Awakening: (The Necromancer's Legacy Book 1)

by Henry Andrews

  Liu-Ken got up and ran to her. Within five seconds, he had struck several pressure points on the girl's arm, legs, neck, and nape. The black lines receded and returned to the girl's inner self. The water tornado cooled down and an oval cloud rained down on both. Aurora sank into Liu-Ken's arms, once again unconscious.

  "Not yet, I see," he said, carrying the girl and laying her on the grass.

  The sun gave way to the night's clouds. They overshadowed him, only a few rays of light reaching Aurora. Enough light to dry her clothes and pale face. Liu-Ken again sat down at the table and went back to reading. The small, thick, book contained dozens, if not hundreds, of teachings. From the simplest, such as breathing techniques, to others more difficult, such as uniting mana and chi for deadly attacks, and the almost impossible, such as the three pages dedicated to creating a golden core within the dantian or the five dedicated to creating a blossoming soul, a second life for some cultivators. All the steps that were required to challenge the heavens and attain immortality.

  Chapter 12

  By the time Aurora woke up, it was already nighttime. The stars were bright on the dark sky above her. The birds traveled from tree to tree. The water in the creek was now a docile, soothing melody that rocked the living beings in those late evening hours. She got up and saw her mentor sucking a portion of noodles in between two chopsticks. His eyes, however, were set on the moon, a resident in a corner of the horizon, about a quarter of its original size.

  "I lost control, didn't I?" Aurora asked, walking toward him.

  "Yes, we'll try again tomorrow. Eat this," Liu-Ken said and glanced at the other side of the table. A pile of pasta on top of a white marble plate, still steaming, awaited the girl.

  Aurora sat down at the table. She leaned her head close to the plate and inhaled. She did not say so, but the dish reminded her of her adoptive mother’s, Lein-Lu’s, cooking.

  Under the moonlight, she remembered when she and Bardolph would return from fishing or the fields, depending on the season or time of a day, and she already had dinner on the table waiting for them. She used to wave, even when they were still far away, smiling even though she no longer had half her teeth. It was she who had sewn her the protective gear Aurora used for working in the fields to protect her body from scratches due to the prickly wild plants. It was she who snuggled her when Aurora was first rejected by a boy and it was she who took her in when nobody else wanted her. It was for her and Bardolph, who even in death tried to save her, that she had to do it. Aurora could live a lifetime of internal conflict as long as she took revenge. She knew that none of them would support her, that if they were still alive they would tell her that it was not the right path and that she should move on, but she was tired of waiting for karma to settle in. She was going to accomplish her goals with her own hands. She finished eating and got up.

  "I'll do it," she said before heading for the creek.

  Liu-Ken didn't stop her. He didn't seem surprised at all. He kept his lips shut, his eyebrows straight, and followed the young girl with his greenish-blue eyes.

  Aurora closed her eyes once more. As soon as the darkness struck her, flooding her mind, gaining control over her, the girl focused on her adoptive mother's memories; her smile, her hardworking wrinkled fingers that effortlessly made homemade noodles from scratch, even the daily kiss on her forehead before falling asleep, and, although she sometimes felt she was a bit old for that, she had never complained.

  My hands... she thought, now sensing the chi flowing throughout the meridians with no concrete direction, Into my hands...

  A black glow covered both hands, expanding from the wrist to each finger. She moved forward, still with her eyes closed, jumping the two remaining pebbles and pressing her left hand against the rock. The skin bonded to it despite the water running down the edges. The other hand followed. Her body was her climbing tools. She raised one hand and placed it higher. Her fingers cracked the rock and concentrating much of her chi on those fingers, pressing the holes she had made, she bent her legs and used the balance to jump up on the rock.

  Her body rocked to both sides, the water seeping down her shoulders and under her boots. And yet, she remained impassive and serene, keeping her eyes shut and without losing control of her black chi. Within her, a steady struggle took place. Lein-Lu's smiling memories were being pushed out by the bloody memories of her being slaughtered, the laughter of the soldiers, and by the outcome of the battle, the dead ripping limbs from their bodies with their teeth.

  Liu-Ken stood up. "The girl did it," he whispered to the moon. The purple ring shone. "You're right, Kagu, this is just the beginning. I can't get excited,".

  Aurora stepped forward and put herself under the jug of water. Nine threads rolled around her body, dripping on the rock, some remaining in the circular zone in front of the house, and others being carried away by the river's flow. The girl opened her eyes. Just as the moon shrouded itself in the night so did the white irises in both Aurora's eyes as they tried to survive the dark rivalry within her.

  "I did it!" she said, her arms trembling, loaded with energy that she needed to spread throughout her body.

  "Well done, kid. Now calm down. Take a deep breath in. Sit down and cross your legs. Feel the healthy mana around you. Absorb it and expel the darkness that is eating your insides," Liu-Ken told her. His heart was also beating loudly, louder than the crickets that dwelt on the garden grass.

  "You're never satisfied, are you?” Aurora asked him, lowering herself. She bent her legs carefully, crossing them, using her hands to support herself while doing it.

  A universe of lights hovered above her even after she closed her eyes. She breathed deeply. Liu-Ken was right; the black chi, already putrid, disrupted the normal course of her meridians.

  If she couldn't use her energy more than once a day, she would be useless. More than she had ever been. But she was not going to let the tethers that had tied her feet to the ground on that fateful day regain power over her. Not again. She focused on her dantian, the energy revolving around the little place within her, two fingers below the navel, and the way it reached out to every corner of her body. Aurora read her body. She noticed that the pus blocks had tightened in two pressure points on the right side of his arm and three on the left. She inhaled deeply, and exhaled, the dinner’s scent being carried by the wind gusts.

  Focus on something, Liu-Ken's words echoed in her mind.

  She let her shoulders relax and pay attention to the water that was dripping on her head. Dozens of drops splashing in her hair, following in opposite directions, each with a different future. Nothing else ran through her mind but each grain of water, so unique and simple, freeing themselves from the current and following their path. Her fingers began to swing over the rock as if she were playing an instrument, still a tad nervous, sometimes hesitating. The index finger touched the stone and the ring finger followed, according to the rhythm of the drops, each movement perfectly synchronized.

  Aurora inhaled once more. This time, the mana glued itself to his body. A blue pellicle, attracting every single drop to that collage, the particles coming together until the difference between each one was unnoticeable. They found their way into her body and wiped everything off along the way, swallowing the blackness and forcing it against the surface, leaving it in its natural state; a burnt goo that had a sulfur-like smell. The girl felt a wave of relief spreading through her spinal cord. She had freed herself from the voices that whispered in her ears and from the black and red memories. Her eyes were still closed when her focus was broken by a clap.

  Liu-Ken slammed three times the palm of one hand against the other. "You achieved in one day what many take months. I told you. Both nature and Dao want you in the mortal world. A necromancer is one of the few beings who wander in the limbo between the world of the dead and ours. Both will try to claim you. It is only up to you."

  "Is it normal for me to feel tired and at the same time full of energy?" Aurora asked, ignoring the
rest.

  "Yes, your body is renewed, fresh as new, but your mind must have struggled for it. You cannot have one without the other. That’s the burden you carry," he said.

  "Well, this means I'm already a level four, almost three, right?" Aurora asked him, leaping from the rock to one of the smaller ones. “And what’s the big difference between Nature and Dao? You keep saying both.”

  "Almost. The important thing is not to do it once, but to do it consecutively," Liu-Ken told her, "Nature has its hands on every living thing, from animals to plants, while the Dao, despite being in them too, has more to do with everything you can’t see or touch. It’s the origin and source of all things. It is only by being in harmony with it that we can desire and practice to get stronger. Now, let's go to sleep. It's already late and tomorrow we’ll wake up at 7 A.M.," Liu-Ken said.

  "Thank you. But seven?" Aurora asked, raising her voice as she stretched out.

  "Yes, we must make the most of it. You did well today, but tomorrow the training will be harder. There's no other way to get you ready.”

  "Was this training a joke to you?"

  "I wouldn't say a joke, but it wasn't serious. Don't argue. Go to sleep. Your mind needs rest," Liu-Ken told her and signaled with his arm for Aurora to walk into the living room.

  Aurora walked past the mentor without saying a word to him. She was already at the top of the stairs leading to the shoji when she wished him good night. She did not bother to look at him, but Liu did not expect it either. He had sat down, however, with one leg on top of the other and sipped a sweet tea containing a slice of lemon in the cup’s corner.

  Aurora entered the room and lay down. She cracked her bones before covering herself with the fresh blue sheet. She was filled with energy. She wanted to jump, run, practice again with the sword, but had memory lapses. Her mind was spinning, temporary excerpts from situations in her life moving around her mind. The girl eventually closed his eyes and fell asleep shortly after, oblivious to what was happening inside her. A black trace that had survived the cleansing now sailed through her meridians. Staining body parts, one by one, disabling certain techniques and movements while she slept peacefully.

  The moon shone even brighter over the dense forest, thin white rays cascading over the rough trunks.

  Far from there, thousands of kilometers away, conversations were held under total scrutiny and secrecy, taking place in empty pavilions, the translucent papers torn. If some wielded their weapons in favor of the death of those who dared to disrespect the Dao, the perfect balance between all things, as they believed it to be, others, like the white-robed men who were there, plotted a way to stir up chaos. The blood moon night was approaching, and preparations were being made by both parties. That was the war that took place under the trenches, beyond what mere peasants of even shallow soldiers could even dream of.

  Chapter 13

  Three days had gone by before Liu-Ken removed the white sheet over the bodies. Their faces were still burnt, part of their bodies rotten, ribs already powdered and their eye sockets empty.

  "Look and don't turn away. You will have to get used to being surrounded by dead bodies. Pale faces, burned, destroyed, skeletal or chopped bodies, the stench of burning, sulfur, the death that follows them," Liu-Ken said to Aurora. He sat down on one of the steps and ordered the girl to stand still, a few meters from the bodies. She clenched her fists, struggling not to move her gaze.

  Aurora had come a long way in the last few days. She was now able to absorb the mana near her and focus her chi on the parts of her body that she wished. Well, at least, most of the time. She also had improved her sword technique, even though she still couldn't take more than two successive blows from her mentor and was on the same path in the hand-to-hand fight. They had spent their mornings and afternoons under the sun, a mild breeze, and overseen by the ever so shy moon at night. Aurora's muscles had become stronger and her durability and stamina increased.

  But, as Liu-Ken would say at the end of each day, there was still a lot to do. The man had also started to teach her how to cook. The first few times it had not gone very well, and the girl ended up letting the noodles overcook. She would still be momentarily distracted by the demon's voice on the cuckoo clock. It took her a few seconds to break the connection between the two. The world moved forward, and she ran after, one day at a time, preparing her body and mind for what awaited her beyond the forest.

  Looking at the three soldiers' bodies proved beyond difficult as the memories of that day flooded her head. Aurora could not stop thinking of how the boys' families were doing, whether their pain would be the same as her and if they would also seek her for revenge. For someone who had lived a life of peace, moving through and across a world where death was the main coin was an arduous task. The burnt smell still lasted even if three days had gone by. It was constant, bound to the scarce skin they still had on their arms and legs, the only recollection of what they had once been. Rays of the sun heated the metal blades that were set on the grass. Sunlight stretched over the water's surface, creating a prism effect over the water.

  "Remember what I taught you. You must accept them as they are. You can have no doubts, or they will not follow you. Take a deep breath. Put into practice our breathing exercises. Slowly. Let your black chi flow through your hands and go through the body of one of them. Don't forget. Not only will they have a part of you, but they will also be part of you. The many more you control, the more difficult it will be to keep control of what is going on in your head. You don't want them all at once," Liu-Ken told her. The man was still seated on the steps, the white robe with blue patches covering his legs. Kagu, the deity who inhabited the purple stone in his ring, was also awake, wanting to see if the girl was a good successor.

  Aurora took a deep breath. The dantian was calm and so were the meridians. She did not close her eyes. She sought to do it with uttermost respect, looking at the bodies, accepting them as they were, and, to some extent, marveling at the very beauty of a second life. Black chi swirled around her arms, lodging on the surface of each of her fingers. It made its way to the bodies. Aurora placed a knee on the ground next to the smaller soldier. Her teeth were grinning, and a tear ran down her left cheek.

  "I can do it. This is my duty," Aurora said to herself before resting her hand on the mutilated body's forehead, a few light hairs still present on the scorched upper lip.

  Her chi slipped into the holes where his eyes previously stood, winding through his body, activating his meridians, and providing the dantian with an energy source. It didn't take long for the body to be able to sustain itself. It drained her mana's power and fed on it. The nearby plants slowly faded away. The green was replaced by a light-dark grey, black under shadows.

  "First lesson. Each body you bring back to life has the same skills it used to have in life. Second lesson. Your chi gives them the energy they can feed on, but the rest comes from mana. They have to be constantly absorbing it. Imagine them as babies who can walk and do not cry or feel anything but still have to eat. At the end of the day, just one plate won't be enough.”

  "Worst analogy ever," Aurora replied. She tried to take her hand off the body, but it had gotten meshed with the skin. Her fingers now had brown and black particles clinging to the skin. The black chi didn't want to let her go. It called her, dragged her, sank her so far that the body's weakened forehead eventually cracked and broke. Aurora's fingers were catapulted into a sticky substance, a dead pink goo that had black threads in each open gap. The female voice returned.

  "Let yourself go," she said, "the vengeance you seek will be much easier with me on your side," she repeated. Aurora's thoughts wrapped themselves in a ball of sad memories. Her heart raced faster. Same rhythm as a musical instrument, same anxiety of an orchestral climax.

  "Aurora, get your hand out of there. Free yourself, quickly. Don't listen to the voice. Just focus on mine," Liu-Ken said, getting up, going down the steps, and moving close to the girl.

 
"Can you hear her too?" Aurora asked.

  "Stay away!" Liu-Ken shouted, now moving closer.

  Chapter 14

  An impenetrable black mana barrier rose around the girl, separating them on opposite sides. Aurora's eyes leaped from black to white, once again one step away from falling, on the limbo between life and death.

  A shadow arose before Aurora. Covered only by black rags that draped her face, the stranger walked across two of the steppingstones until she reached the girl. Aurora noticed that she had no feet. Black chi was keeping her off the ground.

  "We finally meet," the voice said, feminine, sweet but sharp. "I'm sorry, but your mentor can't hear this conversation. I thank him for what he did for the other necromancers, but this is a conversation that is taking place on a level of existence that he cannot access," she said.

  "Am I dead?" Aurora asked her. Her fingers were still buried in the dead soldier's brain.

  The voice laughed, "Of course, not. All this is happening within you. You ask the same question your father once asked. But moving forward... I don't think we have much time. I'm not as strong as I once was. Let me ask you, what do you know about Yuanying, the Nascent Soul?"

  "Not much... My adoptive father used to tell me legends in which cultivators could survive even after death. But only immortals, or those close to it, could get that far," Aurora said. She looked back and saw Liu-Ken punching the transparent barrier. His hands were shrouded in blue, smashing the wall, the color being sucked in by the near monolith.

  "You know enough, then. There's something you have to understand before you proceed. Necromancers are different from other cultivators. They don't follow the same path as others. You are one of my envoys. Your path is unique and will be so if you want it. You don't have to conform to any rule or law of society," the voice said. She stepped forward and laid her hand on Aurora's left shoulder. She had no skin. It was just bones coated with black chi.