Chapter Ten

“We’re here,” Elain’e said before flicking the curtain over the windows closed. She hopped off her seat, then grabbed onto it as the carriage rumbled to a stop.

“Alright, best foot forwards,” Anne said. “We don’t want to make a poor impression. Even if it’s a little late.”

“Oh, don’t worry, the necromancers here don’t have any concept of when it is or isn’t appropriate to do anything,” Elain’e said. She opened the door and hopped out, Anne following her at a more sedate and careful pace. Elain’e might have been able to bounce and jump around all day, but Anne wasn’t a teenager anymore. It had been a long time since she’d been able to just casually move around without worrying about twisting an ankle or pulling something.

“Oh, this is a... nice place,” Anne said.

When Elain’e had told her they were going to visit some necromancers, Anne had built a certain mental image about what their place would look like. Perhaps it had been affected by the M’ango estate.

She expected a castle, dark and foreboding, or perhaps an ancient temple or even a large cavern stuck into the side of some large mountain.

She was not expecting what was essentially three boxy buildings set in a sort of semi-circle. They looked more like college dorms than foreboding, brooding places where the dead were raised.

“It’s the middle one,” Elain’e said with a gesture to said building. “The other two are their living spaces. The middle building’s where they do all their experimenting and their... playing.”

A thump by Anne’s side announced Newt’s arrival. “I’m by your side, Mistress,” the gynoid said.

“Thanks, Newt,” Anne said.

They left the carriage behind and headed towards the middlemost building. Some of the windows had lights on within, and Anne noticed some forms shambling by. It might have been spooky, but the experior was well-lit by streetlamps, and the lawns around the area were well-trimmed and cared for.

Elain’e walked right up to the door, then pulled a cord next to it. A bell tolled within. Not an ominous, deep toll, but rather a lacklustre clanking that told people that they had guests.

Anne was increasingly underwhelmed by the necromancer’s compound.

“Yes, hello?” The door opened and a young man stuck his head out. He was in his late teens, with greasy hair and a slight acne problem. He was also wearing office clothes, though his tie was crooked. He stared first at Anne, then at her chest, then at Newt, and finally at a very unamused Elain’e. “Uh.”

“Hello, Joshua,” Elain’e said. “I need to talk to everyone.”

“Oh, hey, it’s Elain’e,” the young man said. He smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Joshua,” Elain’e said. “I need to talk to everyone. Now.”

“Uh, come on in?” he said before stepping back from the doorway. “I’ll go get, um, everyone.”

Anne watched the boy run off then glanced down at Elain’e. “He was a little strange.”

“Everyone here is more than a little strange. Joshua once tried to... woo me. I put him in his place in as memorable a way as I could manage. I don’t think he’ll ever forget.”

“Oh,” Anne said. The boy was... far too old to be trying anything of the sort with Elain’e, no matter how old she claimed to be. Anne’s impression of him decreased quite a bit.

They stepped into a lobby space, then pushed through into a large open room with couches arranged in a circle in the middle and two fireplaces on opposite ends. A staircase at the rear led up to a floor above, and a blackboard on wheels sat in the middle of the room with all sorts of doodles on its surface.

Anne jumped as someone shambled into the room. A zombie, she guessed from the way they moved and the fact that part of their head was missing. They were wearing a maid’s outfit, and someone had tied a duster to their hand which they waved around at the shelves hanging off the walls.

Said shelves were covered in small statuettes of mythical creatures and women in intricately designed armour.

It reminded her a little of a richer, classier version of her Jake-i-poo’s bedroom.

The sounds of people coming down the stairs had Anne paying a bit more attention. There were four of them, and Anne had to wonder if all the clans and factions were that small. The four were dressed in button-up shirts and slacks, with ties hanging before them. It looked a little out of place, but Anne wasn’t going to comment.

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“Where’s the rest of you?” Elain’e asked.

Joshua rubbed at the back of his neck. “Ah, well, we’re the ones who are awake. Higgins is in his lab. Marie’s asleep. A few of the others are in the city. You know, you didn’t exactly send a letter telling me you’d come.”

“Fine,” Elain’e said. “Why are you all dressed like that?”

“Oh! We’re doing a live-action role play session upstairs. Offices and Organizers. It’s where we--”

He stopped as Elain’e raised a hand. “No. No, forget I asked,” Elain’e said.

“Yeah, okay,” Joshua said.

Anne felt a little bad for him. It was strange for someone who was an adult to be playing pretend, but as long as they weren’t hurting anyone, she didn’t really mind it. He seemed rather shy, and his friends were no better.

“Well, the four of you will have to do,” Elain’e said.

“Do what, exactly?” One of the other boys asked. “And who are your pretty friends, Elain’e?” The other boys chuckled in that way boys did.

“This is the Hero Anne,” Elain’e said. “She’s a summon from another world, called here by ancient magics to defeat the Dark Lord. And that’s an automaton she... made after arriving here. It’s name is Newt.”

“Salutation!” Newt said.

“Hello,” Anne said. “I’m hardly all that much of a hero, really. Just a single mom, doing her best.”

One of the boys walked over to Anne and tried to tower over her, but he was a few centimetres too short to pull it off. “A hero, Elain’e, really?” he asked.

Anne reached up, licked the pad of her tongue, then carefully grabbed the boy’s face with her other hand and rubbed a spot off his cheek. “Ink stains. And all over your shirt too. You shouldn’t chew your pens young man. It’s bad for your teeth.”

The others snickered and Elain’e sighed. “I don’t have time to explain everything to you morons.”

“Hey!” Joshua said. “We’re not morons. We’re the proud members of the necromancer’s guild, one of the five leading organizations that run the equally proud nation of Not Evilia.”

“Newt,” Elain’e said. “Can you show us what you saw?”

“Certainly, pseudo-daughter Elain’e,” Newt said. She turned towards the wall with the fewest things on it and projected the same footage of ships in the distance.

The necromancers seemed suitably impressed. “Whoa! That illusion is incredible.”

“Imagine the potential!”

“You could set something like that up over a game board, have changing landscapes. Or projects like... why are you looking at me ly that, Elain’e?”

Elain’e glared, then pointed to the projection. “That’s what Newt saw near the border into Not Evilia a few hours ago. Airships. Airships with the Dark Lord’s mark on their bows and flags who are heading right for Not Evilia as we speak.”

“Oh,” Joshua said.

The boys all froze for a long moment before one of them spoke up. “That’s not good.”

“Of course it’s not good, you morons!” Elain’e snapped. “We’re about to be invaded. Probably tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest, and no one is expecting it. We need to mobilize, to prepare for war!”

“That’s why you’re here?” Joshua asked. “To warn us. Because you want our troops! “

“Yes,” Elain’e said.

“What about your clan, what are you bringing to the table?” One of the boys asked.

Elain’e glare grew even more fierce, and some cards appeared in her hands. “I’m bringing you advance warning, and a hero with powerful magic. All you guys can bring are a few rotten corpses to slow them down while we do all the work. Don’t start playing that game with me, boy. You’re a hundred years too young to play politics on my level.”

Anne folded her hands together. “Um, it really would be nice if all of your boys helped us. We could use a few strong, strapping lads to, ah, hold the line and show us how tough they are.”

The boys looked between each other, then elected Joshua as spokesperson.

“Okay,” he said. “We’ll wake up the dead. Show that Dark Lord what we can do. Just you wait, we’re sure to impress!”

***

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