How To Kill A Necromancer

Jase sighed. He stood up.

"I have classes to teach," he stated.

"You're really worried about that right now?" Zendron asked. “What happened to thinking up a plan?"

"I'm a professor," Jase said, "It's my responsibility, and-" Jase struggled with what to say, "-and I don't know what else to do."

"You have a weird way of coping,"

Jase left to teach his next two lectures. He avoided the halls as much as possible until the end of the day. Jase waited for all the students to leave the school.

Jase stood by the front door and hesitated before pushing it open. He saw Kieran a little way down the sloping road that led into town. Kieran was talking to someone.

"Leopold?" Zendron realized.

"What's she doing here? I thought she went home." Jase panicked.

"Quick change of plans, I know I said I was with you whatever you do but do NOT accept the offer!" Zendron urged.

"What?"

"Just don't!"

Kieran walked up to Jase confidently.

"Well Jase, have you thought about it?"

"Uh, yes. And ..." Jase glanced back and forth between Kieran and Leopold, "I have decided to refuse your offer." he said.

Kieran turned to Leopold, "Skyguard, this is the man I was talking about. You’ve seen proof this man is a necromancer. He's a danger to the students and the townsfolk and needs to be arrested immediately." Kieran insisted. “If you searched his house then you’ve seen he’s been practicing magic under the SkyGuard’s very noses!”

“I did, but…” She looked between Jase and Kieran uncertainly. Zendron quickly took over and picked up a branch. He swung it down full force on Kieran's head, knocking him out.

Zendron threw the branch down. "Thanks for that," he told Leopold. Zendron knelt down and began tying up Kieran with his own belt.

"Zendron, what's going on?" Leopold asked, running up.

"This guy is trying to blackmail Jase in order to take credit for his research!" Zendron paused, "Oh also he's the guy who murdered Jase in the first place." he added.

"This guy?! I was just talking to him a moment ago!” Leopold looked at Kieran, disgusted.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Zendron asked.

“I volunteered to take on a suspicious request we received to inspect a home for evidence of dark magic. I had a gut feeling that I knew which house it would be.” She glared pointedly at Zendron. “I was going to bring Jase some books while I was at it too," she said, gesturing to some rather heavy-looking tomes she was carrying.

"Oh well that's sweet of you," Zendron said dryly. He struggled to lift Kieran's body over his shoulder. "Lucky for us, he thought you were going to be on his side."

"Did you kill him?" Leopold asked, refusing to help Zendron lift the body.

"Of course not, Jase wouldn't have let me." Zendron looked up and off to the side, "You happy now Jase? Now it's just necromancy and assault of another teacher, not necromancy and murder."

"No! I am not happy with this. What are you going to do with him?" Jase protested

Zendron threw Kieran's body down behind some trees nearby, "Listen, Jase. We got lucky. I realized it the moment I realized he was going to try and turn us over to Leopold of all people. Anyone else and we’d be… arrested or murdered on the spot.”

“Lucky?!” Leopold retorted, “You have no idea the negotiating I had to do to make sure I was the one who fulfilled the request - alone, no less!”

“Sure. Anyways, about Kieran-” Zendron continued, “He’s all bark and no bite. All we gotta do is threaten him into keeping silent."

Jase had had enough. He took over again, "Excuse me, we are NOT doing that!" he said.

"Damn..." Zendron huffed disappointedly.

"Jase! How can I help?" Leopold said, stepping closer when she recognized Jase was in charge again.

"What?"

Jase was just as confused as Zendron, "You want... to help? Cause, this looks... really bad. And I'd understand if you'd rather have nothing to do with me after today." Jase said.

"We're just digging this hole deeper and deeper," Zendron added.

"I know you haven't done anything wrong. You wouldn't." Leopold insisted.

Kieran moaned and started to wake up. Leopold freaked out and hit him over the head with her stack of books. He passed out again.

"Oops," Leopold said quietly.

"Damn," Zendron was impressed.

"How heavy are those books?" Jase asked, equally surprised by the effect her strike had.

Leopold looked at the tome on the bottom of her stack. "That one has iron decals on it," she said apologetically. “He- he might be bleeding now.”

"We need to get him out of here," Jase said, looking around, "This is too close to the school, and I need time to think."

"On it." Leopold stretched out her wings, and reached down to pick up Kieran, "Where should we go?"

"Someplace away from people?" Jase suggested.

"I think I saw a shack over that hill when I flew here. It looked abandoned." Leopold said, "Let's go there." She jumped hard off the ground, struggling to fly with both her and Kieran's weight. She flew low to the ground through the trees.

Jase ran underneath them, following them through the forest and along the side of the mountains.

Leopold stopped when they came across an abandoned shack. She let go of Kieran, dropping him to the ground, and landed with a small stumble. Jase caught up to her and put his hands on his knees. They were both breathing heavily.

Jase took deep gasps to catch his breath then looked over at Leopold. She too was starting to catch her breath, and she smiled at him. She looked at Jase, then Kieran's body and started to laugh.

"This- this is absolutely crazy!" she exclaimed. “I can't believe this is happening.”

Jase laughed too, the initial terror wearing off of him.

"You two are a bunch of dorks," Zendron said, though with less of an insulting tone as usual.

Jase looked up at the worn down building. It was a small hunting shack, old and weathered, but sturdy enough to have survived the elements this long.

"Well, should we go in?" He wondered.

Leopold walked up and pushed the door open. "Hello?" she called out. No one answered, so she shrugged and waved Jase up.

Jase managed to pull Kieran's body in. He looked around. It was a dark, one-room building with small windows, most of the light came from the doorway.

"We should tie him up."

"I don't feel comfortable doing that," Jase told Zendron.

"What did he say?" Leopold asked, turning around back to Jase.

"He wants me to tie Kieran up," Jase explained.

Leopold looked down at Kieran. "I hate to say it, but I think you should too."

"See? She agrees with me." Zendron said. "Wait. Did Leopold agree with me? Now things are getting crazy."

Jase sighed. "Zendron you do it," he said.

"Gladly," Zendron replied, taking over. He pulled out an old chair from the corner of the room.

Leopold crossed her arms and watched Zendron bind Kieran into the chair, "You're really having fun with this, aren't you?" she said coldly.

"Why not? He deserves it." Zendron smirked, pulling the binds tighter.

"Why couldn't Jase do it?"

Zendron shrugged, "They used to be friends. Jase is too nice. If I had my way, he'd be dead already." Zendron stepped back and leaned against a wall, "I guess we wait for him to wake up so Jase can decide what to do with him."

"Can Jase come out now?"

"I'm thinking."

"He's busy," Zendron told her.

Leopold leaned back and stared out the window, refusing to look at Zendron while he was in charge. Zendron drew sigils in the dust on the floor with the toe of his boot. Leopold watched the sun set and the sky get dark. Zendron lit a fire in the fireplace. Leopold continued to watch the forest. Suddenly, she jumped up.

"Someone's out there," Leopold said, reaching for her sword.

The door burst open and a figure leaped in and threw its arms around Zendron.

"Gadelynn? What are you doing! You're supposed to be back at the house!" Zendron asked in alarm, "Wait, how did you even find us?"

"You didn't come home! I was worried, so I followed your scent here!" Gadelynn said.

"Who is this?" Leopold asked as Zendron attempted to pull himself out of Gadelynn's hug.

"This is - Gadelynn, let go of me - This is Gadelynn. She's my servant." Zendron said.

"Servant?" Leopold studied Gadelynn and her face turned to an expression of horror, "What is wrong with her?"

"Well. She's dead." Zendron said bluntly.

“So all the dead animals in Jase’s house when I searched it earlier…” Leopold stared at them, finally connecting the dots in her head.

"I'm a necromancer. I resurrected Gadelynn to help me get off the mountain - no thanks to you, Leopold.”

Leopold shook herself out of her stunned silence. “Okay, Zendron. Tell me everything.” she ordered.

“Obviously we tried to find my body but that didn't work out.” Zendron explained, “So we came back here, Jase went back to work while I practiced a bit. I made Kieran mad, then he spied on Jase and tried to get us arrested for necromancy. How's that?".

“Why couldn't you find your body?”

“I was arrested by my own family and burned at the stake for necromancy, there was nothing left to find.”

Leopold glared at him, "I never liked you either. If it weren’t for Jase, I’d be arresting you too."

Zendron scowled, "Anyways," he turned to Gadelynn, "No one saw you, right?"

"Nope!" Gadelynn said proudly, "I remembered you wanted me to stay out of sight of people, so I waited till it was very dark. I brought the bird too!"

She shook her head and the two-headed bird skeleton dislodged from her hair and hopped around on the floor. Leopold jumped back in disgust.

Zendron picked it up and looked back at Gadelynn. "You just gave me an idea of what would be really helpful right now, Gadelynn."

"I did?"

"Yeah. Go back to Jase's house and clear out all of my stuff and bring it back here. Clean the sigils off the desk too." Zendron let the bird hop back onto Gadelynn's head. It settled into her knitted crown. "Take the bird as a lookout so no one sees you," he added.

"Okay!" Gadelynn ran back out into the forest.

Leopold stared at Zendron, "What the hell is wrong with you?" she said.

Zendron shrugged, "Jase asked me the same thing once."