Nate fidgeted in his bed turning the ring over and over in his hand. Just slipping this on will allow him to start gaining power. He’d lived so long without any power. Pushed around by debt, bosses, and the system itself. This was a chance but the cost. He swallowed hard.

  After years of not feeling pain he was scared. It was now just a faint memory. A long forgotten thing outside of his scope of the world. There were times he’d not noticed that Teddy was in pain because he just didn’t think about it. Around Teddy was about the only time that he even pretended to remember.

  Being a hoodlum like he was, meant he’d been used to getting beat up. If he had to do this back then. He stopped thinking that way. His teacher looked on with a self-satisfied smile. If the kid couldn’t do this much then he could just call it quits. He of course could cast the same curse on him, spare him the pain. That wouldn’t be good for his character.

  “Too scared?”

  The well dressed man asked languidly.

  “Screw it.”

  Nate shoved the ring onto his finger. The necromancer's face turned to one of surprise. He’d explained the theory briefly but he’d jumped in without reading through the book. This kid was crazy, he was mad, he was perfect. He laughed to himself on the inside. As he watched with joy.

  His body was fine for all of one second. It was the time it took for the spirit to be sucked into the ring, like Boba up a straw. He could feel it go unwillingly. The feeling was similar to when a kid goes to school for the first time. Every few steps looking back to check on their parents until finally they are unwillingly led inside.

  Fully outside of his body and in the ring the spirit's power vanished. From the tip of his toe to the top of his head a burning filled him. He was lucky that all the signals came in at once. They found a balance as his brain was overloaded. His consciousness immediately disappeared.

  His teacher would not allow him to escape into unconsciousness. He walked over to the coffee maker at the nurses station. From the station he filled a small cup with coffee grounds and another with sugar. Returning to the room he watched as his new student rolled around in pain. The sleep fighting to stave off his pain with unwaking thoughts.

  Dumping the grounds and sugar onto the table he drew a circle. Inside its wide design he filled it with patterns that would look familiar to Teddy if he saw them. A combination of old and dead languages mixed together. He made note to teach Nate that just a circle wasn’t good enough to do magic.

  “Awaken.”

  With his words the magic flowed. A spirit from within his own body flowed into the circle. Its body was pushed into a shape; it was the idea of sleep itself made ethereal. A creation of the line where reality and thought meet. Its spiritual essence pushed through a sieve it blasted down upon the students body.

  Inside his mind the curse of wakefulness set down its roots. It laid into the body's natural inclination for safety and neutralized it. Nate’s eyes shot open. Before his mouth could utter a shout another spell was cast.

  Wayne had this spell permanently prepared. It was a spell of noise cancellation. Its size was determined by the amount of spirit placed into the spell. If need be Wayne could silence an entire city block. Its effect would be reduced but that also meant he could silence this room completely. For days at that.

  Nate writhed in agony. His own muscles spasmed and convulsed. The teacher watched him as he did so. His own body could resist pain but he was unsure if even he could handle this. Flames sprouted from his muscles, bones recently fixed ached, and all of this was just what he actively felt.

  All the pain that he’d endured till now was still being damned up just beyond his soul. He tried to focus his mind. Push it toward his soul and feel the edges he's been molding. Everything was so different, it was harder to feel without the soul there. He also wouldn’t know what would cause him to die. One wrong move and he could end up ruined.

  “Well, I guess you can put the effort in. Listen closely. You didn’t read the book, so I’ll explain the method. Instead of a singular building imagine land. The most vast place you can picture. Once the image is in your mind, travel to its edge. I’ll monitor you here. The moment you make it I'll begin the instruction.”

  Wayne sat down placing a hand on the boy’s arm. His soul pushed out and surrounded his pupils. Hundreds of spell forms bloomed out of his soul. The reason that well known necromancer families could do their special methods was guidance. To become the best you must be guided by the best.

  Dr. White had never had this chance being a self taught necromancer. His method followed a rule that most must abide by. That rule is not to tear the soul or let it get ruptured. It's the reason he worried about Nate’s prospects with the bits located in his hand.

  In most people any movement of their soul was fatal or worse. When the soul was pulled into a shape unbefitting a person that person would turn into a monster. Necromancers used the very same method to make monsters. Then they would subjugate them.

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  The countless spells around Nate’s soul held it together acting as stabilizers for what was to come. Since the boy hadn’t read the book he didn’t know the spells to use or implant. It was an oversight on Wayne’s part, his own lacking ability as a teacher. He would use his power and knowledge to make up for this.

  Within Nate his mind pushed out at his soul. He had to envision the land as something huge, beyond where the eye could see. Of the choices he could make his mind was drawn to something that his father had shown him. His father had been a travel agent for a brief time in his youth. The image came to him of his father’s prize winning photo.

  The sky was at dusk, trees and fields stretched into infinity. Color flooded the sky as the sun bathed the world in the last strands of its light. His soul drew long and thin as he imagined it. The spells pushed and pulled flattening the surface creating balance on the souls plain. Sweat began to drip from Wayne's forehead.

  Was it this tough when the Grandmaster had helped him? He couldn’t know if this was normal or not. The boy’s mind was pushing it out further and further and it was an impressive display. It was briefly calm, contained.

  Nate’s mind snapped back to the pain. It flooded his mind, shaking the image of the fields and skies. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold the image. Not with this pain. He could feel his anger rise. That's when he realized. Throughout everything he knew only one thing that would always travel with him. His anger, that rage which bubbled and boiled in his veins.

  Taking all the pain he pushed it into the part of him that was pure hate. It ate it greedily. Like a starving man fed the ambrosia of the gods. Pushing the hate he slammed it into the fields into the very world itself.

  *WOOMM*

  A pulse of energy flowed out and the lights flickered. Wayne pushed harder as the boy was connecting to the world. Drawing on the spiritual energy from the surrounding. The spirit gunk began to ooze from the walls. Wailing spirits from all over the hospital congregated. They pushed into the room, and then down onto his body. Their own power helped to contain him.

  Outside the hospital the Grandmaster’s body shimmered into existence on the top of the roof. His robes billowed about his body. Had he known his Apprentice was going to be so reckless he’d have come himself. A massive formation bloomed to life above the hospital. It flickered for a moment before it began to drain the souls from outside of the town. It pulled them in like a tornado the town nestled in the eye of the storm.

  As they were pulled in, their bodies were shred to pieces. The resulting spirit energy was cast down into the room. Wayne could feel the tell-tale signs of his master. He let the energy slip inside the boy. The land expanded into the horizon. The souls of the dead redoubled their help, pressing his soul into his body.

  Inside he knew he must run. The land laid barren flat, the ocean had settled into a mirror like sheen. His steps echoed out as he made his way toward the edge. Ripples kicked up with each step, yet the end never came. He felt lost within his own soul. Stopping, he felt for the edge. His pain and rage had been swallowed into the land. It was no longer fogging his mind.

  He had to reach the edge. It didn’t mean he had to run there, he just needed to arrive. The world began to spin, his body slid across the surface as he let it take him. The force flung him out. Along the edges just beyond was the drop off. It was the point of no return. To travel beyond the edge is to lose one's soul.

  As he neared the edge he willed the plains to stop. They slowed as he reached the edge he tumbled forward. His spiritual form came to a stop. Looking up he was merely an inch from the edge. He knew not of the drop of death but the foreboding was clear. Thousands of hands pushed against the blackness there, ready to catch him.

  “There at the edge. You must create it. Build what you are most familiar with. This will be your first but not your last. Be rough if need be. You can refine it later.”

  Wayne’s words were merely an echo in Nate’s mind. Still he heeded his command. That last bit of him focused down. He wasn’t sure what to make. His home came to mind. There was too much there. Too much tragedy and hardship. He couldn’t form it without it breaking to pieces. Each time it broke he felt himself losing grasp on the world.

  “If you fail too much you’ll die. Focus!”

  His teacher scolded him. The home faded away. What was it that had consumed him? Where in his mind did he return? Beyond the calamity of souls, the fluctuation of spells and his own mind.

  *RING RING RING* “I know where you are…”

  His phone rang. It was the sound of Mandy’s ringtone. He’d changed it to a stalker related song when they’d broken up. Mandy! His mind thought of their old hideout. An old building came to mind. It was a gothic style building that was torn down after they’d disbanded. It’s sharp pointed towers which once housed a family of its own. Large windows that at one time were blazed with stained glass. The place had been an antique store for a time.

  Without any effort the exterior folded up out of the ocean of spiritual energy. It swirled with new life. The broken down exterior was made whole once more as it took back its shape of splendor. Nate felt his heart lighten. The spirits pushing his soul down into his body stepped back. The spells slowly faded. The Grandmaster disappeared from the roof.

  He stood in front of the house. The edges of the world pulled back and formed once more into the photo he’d envisioned. His world was perpetually cast into a brilliant dusk as the light splashed off the roof. When he would later inspect from outside his soul he’d find that there was room for even more buildings. For now this one would be enough.

  Blinking eyes met with Wayne who’s own were now bloodshot. His hair was disheveled and he looked like a storm had smacked him. Nevertheless he bore a broad smile. He’d have helped the kid on the final day, when he’d exhausted all his options. It was meant as a learning moment, that you can’t just do things on your own. That didn’t matter now.

  “Welcome Apprentice Cotton. You are now one of us.”

  Nate's eyes focused on his teacher. They’d just met but it felt like a thousand years had passed in only this short time. He was soaked to the bone and he felt the spirit trying to push into him.

  “Thank you, Teacher. How am I not in pain?”

  “I cast the curse on you. Just until you form a proper contract with that one.”

  He pointed to Nate’s finger. Rubbing it with one hand he knew what the next step would be.