> "They made him seek his own. They used him like a dog in the service of destroying the jaan. If he were to be in Her service, then to be of use for Him and His flock is its own redemption. Turn now slave, turn against family and friend, join the light against the dark."
>
> - Of Myth and Legend, Iteri and their use of the Necromancer.
Outside, William and Elena walked on the path leading away from the Royal Tree. It had been no more than ten minutes, but those ten minutes left Elena excited. She had been told her destiny, and it sounded vague and mysterious, like something out of her books. In her mind, the family she left is the darkness, and the Necromancer will guide her to the light.
William, however, looked at her sadly. While he walked beside her and her smiling face and energized body language, he wilted, knowing full well that there is no magic that can divine the fate of someone. Still, he continued forward through the path, considering potential places the Necromancer could be hiding, or where they could go next.
Back on the main road, Elena still talked about her destiny and how it was like she dreamed. They walked side by side on the road, not going back the way they came, or down the road towards the wall that would surely be there. Instead, they walked up, looking for any other hints of where the Necromancer might’ve gone or hid.
Despite Elena’s happiness, the lack of evidence, or hints to where the enigmatic figure had gone quickly wilted her energy. Each bush, tree, and stick were only as they were. No sign led to another path, and no tracks remained if he had gone through here. And while Shade bounded through the road and hid in the bushes only to repeat the feat, eyes glowing in the dark, it did not alleviate Elena’s worry.
The Necromancer still evaded capture, and no grand destiny would bring him closer.
“Why don’t you like fortune tellers?” She finally asks after having walked for dozens of minutes. “I think they’re pretty neat.”
As they continued walking, William turned his head from side to side, as if thinking through his answer. When he finally answered, his voice held a hint of resentment, “I already know my fortune. In my life, I always meet misfortune. It always happens. One of my friends said that I’ll keep standing. She hasn’t been wrong. Other than that? Not even the Iteri could read someone’s fortune.”
They continued to walk in silence for a moment longer. Each twisted tree and each shadow cast an ominous, yet comforting light against the path. The moon shone bright overhead, and the air pressed through them, running down the hills toward the city.
“Well, I think fortunes are cool, even if they’re fake.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“What’s so good about being hurt over and over again, and making it into a promise?” He looks to his side, down at her with sad eyes, as if he’d seen enough hurt in his life to make him want to give up. “Besides, like I said, not even the Iteri could tell the future, just who you are.”
Elena and William continued like that for a time. Elena could understand that pain. While she had no idea what William had been through, it was easy to see that he had gone through enough to make him want to stop and give up. While he might not be the Necromancer, he was someone who could understand the pain inside. He’s someone she could trust.
“So, who are the Iteri? In my books, they’re the ones who enslaved the Necromancer before he was the Necromancer and turned him against people like him, but that’s all it says.”
“They really don’t say a lot in a lot of books, it’s okay if you don’t know,” he said, as he shifted his eyes to the ground. “From what I know, they were just people who helped people be themselves. They hated the Necromancer, since his ‘soul was tainted’” he said with air quotes.
William sighed, then put his hands in his pockets. “For everyone else, they would read your soul, tell you where your soul wants to go, and what it wants to go. They called it a draw and an urge. Then, they’d help you grow, and understand yourself and what you want to do.”
He looked to Elena, eyes rapt with curiosity. “That sounds like the old wise people in some stories. Or, like those wizards in the old stories, from the old world.”
William chuckled lightly. “Well, yeah. Iteri is an old-world term for ‘again’” he laughed a bit more at that. “Anyway, some stories say that if you really understand yourself and what you want to understand, then you’d be able to connect to it, and with a bit of a push, make things more like themselves. Rocks become harder, swords become sharper, plants grow more, stuff like that.”
Elena, still excited, now held some confusion. “That sounds sort of like what the church does, they can heal wounds and stuff since that’s what the body wants to do..”
“Well,” William began, “there’s some evidence that the church adopted some of the Iteri beliefs before they fell.”
They talked for a time, about the church, Iteri, and what they could do. Rocks could be moved, plans could grow, and so much more. “We can talk more about this later,” William said, more at ease now. “But, that’s my point, they can’t tell the future.”
“I get it,” Elena said stepping out of the forest path, and onto the connecting one that led high up the city walls. A building stood next to where the hill led into a steep drop. The sides of the wall rose, this short wall only reached to their waist. The moon hung overhead, and before them lay a large untamed valley. Behind them, the city shone in the night. The wall of glass and steel shined bright against the dark sky, the Deuda itself a nearly black shadow in comparison.
“The city is so large,” she said breathlessly. William stood on the wall facing the empty field. Far in the distance, the faint light carved outlines of hills. The roads lead out into the distance, to other cities and homes.
Elena looked at the moon, “it’s so beautiful.”
“Yeah. If wish everyone could see the beauty in it.”
“When I was younger, I was afraid of it. But since my fall, it’s grown on me. It was the first thing I saw.”
Next to them both, Shade walked on the side of the wall, a black streak against the grey stone.
“Can you imagine, ages ago, when the Necromancer came with his undead hoard of jaan to conquer the city? In my books, Sol fought the Necromancer and protected everyone. I’d join the Necromancer now, of course, but can you imagine it?”
William, with a sad expression on his face, nods, “yeah, I can imagine it.”