Chips of wood, and smoldering pieces of straw fall from the sky. Everyone is just blinking, dazed and a little confused.

“WELL?”

Damien shouts again, pointedly looking at me. A fragment of wood bounces off his head.

“Well it was magic, except accidental.”

I reply.

“Your a bloodmage then, a sorcerer?”

Thelia asks. I puff out my chest in mock bravado.

“Since the day I came into this world. I got the blood of dragons in my veins.”

Neither of these were a lie just twisting the truth a little, I guess. Thelia raises her eyebrows. It was a tick of hers I guess. I filed it away for later.

“Why do you have to make everything even more difficult? Looks like I’ll be pulling another all nighter to get paperwork handled.”

I look around confused.

“Wait what's wrong, foreigner remember.”

I say.

“Dragon blood is a mark of Royalty, you can get it by slaying a dragon and then consuming it’s heart or be born with it, like yourself.”

Fighter replies.

“Ah, so that means…”

I trail off.

“The heads of the family are going to set you up with political marriages, but considering how you have slain a dragon, might just engage you to the branch families eldest unmarried daughter. Making you the next king. Or atleast have a chance for the thrown.”

Damien, and Fighter both pale, when Thelia says that.

“Big sister” “Claire”

They same at the same time. Damien swoons, and nearly topples over. Flags were going off in my head like nobody's business. Fighter props himself up on the wooden sword he was using.

“She can’t be that bad.”

I say. Fighter glares at me.

“If my elder sister could use her sword as well as she used her tongue, that dragon would be mince meat.”

Fighter replies.

“Your exaggerating.”

“She is the head of my family because she backed my mother and father into a corner politically and threw a coup. She has made at least three heads of houses cry in public. Whatever you think of her she is worse.”

“I’m not totally devoid of protection though.”

I reply.

“I have some tricks up my sleeve I can use. Besides I think now is an excellent time to end todays training. Damien could you begin a small voluntary draft. I want a battalion of soldiers who can work together effectively, to train in shield wall formations, with spears. Most of the battalion should be polearm and shield. At Least one squad of archers for every three melee, and a squad of magic casters, that can cast in leather armor, two if possible.”

He nods, but I don’t think he has absorbed the information.

“The rest of you head back to the Inn I have some training to go over with Cleric. Damien see that Arthur returns to his room.”

Damien feigns a smile, and Arthur trudges into the constabulary. The door swings shut behind him.

“Well I’ll get some of the young fellers to clean up the mess. Some mighty fine shootin’ that was Blooded One.”

Sue bows reverently, and takes his leave.

“Well you heard me,”

I say.

“Go wander around town, or go to the Inn. Actually Fighter, and Rogue go pick up the gear I ordered from the smith. Go see of the sled is ready as well.”

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I get an affirmation, and they walk off.

“Can we observe your training with your Cleric?”

Thelia asks. I shake my head.

“A higher power has tasked me with assisting and training Cleric due to some unique circumstances. This involves techniques from my home, that are secret. If given permission I am allowed to share them you will be the first one I tell, of that you have my word.”

I tell Thelia. She gives me a dubious look,

“Very well then, we’ll return to the Inn then.”

I smile, and wave them goodbye. I grab Anise by the hand.

“We have work to do, and a benefactor would prefer you not be harmless.”

I tell her, she gives me an odd look, but follows me.

We walk out of the constabulary through the town, and out into the woods. I walk for another 15 or 20 minutes until we are a good ways away, and in the direction of the mountain.

I stop near a small copse of trees, that create a natural shelter. I pull her inside.

“Alright, you are an oracle of Velon correct? Well what do you know, what abilities do you have?”

I ask her. Anise’s face goes red and she stutters,

“W-well I can… um. Animate animals, and people. I can raise undead although they are weak, and not many at once.”

I clap my hands together,

“Excellent you have a better grasp on your powers than I thought. This is something we can build off of.”

She gives me a shocked look,

“You aren’t frightened? Disgusted? Shocked?”

I smile at her.

“HAH! You don’t even understand the amount of edgy people you could find in my world who wished they could do what you do, not that they could stomach something like it, but they would want the ability all the same.”

She looks surprised, then her cheeks heat up. I sit down on the soft earth moist from the days of rain.

“Come sit next to me.”

I pat the ground, she walks over and cross her legs beside me.

“Do you know where Zombies come from in my home, or at least the legend of them? A string of Islands. Zombies were made to work the land. Bodies of family members were raised after death to work the land, slaves to till the ground ao the living did not.”

She places a hand on my knee.

“Really?”

She asks. I nod,

“Obviously that changed over generations stories conflated together, and now the word zombies is different it elicits fear. Undead are tools, like knives. A knife can cut bread, and fruit, but can also kill someone. It is up to the person wielding the tool to decide it’s use.”

I tell her.

“Can you demonstrate it for me? Raising I mean, you see I think you are wasted as an Oracle pursuing necromancy. A true necromancer doesn’t beholden themselves to either divine magic, or the arcane. A true necromancer uses both in conjunction an exercise in both faith and science. So go on walk me step by step how you would raise this beetle.”

I plunge the tip of a stock through the bugs head, wishing I had captured all the goblin. They would make fine subjects for cleric to practice on. She lifts the body of the insect up.

“Well first I need some components mainly an onyx worth around 30 gold. It’ll help fuel the magic.”

She says.

“Just something to help fuel the magic?”

She shrugs.

“Onyx was what I was taught to use.”

I think for a moment, I take the dagger and draw the blade across my palm, agitating the wound to keep the blood flowing.

“What are you doing!”

Anise exclaims.

“Don’t hurt yourself idiot.”

I smile at her, as I cup the blood in my hands.

“This is nothing plus I have an oracle right here to my wound.”

I reply. She hits me upside the head.

“Fine! Now that I have a magical catalyst I begin to channel necrotic energy into the body, attaching it like strings from the joints to the brain. Zombies are easier, since you can use basic instincts to automatically control it.”

I feel a sickly wave wash over me. I feel nauseous, and see black shadows at the edges of my vision. This is negative energy at work?

“I begin the chant next.”

She quickly switches into a tongue I don’t recognize, like the clattering of bones, the moan of empty lungs, and the writhing of maggots, and worms in a grave. She places the beetle on the ground, and anoints the body with blood. Then she dips her fingers into the pool I have collected. She sprinkles the blood around the body. Plants wither, the ground turns white, and the detritus decays wherever the blood lands. I feel a piece of myself be sapped, like some of my life force was transferred into the bug.

“And done.”

She wipes the blood from her hand onto a cloth and hands it to me. The bug twitches, then springs to life. It walks around on her palm, curling around and around. She pats me with a faintly glowing hand and the wound on my hand closes, I still feel weak though.

“Also you, and I are going to be taking magic lessons from Wizard.”

I wipe the extra blood on another piece of cloth. I look up at Anise, she is crying now.

“Hey what's wrong?”

I ask. She shakes her head, and sniffs.

“Nothing, nothings wrong, I’m just happy. I didn’t think anybody would accept me, and that I would live as some sort of thrall to a horrible monster for my whole life. And then I met you, and your not a horrible monster, you are kind even though I was a bitch. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry that I did that.”

She wraps her arms around me, and hugs me tight. I hug her back.

“It’s fine I had a talk with someone really important and found out that fate had a hand in it. You had a worse fate ahead if that hadn’t happened.”

I rub the back of her head, my necromancer in training.

“One day we’ll have an army at our back and march right up to Velon, and you get first shot at his groin.”

She laughed, a pretty thing that ended in a snort.

“Promise?”

She asked.

“Cross my heart and hope to die.”