[ TT ] Dark magic does n't actually make you evil , power-hungry people just gave it a bad name . As a new sorcerer under your mentor 's guidance , you now have control over one of the most free-form magics to exist . Your final assessment ; go show people that you 're not what the legends condemn you as .

`` No, look!'' I said loudly, trying to ignore the screams of the crowd. `` It's friendly, see?'' 
 
 The first row of onlookers trampled the second as they tried to escape from my latest creation. 
 
 `` Please relax! It's just a bone golem! His name is Jared!'' I watched unhappily as Jared swiftly deboned a peasant that wandered too near, adding their skeleton to his mass and growing a foot taller. 
 
 Why could n't everyone else learn to love dark magic the way I had? 
 
 `` Okay, okay, new strategy,'' I called out, recalling Jared to my side and putting him to sleep with a carefully applied stroke of lamb's blood. `` Say hello to Matilda, the latest innovation in pest and weed control!'' 
 
 I glared out at the swiftly emptying square. No one was paying attention. How unsatisfying. Ca n't do a presentation without people to present to, after all. 
 
 Thrusting my hands into the cobblestones below me, I summoned great skeletal hands of earth and shadow to push the formerly observing peasants back into the square. A few got smeared in ways that were probably... uncomfortable... but the rest were dumped back where they could see my show. 
 
 `` I'm afraid your tickets to the show are non-refundable. Now, say hello to Matilda, the latest innovation in pest and weed control!'' I repeated. 
 
 With a bone-crackling flourish of my aching hands, I summoned the screaming aether-wretch that I'd nicknamed Matilda. Her form writhed and shuddered as though vast nails of cold iron had been driven through it, which in fact there were. Huh. I made a mental note to take those out later. 
 
 `` As you've probably realized by now, Matilda here is an aether-wretch, or a banshee as they're more commonly known!'' I said loudly, trying to make myself heard above Matilda's swiftly rising shrieks. `` Since all living things that hear her screams perish instantly, she's perfect for clearing out pesky rats and other pests from your homes and grain stores!'' 
 
 Still no luck. In fact, I appeared to have put everyone in the audience to sleep. They were all lying together on the ground, slumped in piles. I was almost impressed that a few of them appeared to have managed to slip off to their dreams with their eyes still open, staring up blankly at the darkening sky. 
 
 `` More showy?'' I muttered to myself as I tore open a tentacle-edged portal into the Great Otherness, so I could make my way home. `` I just need to make my show more exciting... they'll stay awake then...''
