Heather the Necromancer

The room was dimly lit by a dozen candles whose light cast dancing shadows on the walls. Their smoke drifted up in gently curling loops filling the air with their scent. The light did little to brighten the room, but Heather didn't care as she hunched over the book on the desk. She gave up on the candles long ago and used her magical sight to peer through the darkness to keep reading.

By the time she parted with Frank, the sun was in its evening position. She was stopped by Quinny and Breanne, who were discussing ways to entice players to enter the forest and graveyard. There she spent another hour, continually pressing the idea that they needed a town. Breanne agreed but pointed out that none of them could build one. Heather insisted that they would find somebody who could. In the meantime, they settled with making a better sign to try and steer new players in.

When the sun moved below the horizon, and the stars filled the sky, she bid them good night. After a quick nibble, she settled in at the desk to begin the work on the copy of the key.

With the book to one side and a crisp piece of paper on the other, she reached for the long feather pen. Carefully she turned it over in her hands and closely examined the point.

“This is one of those old pens you dip in ink,” she said to herself as she opened the bottle. Carefully she dipped the pen and lifted it out, promptly dripping ink on the paper.

“Alright, this isn't as easy as the movies make it look.” She ignored the blob and started writing in clumsy lettering that bled and smeared. She struggled to correct her method, resulting in inconsistent lines that were too dark or too light. When the first pass was done, she looked down at her handiwork and frowned.

“Who would have thought I would regret not taking a calligraphy class?”

Reluctantly she set the paper aside and tried again. This time she dipped her pen but bobbed it over the jar to shake off any excess ink. She went slowly across the page, but that resulted in the ink running down and bleeding.

“I can't believe people managed to write anything with this,” she sighed. She tried again, dipping her pen, but this time decided to write in a smooth, quick pace. This produced the best results, but she struggled with the letters. She had to practice how to draw them in the air before pressing the pen to the paper. Even then, it didn't always come out the way she hoped.

She put her arm down over the paper and tried again. She wrote the same ten letters over and over until they started to resemble those in the book. When at last she had a good copy, she moved on to the next row of letters. She lost track of time as she worked and was only alerted to it by the sudden appearance of Frank.

“What are you doing?”

Heather looked up from her fifth page of dense lettering.

“I am practicing how to write these strange letters.”

“I think mages call them runes,” he suggested.

“Letters, runes, it’s all the same,” she said and turned back to her paper.

“Why would you need to practice them?”

“I want to copy the translation key to a separate page so I can compare them more easily,” she said. “What I wouldn’t do for cell phone to take a pic with.”

Frank leaned over her shoulder and looked at the work she had thus far and scratched at his head.

“Is it hard to do?”

She laughed slightly and held out the pen.

“Have you ever tried to write with one of these?” she asked.

He shook his head silently, and she held it up.

“Press the point lightly, and it makes scratches, press too hard, and all the ink runs down. Get too much ink, and it drips on the page. You constantly have to dip it in the inkwell just to write the next letter.”

“You look like you have the hang of it now.”

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “I guess.”

“Have you learned anything else from the book yet?”

“Just some more of what was on the second page. It looks like a description of a being's connection to something.”

“You told me that already.”

She shook her head and tapped at the page of the book.

“It’s all in layers. Each layer is a bridge between the one below it and the one above it. At the core is the person who is attached at eight points by spheres of energy that bisect one another.”

Frank blinked a lidless eye as he clearly didn’t’ understand and made her skin crawl.

“Will you stop doing that,” she said as she looked away.

“Doing what?”

“Blinking your eyes when you don’t have eyelids. Your eye just goes away and comes back. It’s terrible to see.”

He stood taller and looked down at her with a curious expression.

“I didn’t know. I doubt I wouldn’t have considered it until you told me.”

She looked up at his face and realized he was trying to be apologetic.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I keep venting on you. Whenever I feel stressed or frustrated, I pick on you in some way.”

“You’re still not happy being here is all.”

“It isn't that I'm not happy; it's just that I miss so many things. Even translating this book makes me crazy. I could have this job done in seconds with a cell phone and wireless printer.”

“I suppose that would make it easier,” he admitted. “But you will have plenty of time to learn.”

“I guess I will,” she said, not feeling any better. He was right; she was going to be here for a long time. She would probably be able to read this language without the key one day.

“Maybe you should skip ahead to another page,” he suggested.

Heather smiled at the suggestion. She had already skipped ahead to stare at pages that amazed with intricate diagrams and detailed drawings of beasts. There were drawings of lines and stars encased in circles with symbols that didn’t even appear in the key.

“I poked at a few pages, but I have no idea what I’m looking at. I think it would be best to go one page at a time and learn the language. I suspect it's structured to teach you everything in the order you need to know it.”

He nodded and looked at the book on the table.

“When we leave tomorrow, what do you plan to do with it?”

Heather looked to the book herself as she thought about her answer. She hadn't planned to do anything with it, but now that he mentioned it, should she? What if somebody came into the tower and stole it? Or worse vandalized it? She wouldn't put it past the players of this world to destroy it just because they could. Since it wasn't a part of her tower, she wouldn't be able to respawn it. The book would be lost forever, and she would be back to square one. Now that she thought about it, the book was sitting on a table when they left for pizza. It was unprotected for days while she wandered about like a fool.

“I need a way to hide it,” she said as the thought completed in her head.

“Is there a way to hide it like it was in the tower?” he asked.

Heather shook her head. Of course, there probably was, but she didn't know how to do it. She wondered if she could lock the band back over the cover. Then it couldn't be read, but it could still be stolen.

“Should we bring it with?” she asked.

“It’s an awkward thing to carry,” he replied and took a few steps around her. He leaned over it to look at the page and scratched at his head.

“I could bury in the graveyard someplace. Then a player would have to be lucky to find it.”

“Bury it in the dirt?” she asked. “What if it rains? Or some bugs get into it and eat the paper?”

“It is clouding over,” Frank said as he scratched. “I don't like the idea of leaving it unprotected, though. Even if people didn't take it, they might recognize what it is, and tell others.”

“There are enough orcs coming to the graveyard as it is,” Heather said dryly.

“We should think of a good way to protect it if we plan to make frequent trips out for experience,” he replied.

Heather began to pace the room in annoyance as she worried about what to do. A dozen ideas came to mind, all of which involved making the book hard to find, but not impossible. She knew the spell that hid it the first time would be in there, but then other player classes could use the undead sight. They would see the light and potentially be able to retrieve the book.

It wasn’t until she thought of Breanne that an idea spawned.

“You said you could dig quickly, right?” she asked excitedly.

“I can dig super fast,” he replied.

“Can you fill the tunnels back in?”

He scratched at his head in confusion, so she went on.

“What if you dug a space under my tower off that little room. We could wrap the book in a blanket, put it in the space. Then you fill the tunnel back in.”

“I would have to dig it back out,” he replied. “I can dig fast, but it still takes time.”

“Not if Breanne can do what I hope she can,” Heather said with a smile. She waited for Frank to catch on, but he didn't, so she told him to follow and went downstairs. Breanne was just outside the tower in her ghostly form, haunting the graveyard like the other undead.

“Breanne,” Heather called, drawing the woman's attention.

“What is it, child?” the woman replied in a voice that chilled the soul.

“Can you carry things with you when you walk through walls?”

Breanne floated before her in all her ghostly glory and nodded. “So long as I can hold the item to me closely, and lift it from the ground. I can even take another person with me if they are not too big.”

“I get it,” Frank said as Heather smiled wider.

“What at you to planning?” Breanne asked.

“We need to hide the book,” Heather explained. “Frank is going to dig a room under my tower and then seal off the tunnel so nobody will see it.”

Breanne nodded. “And you want me to carry the book into the room so it will be unreachable.”

“Yes,” Heather said. “That way, we don't have to worry about it while we're gone, and you can easily retrieve it when we come back.”

“A good plan,” Breanne said with a nod. “You are a very logical thinker.”

“I will start digging the tunnel,” Frank said. “We can hide the book in the morning.”

Heather was very pleased with herself as she went back to the tower and sat before the book. On a whim, she turned a few pages to one that seemed rather odd. It contained a dozen pictures of small animals. She looked at a crow, a frog, or maybe a toad. There was a black cat, a snake with a red stripe, and a spider with long legs. One was a type of bat, another a small humanoid thing with leathery wings. There were some animals she didn't recognize, one of which appeared to have six arms. As she looked down the page, she was surprised to find notes written in the margin. Thankfully they were in English, and she leaned close to read the tiny print.

“The familiar is an indispensable aid to the necromancer, but I have poor luck with at getting the one I wanted,” she read aloud. She tapped the page as she pondered the word familiar. It was not being used how she would use it. In this context, it referred to an actual being or… She looked over to the other page.

“I wonder if these are the familiars?” she said as she looked over the images. “I could have a cat!”

She decided to spend the rest of the night working on this one page, as she translated the most fascinating process of summoning a familiar.

When the morning's light blazed through the blue window, she was already awake. She decided that today was going to be a good day and packed a small backpack with some dried foodstuffs. Breanne showed up and collected the book, taking it downstairs to hide it while Frank and Quinny waited outside.

Heather arrived with her backpack and her bone knight in tow. She had him wear the pack freeing her to stand unburdened as Breanne arrived in her elven form.

“Where is your scythe?” Breanne asked.

Heather twitched as she remembered the weapon she left upstairs.

“Ugggh,” she groaned. “I forgot about it. It's all the way up in my bedroom. I will be back in a few minutes.” As she turned to leave, the bone knight suddenly moved, heading for the tower.

“Where is he going?” Quinny asked as they watched it go inside.

“I don't know,” Heather said as she took a step to follow. “He's been behaving strangely lately.”

“Strange how?” Frank asked.

“I told him to stay on the second floor, and I found him standing at the front door again.

He's started opening doors for me without being told, and sometimes when I give him instructions, he nods as if to acknowledge me.”

“Maybe he likes you,” Quinny suggested with a smile.

“It’s a summoned skeleton,” Heather said as she headed for the door. “I will go figure out what he’s doing and bring him back.”

As she reached the door, it suddenly opened, and the bone knight walked out with her scythe in hand. He reached out with both hands as if to present it to her as a trophy.

“Umm,” Heather said in shock as the skeleton waited for her to take the weapon. She reached out and took it from its hands and stepped back. The knight walked right back to where it stood a minute before as if nothing had happened.

“Wow,” Quinny laughed. “He’s considerate and useful. He’s the perfect boyfriend.”

“You have my permission to date him,” Heather said as she watched the knight with a wary eye.

“Are you bringing any other skeletons?” Frank asked.

“No, I want there to be something here to protect the tower,” she replied as she shouldered her scythe. “And the skeletons can be explained away by the recluse class.”

“If we're done fooling around, can we get on with it?” Breanne insisted.

Heather nodded, and Frank led them out, taking them across the stream and into the grasslands beyond. Heather was alert for anything that might be dangerous for the first hour of the trip, but by the second, she was lost in her own thoughts. In particular, she was fascinated by the idea of the familiar. A cat would bring a bit of normalcy to her life and give her some measure of distraction.

The sun moved to high noon, and the shadows of the grass vanished as the line of distant trees began to appear. A gentle breeze blew, causing Heather's hair to drift into her face. Thus far, the most dangerous thing they had managed to find was a rabbit that fled the moment it saw them.

Frank led with Breanne at his side, explaining the battle with the nature guardian, and how Heather turned the tide. She felt slightly embarrassed to hear him complimenting her to Breanne and looked down. It was then she noticed something strange. The ground at her feet was wrong somehow. It had rippling lines that were changing, no not changing moving. She came to a stop to watch as strong hands wrapped around her shoulders.

She let out a cry of alarm as she was hoisted off her feet and thrown to the side by the bone knight. The ground where she had once been standing exploded in a hail of grass and earth. A warbling screech echoed in her ears as she tumbled through the grass, losing her scythe.

“Sedu hunter!” Frank cried from someplace to her left as she tried to right herself. She came to her hands and knees to look up and see something that resembled a giant snake with the head of a starfish. It rose up on a long serpent body and lashed out with five thick triangular arms that ringed a circular mouth that had rows of inward-facing teeth.

Her Bone knight was right next to it, slashing with its rusty sword as the beast coiled and battered him away. He flew even farther than she had and rolled through the grass.

“Get on your feet!” Frank yelled as he ran past her and tried to slash as the monstrosity. A dark line of what seemed like the absence of light struck it even as Frank dodged a triangular arm.

Heather turned her head to see Breanne dancing her hands in a pattern and rings of blackness enveloping them. A moment later, a second line struck the beast tearing a small gash in its leathery hide.

“Get up,” Quinny yelled as she pulled Heather to her feet and handed the scythe back.

The beast let out a second warbling roar and dived down on Frank with an open maw. Heather watched in horror as all the arms closed in around him, pinning him inside with the terrible maw.

“Frank!” she screamed and ran in with her scythe. She swung as hard as she could and cut a line across one of the arms, causing the beast to yank away. It pulled Frank up with it, his body entirely inside the petals.

“No!” she screamed and tried to cut at the body since the head was now out of reach. Quinny was beside her with a shiny curved sword. She slashed as the stalk of the body with Heather causing the worm thing to twist and sway wildly. To her relief, it threw Frank free but then turned its attention on her. The toothy maw came racing down with the arms spread wide to entrap her. She saw her doom and wondered what it was like to die when a shield went over, and her bone knight stood valiantly in the path.

The beast's arms closed around them, trapping them inside. Sticky spines pressed against her trying to dive her to the mouth, but the shield blocked the way. She screamed as it pulled back, yanking them with it and then with a spasm spit them out. She saw the ground from what she assumed was at least twenty feet in the air. As her momentum carried her down, she waited for the crunching break of bones. Suddenly a coldness like the grave surrounded her as Breanne in her ghostly form intercepted her and prevented the damaging impact.

“Get to Frank!” Breanne insisted as she dropped Heather safely to the ground. “He needs your healing!”

Heather stumbled about as her bone knight crashed behind her. She finally spotted Frank struggling to his feet twenty feet away. He had a dark line all across his upper chest, and a green liquid ran down as if a bucket of paint were dumped over his head.

Heather ran to him as Breanne dashed in and Grabbed Quinny the moment before the monster bit down on her.

“Frank?” Heather said as she arrived to see the dark line was a row of tears in his skin.

“I hope your binding stone works,” Frank wheezed as she fell to one knee.

“No!” Heather cried and fell into mend the dead. In a moment, she put her hands to him, and the necromantic energy coursed through his shredded form. The line of punctures and tears began to close, and the light returned to his eyes.

“Hurry!” Breanne called from somewhere behind her as Frank got back to his feet.

“Heather, it's like a giant flower, most of its body is underground,” he said.

“What good does that do us?” she pleaded.

“Put one of your poison clouds where it comes out of the ground,” Frank said. “It can’t move around easily unless it takes the time to dig itself out, so it will be stuck inside.”

Heather nodded as he ran back. She quickly fell into the spell for grave blight, and a circle of yellow and green haze formed around the base of the creature. She saw her bone knight was up again, but its shield arm was broken off. Still, it hacked away at the beast with the sword doing what little it could.

Breanne flew through the air, trying to distract it with her speed and hurled some kind of black pulsing orbs at it. The balls of darkness exploded on contact, opening up small bleeding craters, but the monster didn't seem to care. It tried several times to sweep her out of the sky as she darted passed.

Heather pulled the small bone she carried on adventures out and began to hurl rotting bolts. The bolts did little damage, but she hoped they could bring the monster down by whittling it away. Frank leaped onto its body using his claws to latch on and began to bite at it. Quinny waded through the cloud of Heather’s spell and joined the bone knight to hack at the base.

The monster let out another warbling cry and swung wildly. Breanne let out a cry as she was battered from the sky and thrown back. She fluttered oddly before crashing to the ground in a cloud of white mist.

Heather was at her side in a moment as Breanne clutched at her side.

“It's like being hit by a car,” Breanne groaned, holding her side.

“I thought you were a ghost,” Heather said as she knelt beside her.

“I can't cast spells unless I am solid. All I can do in ethereal form is use my wail.”

“Stay still a moment,” Heather said as she called on the healing again. In moments Breanne let her side go and rose into the air again. With a sigh of determination, she raced back in hurling more black darts.

The monster slammed it's body into the ground to dislodge Frank, and he leaped away to avoid being crushed. It then struck like a snake at Quinny, catching her with only one arm. She buried her sword in it, preventing it from pulling her in, but Breanne flashed by grabbing the zombie and pulled her out before the monster could bite down.

“This is ridiculous,” Heather said as she felt helpless. The monster continued to coil it's body along the ground, burning away in her cloud as it lashed out at anyone who came too close. Her bone knight was grabbed, and the sound of breaking bones filled the air before it was spat out in a hail of fragments. Only the upper torso and head were still intact as it rolled to her feet.

“Oh!” Heather cried in anger. She looked up and had a sudden burst of inspiration.

Frank and Quinny tried to run in to strike at the beast, but it wasn't playing their game anymore. It coiled like a snake and lashed out at anyone who came in range. It was burning in Heather's cloud and occasionally flailed in pain. If Heather could keep it coiled on the ground, then most of its body would be in affected. She fell into a spell, and arms of bone reached out of the ground all around it, grabbing hold to its body and digging in clawed nails.

The creature twisted and lashed about, breaking arms but more rose out to grab hold. As the beast began to lose the ability to maneuver, Frank and Quinny struck pouncing on it behind the head. It tried to throw them off, but the arms prevented it from moving. Frank began to lash at it as if tunneling, cutting a bleeding trench across the back of its head. Quinny stabbed at it wildly, filling it with punctures. A minute later, the beast let out a gurgling wail, and its terrible head crashed to the ground. It made one final twist of motion and then lay still.

Slowly they gathered to the side to witness the fallen monster.

“I can’t believe we just beat one of those,” Quinny said in awe as she and Frank arrived.

“What was that?” Heather asked, unwilling to get close to it.

“It’s called a sedu hunter,” Frank replied. “They are a cross between a flower and an ant lion.”

“Why couldn’t I see it?”

“They dig a shaft to contain its body and then spread the head out over the ground. They can flatten their petals and change the colors to mimic the ground around them. You never see them until you step on one.”

“And those jaws snap around you,” Quinny added. “There was a lot of talk on the internet about how dangerous these things are.”

“They are very dangerous,” Breanne said as she reformed into her elven form. She smiled and looked at Heather. “But, we had a necromancer with us.”

“I would have died if not for my...” Heather began as she remembered the bone knight. “Oh, you, poor thing!” she said as she knelt beside the remains. The light in its eyes was a dim flicker as it lay motionless.

“Can I heal these?” Heather asked.

“It’s undead,” Breanne reminded her.

Heather nodded and put her hands to the fallen knight's body. She recited the words of mend the dead to see green light spread through its ribcage. The light flashed about and then began to form lines that solidified into bones, rebuilding the body slowly. It took two additional castings of the spell to restore the shattered creature fully, but just as her strength began to wain, the skeleton stood up.

“I feel exhausted,” Heather said as she slumped to her knees.

“Maybe we should go back?” Frank suggested. “She used a lot of spells. It will be hours before she has them back.”

“How close are we to the tower?” Breanne asked.

“Another hours walk,” he replied.

“I don’t think I can walk that far,” Heather replied as she settled to the ground.

“The walk back is farther,” Breanne said. “We are either staying here until she is recovered, or pressing on to the tower.”

“I don't think staying here is a good idea,” Quinny said. “That thing's wailing is sure to attract other predators.”

“I can carry her,” Frank offered.

Heather looked up, but before Frank could reach her, the bone knight knelt before her and scooped her up.

“Oof!” she cried as the creature cradled her in its arms.

“Alright, this is getting weird,” Frank said. “That thing is reacting like it is listening to us.”

“I wonder if it is,” Breanne said. “I saw the necromancers summon some very intelligent things, but they were much higher level.”

“Ummm, I guess this works,” Heather said, unable to resist. Her limbs felt heavy, and her head was swimming; if the bone knight wanted to carry her, who was she to argue.

Frank stood before the knight and glared into its eyes. The skeleton didn't flinch at all as Frank tapped it in the head with a finger. He looked all around the head and waved his hand before it, but it still never moved.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it, but it is behaving strangely for a spawned undead,” he replied as he backed away.

“But it isn't just a simple undead,” Breanne said. “It's her personal guardian. It will do whatever needs doing to protect her.”

“Aww, I want one,” Quinny added sourly.

“I am very uncomfortable about this,” Heather said. “I feel like I have a stalker.”

“That skeleton is a part of you,” Breanne said. “It is interconnected to you and will respond to your emotions. That must be why it is suddenly taking the initiative. You were upset about having to go to the top of the tower, so he did for you. You told it to protect the tower but placed it in a less than ideal position, so it moved.”

“Is that why he’s opening doors?” Heather asked.

Breanne tapped her chin with a finger and had to shake her head. “I suspect he simply learned that from you.”

“He is the perfect boyfriend,” Quinny laughed.

“Stop calling him that,” Heather insisted.

“Aww, you should be happy he loves you,” Quinny teased.

Heather glared at her a moment and then turned to her skeleton. “I command you to date, Quinny.”

“Hey!” Quinny yelped as the skeleton looked at her suddenly.

“We should move,” Breanne reminded them. “We are not ready for a second battle on this scale. Let's get to the tower and recover there.”

They agreed and set out with Frank in the lead and the bone knight carrying Heather in the center of the group.

With any luck, the tower would still be unoccupied, and Heather would have time to recover. She Spent the time continually glancing at the skeleton knight who carried her. It silently looked ahead oblivious to her glares, the rusted helmet hiding most of its face. He was another mystery to be figured out, but one that would have to wait until later. For now, she would focus on growing in strength and understanding, and hopefully, the mysteries would be answered along the way.