Black-magic corruption (the necromancer’s sickness)

Black-magic corruption (the necromancer’s sickness) is the condition associated with black magic overtaking a natural-born witch who has become a necromancer. Valera’s recovery from an accidental encounter with black magic makes the sickness more than a sentence of inevitable destruction: her survival offers evidence that those afflicted may be saved, and forces the Nightwalkers to reconsider their assumption that all magic-users must be killed.

Nature of the Sickness

The account describes black magic as staining and overtaking Valera, with its hold compared to an addiction. The danger is not presented as merely an external threat from a hostile magic-user: it can take hold of a natural-born witch who has turned to necromancy, and is described as a sickness she has chosen. The evidence does not specify a complete set of symptoms or a general method of treatment, but it establishes corruption as a condition that can engulf its practitioner.

Valera’s Recovery as Evidence

Valera’s own history gives the condition its clearest consequence. Her foray into black magic was accidental, and she recovered from it. That recovery matters beyond her personal survival: Magnus sees it as proof that natural witches who become necromancers might be rescued from the sickness rather than treated as irredeemable. Valera’s existence therefore becomes evidence against a categorical judgment of magic-users.

The possibility is tested in the crisis surrounding Guin. After Magnus removes the blade, Valera chants and works her magic while Guin is barely alive. She trembles with effort and fear, but Sagan’s telepathy reveals that she is also afraid of failing and of failing him. He kneels behind her and caresses her back; the support steadies her posture and voice. After sixty seconds of rapid spellcasting, Guin breathes visibly, and a minute later opens his eyes. The scene shows Valera using magic to preserve life, giving concrete force to the distinction between corrupting magic and magic used for good.

Consequences for the Nightwalkers

Magnus draws a political and moral consequence from Valera’s recovery: the Nightwalkers can no longer assume that every magic-user should be killed. They must instead be warned to exercise care. This is a limited change in judgment, not a claim that magic is harmless or that every necromancer can be cured. The evidence supports a more cautious conclusion: corruption is dangerous, but Valera’s recovery means that death need not be the only response.

Significance

The sickness marks the risk of magic turning inward against its practitioner, while Valera’s survival makes that fate reversible in at least one known case. Her restorative work on Guin links that possibility to an observable act of healing: someone once overtaken by black magic now uses magic to keep another person alive. The contrast unsettles the simple division between magic-users as threats and their victims as those who must destroy them, without erasing the harm necromancers have caused.