Chapter Three: Deal With the Devil
During the night, the pounding rain changed to snow, the flakes settling on Silver’s sopping wet back and making him even more miserable. In just two days, he’d been thrown out of three separate towns and lost absolutely everything, which helped his mood not the slightest. Once in Embershard, he’d need to find Frozen Heart fast, before starvation got to him and he would be sidetracked by creating and selling potions just to survive.
At last, Embershard came in sight, the sun glinting off the onyx and ruby buildings that rose above the town’s walls. As the city gates opened, the weary earth pony slipped inside, searching for a fire that he could warm up at. Posters with his face on them adorned the bulletin posts of the town, and he grabbed a few as he trotted down the street, tossing them into the first fire he saw. The beggars standing around the fire gave Silver a look as he burned the papers, but kept to themselves and didn’t ask him any questions.
Once Silver was warm and fairly dry, he left the fire and searched the town for Frozen Heart. The last thing he wanted was to raise any ruckus here, especially after what had happened in the last few towns, so he was hesitant to ask anypony about the necromancer. Resplendent Glory had said that Frozen Heart was planning on meeting a pony named Pleasant Meadows here in Embershard. Hopefully asking questions about Frozen’s friend wouldn’t draw too much attention to himself.
Pleasant Meadows didn’t seem to be under suspicion for harboring the necromancer, as several ponies were happy to point out exactly where his alchemy shop was located. Silver trotted through the more wealthy part of town as he searched for the shop, warily glancing at the posters declaring his banishment that he spied every so often. Eventually, he reached the towering crystal structure that Pleasant Meadows ran a shop out of and stepped inside.
Within, things were very familiar to Silver Gaze. Alchemy equipment covered tables, and bins of rare ingredients covered the walls and floor. At the back of the room was a dozing crystal unicorn with a dull blue coat. Behind him, Silver could make out a room that looked very much like the laboratory he’d had set up in the Crystal City. After he finished soaking in the sights of his profession, Silver rang the small bell on the sales counter to get the unicorn’s attention.
“Huh?” the stallion snorted in surprise as he woke up from his nap, “Oh, guess I dozed off there. What can I get for you today?”
“I need to speak to Frozen Heart,” Silver stated bluntly.
“I don’t think I have any of those,” Pleasant Meadows said, pretending badly to have misunderstood Silver’s request, “I could check in the back.”
“The necromancer, Frozen Heart, I need to talk to him,” Silver repeated, undeterred.
“Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Meadows said with a frown, “I don’t know who this Frozen Heart is, but-”
“Resplendent Glory told me he’d be here,” Silver cut the alchemist off.
“You talked to Resplendent Glory?” Meadows asked, apparently recognizing the name.
“In the Chrysolite prisons, yes,” Silver replied.
“Well, she was wrong,” Pleasant Meadows said, “I don’t know where she’d get that idea, or why she’d tell it to you in the first place. Let me guess, you’re a bounty hunter come to track down the great necromancer and bring him to justice?”
“No,” Silver said, “I want to learn from him.”
Meadows cocked an eyebrow at hearing that. Silver took his silence as an invitation to explain further.
“Somehow he, an earth pony, found a way to use magic,” Silver said, “I want to do the same, to have that power, and to teach everypony a lesson who’s looked down on me because of my low status.”
Something changed in the crystal pony’s demeanor as Silver explained his intentions, but he seemed more worried than relieved to hear the plans the earth pony had.
“I don’t know,” Meadows said with a sigh, “He doesn’t like to be disturbed, but I’ll ask him.”
Silver waited as Meadows headed into the back of his shop, looking nervously over his shoulder at the door, expecting Embershard’s guards to burst through at any moment and throw him out of town. Nothing happened until the crystal unicorn returned and beckoned for Silver to follow him. Stepping around the counter, he followed Meadows through his laboratory and up the stairs to the upper level of the building. At the end of an empty hallway, Meadows opened a plain-looking door and allowed Silver to step through.
“So, you’ve been looking for me,” an eerie voice spoke from off to Silver’s right.
As Meadows closed the door behind him, Silver Gaze turned to look at the speaker. A pony that surely had to be Frozen Heart sat at a small table, his entire body wrapped in cloths. He motioned for Silver to sit across from him, and he did so, accepting the plate of food that was pushed across the table to him.
“So, why all this trouble to find me?” the bundle of cloths asked as Silver began to eat.
“You know what happened?” Silver asked.
“Not exactly,” Frozen Heart admitted, “But you look as if you’ve been through a harrowing journey, and judging by how fast you’re consuming that food, you haven’t eaten in a while.”
“I want to learn how to use magic and have power like yours,” Silver said, staring at the eyes that peered from between the layers of cloth.
“I see,” the necromancer replied, “Is there some reason for this?”
“I’m a skilled alchemist, but I never get any respect from others because I’m an earth pony,” Silver said.
“This is not an uncommon problem,” Frozen Heart said, leaning back in his chair, “In fact, it was a very similar situation that led me to seek out the great powers.”
“How did you do it?” Silver asked, leaning forward, “How did you gain the ability to use magic?”
The necromancer sat in silence for a minute, pondering whether or not to share the secret of his power with this diminutive earth pony who reminded him so much of himself all those centuries ago. Eventually, he decided that his story had to be shared, but not for the reasons that Silver desired.
“When I was much younger, I too was often shunned and looked down upon as a powerless earth pony,” Frozen narrated his personal history, “I turned to necromancy, an art that I could accomplish using runes and chants instead of traditional magic. But, even among necromancers I was disrespected, and I sought another source of power. I searched the ancient tomes and rituals of necromancy and eventually discovered the source of power necromancers long ago had used.”
“There is a realm separate from our own known as the Soul Cairn. The rare soul gems that necromancers sometimes use were once common, and their use powered the Soul Cairn. Occasionally, when a necromancer wanted greater power than could be afforded through the natural ways, they would enter the Soul Cairn and strike a bargain with the lords of the realm, immensely powerful beings known as the Ideal Masters. The Ideal Masters could grant any wish that a necromancer could desire, in exchange for the souls that they needed to feed on to survive.”
“Needless to say, I found something like that to be very promising. An old shrine to the Ideal Masters was built within the land the Crystal Empire now covers, so I followed the aged map there and performed the ritual detailed in the ancient tomes. I entered the Soul Cairn and met with the Ideal Masters, selling my soul for immortality. That is how I was able to gain this power you now envy.”
“Do you still have the instructions for the ritual around?” Silver asked when it appeared the necromancer had finished his story.
“I do, but I will not give them to you,” Frozen Heart replied.
“Why not?” Silver demanded.
“The Ideal Masters are crooked beings who will twist your wish around on you,” Frozen said, rising from his seat, “They cannot be trusted, and any power they grant you is tainted. I do not wish for you to become like me.”
Frozen began unraveling the cloths that covered him until his bare flesh was exposed. Silver’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he gazed at the necromancer and his stomach flipped, threatening to return the meal he’d just eaten. Magical burns covered Frozen’s flesh entirely, still fresh and refusing to scab over. In addition, gouges, cuts, and stab marks covered his body. The necromancer removed his head entirely, holding it in a hoof as he stared back at Silver before placing it back on his mutilated stump of a neck.
“I asked for immortality, and the Ideal Masters granted me the inability to die,” Frozen said, beginning to wrap himself back up, “But, they didn’t tell me that I could still be injured, and I could still feel pain. My injuries will never heal, but they will not kill me. I am afflicted by pain every waking moment because I made an ill-considered deal with the Ideal Masters. I will not allow you to make the same mistake.”
“I’ll be careful,” Silver promised, trying to wipe the image of what was left of Frozen Heart from his mind, “I’ll make sure the deal is fair, and I won’t let myself be fooled.”
“You think yourself clever,” Frozen scoffed, “But the Ideal Masters are craftier still. There can be no fair bargaining with them. My word is final; now get out of here before I become angry.”
Silver fumed with rage. This necromancer had made a bad deal, that was for sure, but he didn’t truly understand. Silver was certain he wouldn’t be fooled as easily, and could get exactly what he wanted with no strings attached. But this old fool thought he knew better, and was denying him access to the power he so desperately needed. Perhaps he was lying, and he really wasn’t in as much pain as he said. Maybe he just wanted to keep the power to himself!
“Looks like you have company,” Frozen observed, pulling aside the curtain on a window, “Best not keep them waiting.”
Before Silver could say anything, he found himself falling through the floor, as if it had suddenly turned to liquid beneath his hooves. He crashed through to the lower floor of the shop, picking himself up as the door to the outside opened. A few guards in Embershard armor strode into Pleasant Meadows’s alchemy shop, immediately fixing their attention on Silver Gaze.
“That’s the one,” one of the guards said, grabbing the earth pony and dragging him outside.
He struggled against the soldiers as they tried to remove him from the shop, desperately trying to get back inside. As he tried to free himself from their grasp, the crystal ponies grew tired of his antics and clubbed him over the head. As his eyes slid shut, Silver managed to catch a glimpse of the poster declaring his banishment held by one of the guards, and then he knew only blackness.
* * *
When he awoke, he found himself lying in the dark outside of Embershard’s gates. A fine layer of snow had settled on him while he was unconscious, but the flakes no longer fell from the sky. As he stood and worked feeling back into his extremities, he looked back at Embershard. Another town had thrown him out, but this time things were different. The past few times he simply moved on from the town he was banished from, but now he really needed to get back into Embershard. Frozen Heart had admitted to still possessing the instructions on how to contact the Ideal Masters; now all Silver had to do was steal them.
Keeping an eye on the patches of torchlight that signified guards, he waited until the right moment to clamber up the gates, his hooves seeking purchase on the wood. After a struggle, he managed to climb over and land within the town, ducking into the shadows as the gatekeeper examined the disturbance. Dodging guards, he slunk through Embershard until Pleasant Meadows’s shop was in view. Climbing up the sides of the other nearby buildings, he managed to reach the roof of the shop and snuck around until he was balancing precariously outside one of its upstairs windows.
With the sound of shattering glass, Silver Gaze entered the building and instantly ran into the shadows to avoid being seen. After a few tense minutes, it appeared that nopony was coming to investigate the break-in, so Silver snuck out of the room he’d broken into and trotted down the silent halls. He passed by the room in which Frozen Heart tossed about in his sleep, hoping that he would not have to enter to find the ritual instructions, but fearing that he would.
The door to the room next to the necromancer’s bedchambers was open just a crack, and Silver pushed it open the rest of the way to reveal a study. After passing through, he closed the door back to its original position and set about searching the room. A thick book sat open upon the desk, an inkwell and quill nearby. As he flipped through the book, Silver realized that it was an autobiography being written by Frozen Heart about his life. Flipping through to the section he was most interested in, he found the story of the necromancer’s rise to power just as he had told it.
Nearby sat a journal filled with less official writings that also told the necromancer’s story, helping him recall the centuries of his life. When it too yielded no useful information, Silver set it down and turned to the desk’s drawers. Prying one open with a nearby letter opener, the earth pony found what he was looking for. Within the drawer was an ancient book bound in oddly colored leather that appeared to be pony flesh. A marker was placed in the tome about halfway through, and Silver flipped to the marked page, discovering instructions on how to enter the Soul Cairn. A piece of parchment fell out of the book, and Silver examined the map, placing the Shrine to the Ideal Masters in the mountains to the west of Horsehead Lake.
The power that Frozen Heart possessed would soon be his.
* * *
Three days later, Silver Gaze stood within the Shrine to the Ideal Masters, drawing complex runes around a circular dip in the floor of the ancient temple. The ancient tome of necromancy sat nearby, and he referenced it from time to time to make sure that he was performing the ritual correctly. After stealing the book and map, the alchemist had stolen saddlebags from Pleasant Meadows’s shop and filled them with everything he could find that would be useful, including a compact alchemy set and food for his journey.
Many of the ingredients he needed for the ritual had been easy to get, either from the alchemy shop, like the Timberwolf toenails, or from himself, like hair from an earth pony’s tail. Other ingredients had been harder to come by, like the pure essence of Deathbell, or the liver of a rabbit. He’d had to travel through the wild north of the Empire in order to find and fabricate such elements before making his way to the well-hidden shrine near Horsehead Lake. Now he was nearly ready to complete the ceremony.
The decanters and alembics set near the doorway hissed and bubbled, brewing the specific mixture Silver would need to open the portal. After he’d finished scrawling the runes and arcane symbols on the stone, he collected the finished potion and poured it out into the grooves that crisscrossed the indentation in the ground.
The effect was spectacular. As the potion filled the cracks completely, a bright blue light began to pulse up from them. The runes surrounding the portal glowed as well, and the rings of stone began to rotate, sinking down into the ground. As they spun about, they eventually formed a makeshift staircase leading down into a swirling hole of utter blackness.
Silver swallowed hard before placing his hooves on the stairs. Now that he was here, he wasn’t so sure about what he was doing. Was entering a realm controlled by powerful supernatural beings really worth the respect he desired? He’d been confident before that he could get a fair deal with them, but Frozen Heart’s warning now echoed in his mind. What if he ended up doing something foolish, like selling his soul?
The memories of all his humiliations echoed through his mind as well, especially the most recent disaster with Prince Emerald Wave. He’d been disgraced because of his position in society as an earth pony, and not for the first time. He couldn’t go on living like this, constantly putting up with the nobles and their attitude toward him. If he wanted any respect, he’d have to take it.
He stepped down the stairs, passing through the darkness and entering the Soul Cairn. As the stairs came to a halt, he found his hooves standing on ash-covered ground that stretched out in all directions. The sky was a dark purple, churning with light and occasionally lightning that would strike the ground below. Twisted and blackened buildings stuck out of the ground in places, as well as floating in the sky, powered by magic Silver couldn’t hope to comprehend.
The stairs behind him ascended into the sky, disappearing and forcing him to continue onward. The only way out now was to speak with the Ideal Masters; no doubt opening the portal had alerted them that a pony wanted their attention. Silver tried to remember what he was supposed to do now that he was within the Soul Cairn, cursing himself for not bringing the book along. He trotted ahead, following the path that necromancers before him had followed, traveling through the twisted landscape until he reached a hulking building seemingly constructed from obsidian. He climbed to the roof until he was standing upon the pedestal used many times in the past to speak to the Ideal Masters.
Lightning crackled across the sky more violently as his hooves touched the ancient stone, and a fierce wind cut through the air. Silver could smell decaying flesh in the wind, as well as the tang of ancient magic. Four banks of clouds began to form columns in front of him, power radiating from their dark centers, until they burst open and the Ideal Masters revealed themselves.
Silver Gaze gaped in amazement as he stared at the mountain-sized creatures standing before him. They appeared to be composed of pure elements, one of ice, another of stone, the third of fire, and the last of storm clouds held together by lightning. It was hard to make out their exact form as the elements they were composed of were constantly shifting and churning about, never staying still for even a moment, but Silver was able to make out their basic shape. Their bodies were similar to a Minotaur’s, except for being narrower in the shoulders and longer in the legs, but their heads were eerily ponyish. Even with their features constantly shifting, Silver could make out the eyes burning in their faces and could feel them staring at him, boring through his flesh and soul.
“EQUINE, WHY HAVE YOU COME TO SPEAK TO US?” the one composed of ice asked, a blizzard blasting from its maw and covering Silver in snow and icicles, “IT HAS BEEN LONG SINCE ONE OF YOUR RACE VISITED THIS PLACE.”
“I-I’m Silver Gaze,” he chattered, feeling very small and insignificant standing before the Ideal Masters, “And I-I came to a-ask for the p-p-power to repay the wrongs that h-have been d-d-done to me.”
“SO WE HAVE NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN BY YOUR WORLD!” the flaming Ideal Master said, heat radiating from its mouth as it spoke, melting the ice and snow covering Silver, “TELL US, DID THE STORIES OF OUR POWER DO US JUSTICE?”
“Most assuredly not,” Silver replied, panting from the sudden heat, “I never imagined the power that you could possess until the moment I beheld you with my own eyes.”
“SO, YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE, AND YOU HAVE COME HERE FOR A PURPOSE,” the stone-creature said, avalanches cascading down its arms as it gestured, “YOU MUST ALSO THEN KNOW HOW WE OPERATE. YOU WISH FOR POWER, BUT YOU MUST REALIZE THAT NOTHING IS WITHOUT COST, ESPECIALLY A GIFT LIKE THIS.”
“Yes, I’ve considered it, and I have an offer,” Silver said, trying to restore the confidence that he’d felt before he’d entered the Soul Cairn, “There are many who have wronged me that I seek revenge on, whole towns in fact. If you give me the ability, I will give you their souls in return.”
“IT’SASTARTBUTNOTEXACTLYADEQUATE,” the Ideal Master made of storm clouds said as fast as the lightning that coursed through its body.
“You want my soul,” Silver said.
“IT SEEMS THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO PART WITH IT,” the flame-creature said, once more heating up the entirety of the Soul Cairn, “PERHAPS YOU DO NOT THINK THAT THESE POWERS ARE WORTH IT.”
“Well, no,” Silver admitted, “I don’t think anything is really worth selling my soul.”
“PERHAPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE FULL EXTENT OF THE POWER WE OFFER YOU,” the stone-creature spoke, and Silver tried to shield himself as chunks of rock went raining down around him.
“WE HAVE AN OFFER FOR YOU, IF YOU STILL WISH TO MAKE A DEAL,” the ice-creature said, apparently speaking for the group, “WE WILL GRANT YOU THE POWERS YOU ASK, SO THAT YOU CAN DECIDE FOR YOURSELF IF THEY ARE WORTH THE PRICE WE REQUEST. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO USE THE FULL POWERS THAT WE GRANT YOU AND WILL SEND US THE SOULS OF EVERYPONY YOU KILL. THEN, SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE, WE WILL ASK AGAIN. IF YOU STILL THINK THAT THE POWERS AREN’T WORTH YOUR SOUL, THEN WE WILL TAKE THEM BACK AND OUR BUSINESS WILL BE CONCLUDED. BUT, IF YOU CHOOSE TO GIVE US YOUR SOUL INSTEAD, WE WILL ALLOW YOU TO KEEP YOUR POWERS.”
Silver thought over the Ideal Masters’ offer. It seemed too good to be true, yet he was strongly tempted to take it. The power they offered, even temporarily, could grant him the respect he deserved. And who knew when they would ask for him to make a decision? It could be hours, it could be decades. When that time came, he’d just have to cut his losses and refuse their offer, getting the better end of the deal with these creatures.
“I accept,” Silver said, a grin spreading across his face.