The First of the Last Steps

For the Titans.

I never imagined that carve on my skin these magical runes could be so hard. So painful. Zethys Van Hellcall assisted me during the whole procedure; I haven't ever studied the effect of arcane tatoos on the body of a wizard, nor I learned how to be able to conjure working ones. Still, for what I have in mind to do, this is a necessary step. I can't do otherwise: a single error, a minimal oversight could be the end of my existence. I can't die, I'm not allowed to, not before I have completed all my plans.

We headed to the border of the Blade's Edge Mountains, there where the sharp peaks pall in the void of Netherstorm, where the arcane energy of the primordial nether reigns supreme. It was just me and the warlock. Who would have thought that I would come to the point of putting part of my life in the hands of a fel-user? If I had said just a year ago I would have burst out laughing.

But life changes and changes, as well as body and soul are worn by the flow of events, like a rock exposed to the elements.

There was a smell of sulfur, a smell that I didn't like - and never I will like - and a warm breeze was swiping those sultry rocks, kicking up dust and sand. We arranged to draw the ritual circle, it took us almost an hour and three quarters to ensure that no lines converging towards the center were off-axis while, in the meantime, thanks to my extensive knowledge in the School of Arcane Magic - Divination, I made sure that Zethys was not trying to do something unusual which could allow him in the future to use me like a puppet.

I'm getting paranoid.

I did not feel so tense from the day I had to face the test to get the title of Archmage, which was the most difficult, exhausting, nerve-wracking day of my whole life. There, in the Outland, I knew that, like that day in Dalaran, it was much more than just a ritual dance in the mail. I would have strength to fight the pain and the energy of the Nether? I would had the tenacity and stamina to survive? How much, how many people I'd left behind in the event of a failure on my part. Too many, really, as well as unfinished business.

However, arcane magic corrupts, worn out and makes you feel the need to have more, to want to do something more, to be able to do something more ... wanting to become something more.

I moved in the middle of the large circle, wide as one of the main rooms of the sunfury spire and closed my eyes. I began to focus on my body and on the arcane energies which passed through with no problems at succeeding in forcing them in a continuous stream and circuit. Hellcall had warned me that the incision would hurt, but the pain that I felt was not remotely comparable to that of a simple knife in the skin.

No, absolutely not.

I felt that ray of rough arcane cutting not only the skin but also work on its same matrix. I felt my flesh change. If I was not a master in the arts of Divinism I would have fainted on the spot, derailing the entire process. I managed to remove my conscious mind from the body, thus separating it from escaping to the suffering and able to govern outside the flow of arcane energy sealed in my body. I forced it to absorb more from the surrounding environment and to form three layers of different thickness on the inside: a central, functioning as a core, an intermediate of rarefied intensity and an outer, two inches below the epidermis, well- provided and high charged. As soon as I did it, despite my mind had departed from the body of belonging, I began to feel the first signs of abating; the radius used by Hellcall was drawing its energy from the outer layer that had formed, just as it was my intention and, thanks to it, had begun to draw the first lines and runes right into my flesh.

The pain grew.

I forced the three energy layers to move, connecting the core to the outer by minor streams that cut through the middle layer at strategic points of the body, being able to create, slowly, one similar to the cyclical flow of water which, from the sea, is transformed in rain, only to fall back again to the ground and return to its source. The lines of the circle ritual began to function as a network, helping both me and ritualist not to waste even a grain of mana, trapping this source of energy around us to avoid a discharge.

The pain became excruciating.

I wanted to bite the bullet, but I was aware of not being able to get back into my body, that body burned and battered.Two and a half hours later the ritual ended and Zethys collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath and barely able to lift his arms. On seeing his condition I realized full well that I would have had much, much worse than expected and for this I waited a few minutes before bind again my mind to the body, hoping not to suffer those consequences too.That hope was vain: as soon as I did, I felt every inch of those lines burn on the skin. It was like having hundreds of rods driven into the flesh, burning their heat right through the circuits built by myself. My body, remained motionless as a statue in the middle of the circle for all that time, slumped to the ground as soon as I lost consciousness.

I have not been able to move for three days, a little 'for the pain, a little' for the runes that  began to heal, taking on a shade of light blue and light gray. Now those signs cover my whole body, starting from the jaw and coming down on the neck, chest and legs, branching out on the back and arms. Lines similar to tattoos on the side of which, on key points such as the solar plexus, wrists, elbows, lower abdomen and back, are runes of infinite kinds.

The body of a magician works like a sponge: in itself does not contain any arcane energy, absorbing it -more or less controlled - by the world around him and from the ley lines. Only thanks to this energy, stored within a body accustomed to contain it, the magician is able to cast a spell. These lines and runes of mine, however, are able to create a power grid that allows the mortal flesh to no longer be an obstacle in the middle of the external flow of a ley lines, but to let this same source of power flow through this fence freely. I don't need to absorb any energy from the outside anymore, having this already ready to be used, fresh, and most pure all around and within me.

Yes ..

This is the first step.

Soon, too soon, it will come the Final one