Vistus

“Oh, come on, Feri! Just answer!”

After her encounter with the reanimated Cragwing, Laerya rushed back to her room at the inn to search for answers. Fericeus was the first person she could turn to. There was nothing he did not know. If anyone could explain this phenomenon to her, Fericeus could.

Several minutes had passed and the crystal ball remained unresponsive. With every second of silence, anxiety pricked her and her thoughts wandered. Dead things moving around and attacking? Impossible.  It was against the rules of nature. Not even magic could do this. Not even magic could bring the dead back to life...

And yet, it had happened. It was not just a legend in Jinny’s book; this was real. It was real and it was wrong.

“Dead things should stay dead,” Lae muttered, her eyes fixed on the transparent crystal ball. “Why is this happening?”

“Are you sure about what you saw?” Akorri piped up. He was sitting on his bed, looking down at the floor. “Really think about it, Lae.”

“I’m more than sure, I fought that thing!” Lae pressed, turning to look at her companion. “I fought it but I couldn’t do anything to it!” She thought back to how she had broken its bones and a fresh wave of nausea rocked her. Apart from that, she had no way of knowing how to kill the Cragwing. Just a couple of unusable limbs would not have deterred it. It was unbeatable.

“And now it’s roaming the forests just outside Greenglade...” Akorri put a hand to his temple and winced.

Lae blinked as she remembered the task she’d set for him. “Did you warn the villagers?”

“I told Alex,” he replied. “He said he’d pass the message on. I think by tonight everyone will know about the Cragwing.” He sighed. “The forest will probably be off-limits for a while.”

“Isn’t he going to do anything about it?” Lae asked.

“Who, Alex? I dunno. He didn’t look like he believed me when I told him the Cragwing was dead.” Akorri sighed again. “He said he’d go check it out with a few other people. He’s probably got a better chance of stopping it than you or I do.”

Laerya had to admit Akorri had a point. Alex was an Air master. He was probably capable of amazing things. He would be able to take care of the Cragwing. And then they wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore...

“I should be out there with them,” she muttered. “I need to help them.”

Akorri looked up and fixed her with a firm stare. His red eyes seemed a little duller than usual. “You already tried to fight it. If you went out there, there’s a chance you’d end up dead.” He narrowed his eyes. “Besides, you are helping them. By getting in touch with Fericeus.”

Laerya bit her lip. Akorri was right. If she could talk to Feri, she might find out enough from him to stop the Cragwing. But at the same time she felt she should be outside looking for the beast. “Feri’s not even picking up,” she muttered. “Why is he ignoring us?”

“None of this sits right with me.” Akorri’s voice was barely above a murmur. “Fericeus isn’t doing himself any favours by ignoring us.”

Lae looked back at the crystal ball. She did not want to doubt her friend. She would not. There was probably a good reason for his absence. But why wasn’t Kiyake answering, at least? To her knowledge there was almost always someone in Feri’s study. So... where were they?

She tapped the ball again. “Feri?” she called. “Kiyake? Pick up, please! This is important!”

When silence followed her plea, she assumed that would be it. But after a minute an image began to fade into the crystal ball. Fericeus and Kiyake were sitting in the study, both of them with neutral expressions on their faces. Laerya was immediately put on edge. Kiyake would always smile when she called her. She was not smiling now.

“It’s good to hear from you, Laerya,” Fericeus said, his green eyes scoping Lae’s room. He blinked when he saw Akorri on the bed.

Lae wanted to yell at him for ignoring her for so long, but relief that he answered at all stopped her from venting. “Thank goodness you picked up...” she whispered.

“About time,” Akorri muttered.

Fericeus didn’t seem to hear. “So what is it we can help you with?”

“I saw a Cragwing in the forest.” Lae launched into the story immediately. There was no time to waste. “Except it wasn’t alive. It was moving, but it was dead.”

Fericeus frowned at this while Kiyake’s eyes widened in bewilderment. “Really...” Feri murmured.

“You believe me?” That was enough proof to Lae that Feri really did know something. That was a relief.

“I do, yes.”

“Wait, this isn’t a joke?” Kiyake broke in, her brown eyes flicking from Feri to Lae. “You mean an actual corpse was walking around in Greenglade?”

“Not just walking,” said Lae. “It attacked me.”

“Uh... are you sure, Lae?” Kiyake moved forward until her face was covering the entire crystal ball. “Are you really, really, really sure?”

Lae sighed. “Couldn’t be surer.”

“Well, this is a bit of a mess. A messier mess than I ever could’ve guessed.” Kiyake did not seem to notice she rhymed. “There shouldn’t be anything like that in Greenglade...”

“But you know stuff like that exists?” Lae said.

“Um...” Kiyake’s face withdrew from the ball so Fericeus was visible again. “Yeah. Yeah, I know for sure it exists.”

“But how?” Lae tried to swallow her anxiety. “How was that Cragwing moving? It was dead!”

“Necromancy.” Fericeus spoke up, the troubled look on his face lessening only slightly. “It seems a necromancer is hanging around near Greenglade.”

“A what?” Laerya and Akorri chorused.

“What you saw is the product of a necromancer,” Fericeus explained. “A powerful mage who reanimates corpses.  To my knowledge, Dark and Earth magic are the only kinds that can do something like this.”

Lae didn’t know what to think. Someone out there was willingly controlling dead bodies... someone very close by. She was in a village filled to the brim with magic users. What if the necromancer was one of them?

“How come we didn’t know about necromancy until now?” Akorri asked.

Fericeus raised his eyebrow as though he wanted to make a smart remark, but his expression shifted back to neutral almost immediately. “Actually, you wouldn’t know.” He seemed to be speaking more to himself than the others. “They don’t teach you that in schools. Not even in history class...”

“Why not?” Akorri asked.

“I assume the reason’s fairly obvious,” said Fericeus. “The act itself clearly terrifies you. Who’s to say it doesn’t have the same effect on other people?”

Laerya blinked, unable to make sense of what Feri was getting at. “What are you saying?”

“Nobody wants anyone to know about it,” the wolf replied, “so it’s not taught. Imagine giving that idea to hundreds of impressionable children...?”

“They wouldn’t do it.” Akorri shook his head.

“Well, someone clearly has.” Fericeus narrowed his eyes. “Somehow, they found out about it.”

Laerya shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “How come you know about it, Feri?”

“There are books in my study that specialise in magic theory. Yet not a single one of them mentions necromancy...” Feri murmured.

“Then how do you know?” Akorri pressed.

Laerya wished Fericeus would be more straightforward, but she knew he was doing this to gather his thoughts. It sounded like he was thinking about how much he should tell her and Akorri.

“There are various books that mention necromancy in passing,” Fericeus went on, “but they are all collections of fables, stories that don’t sound even a little believable. None of them go into detail about the practise. So unless you’re actively looking for it, you probably aren’t going to learn anything about it.”

“Is that how you know?” asked Laerya.

“No.” Feri sighed. He looked straight into Laerya’s eyes, causing her to shiver. “I knew a necromancer.”

“What? You actually met one?” Lae’s eyes widened. She knew Feri was well-travelled, but so was she, and she had never run into anything like this before. Almost nobody knew about the existence of this magic. How could he have had the chance to meet an actual necromancer?

“I didn’t just know them.” Feri looked away, releasing Lae from his calculating gaze. “I was their friend.”

“You what?!” Lae and Akorri chorused again. They exchanged bewildered glances, Lae shaking her head repeatedly in disbelief. How could Fericeus be friends with someone who practised such vile magic?

He seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. “Is it really that wrong, do you think?” Feri looked back at them both. “Necromancy?”

Lae was shocked to even hear such a question. Of course it was wrong! The dead were not meant to move. Their souls were gone and their bodies were supposed to be left to rest. Monster or person, that was the rule for all living things on Vistus.

“They aren’t... when they’re moving, they aren’t...” Akorri’s ear twitched and he looked back at the floor. “They aren’t alive, are they?”

“No.” Fericeus gently shook his head. “And if they look like they are, it’s just an illusion. The dead bodies are just that. They’re the necromancer’s puppets.”

“Right.” Akorri sighed deeply, slowly turning to face the vision in the crystal ball. “That’s good to know.”

“But why were you friends with a necromancer?” Lae asked. “What’s up with that?” She looked to Kiyake, who had been sitting in uncharacteristic silence the whole time. “Kiyake, did you know about this?”

“Yep.” The cat girl furrowed her brow in concern. “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I mean, we’re bound to know shady people at some point in our lives.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t make us bad.”

Lae sighed. Kiyake was right, but that still didn’t explain why Feri was actually friends with a necromancer. “So, Feri. Why?”

“Why was I their friend?” Fericeus shrugged. “We lived in the same place and grew up together. It’s as simple as that.”

“Childhood friends with a necromancer,” Akorri mumbled. He didn’t sound like he quite believed any of this. Lae was having a hard time believing it too.

Fericeus nodded. “You could say that, though she was a few years older than me. We learned magic together.”

“So how’d you find out she could raise the dead?” Lae asked.

The wolf paused. He looked down at his desk, taking on a guarded expression again. He really was thinking about how much he should say. Lae felt slightly irritated as she watched him. Why was he so cagey?

“I may as well share the whole story,” Feri said with a sigh. “I feel like I’m violating her privacy by telling you this, but... no, it really shouldn’t matter.” He frowned. “I think I should tell you everything I know. It might help you with your problem.”

“Ooh, story time with Feri!” Kiyake chirped. Lae couldn’t help feeling that was a little out of place given their current situation, but then, this was Kiyake.

“We grew up in Greenglade, both me and the necromancer,” Fericeus began, brushing the hair from his face as he spoke. Lae had no time to register her surprise at this revelation as the wolf swiftly continued, “When I was a child I did not speak with her, but I did watch her closely. I noticed she was lagging behind in her studies. She couldn’t do much with her Dark magic. I was able to do a lot more than her despite being younger, and so could many of the other Greenglade children.

“At first I thought she was just being lazy, but then I saw how desperate she looked when I watched her in lessons. What actually brought her to my attention was the mocking she received from the other children. There was even a point where she couldn’t summon her magic at all, probably because of the pressure, and suffered some terrible verbal abuse for it right in the middle of the lesson. The teacher didn’t stop them. I was disgusted by their behaviour.

“So when she ran off right after the lesson ended, I followed her. As I did, I could pick up some strange smell in the air. I did not know it was the scent of death. When I found her, she was talking to some monsters. I made to help her because I thought the monsters were going to kill her, but then I realised something. Those creatures were sitting upright, listening to her intently. Why weren’t they attacking, I wondered? There was something weird about them. It was then I realised that their eyes weren’t there. She was talking to dead monsters.”

“She summoned dead monsters just so she could talk to them?” Akorri broke in, his eyes wide. “That’s messed up.”

Laerya could not suppress her shudder, but at the same time she felt sympathy for the necromancer. She was bullied into seeking companionship with dead creatures. What kind of a life was that?

“They were her friends,” Feri replied quietly. “She had no one and nothing else. After seeing that, I resolved to be her friend so she wouldn’t have to do things like that anymore. I thought after she found someone real to confide in, she’d put necromancy behind her.

“She didn’t like me at first. She thought I was trying to befriend her as a joke. But after some persistence on my end, she eventually took to me. I quite liked her. When she wasn’t in lessons she was friendly and amusing. But she was never cheerful. We would train together, the two of us, away from a judgemental audience, and it was then I saw just how much she would push herself. I was inspired by her ambition to improve her abilities despite her shortcomings and I adopted the same approach. There were times when the both of us would stay up practising all night. Whenever she managed to master a skill, like manipulating shadows, we would be so happy that it made all the gruelling hours of training feel worth it. We were euphoric.

“But as the years went on, the jeering did not stop, despite her improvement. She was good at what she could do, but she wasn’t good enough for someone her age. The adults felt that way too, clearly, because they never shut the children up.” Fericeus sighed heavily, his ears twitching irritably.

“That’s awful!” Lae exclaimed. The Greenglade Feri was describing did not sound at all like the one she knew. Alex was so patient with her despite her lack of progress in magic and no one else seemed to mind either. Was it possible that this peaceful village had not always been this way?

“Yes.” Fericeus nodded. “Verbal mocking was not all they did either, but I don’t want to go into that. Anyway, at first I thought she had learned to ignore the jibes because she had stopped reacting to them. But when we were alone, she would tell me how much they hurt her. I was partially relieved because she was talking to me and not her dead puppets, but after a while I picked up on something. When she spoke... she was so hateful. More than a few times she mentioned how much she wanted to hurt them back. Which was all well and good, I thought, because that kind of reaction was understandable given her circumstances...”

Lae and Akorri exchanged uneasy glances and waited for Feri to continue.

“But then she got worse. She seemed to get more and more tired each day. At one point I think she’d gone several nights without sleeping. I didn’t ask why because by that point I’d started to distance myself from her. She was spitting so much venom about the Greengladers that I’d grown wary of her. At some point she noticed and she confronted me. I told her what I thought, and well...” Fericeus let out a heavy sigh. “Our friendship ended after that.”

Lae frowned. That was a friendship with a rather rocky foundation, if it could end so easily. “What happened after?”

“She left the village some time later,” Fericeus replied, “as did I.”

“Well.” Akorri cleared his throat. “I think everything else is really easy to piece together now.”

“Indeed,” replied Feri.

Laerya blinked, looking from Feri to Akorri. “Huh? Everything else?”

“I’m more than certain that the necromancer around here is Fericeus’s old friend.” Akorri folded his arms and looked at the wolf. “Did you suspect her when we told you about the Cragwing?”

“Yes.” Fericeus nodded. “I had my doubts at first, but... I don’t think it can be anyone else.”

Laerya groaned. What was Feri’s necromancer friend doing so close to Greenglade? Could it be that she hadn’t moved that far from the village at all and had been living in the forest this whole time? What a strange person.

“If it’s her, I advise that the both of you exercise caution,” Feri said. “I have yet to figure out how to take down a walking corpse, but I will do my best to look into it. So until then, please...” He closed his eyes and bit his lip. “Please be careful in Greenglade.”