Perspective Shift: Sofia; Soul Magic

Alice and I stopped in the lobby of the University. From there, we went to the main office, looking for directions. At the front desk was a portly wizard in the middle of doing paperwork. He smiled upon looking up.

“Welcome to the Arcane University, how may I help you both today?” He said, the line sounding fake and rehearsed.

“We were hoping to find a faculty member,” said Alice.

“Who teaches History of Dark Magic nowadays?” I asked. He looked confused, then began flipping through a few files.

“Professor Camden Tyfun. He’s new, but very highly recommended. I’m sure he can help with whatever you two are seeking,” he said. “His office is on the second floor of the blue tower.”

“Thank you sir,” said Alice. We left the office and I led Alice towards the blue tower. We passed by some students wearing different colored robes and came to the second floor. I knocked on Professor Tyfun’s office door, and after a few seconds, it swung open.

“Enter,” said a voice from inside the dimly lit room. Alice and I shared a nervous look as we entered the office.

“Um, hello? Professor Tyfun?” Alice called out, glancing around the room. The door slammed shut behind us, causing us to jump in surprise.

“Now, unless I am mistaken, the two of you aren’t students of mine...” echoed a voice throughout the room. It was accompanied by a slight buzzing sound.

“W-where are you?” I asked nervously. Without warning, the room light up fully, causing me to cover my eyes. Once they adjusted, I moved my hand to see a fairy flying in front of me. The fairy had bright blue wings, the source of the buzzing noise, wore a blue robe, but lacked the signature wizard’s hat. He had short blonde hair and eyes that matched his wings. As a fairy, he was small, only standing at a height that would reach my knees.

“Professor Camden Tyfun, pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he said, holding out a tiny hand. Out of reflex, I stuck my hand out to him, upon which he grasped a finger and shook vigorously.

“Um, my name’s Sofia, and this is Alice. And uh, no, we aren’t students here,” I said, put off a bit.

“We’re adventurers, looking for some information pertaining to a request we’re on,” said Alice.

“That so? Must be quite the grotesque one if you’re coming to the Dark Magic Professor,” he said, zipping around the room.

“It was,” I admitted.

“So? Out with it. What foul magicks were involved?” he asked.

“Well, we don’t really know for sure, but, we’re investigating a ****. There were burns leading me to believe fire magic, but there were no traces of mana,” I said.

“Ah. So you suspect soul magic?” He said.

“Yeah. I don’t know much about it, but I couldn’t think of anything else that would cause the scene to look like that,” I said.

“Could have simply been a bomb. Surely you have more than some burns?” he said.

“Oh, uh, the victim’s arm was all shriveled up. Like a raisin,” said Alice. “Do you think magic could’ve caused that too?”

“Well, that seems like it would clench it,” he said, flying up to a bookshelf and bringing back a small book.

“What do you mean?” I asked. He stood atop the vastly oversized desk and opened the book, flipping to a page with a similar looking picture to the victim’s arm.

“Without a soul, a person’s body can not sustain itself. The soul keeps the body functional, allows for free will, emotions, etc., and without it the body begins to wither away like you see here. Soul magic allows one to harvest souls and use them as fuel for spells. While souls are far more powerful a fuel than mana, the process of getting them is understandably quite illegal,” he said. “Of course, there are those who don’t care about the legal or ethical constraints soul magic carries with it, making them very dangerous indeed.”

“How would we be able to stop someone like that?” Alice asked.

“If you truly intend to fight someone like that, remember, a single person cannot contain multiple souls at once. They will either try to steal the opponent’s mid fight, which is extremely difficult and requires physical contact, or they will use a pregathered supply, be it from a thrall or a totem,” he said.

“A what?” I asked.

“Oh, a Thrall is a person who has had only a part of their soul taken. Then, it’s power is replaced with mana from the wizard, removing the Thrall’s free will and binding them to the wizard’s commands. This link allows for easy drainage of the thrall’s soul, as well as complete control of the thrall. Then, a totem is the word for an item that is used to contain souls,” he explained.

“Wait, what would happen to a thrall if the Wizard is killed?” asked Alice.

“Depends on what they did with the thrall’s soul. If they didn’t drain them, and placed the original part of the removed soul into a totem, then once the totem is destroyed, the soul would return to its owner, bringing them back to normal. However, if even a portion of their souls is used to power a spell, it’s gone for good, and the thrall will wither away,” he said.

“Thank you for the help,” I said, my concerns only growing.

“My pleasure. Always happy to discuss magic with those interested,” he said, flying over to the door and opening it for us. We began to leave. “Oh, one more thing. Don’t forget, while souls are these people’s primary source of fuel, soul magic is often only performed by experienced wizards, so be ready for normal magic if you get them cornered.”

“Thank you Professor Tyfun. We’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” said Alice. She wrapped an arm around me, pulling me out of the office as the fairy closed the door behind us. “You okay, Sofia?”

“Y-yeah,” I lied. I was shaking and she could tell. The thought of one of my friends falling victim to a soul stealer was unbearable.

“Alright, then let’s go back to the guard place. We can think of some countermeasures there, just in case,” she said, smiling reassuringly. It made me feel better, if only just a bit.