Chapter 442 - Blood Resonance

Long one today. I like this type of chapter. They're always fun.

Bud wasn’t sure what he had expected when he received a letter to go to the safe house at once, but this was not it. Hump’s hair was dishevelled and there were dark bags under his eyes.

“Did you sleep?” Bud asked.

Celaine gave him a tired look, her chin rested on her hand. “What do you think?”

“I didn’t have time to sleep,” Hump said. “There were eleven spells that could do the job. Eleven! And believe me, not a single one of them was simple. I hadn’t realised the weakest spell I possessed of this category was Tier 4.”

“Tracking down a person with only their blood is a powerful spell,” Dylan said. “Can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Appreciate you speaking up now,” Hump said rather snappily. Took me an hour to get to that point. Another two to narrow down which spell was even feasible for me to task. Most I ruled out for being too niche or impossible to perform with what we have available, but the others… they are complex. Let’s leave it at that.”

“What kind of niche things?” Emilia asked.

“One called for the sap of a bahabo tree. Have any of you ever heard of a bahabo tree?”

Bud turned to Dylan, raising his eyebrows to ask the question.

The druid gave a shrug. “I’ve not heard of it, and I know my trees. It’s not from Alveron.”

Hump nodded enthusiastically—or perhaps crazily. Bud wasn’t quite sure yet.

“Exactly,” Hump said. “Another required an entire cup of fresh blood. One the sacrifice of a horse, which just seemed unnecessary given there are other options. In the end, I settled for a Tier 4 spell called Echo of Blood, Binding of Gold. Only problem is, it’s a ritual. One I should be able to cast with minimal practice, but it has taken time and resources to setup.” Hump gestured to the tiled patio covered in runes drawn in blood. “This is the real reason I have not been able to sleep.”

The spell formation covered the entire square. Bud was ill-informed on the subject, but even he could tell that it was complex. The central circle was densely packed with runes and essence channels of varying sizes. Off from that, many similar circles branched out—four large circles, and four smaller ones, each ending with an arrow at the end.

Most importantly… this was a lot of blood.

“This isn’t your blood, is it?” Bud asked.

Hump gave him a look. “Don’t be ridiculous. This much blood would kill me. I went to the butchers when the son came up and purchased it fresh. Cost me hardly anything actually. No, the expensive part was this.”

Hump took a gold ring from his pocket, large and ornate, and far from what Bud thought his friend would typically wear.

“What’s that for?”

“This is the main component of the spell,” Hump said. “This ritual imbues the component with the power to sense the owner of the blood, locking onto their essence signature. It will pull toward them and guide us that way.”

“How long does it last?” Emilia asked.

“Three days,” Hump said. “Plenty of time. That’s another reason I picked Echo of Blood, Binding of Gold. Now then, anymore questions or shall I get on with it?”

***

With everyone gathered, Hump opened his spellbook and worked his way over the spell formation one last time, comparing it to his inscription on the floor. It was unnecessary, he had already checked everything multiple times, but he only had one try at this so a few minutes to double check was worth it.

SPELLBOOK

Echo of Blood, Binding of Gold

Divination | Ritual | Tier 4 | Range: Long

Description

Separate and isolate the essence signature lingering in blood through ritual inscription. The spell imbues a golden object with its binding, orientating it toward the origin of the essence signature. Potency fades after three days.

Notes

y.531 – Ivish – To the Borshivi, blood and gold are sacred—one a vessel of life, the other its eternal memory, passed from parent to child across generations, each bearer carrying a trace of those who came before. They say blood holds the echo of the soul, and gold, pure and unchanging, remembers it. In practice, the ritual binds a soul’s essence signature to a piece of hold, creating a link that will last forever. When obscured by dozens of ancestors, this makes for a sentimental but ultimately useless objective. However, when used on a single person, the spell creates a binding that will always pull toward its source. The more pure the gold, the more powerful the tug.

For a ritual like this, the Compact Formations function of the Book of Infinite Pages would provide him the formation that was supposed to be fixed in one’s mind, while the inscribed ritual would do most of the heavy lifting. While complex in preparation, the actual casting was fairly rudimentary. Whoever these Borshivi were, Hump suspected their knowledge of spellcasting was far outshone by modern Alveron.

Finished and satisfied, Hump placed the gold ring at the centre of the formation, upon a small plate filled with the dried blood taken from the arrow. He then took up his position on the activation circle, staff in his right hand, spellbook in his left. He was about to begin, when he sensed something mischievous close by. Nisha had snuck past the others and was sniffing at the blood-inscribed runes, tongue outstretched.

“Don’t lick it,” Hump snapped.

Nisha recoiled, her eyes wide, a guilty look on her face, head held low to the ground and her eyes turned up toward him.

“Out of the way, Nisha,” Celaine said. “Come stand with me.”

The dragon skulked over, barely fitting through the garden door now.

With the distraction dealt with, Hump turned his attention to the ritual. He poured his essence into his staff, letting his power build. He envisioned the River and Waves just as he did the formation that surrounded him. His own channels and will would connect him to the formation he had so painstakingly drawn out overnight. As his essence entered the lines of blood, the air filled with the scent of copper. Light rose from the blood, pure and golden. Where the essence touched, blood lost its red lustre before turning brown and dry, consumed by the golden light.

Minutes passed and Hump continued to direct his essence through the spell formation. It took more essence than he had anticipated, but this much was hardly an issue for him. The more challenging aspect was ensuring that nothing burned out while he maintained it. Minute by minute, he made more progress, until finally every rune was alight with power and intent.

“Echo of Blood, Binding of Gold,” Hump said.

The spell activated, essence pouring into the ring at the centre. Blood rose into the air in dry, brown flakes, the metallic scent in the air becoming stronger. Essence surged throughout the garden, all of it toward the ring. The ring of gold shone with brilliance, as if it had captured the sun itself. The dish of blood was illuminated with power.

Finally, gold and blood became one. The spell ended, and the dish was empty of blood now, but the ring remained. Only now, it had lost its golden sheen and had been stained a faint red, almost like copper.

Hump picked up the ring and immediately sensed the tug.

“Is it working?” Celaine asked.

Hump grinned. “It’s definitely pulling me toward something. As for whether it’s working or not, I suppose we’ll find out when we get there.”

***

It didn’t take long for Hump to have a very good idea where the ring was directing them. It was the same path he took whenever he went to Elenvine Academy.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Had someone betrayed him? The only wizards at the academy that knew that he possessed The Book of Infinite Pages were Wizard Torvik and Wizard Charles, and he couldn’t imagine either of them telling anyone. In which case, chances were this was the Silver Circle—the very people that had attacked his master all those years ago and damaged his soul.

 While those directly involved were dead, the organisation may have endured. And if they had people inside the academy, they may have noticed Hump during one of his visits before he had fully mastered the Veil of Infinite Reflections. He was stronger now, confident in masking his presence along with the book, but it hadn’t been that way even a couple of weeks ago. One mistake was all it would have taken. If they had recognised him, ambushing him later would have been trivial.

As the academy came into view, the ring still tugging faintly on Hump’s finger, he slowed, stunned at what he saw.

The gates were swarmed.

A crowd had gathered outside the entrance—hundreds of people shouting in unison and waving handmade signs and banners. The chants were loud and rhythmic, their voices filled with venom.

“Death to the heretics!”

“Burn them! Burn the Warlocks!”

The words struck Hump like stones. His mind went to his history books, and the tales of wizards that had been burned alive only a hundred years ago for their practice, accused just like now. His eyes landed on a few priests amidst the protest; their faces filled with righteous arrogance.

“You okay, Hump?” Bud asked. “You look a bit shaken.”

“It’s just hard to see how quickly sentiment can change,” Hump said. “I never quite believed we could go back to the old ways, but seeing this… it seems a little too possible.”

“This is the warlocks’ doing,” Dylan said, shaking his head. “It’s terrible.”

“Nothing we can do about it though,” Emilia said. “Forget these people. They are angry and need a direction for that anger. Once the warlocks are defeated, things will return to normal.”

“Right,” Hump said, moving his mind back to current matters. “My best guess is we’re dealing with a member of the Silver Circle. I didn’t expect to actually find them here after they took those injuries last night though. They may be getting aid but considering they attacked with two apprentices, I think it more likely they were acting on their own.”

“Either way, we should be prepared for them to have support,” Emilia said. “If they are a wizard of the academy, they will likely have allies within these walls.”

“Then we can’t walk up to the man and accuse him,” Dylan said. “The last thing we want is a fight to break out on school grounds.”

“That’s true,” Hump said.

“If you find him I could put another arrow through him,” Celaine said. “Finish the job before a fight breaks out.”

“And then you will be a murderer and we will lack evidence that he is even the attacker,” Emilia said.

“Then how do you want to do this?” Celaine asked.

“I think our best option is to speak with my teacher, Wizard Charles,” Hump said. “He’s a professor here, and he knows about my book. We go to him first. There aren’t many Rank 6 wizards, he may be able to identify the culprit even without our ring.” Hump glanced at the crowd and pointed. “Assuming we can get through that.”

Bud cracked his knuckles and stepped forward without hesitation.

“I can handle that,” he said. “Follow my lead.”

He pushed into the crowd, his imposing form drawing immediate attention. When they caught the sigils on his cape, murmurs spread like wildfire as they realised a Knight of Kelisia walked amongst them. Some prayed, others called out to ask if he was there to purge the heretics, but all stepped out of his way.

Behind Bud, the rest of the party followed, Hump with his head lowered. When they reached the gate, the guards only needed to hear Hump’s name for them to be allowed inside.

A short while later, Hump stood before a familiar wooden door marked with brass—Wizard Charles’ office. He wrapped his knuckles firmly against it.

No answer.

He knocked again. Still nothing.

With a frustrated sigh, he made his way back down the stone stairs to the reception hall. A young woman sat behind the desk, quill scratching on parchment.

“Excuse me,” Hump said. “Do you know where I can find Wizard Charles?”

She looked up, brows immediately furrowing. “Are you a student here?”

“Not officially,” he replied. “I’ve been receiving private tutelage from him. It’s an emergency.”

She stared at him for a long moment, unimpressed. “He’s in lessons.”

“Where?” Hump asked, more urgently.

She huffed. “The Dolaris Grounds.”

“Thank you.”

***

The Dolaris Grounds were one of the larger outdoor training areas on campus—a walled expanse of flattened stone ringed by enchantments and instructor wards, designed to withstand even the more destructive aspects of battle magic.

Hump stepped inside alone, leaving the others waiting in the hallway.

Wizard Charles stood at the far end of the field, hands clasped behind his back, observing a half-circle of young wizards as they practised spell sequences. Controlled bursts of flame, arcane shields, the clash of training spells against summoned barriers—it was a chaos of learning.

“Stop, stop, stop!” Wizard Charles instructed, marching into the centre of the grounds. “Keep bashing at each other like that, and you will just exhaust yourselves. There are three things to remember when dealing with a wizard’s Shield spell.” He held up his wand, waving it around it enunciate his words. “Firstly, magic loses its efficiency with range. A shield is effective against a spell cast from a distance.”

He stabbed his wand toward one of the wizards in training nearby, an Essence Blast erupting from it and impacting the young wizard’s Shield. It shimmered with light, the surface disrupted, but most of the blast surged around it harmlessly, dissipating into the air.

“Why?” Wizard Charles asked.

“The essence closest to us is most easily brought under out control,” the wizard that was the target of Wizard Charles’ attack responded.”

“Exactly. So how do we bypass a Shield from range?”

Wizard Charles pointed his wand at the young wizard once more, aiming slightly low this time. A focused beam shot out, so thin that Hump wondered how many years it had taken the man to perfect it. Even given hours to prepare, he did not think he could craft a Focused Beam with such precision. It pierced the Shield with ease, shattering it in a burst of essence before striking the ground where it exploded in a mote of sand and dust.

“A concentrated strike this this?”

“We can’t do that, Master,” another wizard answered—a girl.

Wizard Charles smiled. “Indeed, that is likely beyond all of you for at least a few more years. So… what can you do?”

There was a long pause. Hump considered his previous battles against powerful beings. It was true that he had struggled to harm them, but he’d considered that a difference in strength. But when he had caused damage to Karlac, it was because he was too close for the devil to defend himself.

“Attack from closer,” another said. “That way the offensive magic doesn’t lose its efficiency.”

Wizard Charles nodded. “Your instinct as a wizard is to remain at a distance from your foe and utilise offensive magic to crush them. At lower ranks of wizardry, this is effective, however you will find that as one becomes more powerful such distance makes it near impossible to breach an equally skilled opponent’s defence.”

He demonstrated again, stepping up to another of the wizard’s still maintaining a Shield and shattering it with an Essence Blast, sending the wizard inside stumbling back at the same time.

“Now, what other options might one consider?” It was then Wizard Charles turned and caught sight of Hump standing nearby. He mouthed, “One minute,” before returning to his students. As the students discussed, he came to stand before another student’s Shield.

“What.” The man waved his wand, sand rising from the grounds and forming stone. “Can.” He did it again, more stone forming. “We.” Again—the stone in the air was massive now. “Do?”

The stone shifted, floating upward until it hovered over the young wizard’s head. The boy stared up at it with wide, terrified eyes.

“Well, Higry?” Wizard Charles asked.

The boy swallowed. “Overwhelm it through physical force and weight. Things that don’t go away.”

“Exactly. Shield spells require constant essence to maintain. By presenting them with a physical weight or a barrage of constant attacks, one can exhaust the caster quickly. So if you ever encounter such a situation, pile a bunch of rocks on a wizard and see how they get out of that mess. Just be ready for when they send them blasting back. Now then, you must excuse me. Continue your practice, taking turns with your partner between attack and offence.”

“Apologies for the interruption,” Hump said as the man approached, lowering his voice so that nobody would overhear. “I wouldn’t intrude if it weren’t urgent.”

“No need for that,” Wizard Charles said. “My assistant can take things from here. That was good, Hump, by the way. I didn’t even sense your presence. Very good indeed. Your training has come far.”

Hump smiled. “Thank you. I didn’t expect to find you teaching battle magic.”

“We are on the brink of war, and the academy is to ensure every wizard possible knows the fundamentals of combat. Shall we walk?”

Hump nodded. “My party are waiting inside.”

Wizard Charles frowned at that. “This is about Wizard Torvik, isn’t it?”

Hump stared at him. “What happened to Wizard Torvik?”

Wizard Charles raised an eyebrow. “He disappeared a few days ago. His assistants assumed he was unwell, but when they checked on him, he wasn’t at home. His quarters were undisturbed, and there was no sign of travel. They're worried.”

Hump frowned. “That’s not why we’re here—but it might be connected.”

He gave Charles a quick, no-nonsense summary. The ambush in the city, the poisoned attacks, the strange warlocks, and their clear intent to steal his spellbook. He mentioned the strange essence he sensed—tainted with death—and finally, how their Blood Resonance ritual had led them here.

By the end of it, Wizard Charles appeared angry. “You did the right thing bringing this to me, Wizard Humphrey. This ring… it will take you to the culprit?”

Hump nodded. “I believe so.”

“Then let us confront him together.”