HEAR ME, OH MOZEE I'VE FOUND ON THE FORUM!

[theonebutcher]

Lady Death once again casts her dread ritual. SS was checking over the runic inscriptions once again and made sure everything was perfect. Her oven made a cheerful little *ding* to signify that the time was right to start.

Quickly her Horn lit up and opened the oven, withdrawing from it the charred remains of four rosebushes, roasted alive just before their first bud was about to open.

In a voice like cracked parchment she began:
"The hot ashes of a virgin, burned just before her prime, shall power this rite, they shall call you, oh Mozee I met on the many worlds Forum." She crumbled the ashes and the circle activated around her and the spell pierced the veil between worlds.

Her cat was ready: "Hello Mozee. Did you recieve the rosebush alright?", it droned in a flat monotone voice.

Comments

YOUNG!

[theonebutcher]

And Lady Death, Dread Necromanceress of the Skeleton Forest rose to her full height of two feet four and took in the room and her host, her horn shining with impossible unlight, noting every small detail of the foreign Magic and comparing it with absorbing the Ka. Her eyes' scelera turning a deep shining green, while dark purple smoke began pouring out of their edges. Magic thundered in her mind and her Special Talent begins noting how both procedures might be improved, combined, automated...

"Thank you very much, Master Mozee." She says in a soft, sibilant alto "I should have asked this earlier, but could you explain the workings of this spell in more detail?"

[walksonmusic]

"You're quite welcome. This is one of my most common spells, so my Magic is very well trained for it, especially that in the crystals. I hardly have to cast the spell anymore; I just tell the crystals to do their work, which is a combination of healing any damage or illness and returning the body to youth. Then the last step is removing the embellishments the magic added, as people tend not to want those. Some do like them, of course, and if either of you want" - with a glance at Sergeant Bloodcurdler - "I could easily replace them. Or change your shape more drastically, for that matter."

[theonebutcher]

"Ohhh, can you make me super strong? Or really big? Or a cat! Or a Diamond Dog! Oh! Oh, a DRAGON!"

Lady Death looks slightly alarmed. "You do know that I plan to de-age Dandelion too? And I doubt she would appreciate to be turned into a Dragon or indeed if you were turned into a Dragon."

The mouse thinks about this a little, then shrugs. "Okay. She'd probably tell me I'm a cheater and never..." Lady death's horn lights up and she says "Ahem." "...tongue again." The mouse finished, the part in between mysteriously unintelligible.

"She's such a prude sometimes." The monotone comments. "I guess she's spend too much time with Dragons and their whole shaming nonsense."

"Any further augmentations I will conduct in my own time. Since you can use my Magic I wonder if I could learn to use yours?"

[walksonmusic]

Mozee nods. "If you do want to be another species from your world, I could likely do that, but much better if I had an example.

"I don't see why you couldn't learn to use my kind of magic the same as anyone from here might, but even at the Modge it can take twenty years to make a Cloud of one's own. It would take far longer if I just gave you a Seed to start with. What your magic could do with it, though, I couldn't guess."

[theonebutcher]

"Well," Lady Death begins with a smile, "I do have the time for it now, even if it is probably more prudent for now to focus on the many low hanging fruit the Forum provides. I'll gladly take your Seed with me to study. It wouldn't interfere with visiting the Modge later, will it? Also I thought more along the lines of any Books you would be willing to lend me on the subject, in order to allow me to find ways to exploit the obvious synergies between Magics." Her eyes lid a fraction of a centimetre and her tail starts swishing. "I would of course glady use those synergies and my own powers to compensate you for your trouble, or really help you any other way you might desire."
There's a second of silence while Lady Death meets Mozee's eyes. "Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Hi. Ho. Ho. Ho. Ho. Ho. Ho. Enunciates the monotone in a flat, measured cadence. It does not stop.

[walksonmusic]

Mozee ignores the monotone. Firmly.

"I suppose I ought to talk with some Sorcerers at the Modge before giving you magic. Books, though, I'm sure I could find."

The 'laughter' has now become annoying. Mozee turns slightly to the side and says, "Do stop that."

She turns back to Lady Death. "Mr. Fluffles was adding unnecessary commentary. In any case, I'm afraid I don't wish for any help."

[theonebutcher]

The laughter stops. Lady Death turns orange and her horn flares black. The first rosebush and Sergeant Bloodcurdler arrive before her, Sergeant's gem shining and a second rosebush appearing. She swipes her hoof across all of them. There's a whooshing snap, like a shower of sparks hitting water at speed and about two more Jules of Magic dissipating around Mozee and the Sergeant each.

Lady Death turns to him, more than a little mortified. "I must apologize for my familiar, he means well... sometimes. Well, then. I appreciate it. I can understand wanting to reach your goals on your own. If you want some books on Equestrian, er Harmony Magic, no wait... well, my world's magic in return, I can sacrifice some to you when I am home again."

[walksonmusic]

"I would welcome the books on your magic, yes. As for books for you, I'm sure there are some at the Modge I could copy. Can you bring them back with you without interfering with your spell, or else receive them when you sacrifice the books to me?"

[theonebutcher]

"I can send a large number of objects with a single ritual as long as I have a short while to think of a good enough verse with object name, descriptor of why it's a Dread Sacrifice and selfish purpose for them. Mh..." She thinks for a second.

"'This Book of the Dark Arts shall give you new power.' should be okay for almost every book, especially if you copy them with the intent to give them to a Dread Necromanceress."

Her smile is back at this point and her horn glowed again. This time her Magic was a pale, pure blue. A tiny blue crystal made of pure concentrated Magic starts to grow in front of her.

"It's been a while since I've been able to make one of these.", she said with laughter in her voice, "I can prepare the spell ahead of time, allowing you to send objects to willing recipients, as long as you can think of a valid verse."

She then takes a case out of her armor, takes one of the hundreds of folded silk cloths out of it and unfolds it on the floor. It contains a big diagram of many complex runes, circles and straight lines. Lady Death draws another, bigger circle around this diagram, attaches a small circle with a few runes to it and starts connecting the big circle to the diagram in many places.

Then she takes out a piece of paper and starts writing at a furious pace. She turns back to Mozee and gives him a little piece of red dyed wood. "Place this on that gap in the circle here to complete the diagram, call to the being you wish to send something to in prayer and identify it uniquely, best to do it in reference to yourself."

She smirks ruefully.

"For while there might be lots of Mothers of the Stars there is probably only one or two you met. Well, you can leave it ambiguous if you wish to contact random people, but that might be very dangerous. Then place the hot ashes of a virgin, make sure none of the flowers have bloomed, but are just about to, on this part of the circle and recite 'The hot ashes of a virgin, burned just before her prime, shall power this rite, they shall call you, [being who I've identified uniquely].' Then you need to place whatever you want to send here and recite a verse that names the object, says why it's a dread sacrifice and gives a selfish use the recipient can make of it. You will also be able to talk to them until you either have taken back the sacrifices or remove the piece of wood from the circle." She then gives the paper containing exactly these instructions back to Mozee. "You need a new virgin for every recipient. Or for every seal you want to pierce if you use the original purpose..."

When she is done the glow around her horn intensifies and the crystal starts to grow a little faster.

[walksonmusic]

Mozee has been watching closely. An edge of her robe wraps around the piece of wood and the paper, which then vanish.

"Oh, this is very interesting. It will only work the once, do I have that right? And would there be any problems if I make the sacrificial plants myself, rather than them growing naturally? Also, as for taking back the sacrifices, can that be done using this Spell?"

[theonebutcher]

"No. You would have to be contacting the sacrifices physically, meaning they would have to come to you some other way. To end the spell you'd need to remove the piece of wood." She inspects the room more closely and lets a whisper of her magic flow over the cloud. "You might have to let the flowers grow for a few days after making them... at least make them without buds, let the buds form naturally, so it can be said to 'nearly bloom.' Purple loosestrife is best suited for quick deployment, but it won't count as a virgin for very long, you would have to watch the plant and then would only have an hour's window or two. I am handy with rosebushes. Remove the dirt from the roots and submerge it in distilled ice water and the bloom will stay closed for nearly a week."

She shakes the growing crystal in front of her. "This will currently suffice for four castings and I can keep growing it until I am just about to leave."

[walksonmusic]

Mozee nods. "My thanks, sundrop. I can imagine this being helpful for sending bits of my Magic to other worlds, assuming the two magics don't interfere with each other, but it doesn't appear that they do. Would a phrase as simple as 'This bit of Dark Magic shall feed your power' work for that?"

[theonebutcher]

"It should suffice. Unless you actually want to pierce a seal the phrase doesn't matter, it's just a matter of how much power the sacrifice might yield if they do try to consume it." She thinks a while longer.

Her eyes widen.

"Your Magic is yours in a way, isn't it? Also it lets other Magic assimilate." Her ears stand straight into the air and her speech begins to quicken. "If I tweak the ritual a really good phrase might even allow the recipient to make it their own and use it as if it was theirs to begin with."

Her tail twitches and she begins to paw at the ground. "We might be able to use it to graft more Equestrian Magic into a beings soul!" She beams. "That's another avenue of immortality right there! Over the Millennia we might even make me a Pony Princess!" Here she rears up a little and performs several hoofy-kicks.

[walksonmusic]

"I would be able to transfer my own Magic to someone else fairly well simply by tuning it to them, but I won't be giving away much of my Magic in any case. What would grafting Equestrian Magic into someone's soul do? Other than turning you into a Pony Princess, which sounds like a fine thing."

[theonebutcher]

She calms down a little. "Ahem." She says.

Celestia, when will that stupid cough syrup finally wear off?

"Well, normally grafting Magic onto a soul is extremely dangerous. The Magic will continue to be the donor's Magic and if you create it through a dark ritual it will be Dark Magic. But Magic IS the soul, so the resulting being's Soul will be an amalgam of the donor and the recipient and not really the same being. There are artifacts that amplify your Magic, but they all have a negative effect on your mind, slowly allowing the creator to take over your mind. Channeling Dark Magic can corrupt the weak willed, it's a spiral of positive reinforcement drawing them to cruelty after cruelty, grafting it onto your soul would make your very existence an uphill struggle." Lady Death lectures as her horn goes back to it's inky black unglow, her eyes smoky... She notices this and the Magic snaps back to blue.

"But as you said, you can tune Magic to a being. Equestrian Magic tunes itself freely to yours, falling in line, becoming no one's in particular and still not evaporating. If you would then gift it onto someone else they could put it into their soul without it having any negative effect, as it's not really shaped like Equestrian Magic anymore. You could thus strengthen a Pony's Magic, maybe even until they exalt to Princessdom." Here she pauses and contemplates for a moment.

"You would however need a tremendous amount of Magic. It would indeed take Millennia... or Harmony itself taking an interest in me, which, if I gift Ka to everyone in Equestria who needs them, might actually happen.", she finishes with a little squee.

[walksonmusic]

"I... see," says Mozee. "Would it be Dark Magic that turns your horn black, then? I don't like the sound of my Magic preparing any other magic to be someone's soul. It likely would clean it of any past effects, but it would shape it more like my Magic, which is far from safe to make up anyone's soul. The embellishments it adds are quite harmless in most cases, but too unpredictable for anything like a mind or a soul."

[theonebutcher]

She nods at the first question. Then her ears take a nosedive. "Oh, my, that is bad. That is really bad, because I can't detect them. At least not yet. Well, it did seem too good to be true. Maybe you could explain a little more about these embellishments?"

[walksonmusic]

Mozee does so, which leads to more questions, and the two of them discuss various aspects of their magics until Lady Death leaves.

[theonebutcher]

By the time she leaves the crystal is fist sized and can power over three thousand rituals. She fuses it to the silken diagram to test it.

A quick fireball later she prays to her cat and vanishes in a puff of Dark Magic.

"Celestia's Teats." The monotone exclaims. "You actually look ho-" "Goodbye, Master Mozee." it cuts off.