughter as he latched off the leech from him and sitting up. The leech then took hold of his lap and rested her back against his chest as she looked up.
“What now?” Sisa asked with uncontained anticipation, “Teach me?”
“I’ll do my best.” He responded while separating part of his attention towards his grimoire to seek answers. His own teachers assenting this to be possible and giving him guidance on how to approach teaching someone.
“Hmm..” Viktor hummed as he finished talking to Percy and Higgins before continuing, “I believe you don’t need more lessons on respect.”
Sisa nodded eagerly to it, yet Viktor hesitated for a moment before testing her.
“What was your take on what I mad-. Told your mother of?”
She bit her lip and chewed it for a moment to ponder it before responding, “Tribe dead not to use as servants..” She hesitated a bit but continued, “Not tribe, not care?”
Viktor scratched his neck and thought it over as well. He had made it sound to be more that what Sisa just said, but she said it exactly how he viewed it. Well, not using the tribe was, in his opinion, a rather hard stance to take as long as they were willing, as well as their loved ones he felt they could be put to use while respecting their remains.
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“Yes, correct my little apprentice.” He nodded after reaffirming his own views and found her answer not wanting in Tikka’s or his own views.
“Apprentice!” she cooed in delight and swung her dainty legs in his lap with elation. She picked up the undead ferret and raised it up. “Conjurer Sisa!” she squealed as she swung the ferret around. “Waker of the dead!”
Viktor watched as she swung the ferret around, his eyes spotting how lifelike it had become. It had come over to Sisa with no prompt from her or him and was now showing general signs of being conscious. He decided not to mull over it much ´, perhaps a fragment of his soul had acclimatised to its form after these weeks and this was the result.
He let Sisa goof around for a bit before raising his hand and conjuring balefire and catching her attention.
“We should check if you can learn what I do.” Viktor said with a sigh as he felt a slight vertigo from his lack of energies. He felt his body growing more rigid from it but soldiered on. “Place your hand in the fire and close your eyes.” He urged her as Sisa watched the flickering flame of life.
“Try to sense how this flame feels.” Viktor instructed after Sisa let the ferret go and did as instructed. “Feel its vigour and seek it out in your body..”
Sisa scrunched up her face in concentration and did as told, but after a while she said “I can’t find it” dejectedly, but kept her eyes closed and continued on.
“Can you feel the flame?” Viktor asked.
“Hmm.. Yes? I dunno..” she answered hesitantly, “What should Sisa feel from flame?”
Viktor pondered how to explain the power he had and came up with: “A warm breeze in the meadow filled with sunlight, warm and filled with life.”
Sisa’s eyes jumped open as she turned towards Viktor in glee. “Sisa feels it now!”
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She closed her eyes again in agitation, trying to find a similar feeling in her body. Viktor decided to help and put his other hand on her back and slowly sent some of his power in her without injecting with the energy with any intent.
Sisa shifted in his lap before a gasp left her mouth. “Find, find!” She was about to shift around again and interact with him, but Viktor stopped her. “Try to move the energy. Make it move faster in your body.”
Sisa grumbled in affirmation as she sat still in his lap.
They sat like that for an hour as she willed the small motes of energy to bend to her will. Her body was covered in sweat in the end and the greenish grey dress made of fibre she wore stuck to her skin before Viktor stopped her from continuing.
With a weary sigh, Sisa stopped and looked back at Viktor again, showing him a glimpse of a tiny receding glow of green in the veins of her golden eyes.
“Good job.” He said with a smile as he caressed her cheek with the back of his index finger as he looked at her tired face.
“Lets get you home to Tikka, shall we?” Viktor said as he stood up and carried her.
“Nnn—” She nodded and rubbed her heavy eyes. “Did good?” She asked while motioning the ferret to climb up and join her.
“Very good, but don’t continue practicing without me.” Viktor responded as they exited the hovel and entered in to the chilly night. He looked at the resting goblin child in his arms clutching a ferret like a doll. “Just in case, okay?”
“Okay.”
Viktor walked the shadowy first platform towards Sisa’s home and listening her as she continued to fall to asleep.
After giving Sisa to Tikka who merely nodded with a thankful smile and told Viktor not to worry about Krugh or others, he headed for the staircase and waited.
Soon, a figure emerged from the dark carrying a bag. It was his new servant, who he had commanded to pack up and meet him.
He needed to do something if he was to teach Sisa further.
His crippled state was hampering both his and his new apprentices’ progress if he would not find something to recharge his storage. Preferably, he’d want more minions as well, but his energy reserves were crucial.
He sent some flying insects to scout ahead as they made their way up the staircase. He faced the dark and gloomy night forest with determination and forced himself to ignore to fatigue hitting him in waves.
Unlike him, Sisa would not be able to take the life essence of others for a long while based on what the wise duo had told him. And he would not let her apprentice, whom he viewed as a little sister, cripple herself because of this. She would need a source of life and he would give it to her.
His dark vision left the forest colourless and eerie as he stood at the top of the stairs to catch his breath, his left hand clutching at air to look for the staff he had forgotten to bring, only for it to appear in his hand.
He looked up and saw a veiled figure who was smiling underneath it and move ahead of them before stopping a few steps ahead and turning around.
Fafi waited calmly for the suspicious Viktor to walk to her with his minion before asking, “Go to forest?”
“Yes. To find something.” Viktor said, while scanning Fafi carefully as to divine her purpose.
“Then Fafi come with, help Paley find the something.” She said and began to gently drag Viktor into the forest. “Fafi will be great help to Paley in search of something. Fafi is shaman after all.”
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if nothing happens [Chinese]
罪惡往往在一瞬間發生, 但靈魂必須用它的整個生命來贖罪。 當你犯了罪, 你有沒有想過如何彌補? 一個眼神,一個動作,一個手勢。 罪已累積。 公正的判斷,執行者的形象。 這是最后的聲音和身影。 不可積存罪孽, 你永遠不知道你的靈魂會去哪里? 你到達時就在那里。 I have written this novel by some unpopular people in the Shadow Kingdom of World of Warcraft. Don't worry about the ending. At the very beginning, the ending is already doomed. I will try to make readers remember me:)
8 62Ashen Ghost
Gravelroy, the last free city, giant metropolis. All ethnicities, cultures, and religions can be found there. Merchants, sailors, criminals, everyone is welcome inside its walls. Everyone but a king, the free citizens don't kneel. But some rulers on the continent would like for this to change... A country bumpkin coming to the Big City. Raised by the wilderness as much as the war. Turned criminal by necessity. A wounded and insane woman. A monster lurks in her prison. She struggles to regain her memories and dreams of escape. A tiny, insignificant meeting. It will send ripples through the world. Given time, ripples can become waves. With enough luck, once in a very long while, a wave will turn into a storm. Slaves, commoners, and soldiers. Bishops too, kings even. Perhaps the Emperor himself. Everyone will feel it. But for now, the stubborn little rock has yet to fall into the waters. He has quite a long way to go in fact. Let's give him a little nudge, shall we? With chance, something might happen. Life can be unpredictable. Especially when we consider the adventures of a crazy girl and a weird lad. Things might get dramatic as the prelude suggested, or they might decide to do as they want and go nuts. Maybe a bit of both. The girl will fight against her own mind, her prison, and her fate. Who imprisoned her and why? But maybe she has imagined everything. She is mad after all. To save someone dear, the boy fights hunger and city guards. Sometimes pigeons as well. Well, this city is cracked anyway. Cover art by Paul Lerouvillois.
8 190Reign of the Abyss
When his life ended, buried in the waves of the ocean staring up as the sea was scattered with blood and flames, Lucca awoke to a void of light. There he met a god, and it was there he was tossed into the soft embrace of the void. When god choose to relent his punishment, he sent Lucca to the others, let him enter the world of Marga. His stay there though would last no longer than a few meager years before once more meeting with death, his body scarred by a cruel queens sadistic touch. But it was there, thrown into insanity, that Lucca returned to his world. But it was no longer the one he remembered. In his passing, rifts had formed, gate ways to other worlds were ripped across the world bringing with them Sparks. Men and women with powers who could challenge the beasts within the rifts. It is here, seeded with the Abyss, that Lucca will rein as a fledgling to gods unbeknown.
8 70For the Hoard
Ergo the dragon is enjoying his seasonal hibernation when human explorers from another world invade his lair. Sucked into an unknown land, and reduced to a fledgling dragon by the loss of his hoard; Ergo must struggle to survive in a world that has been utterly subjugated by humanity. More importantly, will he ever get to finish his hibernation!? note: while I ticked the boxes for sexual/traumatizing content, I mostly did that to keep my options open. I don't currently have any planned, nor do I expect it to be a significant part of the story. After all, the main character is literally a dragon.
8 195A Way of Life
Kyril was once a man who once sought for the complete understanding of the Universe. But sadly, before he could even grasp any sort of understanding, death had arrived at his doorstep to drag him back to the netherworld. However, in a turn of events, the Heavens seemed to play with him.Have I died? No. Between myself and my goal, not even death can stop me from achieving my goal!This is Kyril. He is a man who is reborn and steps into the world of Martial Arts. A world of Practitioners. A world of Gods.Join him in his adventures, and watch him succeed in his goal!
8 146Psychopath. (bwwm) ✓
"Write down one word that describes you."psy·cho·pathnounnoun: psychopath; plural noun: psychopathsa person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.⌄⌃⌄⌃⌄⌃⌄"I'm psychopathic..." Oliver muttered as he glared at me suspiciously and condescendingly.He was waiting for me to run away.Grinning widely to piss him off, I shrugged."If you're a psychopath, then I must be a lunatic. Because I like you. And because of that, I'm not leaving."He'd watched me stand my ground because we'd surely been through way too much for me to give up now. A small smile spread through his emotionless facade and in a second, he was back to who I really saw him for.He let out a laugh, "Do you have a death wish?"S L O WU P D A T E SC O V E R B Y @ZiaDavis
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