The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 194

Chapter 194 – Witches

Leaving the Sorcerers to their training, I next turned my attention to the Witches. I had bid them wait in the basement that I had dug with my powers, once the castle had been built. While I trusted in the discretion of the builders Lilah had hired through her law firm’s contacts, a ritual chamber was best made by one who actually knew what they were doing.

I paused to nod respectfully to the human guard outside the door. When I accepted the daughter of the Canadian Ambassador to the UN as a disciple, there had been an interesting conversation where the man had tried to ask about security arrangements for her, without sounding as though he doubted me. Fortunately, I had precedent to fall back on.

While I hadn’t taken disciples in the other world, I had learned the essentials. A disciple was under the protection of their Master. However, nobles and certain other figures had more mundane concerns, such as ensuring that bastard heirs didn’t pop up, or other such things that did not directly involve their physical safety. So, compromises were reached.

In this case, I’d agreed to three bodyguards, one for each shift. I would not be training them, but, when they were not on shift or sleeping, I would not bar the bodyguards from the training halls and target ranges my warriors used, or from the library, if they wanted to research. And, should they want to trade stories or tips with my own warriors, that was their decision, not mine.

The three guards were an interesting mix. All three were warriors, and women, which was natural given their charge, but there was a Lightblade, a Watersoul, and a Lifesoul. The Watersoul had already learned tricks for creating a heavy mist as a smokescreen or forming armor of ice over her body for extra protection. The Lightblade was the most dangerous of the three, having found a way to channel her power through a handgun, turning simple bullets into laser blasts that could actually harm some of my troops. But it was the Lifesoul that stood before me now.

“You know, Ms. Meyer, when you gain enough strength, anything that does not kill you outright will just inconvenience you. I knew a Lifesoul in the other world that survived decapitation.”

The bodyguard blinked, more surprised that I was speaking to her by name, rather than what I’d said. By this point, tales of things people in the other world had done that defied the common sense of this world were commonplace. But a Queen speaking with a bodyguard was not typical.

“Ah, not that I doubt you, your Majesty, but how? That seems like a ‘kill you outright’ kind of thing.”

I chuckled. “The more powerful you become, the further the line of what kills you outright gets pushed. The Lifesoul in question’s self-healing abilities were so impressive that she regrew his body from the neck down before his head could touch the ground. Of course, that meant most of his equipment was on the dead remains of his last body, which meant he was significantly underdressed for dealing with the ghouls. Unfortunately, he decided to upset one of my generals with his words, so he ended up using that prodigious regeneration to feed all the ghouls in that legion, until he ran out of mana, and finally succumbed to death, and his soul was used to fuel certain enchantments.”

The bodyguard paled slightly. “And if he hadn’t mouthed off, your Majesty?”

“He was a mercenary, not a true believer in the Demon King, and not a slaver or something else that deserved my full wrath. I would have given him an easy end, or an offer to join my forces as one of the living. However, pride and honor would not let him break a contract to join the other side of the war. If he had kept his mouth shut, he would simply have been executed, and either turned into an undead, or allowed to go on to his afterlife, depending on how much his Life mana threatened to interfere with the reanimation.”

“G-good to know.”

“Keep up the training, Ms. Meyers,” I chuckled, before walking past her, into the ritual chamber.

The chamber was a cube roughly five meters on a side, lit only by enchanted candles located around the ceiling, which glowed a faint blue color. Their light did not entirely reach the floor, but it was enough for an elf or an undead who still used their eyes to see to navigate easily. The two witches did not have that level of nightvision, not yet. But they would learn, in time.

Lucia Menton and Won Sang-Ki were looking my way as the door closed behind me, leaving them in the dim darkness once more. I was pleased to see that both were cultivating their mana properly, and neither had started getting drunk on the mana. The little Spiritualist who had dreams of being an Archmage was being more cautious, now that she knew the danger, which was good.

I conjured a small flame, like the ones lighting the room, and set it to hovering over my head. “I see that my young witches are making proper use of their time here. This is good. Continue your cultivation while we talk. There is much you need to learn, and you still need to get stronger.”

The two nodded, so I continued. “Of the three paths of the mage, the Witch is the one most in tune with the world. The Chinese principles of Feng Shui are based upon the Witch’s Path, before magic was sealed away. In the other world, a practice like feng shui would be considered ‘lay magic’, something that could be done even by those who don’t have talent for the Mage’s Path. The principle is simple, by arranging items in certain formations, you cause the flows of mana to shift, granting passive boons to those who live in the area. When done by lay people, this kind of formation can affect a house, or a fortress. When done by a witch, not only is the effect amplified, but it may end up affecting an entire city. Witches working together can, and have, caused a shift in the flows of mana that benefit entire countries.

“The great strength of the Witch is that they guide the flow of Mana. When conducting rituals, they cause the magic to flow naturally through the circle, allowing for greater effects with lesser effort. When casting spells in the field, they are at their best when the spells they cast flow with the natural forces already at work. A witch of any type using shadow to cloak their presence while in a space half-lit would find it a simple enough task, but under the sun’s full light, they would instead need to find another means of being unseen.

“And that brings us to the first weakness of a Witch. Their effectiveness is tied to the environment they are in. When working with the environment, they can achieve feats of power a Sorcerer could not dream of, and complexity that would make an Arcanist weep. But a Witch trying to work against the environment is like someone trying to make water flow uphill. It can be done, yes, but it is rarely the best solution.

“The second great weakness of the witch is also tied to their being in tune with their environment. Namely, their cultivation suffers if they are not in an area rich with their element. For those of the Dark element, that can be any underground area, or simply being outside at night, far from the city. For someone with the Death element, however, you must go to the resting places of the dead, battlefields, places of great tragedy, or where the undead gather.”

I looked at Lucia, and smiled. “I expect that, in the next month, your cultivation will grow by more than it has in the last year or more. But you must be careful not to get Mana Drunk. This is a concern for all witches when they are in areas rich with their element, and each element has its own dangers, in this regard.”

“What dangers are those, Mistress?” Sang-Ki asked.

“Besides the loss of inhibitions and impulse control that one might expect from the term Mana Drunk, because a Witch is in tune with her environment, the environment may flow through them, and they may start changing the environment.” I chuckled as I saw the confusion writ plain on their faces. “For instance, a Stormcaller may accidentally start using Air mana to send herself flying through the sky. This, on its own, would not be so bad, but a Mana Drunk Stormcaller will often forget about things like ‘steering’ or ‘remembering to keep enough breathable air around them at altitude’, which can lead to unfortunate results. Or, they may find themselves summoning tornadoes out of nowhere. Either way, it is less than ideal.”

I smiled at them. “As for the two of you? Thankfully, you won’t have to worry about sudden urges to play in the lava, or turning your bones to metal, like a Flamespeaker or Shaman might. And you won’t need to worry about accidentally causing wild growth and mutations like a Druid, or searing everyone’s eyes with blinding light like a Radiant One. But you aren’t clear from danger, either.

“For a Shadowbringer, like you, Won? Darkness is a blessing to you, but it also hides dangers. A Shadowbringer who drinks too deeply may end up blinding themselves, using Dark mana to block their sight permanently. Or, they may spread darkness to all, casting the area around them in constant shadow, perhaps even blotting out the sun over a town, if they are powerful enough.

“As for you, Lucia? A Spiritualist that drinks too deeply and opens herself too easily will discover that not all souls pass to the afterlife when they die, and find themselves possessed, with a spirit using their body, and perhaps never letting go. On the other hand, if you accidentally amplify Death in an area? Well, crops wither and die, and any corpses in the area may begin to stir as feral undead.”

Lucia stiffened. “I read that, just after the Awakening, there were some groups who tried to do rituals, and ended up causing undead to rise in several areas. Anyone the zombies bit became zombies, themselves.”

Sang-Ki nodded. “I heard the same. It happened in Texas, El Salvadore, and Moscow. Fortunately, decades of zombie movies meant that people were ready for ‘slow zombies’, as people called them.”

I nodded gravely. “And that was with untrained practitioners who had no idea what they were doing, simply trying to call on powers they did not know how to control. Now, imagine what would happen if someone with greater power, knowledge, and training did something like that, either accidentally or on purpose? You would be lucky if it were only ‘slow zombies’ that rose from the grave, and not something more terrifying, like the fast zombies, or the ones that retain some of their intelligence. And something that turned all the dead into ghouls, which are fully intelligent, and even capable of consciously using magic? That would be… unfortunate, for anyone in the area.”

I let that statement hang in the air for a moment, before I opened my pocket dimension, and pulled out Poe, the Dreadcaw I had made my familiar from the corpse of a common raven. Before, he had been the size of a small child. Now, he was large enough that I could ride, when he didn’t use magic to shrink back to his ‘normal’ size. Right now, he was at his full size, roughly equal to a large horse. “One way for a Witch to keep from getting Mana Drunk is to have a familiar. Beyond the simple fact that binding a familiar allows you to see through their eyes, and other such things, the familiar also acts as both an alarm system and a safety valve. As you cultivate, part of the mana will go to your familiar through the link. This will not only give you a bit more leeway before you become Mana Drunk, but your familiar will also warn you, both through your link, and physically, if it is able, that you are in danger of losing control.”

Poe, vain bird that he was, ate up their adoring looks, but I continued on with the lesson. “A Warlock’s patron may also provide similar warnings, depending on their general nature. This is why, out of all the paths, Witches are the ones who most often have either a Familiar, a Warlock Patron, or both. Which is why we will now talk about what kind of familiar you might want.”

I held up a hand as both witches started to speak. “I am sure you have ideas. However, you should take time to think, and you want to ensure that your familiar has a good affinity with your element. For you, Won, you should consider a predator of some sort. Preferably an ambush hunter or bird of prey. A bat is another possibility, as well. Lucia, your familiar will need to be some sort of scavenger, or an undead, for obvious reasons.

“I will say that a familiar, for either of you, need not be an animal. There are witches who had sapient beings as their familiars, using them as bound companions and protectors. However, the bond must be entered willingly, if they are living, or a free-willed undead. Any bound undead you create yourself would be counted as willing, naturally.”

“Mistress,” Lucia said, hesitantly, “what are the costs and benefits of having, say, a human undead as my familiar, instead of a raven?”

“The main benefit, depending on how ‘fresh’ the corpse is when it is raised, is that they will be able to act as a bodyguard without causing too much unease. They would walk and move like a person does, and be able to wear armor and wield weapons. Naturally, as you grow stronger, so would your undead familiar, allowing them to get faster, stronger, tougher, and smarter.

“Of course, the downsides to a human undead are that you will have people whining about ‘grave robbing’ and ‘desecrating a corpse’ and other such nonsense. As the child of an Ambassador, you have to assume that something like this will come out, sooner rather than later. And it will affect people’s perception of you, far more than having an undead raven or a skeletal pony would.”

I smiled at the two of them. “Now, focus on your cultivation, while I go look in on the Arcanists. After dinner, I expect both of you to have decided on what you would like as a familiar. As your Mistress, I will help obtain the creature, or corpse, for your ritual, but if you make demands that are too outlandish, like asking after endangered species, or looking for a specific person to be made your familiar, I may decide punishment is in order.”