Viktor's Journal

735: Moon I, Day 2

Found something in father's library today. Tucked behind three volumes of trade law—a fragment of a spellbook, maybe a third of the original, the rest torn away. A real spellbook! I’ve already mastered a basic spell to let me detect more magic. There’s harder ones too like incantations for the mind—fear, memory, suggestion. Those will take me a while. But I'm going to work through all of it.

Moon II, Day 6

My parents have decided I'm to be engaged to the Wachter girl. Stella. I tried to explain I'm in the middle of critical research. My father said something about alliances. Neither of them listened.

I am seventeen years old and they are making playdates with the children of influential families. Humiliating! 

She'll come visit. Regularly. I'm supposed to be pleasant.

I don't see why I should have to learn how.

Moon II, Day 19

She keeps coming. She doesn't want to be here any more than I want her here. I bring her to the workroom because at least no one else comes here. But I don’t do magic in front of her—she’d probably blab to her mother, or worse my father, and that would be the end of that! So she sits by the window, softly asking questions. I answer shortly and we go silent. A waste of my time. 

To fight the tedium I keep reading these spells. The mind incantations mix me up like a tongue-twister. But there’s a re-animating sequence I think I can follow. I need some simple test subjects. And before I can make a plan, she asks another question and I forget where I was!

This is miserable.

Moon III, Day 10

So far the only redeeming feature of this girl is that she gave me an idea for testing out the reanimating spell. Her family is obsessed with cats—of course they are—and their reserved cemetery plot behind their dilapidated house has multiple graves for their dead pets. Late last night I snuck over there, dug up half a dozen, brought them back, and enacted the magic.

And the cats walk! They’re creepy and independent, but they do as I say when I want. I've been up all night with them. They’re much more interesting than Stella. But of course, I tell them to scram when she’s here. 

Moon III, Day 20

I made a mistake.

As always, she was here. Asking questions. I was quietly studying a complicated mind spells I still haven’t been able to master, and one of the cats jumped out, into her lap. She let out a shout. And the spell I’d been quietly mouthing… I said it out loud. It was the fear incantation. She spent the next minute in the corner. Whimpering. Hiding her eyes. When it ended, she looked at the undead cat, and back up at me—and she understood everything.

Before she'd stopped shaking I just grabbed the spellbook and spat out the memory spell. I never did that one before. It stripped the whole unpleasant experience out. Sloppy work, but I was panicking.

By morning the spell will surely wear off, and she’ll have told someone. Then I’m in trouble.

Moon III, Day 21

She came back. And apologized. To me. Says she must have had some kind of fit, and hopes she didn't make a scene. She assumes it was all her own fault.

She doesn’t remember! The memory spell worked. No one knows anything.

On one hand, I should leave the whole thing alone. On the other hand, that was the first time I've used either of those mind spells, and the results were remarkable. And it felt amazing.

She is being told to keep coming back here by her mother anyway. So it seems like an opportunity.

Moon III, Day 28

I've been using Stella’s visits to test some spells. Afterward I tidy her memory and she goes home.

In the day the cats mill around with us now—she hates them but forgets them—but at night I send them out looking for interesting things, magical things. Nothing yet though. Because this is Vallaki.

Moon IV, Day 7

The cats came back with something! Scrolls! Several vellum scrolls sealed with wax. So old they crumbled when I opened them. Signed by someone called Khazan—no idea who that is, probably some wizard who lived here before the current unpleasantness. But the content is extraordinary.

Teleportation circles! Actual ones, with full geometric notation and activation sequences. I've never seen anything like it. This might be my ticket far, far away from father and mother. Away from all these dull Vallakians and duller festivals. Away from Barovia…

I need to clear my head and focus on these properly. Everything else can wait. Messing with Stella is so much less interesting now. She seems increasingly… touched. Though maybe I can teleport her far, far away? Ha.

Moon IV, Day 13

I don't know exactly what I did.

She came up as usual. I was distracted—I’m so focused on these Khazan scrolls. Routine visit, routine memory adjustment at the end, or so I thought. Then she went very still. And slowly got down on her hands and knees and started making a low hiss at the cats.

I tried to correct the memory wipe three times. Whatever I reached for wasn't recognizable now. Too many alterations and her mind finally just fell apart. Each time it reorganized itself around whatever was in front of her. Cats.

I panicked. I got father. He got Izek. I said she just lost her mind after I said some unkind words. That’s all I could think of. They didn’t ask questions. Izek took her home. Father was so mad.

Moon IV, Day 14

Lady Wachter sent word. Stella is convinced she is a cat and hasn't come out of it.

I can't fix it. I've thought about it a little, and I simply don't have the spells for whatever has happened inside her head. It's beyond me entirely.

Horrifying if I let myself think about it too long. So I won't. I have the Khazan scrolls and a circle to build. The timing for her to stop bothering me is honestly not terrible.

Moon VII, Day 22

The circle is ready. I'm certain the geometry is correct. I just need someone to go first, and I'm not going first. Now I wish Stella was here. I can’t believe I just wrote that.

Toman has been slowing down as he’s gotten older. Father will likely dismiss the butler soon. So I've convinced him this is a great honor. I did have to use mind magic to seal the deal though.

Moon VII, Day 23

Toman is dead. The circle pulled him apart in a flash of terrible purple light.

I've gone back through every line of the Khazan scrolls and cannot find the error. Something in the execution is wrong and I can't see what.

I'll fix it. It’ll just take time. And I’ll need to find another volunteer.

Moon X, Day 10

The cats have outdone themselves. They've brought back a full grimoire—heavy, old, and magical. No writing on the remarkably creepy binding but—after some boring preface and prologue I flipped past—the interior notation is incredible. A l lot of pages seem to be destroyed. The good ones are in some kind of cipher I cannot unlock. Other parts are a potent spellbook.

I don't know where the cats found it. They lost one of their pack along the way, but that’s a small price. If I can crack even part of this, it may show me where the circle went wrong.

Moon X, Day 11

As I was studying this big book, I noticed there was a protective symbol—a glyph is the wizardly term I think—that had been on the clasp of this book. Had been–because it looks like someone already broke through it. Thanks, whoever you are! Meanwhile I pieced together enough to make my own. I think. I put one on the door as a test. Anyone but me who tries to enter? All will not be well… for them!

Moon X, Day 18

Between all of these magical writings, I’m sure I’ve got the circle right now. Marta has agreed to assist with the next test. Well I suggested to her it was a good idea, and then she agreed.

Moon X, Day 19

What am I doing wrong??