Throne of Magical Arcana

It was already eleven in the late night when Lucien left the Psalm Hall. Only few lights were still twinkling along the dark and empty street.

Although the daytime in the Month of Harvest was hot, the rain-swept night was very cool and pleasant. Lucien’s mind was refreshed by the cool air. He gradually woke up from the ecstasy and started to plan his next step. If everything went well, Lucien would be leaving Aderon very soon, thus he had to clean the underground lab up as soon as possible in case some random tramps would inadvertently enter the shack when there was no one there. Before that, Lucien decided to collect some Revenant Dust tonight when the lab was still fully equipped, and then he could turn his attention to the search of Moonlight Rose tomorrow.

Moonlight Rose was always in high demand and very expensive, since it was the main ingredient of the magic potion which could help a knight squire awaken Blessing, and thus become a real knight. As most squires couldn’t afford the Moonlight Rose, some knights would occasionally select their best squires and award them with the dust of the rose.

In addition to that, the market of Moonlight Rose was controlled by the church, the Violet family and a few other big families, which was also one of the strategies how the big families consolidated their status in the Duchy of Orvarit.

Lucien was hoping that probably Felicia could help him, since she was a member of the Hayne family. Felicia was qualified enough to buy some Moonlight Roses within her family.

What Lucien did not know was that, actually, Felicia had already bought the roses three times before, hoping that she could awaken her Blessing. However, her hope finally failed, and since then she started to pay her full attention to learning music.

Lucien currently had no idea how to ask Felicia to do him a favor without being suspected, which sort of bothered him. If Felicia was not willing to help, then Lucien would have no other choice but to find the black market in Aalto or join another secret sorcerer meeting again, which was the last thing Lucien wanted to do for now.

Two simple wagons were waiting in front of the Psalm Hall in the corner. Uncle Joel and his family as well as Elena were waiting for Lucien beside the wagons.

Seeing Lucien coming in their direction, Joel waved to him with both of his hands. He came toward Lucien and gave Lucien a big warm hug.

“Tonight’s like a dream.” Joel patted Lucien’s back with great joy, “You invited me to the concert and fulfilled my dream. We… and your dad… we are all so proud of you, Lucien.”

Following Joel, John also hugged Lucien. His arms were shaking a bit, and his voice was trembling, “I knew it! I knew you’re something! But your growth is still way beyond my expectation, after all, I thought at least I would become a knight first, haha. Now I gotta work even harder or I’ll fall behind.”

Lucien was inspired—maybe he could use John as an excuse for buying Moonlight Rose. After all, Lucien could now afford to buy Moonlight Rose for his close friend John, who was a knight squire, which definitely made sense.

And it was part of Lucien’s original plan as well. Some of his roses would be a gift for John. Lucien already regarded Joel’s family as his own family and John as his most important friend. The support Joel’s family offered Lucien meant a lot to him.

Now the only problem was how Lucien could persuade Felicia to do him the favor.

“My career in music has just started. There’s still a long way to go.” Lucien smiled, “I’m sure soon you will awake your Blessing and become a real knight.”

“Well… I’m not sure about that yet, Lucien.” John shook his head and released his arms, “The first try to awake the Blessing is the most likely to succeed. I have to be more prepared for that.”

“Congratulations, Mr. Evans!” Elena hugged Lucien. Her big eyes were blinking with joy.

“I’m really flattered, Elena.” Lucien grinned, “We are friends. Please, don’t call me a mister.”

……

After sending Elena and Joel’s family home, Lucien went back to his shack and lay in bed.

About one o’clock in the early morning, suddenly Lucien got up. Making sure that it was safe around, Lucien quietly entered his magic lab.

It took Lucien an hour to set up some magic traps just in case. Then Lucien took out a tube of blood from a box. At the same time, the magic notebook was open in his spirit library, ready for taking notes at any time. Lucien was hoping that during the process of collecting the revenant dust, he could also gain a better understanding toward the undead creatures.

As soon as Lucien opened the tube inscribed with runes, a strong smell of sulphur came into his nose. As if it was alive, the dark blood kept bubbling like lava.

Murmuring the awkward-sounding and obscure spell, Lucien connected his spirit with another space dimension. Suddenly, he grabbed the tube and spilled the blood forward.

Weirdly, instead of dropping on the ground, the blood suspended in the air and divided into many small drops.

The drops of blood moved quickly, and a magic circle took shape in front of Lucien. The whole space of the lab was instantly filled with the stinky smell of blood.

Blood fog diffused around the lab. Suddenly, a transparent human figure appeared in the air, of which its face and limbs remained very blurry, but its resentment was so strong that it almost became visible.

Although Lucien still did not understand how different space dimensions were connected by spiritual power, the structure of this apprentice summoning spell itself was not complicated.

A hole, probably its mouth, appeared on the figure’s face, and the vicious revenant started screaming and suddenly leaped at Lucien’s throat.

Lucien stayed very calm and activated the magic traps around him. The air flows restricted the revenant like ropes and shackled it in the air.

Wraith Shackle, an apprentice level spell.

At the same time, transparent walls appeared in the air and surrounded the revenant inside. The surface of the walls was rippling like water as the sound waves of the scream kept hitting the walls.

Silence Wall, also an apprentice spell.

Although the scream of the revenant was blocked, Lucien still felt a sudden surge of nausea and he heard someone was screaming in his brain.

Quickly Lucien took down the notes in his spirit library.

“The scream of revenant transmits in the form of infrasonic waves. High penetrating power. Causes illusion.”

Lucien hoped that he could know the rough vibration frequency of the waves, but with limited lab equipment, Lucien’s note couldn’t be more detailed and accurate.

Being trapped, the revenant’s scream became even crazier, but the scream couldn’t bother Lucien anymore. Calmly, Lucien activated the magic circle drawn on the table, from which many golden rays of light immediately scattered.

“Weight, 21.26g. Heavier than expected. Power… remain unknown.” The information was stored.

Then Lucien started to cast different spells on the revenant to see the effects.

“Immune to Mage Hand.”

“Immune to Acid Splash.”

“Immune to Freezing Rays.”

“Small damage caused by Homan’s Oscillation. Might be because of the intervention of waves, or magnetic interference.”

“Minor damaged caused by Marius’ Small Flame. Reason unknown.”

……

As the experiment went on, the revenant in the air became weaker and weaker, and even more transparent. As if it was afraid of Lucien, the revenant huddled in the corner of the surrounding magic walls.

“Some instinct remained.” Lucien kept recording.

Then Lucien cast the spell Illumination. In the light, the revenant became irritated again, but had nowhere to escape. Its resentment gradually disappeared in the light, but rather slowly.

“Afraid of strong light.” Another line of words appeared on the notebook.

…………

The experiment finally came to the end. Looking at the very weak revenant huddling in the corner, Lucien shook his head.

The summoned revenant was now badly damaged and soon it disappeared completely. Shiny fine dust slowly fell into the magic circle.

“21.25g. The reason of the weight difference remains unknown. Maybe the consciousness of the revenant also has weight.”

Lucien collected the dust of the revenant in a glass tube, and then slowly tidied up the lab, since it should also be the last time he used it before Lucien moved out.

…………

In the morning, Lucien got up early and headed for the Association for two reasons. Firstly, Lucien had become Princess Natasha’s personal music consultant, so he should quit the librarian job and leave it to someone who really needed it. Secondly, Lucien was too excited to wait another day to get his lovely and shiny Thales.