[i][center]Collab between Louie and Lucius[/center][/i]

 Pitch strolled up the path, taking in the sweet smell of the forestry around him. He stopped for only a moment, watching as they waved slowly in the wind, as if they were all pieces of a grandfather clock, swaying back and forth. He turned away quickly, attempting not to get too sidetracked, and began to make his way back to his destination. Just above the horizon, he could see the very top of a huge building. The college. Excitement built up inside of him, bubbling up to the surface until he let out a little yelp of joy. He began to jog and, once, clicked his heels together in the air. 

 The sun was high, shining brightly upon Pitch's being. He could feel the warmth wrapping around him as if he were being shoved beneath what seemed like liquid sunlight. He did not particularly like this, though, as he quickly ducked into the trees that lined the path. The shade suited him far better. Not to mention his name, it was only fact that he enjoyed the dark better. 

 As Pitch arrived at the front gate, closed his eyes and thought of his reason for being here. Crazy as he might be, he had not forgotten what he had come for. Images of his lover flashed through his head. He could remember everything, everything they'd done together, and yet she was gone. Thoughts that had been cluttered in the back of his mind had started to make their way back to the front again as he pictured her in the Pit, tortured because of him.

 His eyes flung wide open, horrified at what had just filled his head. Then, with barely any thought, flooded his own mind, replacing his love with himself. This felt much better, yes, much better. So much so, that he began to laugh, but not just some ordinary, funny laugh. No, this was an evil, maniacal laugh, one that could not be of anybody innocent. Oh, the people he'd killed, the thoughts he'd had, he continued to chuckle. After a moment, his eyes filled with tears of laughing so hard.

 Pitch slowed his laughing only a bit before completely stopped in an abrupt attempt to focus on the task at hand. He stretched his long arms high in the air, and stalked up to the gate, his eyes glued to the building that lied behind it. 

[b]"Oi. Who are you?"[/b]

Tyrael spoke out to the strange man who was laughing manically just a short while ago. In his arms were a couple of spikes, and on those spikes were rows upon rows of demon heads, severed from their body and making low, weak moaning sounds from their pain. Tyrael had been ordered to remove the heads as they were "In bad taste", though it seemed to work well to ward off demons and orcs. But an order was an order, and besides, he had other uses for the demon souls. 

[b]"Hmph. A new student are you? Tell me your name and what your magic is."[/b]

Upon the realization of there being another person here, Pitch studied him a moment. His eyes wandered to the heads that the person was carrying. An evil smirk appeared on Pitch's face as they moaned. When the man asked his name and magic, Pitch quickly looked up, having difficulty pulling his eyes from the severed heads. 

"L-" he paused a moment and corrected himself. "Pitch, Pitch Black. Necromancy."

Pitch had not used his own name for ages. It had just about flown out of his mouth without his control. He had been called Pitch ever since he can remember, he couldn't remember a time when he was called Louie. Pitch looked at the man intently, waiting for his response eagerly.

Tyrael gave "Pitch" and derisive snort before motioning Pitch to follow him. [b]"Necromancer. Alright than, before your admittance to the college, you'll need to take an aptitude exam to ensure that you're worth the trouble. Normally we'd give you a more standardized test, however at this time we have to make due with what's on hand. So here's your job."[/b] Tyrael took Pitch to the field where he had skewered all the demon heads. Since he just started, there was still a veritable forest of at least ten thousand or so heads scattered about. Upon arriving, they all began to let out low painful moans. A few may have even mustered the energy to scream, though only in short bursts.

[b]"I want you to take each and everyone one of these pikes and bring them to the forge within the college. The guards have seen you with me, and I will be sure to tell them that you are working with me. Now this is not a simple task of just picking up sticks, mortal. These demons may be decapitated, but their spirit still lingers on their remains, and they will attempt to corrupt and sway you into doing evil... Or rather, giving into your base desires. So your this is two parts to see if you can follow orders of doing a monotonous repetitive task for a long period of time, as well as to see if you can resist the insanity of doing so. Fail and you will die. Succeed and you can take the next part of your exam. Do you have any more questions before you get to work?"[/b]

Pitch listened carefully, staring out at the heads. He felt a bit different as he moved a bit closer, but attempted to seem unfazed. When he was asked if he had any questions, he nodded a bit to quickly.

"Yes, yes I do have a question!" he blurted, cracking his knuckles to take his mind off of the strange sensation he'd been feeling. He looked up to the man and gave a cough. "Where is this forge? Obviously it is inside of the college, but it would be helpful if I knew where to go." he asked, now making his way to the pikes.

He watched as the heads moaned and let out slight shrieks. He could feel the strange sensation more now, like it was inside of him. He tried his best to ignore this and grabbed a pike and yanked it out of the ground. The demonic head gave a feeble attempt at a shriek and began to moan. 

Pitch smirked and moaned similarly, mocking the thing. He chuckled and twisted the pike, examining it. He strode back to the man, his eyes glued to the severed head. The smirk had not left his face, the joy of the head's pain distracted him. 

Tyrael was only mildly interested in the mortal as he went to work, only speaking to him to answer his question and to tell him to hurry. [b]"Follow the large amount of smoke, mortal. The Forge is always at work. And do not waste time gawking at the damned. You will have plenty of time doing that later. Much later."[/b] Tyrael left Pitch to gather the pikes as Tyrael headed back to the college to turn in his bunch. He alerted the guards to allow Pitch to pass, but only if he had a sufficient bundle of pikes and heads with him.

It took some time, but eventually Pitch managed to get all the heads back to the forge. Tyrael had stayed at the forge to deal with the heads and once Pitch returned with the last of them Tyrael showed him the second part of the test. [b]"Demons, if you do not know, are creatures of the Inferno. Upon the death of their mortal bodies they shall return to the Inferno, but they do not remain their for long. So long as their mortal bodies remain in our world however, they cannot return to here. These pikes have been enchanted to "heal" the demons, but only so that their heads do not decay, and allow the demons to return to our world in full force. That, Mortal, is merely one way to ensure that demons do not enter our realm."[/b]

Tyrael yanked a head off a pike before putting it onto what looked to be a large anvil, with a intricate rune on top. Tyrael's hands began to glow with magic power, one hand to create motions to focus his magic, and another holding a crystaloid. Tyrael was silent as he began to channel the demon's live energy into the crystaloid, which didn't take too long. Soon the head began to decay quickly in a matter fo seconds, before turning into dust. However, the crystaloid in Tyrael's hand began to glow faintly. 

[b]"What you just saw was a Binding ritual. In Demonmancy, Binding is the method in which a Demonmancer would take a soul of a demon to attach it to a being or object, in order to use it's powers for later, as well as keeping it tethered to the mortal world. Binding is not limited to only Demonmancers, however. Necromancers can do a similar, if not the same, technique with the souls of the dead. This is part two of your test, mortal."[/b] Tyrael tossed the crystaloid over to Pitch before putting a head onto the anvil.

[b]"You have proven so far that you have the discipline to not be tempted by demons and the ability to follow orders. Now let us see if you have the skills to put that dicipline to use. Under my tutelage, I want you to bind what is left of the demons souls into that Crystaloid. Unlike me this may take you some time, as you must be able to focus on their soul and transfer it into the crystaloid. It sounds simple enough, but failure would result in the demon escaping it's mortal body, or more likely, your own soul being put into the Crystaloid. I can prevent the demons from escaping, but if you end up trapping your own soul into a Crystaloid I will not save you. Now begin."[/b] The demon's severed head looked at Pitch pleadingly, knowing that the it's fate inside a Crystaloid would be a damning one. If it had the breatht to speak it would have begged Pitch to kill it now. But all it could do was look at him, hoping that Pitch would understand the wretched soul.

Pitch watched the head for a moment, taking in it's suffering. He nodded to Tyrael, focusing on the head. He copied exactly what Tyrael did, though nothing happened. He frowned, shaking his hands out and limbering up. Taking a few deep breaths, he stretched every possible limb out that he could and focused once more. He put his hands out, copying once more. He noticed his hands felt a bit different, but he noticed nothing but that. 

He coughed, and paused a moment, thinking. He was focusing, and everything that Tyrael did. He couldn't help but think back to what his love might think of him right now, failing miserably at what seemed like a simply task. At least to a professional it was simple. Pitch was fired up now, and felt like his love was right there beside him, encouraging him. 

He put his hands out again, imitating Tyrael. He focused as much as he possibly could, watching the severed head's pitiful expression. He saw his hands glow faintly, them flickered away. Pitch let out an odd sort of groan, and shook his hands again. 

"Mind uh, doin' it one more time?" he asked, his voice shaky.
 
Tyrael signed and shook his head. [b]"You will not learn by simply watching. You learn by trying, and failing, many many times until you start failing less. But I will help."[/b] Tyrael stood up and grasped another crystal. He held the crystaloid tightly while motion with his hand. 

[b]"Watch my hand. The movement is subtle, but with purpose. When Binding a soul, your grip must be firm, but you do not want to crush the soul of the demon. You suffocate it, but let it gasp. This ebb and flow between grasping for life and imminate death is what binds the demon to your will. You cannot simply let it free, but neither can you merely slay it. That is what the motions are for."[/b] Tyrael's hand was rigid and firm, but with some visualization it does appear as though he had his hand around someone's neck. It was ease and tighten at frequent intervals, simulating the effect of strangling something with just his hand.

[b]"Now look at the demon. See how feeble it is to you. This makes it easier for you to grasp it's essence, to enforce your will onto it. Focus your magics within you to create a spectral hand of sorts, and have it grasp the demon's very soul. Choke it, torque it, but let it live. Like a fish fresh from the river, let it squirm and struggle until it can do so no longer."[/b] The demon could only look at Pitch, but as Tyrael began to bid it, so did the head show the effects. It started to grasp for air much more frantically than before, to the point that it's eyes began to bulge and it's mouth motioned words, but as Tyrael would have demostrated, the demon would have no breath to speak.

[b]"Finally, keep a firm grip on the Crystaloid. Crystaloids are merely one of the more convient means of containing the souls of demons. Anything with sufficent enchantments would do. But focus on the demon soul and the Crystaloid. Now that you have grasp the demon's very essence in your hand, you must transfer it's soul into the stone. And your body is the means in which this happens. Just as you must do with the demon's soul, you must also keep a firm grip on the crystaloid, but you must be careful not to crush it with you power. Each time you tighten the demon's soul, keep your grip on the crystal rigid but also loose, to allow the life energy to flow between your hands and into the new catalsys. You must repeat this process many times to siphon the magical energy of the demon into the crystaloid. When you are finished, you will notice that the hand that would hold the demon soul feels empty. Look at what remains of the demon. It has become an empty shell."[/b]

True enough the demon's head no longer looked like it was alive, or at as dead as a severed head is suppose to be. Like the one before it it quickly began to rot away into nothingness, as all demon corpses would do. Tyrael tossed his crystal into a container next to Pitch. He pulled another head off a stick and onto the anvil. [b]"I do not expect you to do it as fast as I did. As I have told you, you will fail many times. But as you fail and see your shortcomings, you will realize that they are avoidable. You see your mistakes and you learn to move past them. And you will continue to do so until you can follow the path to success without even realizing the steps you have taken. A song in your heart also helps."[/b]

Tyrael walked away from Pitch for a moment and came back with a fiddle. [b]"What you need is a sense of rythme. You struggle due to inexperience. You need to be paced. Too fast, and you will be sloppy. Too slow, and you will be inefficent. You need not only focus, but flow. So sing along as you work. When you can sing perfectly without me, you will see that this will become easier."[/b] As Tyrael let Pitch get back to work he turned his fiddle and began to play a [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxJrjV4PNXA]song[/url]. Perhaps due to the magical enchantments on the fiddle or maybe just because the forge was a strange place, additional musical accompaniment began to play as Tyrael sang.

Pitch watched admiringly as the life left the demonic head and dissintigrated by Tyrael's hand. It was helpful, very much so, to watch him do it again. Pitch thought he had a much better idea of how to do it. He listened to the song Tyrael sang, nodding his head only slightly to the beat of the song. 

Pitch moved closer to the head, which was staring him right in the eyes. He watched as the helpless little face pleaded with it's eyes, seemingly begging for freedom. Pitch shook his head not in pity, but in amusement. Pitch began to recite the lyrics of Tyrael's song, hoping that he was not lying about it helping. 

"When the Devil is too busy...." Pitch help his hand firmly around a crystal, being careful not to squeeze too much or too little. He looked at the demon's face, consentrating on it's helplessness. He continued to sing, holding the crystal in one hand, his other held out just the same. but without a crystal.

"Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need." Pitch could tell that the demon's expression had changed. It let out a gasp. One, only one, but it was something. Pitch did exactly what he was told. His right hand firmly gripping the crystal, his left open and rigid. The demon gave another gasp, but that was it. It almost had a releived look on it's face. Pitch knew he had failed, but he was closer to succesfully doing it. He frowned, though, disappointed. 

He set the crystal back on the table and crossed his arms. He hoped that this was not something he would need soon, but then decided that if it was he would do it anyway

"Shall I try again?" he asked confidently in an attempt to not let the disappointment get to him.

Tyrael quickly captured the demon as it escaped, the only time he paused playing his fiddle. Once the demon was sealed into another Crystaloid Tyrael resumed his song and nodded towards Pitch to continue as he did. With many failures, Pitch was slowly starting to get into the groove of things, notably he was able to sing the lyrics of the song without Tyrael having to lead, allowing him to focus on the fiddle and dealing with released demons, the latter which was starting to become less frequent. Pitch was still very slow, and during their time working he only managed to seal about twenty or so of the one hundred demons he was made to bind, but all things considered it was a rousing success. The fact that Pitch was still alive told Tyrael this student had the concentration to pay attention, so he'll be a good student. Whether or not he'll be a master mage, well, that'll be Uicle's problem.

Eventually Tyrael stood up after Pitch ahd sealed his last demon. [b]"That is enough. You need practice. A lot of practice. And you have come to the right place. Follow me."[/b] Tyrael put away his fiddle and led Pitch out of the forge. They stepped outside and began to walk through the college towards the teachers offices. [b]"I am taking you to see Lucilia. She will set you up with a room and other... Paperwork. She teaches Herbamancy."[/b] After entering the teacher's building Tyrael led Pitch through the maze of hallways and stairs until they found Lucilia's office. Tyrael knocked and awaited for a responds.

[b]"It's open! Come in."[/b]

Opening the door Lucilia was in the process of making recreational drugs to sell to the students later. She looked up at Tyrael with narrowed eyes, but soften her expression when she saw Pitch. [b]"A new student? I wasn't expecting a new applicant... Well, come in, come in! Let me clean up here in just a bit."[/b] Lucili carefully moved her drug lab off to a corner of her office near a open window to let the fumes out. She left the room to change into something that didn't reek of the narcotics she had been brewing up, though what she came back wearing looked exactly the same as before. Once she had finished changing she took a seat at her desk and pulled out a thick portfolio. Tyrael nodded at Pitch and left him and Lucilia alone. After he closed the door behind him, a strange noise occured, and Tyrael was gone.

[b]"I am Lucilia Riovas, Professor of Herbamancy and other ventures. To whom do I owe the pleasure of meeting?"[/b]

"Nice to meet you, I'm Pitch Black." he said, glad that he didn't nearly say his real name again. He scanned the room, his eyes wandering all over the place. He could smell the fumes a bit, even as they were draining out of the room. He couldn't help but inhale the scent, it was unlike anything he'd smelled before. But, of course, he knew that it was bad for his health, so only a quick sniff had to do.

"May I ask what that was?" he asked, nodding to the room in which she moved the lab. 

He could see just out the window from where he was, and he could see the very tips of the trees. He was just there, not that long ago. It was odd, thinking that he was actually somewhere in which he could learn more of magic. He could remember his way here, it consisted of many long, winding roads, deep forests, and a few incidents between himself and another traveler. 

[b]"Oh, that? It goes by many names. Cloud Dust, Moon Sugar, Meth, White Rocks. Do not worry, perfectly harmless. Um... Once I'm finished. I will have some for purchase later today. It's a pleasure to meet your, sir Pitch Black."[/b] Lucilia handed Pitch the portfolio containing the documents he would need to read and sign. SHe also took out a few pamphlets and brochures for Pitch to read over about other things of interest about the college. [b]"Inside this journal contains information the college must have before we formally accept you into our institution. It mainly pertains to your health and past affiliations, such as histories of conflict or possible criminal records. While the college accepts all those from all walks of life, we do not provide safe haven from those who would use us to escape justice, but we also wish to help our students and members of the college to work past any of their trauma or phobias. Be as honest as you can, as this information is entirely confidential; only you, myself, and the headmaster would ever lay eyes on these papers. In addition, we also have various extracuricular activities and classes you are free to participate, should you have the time."[/b]

Sliding back to her seat, Lucilia pondered what else she needed to say before chiming back. [b]"You do not need to fill al this out at once of course, but the sooner the better, yes? Now, is there any questions you have before I show you where you will be staying at?"[/b]

Pitch scanned the covers of the pamphlets quickly before looking up. He thought for a moment, making sure he asked his questions now so he would not feel like an idiot later. He knew there'd be a point that he would have to give personal information in which he did not wish to give, but he did not know how, or when, it would be required. 

"What is it, exactly, that I'd be learning here? Obviously magic but..." his voice trailed off. He began to turn, stepping toward the door. "We can go now." he said, regretting he had asked that question. He'd find out in due time, and a little surprise never hurt anybody now did it?