How To Kill A Necromancer

Jase arrived early to the lecture hall for his third lesson of the day which involved a slightly more advanced curriculum. Zendron had refused to speak since the tea incident, so Jase prepped his materials for the class in silence. He was enjoying the peace and quiet as he looked over his chapter’s titles. One read: Effects of Alchemical Materials on the Human Body. Jase turned it over to refresh his memory on its contents.

"Well... we aren't supposed to be covering this for a little while longer..." he said quietly to himself.

"What? I wasn't listening."

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking, that's all."

"Hmph." Zendron returned to his silence.

As the students entered the class, Jase began to mark out some notes on the board, preoccupying himself in order to deflect yet another round of prying questions.

"Welcome class," Jase said when they all settled down, "I'm skipping ahead a few chapters, however, as most of you seemed to be curious about what I did while I was gone, I figured I may as well indulge you in that information while still making efficient use of our class time. Over the short break we had, I was able to visit the Skyguards. Most people know that they are gryphon trainers, but does anyone know what else they specialize in?"

Only a couple of students raised their hands.

"Alchemy?" they guessed at the obvious answer.

"Yes. For those of you that don't know, the SkyGuards are given special permission to research and practice higher levels of alchemy. The self-proclaimed “Chimeras” are a group of alchemists, best known for practicing their alchemy on themselves. Specifically: essence alchemy, which we touched on slightly in the overview. Now, I had the privilege of visiting and seeing some of their libraries..."

Jase continued to talk, recounting what he had read in the SkyGuard’s library and drawing diagrams and pictures from the books Leopold showed him.

"Wow... you remembered all this from those few books?" Zendron sounded impressed.

Jase took questions as he did in his other classes, but this time, it seemed like the students were eager to ask questions about the unexpected change in subject. Jase continued to explain more on Essence and how the sky guards used it to take on certain traits and features of animals.

"Sir, I have a friend who's an apprentice in the SkyGuard, can we have him come in and talk?" One student asked as Jase wrapped up his lesson.

"That sounds like a great idea, as long as he can come in before you turn in your essays. Remember, the analysis must be on this entire chapter, not just the SkyGuards. But this is a prompt that's available if you can't think of any others." Jase said, "Class dismissed."

Jase returned to his office and started to pack up to leave.

Zendron chuckled.

"What?"

"You did alright in that one"

"Well, unlike some people, I happen to actually listen to the feedback of others," Jase said.

He returned to his house and unlocked the door.

"Thoravone, - and Gadelynn! We're home!" he announced.

Gadelynn sprung up from the armchair. Her hair was disheveled like she had been sleeping. Thoravone was curled up by the cold fireplace, looking disapprovingly at them, before slinking up to reclaim his usual seat in the armchair.

"My turn now,"

"Just a second, I need to put my stuff away and I'm going to make sure it gets done properly," Jase said.

He set his papers down on the desk and brushed aside some bird skulls, a little concerned at how he felt no repulsion at the sight of them despite not knowing how they got there. Jase began to file his things away into the drawers and he pulled some vials out of his bag, putting them back on the shelf. He propped a few books up on the desk and laid out his writing supplies then stepped back, admiring his work.

"Ugh finally," Zendron said, taking control. He stretched his arms above his head, and already Jase could sense Zendron’s subconscious pull on magic begin to take effect.

Gadelynn happily watched Zendron over the back of the armchair, "I found some things in the attic for you." she said.

"Perfect, and now to get to work," Zendron rearranged the desk again to his liking, and chalked out a few sigils onto its surface.

Jase sighed at the small act of vandalism and reminded himself it was only chalk. He had to be fair to Zendron if he wanted to continue having some semblance of order during the day. Zendron riffled through Jase’s belongings until he found a few candles and placed them around.

"Don't burn my desk," Jase warned.

"I won't. I'm out of practice, so it’s going to be a late night."

Jase chuckled, "I suppose that's fifty years out of practice?"

Zendron gave a sarcastic laugh, "Okay, let's do this." He cracked his knuckles and sat down to dig into the small pile of animal bones Gadelynn had left on the desk. "Nice work, Gadelynn."

"Where did she find those?"

"Probably in the attic. Or behind your desk."

"Is that what you were having her do this morning?"

"You didn't hear me?"

"I was preoccupied with thinking about my classes, and trying to get us out of the house on time."

"We got there fine, it was only a few minutes after class started," Zendron said. He started to delicately reassemble a bird skeleton.

"Is it supposed to have two heads?" Jase asked skeptically.

"Yes. That's a design choice I made, just now. Stop breaking my concentration." He pushed the last pieces into place. He pulled out one of Jase's notebooks and started writing down a ritual.

"Hey, I use those for my classes!" Jase protested.

"Shush, I'm trying to remember this," Zendron said. He kept writing. The ritual was completely in a different language - or it wasn't a language at all - Jase couldn't tell. Zendron finished writing and ripped out the page.

"Hey! I'd appreciate it if you were a little more considerate with MY belongings."

Zendron held it out at arm's length to inspect it, then set it down. He looked around.

"You got a sharp knife anywhere?" He asked.

"For what reason?" Jase asked suspiciously. "Whatever you're planning to do, I-"

"Nevermind, I found one."

"Put that down!"

"Oh, come on, aren't you curious?" Zendron said, rolling up one of Jase's long sleeves.

"Absolutely not! You are not going to start cutting-"

"Oh don't be such a baby about it," Zendron said, returning to the desk. "I know how to take care of cuts, it won't even leave a scar. Besides, don't you specialize in health potions or something? A little cut shouldn't bother you."

"Zendron, I'm not going to let you- Ow!" Jase stopped as Zendron quickly ran the blade down his arm.

"Too late" Zendron smirked. He held it out and let drops of blood fall onto the paper. "I only need a little anyways." he said as he kept his arm out, "I need you to stay healthy if I want to keep practicing. And don't worry about your students, no one is going to notice. You wanted me to be considerate so I cut it high enough that you can cover it with your sleeves."

"Your consideration is ... barely acceptable." Jase said angrily.

The wound started to burn from the exposure to the air and Zendron wrapped his forearm tightly in a towel.

"It's not like I can't feel it too." Zendron held his hand over it and Jase felt the wound go numb as Zendron concentrated magic around the wound,"Any possibility you could just make another elixir? I feel it could be really helpful for what I’m doing."

"I would never let you use it so you can practice more necromancy."

Zendron shrugged. "Alright then. I'll just do it the long way around then." He took off the towel and got it wet to wipe off the extra blood. To Jase's relief, the cut was not deep, and not very long. Zendron bandaged it up and rolled the sleeve back over it.

"We are going to have to talk about this later," Jase warned him.

"Later? That's fair, just as long as you don't keep whining about it." Zendron said.

He returned to the desk and picked up the bloodstained piece of paper with two fingers, holding it above the bird skeleton. He started to speak the ritual in the same otherworldly language, and the paper began to smolder from the bottom. It degraded into ashes which fell around the bird skeleton. The candles around the sigil ignited and Jase felt like his own bones were burning as Zendron let go of the paper. It fell, and when the edge of the paper touched the bird skeleton it burst into flames. The bird skeleton twitched and jumped up from the table.

"Perfect." Zendron closed the notebook and stood up. Gadelynn ran over to inspect the bird.

"If it weren't so painful I'd say reanimating the dead is too easy," Jase noted. “First Gadelynn, and now this… thing."

"It's taken me years to get this good. I'm far beyond the beginner's magic."

"And what is considered ‘beginner’?"

"Seances and communing with the dead, spirit summoning... possessions... sitting for days on end just to talk to a ghost. It's mostly boring afterlife stuff." Zendron said casually, "Bringing the dead to life is top-tier work. Of course, I haven't "raised entire armies with the flick of a hand" yet, but that's-"

"- Not a goal you're going to even try to achieve while I'm around." Jase finished for him.

"Fine."

"You're lucky I'm even letting you do this at my house, and in my body."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever."

Jase sighed. “Why does it hurt so much?"

“Because you’re not used to it. I told you, you’re a normal human with no affinity for magic.” Zendron rolled his eyes, “If I were in my own body, I could be doing so much more. I trained my affinity to harness magic, and necromancy requires a lot of magic.”

“Could you explain this ‘affinity’?"

“It is however easily magic comes to you or through you. It's what separates “magical creatures” from normal creatures. And people like me from people like you.” Zendron snuffed out candles with a snap of his fingers.

“I suppose that makes sense."

“And people like you all are so jealous and scared of magic. You’re so quick to hate magical creatures, so intent on murdering anyone who could possibly be using magic naturally.” Zendron said angrily.

Jase sighed, “This is about your family and your town again, isn't it?"

Zendron grit his teeth, “You think this doesn't include you? You have the audacity to turn around and steal magic from nature and call yourself a ‘magic user’ as if you even know what that means!”

He slammed his hands on the desk, and the bird skeleton collapsed into its tiny pieces.

Zendron picked up one of the delicate bird skulls in his fingers and turned it over. It would only take a bit of pressure to crush the hollow avian bones in his hand. Jase felt Zendron’s breathing level out again as he calmed down.

“Hm. Looks like it really is going to be a long night.” Zendron scoffed as he began to roll up Jase’s sleeve again. He smiled, “You know, the more you break my concentration the more times I’m going to have to start over. And will, as many tries as it takes. That's what practice is for, right?”

Jase had nothing more to say, he just sighed in defeat.