Hugo Bertram
and Martina Alvarado
and Martina Alvarado
Age: 50 years [looks barely 19], birthday 5 June
Size: 6’1”, 160lbs; generously limbed.
Size: 5’2” and weightless.
Face: long, with high cheekbones; deep blue eyes with dark circles; aquiline nose; straight teeth, natural lips; and a visible mole under his right eye. Framed by wheat-blond hair worn mid-length and left down.
Face: like a diamond, baby, and white as a saint; eyes like glass, lips like a princess.
Style: Dark academic prep. Primarily wears collared shirts, but not white or black – either light, or jewel-toned deeps. Slacks and brown oxfords complete the appearance.
Style: Washed-out glam goth. Turns out the only thing with less color than black is blanca.
Possessions: Kafka (West of England Tumbler pigeon); replica Russian dragoon sabre (2lb 6oz/38”) and scabbard (hung on his studio’s wall); advanced student viola; dull red Toyota FJ Cruiser; $5500 in savings.
Possessions: The dead don't own much, sadly.
Territory: 1833 Maryanne Crossing, Apt. 408. Eastside Memorial City, just south of the industrial districts.
Territory: Didn’t have any. She had other issues to focus on.
Powers: De Potestate Spirituum
Powers: last holder of De Potestate Spirituum
Necromancer Nouveau,
Musa Muerta
Musa Muerta
Such a shallowly byronic lifestyle is hardly the best way for anyone to find their way into the strange world of the inhuman.
For anyone, that is, except for our Hugo.
He found it after hours, about six weeks before his story begins. The book that would change his life was an old, worn, leatherbound Latin codex that had been left with a sheaf of current legal documents regarding the accidental death of one Martina Alvarado. The case had been temporarily re-opened, then closed again just as quickly. Hugo’s intentions had been professional, at first. Return De Potestate Spirituum to its place with other ancient, delicate texts, and find out the next day where it had actually come from. But there was a little worm that lived in Hugo’s heart. A hungry little thing named curiosity. And so, while walking back to the correct section, book in hand, our Hugo found himself opening it and skimming the passages. Despite a title that resembled an early Christian lecture on the nature of the spirit, the layout was more akin to a recipe book or some other instructional manual.
He put it away, of course. Archival texts weren’t to be taken out of the library for obvious reasons, and that little worm was no reason for him to lose his job. But Hugo didn’t put the book away without scanning the barcode on the inner cover of the book, with its identification and an online PDF format, so he could translate it in his free time without disturbing the old volume any longer.
It took two weeks to make sense of it. From what he can tell, the book is back-translated to Latin from some other language, and very poorly at that. Just well enough to get ideas across. What he found was that the book’s nature was that of an arcane grimoire, a kind of spell book with (somewhat) clear instructions for testing its abilities.
That aroused something a little bigger than the worm in Hugo. What had started as idle curiosity was growing into something a little more active. Not much more, not at first. He took his first day off and began to translate the easiest-looking recipe, and then, of course, he followed it. Step by step he laid the groundwork, practiced the motion of the hands as best he could, and spoke the spell’s name: portā.
And it worked.
He reached across his studio apartment for a book on the shelf, and the book came as commanded. It was terrifying, of course. He repeated the action again. And a third time, to be sure. And slowly the fear turned to elation. Because while that little worm had been satisfied, who knew what else was in that wonderful book? Yet when he turned to face the page again, he was startled to find someone else there, standing beside his phone. A young woman of pure white light, hair flowing around her shoulders, eyes aglow. Tina, she said her name was – after Hugo had finished screaming – and she told him she was a muse, a being of light who smiled upon those intelligent enough to unlock the book and its secrets.
At first Hugo believed her. Why wouldn’t he? He could carry things across a room without even standing up. He had a book full of power at his fingertips, and Tina had promised to guide him through the right pattern of spells. She was the one who insisted that inlīde be next – “to defend yourself,” she’d told him. From what, she didn’t say. He still doesn’t know. But he learned pretty quickly that Tina wasn’t a muse. It’s only been a few days since he actually confronted her about being just a little to vain, a little too in-the-know with modern culture, to be some ancient ephemeral muse, and made her admit to instead being the book’s last bearer with some unfinished grudges to fulfill. He has no intention of seeing those play out.
Instead, he plans to keep going about his life, with his pigeon, his friends, his apartment, his library – and of course, his PDF copy of
De Potestate Spirituum
The book Hugo found is a grimoire containing numerous spells, which can be learned (like many more mundane subjects) at the cost of time and money. It is divided into six chapters, the spells organized primarily by difficulty to learn or to cast. Hugo has figured out that the chapters also scale in cost: a first chapter spell takes an uninterrupted day and about $50 in materials to learn; the second, two days and $100; the third, three days and $200; the fourth, four days and $300; fifth chapter, $400 and five days; and finally the sixth chapter spells should, by his calculations, take almost a week and $500.
According to Tina, the spells will also have an increasing energy cost as he progresses, but he will also gain power the more spells he learns, like exercising a muscle and becoming stronger. The spells he currently has, and the other first-chapter spells, have no energy cost at all. They are basic commands for self-defense or ease of daily living. After that, however, he will have to expend energy both to learn and to cast certain spells, which despite not having much of a head for numbers he’s divided into a scaling system: if second-chapter spells would be worth 1 energy, then third chapter spells are worth 2, fourth are worth 3, fifth are worth 4, and sixth are worth 5. The number of energy points he’d have at his disposal in a day will be determined by the spells he’s learned, which might eventually become an incentive for him to expand his repertoire.
As for the chapters, the Table of Contents has them thus arranged:
Liber Primus: Inceptor…….1
Adripe…….2
Contego…….4
Inlīde…….6
Portā…….8
Liber Secundus: Tirō…….10
Ægrōta…….11
Servā…….16
Terr…….21
Liber Tertius: Medius…….26
Cædo…….27
Morere et Vige…….38
Transmitte…….49
Liber Quartus: Opifex…….60
Appare…….61
Gradare…….77
Narra…….93
Liber Quintus: Provectus…….109
Ostende…….110
Salvifica…….135
Torre…….170
Liber Sextus: Gnārus…….185
Exple…….186
Preme…….219
Tripudia…….242
Index…….275
Adripe…….2
Contego…….4
Inlīde…….6
Portā…….8
Liber Secundus: Tirō…….10
Ægrōta…….11
Servā…….16
Terr…….21
Liber Tertius: Medius…….26
Cædo…….27
Morere et Vige…….38
Transmitte…….49
Liber Quartus: Opifex…….60
Appare…….61
Gradare…….77
Narra…….93
Liber Quintus: Provectus…….109
Ostende…….110
Salvifica…….135
Torre…….170
Liber Sextus: Gnārus…….185
Exple…….186
Preme…….219
Tripudia…….242
Index…….275
From this list, he currently knows the following spells and their rituals:
Portā, his first spell, involves the gesture of grabbing at thin air and the invocation of the spell’s name. When this is done, he can pick up one small object, ten pounds or less, from a distance of ten yards or less, and call it to his hand. This effect lasts for about five minutes before he has to repeat the casting – less, if he’s under duress and his concentration is forced to shift elsewhere.
Inlīde is the defense spell that Martina insisted he learn shortly after she first appeared. With the recitation of its name and a pointing gesture (he typically uses a finger-gun for precision), Hugo can strike an opponent up to 40 yards away with enough blunt force from the front to knock them backward about 3 yards.
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