– For what?! – Marius was amazed. – Virita deglia Bornio is a quiet, calm, well-mannered girl, the world would rather turn upside down than she would get into trouble.
Virita was indeed quiet, calm and well-behaved. And also boring. So boring that, despite the obvious beauty and sweet smile, already in the third minute of communication I wanted to run away anywhere, as long as it was far away. She's a bodyguard too?!
“So the world has turned upside down,” Master Turvon shrugged his shoulders and cast a short glance at the sun, which had almost disappeared behind the crowns of centuries-old oak trees. – Enough talking. Let's run.
The riddle called “a bodyguard for Virita” occupied Marius so much that he forgot to even think about the treatise. And how important is it, if he didn’t have time now, he’ll read it tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. In the end, if it were critical, the mentor would explain it right away.
And only when, with the last ray of sunset, together with Master Turvon, I stepped onto the perfectly round platform shining with the black fire of the night, I remembered another word spoken by the mentor: “a special bodyguard.” And, like a key in a lock, it clicked in my memory: “Mirror of the Night.” A ritual circle that does not require additional signs and amplifiers such as fire, blood or sacrifices. Only the shape, size and material work in it – fabulously expensive and rare, specially cut hellish glass. It is used to search for and summon souls that can linger in the world for a long time, and to install them in a suitable body. And, if necessary, to create this body.
Highest necromancy. So high that even among the masters, it would be good if one in a hundred would undertake it.
What is this that Vitor del Bornio ordered for his daughter?!
“You will be a conductor of power,” the mentor told Marius. “At the same time, you’ll look at a ritual that you’d better not get involved with for another hundred years.”
"You'll see"! How much will the conductor of power see if his job is to support the conductor of the ritual with his magic and not be distracted by anything else? After all, all the most interesting things don’t happen here. Master Turvon stood in the center of the circle and fell into a trance, and Marius could only stand in dead silence, strictly on the border of the circle and the lush grass, and stare at the lean figure, barely visible in the thickening darkness, motionless and literally soulless. The soul of the master necromancer, reflected by the Mirror and caught up in its dark radiance, wandered beyond the Boundary, looking for what he wanted. Marius would like to see how this search is going on! Yes, at least just to see what is there, beyond the Bound. The books I read were too contradictory to each other, describing the Edge and travel there. One might think that their authors organized a competition of liars, not for the sake of interest, but, at the very least, for a royal reward. And Turvon answered all the student’s questions with one answer: “You will see for yourself how the time will come, but for now it’s too early for you, I don’t teach.”