Chapter 1

“I hate skeletons! If you decapitate someone they should stop fighting ... that’s how it normally works… but in this case there is a headless corpse still swinging a rusty scimitar,” Kadin Banto thought to himself as he caught the swing, deflecting it upwards and over head with his own blade. Using the same momentum of the deflection, he swung his off hand in a magically empowered counter punch, right into the centre of the skeleton’s ribcage. There was a brief flash of colliding coloured lights, as Kadin’s red magic encountered the necromantic green. The ribcage exploded from the impact, scattering the rest of the skeletal bones along the stone floor.

“One down two to go,” Kadin thought as he scanned the interior of the dark room. It was a wide, circular room which must have been the whole base of the tower he was in, with its stone floor and walls holding dark, wood furnishings. There was a table and a few long desks at one side of the room and a massive bookcase at the other. An antique table stood in front of the bookcase, which was stacked high with books, scrolls and parchment. Directly in front of him, and opposite the entry door, was a large, spiral stair case leading upwards. Kadin’s more pressing concern however, were the two remaining skeletons that were ambling towards him at a steady pace. One holding an old, iron long- sword and carrying a circular, metal studded shield. The other dragging a large, twin-headed battle axe behind it causing a grinding, clattering noise as the axe head scrapped across the stone floor. Each of the Skeletons had a dark, swirling fog in its insides and a dark, green glow, deep within the eye sockets of its bleached white skull.

“Right, time to get to work,” Kadin announced to himself as he slipped a throwing knife from within the folds of his black cloak. A brief thought and push of ability sent his magical energy into the knife, channelling it to commit electrical damage as it hit. With a sharp flick of the wrist, he threw the knife at the axe wielding skeleton. Where the blade sunk into the skeleton’s right eye socket, the magical charge from the blade was released and a loud crack echoed across the room and the skull exploded into a cloud of bone dust. The remaining bones toppled to the ground as the smoke within dispersed.

As the knife had left Kadin’s hand, he quickly charged forwards and drew his second short sword. These twin, blade weapons were demon-forged blades, and had black, onyx finished handles with curved guards and a dull, grey curved blade. There were layers and swirls within the metal from its forging. The blade had a soft, red glow, which came from the swirls like veins full of blood in the demonic steel. The blades themselves were sharp on the whole of one side and curved round to a fine point. The back top hand width of the blades were also tapered to a cutting edge before widening to give strength to them. As he moved, switching to a reversed grip defensive position just in case this skeleton also worked without a head, he also spun low and slashed with his main sword hand at the remaining opponent’s knees. Again, there was a brief flash of green magic as the last skeleton’s legs were removed, however as it landed it stayed upright and swung back with both sword and shield ready to attack. Having his second sword in a defensive grip already, Kadin parried the blade with his off hand and stabbed downwards. Another opponent and the stab would have been instantly fatal as the blade made its way between the neck and the shoulder to puncture

where the heart and lungs should have been, however as this area was already empty there was no apparent effect other than the last skeleton taking a snapping bite towards Kadin’s hand.

“Damn it!” Kadin shouted as he swung his main sword hand in a wide arc, launching the top half of the final skeleton across the room. This time when it hit the ground there was another small, green flare where the magic holding it together gave out and the bones scattered across the rough, stone floor. After the focus and adrenaline of the brief fight was over, the room felt eerily quiet, as if the sounds from the outside world had been dampened. It was a little after midday and the large forest just outside the spire was full of life.

“There should be some sounds carrying through to this room?” thought Kadin as he gazed around the base of the stone tower he was in. The air inside the tower was stale and had the earthy musk smell of old books, scrolls - and even the dried bones of the skeletal fighters littering the floor contributed to the heavy air in the room.

“Well I am here to kill a necromancer, and no one said anything against a little light looting,” Kadin thought to himself cheerfully to try and get his mind back on the reason he was here. As he looked over the room, the weapons that had been used against him were the first things that he looked at. The scimitar, shield and long-sword were all of poor quality and not worth much, however, the axe on closer examination had a good quality finish. The double bladed head had minor scroll and decorative work along the blades, working back along the head. The handle was a good, solid walnut wood that had been worked and oiled until it glowed in the dim light of the room and it even had a few runes etched along its shaft. Kadin couldn’t read runes for anything, but back at the Guild Hall there were those who could, so he strapped the axe to his back before moving over to the book shelf and table. Most of the books and scrolls were about dark magic and fairly common, however there was a scroll he recognised as an ‘Elemental edict scroll’. After having a closer look at this, he noticed it was a higher tier magic spell for calling a fire storm. As he looked at the edict spell, Kadin though it was maybe a third or fourth tier magic spell and could be useful so this was slipped into one of the many pockets that his dark cloak held. Kadin had one last glance around as he drew on his mana pool and focused it towards his eyes in a spell of ‘detect magic’ - this would make strong magical items or runes glow to him. There was nothing on the table but when he was scanning the book shelf something caught his eye. A light glow was coming from one of the books. The book itself was dull but there may be something on a few of the pages within. There was nothing else of interest, so he let the spell drop and moved over to where the glowing light had come from - a book entitled; ‘Fundamentals of Spell craft’.

“That’s strange,” he thought as he reached for the book, “A spell book for beginners of magic casting. My parents taught me this when I was four.” He picked up the book then realised instantly why it had glowed. The book had been hollowed out and weighed a fraction of what it should, making it the perfect hiding place to store something important. Kadin opened the book. His eyes widened in shock as he saw a black soul gem inside. He picked out the gem and let the book drop to the floor. As he looked over the gem, he felt a cold shudder run through him knowing that the soul of a person had been, and still was, trapped inside the gem. This soul gem was highly illegal and worth a small fortune, but also needed investigating - they were illegal for a reason. Fortunately for Kadin, as a high level Guild member he was exempt from all but the most serious crimes so

possessing this would not cause him any trouble. He dropped the gem into a pouch on his belt before turning to the spiral staircase leading up to the next level of the tower. Thinking to himself as he started up the stairs, Kadin reached the decision that should the necromancer surrender, he would hand over the soul gem as evidence against him and the soul inside could then be released. His only other option would be to have it examined by Aurora – one of the Guild’s enchanters’ who Kadin was already going to receive the axe to examine. She would have some strong insights to the black gem. She was also one of the very few people Kadin trusted enough to confide in and he knew that she would likely have good advice with what to do next and steps that should be taken with the gem. If it had just been the axe, that would have been a case of selling it to the highest bidder... but the gem – that could lead to something more.

The eerie silence and pressing darkness continued to build on Kadin as he made his way up the tower stairs. He came to an open archway that led into the second floor of the tower. Again, this was one big room, however here there was no entry door - just a small window overlooking the entrance below. The light coming in through the window was dull and murky and there was a yellow tinge to the window that kept the room cast in shadow. Fortunately there was nothing in the room for any attackers to conceal themselves behind or in and the whole room was open and empty. Giving the room a quick cursory glance, Kadin elected to ignore it and continue his climb. When he got to the next level up, he found himself at the top of the tower. Small for what it was; magicians, sorcerers, warlocks and necromancers all seemed to like towers, and the bigger the tower the higher and more important the occupants saw themselves. However, Kadin scoffed at that idea. What is the point of having to climb stairs all day depending on what room you wanted to go to? He saw it as a waste of time. Everything he needed was at the Guild Hall and he also had a few homes scattered around Elwere that had storage, crafting and enchantment stations - but all were small and relatively compact and had no wasted space.

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The top of the tower seemed to be split by a long hallway with bare, wooden walls and a bare, wooden floor. There was a door on his left, close to the entry arch, and another on his right further down the hallway. Picking the room to the left first, Kadin felt along the door for any magical or mechanical traps but detected none. He used ‘essence of air magic’ and a hint of ‘water magic’ to encase his hand in a pocket of armoured air, knowing any spring or magical trap would likely be directed at his hand as the source of triggering it. Anything that came close to his hand would have its momentum slowed to zero and would appear to freeze just short of touching his skin. He slowly reached out, grabbed the handle and turned. Nothing happened! He pushed the door open and all was quiet. Now that the door was open he looked inside to see a small bedroom with a straw mattress at one end and a wash basin with jug at the foot of the bed, a small stand with a book by the bed with a chest on the other side of the room. This was a basic wooden box. The items in the rooms below suggested more wealth, as even some of the books would have sold for more than enough to fully furnish the whole tower, but this was a little confusing. He decided as there was nothing else in the room he would move on. As he made his way down the hallway he saw a slight glow from the floor a few paces in from of him. A brief focus and concentration with his vision and there on the floor Kadin was able to follow the lines of an image he recognise as a magical trap. He directed some of his own mana toward the trap to pick up on what it did. From this he was able to feel its function and what would happen when, and if it was triggered. This was a fairly advanced frost trap, magically etched into the wood and there was no disarm feature, meaning that in order to make it to the other side of the hall it would need to be triggered.

Sensing the source and amount of power the trap held, Kadin knew that when triggered there would be a frost explosion with enough power to freeze solid anything within the area of the trap. For many this would have been a bigger problem as they tried to figure out a way around, over or under the trap to get to the last door. However, this was one of Kadin’s stronger areas of focus and his problem solving skills are what had made him fly through the lower ranks of the Guild to get to the gold league he was in today. He thought for a moment before saying to himself, “A trap’s a trap... if you can’t go around… go through!” Focusing on the air above the trap, Kadin began setting his own trap. In his trap he merged null energy and heat magic. He stretched the design of the trap’s power level, putting more energy into it than was in the frost trap. Once this was in place the two traps were a hairs width apart and both ready to trigger. This is where Kadin made his last change and he made them to both traps. The frost trap; he amended the area of effect so now the whole of the trap’s power would focus upwards. On his own heat and null trap; he focused this energy straight down. Once complete, he stood back and admired his handy work.

“That should do it,” he thought to himself as he stepped right on the trigger of both traps. There was a low flash and a light sound as if glass was breaking in the distance, but other than that nothing else happened. The heat cancelled out the frost of the trap, and the null layer kept all the energy focussed solely within the boundaries of each trap until both were spent. Now in front of the last door, again Kadin felt out for traps, found none so pushed open the door and followed through into the last room.

In the room he noted that again it was pretty bare of furnishings and shows of wealth that most magic casters seemed drawn to. There was a small infant’s cot in the middle of the room, which was lower than the entrance level by a stone pit. Going forwards, down two steps, it almost looked like a replica of a colosseum. There was a stone altar and the stone was inlayed with various glyphs and runes which emitted a slight dull glow. Standing in the middle of the room over the cot was the necromancer that Kadin was here for… or so he thought. The necromancer was supposed to be over a hundred and fifty years old. The man in front of him wore the same purple robes, and the same jewel encrusted belt with a small dagger as the man he knew as the necromancer, but looked to be in his late twenties, early thirties. He looked around as Kadin walked in and a slow, smile spread across his face. His smile never reached his eyes though and his eyes were cold, dead and empty.

“Welcome stranger,” the necromancer said in a voice as if he were meeting an old friend “How can I help you today?”

“I am here for the child and to bring you in.” Kadin said, his eyes narrowing and scanning the room looking for another man - an older man.

“Ahh yes, yes – the child. You can have it – I am done with it anyway.” he said jerking his head to the cot.

As he jerked his head Kadin could see the small bundle of blankets move and shuffle as one would expect from a child that was still a few months shy of one year old. The necromancer continued…

“As for bringing me in... I am sorry, but that I cannot do. I am just about ready to move on, so the villagers will see no more from me. That should be enough for all wouldn’t you agree?” he asked

with a small, twisted smile. He began backing away from the cot and angling himself towards the door that Kadin now barred.

“I am not paid to agree, I am paid to bring you in!” Kadin replied while resting his hand on his sword grip and also freeing another throwing knife from his sleeve in to his other hand.

“Well then mercenary, is it?” the necromancer asked before going on, “We have a problem as I am not going to be taken anywhere!” He spat while throwing his arms out and away from his body. As he did so green fire began to run from his hands up his arms and over his whole body. Ready for this, Kadin powered his knife with ice and light magic, and threw it while drawing his sword with his other hand. There was a bright flash and hiss as the thrown knife hit the necromancer in the centre of the chest but the green fire covering his body absorbed the whole impact causing the knife to tumble to the floor. Unfortunately for the necromancer, the power that had infused the knife did seem to have an impact. The green fire shimmered and diminished around the area of the impact and spread to weaken the necromancer’s shield over the whole of his body.

The necromancer had not been complacent and had cast his own magic, throwing green and black orbs of power straight at Kadin and the child in the cot. Kadin leaped into a dive and rolled away from the orbs being aimed at him. He threw out his hand, sending a blast of light energy into another orb which was aimed at the child. The two impacted and made a reverberating rumble as both spells were extinguished to nothingness. Coming up from his role Kadin realised that this move had been anticipated and the necromancer was now sending a stream of green fire right towards him. Drawing his second sword, the twin, to his first, he braced crossing the blades in front of him to take the hit of green fire. There was a loud roaring sound as the green fire met the blades and fire was absorbed by the blades defence enchantments. Kadin focused and swept his twin blades apart sending an energy blast forwards this blast pushed back the fire which hit the necromancer’s shield with enough force to throw him against the wall at the back of the room.

As he fell to the ground, breathing hard and with a light line of blood running down his nose, the necromancer got back to his feet. He levelled a small smile at Kadin before saying;

“Well it’s been fun, but I have somewhere else to be.” At which point he slapped his hands to his sides and a burst of green and black fire swept around his body and twisted away to nothingness.

“Teleported!” Kadin muttered to himself as he moved forwards to examine the area around himself. This necromancer was a lot stronger than he had been led to believe, and why was he so young? A strong man in the prime of his life and not the century and a half old wizard he had been told about in the village.

As he moved towards the cot, there was movement and a light squeaking noise of a baby starting to wake. He reached out to remove the blankets and instantly recoiled at what he saw. It was still a baby shape and size, but the child seemed to have aged by a hundred years! Its skin was wrinkled and looked dry, worn and haggard. The eyes were dull and bloodshot and aging spots covered the child’s head and arms. This was magic that he had never seen before and had no idea if it could be countered or fought against.