Page 92 of Becoming D'Vaire
“Did you figure out the poison thing?” Alaric asked.
“No, that part’s missing from the sentinel spell, and every time I put it into the magical simulator, that section fails. I believe the problem is that they’re intended to be a cross between a sorcerer and a warrior. We’re relying on Fate to provide the magic, so this spell’s partially left up to her. Without knowing how much power they’ll have or whether they will have any at all, it’s difficult to give them abilities that require a spell. Sentinels do have a bit of magic—that’s where the poisons come from and what allows their daggers to float,” Delaney responded.
“We’ve decided it’s probably not best to have parts of the spell that can’t be reconciled by the simulator, so we’re content to let the poison idea go,” T’Eirick said. “It also allows the Sentinel Brotherhood to retain that unique feature for themselves. Saura and I would like for you to bespell our weapons to engrave them with our names to prevent them from being used against us.”
Alaric nodded. “I was going to ask you about that. I would be happy to do it. I will handle it as soon as you are resurrected.”
“Thank you, Alaric. That would be wonderful,” Saura replied.
“The other thing I did work on was asking Fate to mark them in some way as the leaders of the Darkfallen Court. We’re going to leave the how up to her as most races didn’t get to decide how their rulers were singled out,” Delaney stated.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure no one asked her to slap a skull in the middle of my chest,” Chander remarked.
“I happen to be very fond of that skull,” Alaric commented as he aimed a heated look in the Arch Lich’s direction.
“Anyway, anything else we need to discuss on that front?” Chander asked.
Delaney laid a hand on the table, and a piece of paper appeared underneath it. He slid it across the table to Chander. “Here’s the completed spell.”
Chander took a minute to read it over, then glanced up with a smile. “Del, resurrection spells are becoming your specialty. What, this makes three now?”
“Maybe I’ll decide to cast one myself and convert my magic to necromancy. That’s how the whole Order of Necromancia got started in the first place,” Delaney teased.
“The hell you will,” Vadimas retorted. “Chand, stop trying to steal my dark wizard.”
Delaney’s eyes lit up with amusement. “Imagine that. As a necromancer, no one would think I stood out. They’re all dark casters. I could fill D’Vaire with kickass dead people.”
“Hey, they’d still have to complete the sanctuary application,” Aleksander responded.
“Grigori, you might need to take Del to your room and get him to lie down,” Idris interjected. “I think he’s hallucinating and is in real danger of being choked by a High Arcanist if he doesn’t get it under control.”
“Delaney the Dark’s incongruous fantasies aside, we need to discuss the real issue we’re all avoiding,” Vadimas stated with a sinister glare for Delaney. “We have to fine-tune the deaths themselves.”
“This sucks, you know. Casually sitting here planning my parents’ deaths,” Dra’Kaedan grumbled.
His twin reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. “I know, but it needs to be done. We’ve just got one shot at this. If we fail, we have no clue how else to fix our Carvallius and Latarian problem.”
“We’re only going to be gone for a day,” Saura reminded them gently. “Just think of it that way. Now, Aleksander, are you sure you’re ready?”
“The way you guys have all explained this to me is that the soul vessel will rise from the midsection. So, as soon as they feel tired, we’ll call Chand over, so he can tell us when to start,” Aleksander said.
“Exactly. I think it’s imperative we do it before the vessel gets too far away from the corporeal shell. It’ll become weightless, and we’ll be unable to affix the slices of stone Madeline’s already cut for us. We want it high enough to make it easy to shove in, but it’s going to be a short window,” Chander responded.
“So how’s he going to be able to handle two of them at a time?” Brogan asked.
“It’s only going to take me a second to push the stone in. Then I can move on to whoever wants to go second,” Aleksander retorted. “I’m not going to allow you to be involved. That’s not open for discussion.”
“The reality is, no two people die at the same rate. It’s likely there will be a couple of minutes or if one of them is really slow, it could be hours in between. There’s no way it’s going to be simultaneous if for no other reason than there was a short amount of time between their resurrections,” Chander said. “Cadlyr has the slivers?”
“Yes, I think he should hold on to them until the time is right,” Dra’Kaedan answered.
Chander bobbed his head. “Okay, any other questions for us, Aleksander?”
“No, I know you’re all going to be there guiding me, so I don’t screw it up. If I think of any other concerns, I’ll be sure and ask.”
“No matter what time they die, we’re going to do the resurrections the next day?” Vadimas asked.
“I want at least twenty-four hours on the other side. We must get the stones to Carvil, and there are conversations we need to have with our familiars. Time allowing, I’d like to speak with Scheredin’s parents as well,” T’Eirick stated.
