Seals of Creation were sets of specific actions that triggered a massive surge of magic and allowed for powerful, crude manipulation of the fabric of reality.

  After breaking a Seal, a mage becomes nearly omnipotent for a time, with their power depending on their personal might and the sacrifices made. There were several such Seals, varying in power and energy release.

  Though I didn’t recall any of the thirteen Seals I knew of involving rituals that created an anti-magic zone.

  The general had the same doubt:

  “I don’t recall any known Seal having a ritual that would cause white magic to disappear. There are thirteen Seals, and I know all of them well.”

  “Then this is some unknown fourteenth Seal,” Elza shrugged.

  “Or however many more exist. The thirteen we know cover all possible sacrificial rituals using dark magic. We know each one inside and out and can easily identify and stop them. But this Seal also involves shadow magic. Primarily shadow magic, I’d say. We’ve never seen Seals like this before. It's something new. Someone developed some new crazy shit, that’s all I can say…”

  “Fuck,” Ilforte muttered grimly.

  “If this is a ritual to break a Seal of Creation, there will be more anti-magic flare-ups, victims, and pentagrams,” the general said.

  “Exactly,” Elza nodded.

  “I can say for certain that this is the first part of the ritual. Meaning someone just started this whole complex ritual, and today can be considered day one. Over the next few weeks, more pentagrams like this will appear if we can’t prevent them. There should be five total. The fifth will be the last and decisive one.”

  “And who did this?” Ilforte asked immediately.

  “Is there no way to identify the person?”

  “I can’t identify not just the person but even the type of being,” Elza said reluctantly.

  “Whoever this is, they’re very powerful… A real professional. I doubt it’s human. It’s someone… at least at my level.”

  “That’s the last thing we need,” I muttered grimly.

  Calypso nodded grimly beside me.

  If forces at my mom’s level were involved, we were screwed.

  “And why did white magic disappear?” the general asked.” “How is that connected to the pentagram?

  “Now that’s a great question. Directly connected. That's exactly what indicates the pentagram’s high frequency. Meaning it was created under conditions where the energy release went not outward but… inward, sort of.”

  “Into the pentagram?”

  “Yes, to its reverse side. Into the void of the world’s flip side. A void pentagram, like I said. It’s very difficult to create. You need to be a very advanced supreme mage to direct energy correctly to a single point. This creates a kind of energy collapse that devours so much magic around it that it temporarily disappears completely, as if it never existed. Meaning this pentagram absorbed all the energy streams for several miles around. And since those streams are predominantly white magic, that’s what’s not working now. Or rather, it exists but there’s no energy conductor in the air to convert that magic into spells. Dark magic uses different energy conductors, which is why it still works.”

  “Was the victim chosen for some specific reason?” the general asked.

  “Why Mr. Horkins specifically? My people looked into him but found nothing worth noting.”

  “I can’t answer that off the top of my head. I need to think it through carefully and analyze everything. Not enough data to go on.”

  The general sighed heavily and shook his head.

  “This is bad. And it’s a shame nothing can be done for the poor man. Well, all that’s left is to bury him…”

  He can’t be buried,” Elza objected sharply.

  “The victim needs to be burned. Right here.”

  “I object,” an inquisitor spoke up.

  “The body should be returned to the family. He deserves a proper burial.”

  “Sure, you could return him to his family and give him a proper burial, if you like the idea of the anti-magic zone spreading across all of Forland,” Elza said in an extremely caustic voice.

  A heavy silence fell over the room.

  “Is that a real possibility?” Ilforte asked.

  “It very well could be.”

  “So you’re not certain the anti-magic zone could keep growing?” the general asked skeptically.

  “I need to know for sure.”

  Elza shrugged half-heartedly.

  “Well, you could test it. Let me know how that goes. Good luck reaching me without magic.”

  General Mackelberry’s teeth ground together audibly, but he gave the order for the inquisitors to burn the victim and clean up all traces of dark sorcery. However, Elza immediately stopped him:

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “No, no, hold on. Leave the burning to me. The pentagram needs to be closed properly because it’s still open and poses a direct threat to everyone in Forland. That’s why it needs to be burned, and in a specific way. You two,” she suddenly addressed me and Calypso.

  “You’ll be closing the circle with me.”

  “I object!” the general exclaimed, loudly tapping his cane on the floor.

  “They’re still children! Why expose them to this dark magic? I’m against involving children in this process. We’ll call in our own specialists.”

  For a moment I wanted to snatch that cane from his hands and whack the general over the head with it.

  I shot an amused look at Calypso, whose face clearly showed exactly what he thought about being called a ‘child.’

  Seriously, calling us children was some next-level idiocy. Especially considering we were students of Armarillis, where any adult mage was at least a level above their peers in magical development. Fortemins develop magically faster, and we’ve been drilled for battles with dark creatures since childhood. We grew up in this, we live and breathe it, and closing a pentagram circle isn’t some extraordinary event for us — it’s basically part of our everyday duties.

  Elza looked at the general like he was a complete idiot.

  “And I object to your presence in this building,” she said bluntly.

  “Go back to the General Staff. Why did you even show up here?”

  “You’re pushing it, madam,” Mackelberry said, eyes narrowing with anger.

  “‘My lady’ I asked you to address me that way.”

  “Elza, calm down,” Ilforte said at the same time.

  He put his hand on Elza’s shoulder in a calming gesture, but she just shrugged it off irritably and protested:

  “What? He’s pissing me off!”

  “Tell me about it,” Calypso muttered under his breath.

  I couldn’t hide my mischievous smile.

  Meanwhile, Ilforte addressed the general:

  “Everyone please calm down. And Lady Elza apologizes, don’t you, dear?”

  “Why would I?” Elza protested loudly, ignoring Ilforte’s pleading look.

  “I’m not apologizing for anything. I can throw in some swear words too if you want. Need me to?”

  “That won’t be necessary, Elza,” Ilforte said evenly, his eyes begging her to stop.

  “I understand and accept your demonic volatility, but let’s still treat everyone around us with respect. Especially General Mackelberry.”

  “What, am I being disrespectful or something?” Elza asked in mock surprise.

  And blew another gum bubble and popped it with a loud snap.

  “I adore your mother,” Calypso whispered with dramatic breathlessness, so quietly only I could hear.

  “Magnificent woman. Could drive anyone to an early grave.”

  I couldn’t hold back and snorted into my fist.

  General Mackelberry shot us a withering look, and I immediately tried to wipe the guilty smile off my face. I was doing a terrible job.

  “Anyway, we’re not waiting for your specialists, General,” Elza said firmly.

  “We could waste a lot of time trying to figure out which of them can cast in this anti-magic zone and which can’t. We don’t have time to drag this out any longer. So the only ones coming down to the basement with me are those who are actually useful here. Fortemins Calypso and Lorelei fit the bill. Their magic level is sufficient to help me in this situation, and they can cast in this zone, as we’ve established. With varying success, but they can. That's enough for me.”

  “But the children…”

  “What children, General, get a grip,” Elza snapped.

  “They’re adult mages. These so-called ‘children’ could already wipe the floor with any inquisitor. And yes, Lorelei is my daughter, and I think I’m capable of taking responsibility for her, don’t you think?”

  She didn’t wait for the general’s response and waved us over.

  “Come on, we need to hurry. The pentagram circle is open right now, and all kinds of nasty things could come through.”

  “Could something dangerous have already crawled out of the circle?” an inquisitor asked nervously the one Elza had handed her empty coffee cup to.

  “Yeah, could have,” Elza said calmly.

  “Seriously?!”

  “Well, magic isn’t working,” Elza shrugged.

  “So you might not have sensed the aura of dark creatures that crawled out. I don’t sense anything like that right now, but I didn’t get here right away. Something nasty could have easily crawled out and escaped by now.”

  “Then we need to look for these hypothetical nasties, just in case,” Ilforte said tensely.

  “We need to set up round-the-clock patrols, and we should also look for other anomalous zones just in case. General, I suggest we leave our colleagues here to deal with what we can’t help with anyway, and focus on organizing city patrols. That’s more important right now.”

  “You’re right,” the general agreed reluctantly.

  The actual ritual to close the pentagram was fairly simple and quick. Elza just needed us as backup to help maintain a stable energy field, because the anomalous zone was causing the energy to fluctuate wildly, making it very difficult for one necromancer to close the pentagram alone right now.

  So Calypso and I just sat at two corners of the pentagram with our arms extended, continuously maintaining the magical field that Elza was creating.

  She chanted spells in a singsong voice, the air grew colder, and then the victim, still lying in the center of the pentagram, burst into eerie bright blue flames and burned up in seconds. Not even a handful of ash remained of poor Mr. Horkins: Elza burned everything completely. I couldn’t do that yet, by the way.

  I was about to leave the gloomy basement when Elza announced we were done. But she suddenly stopped me with a question:

  “I need to ask you: did you sense anything strange while you were coming here, toward this neighborhood from the forest? Anything at all that caught your attention. Any small detail could turn out to be important. Was there something that got your attention? You two are the only ones in your training group who can cast at all in this anomalous zone, you’re the only ones who could have sensed something no one else did.”

  Calypso and I were silent, each lost in thought. I don’t know what Calypso was thinking about, but I was remembering a strange thing I’d felt while our group was running from the forest.

  I wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with this, but Mom had always taught me to pay attention to and mention every detail, even ones that seemed stupid. Sometimes what seemed like a ‘stupid detail’ turned out to be crucial.

  So I said:

  “At one point I thought the ground was shaking strangely…”

  “More like vibrating,” Calypso added uncertainly, and I looked at him hopefully: so I wasn’t the only one who noticed?

  “There was some kind of dark magical pulse that traveled underground like a vibrating bolt of lightning toward the forest… I don’t know how else to explain it. Fast, fleeting, but it didn’t feel like an earthquake or just magical feedback.”

  “Underground,” Elza frowned.

  “That’s bad. Means something definitely escaped from the pentagram, and it got out fast. But please don’t mention this to the inquisitors. I'll pass the information to Ilforte myself.”

  “Do you know what it was?” I asked anxiously.

  “I need to check. I hope I’m wrong,” Elza sighed heavily.

  Her tone really worried me.

  And also: my mom was never wrong when it came to dark forces. Never.