An extremely brutal spell officially banned by the Academy of Ximax, Treacherous Embrace turns the aura of a person against them. Ripping their life energies out of their body, it turns those energies into deadly shards of ice that cause massive injury as they are released and drawn back into the body.

Spell Effect. Treacherous Embrace is a harsh spell, turning a person’s own energies against them. By pulling the Water ounía outside of a person’s body, the caster is free to manipulate them as he wishes. Unlike Sphere III, the caster is not actually severing the links between the ounía and the target’s cár’áll. As such, when he releases his concentration on the ounía, they will be pulled back into the body of the target. It is this process that results in the destructive climax of this spell.

Once the ounía are withdrawn from the target, the mage increases their coldness property, forming sharp shards of ice out of the present ounía. In case the shards are not big enough, he may choose to combine several of them together. A length slightly greater than one palmspan and as wide as one nailsbreadth should be sufficient.

Once the shards have been formed, the mage simply releases his concentration over them. The links between the target’s body and the withdrawn ounía are still present, and, without any further mental manipulation from the caster, naturally seek to return to their original positions. This natural process pulls the now physical shards of ice into the person’s body - a potentially fatal, and certainly painful, effect.

Casting Procedure. The mage must physically touch the target, in order to more easily gain control of as much of the person’s Water ounía as possible. Thus, it is recommended that the target be sufficiently incapacitated or is otherwise incapable of escaping the caster’s grasp. Due to this limitation, the spell is of little use to battle magi and only serves as a means of torture, thus it has been banned. At higher levels, a slight increase in distance is possible.

Once physical contact has been established, the mage uses Sphere II techniques to withdraw the Water ounía from a person’s body. He should manipulate these ounía into locations spread around the target, as the body will be inclined to move towards them (and may float in the process). By spreading of the ounía, the target’s cár’áll becomes trapped in the center.

If he deems it necessary, the mage should combine the smaller traces of ounía into larger groups, or even a single large group if needed. Highly skilled mages may even choose to move Water ounía in the surrounding air close to the groups to increase their size even further.

At this point, the mage uses Sphere I techniques to increase the influence of the coldness property of Water on the present ounía. This will cause the Water ounía to form frozen shards. Any nearby traces of Water ounía from the air will also become part of the frozen structure, naturally forming links. It is recommend though that only a small amount of foreign ounía be applied, as too much will dilute the original ounía and cause it to be more difficult for the body to pull the structures into itself.

Once the shards have been sufficiently formed, the caster simply releases concentration. The ounía will naturally be inclined to return to their former positions due to the still present links to the target’s cár’áll, and thus the shards will move back towards the body, impaling it. This impalement happens slowly on its own, resulting in a torturous effect. The mage may need to manually keep the shards frozen as this occurs, otherwise melting may happen before the effect has finished.

If the mage desires instant fatality, he must use Sphere II to augment the speed of the shards, using his will to move them towards the body faster.

Magical Formula. Not defined yet.

Focus/Target. The target of this spell may be any object or person, though the spell is specifically designed for use against persons.

Reagents. Due to this spell’s reliance on the target’s own cár’áll for the entirety of the spell, reagents aren’t typically needed. However, typical objects high in Water ounía such as ice, aquamarine stones, sea plants, and so on, may help the caster concentrate and could be used as a source for enhancing the size of the frozen shards.

Spell Class. Sphere II, Tides (Physical Representation of the Water School).

Range. Treacherous Embrace requires a direct physical link to the target at lower levels. Touching the target is the easiest and most common method of contact. Once the Water ounía have been extracted from the body, however, further physical contact is no longer required.

Sufficiently skilled magi can use this spell from a slightly greater distance, without requiring physical contact at all, but no further than a few peds.

Casting Time. Treacherous Embrace requires roughly half a minute of casting time at lower levels, though can become as low as several blinks depending on the skill of the mage involved.

Duration. The duration can be upwards of 10 minutes if the mage allows the shards to move into the target at their own speed, though the target may be killed in as little as half that time. Should he augment the speed of the shards himself, the duration can be over in only a few blinks.

Counter Measures/Enhancing Measures. The spell’s range is its biggest hindrance as it is purely a combat-oriented spell. Thus maintaining distance from the caster is paramount. If that is not possible, one must try to break the caster’s concentration before he freezes the shards.

High-level Water, Earth, and Xeuá magi might be capable of increasing the strength of the links binding the ounía and keeping them inside the body. At this point it would become a test of will between the caster and the target.

To enhance the spell, the caster may utilize foreign ounía from the air or nearby reagents to increase the size of the shards (though it will slow their path back towards the body). If he wants the spell to be instantaneously fatal, he may use Sphere II to increase the speed at which the shards puncture the body, though will have difficulties with this depending on how large he has made the individual shards.

10th Dead Tree 1667 a.S. Information provided by Fox