How To Kill A Necromancer

Jase was in his office after the second lecture of the day when there was a knock on the door. He opened it to see one of his students, Rean, standing next to a young SkyGuard.

"Hello, Re'an." Jase said.

"Sir, this is my friend, Alexandre." Re'an said, gesturing to the other boy.

"Nice to meet you, Alexandre. So you're from the SkyGuard?" Jase looked him over. He was wearing a blue rider's suit, under which poked out a fluffy wolf's tail.

"Yes. Or at least, I'm training to be in it," Alexandre said.

"Well, I'm sure Re'an has shared what we are learning in class. I hope you wouldn't mind going up in front of the class and answering some questions about the alchemical subjects you learn.

"I don't mind at all! I flew all this way out to talk in your class! Plus, if I write an essay on what I do here, my professor is going to give me extra points. Which I'll need because I'm going to miss my ‘Intro to Gryphon Saddles’ today." Alexandre said sheepishly.

"Well, Thank you for coming. Go ahead and stay with Re'an for the next hour or so until the lecture. He can show you around."

The students left and Jase sat back down to read.

"I'm not sure how I feel about them skipping classes to be here."

"The students are going to love it. He'll be the star of the class today. Damn, I'm almost jealous."

When it got closer to class time, Jase got up and walked down the hall to unlock the door for the lecture room. The halls were rather busy as students moved to and from classes.

"You!" a woman shouted down the hall.

Jase turned to see Leopold, standing next to Alexandre and a few other students. She stormed angrily up to Jase.

"What's she doing here?"

"Leopold, I'm relieved to see you're okay. I was-"

Leopold slapped Jase hard across the face in the middle of his sentence. The hall went silent as students turned to see where the sound came from. Jase stood frozen, stunned.

"I should have known it was you!" Leopold shouted angrily, "The nerve that you have; inviting my little brother here. I wish you died in the snow! You and that sniveling little coward-"

Jase recollected himself and smoothed out his robes. He looked at her sternly, "Ma'am if you have a grievance against me, or anyone else, I would prefer it if you brought it up with me privately in my office."

Leopold realized everyone was staring at them and her face went red. She stormed off towards the school entrance. Jase stepped into the lecture hall and rubbed his cheek.

"Ugh... Well, that hurt."

"It was well deserved though, I'm sure."

"I wouldn't say that."

"If you remember, I wasn't conscious at the time, and I'm not inclined to believe you were less at fault than she was."

"You talk more formally when you're cross and it's really annoying."

Jase stood at his podium and waited for the class to come in. There was a lot of chatter and awkward murmuring. Jase touched his cheek again and it stung.

"It's obviously red, you can feel it."

Jase put down his papers and opened his mouth to begin the lesson when immediately a hand went up. "Yes? Is this a question?" Jase asked, annoyed.

"Were you two dating?" the student asked.

"- No." Jase said bluntly, "Now if you would all, - yes, what is it?"

"What did you do to make her so mad?" asked another.

"That is private and I would prefer not to answer-" Jase started.

The class started to shout out questions. "Did you reject her?" "Did you stand her up for a date?" "Did you cheat on her?"

Finally, Jase had enough.

"I will not have questions about my own personal matters asked during class time, is that clear!?" He shouted over them.

The class went quiet with a guilty silence.

"Now, we do have a guest," Jase said calmly. He waved Alexandre up. Alexandre walked up timidly.

"Alexandre, I was... unaware Leopold is your older sister. Let's not discuss it any further." Jase said. He leaned in to whisper, "It's alright, relax a little, you're the star of the class right now."

Alexandre seemed to loosen up as he introduced himself and started answering questions. Jase watched as Alexandre relaxed and became savvy and talkative in front of the class. A few questions were asked about his sister and he handled them well by joking about siblings. Most of the students were excited to ask questions about his tail, but not so much about alchemy. Jase leaned back against the wall and moderated. Finally, the class was over just as Alexandre was demonstrating how strong his tail was.

"Alright, time is up for today," Jase told them, "I hope you asked your questions to be able to write the essay on our topic, remember? 'Alchemic ingredients and their effects on the human body'."

The class groaned as they realized they should have focused more.

"I thought so." Jase smirked, "Class dismissed."

Alexandre ran back to his friend and was quickly surrounded by a group of students again. All the students left and Jase started packing up when Leopold stepped carefully into the room. Jase looked up and they paused, facing each other. Suddenly, Leopold stepped forward and threw her arms around Jase in a hug.

"I'm glad you're not dead..." She said quietly. She stepped back and quickly left the room.

"Huh," was all Jase could respond with, his mouth slightly agape.

"You know that hug was for you, not me," Zendron told him.

"Well, I assumed so. I was just surprised."

"It's obvious she likes you! How are you so dense?"

Jase shook his head and went back to cleaning up, a small smile on his face.

He was just leaving the school when he saw Leopold waiting by the front gate. He stopped.

"Hi, Jase," she said.

Jase nodded his head, "Hello, Leopold." He started to keep walking.

"Wait, Jase." Leopold stammered, "I was thinking... if you ever need some books from the SkyGuard library, I could fly them over here and- well I'm not mad at you anymore, and I know it wasn't really your fault and-"

"He's still here," Jase said.

"What? Oh..." Leopold looked sad, "I thought since you were here, that meant... okay..."

"I'm sorry."

"No it's okay, it's not your fault" she looked away and down the hill.

"Would you like some tea?" Jase offered.

"That would be nice..."

Jase led her back to his office. They sat down in his office with cups of hot tea, a floral blend sweetened with honey.

Leopold held her cup in both hands, staring down into it. As Jase took a sip, Zendron didn't even have his usual complaints about the tea except to say that it smelled too much of flowers.

"So what happened? After I... left." Leopold asked.

"Well, we stayed on the mountain for a few days, sheltered in the monster's den. Then we made our way down." Jase explained.

"Where did you go?"

"We went to Zendron's hometown. He was hoping that his body would be buried there in his family's cemetery."

"And it wasn't?"

"No. He was completely burned to ash when he died..."

"Oh..."

"So we made our way back here." Jase summarized.

"No mention of Gadelynn or nearly getting burned at the stake?"

"I was hoping that I could do some research on the side into other ways that could fix this," Jase explained.

"You 'were' hoping?" Leopold asked, noticing his choice of words.

"Some more serious matters arose." He took a sip of tea. The conversations lulled for a few moments.

"Jase, what is it?"

"You want to tell her, don't you?" Zendron noticed a faint nod from Jase. "Fine."

Jase looked up at Leopold, "Someone may be trying to kill me soon." He admitted solemnly.

Leopold looked shocked, "Who?"

"I don't know. Clearly, they've tried once, and that is when they stole my research on the elixir of life. They'll no doubt try again to silence me so that they can claim the research as their own."

"That's..." Leopold was unsure of how to respond, "Are you sure you're safe here?" she asked.

"Absolutely not."

“This is probably the most dangerous place I could be."

"Then why are you still here? Come with me, the SkyGuard can protect you."

Jase chuckled.

Leopold looked hurt, "What?"

"No, it's not you. It's just that I already had this conversation with Zendron. You both think it's crazy that I would want to stay here." Jase almost smiled, he could tell Leopold wanted to insist he go but she didn't want to admit agreeing with Zendron.

"But... Why do you want to stay here?" she said finally.

"This is my life." Jase gestured around at his office, "I love my job, my students, my office, my tea collection..."

"Blech."

"I've had this for years. It's comfortable for me, and the thought of leaving it and starting over... letting this other person publish all I've cared about under their name..." Jase trailed off.

"You'd be letting them win?" Zendron guessed.

"... They're bound to do it again to someone else," said Jase.

"Heh, selfless as ever."

"I see..." Leopold looked sadly down at her cup.

"Maybe some other time, when this is all over," Jase said.

Leopold looked up hopefully, "really?"

Jase smiled and nodded. Leopold got up but stopped at the door.

"I don't have to go back to the SkyGuard immediately, I can stay and help." She said.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure what I need help with at the moment..." Jase said, setting his cup down and standing up too.

"Like... everything?" Zendron said dryly.

"If you go back to the SkyGuard, look through the books and think of any alchemy that can help Zendron." Jase suggested.

"Huh? Oh right. To get him out of your body."

"I know you don't want to help him. But he just wants to be himself again, and he's willing to try anything to get that. It's better if we find a solution before he thinks of one himself," Jase smirked.

"Hey! Are you saying my ideas are bad?"

Leopold laughed, "Okay, I'll go and hit the books and see what I can find." She turned to leave then looked back and put a hand on Jase's shoulder. "Stay safe, alright?"

"Don't worry about me," Jase told her.

Leopold left and Jase put the teacups away before he headed home for the night.