The Kingmaker System

The stagnant days crawled by as I immersed myself in studying the curse of secrecy. Each night, I teleported to Lyall’s quarters, carrying with me the books I had retrieved from the Pope’s secret lab. These ancient Grimoires, heavy with the weight of forbidden knowledge, lined his desk, their cracked spines whispering secrets of magic older than memory itself.

Lyall, as always, was dutiful, though exhaustion clung to him like a second skin. He would often fall asleep in his chair, his head resting on folded arms, while I poured over the texts in silence. His loyalty, unwavering and absolute, brought a small smile to my lips whenever I glanced at him.

The books contained a wealth of information, their fragmented pages and cryptic annotations could have made deciphering their content a slow and arduous process but thankfully, I had the gift of knowledge of linguistics which I had received from the Goddess of Wisdom that’s why I managed to decipher them within a short period of time.

There were two kinds of spell that were highlighted in the Grimoires, one were the spells that bound the body of the person and these kinds of spells usually were casted using the tangible things of the person the caster wanted to bound. But the other kind of the spells, the more dangerous ones were capable of binding the soul of the victim. And the way to do that was using that person’s blood.

The spells also varied in levels, the strong level spells were reserved only for those who were at archmage level and the rest were ranged from the below levels according to the requirements of the spell.

If the lower grade mage tried to cast a high level spell then it would also take a toll on his body, especially if the person casting was opting for the soul binding spells.

One book in particular caught my attention—a manual dedicated to potion-making. Its faded ink and torn edges hinted at its age and heavy use. It mentioned the use of Dragon’s blood in crafting potions of immense power. Yet, the specific recipe was missing, the crucial page ripped out. My suspicion fell squarely on the Pope. It was too convenient, too deliberate. He knew what this information could lead to, and he was determined to keep it from me.

I looked through all the books within a couple of days and found a couple of ways to investigate if the spell casted on the child was body bound or soul bound.

It was easy to find out, if the spell was related to body then one only had to use a diamond. There was usually the incantation etched on the victim’s body if the diamond came in contact with the incantation it would give an indication.

If the diamond turned black then, it was a body related spell.

But, if the diamond cracked then, it was a soul related spell which was extremely tedious to deal with.