“First off, I need to apologize.” I started. “We all know I was hiding things, and rather poorly, but you don’t know the extent of what I was hiding. For that, I’m sorry. Not for hiding it to save my life, but because by hiding it I have unknowingly put you all in danger.”
“You all know I came from the Lost Lands. That’s true. What you don’t know is that I come from Necropolis, the city of necromancers. There my family has ruled for decades as they wait for the rebirth of Melnon. Tomas, I’m sure you and plenty of others have always wondered why necromancers are all missing their pinky finger?”
At my sudden question, Tomas flinched. “Yes. We’ve wondered for a very long time. Most just assume it is a ceremony to attain power.”
“They are close.” I nodded. “It is a way to attain power, but not like what you imagine. At his death, Melnon left behind a spatial ring full of notes along with two objects of great power for when he was reborn. Every necromancer at their age ceremony places this ring on their pinky, hoping it will accept them. Failure results in the ring destroying their finger.”
“Brutal.” Nick nodded. “But what were those two objects of power? And why are you bringing it up?”
“One is the Ebon Staff. Made of a specially treated wood, it houses one of the most powerful soul gems ever created. The other you two saw earlier today. Bloodsong.” I said, pulling the blade out of the ring on my finger.
*CRASH*
We were all startled as Tomas’ chair crashed to the ground. He was suddenly standing there with a wand pointing directly at my forehead, and I could tell from the sweat on his pale brow that he had a spell at the ready to kill me.
“Yo. You.” He stuttered, and I got rather nervous as the tip of the wand started waving.
“Relax Tomas.” I said, putting the sword away. I subconsciously started twirling the ring on my pinky. “I’m not going to hurt anyone in this village. In fact, I think the way the necromancers live is deplorable. The strong rule and the weak have no rights. Any rebellion is put down with a degree of savagery not seen outside of rabid beasts and starving monsters. Then the remains are made into abominations and forced to serve for eternity.”
“So you escaped. What’s more important is we need to know how many are on your tail? How many necromancers are coming for your head?”
“Just the one.” I said.
“Bullshit. That’s the inheritance of their creator!”
“You don’t understand the politics of Necropolis.” I replied, maintaining my calm. Getting into a shouting match with Tomas wouldn’t help anything. “Sorry. I’m going about this all wrong and I’m screwing it up.” I said with a sigh.
“So explain the city politics first. We’ll listen.” I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked up to see a smiling Sheila.
“Why?” I asked her. Despite my lack of clarity, she understood the point of the question.
“You had hidden it for so long. Yet when we were in danger, you cast it all away to save us. You could have hidden in that barrier with us and waited for the townspeople to arrive, but you didn’t. You stepped out to deal with the wolves and used everything you had. You’ve earned at least us listening.”
“Wolves? What wolves?” Tomas asked, lowering his wand in his confusion.
“The pack of wolves that sent the bear our way found us.” Nick said. “And Shells is right. If Terrance hadn’t revealed himself, we wouldn’t be here.”
“Right. Sorry, got distracted. We’ll get to the wolves in a minute.” I said, taking a few moments to compose myself. I had to get it right this time. “So. Power rules in Necropolis, but it isn’t all straight strength. If you are cunning enough to outwit your enemies and kill them, that is another form of power. On my age ceremony, it was only my father and my cousin that were present. Only they know that Melnon’s ring accepted me. They overpowered me and had been torturing me in the dungeon for months. Without my will, they couldn’t access the contents of the ring. That’s why they couldn’t kill me outright. It was there that I found one of the second tier forms of death mana. Corrosion. That let me escape.”
“Second tier?” Tomas interrupted.
“I’ll get to that.” I waved him off. “So I escaped, and headed to the only land where I could have a chance of living in. A land that if they discovered my secret would kill me, but a land where they wouldn’t bother me if they didn’t know I was a necromancer. If I took the only way the armies of Necropolis know of to invade the kingdom, it would have taken me months to travel through the jungle with nearly no provisions. The I would have to cross the battle lines as well as several camps of Inquisitors. The chances of success there were way too low. So instead I headed to the lowest peak in the World’s Spire range, hoping I could cross it just before winter set in. Then let winter cover my tracks and hold off pursuit.”
“I didn’t expect to almost die in a snowstorm.” I sighed. “Scott saved me, and I’ve been hiding here ever since. I didn’t realize at the beginning, but the nightmares I was having where I was being chased? That was my cousin using a piece of my soul to track me. It’s not important.” I waved off the interest in the statement about my soul. “What is important is knowing that Eric is the one chasing me.”
“How does that help?” Nick asked.
“First, my father is one of the strongest necromancers out there. But he can’t leave Necropolis without letting others know something important is going on. They would then send out people to either thwart him, kill him, or delay him so that they could run rampant at the capital. I’m assuming that he gave Eric some helpful items, but he might not have. Eric could be hiding my escape hoping to claim the ring and its contents for himself.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“So does that mean we only have one junior necromancer on their way here?” Tomas asked.
“Yep.” I agreed. “Eric is strong, a little stronger than me last I knew. But he isn’t talented and he likes to lord his victories over each other.”
“Ok. I take it you have some sort of plan then?”
“I do. How long before your Inquisitor can get here?”
“Four days.” He shook his head. “Even that is rushing it. Do you think we have that long?”
“Not a chance.” I shook my head. “The good news is that we won’t need the inquisitor. But we are going to need the entire village to work together.”
“We’re with you.” Nick said, and Sheila nodded. “We don’t need to let anyone else know about that Melnon stuff. But we will have to say something about the death magic.”
“I can reveal myself to be an escaped necromancer. That’s fine.” I said. “Do we have any gems that the blacksmith can affix to weapons?”
“There might be a few hidden in the village, why?” Tomas asked. “Are you planning on enchanting things? I thought you had to crush and treat those gems with alchemy before you could enchant an item.”
“Callumen knows I would love to be able to enchant things. No, that’s beyond me. What I can do is fill the gems up with life energy and we can give it a half step enchantment. It can only let the blade have a few blows imbued with life energy, but that should be enough to destroy or cripple any undead Eric can make.”
“Cripple? Do you think he will have any that don’t have bodies?” Tomas asked, nervous.
“He shouldn’t. That is fairly advanced. There is a small chance that dad sent him with one, but I doubt it. Eric wouldn’t have the abilities to control it, and they have a tendency to rebel.”
“Ok, we can work with that. What gems do you need?”
“Any naturally pink stone would work. Diamonds too.” I noted. “Don’t you guys know gem color matches its mana attunement and efficiency?”
“They probably do back at the capital, but I never had any interest in crafting things.” Tomas shrugged.
“Eh, ok.” I said, shrugging. “So we can get a few blades enchanted. Take any precautions you would if you knew something was coming from the Lost Lands. Especially the same way I came. I wouldn’t put it past Eric to try a pincer. Can Hazel make potions that cleanse wounds?”
“She can.” Sheila nodded. “Those and healing potions are the most in demand of her here. Why would you need cleansing though?”
“You don’t want to know what all an undead creature can have on its claws.” Tomas shuddered, and I nodded.
“One of the worst tricks to use in my opinion.” I added.
“So what can we be expecting to face?”
“He’ll have a few small creatures. Not many, as he finds them beneath him. But they make good harassers for when he sends the big stuff our way. I would assume that he managed to kill and raise a few of the wolves from the pack we took out today. Right now he is probably working on taking out and raising the bears on that slope. Do you guys know how many there are?” I asked, looking at Nick and Sheila.
“A handful, maybe 7 or 8?” She answered. “We could ask Ben to know for sure.”
“It’s ok.” I said. “We can deal with it. Can we get everyone to meet here and discuss further tonight?”
“Yeah, probably for the best to have everyone nearby.” Tomas said.
“Great.” I said, getting up. “Can you two work with Ben to find out if there are any ways to trap the approach the bears are likely to use? I have something a little more personal to discuss with Tomas.”
“Sure. See you soon.” Nick said, patting me on the back on his way out. “Oh, hey.” He stopped and turned to look at me. “Are you sure you are Melnon reborn?”
“Yeah, why?” I asked.
“Nothing. Just thought you would be taller is all.”
“Nick!” Sheila gasped, but I broke out laughing after what he said sunk in.
“Taller? Oh gods, thanks Nick. I needed that.” Getting a nod in return, he headed out with Sheila to prepare. I turned back to my seat to see Tomas giving me a weird look.
“You shocked that the big bad guy from your stories has returned and isn’t leading the charge to conquer everything?”
“Actually? Yes.” He said. “A little bit at least. So what did you need me to do that you couldn’t say in front of the other two?”
I sighed as a wave of melancholy passed through me. “I need a favor.”
“Sure, assuming we survive. If I can do it, I’ll try my best.”
“When you call the Inquisitor to visit, can you see if they will bring a priest of Callumen and one of Loreli?”
I could tell my request had been one of the furthest things from Tomas’ mind. “If they will come and help me design a ritual, one that the gods won’t object to, I’ll surrender to the Inquisitor. Prolly end up doing that anyway, but. Yeah.”
“Why do you need a ritual?” He asked, staring at me with a look I couldn’t decipher. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to try, but I had some inklings.
“Scott is dying.” I said, and when Tomas didn’t flinch I knew that probably a lot of people were helping him hide it from Ellie. Hazel was probably in on it too, come to think of it. “I’ve been helping with fighting the wasting disease, but as you know it’s a losing battle. And I’m starting to lose faster and faster. He won’t last the winter, and I’m worried about Ellie.”
“So you plan to turn him into an undead?” He scowled.
“No. Never. They would never forgive me, and I wouldn’t ever forgive myself. I have something in mind, but.”
Tomas and I both froze as a presence seemed to fill the church. An aura of love and longing filled the air, and we were both weeping as we felt it. “The priests will be there, children of my beloved. Do not dwell on this part, for much must succeed if you are to attempt it. Go and prepare.”
“Was that?” I asked after a minute or so.
“It had to be.” He answered. “I’ve got to make a call. Can you?”
“I’ll be here waiting.” I said, still shocked by the presence of the divine that lingered in the air. All my life I had been raised to believe that the gods would spurn any and all necromancers, and that Loreli would cast our souls aside to be reborn as swiftly as possible. After all, our creator had twisted the magics of his god and done battle against her.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tomas’ POV
I stumbled into my office, shocked at what I had learned. There was so much I had to pass on that I knew the crystal wouldn’t hold out. It just didn’t have that much of a charge, and I didn’t have the mana capacity to enhance it for long enough. As it is, I was going to have to use the highest emergency code I had.
“Code black.” I said firmly as I activated the communicator.
“Hold.” Came the immediate response, and I knew that things were kicking off. While code black was usually reserved for a full on necromancer invasion, this was definitely going to require the response of the highest levels of the church and government. Less than a minute later and I had a call back from someone high enough that I felt comfortable dealing with them.
“Inquisitor Alms here. Capital has been linked in and are listening.” They said, and I couldn’t quite figure out their gender, not that it really mattered. “Situation.”
“Crownhill reporting a code black situation.” I reiterated, wondering how much to give them. For some reason I felt like the minimum was going to be our best bet. “Necromancer escapee with important relics has defected. Pursuit from single unknown necromancer. Request immediate deployment of Inquisitor as well as priests of Callumen and Loreli.”
The line went quiet, and I waited patiently. Crownhill was out of the way, so there wouldn’t be any resources that could get to us in time. We all knew that, which was why so many here were soldiers.
“Tomas.” Came the response, but it wasn’t the same Inquisitor. To my surprise it was my old mentor, Cardinal Lane. “The priests will be joining the Inquisitor. Estimated time to arrive is three days if they travel without soldiers. Do you have that long?”
“No. Send them with all haste, we will hold for as long as we need. Estimated attack in two days.” I tried to listen, but the device had lost power. For better or worse, we were on our own.