Stars

Reaching out, I grabbed a child's head- children would have fewer memories to lose- and tried to ignore his terrified eyes as I sent power into his head.After the 'tonic', I'd become a lot more aware of my power as it ebbed and flowed within me like an icy tide. I suppressed shivers as it flowed down my left arm and pierced his skull, enveloping the child's brain.

It was then that I realised I wasn't sure how to make people forget things. The impatient look on the madman's face indicated that it would be best for me to hurry, so I decided to wing it. Forcing mana into his brain, I brute-forced my way into his mind.

The child's consciousness felt exceedingly odd. I found myself in a galaxy of endless stars, unimaginably distant yet somehow incredibly close at the same time. I intuitively knew that…

"These… are memories."

Standing here felt wrong. It was like trespassing on sacred grounds.

Shaking off the awe- this was no time for sightseeing- I took the most obvious action.

I reached for the stars.

In the same way I invaded the poor boy's mind, I reached out to a star with a probe of mana and extinguished it.

PAIN. FEAR.

Blasts of his emotions went through me as I realised that I had done something horribly wrong. Had I killed him? Had he forgotten how to breathe? I forcefully ejected myself from his consciousness to see what had happened. The boy lay collapsed on the ground. Terrified, I checked his pulse.

He was completely fine. I saw a sleeping child with a look of relief on his face.

"What?" I asked aloud, puzzled. My teacher looked mildly disappointed.

"It was decent for a first try. You erased the fear he was looking at. I imagine that hurt?"

I nodded blankly.

"You feel the emotions in the memories you erase. Erasing pleasant memories is fine, but erasing his darkest fear…Why didn't you check the contents first?"

I didn't bother pointing out that he gave me almost zero preparation.

"How?" I asked.

He looked at me oddly. "Just open the box before you erase it."

"Where would I find a box in a place filled with nothing but darkness and stars?!" I said, frustrated.

"Stars?" His eyes twinkled.

"Are you certain you followed the regime I gave you?" He chuckled.

"Every other person I worked with has seen the Forest of Memories. I highly doubt that that boy has a unique mind, I altered his cognition just a while ago. If you're not making excuses, your power is unique. I wonder…"

He was one step away from dissecting me. I hurriedly said, "You know, REALLY GOOD teachers never experiment on their students."

Candy seemed disappointed. "Are you sure?"

I nodded vehemently. "Read it a while ago."

"Alright, I'll research another way. Classes are on hold for a while. Keep practicing, and you might get some good news very soon!"

I was torn between relief that I was going to live and trepidation at the cackle he made at the end.

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I heard nothing from him for another few weeks, during which I decided to become more familiar with my skills. This guy wasn't a stellar teacher, and something had clearly gone awry with my power. I had to figure out the issue before some other side effect showed up.

Perusing his store of books (among which several had highly questionable content) I finally found a suitable one- Necromancy: The Definitive Guide.

The first page caught my eye.

"The path of a necromancer is not for the faint of heart. Fools who mindlessly dabble in rituals and call it necromancy-"

I coughed here as the self-proclaimed master of necromancy came to mind.

"have no business with our ancient art. This book shall teach you true power, from soul manipulation to raising the dead.

It is a sad state of affairs that the end goal of every necromancer- true immortality- remains out of grasp."

I had finally found something worth learning.