Heather the Necromancer

“Why is your tower covered in vines and flowers?” Frank demanded.

Heather smiled and dragged a tow on the ground.

“Because I think it looks good,” she said.

“This is a graveyard!” he cried. “You’re making it look like a flower shop.”

“It's just a few flowers,” she insisted, hoping he wasn't really mad. She saw his eye twitch, and his hands curl into fists as he struggled to articulate his feelings.

“I think it looks fine,” Quinny said. “Lots of old buildings have vines growing on them.”

Frank put a hand over his face as he mumbled to himself.

“I don't care about the vines. I care about the flowers!”

“What’s wrong with them?” Heather asked.

“They are pink and yellow,” he pointed out. You could have at least grown something with thorns and red flowers.”

Heather looked up at the tower and humpfed. “If it will make you happy, I will change them to climbing roses.”

“Red ones,” he said.

She folded her arms and looked away. “Red ones.”

He looked back at the tower and sighed. “I don't mind white or black, either. If you can make a dark red flower, I will even let you grow it along the walkway in the graveyard.”

She looked and smiled. “You will?”

“I am not trying to be mean,” he said. “I have a vision of the graveyard I want to build. It never had a flower-covered tower in it. I will accept some flowers if you make them fit the theme.”

Heather realized she was abusing his friendship and looked up at the tower. She suddenly felt guilty for constantly making him bend to suit her need, and never offering anything back.

“Alright,” she said. “I will respect your wishes, but can I grow some color outback?”

Frank nodded. I just don't want it on the tower where it's super obvious. If you want to grow some vines on the graves or the fence, that's fine.”

“Can I have some in my forest?” Quinny asked uncertain.

Frank looked at her and nodded. “You do what you want in your forest. So long as it’s not towering above everything else so that everybody sees. it.”

“Ah,” Quinny said as she understood. “It’s only because the tower sticks out so much.”

Heather walked up to him and put a hand to his shoulder. She flinched at the cold rubbery touch but held her ground.

“Thank you for helping me so much. I know I can be a pain in the butt.”

Frank looked up at her and shook his head. “You're not a pain. You just have a different way of approaching things. I came here because I wanted to build a dark and mysterious graveyard. But you were dragged in, and you have other goals in mind.”

“Well, I wanted out, but you made me see I could enjoy being here.”

“Aww,” Quinny laughed.

Frank blinked a lidless eye, and both Heather and Quinny flinched.

“Why don’t we go upgrade our stuff and see what we can get now,” he suggested.

“I'm adding wolves!” Quinny chirped excitedly and ran off.

Heather smiled and turned to Frank. “You need to add to your tunnels.”

“I will think about it,” he replied.

“No, thinking about it. You promised you would add something.”

Frank shrugged and walked off. “I will see what I can get.”

Heather watched him go into a mausoleum and then turned back to her tower.

“I like the colors,” she said to herself. “But Frank is right. It doesn't suite a dark graveyard.”

She pulled open her panel and looked through her spells and powers. With a command word, the flowers wilted away and dropped from the tower. She recast the spell with a dark rose in mind this time. Black vines grew up the broken stones, and deep red roses bloomed along their length.

“Eh, those are pretty too,” she said and went inside.

She found the strange book on a table right outside her bedroom. She tried in vain to pull it open and gave up after it refused to yield.

“Maybe it's not necromancer spells,” she said. “I'm a necromancer, and I can't open it.”

She went into her room as the light in the window suddenly died away.

“I guess the sun moved to nighttime,” she said as she tossed the amulet on the dresser. She set her scythe against the wall and let out a yawn.

Sitting on her bed, she pulled her panel open and looked through the options. She saw a flashing light next to her weapon choice.

“Oh, I have an upgrade option,” she said as she tapped the weapon setup.

She was dazzled by an array of options she could pick for the weapon. Many of them could be customized and modified. She could make it cut through plants with ease, or swing it and leave a trail of smoke in its wake. She could cause it to grow plants when she swung it over barren ground, or..

A smile crawled over her face as she read one of her options.

“That’s perfect!”

She tapped the panel and looked to her scythe as the weapon changed

“I can’t wait to show Frank,” she laughed.

She looked out the window at the dark sky and decided it would have to wait until morning. She felt tired anyway, and as long as she was in her bedroom, she might as well make use of it.

She settled in for the night and dreamed of flying through the sky on a pair of leathery wings.

The sunlight barely showed through the tower window when Heather finally woke. With a yawn, she climbed out of bed and thought about the day's tasks.

First, she wanted to choose something for her tower. Then she wanted to take a bath. She picked through her clothes that were laid out over some chairs and decided the first thing she wanted was a proper bedroom.

With a rub at her arm, she pulled up the panel and spoke.

“What bedrooms can I buy?”

Ding!- [Bedroom Options]

Heather looked through the designs to see several simple but fully furnished bedrooms. Three of them came with large wardrobes, and one offered her a slightly larger bed. More interestingly, she could choose to view the room and then look through the panel to the room around her. The panel made the room appear as if it was already furnished so she could preview it.

“Now, this is a useful feature,” she laughed. She looked over all the furniture spinning around the room slowly to see what else had changed. She turned to the outer wall and stoped as her eyes went wide.

“It comes with a bigger window!” she gasped. She saw there were options, and she quickly tapped through them. “I can get stained glass!” She clicked through them until she found one that was as wide as her body with a peak at the top. The pattern in the window was made of bars and curves with metal between the panels. She tapped through more of the options until she found one that was all shades of blue.

“I love it!” she cried and selected it.

Around her, the room magically changed. Her bed grew larger; a wardrobe appeared on the wall across from it next to her table. A bookcase appeared beside the door, and most importantly, a blue hue came in through the window.

She walked up to the glass and ran her hand over it.

“I could get used to this.”

With a smile, she turned to the wardrobe. It was a dark wood carved with lines and leaves. The brass handles were shaped like holly leaves and revealed a vast interior. She happily hung her clothing inside and then tucked her shoes away in the bottom. With a click, it closed, and she turned to the bookcase beside the bed.

“Oh, it came with some books.”

There were only three on a bookcase that would comfortably hold thirty. With a smile, she picked up a blue bound book with golden trim.

“The secrets of pixies,” she read on the cover with a smile. The next book was a leather-bound tome that read. “Phalndrils guide to the desert nomads.” With a shrug, she set it back and took up the last book. It was small and bound in a red cover with dark flourishes.

“Tomarack the Barbian king,” she read aloud. She flipped it open to a random page and read some of the text.

“Lady Valaron tried to resist, but Tomarack swept her up in his arms. She relented as he carried her to the bedchambers and...”

She slapped the book closed and put it back on the shelf with a blush.

“Maybe I will read that one later.”

She dressed in her jeans and t-shirt before picking up her scythe and wandering down the stairs. Here she spent the next hour trying to explain to the skeletons how to draw water from the well. She eventually realized that she needed to break the task up. One skeleton would work the well, repeatedly drawing up the water. Another would empty the well bucket into the two extra buckets she had. A third would carry full buckets upstairs to empty them into the bath and bring them back.

She watched for a few minutes to see the slow progress as the trio worked.

“It’s better than doing it myself,” she shrugged.

She turned to her tower and stepped back a dozen steps to look up at her window.

“Now I want blue roses,” she laughed.

She wondered if Frank would mind when Quinny walked up.

“Whatcha doing?”

Heather looked over and smiled. “Admiring my new window.”

Quinny looked up the tower and squinted. “That’s pretty, but it doesn’t go with the dark roses.”

Heather laughed and set her scythe against a gravestone so she could use her hand.

“I was thinking maybe a dark blue rose,” she said as she tapped at her panel.

“A white one would look better,” Quinny replied.

“I know Frank said I could use white, but I really want to try a blue one,” she said as she tapped through her options.

“I have wolves in the forest now. They have dark gray and black fur, and they wander the forest looking for prey.”

“That should make the forest more dangerous,” Heather mused. “did you get anything else?”

“I made a lower chamber for Frank to link to,” Quinny said. It's just another burial chamber, but there is a flight of stairs down to it now. It has a funny little side tunnel that ends in iron bars but doesn't go anywhere.”

Heather looked up from her panel with a raised brow. “Why would it have that?”

“I think it’s there to link to other players. Maybe the visitors assumed people would do what we are doing.”

“We are a perfect team, am building up, Frank is building below, and you're spreading across the ground. I think we have it all covered.”

“I can’t wait until we are all tenth level or higher. I bet our builds will start to be amazing.”

Heather nodded before speaking the command word and wilting her flowers. She recast the spell this time, going for a black rose that faded to a vibrant blue at the tips.

“Oh, those are pretty!” Quinny exclaimed. “I want some of those in my forest.”

“They match the window now,” Heather said. “Hopefully, Frank won't complain.”

Just as Heather finished, a skeleton came out of the tower with a bucket in hand.

“What are your skeletons doing?”

Heather looked over as the skeleton deposited the bucket and walked off with the full one.

“They are filling my bath,” she said with a smile.

“Ha!” Quinny laughed. “You like having people to do things for you, don't you?”

Heather tossed her head. “I don’t mind letting the boys help me. They are usually so eager.”

They both laughed for a moment before Frank appeared at the graveyard gate.

“Why are your flowers blue now?” he asked.

Heather smiled and picked up her scythe. “It matches the window.”

She watched as he looked up to the window above and scratched at his head.

“I like the way it looks. It has a dark gothic feel to it.”

Heather was glad he approved and waived her scythe about anxious to show him.

“I upgraded my scythe,” she said, holding the head out so they could examine it.

Frank looked over the blade where the wooden shaft joined with the metal and ran a finger over the design.

“Why does it look like flowers?” he asked.

“Because it has a flower singer's ability on it now.”

Quinny and Frank exchanged looks and then turned back to the weapon.

“So what does it do?” he asked.

“This,” Heather said as she pointed the shaft at him.

A cloud of purple mist fired out, causing him to wheeze and choke.

“Ahhg! What was that? It smells horrible!”

Heather smiled. “It’s perfume.”

Frank waved at the air as he took a step back, coughing.

“You made your weapon upgrade shoot perfume?”

“I know it's amazing!” Heather said.

“It’s silly,” he replied. “You must have had better options.”

Heather felt insulted and doused him a second time with the cloud.

“Stop that!” he cried.

“I happen to like the perfume!” she said. “Everything in this place smells like decaying wood or moldy earth. Now I can at least make it smell a little better.”

“But it’s your weapon,” he protested. “You want to make that as dangerous as you can.”

Heather folded her arms and tapped a foot.

“I want to play my classes my way. I will make my tower match your graveyard, but my weapon will be what I want.”

He shrugged and looked at Quinny.

“I think it’s funny,” Quinny said. “A necromancer whose weapon sprays perfume to cover up the smell of the undead.”

The skeleton came out of the tower with the empty bucket and switched them out at the well as Frank watched.

“They are filling my tub,” Heather said before he asked.

“You need more buckets,” he said. “And you need more skeletons.”

“You’re a necromancer, shouldn’t you have a better pet by now?” Quinny asked.

Heather nodded. “I can animate a zombie for a short period. The length of time goes up per level. But now I can animate something called a bone knight as a personal guardian.”

“A bone knight?” Quinny asked. “What’s that?”

Heather tossed her head. “I have no idea I haven’t summoned one yet. The panel says its a personal defender.”

“Summon one now,” Frank suggested.

Heather tapped at the panel and brought up the spell list.

“Some of these spells are silly in English. They sound better with the magic words,” she said.

“What are the normal words?” Quinny asked.

“From the grave, I call you back, A protector of death, to dispense my wrath.”

“That sounded cool,” Quinny said.

“It sounded silly,” Frank added.

Heather shrugged and dismissed the panel. Ten feet away, the ground boiled up as black bones clawed out of the earth. They watched awestruck as a skeleton rose with a rusty helmet on his head. Angry red fires burned in its empty sockets. On one arm was a rusted round shield, and in its hand, it held a jagged sword. It stood nearly seven feet tall and looked down on all them as if daring them to act.

“I want one!” Quinny cried.

“That’s the bone knight?” Heather asked.

Frank stepped closer as the skeletons gaze followed him.

“I bet we could kill carrion worms easily with this,” he said.

“Yay more levels!” Quinny cried.

Heather shook her head, unwilling to even consider luring another one of those into the graveyard.

“I am not luring another one of those things in here,” she said. “If you want more, one of you will have to go get it.”

“Aww,” Quinny sighed. “You run so much faster than we do.”

“You got skill in running!” Heather snapped.

Quinny laughed and went to reply when a howl echoed from the forest.

They all looked to the distant trees to see a flock of crows fly out of the branches.

“Your wolves are loud,” Heather said, somewhat startled.

Quinny shook her head. “That wasn’t one of my wolves.”

“Then, what was it?”

“I don’t know, but it’s definitely in the forest.”

Frank squinted at the distant trees before turning to look at Heather.

“Now is a good time to see how tough this skeleton is.”

Heather nodded and took up her scythe.

Bone knight, follow me.”