Dryads couldn’t sweat. Holly had been pretty sure of that before class, but by the end of it she’d been beyond certain. Neither it turned out could arachni, but everyone else once the hour was up were literally wringing out their clothes and Brin had an actual puddle forming around him as the somewhat dishevelled ogre took deep gulps from the largest hipflask Holly had ever seen.

Vortigern looked at all of them with genuine pride as they lined up in front of him, “Very well done all of you. And particularly to you Holly, I’m aware how tedious today was for you and your perseverance was commendable. As to the rest of you, tomorrow will be a departure from our usual classes. The Bonemason’s Guild has a new design they want tested, so I expect you to take apart whatever haphazard abomination those idiots have cobbled together, understood?”

The gathered students chorused their agreement, though Holly couldn’t help noting the somewhat doubtful expressions on Kristos and Anesh.

“Good. Class dismissed.” Master Vee declared, bowing to them and having that bow returned.

As Holly emerged back into the corridor she realised she had a problem. That wasn’t technically true, she’d realised it from the moment she’d seen their lesson schedule, now though it was imminent. She had absolutely no idea where to go for Basic Reanimation, or any of the classes really, more or less getting lucky with the presumption that the combat classes would be held either together or at least in proximity.

Part of her wondered if this was some kind of test, or even form of hazing, that they put the new students through. A darker, and more pessimistic, side suggested that the complete lack of a map of some sort was a genuine oversight.

The question was how was she supposed to find out where her next lesson was? Normally she’d consult Alec but the bond was just too frail and frankly raw to handle an input as complex as thought.

She could wander around she supposed, and in fact wondered if that’s what Merida had intended them to do with their free time the previous day. Or, it occurred to her belatedly as she stared at her fellow students’ retreating backs, she could just ask someone.

“Guys wait up!” Holly yelled as she broke into a jog to catch them before they could all go their separate ways (presuming their next class was not also shared).

Everyone stopped in their tracks bar Alicia, who, if anything, increased her pace, determined to get out of the potential blast radius of whatever Holly planned on saying.

It was Kristos, naturally, who pulled the pin. “What do you need Holly?”

“It’s silly really…” The dryad withering a little under their attention. “I don’t know where my next classroom is.”

“You weren’t given a tour?” Anesh blurted.

“The closest thing I got to a tour was when you showed us where the common room was.”

Anesh winced, “Well crap. What class do you have?”

“Basic Reanimation.” Holly admitted, trying to ignore the embarrassment as she did so.

Fortunately for her ego her fellow students didn’t snipe at her paltry necromantic knowledge. At least not overtly. “Basic Reanimation…” Kristos murmured, “I know where the regular students have to take it, but there’s more chance of the Winter Court leaving a grudge uncollected than of them putting you in with normal folk. Anyone got any ideas?”

“Never took it.” Anesh shrugged, “But it’s got to be one of the reanimation labs. Anyone got a reanimation class next?”

“Library time for me.” Hope said, the giant spider crossing her forelimbs in a surprisingly expressive no.

“I think Alicia does...” Kristos sighed, gesturing to the empty corridor ahead of them.

“Brin has lab time to work on his scrimshaw.” The ogre offered. “Won’t be same lab, but close. And noone checks on Brin.”

“A plan with no drawbacks. Not that ol’ Morty’s likely to give you a hard time for being late, but first impressions and all that.” The faeblood drawled, “And none of us get punished either. Always a bonus.”

Which was how Holly found herself walking, or scurrying given the difference in stride, alongside Brin. The young dryad doing her best to keep tracks of the twists and turns they were taking, and fairly sure they’d doubled back on themselves twice.

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“This place is a damned maze.” She grumbled, as her memory finally failed her.

“No. Holly just thinks it’s a maze so Holly sees maze. People think Necropolis dark see dark.” Brin rumbled. “Was same for Brin. It why Necropolis work hard on bad reputation. People who think Necropolis home, see home. Just takes time.”

The dryad scowled, “So what do you see then?”

“Nice straight path.” Brin grinned, reaching out to ruffle Holly’s red and waxy hair with a meaty hand. “It a good trick. Hard to learn.”

“Why would anyone even put a spell like that in place?” Holly spluttered, figures twisting with annoyance and bemusement.

“Home advantage.” The ogre said sagely. “It hard to make spell that can spot enemy. So let enemy spot themself. Can be done, but once lots of people becomes too hard to keep track of who who.”

Holly took that in, “Surely that can go wrong though? Like what if the scary ambience just makes me more scared, leading to even scarier ambience?”

That stumped Brin for a little bit, the ogre’s brow scrunching in comically exaggerated thought before enlightenment graced him. “Then Holly should not be necromancer.”

“Just like that huh?” Holly said bitterly, “Can’t handle it, don’t do it.”

“Is not bad. Lots of people not necromancers. Doesn’t make them bad people. Lots of mages not necromancers. Doesn’t make them bad at magic.”

“Why do you talk like that?” Holly asked softly, the question had been on her mind almost from the moment she’d met Brin. And now they were alone it gave her a chance to broach the subject. “You’re obviously smart so why…?”

“Talk like idiot?” Brin offered gently. “Ogre not good at talk. Talk hurts. Not made for it.”

“Made for it…?” Holly trailed off as her mind ran through the implications.

“Alicia wrong. Brin have secret. All ogre have secret. Only tell Holly cause Holly already know big bit.”

“Hang on. I don’t know anything about ogres.” Holly protested, worried one of those deadly secrets Alicia had been so scared of was about to be dropped in her lap.

“Big secret of ogres only half about ogres. Half about gods. That they exist.” Brin smiled, “See. Holly not surprised. Brin was right.”

“How on Reath did you know...”

“Was simple. Erebus broke aetheric chain. Holly travel with Erebus.” The ogre explained cheerily. “Also demon god kinda big clue gods exist.”

“I didn’t actually travel with Erebus when he went to break the chain.” Holly admitted, “And in the battle… I think the word god was only used once.”

“Oh… Brin got lucky then.” The ogre sighed, covering his face in embarrassment. “Should know better. Assumptions. Stupid Brin.”

“I don’t do the whole sage advice thing very well… but you’re being a bit hard on yourself. Anyway, you wanted to tell me something because I know gods exist?”

“Yeah. Gods made ogres. But when they made us… we couldn’t talk.” Brin’s face scrunched up with pain as he forced himself to say it all, leaving no ambiguity by dropping words or choosing something that was just close enough to what he want wanted. “We could grunt, that was about it. Our hands were too clumsy for all but the most basic sign language. And we were magically primed to believe whatever we were told. But we could think and we could understand. We were fodder essentially, made to be the perfect soldiers. Easy to manipulate and hard to kill.”

“But you can talk now?” Holly questioned, taking aim at the obvious flaw in what Brin was saying.

“It took generations of careful breeding to get ogres that could produce the sounds needed for the common tongue. Which was about as unethical as Holly can imag-” Brin broke off coughing, bloody spittle on his hand, “imagine.” He ground out, forcing himself to finish while wiping the blood awkwardly on his shirt. “Ditto the hands.”

“Oh… I mean… I’m glad you felt it safe to tell me all that. But I can’t help wondering why?”

“We...” Brin tried, but this time the coughing was just too much, thick, crimson blood starting to leak from between his lips. Reluctantly the ogre shook his head, not-quite-crying with frustration as he managed two more words. “Another time.”

“Okay. Take all the time you need Brin.” Holly said softly, patting the ogre on the arm.

Brin nodded, taking a deep breath and just like that the vision of jovial calm the ogre tried to exude was back.

The walk to the reanimation labs after that was a short one, made all the easier by the obvious signpost that had been left to mark the Basic Reanimation lab.

“Holly!” Alec yelled as she came into view, the teenager slowing his charge enough that the hug didn’t bowl her to the floor. “I was starting to get worried!”

The teenager honestly looked awful. His hair still damp for all that his clothes were dry, and his face had been outright haunted and pallid in the moments before he’d spotted her.

“What in the Hells happened to you?” She demanded, once she’d successfully pried her host off of her.

“My treatment was a bit more… intense than I was expecting.” Alec replied sheepishly.

“So not just sitting in a bath for an hour then.” Holly concluded.

“Well I did spend an hour in a bath… I’ll tell you later. Probably.” Her host said with as much cheer as he could force.

“When you’re ready.” Holly agreed before turning to Brin, “Thanks for guiding me… and for trusting me. Is it okay if I share any of it with Alec? In private I mean?”

Brin opened his mouth to speak, but just as quickly closed it, rubbing at his throat. Instead he gave Holly a single nod before giving her a companionable pat on the shoulder that left her staggering as he ambled off to get to his own class.

“What was that about?” Alec inquired once Brin had gone into his lab.

“I’ll tell you later.” Holly assured him, “For now we’ve got a lesson to attend.”

Alec nodded slowly, trepidation slowing his steps towards the door. Fingers white at the twisted the handle. “Time to finally learn necromancy.”