User:DoctorWho42/The Last Incantation

"The Last Incantation" is a short story by American author Clark Ashton Smith as part of his Poseidonis cycle, and first published in the June 1930 issue of Weird Tales.

Publication history
According to Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography (1978) by Donald Sidney-Fryer, "The Last Incantation" was first published in the June 1930 issue of Weird Tales. It was included in the books Lost Worlds (1944) and Poseidonis (1973).

Plot
Malygris sits in his tower in Susran, the capital of Poseidonis. While a powerful wizard, he finds that his magic is not enough to make him happy. He relents these troubles to his familiar demon who takes the form of a viper and lives inside a mounted unicorn head. Later, he reminisces on his lost love Nylissa who died young. Asking the viper if he may recall Nylissa from the dead, the viper hesitates. Malygris does so anyways and finds the apparition of Nylissa before him. However, the apparition becomes imperfect and Malygris sends it away. The viper retorts that Malygris knows everything but he had to learn that he could not regain his lost youth.

Reception
Black Gate's Robert Burke Richardson said "knowing, for instance, that Malygris the magician–protagonist of "The Last Incantation"–lost his true love Nylissa at a young age, is enough to propel me through the narrative (any more character work would probably have only served to disrupt the mood."