I awoke alone and chilled. Katira wasn’t in the tent, so I dressed and left. I saw everyone else milling about, grabbing a bite to eat and being generally anxious. I wandered over to the cooler and retrieved a burger, and slapped together a sandwich. As I was eating, Katira came into the cave, holding four dead squirrels.

“Good morning, Initiates! Your overall task is to reanimate a squirrel by the end of the week,” she said, handing each of us a corpse. “I do not expect any of you to actually succeed, but you will learn to use your essence properly, and will hopefully have discovered any gifts you may have,” she said, looking at each of us in turn. Her gaze softened, and she said, “It’s not because I think any of you are incapable of reanimating the corpse, it’s because reanimation is an inherently difficult thing. You are taking your essence, the stuff that makes you you, and putting it into another creature. There are so many things that can go wrong, and they will go wrong on occasion. It will seem to be random. There are a great many variables that we still don’t understand, and Necromancers have been at this for literal millennia. That should tell you how difficult this art truly is.”

“Sensei? If I may?” Katira nodded her assent, and Morita-san continued. “Thank you. If reanimation is so difficult, why do it? Also, what purpose does Necromancy even have in today’s world?”

“Thank you for your question, Initiate Morita-san. We reanimate because we can. As to our purpose? I cannot reveal that. You will have to wait until you pass the Journeyman level, and move to the Master level. Any of you have the capability. Even you, Robert. You are of the lowest Tier here, and yet you can still advance to Master. It has been done by a Tier One before. It took her a lifetime of work, but she made it at the age of eighty-seven. I’ve also seen a Tier Ten not advance beyond Journeyman level. He was simply unable to reanimate a corpse. No matter what he did, he could not reanimate anything. It happens, sometimes,” she said.

Morita-san nodded thoughtfully and chewed on a carrot stick. I looked at the furry corpse in my hand, wondering why it was so warm.

“Katira? Why are these warm? How long ago did they die? And what should we do first?” I asked.

“You will address me as ‘Instructor Katira”, or simply ‘Instructor’ while I am teaching you. I killed them less than fifteen minutes ago. Your first task is to learn to utilize your blood essence. All of you will be able to do so. It’s simply part of being a Necromancer. That is the key that sets you apart from the rest of humanity. Your blood, for all intents and purposes is the same as everyone else’s on this planet. Your essence, on the other hand, is able to interact with all sorts of different reagents and compounds. None of this will ever show up on mundane tests. Does everyone remember when the Thoth took your blood? And the effect it had on the paper in his book? That paper is impregnated with special reagents that record everything about you upon contact with your essence,” she said.

Everyone murmured about how their cuts still hurt a bit, until they looked at me.

“Hey, Stu? Where’s your cut?” Robert asked, holding up his left arm to display the bandage there.

“Now that you say something, Robert-san, I do not recall seeing an injury on him. Where is yours?” Morita-san echoed.

“Uh… Well, you see…” I began, faltering with embarrassment. I looked over at Katira with a silent plea for help, only to see her shake her head.

“I will not help you in this, Initiate. This is your journey to navigate. Do as you feel prudent,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

I sighed and held up my left hand. “Okay, then. As it is my journey, as you say, I will show you why I do not have a cut on my forearm,” I said softly.

I laid the squirrel down at my feet. Extending my left hand, I turned my palm up and began to concentrate on making a shiny blue orb. I watched as a soft glow enveloped my hand, and a crystal clear orb of blue rose from my palm. The other three made exclamations of awe.

“This is why I didn’t have to be cut. This” -I picked up the orb with my thumb and forefinger of my right hand- “is my essence. Correct me if I’m wrong, Instructor, but I should be able to implant this into the squirrel, and reanimate it, right?” I asked.

“Correct. At your Tier, you should be able to simply place a little of your essence into the squirrel, even without reagents. That particular orb is far too large, however. A pea-sized amount or less would be a better start,” she cautioned.

I squeezed the orb gently, feeling some of it reabsorb into my hand, until I had a rice grain-sized orb of my essence. Picking up the limp body of the animal, I walked to the front of the cavern in case something went awry. The group followed, intensely curious.

I gently introduced the tiny orb into the squirrel’s chest and whispered softly, “Live and obey me.”

Upon introduction, the squirrel’s tail twitched and I watched the tiny body take a breath, then another. Its eyelids fluttered open for a moment, and then it was still once more.

“Woah. That was cool. Do it again!” Robert said, obviously excited.

I shook my head. “No, this feels too much like cheating to me. I’d rather” -I looked into the eyes of my companions- “do this the same way the lot of you are. I could most likely find the right amount of essence in two more tries, but I would rather take the time to learn this properly.” I looked over at Katira. “These little guys will begin to smell in three days. I’m ready to work. Show us what we need to know, please,” I said confidently.

Katira smiled and nodded, “Follow me, then,” she said, leading us out into the woods.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The nine of us -Drake included- followed my scaled familiar deep into the woods. Since we were a rather large group with what looked like a massive wolf beside us, I refused to worry about any creatures attacking us. I watched Katira look this way and that, searching for something. Suddenly she stopped and pointed to something on the ground in front of her.

“There we are. Jelly ear. Each of you take one, and we will get to work,” she said.

All four of us knelt in the leaf litter and snatched up a specimen of the mushroom. I’d had jelly ear fungus before, and found them rather tasty. We looked to my familiar for guidance.

“Now you will all drip a drop or two of your essence onto the mushroom and observe the effects. Drake? If you would please assist them?” she asked.

Drake nodded and leapt off my shoulder, landing lightly on the ground. He stood on his hind legs and held out his left hand, one sharp talon extended.

“It’s okay, Drake. I know you’re trying to help us, and none of us will be upset with you for this,” I said reassuringly as I knelt in front of my little friend.

He nodded and gently grasped my left hand with his right, and I took a deep breath. Quick as a flash, his left hand darted in and out, and I barely felt the talon puncture my ring finger. I stood, and let the others receive the same treatment.

Once we were all properly punctured, one by one, we each dripped a single droplet of blood onto the mushroom we each carried.

Joaquin’s mushroom sizzled and smoked, his blood burning its way through, landing harmlessly on his hand. Katira’s eyebrow raised and she nodded.

Robert’s mushroom slowly began to shrink, until apparently nothing was left, not even the drop of blood. Katira seemed surprised, but nodded again.

Morita-san’s mushroom hissed and popped as if it were on fire, and the droplet of blood was shed along with all the moisture the jelly ear once contained, leaving a dry crisp in her hand. Katira looked thoughtful.

With some excitement, I dripped my blood onto the fungus and waited. Slowly, the mushroom began to multiply, eventually filling my palm with nearly a pound of the tasty fungus. Katira cocked her head to the side, saying “Huh.”

“Well, that was interesting. But what does it mean, Instructor?” I asked, receiving nods and agreements from the other three.

“This is how your type of essence will interact with reagents. Hopefully, the Necromancers before you all recorded their observations of their essence’s reactions in your individual Grimoires. I know that Initiate Merideth has a fairly exhaustive list in his. If yours does not, don’t worry. You will be able to copy the list fairly easily. I would like for you to collaborate today and make certain you have an updated Grimoire. Some of the reagents will have pictures. Those that do will need to be copied. If you know what a reagent looks like, use your essence and draw it,” she said.

Joaquin piped up with, “I no draw good. How I use…essence?” He stumbled a bit on the unfamiliar word.

“Listen up, everyone. Initiate Madras has an excellent question. He does not draw well. How can he use his essence to draw the reagents in his Grimoire? Not you, Initiate Merideth,” she said as I began to open my mouth.

I nodded and looked over at Robert and Morita-san. They conferred with one another in hushed voices for a couple of minutes, then looked up at Katira.

Robert said, “Should we try to draw it with our essence, like a fingerpaint?”

“No. A good guess, but no. Initiate Morita-san?” she prompted.

“Would we take the reagent and our essence, and place them on the paper at the same time?”

Katira looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’m not sure if that would work. We can try it if one of you doesn’t have the Jelly Ear fungus drawn in your Grimoire,” she said. She looked at me and nodded. “Initiate Merideth, please tell them how you would approach this,” she said with a gentle sigh.

“I understand your reluctance to call upon me, Instructor. Don’t worry, it’s fine,” I said to Katira, and she nodded thankfully. Turning to the group, I said, “Here’s how I would approach it. Since I’m able to manifest my essence without a physical anchor, I would affix the reagent in my mind, and kind of…send? it into the sphere that I make. I might be able to make other shapes, too. I don’t know, yet. Anyhoo, I’d assume it would be the same with my blood. Affix the idea in your mind, and touch the Grimoire. If what I saw when I was registered holds true, the essence will do the rest. I’m assuming the Grimoires are made of the same paper that the Thoth’s is, correct?” I asked.

“That is correct, Initiate. Your Grimoires are special creations. There are a limited number of Grimoires, and as such, there can only be so many Necromancers in the world at any one time. The pages, however, are never ending. Initiate Merideth, yours happens to be one of the oldest in existence. There are only five that are older. It has been held by Necromancers of every Tier. You will find that you will probably add nothing to it in your lifetime. Most of you will do the same. There are half-finished experiment logs in every single Grimoire, however. You may, of course, take up any experiment you wish, and either blaze a new trail or continue an older mystery. The decision is yours. In order to find any specific entry, you would do the same as you would for recording one, except using your essence is not necessary. Just as your familiar is Bound to you; so too, is your Grimoire. Affix it in your mind, and open the book. If it is there, you will find it in the first few pages. You can even use it as a journal. If you focus on a list of previous owners, you can even read their journal, if it is there. All Initiates are told of this, and their use of the Grimoire as a journal is a known quantity. They know that it will likely be read by future Necromancers. As will yours, so don’t hold back. If it may help the Guild in the future, let it be known,” she said, her entire person radiating seriousness.

I looked up at my companions, who all seemed to be digesting this with some difficulty. “Instructor? May I have my Grimoire? I’d like to demonstrate it, if possible,” I said.

“Very well. Use your physical essence first. You must know what it’s like to do so,” she said as she produced my Grimoire from…somewhere.

I opened it to a blank page and sat down amongst the leaf litter. Balancing it across my knees, I inspected my finger. As I suspected, the wound had sealed over already. I sighed and picked up some rocks from the forest floor, and found one that had a point on it. “Well, this is gonna hurt,” I mumbled and dug the stone into the wound on my finger, causing some blood to well up. I squeezed a drop onto my kilt, in order to wipe away any dirt, and fixed the idea of Drake in my mind. I squeezed my finger until a droplet formed, and touched it to the paper. Immediately, the blood spread across the page, forming a photorealistic image in shades of red of Drake in a rather fearsome pose. As we all watched, the blood spread to the bottom, spelling out his name in a neat font.

“Very good, Initiate. Later, we will have Drake add his essence to the image, and he will be recorded for all time. The process is the same for anything you wish to add. Except for your journal. That will be recorded in your own hand, via pen or pencil. As far as I know, it cannot work, otherwise. Does anyone else wish to try to add something to their journal?” Katira asked. The other three were quick to raise their hands.

“Very well. Let us return to the cave, and we will continue there. Follow me,” she said and led us back to our refuge.