How To Kill A Necromancer

Jase rolled over, feeling completely sore and bruised. He pushed himself up, straightened his glasses, and looked around, taking in the situation. He was in a cave, lying on a grubby mat covered in suspicious stains and smells. At the front, late orange beams of sunlight shone through gaps in a rickety door. Jase tried to push himself up and groaned.

"Ugh, I feel awful,"

"Agreed. So you've decided to stop ignoring me now?" Zendron asked.

"I wasn't ignoring you- wait, were you awake while I wasn't? How long was I out?"

"A whole day. I was doing just fine without you"

"Your magic must have overexerted us and I blacked out." Jase stopped, looking around again frantically, "Wait, what happened? Where's Leopold?"

"She ditched us. Left us to die in the rain."

"So she's alive?" Jase gave a sigh of relief, "Where are we now?"

"In the goblin's den."

"Mmm... cozy." Jase stood up and spotted the corpse, "What. Is THAT."

"A little side project I'm working on. Don't disturb her. "

Jase stepped towards it, disgusted but scientifically curious. He gagged as he kneeled down over it to get a better look. "You're going to bring it back to life?"

"As much as I can, yeah."

Jase reached a hand out towards it.

"A-A-Ah. Don't touch her."

Jase pulled his hand back, "So... why are you doing this?"

"Because I'm getting off this mountain and this is the best I can do on short notice. Speaking of, you can let me in charge or you can go find me a hundred stones all about two inches in diameter."

Jase got up again, "I don't know how much I approve of this. First, you force me to abandon our friend, and now you're asking me to help you with your dark magic."

"Fine, don't help. You can do whatever you want. Try and get down this mountain your way. But just know, the next time you're tired, or weak, I'm in charge and I'm doing things my way." Zendron reminded Jase menacingly.

Jase sighed, he could tell that Zendron wouldn't be making any compromises. "I don't want to do this. But I don't have a plan. We'll do it your way." Jase pushed the door open and stepped out into the open air. The aftermath of the rain and the cold combined to make a dreary fall atmosphere. "So what kind of stones exactly?"

"Small ones. As perfect as you can find them. Try looking around the ruins."

"And what are these for?" Jase said, squinting against the glare of the setting sun through the pine trees. He started descending back towards the ruins, sliding a bit on the damp leaves as he went.

"The placement and energy of the stones matter when preparing a ritual. I don't know why I'm not a druid. I don't know anything about why the earth does what it does. Now if we had access to crystals we wouldn't need so many, but I'm doing what I can with what I've got. Oh, and you may need to make multiple trips to carry them back up."

"Right..." Jase said, rather unconvinced. He reached the ruin and shuffled around them, looking for pieces that may have broken off. "What did you do to my clothes?" Jase asked, noticing the torn hem of his robe for the first time.

"Did you want your hands to get scratched up by rocks and sticks? I'm sorry, I wasn't aware of that. You are at full liberty to sew it back on." Zendron said with sarcastic formality.

Jase didn't respond. He picked up a stone piece.

"Not that one."

"Oh really?" Jase was getting short-tempered.

"Just let me do it!"

"No! I'm tired of you taking over my body! And I'm tired of you telling me what to do!" Jase exclaimed.

"I'm tired of it too! I just want to get out!"

Jase stood in silence, glaring off into the distance. Jase took a deep breath.

"That was the whole point of this, right?"

"Right." And with that, Jase threw the stone back into the mud. "Okay. I'll keep looking."

With more guidance from Zendron, Jase was eventually able to narrow down the stones he selected to ones that would be suitable for Zendron's ritual. He counted out each one, taking them back up to the cave when there were too many to carry. Jase also stopped occasionally to pick up firewood in preparation for the fast-approaching night. After a hundred stones were collected, Jase set to the task of painstakingly placing them around the faun corpse, following Zendron's instructions. Jase tapped the final stone into place.

"Perfect. There are just a few more things I'll need to do tomorrow, then - hey what are you doing I said don't touch!" Zendron said as Jase knelt down next to the corpse.

"I'm giving it a splint, it's not going to go far on a broken leg."

"Well, she won't feel it either way..." Zendron muttered, but he let Jase finish.

Jase wrapped the splint tightly to the faun's leg. After having to walk around it countless times he had gotten over his initial discomfort with the body. Touching the decaying flesh was thoroughly a different experience, though, and Jase rushed to tie off the end of the splint. He stepped out of the cave to catch the last few tints of light on the sky as night fell and sat in the doorway.

"This is not the sort of ritual I expected it to be," Jase noted, studying the sigils Zendron had already drawn out. “I suppose I imagined more candles and skulls, and less…”

"Less junk and leaves? That's because we are working with a faun here."

"What's the difference?"

"Creatures have other ways of living. Humans have life magic that manifests as souls intermingled with spirits. Fauns, satyrs, dryads - their life force is only in their spirit. I don't have to worry about finding a specific soul to bring back into this one. I’m not looking to make this thrall that complex anyways. I don't need her to be smart, I just need her to do what I tell her to."

"Oh. So, what made you want to be a Necromancer?"

"I've always been a little interested in the undead."

Jase waited for him to continue.

"... Yeah, that's it."

"Did your parents approve of your interests?"

"Why are you so invested in my personal life?"

"Why shouldn’t I be? You’re already wrapped up in mine. Don't you know it's easier to make friends when you open up to them a little."

"I don't need friends."

"I'm curious as to when and how you developed that mindset."

Zendron didn't respond. There was a long pause.

"When I was a child I found a dead crow and placed it beside my bed in my room. No, my parents aren't fond of necromancy."

"It's no wonder why," Jase said.

"People have a very backward view of what necromancy could be," Zendron said defensively

"Aren't you using it to gain power and oppress others?"

"Well... yeah. Okay, whatever!" Zendron conceded, "So it is a magic that attracts a lot of ambitious people and is kind-of insidious, that's true. But... I was thinking about how you are basically a necromancer too."

"What? No, I'm not!" Jase exclaimed.

"You brought yourself back to life with an elixir of life." Zendron pointed out.

"That was unintentional, and it wasn't ready yet, and it's not meant to be used on dead people. I want to help people. My research is to help people. Necromancy is ... just evil."

"Whatever. Forget I said anything ..." Zendron sounded almost sad, and Jase was reminded of the way some of his students would act when their friends shot their ideas down.

"You don't get to talk to many people about your hobbies, do you?"

"No."

Jase decided to give it a chance, "So tell me, what good can necromancy do?"

"I'm sure there's something… I just can't think of anything on the spot like this."

"Yes. We could be sure there's something. There always will be a good and a bad to everything. But I don't see it."

Zendron sighed defeatedly, "Look, I'm not a good person."

"... But?"

"That's it."

"You mean you're not a good person so you can't use necromancy for good." Jase elaborated for him.

"Yeah."

"So you're thinking that I would be able to because you think I am a good person?" Jase speculated.

"Yeah."

"Thank you. I'm glad you think I'm a good person." Jase said. He walked back into the cave, shutting the door behind him. Jase threw a few more branches onto the fire and laid down on the mat.

"You know, Zendron? You may not be a good person but I can't say that you're evil either."

It took a long time for Zendron to respond.

"Thanks."

And for the first time, he sounded genuinely grateful.