113 Student and Master

Desmond shook his head hopelessly after Seraphine told him she owned a relic because it was just one more thing someone like him shouldn't know. Such knowledge put Desmond in even more danger then he typically was. There may even come a day when Desmond will be silenced to keep the secret he now holds.

"This shit is getting old fast," Desmond thought to himself. Between always being in constant danger, feeling helpless, and always at someone else's mercy every single day of his life it was sickening Desmond was tired of it.

"If I was strong I wouldn't be constantly smacked to the floor, ripped apart, and actually in a position to make deals with someone. If I was strong then ..." as Desmond was pondering something dawned on him.

"What the hell am I thinking about? Strength I never chose to walk the path of a mage because I wanted strength, revenge for being spat on, betrayed, money, or fame. Everything I did am doing is for love, true love because I love magic. Whether someone beats me, spits on me uses me it should be the least of my concerns. So long as I get closer to the pinnacle of magic is there ever truly a loss. How could I let my mind wander towards something as trivial as strength I just want magic".

As Desmond felt he was on the verge of an epiphany while Seraphine backed him into a corner with kind words. A second voice popped inside Desmond's head and said, "but without strength how can you practice magic?."

"That is true ... wait I just settled on not needing strength why am I second guessing myself now" Desmond thought to himself.

"Without strength how can you acquire what you seek?" a third voice in the back of Desmond's mind stated.

"That does make sense, but I can be smart I can plan. Seek help from friends, buy, sell, and trade".

"To what extent, you will not get everything you want that way?" the fifth voice said.

"If it comes to that I can ..."

"How can you protect yourself?" the thirtieth voice uttered.

"I ..."

"Your weak" the seventy-eighth voice muttered.

The more Desmond thought the more he felt something was odd. Was it how everyone's movements slowed to a crawl. To the point, he could even see the spit flying out of Seraphine's mouth? That thought was quickly dismissed by Desmond things always moved that slowly it was just how the world was there was nothing strange about it and ultimately nothing Desmond could do to fix it.

Could it be the infinite tunnel of white to Desmond's right with promises to show him who he once was? Desmond tossed that thought out of his head immediately as well because there was nothing strange about it. Everyone has an infinitely long corridor that makes weird promises to them it was common knowledge. Besides that, he already knew that he was because he had lived the same life for many years.

How could he forget all the times his aunt May played grave robbers with him or the times he stole money out of her purse during his teens. People called him a lazy slacker, but he changed. He was no longer a slacker he was someone everyone could rely on just like aunt May wanted. Theodore Bigs was his name and he said it loud and proud to honor the household his actions once shamed.

The hord of people behind him screaming in his ear wasn't the problem either. As for the high pitch sound in the distance that was always there. It gets higher and lower constantly like it was trying to communicate with Desmond. It had just been slightly out of reach, but as every second ticked it got louder and clearer.

Though everything was normal Desmond knew there was one thing that was out of place something truly odd. Desmond racked his brain furiously it was like an itch he couldn't scratch. He did that until Desmond saw it, the oddity was directly in front of him yet he was oblivious to it for so long.

Seeing the problem Desmond fixed it immediately, he grasped the spoon he ate with on the table and turned it slightly to the left. With the problem fixed Desmond was finally able to focus on what Seraphine was saying again. Her lips moved slowly and her words sounded slushed, but Desmond was able to make out every word clearly.

"Des ... Desmond are you alright you looked like you spaced out for a moment?" Seraphine said to Desmond.

"I'm completely fine a small thing was bugging me, but I took care of it you may continue"

Seraphine knew about the kind of position she was putting Desmond in, so she didn't linger on Desmond spacing out for long. "Alright, so as I was saying the relic that I have revealed to me that I will be in great danger sometime in the distant future. It also showed me that you for whatever reason will be one of my best support pillars to overcome this disaster. In light of this, I want to extend my hand and make a deal with you. In exchange for your full support in whatever disaster I face in the future, I will assist you three times. Whether you need someone killed or something else so long as the task is within reason I will do it".

Desmond wasn't sure about how good Seraphine's help would be. He knew for sure she was strong stronger than he may ever be just by how easily she smacked Zane and Ragnar into the floor. He also knew that she could probably protect him from the Mirror Man, but not the organization he was a member of. So, Seraphine's help had extreme limits, but it was a lot better than what Desmond could have done alone which was wait to die. With Seraphine's help, Desmond knew he had a real chance to see tomorrow.

But even with that, it wasn't enough Desmond wanted more Seraphine was going to use him anyway, so Desmond thought he might as well try to use her as well.

"Seraphine while I am willing to help you the assistance I can provide will be limited. The knowledge I possess in magic is only at the basic level and the rate at which I advance has stagnated. If you could provide me with magical knowledge and the advanced runes along with the corresponding ritual for me to become a rank 1 illusionist. I might be able to start being of assistance much sooner".

Seraphine listened to Desmond's request and said, "no".

Desmond wasn't hopeful in getting much out of the deal then what Seraphine was offering, but he never thought she would plainly just say no to him.

"May you please tell me why such a thing is off the table when it clearly has little meaning to you".

Seraphine was nibbling on some of the food that was splashed on the table when she said to Desmond, "its because I'm not a charity. While the thing that you want is nothing to me its priceless to you along with a majority of other people. Even if I am investing in you a bit it will be strange if I just gave away such things for free. Especially after I have extended a helping hand to you none stop ever since we first met.

I have saved your life a minimum of 10 times since we have first met. Most of them has been just me shielding you from Zane. When we found out what you were I had to keep Zane from turning you into ingredients for whatever he is concocting. Not to mention when he recently ripped you apart and I had to step in forcing him to heal you. I don't know if you noticed, but Zane will kill you. We joke about it because we can defend our selves you can't do anything".

Creatures in Zane's coat were screeching in pain as they battled in Zane's coat. Zane ignored that and gave an affirmative nod to what Seraphine said as he uttered, "its true".

Seraphine continued her rant as she said, "if it wasn't for me you would have been arrested by the DCPD who would have handed you into the loving arms of the Eclipse Association. Once a super clan like them gets a hold of you it's easy to imagine what would happen.

There was also the chance that you would have been captured by those purifier fanatics again because you didn't remove the locater sigil they placed on the mystic item you stole. You're already lucky that the mystic item that you stole is rare and can defend against most forms of detection magic like divination and scrying. I know that this world is new to you and that you really want to practice magic, but you must also know your limits".

Seraphine's words reminded Ragnar that Desmond wasn't from their world, so there was a good chance he could lead them to another world. Wanting to see if there was any kind of chance he could be lead them there Ragnar said, "Seraphine I think he gets the point the man just wants to experience the world and explore new horizons. I did the same when I learned how big the world truly was. I wanted everything the world had to offer.

So, I did what I wanted and took everything from everyone. I killed, stole, lied, made friends, enemies, and whatever Zane is I think he's a mix of the two. I experience life to the fullest and still want more. While he's got a second chance and is just getting started. In his old life, he probably didn't get to do the things he can now. Desmond on your world did you ever get to do what you could here and live to the fullest?".

Ragnar had lived for many years and has experienced much in his life letting him know that one of the best ways to get someone to tell you what you want is to ask for it indirectly. A common tactic that Desmond would have noticed if he was as extremely cautious with information as many of the more seasoned people in Theotera are.

Sadly had no clue he was being used at that moment and spoke the truth. "I can't remember much of anything about who I was, but I can clearly remember my old world. While it was an advanced civilization life there was soul-sucking. There was no real freedom everyone was secretly monitored by their government.

Many people had to get by with whatever meager salary they had which most of the time would fill their fridge. Despite how dangerous it is this world is better there's actual magic here something people on my world could only dream about. My old world is so bad they even named it after dirt. Trust me if you ever get the chance to go to Earth don't Theotera is way better".

Ragnar was happy when Desmond started to talk about his old world, but he became disappointed when he found out what Desmond's old world was called. "Earth do you mean Midgard?".

Desmond was stunned that Ragnar actually knew the place Desmond was talking about.

"Midgard is what my old planet was referred to in Norse mythology how do you know that".

Hearing Desmond's conformation Ragnar was extremely disappointed he even had difficulty hiding it on his face. "Midgard is one of the nine worlds connected to the tree of Yggdrasil. Originally the location of Midgard was lost, but thousands of years ago some ancient demon that was stranded on Midgard clawed their way back to Theotera by using all the life energy that the planet had to catapult there way back here.

Needless to say, many people at the time were pissed such a precious world was destroyed which inevitably lead to a massive battle and the death of the thing that crossed over. After that whole mess, the planet became a magic dead zone and a place where we throw our banished and some of the worst criminals Theotera has to offer. A silver lining out of the whole thing was that because of what happened we were able to find all the other missing worlds connected to Yggdrasil".

"My entire world was destroyed" many thoughts went threw Desmond's head at that moment. Such a thing would bring many people to tears, but for some reason, Desmond felt nothing. He wasn't the tiniest bit upset he wasn't entirely sure if he even cared. Desmond was perplexed by his lack of emotion towards the destruction of his entire planet.

He knew he could still feel every single emotion the problem was that he skipped over it just like how he skipped over how he was supposed to feel when he found out he was thousands of years old. Such a thing wasn't right something was changing inside Desmond and he knew it, but he also knew for now he could do nothing to fix it. Since the problem most likely came from all the souls he ate.

With a lack of flair, Desmond said, "Is that so its a shame my world was destroyed, but it's not like I could have done anything to stop it. The architecture and lifestyle in Delmar City is quite similar to a few specific eras in my old world. So it's good enough to replace what I have lost and fill any semblance of longing that I have".

"The reason there are things similar to your old world here is because this city was designed after some of the things we were able to salvage from Midgard. As for the clothes that were currently wearing they were revitalized by a few popular fashion designers. Since many clans in Theotera rely on concurring worlds it's not uncommon for people to implement their designs into our own". Seraphine uttered.

"I see thank you for telling me this I thought it was odd so many things resembled the 1920s period from my old world".

Seraphine was sipping on some tea when she said, "your welcome, but you must tell me now are you willing to accept my offer because without my help it's going to be hard for you to serve all of those bounty hunters that will be coming after you".

Desmond picked his eyebrow up thinking he heard Seraphine wrong, "what bounty hunters?".

Seraphine planned on show Desmond his bounty, so she always had Desmond's bounty notice on her. Once Desmond received the bounty notice he was appalled by the sky high bounty on his head.

"5,000 magic crystals what in the world did I do to disserve this?"

Zane chuckled and said to Desmond, "I don't know if you remember, but you killed a lot of people, blew up a building, and stole a precious mystic item from the purifiers. Your execution was flawed and paled in comparison to Andrea Briggs who swooped in and finished the job, but I have to commend you for your efforts".

"Those bastards kidnapped me, tried to sacrifice me yet they still come after me like I'm in the wrong". Desmond felt his blood boiling as his body ignited.

"Seraphine I accept your offer, but I have no idea what the task you're going to ask of me will be so when that day comes I want to be paid fairly and I don't want to be forced into putting my life on the line".

Seraphine shrugged at Desmond's request because it was something basic that everyone placed in the event they needed to retreat. Seraphine and Desmond signed a contract shortly after that. The contract was short it was barely half of a page allowing both of them to halve a lot of wiggle room in the future.

Once Zane saw that the contract was complete he started to be himself again. "Already Seraphine I completed my end of the deal now its time for you to hold up yours".

"Fine go ahead".

Zane's body shook with joy as his coat spread open. A long roach leg came out of Zane's coat while it was holding a birdcage that had a purple candlestick in it. Zane placed the cage on the table and said to Desmond, "get in".

Desmond was confused and looked towards Seraphine for clarification.

What Seraphine said didn't sit right with Desmond. "Do you remember when I said I stopped Zane from turning you into magical ingredients?".

"Yes," Desmond said worriedly.

"And you do know that your a rare ancient soul that has existed thousands of years with practically no corruption correct".

"Oh god no don't tell me that you sold me to him". Desmond said as he looked at Zane fearfully.

"No I didn't sell you to him we all captured a few of the souls like you, but none of them were ancient souls. Many of them were from animals or insects few were from an intelligent species because of my thing I'm not going to capture you, Zane, on the other hand, was very adamant about getting a piece of you. So we made a deal he waits to the end of our discussion and I don't interfere in whatever he does so long as you willingly go along with him". Seraphine said as she looked over at Zane who was throwing out soul gem shards at Desmond like it was bird feed as he tried to attract Desmond into the cage.

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Soul gems are capable of containing souls and are used in crafting magic items. The quality of soul gems varies depending on the kind of soul a person is trying to trap. While Zane was throwing out high quality soul gem shards that gave off a tempting Aroma Desmond wasn't stupid enough to go anywhere near Zane. He just kept looking at Zane like he was stupid.

"Stop that I'm not getting in that cage so that you can do who knows what to me. Not long ago you ripped out and beat me with my own spine. Why in the world would I willingly get in that cage."

Zane scoffed at how shallow Desmond was being. Other people needed his soul for thing yet he was selfishly hogging it. " There's no reason to be like that what's a little spine ripping amongst friends".

Angrily Desmond shouted at Zane, "I'm never getting in that cage so just stop".

"Hmm, I hear that you're still a bit unsure it's clear that you just need a little encouragement".

Once Zane said that a woman's hand slipped out of Zane's coat. It was holding something small wrapped in a ragged cloth. Zane unwrapped the item letting its dark energy spill out. The item Zane revealed was clearly visible to all. It was a finger bone that was whiter than the ivory tusks of an elephant. Zane placed the finger bone inside the birdcage and called Desmond over once more. Feeling the energy radiating off of the finger bone turned Desmond into a mindless drone. His eyes were clouded over and his soul was pacified Desmond was only waiting for orders which Zane quickly gave.

Desmond moved closer to the candle and felt his soul being sucked out, but kept moving closer as instructed.

Seraphine and Ragnar didn't like what he was doing and immediately stopped him. Seraphine's body turned into a blur that even Zane had trouble keeping track of. A second later Seraphine was next to Zane pointing a custom made mystic item that she favorited. It was a dagger made from a raptor's talon and its bone as the hilt. Without hesitation, Seraphine always moved to threaten Zane when she felt he was trying to do something shady.

"Don't move or else".

Zane sucked his tongue in annoyance the said, "I did nothing wrong he's coming over to me willingly. So, you have no right to point your weapon at me".

"You call that willingly, Desmond is only an intermediate rank apprentice there's no way he could resist the aura radiating off of a finger bone of a rank 4 lich"

While Seraphine was talking to Zane, Ragnar was wrapping up the finger bone in the tattered cloth sealing its aura. Once the finger bone was wrapped up Desmond regained his senses and was breathing heavily in fear.

"What in the world is that?" Desmond said visibly afraid of the finger bone in Ragnar's hand.

"Its a finger bone from a rank 4 lich that we killed a long time ago".

Seeing the finger bone reminded Ragnar of his glory days, but the day that they faced off against that lich wasn't a pleasant memory. When Ragnar and his group stumbled upon the location were the lich was sealed Zane immediately unsealed it once he found out how. Forcing Ragnar and everyone else in his group that were exploring the defiled lands to fight the rank 4 lich.

Ragnar and everyone else in the group at the time won the battle by a hair's width because the person who sealed the lich at the time was the lich's brother. The brother believing the lich would awaken one day and begin his rain of terror once more. Left the lich's phylactery exposed and placed a powerful barrier around it so the lich could get near. Giving Ragnar and his group the chance to destroy the phylactery.

Someone at a lower rank beating someone at a higher rank is not impossible just situational. In a fair 1 on 1 direct conflict with someone at rank 1 vs a rank 2. The odds are in the rank 's favor, but depending on injuries, environment, weapons, combat style and other factors the odds could go in the rank 1's favor allowing them to 1 up there superior. But the difference between ranks grows the higher the realm. If 100 advanced apprentices attached a rank 1 mage they wouldn't be able to scratch him let alone kill him. If a group of rank 1's attempted to kill a rank 2 mage then there is a chance of them succeeding.

Ragnar and a small group of rank 3's trying to kill a rank 4 powerhouse was a suicidal mission where the cards lucky stacked in their favor. Which allowed them to claim great rewards after it was over, but Ragnar still didn't like thinking about that day because of how dangerous it was.

Not wanting to think about the past any further Ragnar placed the finger bone in his pocket and said to Zane, "You are only allowed to use your words to get what you want no items".

Zane huffed out smoke then begrudgingly agreed to Ragnar's demand prompting Seraphine to let Zane go. When Seraphine and Zane went back to their seats Zane said to Desmond, "so can I get a piece of your soul".

"Stay the fuck away from me I'm not giving you a piece of my soul, "Desmond said as he scouched his chair was from Zane".

"You can repair your soul easily I'll even give you a few souls to munch on. This deal has no loss for you".

"What deal you didn't even offer me anything".

"Fine then what do you want jewels, precious metals, magic ingredients, weapons, magic books?".

Desmond though for a moment before a devious thought popped up in his head. Whether it was Seraphine, Ragnar, or Zane they were all so wealthy whatever Desmond asked for they would practically face no loss. While Desmond was so poor to them it was laughable. All three of them could do what they wanted when they wanted. Desmond also wanted that so of course, aim to get the most out of what Zane was offering.

"I want all of it"

"All of it" Zane didn't even consider what Desmond was asking for before he replied, "alright". Zane had lived for a long time he was truly to wealthy to care about such a small loss. Typically he would be able to scam Desmond, but because Seraphine was nearby he couldn't which still was no problem to Zane.

"No, you miss understand. I want everything that you have to offer, I want to be your apprentice".