How To Kill A Necromancer

Jase continued down the hall and closed himself into his office. He sighed as he turned the key in the lock.

“Perfect,” came Zendron’s voice.

Jase felt a strange sensation as his body suddenly stopped reacting to his own actions.

“Didn't know your friends talked about you behind your back, huh?” Zendron said smugly. “That must be so disheartening.”

Jase didn't want to think about it. “This is what you were waiting for? A moment when I was distracted and you could take over. So it’s a battle of wills then?”

“You could put it that way”

“Hm.”

“What, no attempt to gain control?”

“No.You're right, I don't particularly want to be here right now.”

“Aw. Are your feely-weelies hurt by your friends?” Zendron said mockingly.

“What do you want, Zendron?” Jase asked irritably.

“Not much, just complete control of your body, that’s all.”

“Well you're not getting that.”

“Aren't i? Face it, I’m stronger and more experienced. With a bit of work, I can break you down so much you won't even try to fight against me. And luckily for me, your friends are making that quite easy. You’ll be a prisoner in your own body.” Zendron opened Jase’s desk and started to rifle through the contents. “Tell me Jase, what kind of magic can you cast? After all, you did manage to come back from the afterlife.”

“I can't cast magic.” Jase explained. “My magic is through alchemy-”

“That’s not true magic. What about your familiar? The feral white one.”

”Thoravone? My cat?”

“That's the kind of pretentious name I would expect for a familiar.”

“He’s not a familiar and I didn't name him. He was given to me by-”

“Whatever. Can your cat do this?” Zendron straightened up and stretched out a hand. A black whirling sigil appeared around it.

Jase felt hot pain rack up and down his body.

“Agh!”

The sigil sputtered out.

“What!? Why did that hurt so much?!”

“Hm, that's… disappointing.“

“That was really dark magic…” Jase realized.

“Yeah. Don't worry, it doesn't take long to get used to the pain of spell casting. Especially basic spells like that one. Every spell sucks out your life force in some way or another” Zendon explained, ”But damn. You are Very. Very. Low on magic. How did you even manage it?”

“I am an alchemist. I created an elixir of life and it worked.”

“Barely. Look at you, you’re one foot away from being undead.” He tried to cast another spell.

“Agh! Stop doing that!”

“Clearly you're completely useless to me. There's no way I'm going to train this body to have the magic reserves I need. Especially not with you yelling in my ear everytime i try to cast a spell.”

Zendron started to prepare another spell but Jase forcefully took control, stopping him. He stumbled back and caught himself on the edge of his desk.

“Enough with the dark magic! You already decided I'm useless to you so just leave already!” Jase gasped, trying to catch his breath.

Zendron didn't respond immediately.

”See now, there's the problem: I can't.” he said finally.

“What do you mean you can't?”

“Well, you coming back from the afterlife gave me a suitable doorway in, but now that I'm in here, that door is closed. There's nowhere for me to go.“

“So you're stuck.”

“More like you're stuck with me.” Zendron retorted, “Fine, yes. As long as I am fighting you for control, I am stuck in the back of your thoughts.”

Jase collapsed into his chair. He took a deep breath.

“Well, what can I do to help?”

“What?”

“Well I don't want you inside me, and you don't want you inside me. So what are we going to do about it and how can I help?”

There was a stunned silence from Zendron. Then he began to snicker, then burst into laughter.  “Oh you're serious! You're actually serious!” he exclaimed.

“I am.” Jase got up and lit a flame under the small teapot on his desk.

“There's nothing for you to do except savor the last moments of your boring life until I figure out some way to be rid of you.”

“There must be some way I can find you some other body to use instead of mine. You can't just possess another corpse or something?”

“I'm not a demon. I'm not just a floating soul to be moved around from vessel to vessel. I used you to pull me out of the afterlife so now I'm bound to this body with you. The only thing that could make it possible is to find some way to both release my soul from your body and have a suitable body for me to transfer into at the same time. Like mine or - wait. Yes! Like my own body!”

“So, we have to go find your body?”

“Would be nice, being me again. I've barely spent a day in your body and i already hate it.”

“Well, where is your body?”

“I… don't know exactly.”

“You don't know?”

“I couldn't exactly keep track of it after I died. Best guess is it's buried somewhere in Archlind.”

“Hm, where is that? I don't think i’ve heard of it”

“Bordering Vinhelm and the west mountains? Where are we now?”

He pulled down a large book from one of the bookshelves in his study. He opened it to show a map, and pointed to a mountain range.

“These mountains?” He asked.

“Uh, yeah. that looks right.”

Jase moved his finger westward

“They're the east mountains for us.”

“What The Fuck!?” Zendron shouted in Jase’s ear. “How did I get all the way over here? Do you even know how large that mountain range is?”

“It's quite large. It will be difficult to cross, yes.”

“It's impossible!”

“-on foot maybe.” Jase tipped over the teapot and filled up a cup of tea to calm his nerves.

“Okay, well what do you have in mind - blech!” Zendron exclaimed as Jase took a sip. “That’s disgusting! What are you even drinking?”

“It’s just tea?” Jase said, surprised by Zendron’s disgust.

“I don't understand how anyone can like tea.” Zendron digressed, “Anyways, There’s no way to get over the mountains, we’d have to go around.“

“The SkyGuard might have a way for us to get over.”

“The SkyGuard?”

“They’re a guild located right at the foot of the mountains. You’ve never heard of them?”

“No… why should I have?” Zendron sounded genuinely confused.

“They’ve made quite a name for themselves in the last year after moving into the old watch tower. It’s a private guild of alchemists, dipping into somewhat scandalous uses of alchemy- if you believe the rumors. I’ve never visited them myself, but they’ll fly over occasionally on gryphons.”

“Potions and gryphons, huh? So you think you can get them to fly us over the mountains?”

“I don't see why they couldn’t. It would make the trip a lot faster. But… If I’m going to take you there, we need to sort out a few things first.”

“Such as?”

“Well first off you can't just keep taking control of my body whenever you want. “

“No way! I’ll go insane not being able to do anything!” Zendron protested.

“Well how about we take turns? I’ll stay as myself whenever we are around other people, and you can have your turn when we aren’t.”

“So i can't screw anything up for you, is that it?”

“I don't think your attitude is going to convince them to help us.” Jase pointed out.

“Fine.” Zendron conceded. “But there's one more thing you forgot.”

“Oh? What was it?” Caught off guard, Jase felt Zendron take over again.

“That means it’s my turn right now.” Zendron said, sounding pleased with himself. He got up and tossed the rest of Jase’s tea into the fireplace.

Jase sighed, “Well, let’s head out before noon then. I’ll need to tell Thoravone to cancel all my classes for the time being. I have a stack of notes prepared for short notice cancellations like this.”