Forbidden Magic

Kasian…

Leonard could feel a bad taste in his mouth. He swallowed hard to force down a lump forming in his throat. He hoped he would never have to hear that name again. He looked at the man coming closer, expecting the same golden hair and blue eyes, but instead, he was looking into the face of a completely different person.

This Kasian was indeed tall and slender, but his face was deathly pale and emotionless, contrasting heavily with his raven black hair and purple eyes. He was dressed in dark clothing. He was holding a dead rabbit in one hand and a knife stained with blood in the other. He definitely didn’t look or behave like the original Kasian.

Kasian looked at Leonard. His purple eyes were studying him for a long time, the unpleasant atmosphere lingering between them. Leonard knew he shouldn't be bundling up this person with his friend, but he was unable to help it. His name carried too much weight.

“How long are you gonna just stand there?” the necromancer interrupted them.

She was still standing there, naked. Her tattoos had now disappeared, and droplets of water were glistening on her skin. Her silver hair flowed in the night wind.

Kasian looked at her briefly, then turned to Leonard: “Do you know how to skin a rabbit?”

He asked him this question, but he was never expecting an answer. Instead, he threw the rabbit down onto the grass next to his legs and left.

Squatting down to sling off his backpack, Kasian pulled out a fresh set of clothes. He threw it to the necromancer, and she caught it swiftly.

“Help me,” she ordered him.

Leonard was standing there awkwardly, looking as Kasian had pulled out a clean rag and dried the skin of his master. Then he helped her to put on the clothes. Once it was done, they both turned to him.

“We need the fire,” she said.

Leonard pulled away from them, turning his attention to the dry wood he brought from the forest. He wasn’t much of a warrior, but he learned how to make fire in this world. So he got to work and within a few minutes, a small flame was licking the dry, broken sticks.

“The fire is too small,” the necromancer complained. “This will never help me to dry my hair properly. Should I make it bigger with magic?”

“I thought you could wield only the magic connected to the dead,” Leonard told her.

“Did you forget that fire is used to burn the corpses?” she asked him.

She stretched out her hand with an open palm, ready to make the flame bigger. But before her eyes had a chance to glow in a crimson red, Kasian caught her wrist to stop her. She looked at him, her brows furrowing.

“I will take care of it,” he said.

“You can’t,” she protested, but he ignored her.

Standing far from the flames, he threw several dry sticks right into the fire.

“What are you doing?” Leonard shouted at him. “You will put it out! Why can't you just do it properly?”

Kasian was ignoring him. Seeing Leonard still refused to touch the dead rabbit, he picked it up from the ground. After a while, a fresh meat was roasting above the fire, its aroma wafting through the air. Leonard was fairly hungry, but because it was Kasian who brought the rabbit, he did not dare to touch it first.

But both of them were ignoring the baked meat. Necromancer was now sitting in the grass near the fire, and Kasian was combing her long silver hair, trying to dry it. Leonard was sitting next to the fire from the opposite side, unable to look at them. He wanted to compare them to two lovebirds, but then he realized it was not right. After all, he could not feel any hint of emotion in Kasian's acts. He was simply fulfilling the orders that the woman gave him. And she sure used Kasian as a proper servant. When she was in the dungeon, he got a feeling, she had a rough life and was able to take care of herself. But now, when she was having her servant next to her side, she made him do almost everything like a spoiled princess.

“Good, that’s enough,” she said once she checked over her silver hair. “I feel much better now that I was able to wash myself properly. Tomorrow we will go to a village. I prefer a bed over the ground. Did you bring any coins?”

“I have a few silvers,” Kasian replied to her.

“We can earn more. We decided to go to the Lunaria, Kasian,” she told him.

“We,” he echoed.

“Leo and I,” she replied. “There is no future for us in this kingdom, where magic is banned.”

“I thought we were going to Lunaria, because people will not know us there, and it will be easier for us to hide. Isn't magic also banned in Lunaria?” Leonard asked. “They are a very small kingdom, a sacred dominion. The king is the high priest of their religion.”

Necromancer started laughing, interrupting him.

“What is so funny?” Leonard asked her, offended.

“Those old fools from the Silgorod, they still believe the Moon Princess is a holy saintess?”

“Is she not? She is supposed to save us.”

“I will tell you the truth now, dear hero,” she finally stopped laughing. “No matter how they call the Moon Princess, the fact is, she is just a simple witch, nothing more, nothing less. “

“But they say she wields holy magic–”

“Magic is only magic. You can call her holy or forbidden, but the nature of it is the same. My magic and her magic are the same. Mine is the corrupted one, because I need to give something to get something. Hers is the harmless one. I am guessing she can draw energy from the moon itself, hence she is called Moon Princess. But in the end, we are both the same.”

“So the priests of Lunaria…”

“They are pretending their Moon Princess is a saintess.”

“And people are believing it?”

“It has been ages since they turned their customs and rituals into a religion. People don’t remember that anymore. They have it fully under control. There is no resistance if you are brainwashing people from the beginning.”

Brainwashing?

Leonard looked at her. Necromancer sounded funny and was a very eccentric person, but he thought she was from this world. But now, hearing her using such a modern word, there was no doubt, she was someone from his world.

“Are you…“

“Shhh!” she interrupted him. “I can feel a death lingering in the air. Something has just died in the forest. I need to see it.”

“Is that safe?” he asked.

She was not listening to him. She jumped up and there she went, running into the woods. Dissappearing like a silver ghost.

“Wait!” he shouted after her.

“Let her go,” Kasian said firmly. “Mira can take care of herself.”

Leonard turned his head to him, shocked.

“Mira?”

“Don’t tell me you did not recognize her. She was summoned here, so she has her original body. Unlike me.”

“But she looks so different.”

“She doesn’t. She looks the same. Only her hair and eyes changed color.”

Kasian was now moving the rabbit over to another side. The juices of the meat dropped into the fire. Flame hissed between them, making the awkward silence even more unbearable.

“But she... She clearly does not recognize me, even though I also have the same body as I was summoned here. And I asked for her name and she–”

“She doesn’t remember anymore,” Kasian said. “She already lost a lot of her memories from the original world. The souls of the dead were very intrigued by the things she was able to experience in the modern world. They gobbled up her memories like crazy. She is now just an empty shell of what she used to be.”

Leonard just sat there, speechless, helpless. The most horrifying thing to him was that Kasian was able to announce to him all of this without any emotion on his face. And Leonard was already feeling like he would lose his own mind.

“How come you look completely different?” he asked him.

Kasian looked at him. “I died in our world and reincarnated into a different body.”

“You have died? Oh my god, what has happened?”

“Some idiots decided to kidnap me to extort a ransom from my father. They killed me accidentally in the process.”

He didn’t know what to say to that.

“I am sorry.”

“You don’t have to be.”

Another silence settled between them. Leonard raised his head to the night sky, looking at the stars and the moon flowing through it.

“What about Selena?” he asked.

“I haven't met her,” Kasian replied.

“So she is there somewhere, alone.”

“She probably knows what has happened to me, but you and Mira both disappeared so suddenly. We thought you had both run away.”

“Us? And run away together? Where?”

“To the cheaper city?”

“Mira would never leave with me. And I would never ask her to come.”

“You wanted to ask another girl to go with you,” Kasian stated.

Leonard looked at him. Anger was suddenly rising in his body. So he knew he liked Selena. He knew it, and yet, he still decided to touch her.

“You were always such a bastard,” Leonard said.

Kasian did not respond.

“You had to put your filthy hands down on Selena, even though you knew how she was. I know you never loved her, she was never your type. So why?”

“My father wanted me to get engaged with a proper partner. She was the only one who could work.”

It did not help much that now Kasian was able to talk with him about it with a cold demeanor. Feeling the explosion of anger, Leonard jumped at Kasian, grabbing him by his collar. He forced him down onto the ground, punching him straight in his face.

A loud crunch echoed through the forest.

“Ah, the pain,” Kasian said.

“Do you want to feel more pain?” Leonard yelled at him. “I will grant you this wish, then!”

Something just flew through the air and hit Leonard directly in his face. A soft and wet sensation touched his cheeks, and the heavy odor of decay filled his nose. He turned around, looking at the thing that fell from his face into the grass. In the light of the fire, he could see the corpse of a fox.

Something was still gliding down his cheeks, smelling foul. He almost vomited. He started running to the lake to wash his face. He did not manage to get to the lake in time. He fell on his knees, throwing up even though his stomach was empty.

Mira came closer to Kasian and squatted down next to him. She softly touched his face, checking his wound.

“He hit you hard,” she commented. “It must have hurt. I will heal it, just give me a few seconds.”

He caught her wrist. “Stop wasting your memories on me, Mira,” he whispered to her.

“I need you to function well,” she said. “I don’t need a servant with a disfigured face, that would attract too much unwanted attention. I will heal it quickly. In return, I will give to the dead the memory of this poor sight lying before me and the echoes of a hero barfing in the woods.”