How To Kill A Necromancer

In the light of a candle, Jase pored over the array of papers and parchments strewn around his desk. The window in front of him was opened out into the fall air, the chilly air helping keep Jase awake as he studied his own notes for hours into the quiet night. The cup of tea next to him was far past cold as sipped from it, muttering to himself as he looked over a scroll in his hand. “I'm missing something here. I could distill the solution for another month or two… but that can't be it. I refined everything I could, but there doesn't seem to be anything different with this iteration than the previous one. If I could find stronger ingredients to increase the potency, then maybe…” His voice trailed off, inaudible.

Curled up on his armchair behind him, Thoravone, Jase’s slender white cat meowed to him.

“Well, you’re one to talk.” Jase responded indignantly, “My previous recipe made some breakthroughs in its antidotal properties. I just need to continue finding the right steps, though I haven't figured out yet what’s needed.” He pulled out a vial from the leather bag at his feet and inspected it against the candle light. “I’ve changed the steps around and added some new ingredients, but it doesn't seem to have made any effect on the resulting potion. I must be missing something.”

Thoravone yawned and stretched out his claws over the back of the armchair. Jase felt the infectious need to yawn creep up on him as well.

“I share your doubts, though you don't need to be so rude about it.” He said, stifling the yawn with another sip of cold tea. “This would do as a healing potion and general antidote, but the recipe doesn't seem to be on the right track for brewing an elixir of life.” He sighed, pulling a few papers closer to stack them up neatly, “Maybe I’m looking at this from the wrong perspective. I may have to begin again with a clean slate”

Gazing out into the dark street outside his window, something caught his eye. There was a swift slice of air, and something sharp hit him painfully in the forehead.

“Ugh, my head… I can't move. What is going on…?"

Someone’s voice brought Jase back to consciousness.

Jase groaned, his ears were ringing and his limbs felt heavy and numb. A slight breeze passed over him and he realized the candle had gone out and he had collapsed over his desk.

“Oh. I remember now. This isnt my body."

Jase furrowed his brow. The voice wasn't one he recognized, and he didn't seem to be hearing it from around himself. Instead it seemed to originate from in the back of his mind.

“Hello? Who’s there?” Jase asked.

Something moved by Jase’s head, and he felt fur tickle his hair. His head was pounding as he tried to peer through the darkness and his own poor vision.

“Thoravone… is that you?”

A fluffy tail brushing over his face was the response he needed. A pair of green eyes flashed in the darkness as they caught the moonlight. The pale light shining in seemed to illuminate the blur of white standing on his desk by his head.

Jase coughed as he tried to push himself up. His tongue tasted bitter and dry, and he was  disoriented from the intense ache in his head. Jase’s vision was blurry, and he moved his arm to try and feel for his glasses. A paper stuck to his hand, and he paused, trying to identify the substance coating his fingers. Even though he could only make out vague shapes and colors without his glasses, there was an unsettling dark substance covering his desk where he would have expected the light tones of note papers he had just been reading through.

Moving his hand again, he raised it to his forehead to inspect the injury. Jase made the association with the substance coating his hands and his desk to the blood from his wound. His stomach churned and he felt faint.

Lowering his hands, Jase reached down to feel around his feet for his bag, frantically searching for any of his healing potions. The dark space under his desk seemed littered with books and various items, but he didn't feel the familiar leather of his work bag as he knelt down to search.

Jase tried to stay calm, without his glasses, he was likely missing it right under his nose. He sat back on the floor, feeling dizzy from the shock and blood loss.

“Thoravone, I need you to find one of my healing potions. Any of them.” he pleaded. There was a thud as the cat jumped off the desk to land by him. It brushed against his leg.

“Please hurry. I don't know how long I've been bleeding out.” Jase wondered if he should press his hand up to his head, but he felt sick to his stomach at the very thought of touching the wound.

Thoravone pressed something cold against Jase’s body. Jase extended his hand to take it, and recognized its shape in his palm as a vial. It was open, empty, and covered in blood.

He sat in silence for a moment. “This is a nightmare,” Jase decided, “This isn't happening.” He waited to see where the awful dream would take him, but nothing happened. Instead, the night continued in silence, with the breeze chilling him to the bone under his blood-soaked robes. He began to doze off as the moon disappeared behind the clouds, sinking the room back into darkness.

“Damn it! What are you doing? It's cold!" The voice sounded irritated.

“Who's there?” Jase looked around, trying to detect anyone in the room.

“You’re really blind as a bat."

“Why did you attack me? What do you want?”

“You’re dumb as a rock too. I didn't attack you. You died."

“What?” Jase raised his hand slightly, “I… died? What happened?”

“Why would I know that? I wasn't here for it."

“I’m… dead?” Jase repeated.

“You’re not dead." The voice groaned in impatience, “You died, but you’re not dead now. Thats called ‘undead’. But you’re not the sort of undead that I’m used to. You seem fine."

“Fine? I’m covered in blood!” Jase protested.

“Yet you’re aware of it. You’re not the mindless drone I would have expected… though you’re about as dumb as one"

Jase was put off by the voice’s continual insults, “So why are you here? Who even are you?”

“I’m dead. As in currently dead. I hitched a ride along with you as your soul was returning to your body from the other side. I don't know how you managed to bring yourself back, you’re clearly not capable of that sort of magic."

Jase rubbed his thumb over the empty vial thoughtfully. “My elixir… worked?”

“A potion? Is that what the disgusting taste in your mouth is?"

Another breeze picked up, and Jase shivered.

“Get off your ass and close the window- No, I'll do it myself!"

Jase realized he wasn't in control of his body anymore. He stood up against his will, and a wave of nausea washed over him.

“Agh… Damn it.” he said, gritting his teeth.

“What are you doing?" Jase now heard his own voice, pushed to the back of his mind. While the other presence spoke with his mouth.

“Closing the damn window.” He stumbled forward in the dark, waving his hands around. He bumped his knee on the edge of the desk and knocked something over in the dark that shattered on the floor. “Ah- shit! I can't see a damn thing in this old bat.”

“Stop it!" Jase pleaded.

The other ignored him, using the cold air to guide him towards the window frame until he pulled it shut.

“Damn it, it's still cold as ice.” He held out his hand, and a flame appeared in his upward palm.

“That's magic. You’re casting real magic…" Jase realized. “Who are you?"

The person controlling Jase’s body, smirked proudly. “My name’s Zendron Vrax and I am a necromancer. That's how I was able to see you escaping the afterlife. My death was just a minor setback, but now that I'm here…”

“What are you going to do?"

“Hm. I haven't thought much about it.” Zendron mused over the question. “Ugh, it's going to take months to generate up to the same amount of magic I had before if I have to control your body permanently now.”

“Control my body permanently? What’s going to happen to me?"

He passed the light of the flame in his hand over the room, “You’ll just have to say goodbye to your old life, until I can find a way to eliminate you entirely.”

“No! You can't!" Jase tried to move, but he felt like he was trapped in a shell of himself.

“Ha! That's all the willpower you have?” Zendron laughed maliciously.

There was a ferocious yowl as a white streak attacked Jase’s leg. The flame went out as Zendron lost his balance.

“Argh! Get off me!” Zendron kicked it away.

“Thoravone!" Jase exclaimed, worried.

Jase felt a sickening drop in his chest as Zendron pulled magic to create a flame in his hand again. It flickered out into nothingness.

“Damn you. Have you no magic affinity at all?” Zendron growled and kicked into the darkness as the cat attacked his leg furiously. He grabbed the back of Jase’s wooden chair.

“No!"

Zendron lost his balance and fell to the floor, hitting his head on the corner of the desk, knocking the chair over and bruising his ribs on it.

Thoravone dashed off into the shadows.

“Ugh…” Jase propped himself up on his elbows. “I can move again!” He gasped. He looked around, “Thoravone? Are you okay?”

There was a small hiss in response and Jase let out a sigh of relief.

“Its okay, im ‘me’ again.” Jase told him. He pushed himself up, rubbing the bruise where he had hit his head falling down. “Oh dear… Hello?” Jase waited to hear any input from Zendron.

Thoravone brushed past Jase’s lacerated leg.

“Is he gone? Hm… he may have gotten knocked out when he- or I hit my head. I'm not sure what happened. I hope he doesn't come back anytime soon.”

Thoravone meowed indignantly.

“Yes. I should thank you, Thoravone. It was your mad assault that caused him to lose his balance.” Jase stumbled his way to the armchair and slumped into it. Thoravone leapt up into his lap, tucking his paws underneath him. “Hm… No more late nights studying for me. I’ll be waking up in the morning at my desk, very, very tired from this strange dream.” Jase yawned.