Chapter 2
The Assessment
I follow Mithanial silently down the hallway. Watching his movements, it is clear that he spent most of his Skills on mental skills, that or didn’t work on his Physical Skills enough as he is awkward. His body is gaunt and emaciated in appearance, a typical sign of being a DiVoratore, but made doubly apparent by his body frame and movements.
He is so loud and clumsy that he apparently failed to notice me, and even turned around to see where I was. Only for him to half jump in surprise at seeing just how close I was to him.
“BLAH!” Mithanial shrieked, as his body stopped all forward progress. Apparently, he is one of those people who cannot do two things at once, or maybe he can’t scream and walk backwards at the same time. Regardless, he stops for a moment, composes himself and then gives me a glance.
I give a slight smile.
Blush.
I see more pink color fill his otherwise pale cheeks. All right, I’m not completely oblivious to social cues, I can now definitively state that he has some type of feelings for me. It would almost be cute, if it wasn’t for the fact that he is my cousin, which makes his apparent crush on me utterly disgusting. Still, he hasn’t creeped yet, at least I hope not. He might have sent the spirit to my room, but I don’t think so. Generally, there is a backlash of some kind, and while Mithanial would make the best scapegoat, I don’t think it was him. He seemed too composed directly after the death and subsequent release of the spying spirit. Then again, maybe this is just me hoping that there is one decent person in this family.
“Come on,” Mithanial finally gets out after a few seconds of regaining his composure from the apparent jump scare.
With that I again begin stalking him. Keeping my paces close and quiet as I match his rolling stumble of a gait. It’s tough, as I am not used to forcing my body into such awkward rhythms, but I soon feel the activity to be too cumbersome. Particularly with the fact that I am being watched by a number of spirits that are lining the hallways.
While I was fully justified in defending my sanctum of spirits, apparently it was bad form to destroy the spirits that surrounded the rest of the mansion. Especially as I noted that a few belonged to grandfather himself.
Seeing them, I stopped my antics and instead locked gazes with the spirits. I did the same trick I would do to an obstinate dog back in my old world, stare until dominance was established. It lasted but a few seconds before he started barking in fear.
Muted shouting!
The spirit unnerved by my stare began screaming, and while I couldn’t hear it, Mithanial clearly could as he once again jumped for the second time in as many minutes. Pausing, Mithanial first turned towards the source of the noise, the apparently frightened gaze of Grandfather’s spirit still shouting muted obscenities at me. From there, Mithanial turned to look at me, I just smile and shrugged innocently.
“What? Is that old dog barking again?” I ask, my voice filled with feigned confusion and honey.
Mithanial just stares at me for a second, I lock gazes with him, still feeling the need to set my boundaries. As expected, Mithanial blushes and quickly averts his eyes, then turning to the old spirit he speaks.
“We have been summoned by the master of the house. If you have any problems with our passing, take it up with him.” As Mithanial spoke, the spirit began to deflate slightly, all its pretense and posture gone. Seeing that the fight was gone from the old spirit, Mithanial continued, “now if you will excuse us, we have been delayed enough already.”
With that, the old spirit bowed his head and gestured for us to proceed. As we began to move forward, I waited for the moment when the old spirit would dare to glance up at us, it didn’t take long as he dared to look up at us when we were no more than five feet away. As he looked up, he saw my gaze, when I gave him a quick wink and a fingerbang from both hands, letting him know I’d get him when he slipped up.
It was of course reverse psychology, as there would almost be no chance when I’d be left alone with a chance to release any of these family spirits from this realm, but I had built up a bit of a reputation. I had after all reached level 78 in my Soul Devour Skill, which along with my 41 of 100 rating to level 79 meant I had killed 7,741 spirits. Most were proximity points for when our family was sent as part of a PR campaign to cleanse a new neighborhood, or by the residual absorption that occurs by having so many spirit slaves on hand. This is the true DiVoratore legacy, and the easy way our family has found to power level their Awakened Bloodline power naturally. Just occasionally expend a point of Mana on Soul Devour and you end up absorbing all the ambient death energy that the Necromantically enslaved spirits exude.
The way I saw it, they were free experience. The same way I removed discarded litter with my Personal Skill. Both serve basically the same function. Spirits take up space, create reverse mana wells that drain lifeforces, and ultimately can lead to the expansion of spirit realms if left unchecked, or if their excess energy is not absorbed in some way.
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Ultimately it is a disgusting habit, but quite a clever work around as fighting spirits, that is, fighting true Spirits is tough. These domesticated ones can’t hold a candle to the real ones in the world. Also, truth be told, Spirits of any kind still creeped me out. Almost like we were letting ovens run free, you know they are mainly there to serve and held heat up food, but they will burn you if they can. Hmm, moving ovens, would they be called free-range ranges?
I was about to get lost in that, when we finally arrived. The ornate doorframe etched in pristinely polished onyx set the motif for the entire morbid house. I had heard that originally the frames were all made of opal, but that was before we converted to Necromancy. If you looked, you could see the opal under layer, that had been just coated by a thin layer of onyx. Like smoke and black mold growing over what was once truly there.
Of course, I didn’t have time to focus too long on the changes that had been made to the house, instead I watched as Mithanial opened the door, revealing an elegant but tall pale woman with silver hair and sunken cheeks standing next to a man who had little more than tufts of silver hair potchmarked onto an old skull with multiple liver spots, and liver spots that seemed to sport their own paler version of liver spots. If this was what it was like to be an old Necromancer then call me shallow as I wanted nothing to do with this life.
Only after noticing the two, did I realize that both were standing next to the glowing crystal, the one that showed our apparent magical aptitudes. This orb was the root of my downfall with this family. Just seeing the orb, I feel a grimace welling up inside of me, as I know what this orb is going to tell me.
Mediocre magical potential, favorability with life, healing, holy, and earth magic, with a minor affinity for spirit, while hosting absolutely no affinity with Death, Dark, Decay, Curses, or any of the other magical branches that my family has held in such high regard over the last few generations.
Then taking a few paces inside the room did I see a well-dressed woman wearing a sparkling green dress, who all but radiated life and vitality. Just seeing her caused my eyes to dilate as she all but radiated wholesomeness. Only after seeing her did I notice that there were in fact two others standing next to her. There was another woman who looked to be barely more than twenty, but I knew the effects of certain Life Magic Skills could easily reduce the effects of aging.
Then next to the twenty-year-old was, him.
Just seeing him, I felt a wave of revulsion. This was John Bloom, a student in my same grade, despite being older. The main reason he now had the same grade was due to my being allowed to skip a year and his being held back due to disciplinary reasons.
Looking at him, I saw the cocky demeanor he held, a sort of antagonistic smirk as he looked at me. He was the type of person who would kick a puppy because it was nearby and begging for attention. Worse, said puppy, actually all animals would be drawn to him due to the Bloom Bloodline Skills, making his form of malevolence particularly disgusting. Just seeing him sent my blood boiling as I had tended to many of the animals he attacked in such ways. Not that the creatures would let me touch them, unless they were on death’s door to begin with, part of why the DiVoratore Bloodline was more of a curse than anything.
Clap, clap.
Before I could get too lost in the process of what exactly was happening, Grandfather spoke.
“Arbiter, we call upon you to act as fair judge in this family treaty,” my Grandfather, Animus DiVoratore himself. Only then did the door to the study open up revealing a well-dressed man wearing power glasses that sent a shiver down my spine. Not due to the power that he exuded, which rolled out in spades, but due to sheer handsomeness, strong cheekbones and a powerful but still gentle gaze.
I watched as this man, this Arbiter came forward, a large briefcase in hand.
“Has everyone been assembled?” The Arbiter asked.
“All parties for the DiVoratore family are present,” Grandfather stated, and then gestured for me to stand next to my mother. Not wanting to buck the tradition too much I did as suggested. As I went over, I saw the typical flinch that my mother normally gave, but then I saw how she forced her body to relax slightly. Was this a sign that she was getting used to me? No sooner had I had this thought, then the Arbiter continued.
“Very good, and this is the daughter in question?” The Arbiter asked, pointing the end of his pen towards me.
“She is,” Grandfather stated.
“Very good, now I will do a baseline reading in accordance with standards and calibrations. Ms. If you would, please step forward and place your hand on the orb provided and channel all of your Mana into the sphere to get a full and accurate reading.” The Arbiter stated, a quick glance at my Grandfather who gave a curt nod of his head, let me know this was compulsory versus a request.
Sighing inwardly, I stepped forward, and began pouring all of my Mana into the orb. Suddenly I felt bad about wasting the one point earlier on eliminating the spying spirit from my room. I thought about that, then I shook my head, nope I’d do that a hundred times over. Spying spirits need to be destroyed.
Despite losing the one point, I still managed to pump in over thirty points of Mana into the sphere. Normally what had only been a tiny cloud of colorful clouds suddenly erupted into a giant cosmos of colors. There was a giant green cloud, followed by golden, and earthly colors, all while purple flecks of lightning fired through the container.
The Arbiter looked at the readout, then adjusted his Mana lenses, which would no doubt help provide a more accurate reading of the mana signatures that are being released and displayed.
Finally, after a few seconds, I feel slightly drained as the last of my Mana is gone from my system, but this is also expected. As soon as I step away, the Arbiter clicks a stopwatch that had apparently been pre-prepared.
This was another test, one that showed the potency of my Mana. Allegedly it was to determine my will and intent to learn the various magical schools. Sure enough, they all glowed brightly.
“Oh!” The elderly matron of the Bloom family let out a gasp. Not too loud, but it was enough to be heard in the suddenly quiet parlor room. Even with seven people in here, this room was exceptionally quiet. Even the normally pestering spirits were all gone, making the place feel more alive than I ever remember it feeling before. Even with grandfather, the old bag of bones himself, here.
Staring at the stunning woman, I realized she was apparently impressed with what she was seeing, though I couldn’t exactly tell why. My magical readings while brighter than before aren’t really all that impressive. I’d place myself at the Medium to High rating for current ability. That is good, but not truly exceptional. Yet, I take another glance and realize that she is not staring at the still glowing crystal ball, but at me?
“I have completed my analysis, and can confirm that all of the levels of proficiency that were listed as part of the original agreement have been met,” the Arbiter began, his words pulling me from the odd looks that the Bloom matriarch was expressing and back to him. “There is one minor change that I will note in the face of full transparency, namely that the Potency of Mana listed at a Medium is actually a High-Medium to a Low-High rating. Within standard margin of reporting errors, but potentially enough to call off this arrangement now, should the DiVoratores not wish to proceed.”
Arrangement? What the heck is happening? These thoughts and more flash through my mind, but before I can really wrap my head around what is happening, Grandfather speaks.
“We see no reason to discontinue the arrangement as proposed, the DiVoratore family is fine with the original arrangements.”
Propose? What? NO! NO! This is not happening.
“Good then, if both parties still agree, I will proceed with the original agreement as proposed by both the DiVoratore and the Bloom families,” the Arbiter stated.
Hearing that, my mind went to full gear as I needed to stop this right now.
“I object!” I demanded.
“You object?” The Arbiter asked, looking from me to my grandfather and mother, then back to me.
I could already see the liver spots on grandfather’s face purpling with rage, but I didn’t care. I would destroy this whole world if I have to. I don’t mind the idea of an arranged marriage, lord knows it was expected as being born into a royal family, but I do have lines I will not cross and beds I will not sleep in and any bed holding Johnny Bloom will not hold mine.
“Yes, I will not marry that monster! I refuse!” I declared and pointed my finger at said monster to prove my point.
Silence.
