Zoe couldn’t get out of the headmaster's office any faster, she started running and did not stop for hours as she ran around the college’s border. During her run, several people tried to stop her, concerned about her running for so long but Zoe would simply ignore them all until they left, this included Izora who had no idea why she was running like this.
As the sun set for the day Zoe started to calm down enough that she felt comfortable to risk coming inside. By this time most of the other students were already in the dining hall which allowed her to sneak past and head up to her room without being questioned or even seen.
Izora, knowing her best friend well, came back to the room some time after dinner holding a bowl of soup and half a loaf of bread. “I thought you might be hungry.” She said putting the bowl on her small bedside table stacked with books.
"Starving actually." She answered, "Thanks"
"Are you going to tell me?"
“Tell you?"
"What you did do? The way professors have been looking at me, I know it has something to do with me." Izora said. “No one will tell me what it is.”
Zoe knew she was told not to say anything but Izora just looked at her with puppy dog eyes and broke through all her resistance and willpower to keep her mouth shut as she promised the Professors. "After the other night. When you come back from the hospital... After you told me what he did, I couldn't just let it go." Zoe admitted. "I hurt him."
"You what?"
“I almost killed him. I would have killed him if I had gotten the chance." Tears welled up in her eyes.
"But you didn't and that's more important." Rushing to Zoe to embrace her in a hug. "It's okay, it's going to be okay." Zoe found some comfort in her words but still wasn't completely comfortable with what she had done. She wasn't entirely sure why she did hurt the man but at the time she just knew it had to be done.
"Is there something wrong with me?" Zoe cried, her voice breaking as tears rolled down her face.
"Not at all, you were standing up for me. That's all." Izora said. "I'm not angry, not scared. You are not about to go on a murderous rampage."
They continued to talk for a few what felt like hours, Zoe reluctantly started to open up about what she did and it helped her to feel better by the time they decided to go to bed.
The following morning she was woken by Katherine Mercer who had been sent by Headmaster Netheridge to collect Zoe, the beginning of her penance was about to begin. Anrod had arranged for Zoe to work in the hospital for a few weeks to make amends, Katherine was charged with running her ragged so she would learn an important lesson.
While all of this was happening Izora on the other hand was still in class, her lessons having progressed faster than any of the Professors had even planned for, she found herself suddenly moved up to an advanced magical lesson, while impressive for her age, Izora had managed to move from the beginner lessons after only a few months to begin learning from the advanced spell books the college professors loved referencing in the final year of magical study. the books were no longer written in the common language, instead, most were written in the old script often associated with the learnings that predated the four great kingdoms.
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"All right ladies and gentlemen, today we have to talk about something rather serious." Jarvis Altard, the conjuring professor announced. "So to begin with we are going to talk about one of the forbidden arts.” This news shocked all the students back to paying attention to the professor, nobody in the class was expecting to learn about the forbidden and extremely deadly topic.
“Okay, you need to understand, we are talking about the art of Necromancy.” He continued, “While I do not support the art, you all must understand that it is a powerful, if not disrespectful form of magic. There are legitimate uses for the magic, most royal courts hold at least one person whose true mastery of the forbidden allows the court to bring back the dead. while the practice is heavily monitored, they, from time to time are known to take the practice too far. this always leads to whichever court purging their magic users to ensure a dark coven does not flourish from within.
Most of the other students in the class knew what it was like living with large families, many were from wealthy nobles and had many brothers, sisters, and cousins, they knew what large families were like. Izora on the other hand, her mother had died during childbirth, and her stepfather ditched her when she was four in the orphanage. She had never known the joy of family, so for her, the idea of necromancy was less horrifying and more the ideal of gaining something she had never had before.
“While the practice has been outlawed across all the kingdoms and carries the immediate punishment of death, most willing to practice necromancy will target small caravans and isolated travelers to limit the threat of discovery. They typically stalk their victims for some time, rarely do they practice alone, often reaching small covens of three to four and the largest I know of reaching fifteen.”
“A coven of fifteen? That seems impractical." Another student said.
“They have many unique skills, as I said most royal courts use them to temporarily raise the dead to discover the killers be that man or monster. While necromancy is illegal across the kingdoms, a necromancer is perfect for aiding an invading army, able to raise the recently killed to further fight against the living. There have been more than one occasion where a warlord or king employed multiple necromancers to bolster their army. All records indicate this ended poorly for the warlords who were betrayed and ultimately killed.”
“Can a necromancer permanently power the reanimated?” Izora asked somewhat innocently.
“This is why necromancy is very much forbidden. The necromancy spells trap a soul within its physical body. Make no mistake I think that is what makes the magic so much worse, their souls cannot escape even if they are killed once again.”
As soon as he finished speaking the class began bombarding the professor with dozens of questions, so many that class had to end before he came even remotely close to getting through all the class questions. The students were forced to leave the lesson with a promise from the professor to answer them next class. Izora being one such student ran to the front as Professor Jarvis packed up his things, getting ready to leave. Izora only had a simple question that she was desperate to know the answer, she had to find out about the weakness of the magic.
“I’m sorry kiddo, I don’t have time today, maybe tomorrow or if not next lesson I will have more time,” Jarvis said absently packing his things. Izora couldn’t help but look down at the book he held much of the information from the class referenced from the tome.
"Dark Arts of Necro"
Jarvis saw Izora eying off the book, "Don't get any funny ideas about looking at this. It resides in the restricted section for a reason."
“The restricted section?”
“Yes. Now if you will excuse me I have an important appointment” Jarvis said before hurriedly rushing off and leaving her alone in the classroom.