It was a good thing that Ehn had been kidding about me only having a few minutes to get into that house and stop this guy, because I stood outside with my ghosts coming up with the best possible plan I could for a bit longer than that. I didn’t only speak with Seth, Grover, and Manakel either. I also brought out the other ghosts I’d brought along for their perspectives. That included Jason, Kaleigh, Chas, and Emily. I had intended to leave them back at the Fusion School so they could spend more time with Miles and Royce instead of separating them so quickly, but they insisted on coming. They wanted to watch my back, and thought it would be good for their living teammates to have a little time without them while still knowing they were out there. A bit of safe separation to better come to terms with their situations.
I wasn’t sure I understood all that, but it was their choice. So they had come along, and helped out when it came to figuring out the best way to deal with this evil Necromancer suburban guy.
I also thought about contacting people back home through my connection with Tabbris, but decided against it. While it might still be within the spirit of things to use absolutely every resource at my disposal, something told me I should at least try to handle this without getting advice from my mother and everyone else back there. As far as this test went, it was better for me to use my own resources that I had with me. Especially since if I did screw this up, Ehn was still here to put a stop to the situation before it completely spiraled out of control. Even if I died, there was no way he would allow this guy to win.
In the end, we came up with what I thought was the best plan we could given our time and resource restraints. I sent my ghosts off before shifting my face and hair to make myself look a couple years younger. I added a pink streak down on the side of my hair, and used magic to shift my clothes to better fit some sort of school uniform. After that, I used my face shifting power a bit more to add slight dark circles under my eyes, made them a little bloodshot, and finally put a thin line across my throat to make it look like I had been strangled. A quick check with Manakel had confirmed that even though I couldn’t access my powers once I got close to the house, the physical changes I made to myself beforehand would stay.
Finally, I blanketed myself with Necromantic energy, wrapping it around my body like a cloak. It was like summoning power to use a spell and then just not using it.
There, perfect. Looking up and down the street to make sure it was clear, I took a breath before starting that way. My eyes were on the simple-looking house ahead of me. I could still feel all that power coming off it. If anything, the sensation was even stronger. He was getting closer to finishing this thing, and that… yeah, I was willing to take Ehn’s word for how bad that would be. This guy had to be stopped, and it was now or never as far as I was concerned.
With that in mind, I walked across that street, up over the sidewalk, and followed the path toward the front door. I made sure to put a little bounce in my step, trying to come off as a simple, careless girl scout walking from house to house taking cookie orders. Right, nothing untowards there. I was just a tooooottally normal girl who happened to walk up to the house of a man who was about to destroy the world.
Doing my best to give off those vibes, I politely ignored the way various decorations in the flower bed seemed to turn to stare at me as I passed, bouncing cheerfully up the stairs with an audible giggle (ugh) before grinning as unnaturally widely as I could while hitting the doorbell. There was a camera there, and I kept my smile going while calling out in a singsong voice, “Cookies for sale!” Did I feel utterly ridiculous and stupid right then? Yes, yes I did. But that was a large part of the point. I was supposed to look ridiculous right now.
I had the feeling that a big part of the reason for the following ten seconds of silence, with absolutely no apparent response from the house, was the man in question asking himself if this was really happening. It had to feel a bit surreal from his end, especially coming right on the cusp of his total triumph. But just in case he got the idea to ignore me, I reached out and hit the doorbell again. That same absurd, and honestly probably a bit creepy, smile stayed plastered to my face while I called out once more. “They’re delicious and for a very good cause, sir! Buy two boxes, get one half off!” I was, of course, ignoring the fact that I didn’t seem to have any actual boxes with me at all. Was that normal? Did people often buy cookies at home and have them shipped later? I had never actually been a girl scout.
I pushed all those thoughts out of my head, however, at the sound of movement behind the front door. While keeping the clueless, creepy grin on my face, I strained my senses as hard as I could. I was actually really vulnerable standing right here in front of the door. If the guy just decided to deal with the situation by firing a gun through it or something, I could be in trouble.
God, I wished I had my item sense. This was hard. I had no powers other than my Necromancy. I couldn’t tell what he was doing over there, what he was holding, or anything. It made me anxious, though I tried to clamp down on that as best as I could. The man was there, clearly still deciding how to react to all this. I could basically feel his gaze locked on me, and did my level best to make my eyes glaze over slightly, swaying there on the porch as though I was barely able to stand. All the while, I continued to smile, my face actually hurting a bit from holding that expression. Nor was it easy to stop myself from blinking through that entire time. I was just standing there on the porch, grinning like some sort of horror creature while the rest of my expression stayed carefully blank and empty, without blinking. I was smiling like a lunatic while carefully keeping my eyes dead inside. It was a hard thing to pull off, especially considering how nervous I was. But I managed to keep it going.
Finally, the door opened almost without warning. The young-looking (he seemed to be in his twenties) man who stood there was just over six feet tall, with long red hair and a dark green flannel shirt along with jeans. He certainly didn’t look like a powerful necromancer. But then again, neither did I. His eyes were hard as he glared at me before making a dismissive noise with his mouth as his hand flicked to one side. I felt a bit of his power crash over me before allowing myself to fall over. My body collapsed entirely, crashing off the porch and down into the nearby flower bed. I got dirt in my mouth and crushed a rose under my leg. Its thorns didn’t exactly like that. And to be honest, neither did I. Falling off that porch and into the dirt was not my idea of a good time, especially when I didn’t have any other powers to mitigate it. No regeneration, no extra strength. It was just me falling on the ground without even trying to catch myself. That was the worst of it. I had to fall without actually rolling or putting my hand out or anything, hitting the dirt hard like that. And I couldn’t yelp or anything.
Still, I laid there in completely motionless, drawing my power completely in on myself as much as possible, smothering it. To one side, the man walked down off the porch, raising his voice. “You can come out now!” His words filled the air, actually rattling the nearby windows from the force and volume, yet no one in any of the other houses came to investigate. Probably thanks to the shield he had around his property. “Sending one of your pets to distract me might have worked for someone of a lesser skill. But you have no idea who you’re dealing with!”
There was a brief moment of silence before Seth spoke up from the front walk. “Are you sure about that?” As he said that, the whole area around him was filled with Necromantic power. Energy I had fed into him for this moment. Normally he could have used it to remain solid for a good hour, or even get in a full-on fight. But now, he expended all of it over those brief few seconds. It was like a bright flood light had suddenly been switched on, overwhelming this guy’s senses somewhat. It wasn’t enough to completely blind him or anything, but it certainly got his attention. I felt him gathering his own power, a long-handled, black-bladed axe appearing in one hand. There was a lot of power in that axe too, as the man reared back with it. He was too close to his goal. He wasn’t going to waste any time playing with this intruder. Not when he was right on the cusp of succeeding with a plan that had been centuries in the making. Instead, he waited just long enough to get a glimpse of the man standing at the front of his property, then hurled the powerful axe that way. The weapon went spinning end over end, heading straight for Seth’s chest. And then… then it passed straight through him of course. The axe flew out into the street, crashing down onto the pavement and skidding all the way to the opposite gutter.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The man stopped short, finally allowing the rush of power that Seth had filled the air with to dissipate enough to see what he was looking at. “You… you’re not the Necromancer.”
That was as far as the man managed to get before my silver knife was driven through his throat, as I had managed to very stealthily pick myself up and move directly behind him while he was distracted. As my knife sliced through his jugular, sending his blood spraying as he made a loud, horrified screeching sound and flailed in shock, I announced, “Man, you worked that out quick.”
Yeah, maybe it wasn’t a hugely elaborate plan, but ‘let the bad guy think I was a random zombie instead of his actual opponent so I could slip behind him and knife the fucker before he even knew I was a threat’ had seemed simple and clear enough considering the time we’d had to work with. And hey, here we were.
The man gurgled something about being so close as his body struggled against the inevitable. I felt him trying to summon the energy from a bunch of living things (animals) he had trapped inside. Oh right, he was basically attempting to do the same thing Fossor had liked to do, spend ‘death energy’ to heal himself.
Well we couldn’t have that, could we? With a grunt of effort, I caught hold of the energy he was pulling in and shoved it aside so he couldn’t use it like that. Wait, that was an option now? Boy did I ever wish I’d been able to do that with Fossor. But at least now I didn’t have to deal with this asshole fixing himself the same way. “Really?” I managed while driving the knife deeper just because I could. “My last big Necromancer threat could pull energy from clear across the universe, and I’m supposed to be impressed by you pulling it out of your own house?”
The man said something else, but it was completely unintelligible. He was too far gone. His body slumped, falling lifelessly against me before I stepped out of the way and let it collapse completely. In that moment, I felt another rush as his power filled me. It wasn’t anywhere near what killing Fossor or Manakel had felt like, but still managed to make me gasp and take a reflexive step back. Necromancy. I was getting even more Necromancy, just like Ehn wanted. But I also felt more than that. I had gotten more Necromancy, but also something else. Was that… wait, I knew a Boscher could get more than one power by killing another Heretic, but some random Incubus Necromancer? Why was I getting more than one power from him?
Shaking off that feeling, I looked around as Seth and the rest of my current group of ghosts approached. Grover shook his head, lamenting, “I still say I should’ve been the one to stab him. That’s not fair.”
“I’ll let you stab someone soon,” I promised. “But he could have stopped you if you got too close to him. Problems with being a ghost going up against a Necromancer. This was the best way to do it.” While saying that, I stared down at the body on the ground. I didn’t know anything about the guy, except for what I could sense and what Ehn had told me. But he really had been a powerful Necromancer. And judging by what I was still sensing inside that house, he had definitely been up to something pretty bad.
Wait, that was right, I was still sensing something bad in there. Which was probably why Ehn hadn’t come out to join us yet. I wasn’t done fixing this situation. Turning to look at the house, I frowned before starting to walk that way. In mid-step, I spun around and came back to take my knife out of the dead man’s throat. Stowing it, I gestured for the others. “Come on, there’s still something in there. Something… bad.”
Instead of going straight in, I stopped at the doorway and checked for traps. Naturally, he had about half a dozen spells right there, waiting to do bad things to anyone who crossed them without his permission. And he wasn’t exactly in the best state to give that permission anymore. So, I took a few moments to carefully break those spells, ensuring the entrance was safe before heading in. Kaleigh, right behind me, murmured something about the house reminding her of her grandmother’s place, including the smell.
It really did seem like the sort of house a grandparent would live in. Well, not mine, obviously. But the stereotypical sort. There were weird knick knacks everywhere, a piano in the nearby living room that was positively covered in tiny wooden figurines, a table full of expensive china that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years, plastic covering the couch as though just waiting for a little kid to fill the room with squeaking sounds as they desperately tried to get comfortable on it, random pictures across all the walls, and very thick shag carpet that looked like a small dog could get lost inside it.
The rest of the ghosts spread out through the room to check for anything dangerous, while Doctor Manakel appeared beside me. Well, not right beside me. He seemed to be deliberately leaving a little space between us, which I appreciated. “The man outside was certainly a powerful Necromancer,” he informed me. “Your new mentor was right about that. Still, I don’t entirely trust him.” A pause followed before he bowed his head while adding, “Not, of course, that you entirely trust me either.”
“We’re getting there,” I informed him quietly before giving the man a brief look. Yes, our relationship was complicated to say the least. After everything he had done the year before, all the shit that had led up to his death, it wasn’t easy for me to just accept that he was different now. But he really had been helpful so far. Not just for me, but for others while I was gone. He had apparently been giving information that helped track down several hidden Seosten supply caches for weapons and tools that would end up being incredibly helpful.
The truth was, I had to accept that people could change. Otherwise, my whole way of thinking was going to fall apart. Just because I had personal feelings about the man didn’t mean I could simply throw away his contributions now. Besides, he was a ghost and I was a Necromancer. I had a bit of an advantage if things did go wrong.
But I couldn’t let myself think that way. Instead, I turned away and continued looking through the house with the others. My senses led us down into the basement, of course. I had no idea why I ever thought his work would be anywhere other than the basement honestly, unless there had been a handy cemetery out back. And that didn’t really seem like something that would pass the neighborhood rules.
This place looked like it had been pretty nice at one point. There was a whole entertainment center, a bar stocked with what I assumed was decent stuff, and a children’s room. But now the majority of that had been torn up, revealing a dirt hole where our friend outside had created a whole mess of weapons using bones. Yeah, they weren’t drawn on the ground, they were shaped out of various bones from what I was pretty sure were human remains. It created a circular spell-form that was about fifteen feet across in diameter. That was where the power I was sensing was coming from.
“Okay, guys,” I started after taking all that in. “Time to dismantle this thing properly.”
“Not just yet,” came a response from the stairwell, as Ehn descended into view. Persephone was right behind him. Cerberus, I assumed, was staying outside for now.
My eyes narrowed as I looked that way. “Excuse me? Wasn’t it the entire point of this to stop what this guy had planned?” I felt my hands tighten into fists reflexively.
The man bowed his head. “Yes, and you have done that, thank you. But there is no sense in throwing away potential resources. Especially not after so much time and effort was put into gathering all this energy. It should be put to a much greater use. And as it happens, I have just the thing.”
My mouth opened to say something, but Ehn was already raising his hand, with two coins held between his fingers. Before any sound could escape me, he snapped those coins together, saying a single word. As soon as he did, I was completely blinded by a blast of light, along with a physical shockwave that knocked me backward. I felt my stomach twist inside out, losing what little I’d been able to eat in a heave as I hit the ground.
It was over almost as soon as it started. I found myself lying on some grass in a field behind some trees. Percy was right beside me, with Cerberus on the other side, all three of his heads anxiously whining and staring down at me as he waited for some sign of life.
“—quite alright, I assure you.” My hearing kicked back in just in time to catch the last of what Ehn was saying.
“What–what the fuck just–” I reached out reflexively for my connection to Tabbris, only to pick up nothing. “What the fuck did you do?! I can’t sense Tabs.” I was on my feet an instant later, my staff in my hand.
Ehn simply watched me, holding up his index finger. “One moment, Miss Chambers, and I will explain. Your sister, as well as all your loved ones, are just fine. And you will be able to tell them you are fine as well, once we catch up with them.”
“Catch up with them?” I echoed in confusion.
“Well yes, you didn’t expect me to give you all the training you need in a couple months, did you?” Ehn shook his head. “I need much more time than that. Which is precisely what I’ve given us.
“We have gone back in time. Now your training can truly begin.”