“Hey brat.” Called Thracian. “I don’t think I can do this one alone.”

“Oh, could it be his majesty needs this lowly one’s help?” Ignis smiled. “No, that can’t be, it is his majesty, the great conqueror, he wouldn’t need a brat’s help.”

“Don’t even try, brat. Jokes are supposed to be funny, but you make everything dreary.”

They could go at it for hours if need be, knowing it was pointless since neither would fold.

“What is it?” Asked Ignis “Did you find your match?”

“I found your earth mage, but that thing isn’t your everyday spirit. It’s not fully formed like me but it’s conducting a ritual and using other spirits to protect himself.”

Spirit congregating a on a piece of cursed land wasn’t uncommon, but they rarely acknowledged each other existence, much less cooperated.

“They’re acting together to curse this land?”

“I don’t think it’s soothing this elaborate. It’s probably this one spirit using the other. No, my problem is that the other attacked as soon as I approached and it went in hiding.”

“You want me to distract them while you go for it?” It’s range of action was pretty limited with a familiar, not unless he sacrificed them which he hated doing… although he still had a few bandits and mass murders in his bag he wouldn’t feel any remorse for.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“That’s it. I don’t need much time, open the path for me and it won’t have any opportunity to hide.”

Would that even work, though. If they didn’t consider his familiar a threat, they might be tempted to ignore it, or worse, capture it… “Azrael, is there an abandoned village around here, preferably one with a cemetery.”

The young apprentice had been waiting to learn this. Even since he learned of animating the dead, he’d thought about using them to perform exorcisms from a safe distance. “There are, but I cannot tell you if they’ve moved their dead when the people abandoned them.”

It made sense that the people wouldn’t want to leave their loved ones to the mercy of this terrible curse, but that sounded like their best chance too.

Right from the start, they found what they needed. Some graves had been emptied, but most of the older ones had been left alone.

“Alright, let’s do this.” Exclaimed Ignis, walking toward an empty shed near the cemetery. Inside was a pair of shovels left alone either because of their terrible quality, or their intended use. “Catch.” He said as he threw one for Azrael.

“What?” He hadn’t expected that at all. He thought they’d simply use magic and the dead would rise from the ground.

“I can blow a hole open with my fire magic, but you can’t.” He smiled at the child alarm as it reminded him of his own not so long ago. “It’s not as simple as you think to dig your way out, believe me, I tried.”

“Can’t you just blow a hole open?” Pleaded the child.

“I’d do it if I was in a hurry, but since there a risk of damaging the corpse, I won’t.”

“Thracian, you do it.” Ordered the child, but to his dismay, the ghost easily resisted.

With a laugh, Ignis explained. “You are too shaken to control your familiar properly. Anyway, I’m with him on this one, you can’t just leave all the distasteful part to your familiar.”

“Can’t I try too? Digging from inside out?”

“No, that’d be letting Thracian do all the work again.”

“But…” The apprentice suddenly realized something. “Wait a minute, you’re the one needing a corpse, not me.”

“Oh? I thought you wanted to learn?”

“I want to learn magic, not how to rob tombs.”

“Sometimes, they’re the same thing. Now dig!”