Needless to say, the others clearly had a few questions for me after I made that announcement. Not that they actually asked them just then, but I could tell they wanted to blurt out a whole bunch of them all at once. Even Percy seemed taken aback. Delighted, to say the least, but definitely taken aback. Cerberus and Eurso probably would’ve added in their own comments if they’d had the ability to do so. As for the ghosts, both my own and the pirates who were temporarily sticking around, I had the feeling they had their own thoughts on the subject of anything to do with Necromancy. And yet, they all simply followed without saying much, along with my new army of zombie bodies. As curious as they all clearly were, it seemed they were mostly waiting to see what I actually did next. Or maybe they were waiting to see if anyone else would be the first to ask if I had completely lost my mind. Which would probably be a pretty fair question.
Yes, we were quite the procession heading back toward the crashed ship. At a word from me, Percy went in and brought Laein out. She had clearly possessed the woman again while out of sight, just long enough to wake her up. Still, despite being awake, Laein was handcuffed, and she had all her magical tools taken away. More importantly, I would be able to tell if she tried any necromancy out here and could put a stop to it.
For the first time, I actually got a good look at the woman. Or rather, the girl. I had already known she was small, standing around four and a half feet tall, but yeah, she didn’t look like she could have been any older than thirteen or fourteen, to be honest. Or maybe her species just naturally looked young. Because she definitely wasn’t human. Behind that gray-purple cloak and hood, she had bright pink skin with white hair, emerald green eyes, and tiny horns sticking out of her forehead that looked only partially grown. And those emerald eyes were blazing with anger and promised violence. She was tiny, yet furious as she shook her handcuffed wrists. “I demand you release me now! I shall not be shackled to another again! Don’t make me bring the full might of my power down upon you! I will summon a legion of skeletons to rip their way out of the ground and tear the skin from your bones! This entire planet will shudder and shake under the terrible weight of my righteous fur–what’s that?”
It was like a switch had been flipped. She went from following in over the top rage, chained hands shaking above her head, to standing normally with her head tilted curiously. She was staring at me. And at the assembled ghosts and zombies around me. I could see her bright green eyes widening dramatically. “You. You were the one from before. You’re the one who was controlling all those ghosts… I knew it wasn’t the ground, I knew I could’ve controlled them if you weren’t here! It was you!”
“Yeah, well about that,” I started. “I think it’s safe to say that–”
“I challenge you to a duel!” Her tiny fists clenched as she shook them at me, the chain dangling between her wrists jingling. “I’ll beat you this time! You just took me off guard before! Call off your extra friends and make it a fair fight! I’ll show you some real power! I’ll take control of all those remnants and show this whole world that I’m the best Fallwielder that has ever set foot upon it! I’ll teach–I’ll–I’ll…” She trailed off a bit, swaying visibly as her voice turned a little delirious. “Why am I so tired?”
Wow, she was a lot. It was kind of adorable, actually. Like a tiny puppy that barked really loudly. Not that she’d probably appreciate that comparison. Looking around briefly to see everyone else reacting to all that, I cleared my throat. “Probably just a side effect of the spell we used to keep you asleep for awhile. You said you wanted to prove you’re stronger than me? You still up for that?” This wasn’t about showing off or anything. I needed this girl to listen to me. I’d thought that simply showing up with an army of the dead would do the trick, but apparently she needed to both see and feel me in action. If we were going to get anywhere, I had to demonstrate what I could do.
Seeming to quickly forget her wave of tiredness, the pink girl literally jumped up and down a couple times, fists punching the air. “Kazz yeah I am! Take these chains off and tell your attack dogs to stay back and I’ll show you some real power! You’ll be trembling in your shoes, Mr. Cheapshot. But maybe if you ask really nicely, I’ll spare all your lives!” That was followed by a rather impressive and clearly practiced bit of maniacal laughter. “Ahahahahahaha!” Then she stopped, just as abruptly, and held those handcuffs out. “Ahem?”
Gaia raised an eyebrow curiously at me and I nodded. With a shrug, she gestured and the handcuffs fell off. While the necromancer girl stretched and rubbed her wrists, I turned that way. “Can you guys wait over there? It’ll be okay.” Putting one hand on the side of Eurso’s snout, I rubbed it reassuringly. “Go with Percy, alright? I promise it’ll be safe. No one’s gonna hurt you.”
He really did have such an abrupt personality shift between when Fahsteth had been controlling him and when he flipped to my control. Did we instill a personality in the animals our power tamed? Or was this his true personality the whole time and Fahsteth had been forcing him to act that aggressive? I had no idea, and I probably wasn’t going to get an answer to that anytime soon.
Either way, Eurso made an uncertain noise until Cerberus trotted forward and nudged him with one of his heads. Another head made a soft yet welcoming whining sound, and the third showed him a big metal ball that he had found somewhere. With the raptor watching curiously, that head gave the ball a toss. Eurso looked back at me and I gestured. “Go ahead, go play.” With that, the armored dinosaur went running after the ball, with Cerberus right behind him.
Percy and Gaia headed off too, promising to keep an eye on things just in case. Even my ghosts backed away, leaving me standing with the line of raised zombies behind me, facing the pink girl in her cloak. A cloak that was billowing dramatically despite there being absolutely no wind whatsoever. Maybe I should get her to teach me how to do that. It felt like something I should learn if I was going to embrace this Necromancer thing.
“Right, okay,” I started casually while giving a little flick of my finger. At my unspoken command, thirty-seven of the seventy-five zombies I’d brought back moved around to stand behind the other girl. Thirty-seven more stayed behind me, while the last one stumbled off out of the way so things would be completely even. “Go ahead,” I instructed easily, releasing my hold on the ones behind the other girl. “Take control of those guys. We’ll play a little ga–” Seeing her expression, I amended, “We’ll have a competition. You know, to see which of us is stronger. I know you just woke up and all, so take your time. Let me know when you’ve got them so we can do this.”
Then I waited, giving Laein a chance to exert her power over the zombies lined up behind her. In the meantime, I glanced over my shoulder toward the group of ghosts in the distance. Jason, Kaleigh, and Grover were in the middle of some sort of intense discussion with the pirate ghosts. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but it seemed pretty spirited. Ha, spirited. If Shiori was here she would’ve loved that. Dammit, now I was missing Shiori all over again. It had been so long since I saw her or Avalon. Or the rest of my family. For a moment, I sort of envied them. From their point of view, I would barely be gone before showing up again. Sure, Ehn had said we would spend some time in the present without them, but even that would only be a few weeks. Who knew how long I would be traveling through time? It had already been over two months, and I was still only in this single time period. Something told me I’d be making more jumps than just this once Ehn decided to come back and go for another jaunt. And given we could just go back to shortly after we left anyway, it could be a really long time before I was able to see them again. I missed my girlfriends, my mom and dad, my little sister, my big sister and brother, my niece, all of them.
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But I couldn’t focus on that. It would just make me feel worse, especially since there was nothing I could do about it right now. Pushing the feeling aside, I turned my gaze back to Laein. She was standing there with both hands extended to either side, eyes literally glowing within the shadows her hood cast over her face. Her lips were moving as she chanted a long series of spells in some language I didn’t follow at all.
I may not have known what the actual spells were, but I could feel her doing something with Necromancy. She was pulling power in on herself, transforming the ambient energy around us into the sort that she could use to control the zombies. I sensed her extending a tendril of magical energy from her fingertips toward the thirty-seven dead bodies lined up at her back. One by one, she took control of them, filling them with that transformed magical energy. It went in through their heads and then spread through them like a skeleton.
“Hah!” Her proud, triumphant laugh filled the air as she focused on me once more, emerald eyes blazing with power. “You’ve made a tragic mistake, oh would-be-rival of mine! You’ve let your guard down and now I control your legion!” She wiggled her fingers, and the zombies she had taken control of did a little jig. “They are my puppets! They are but the start of the armies I will use to rule this pitiful land, and after that, the world!”
“Sure,” I replied easily, “but maybe start with this competition first? You know, as training for world domination.” Belatedly, I added, “And, of course, a demonstration to your soon-to-be minions or cowering subjects.” That was accompanied by a wave of my hand to encompass all the others who were watching this unfold. “After all, a strong overlord always shows off their power to impress the people they’re ruling so they don’t get any ideas.”
For a brief moment, she squinted at me while clearly considering her actions. I could feel the power running from her fingers to the zombies. As she wiggled them (the digits not the dead people), the dead people took up defensive positions as though ready to attack. “Very well, if you insist. What sort of challenge did you have in mind? Shall we set our minions upon the nearest village and see who can savage and burn the most homes?” She showed her teeth in a wide smile at the prospect despite my very strong doubts about how much actual ‘savaging’ or burning she had done. “Our fires shall signal the despair of this world and the loss of its innocence!”
“Yeah, I’m not sure this world was ever innocent,” I informed her dryly. “But I had something a little more immediate and simple in mind anyway. It’s easy. I have thirty-seven zombies on my side and you have thirty-seven on your side. The contest is to try to hold onto our zombies while also trying to take control of the other person’s. No attacking or anything, all we have to do is make as many zombies as possible walk over to our side and stand behind us. Hold your own zombies and take the other person’s. Whoever has the most zombies standing behind them in… uhh, let’s say ten minutes is the winner. That sound fair?”
From the look on Laein’s face, she was trying to figure out where the violence came in. But in the end, the girl gave a slow nod while continuing to squint at me suspiciously. “If that’s what it will take to show my clear and obvious superiority over your feeble power, then I accept this challenge!” Sweeping her arms back to dramatically make her cloak open, revealing dark-colored body armor covered in magical runes, she cackled once more before adding in a pointedly dangerous tone, “Count it off.”
Right, here went nothing. Watching the girl for a brief moment, I announced, “On three. One… two… three.”
Immediately, I felt her power lash out to grab several of my zombies as she thrust her hands forward. At the same time, invisible ‘wings’ of Necromantic energy spread out to either side of her as though acting as shields against my own power. The strings of her influence stabbed through four of my zombies in an attempt to take them over, trying to fill their corpse-bodies the same way she was puppeting the others. I could feel the power coming off her, the way she was straining to take an early lead in this little competition. She wasn’t holding anything back, wasn’t testing the waters or feinting. Everything she had was being shoved into demonstrating just how powerful she was so I would be left in awe of her overwhelming strength.
The four zombies she had taken over took one step forward toward her side before jerking a bit. They took another step, then halted as I forced the tendrils of her power out of them. It was a bit like taking the power I already had in them and expanding it out through their bodies until her own power was forced away. Like if their bodies were cups, our powers were liquids, and I forced my own liquid to fill the cup completely so hers spilled out of it. Something like that.
I felt her push against my power, then abruptly stop and shove most of that power into another few zombies. She did leave just enough pushing against the ones she had initially taken over that I was pretty sure the intent was to make me think she was still trying to take them. Or just to be able to grab them again if I removed the power I was using to hold them in order to go catch the others she was attacking.
Unfortunately for that plan, she ran into the same problem in trying to take over every other zombie on my side. I had filled all of them to the brim with my own power and held fast against her attempts to take them over. For the next couple minutes, I felt her trying to attack from every conceivable angle. She threw everything she had against me, clearly thinking that if she just hit me at the right moment and from the right position, she’d find a zombie I hadn’t protected properly. She thought she could find a slight hole in my defenses and exploit that into a full on assault. Instead, she found herself running up against a brick wall every time. Now and then, she did manage to force her power into a zombie long enough to make it take a step forward. But I always managed to regain control. None of them crossed the line between us.
Finally, after awhile of that ongoing struggle, Laein released her power, drawing it back onto her side while snarling in a low, dark tone that made it clear this admission was hard for her, “Well then, I suppose our powers are evenly matched. It’s a tie.”
Speaking in as flat a voice as I could manage, I asked, “Is it?”
Frowning, the pink girl opened her eyes. She had closed them while focusing so intently on our battle. As she looked around, Laein finally noticed the truth. Every zombie that had been on her side of the field was now on my side. I had kept her distracted shoving more and more of her power against my defenses, while carefully and surreptitiously slipping tendrils of my own to sneak her zombies over to my side one by one throughout that entire time.
But there was more than that. While I had been sneaking her zombies away from Laein, I had also taken the time to summon dead animals from the forest. I didn’t just have all seventy-four of the zombies we had been competing for on my side. I also had several dozen dead deer, raccoons, birds, squirrels, bears, and more. Was that showing off? Yeah, but I needed to make a point.
She was surprised, to say the least. Jumping backward, the girl spun in a circle, taking in that whole thing before raising a hand to point at me. “That’s impossible! Impossible! How did you–how are you–how?! I would’ve heard of you before if you were this strong!”
“Yeah, trust me, that’s a long story,” I replied dryly. “But hey, you’re damn strong too. I’ve got…. um, let’s just say I’ve got enough power backing me up that you even managing to make any of these guys move at all is pretty impressive. It wasn’t a fair match. If you knew uhh, the whole story, you’d know how amazing it is that you got anywhere at all.”
Her eyes narrowed, her tone acidic. “Don’t patronize me.”
“I’m not,” I insisted. “I promise, it’s not about patronizing you. It’s about proving that we both have things to teach each other.”
That got her attention. She straightened up, though her suspicious look didn’t fade. “What are you talking about?”
My shoulders shrugged a bit. “I’m from the future, like Fahsteth was. And like I’m pretty sure you are. Anyway, I always thought the reason I never saw that many Necromancers in that time was because… well, certain people killed them all. But I’m starting to think that’s not all of it. I think I didn’t encounter them in my time because I’ve recruited them in this time period. The thing is, I was brought back here to get stronger, but I don’t think that’s enough. I think we need more than that, a hell of a lot more. If I’ve learned anything over the past couple years, it’s that one person can’t do it all by themselves. So, I’m going to find every Necromancer I can. If they don’t cooperate, we’ll take what we can from them and move them off the board. If they do, we’ll work together.
“See, I’m going to build a school. A school for Necromancers. And we’re all going to teach each other everything we need to know to stop the Fomorians in the future, once and for all.”