Chapter 304: A Night For An Exchange

Syryn was unable to sleep as he waited for Rowan to come home. Giving up on falling asleep, he got up out of bed and left the house to walk in the garden. 

The night sky over Elysium was just the same as it had been over Coop. It was lonely out here in the dark surrounded by trees and flowers. But it could have also just been him feeling that way because of his missing memories. Syryn brushed his hands over the swaying stalks of yellow buds that grew straight and tall. 

Syryn did a circuit of the garden, fretting about Rowan when he heard soft footfalls coming towards him. He turned around to see a redhead heading towards him. 

"Couldn't sleep," Red said to Syryn by way of explanation. The truth was that he had heard Syryn leaving the house. Not one to speak out about his feelings towards the older boy, the child came up with that excuse. 

"Me too," Syryn replied. Red hair, red eyes, pale unmarked skin - Lucien looked like a fairy under the moonlight. 

"Big brother, would you like to come with me to the forest?" The child asked him. 

"Now?" 

"Yes. Since I can't sleep, I might as well use the time to get some work done." 

Red didn't wait for Syryn's answer. He looked towards the tall line of trees in the distance and began walking towards it. 

Syryn silently followed in his footsteps. He had a feeling that Red's work had something to do with the alleged corpse buried in the forest.

"Did I know you were a necromancer?" Syryn asked. 

"Yes. You knew all about it. I could tell you weren't very happy about what I was doing. You were supportive about it though because you knew it was my calling." 

It sounded to Syryn like he had been a good older brother to Lucien. But if necromancy was bad and he was letting his brother practice it, did it make him a bad person?

"Syryn, was there another reason you couldn't sleep? Aside from Rowan being late." 

It felt dumb to voice out that he was feeling lonely. 

"Just Rowan," Syryn answered.

"You aren't like the Syryn of before," Red commented. "I'm not blaming you. It's just an observation." 

"What do you mean?" 

Red stopped walking at a spot where the Earth had a mound over it. It was a low mound but stood out higher than the surrounding flat ground. Red took out a shovel from behind some trees and handed it to Syryn. 

"Don't worry. If Rowan breaks your heart, we'll destroy him. Start digging, brother." 

The sound of Red's shovel hitting the hard earth sounded loud in the quiet forest. It startled a few birds that were roosting on the braches above them. 

"I doubt we could destroy someone as powerful as Rowan," the mage replied as he got to work with his shovel. 

"Is Rowan that powerful?" Red asked.

"We can't beat him." 

It was strange to even think about a fight with Rowan. The blond-haired man had managed to get under Syryn's skin in such a short amount of time. 

"That's okay. There are other ways to hurt people. We just have to hurt the ones they love." 

The shallow grave soon revealed a corpse that was in the middle stages of decomposition. Maggots wriggled in the body's eye sockets and open mouth. It was hard to even tell what gender the corpse had been when alive. 

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Syryn gagged from the smell of rotting meat and the various odours that were ubiquitous to a dead body that had been decomposing for a while. 

"What are you going to do with this?" Syryn asked the redhead who was rooting in his pocket for something. 

"Ah, here it is," Lucien removed a folded blade from his deep pocket which he had filled with an assortment of items. "I'm going to perform a ritual," he told the older boy who had backed away from the body. Red had gotten used to the smell of rot so that even in this life, he wasn't bothered so much by it. 

(Thats so disgusting...)

[Then don't look, dummy.]

(You told me to watch and learn, dummy.)

[Yeah but you don't always do as I tell you to, dummy.]

(Whatever. Are you going to cut yourself?)

[Yup.]

Syryn had his back up against a tree trunk and was watching the redhead work. 

Lucien unfolded the small blade, revealing a sharp edge that glinted in the sparse moonlight. Using the blade, he made a small cut over his palm. Holding his hand out above the grave where the dead body lay, he squeezed his hand into a tight fist. A small stream of blood dribbled down his hand and over the forehead of the corpse.

"Does it have to be your own blood?" Syryn asked the redhead. 

"No," the child replied. "But it's more effective to use my own. Later when I'm stronger, I won't have to keep cutting myself." Lucien then took out a bandage from his pocket.

"Need help with that?" Syryn asked. 

"No, it's fine. Shovel the earth back on. I'll help after I've wrapped up my hand." 

"That's it?" Syryn asked in surprise. 

The redhead nodded. "For now." 

The blood that Red had dribbled couldn't be seen over the writhing mass of maggots and the juices of decomposition that covered the body. Syryn took a breath of air far from the corpse and started shovelling the ground. 

"How does this work?" He asked the child who was focused on his task. 

"Hmm? The ritual?" Red glanced up. 

"Yes. Why did you give it blood?" 

Wrapping done, Red took his smaller shovel and got to work with Syryn. 

"Necromantic rituals can be conducted in several different ways depending on the type of servant you want to raise, or the resources you are willing to sacrifice for the ritual. For example, I'm trying to raise the simplest kind of corpse whilst giving it very little magic and blood. This way, it'll take longer for me to raise a stupid servant but it won't require much effort on my part. I'm not in a hurry for it." 

"Why blood and magic?" Syryn asked. "Are they compulsory for the ritual?" 

"Yes. Sacrifice is part of the ritual, Syryn. Necromancy is an exchange. The stronger the corpse you wish to raise, the more you have to sacrifice. Sometimes, you end up exchanging your sanity and that's how a lot of necromancers end up retiring." 

Red's gaze focused into the distance when they both heard the sound of a carriage pull back.. Rowan had returned home.

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