Catalyst

Soon the runes were stable enough to stick to the target and not disappear for a few seconds, however, they took great effort to maintain, seeing the acolyte struggle throzahk spoke to him, instructing him to handle and refine his mana, teaching him exercises to control the runes with ease.

This was interrupted by several blunt hits to the barrier, it seemed that the traitor wouldn't stay quiet in its prison.

[Foul She-Demon! It seems I am weaker than I initially thought… this is worrying… but the spell will endure a lot more than this… now back to your learning!] said Throzahk, instructing the skeletal acolyte to throw the targeting rune a the dust pillar, and the acolyte obeyed, the rune flew and struck to its target prompting Throzahk to speak [Very good! It seems that you were able to properly learn… now throw the tracking rune and picture its path with your mind] instructed Throzahk to the acolyte.

And the acolyte did as he was instructed, tracking the path of the rune, creating a mental image of the unruly path that was taken by the rune, twist and turns turned to circles and straight lines at random, always changing its path every time it was send towards its target, but always striking true.

[I suppose that you can picture its path, after all the residual mana that is left behind by the rune is easy to track, and even easier for you, given your eyes… Now, you should send a tread of mana, as thick as your arm bones, to follow the path left by the tracking rune, do bear in mind that you will need to create a path by yourself after completing this stage, now begin!] instructed Throzahk, pointing towards the dust pillar.

[Understood! Yess yess…] said the skeletal acolyte, as he began to produce strands of mana from the tips of his clawed hands, however the strands broke and dissipated, the acolyte repeated this process several times, but to no avail his strands always broke.

Seeing the acolyte fail time and time again made Throzahk feel like he had to intervene [This… is interesting… truly interesting… it seems that you can easily control and create the strands, but the quality and durability of your mana is variable… unstable, to put it in simple terms… well this is to be expected… the core is condensing its mana, releasing it into your bones and attuning it with your own… it is to be expected that something like this would happen… however you must hasten this process, and you must hone the core…] said Throzahk, looking at the core buried in the chest plate of the skeletal acolyte, it was shining with blue and grey light, beating just like a heart would, however its rhythm was sporadic, forced, mechanical, not what Throzahk had expected.

[I had chosen to ignore the fact that you hadn't completely attune to the core, as there wasn't anything pressuring us to complete this process… It is indeed better to leave the core attune itself to you by itself… but circumstances leave us no choice…] said Throzahk, sinking into deep thought, as he tried to mull over this conundrum, seeking for a solution.

[Hmm… I see… I see…] said the acolyte, trying to think of a solution to the situation, as he remembered the bone spear used by the headless skeleton.

[What about using something to act as a catalyst? Yes yes] said the skeletal acolyte, asking Throzahk, who was still submerged in deep thought, this pulled him away from his tinkering.

[Hmm… it could be done, yes… however… no… it will be done, it will only need to gather and condense your mana, and then provide a stable release… what did you have in mind, there are your discarded bones… those won't be of much use, too fragile for a staff, even more useless as a wand… so, do tell…] said Throzahk, this suggestion seemed to be a small beacon of hope.

[Yess… yess… what about the bones of the owner of the core, the red one I mean… that skeleton even had a spear made from its own tail bones! Yes yes!] answered the skeletal acolyte.

[Hmm… yes… those bones would help… however I must see them to be sure… do tell, was that bone spear the reason for the cracks on your side?] asked Throzahk, he wanted to know what could have caused the damage to the hardened bones of the acolyte.

[Yes… at least those hits were the only one that I truly felt… yes… the rest were like punches from an angry kitten!] said the skeletal acolyte heartily, as he remembered the onslaught that he received from the skeleton raised by the headless skeleton, this made him think that winning against this foe had some meaning to it.

[Interesting… Truly, it seems they would be useful, bring those bones here!] ordered Throzahk, having found what seemed to be a solution to the current situation.

[Understood! Yes yes!] said the skeletal acolyte as he began walking towards the hallway, leaving the egg chamber made him drop to the ground, assuming a sneaking position, his frame was big enough to be easy to spot if one were to look carefully.

The skeletal acolyte arrived soon after to the open hall, none of the bones had moved from the place they had been left after the cores were extracted, then the skeletal acolyte approached the headless skeleton corpse carefully, trying to be stealthy, as he retrieved the remains of the headless skeleton and carrying both the skeleton and the tail bone spear back to the egg chamber, in the same way as he had done with the remains of the undead alligator, being careful to not leave anything behind, as he made his way back to the egg chamber.

The skeletal acolyte hadn't encountered any foes on the way, but the immense pressure and the blunt hits reverberated with ever growing strength throughout the hallway.

When the acolyte finally arrived at the chamber, the noise and pressure subsided, he then approached Throzahk, who had a new stone slab by the side of the egg altar.

[Good… nothing went awry… considering the situation… Dalarmothl Shield barrier only encompasses this floor and the one bellow… now place the bones in the slab, they need to be studied… it won't take long] instructed Throzahk, and his instruction was fulfilled swiftly, as the skeletal acolyte placed the bones on the slab.

Throzahk then created several runes that carved themselves on the surface of the slab, creating a small pattern in the shape of a straight staff with a knot, that made it look like a walking cane.

[This is impressive… a Gan Ceann… and one that hadn't been created but came to be on its own… truly impressive… O! Holy Quilrorry… some of your devoted didn't allow themselves to go without a fight… may you keep them by your side…] prayed Throzahk as he moved around the bones, strands of mana reached out to the bones, touching them in an explorative manner.

[It seems that it couldn't find its skull… at least you have granted it peace by removing the core… no matter… the bones will serve… it will be an improvised job, and you will need to carve the bones with the appropriate patterns, but it will do its job, now you will need to choose the shape of the staff, now assemble them as you will] said Throzahk, giving way to the acolyte to choose the shape of the staff.

The acolyte put himself to work, choosing the longer bones of the Gan Ceann, arranging the bones in a shape unfamiliar to the ghostly priest, the two tibias were used as the longer parts of the thing, and a piece of the pelvis was used as the shortest part of the staff, two vertebrae were placed halfway through the length of the tibias and some finger bones were placed under the piece of pelvis bone, however they were arched in a way that suggested that they would be pulled back.

[What did you just assemble… That's no proper staff formation… just what in Blessed Quilrorry's name is that… wait! Is that… it looks like a crude harquebus… Hmmm quite interesting indeed] asked Throzahk, he had some idea of the concept behind the thing that the acolyte had assembled.

[No… no… not an arquebus… This is war crimes you see… or will be at least! Yessss… it's a shotgun! Yes yes! Glorious freedom! Or at least it will be if it becomes a catalyst for that spell] explained, proud at the sight of his assembly.

[Shotgun? War crimes? What in all of Most Holy Quilrorry's holy scriptures is a shotgun?] replied Throzahk with a question himself, he knew the concept of harquebuses and such fire arms, as they had been a novelty used by the nobles, but had been of no real use, as the things could not make a decent dent in the most common of monstrosities.

[A shotgun… think of a harquebus that shoots lots of small pellets towards the enemy… yes yes! Most useful… yess... even though I don't rightly know how all its internals look or work! Yes yes!] said the skeletal acolyte, answered both questions with one answer, with a cheerful tone.

[I see… and why did you think that such a thing would be of use in terms of magic? It won't be difficult to assemble, nor it will be difficult to engrave… but why? The harquebuses that I know off can't even dent the skin of a rock worghest pup] said Throzahk.

[You said that I need to imagine the path of the tracking rune… yes yes! and then release a mana strand as thick as my arm… Yess… however… as the core hasn't attuned itself properly it is taking too much time to for me to completely learn to cast the spell… yess… that's why…] said the skeletal, giving his explanation.

Throzahk simply remained silent, engraving the patterns that would allow the skeletal acolyte mana to be used by the thing, he then sewed strands of mana into the joints, fusing the bones in the shape that the acolyte had chosen.

[Here… know that you still need to create the targeting rune for the spell to work correctly, the rest is simply creating the route for the mana to flow, and finally allowing your mana to run through this… catalyst… wonder how Keretar would have called this strange thing… another thing before you go cleaning up the place… the only spell that can be casted by that… thing is the one I had been theaching you, it is called Quel'Belh Bolt, or simply Mana Bolt, now you know what to do] said Throzahk, gesturing the skeletal acolyte to take the catalyst "It won't endure long… as it will use all the capacity from those bones… maybe if I were alive I would keep with the research… he will need to learn to create this things by himself… but that comes after sealing that She-daemon… and I am no artificer to create something that would work for a long amount of time… nor will I be able to teach the process of creating such a thing…" Thought Throzahk, as he watched the acolyte take the catalyst and examine it.