The Warlock and Chalice (Part 1)

It had to be the worst day of her life. Mira just took the glass full of liquor and threw it at the kissing couple. Only then were they pulled back to reality and finally stopped clinging to each other.

“Mira, what the hell?” Kasian yelled at her, anger flashing in his eyes. “Now I am all wet and smell like alcohol. Do you have an idea how much those clothes cost?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Mira replied. “You are an asshole, and I am sick of you.”

They were both oblivious to her feelings, and she decided she had had enough of that. There was no need to torture anymore. It was time to let go.

“Wait, stop!” Selena tried to stop Mira, her voice feeble.

Mira ignored her. She turned to Kasian instead.

“I curse you,” she spat at him. “I curse you to always run after those women you adore so much, but never feel any satisfaction, until you feel crazy. Until one day, you will do such a thing that someone will make you pay for it with what is most precious to you.”

“Whoa, Mira, you sounded just like an old witch now. Are you really cursing me?” he laughed.

He did not take her words seriously. He never did.

“Yeah, I do,” she put her foot down, ready to destroy the friendship. “Die!”

She turned around and went back down the stairs. Arriving on the ground floor, she started running. She stormed out of the club, her eyes watery.

“Don’t you dare cry!” she scolded herself. “He doesn’t deserve that at all!”

And yet, the tears were spilling down her cheeks. She wiped them away with her hand and raised her head. She saw Leonard standing outside, before the crosswalk. The light was red. The cars were speeding up through the road, not caring at all about the speed limit in the city.

Leonard was looking at the cars, coming closer to the road. It looked like… as if he was going to step onto the busy road to get run over by a car.

Mira panicked. She was running in her heels, trying to save him, but then something strange happened.

The ground around her flashed. A circle appeared under her feet, locking her in place, in the barrier built out of purple light. People around her shouted in surprise. Unable to move, she started yelling desperately at Leonard to stop.

But he was still standing near the road. The same barrier was lighting up around him. But his was of a golden color. Seeing this, she felt relieved and closed her eyes. The world darkened around her.

She disappeared into thin air.

The honking of cars and uproar has quieted down. The strong neon lights dimmed. Instead, she could feel a warm light crawling under her eyelids. The cool air tickled her skin. The goosebumps ran down her forearms. She dared to open her eyes. What she saw left her speechless.

The city was gone.

She was now sitting on the cold ground in a cave. The place was wet and cold, but someone brought the candles and lit them. Their tiny flames were now flickering, casting multiple shadows onto the cave walls.

Right before her stood a tall man, his back bent. He was dressed in a black cloak, with a hood over his head, so she was not able to see his face properly. He was cackling like a lunatic, unable to hold down his emotions. According to his voice, she would guess he was around forty.

“Where am I?” Mira asked him.

“Welcome to the kingdom of Silgorod, my dear,” he finally stopped laughing.

He put down his hood, and she could finally see his face. She did not recognize him. His chin was narrow and sharp, with a sparse goatee growing. The nose in the middle of his face was too long, too crooked. His eyes were of an amber color, glistening red in the warm light of candle flames. He had messy and greasy hair falling down to his shoulders. They were silver. That confused her and made her think he was older. But when she looked closer, there were not many wrinkles around his eyes, and his skin did not have any age spots.

“Silgorod?” Mira asked. “I never heard about it, not to mention any kingdom.”

She would be lying if she said she was not scared of this stranger, but she decided to bluff and pretend to be bold. She still did not know why he took her here.

“Isn't it beautiful?” he smirked. “It just confirms my ritual was completed, and I was able to summon someone from another world.”

“Another world,” Mira echoed.

She remembered that strange purple circle shining on the ground, enveloping her in a barrier. She looked down at the cold ground immediately. She saw a circle around her, its color dark. Next to it, there was a multitude of dead chickens. The stench of blood filled the whole cave. She wrinkled her nose.

“Why did you summon me here?”

“I wanted a vessel, and I needed to summon someone with enough mana potential to be able to bear all the magic I want to transfer. Now we will find out if you are a good chalice.”

“No,” Mira said firmly. “I am not going to stay here and listen to a lunatic.”

“I thought about it already. After all, this procedure will be very painful. It wouldn’t go smoothly if my vessel were able to run away.”

Mira wanted to stand up and go, but she realized he had done something to her body. She was unable to stand up. She was able to move only her head slowly.

“What did you do?” she screamed. “Let me go!”

“Shhh,” he hushed her. “Or I will stuff something into your mouth so you will shut up. This ritual will take some time. The better you behave, the sooner it will end.”

He came closer to her. He tore off her clothes, not caring about anything. “Such peculiar clothing,” he commented. “Shameless. Do all women dress like that in your world?”

She glared at him, not saying anything.

“You are bold,” he commented. “Good. I need someone who will not break.”

He did not care at all that she was now half-naked. Instead, he pushed her onto the wet ground with his knee. With her chest pressed down onto the earth, he sat on her rear. Her whole back was now exposed to him.

“What are you going to do to me?” she yelled.

“Didn’t I tell you already? I need a vessel. You know, in order for a mage to be powerful, you need to have two things. First is his power or mana. Second is his knowledge of the spells. You cannot cast a spell if you don’t know how it's done. The most powerful mages in the world don’t need to have the knowledge. They can use their magic power subconsciously. I, unfortunately, was never so powerful.”

“Why are you just not using some grimoire?” Mira asked him.

“So you know about spell books, splendid,” he praised her. “But you know, books are very impractical. You need to have them with you, you need to read from them. That will slow you down when you need to cast something quickly. You need to learn word by word and write it down into your memory. But human memory is very limited, and the spells that are not used frequently will get forgotten over time. So I did some thinking. What if I could create a grimoire that would be able to walk with me? What if I poured my magical power into it and made it a powerful weapon?”

“You want me to learn your spells?”

“No, my dear. I need to etch those spells deep into your body. Do you see those tomes lying there? I need to rewrite all of them into your skin.”

“My skin? Are you going to tattoo the spells on me?”

“I do not understand your words, but if you think I am going to inscribe them upon your skin, then you are correct. You are a really smart woman. I like that. I will see how it will go and if you will prove useful, maybe I will make you even my wife.”

“I would rather die,” Mira spat.

“You will wish that many times, I can tell you that. Now you should bite into those clothes of yours I threw onto the floor. This will be painful.”

Something cut the skin on her shoulder blade. The pain was sharp. Her skin started burning.

Mira screamed.

“I told you it would be painful. Thankfully, I was able to immobilize you with a spell. Took a lot of mana, but it will be worth it. Now I need to inscribe as many spells as possible. It will be a long night for you.”