by Logan Jacobs
Lying on the floor of an enormous, stone chamber was none other than the dragonkin I had slain.
He still looked dead, and his body had turned from blue to a dull gray color. His arms sprawled stiffly out to the sides of him, and his head was placed looking upward to the ceiling.
“What the--” I started, but I couldn’t even get my words out.
Ephy stopped retching and looked in the window for herself. The petite siren gasped and pushed her body weight on my arm.
“What is going on?” she feebly asked.
“I can’t see enough to know for sure,” Cinis admitted.
I didn’t say anything for a moment, and I waited for some more of the smoke to disappear and then glanced around the room.
The space was as large as Myokos’ backroom at his shop, and everything from the floor to the walls was made from the same brick that was used to build the outside structure. For some reason, the interior bricks seemed to have been undisturbed by the dragonkin, and nothing was charred or clawed apart inside. I wondered if the necromancer had done something to stop the destruction.
As I looked around, I noticed shelves way back on the farthest wall that weren’t too dissimilar to the alchemist’s shelves. They were all filled with vials and potions, but there were numerous candles and bones as well, and the rest of the walls were bare apart from a few hanging tapestries of the Necromancers’ Estate.
In the center of the floor was the dragonkin laying on his back, but even more peculiar than the corpse was the circle of symbols carved into the stone floor around him. A large cauldron sat just beyond the clawed feet of the beast, and standing behind it was none other than a woman in necromancer garb.
Her plum-colored robe cinched tight around her lanky form, and her wide hood kept her face from view, but I could see black hair tumbling around her neck, and I had a feeling this was the dragonkin’s widow.
“So… do we go in and fight now?” Ephy asked with a skeptical voice.
“I think so,” Cinis said through gritted teeth. She held her dagger tightly in her hand and prepared herself for action.
“No,” I hissed and threw my hands to either side of me to grab the two women. “It’s far too dangerous to go in now, especially when we don’t know exactly what’s going on. The best thing we can do is wait and see what unfolds. When the time comes, I’ll tell you.”
“Okay.” The siren and the Ember Priestess both nodded.
“And keep your voices down,” I whispered.
“She’s all the way on the other side of the room with a giant cauldron bubbling next to here,” Cinis hissed.
I shot her a warning glance, and Cinis reluctantly put her weapon away again while we all looked through the cracked glass again.
We continued to watch as the hooded necromancer cupped liquid into a small bowl. The liquid was hard to see through the smoke that drifted from the cauldron, but it seemed to be a deep green color, almost the same shade as the trees in Hud.
The necromancer held the bowl in both of her hands and started to walk toward the dragonkin who laid on the floor. Above him was a hanging chandelier-like structure, and in the center of that was a hollowed circle where the woman carefully placed the bowl.
“What do you think she’s doing?” I whispered.
“I don’t know for certain just yet,” Cinis admitted. “But if I’m to take a guess, then I think she’s trying to bring her dead husband back to life.”
Ephy gasped as if this actually surprised her, and the innocent siren clung to my shoulder while Cinis nodded and continued to look through the window.
Suddenly, smoke started to erupt from the bowl. It was the same thick purple smoke I saw before, and the rotting stench instantly filtered through the cracks in the stone.
Ephy tiptoed away for a moment, probably to grab some fresh air, and then she returned a few moments later. She looked a lighter shade of green than normal, and I wanted to ask if she was still certain she wanted to do all this with me, but her determined little frown proved her mind was made up.
I went back to scouting the scene as the necromancer in the plum-colored robe started to contort her hands around the top of the bowl. She twisted and turned them and caused the smoke to form in a spiral that twisted with the movements of her hands. She then pushed the smoke down to the ground, and it briefly clung to the dragonkin before flying out of the room and through the walls.
“She’s not actually using the liquid,” Ephy pointed out. “Just the smoke. Isn’t that odd?”
“Hmm,” I agreed as I watched on.
“This isn’t good,” Cinis breathed.
“Maybe I should end thi--” I started to say, but the Ember Priestess clutched my crossbow to lower it.
“No,” she said in a warning tone. “It’s too late.”
“What do you mean?” I whispered.
Cinis shook her head as she stared through the window in silence.
It was hard to see exactly what was going on behind the mottled panes of the glass, but when the smoke started to disappear once more, I noticed that the dragonkin did, too.
Sort of.
Although he looked to be present in some form, he was no longer the formidable beast I killed the other day. He didn’t have the same scaled and textured skin, but was actually pale and ghost-like, and his body was mostly transparent now.
I narrowed my eyes at the creature and saw that there was no real outline of his body. Instead, the edges of the beast wisped around him and merged into the smoke.
I’d heard tales of necromancer rituals, but witnessing the woman at work was more unnerving than I was prepared for.
This was too much power for one being to be trusted with.
The dragonkin still laid dead on the floor, and second by second, his body looked like it was disintegrating. The longer I watched, the less his form seemed to exist at all, and a couple minutes later, all that was left of him was a shadowy outline.
My jaw went slack, and my nerves knotted in the bottom of my stomach.
Still, Cinis kept a tight hold on my crossbow to keep it lowered, and Ephy bounced up and down on her feet and looked at the window with a scrunched face and worried eyes. Every now and then she would turn her head away and glance at the empty courtyard, but Cinis didn’t lose focus once. The fire she was born with seemed to glow from her wings even though they were still black, but I could see her freckles start to tinge.
I couldn’t tell if she was feeling angry or confused, but either way, she looked ready to fight.
I wondered how long this ritual could possibly go on for as I thought of Ephy. She couldn’t stay away from her pond for too long, and I couldn’t wait at the window for forever.
I had to take the destiny of the necromancer into my own hands.
“Find a brick,” I whispered to the two women next to me.
“Why?” Cinis hissed.
“I’m going to take aim, and one of you will break the window just before I fire a bolt,” I explained.
“No!” Cinis gasped and shoved both me and Ephy away from the window.
Then she kept on shoving me until we were nearly to the back corner of the house, and I finally planted my boots in the dirt and refused to move any further.
“Cinis, I am here to do my job, not watch a magic show,” I growled.
“I know what’s going on here,” Cinis said with a stern frown. “She’s bringing the soul back from the dead, but this isn’t just any soul. It’s a beastkin, and I’ve seen that potion at work before. Trust me, you do not want to attack yet, or the consequences would be astronomical.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
The ember priestess huffed, and she bit her cheek.
“She’s in the middle of a rising soul practice,” the descendant of the deities returned. “But raising a beastkin is more complicated than raising others. Their spirits get torn between two different afterlives, and she has to summon the scraps of him from each.”
/> “Oh, dear,” Ephy murmured. “Split spirits are incredibly fickle. We could be trapped in the limbo.”
“What are you two talking about?” I asked as I grappled to keep up with the conversation.
“The limbo is always eager to trap wandering spirits,” Cinis explained. “That’s why these sorts of rituals are so dangerous. That necromancer is dabbling with separate afterlives, and she’s opened the limbo to do it. If we interrupt now, the limbo will stay open, and we could all land ourselves in a state of nothingness for eternity if we get trapped in that void. Dex, it’s worse than dying. You’d forever be alive in a world where nothing and no one else existed.”
“It’s the very worst torture from what I hear,” Ephy lulled.
“I… have never heard about any of this,” I admitted, and in that moment, I realized something crucial.
If I hadn’t been working with these two women, I could have been sucked into this crazy limbo minutes ago. Perhaps I would have had some chance of succeeding instead, but I was inclined to doubt it.
Ephy and Cinis had just kept me from making the worst mistake of my whole career, and gratitude bloomed in my chest as I considered the beautiful pair at my side.
“Thank you for coming here,” I said as I lowered my crossbow. “That could have been quite a bad situation.”
“Just a bit,” Cinis chuckled softly.
“Look,” I sighed as I glanced around the purple, smoky grounds. “I can admit that I do need your help with this one, but I have to ask again… are you both sure you can handle this?”
Cinis scoffed, and Ephy tried to do the same, but her scoff was weaker and filled with less fire.
“Of course, we can,” Cinis said and looked at the siren. “Right, Ephy?”
“Yes, we can do this,” the green beauty replied.
“I’d really prefer you were both better armed for this,” I admitted as I eyed the knife and throwing star.
“Oh, Dex, women like us are always well-armed,” Cinis purred, and she gave me a devilish grin. “Don’t you remember?”
Then the Ember Priestess raised her palm, and her fingers started to glow. At first, they shone a dull amber, but the more she focused on them, the more they changed. Next, they started to burn cherry-red, and then they went as dark and as bloody as the sky was when Ignis came down from above. A moment later, Cinis’ fingertips started to spark and flame, and it looked like she had five torches ignited on each appendage.
“Wow,” Ephy swooned from over my shoulder.
“Not done yet,” Cinis clarified.
The small flames from her fingertips started to grow, and they shifted to a dark, powerful blue as her heat brought a sheen of sweat to my face.
“Very nice, Cin,” I chuckled quietly. “That’s--
“Me next!” Ephy eagerly whispered.
I furrowed my brow and glanced over in surprise, and the siren sent me a big smile and raised her green palms. She looked like a pastel angel as she held my gaze, but then blistering hot steam erupted from her delicate hands, and I flinched as the cloud burned my eyeballs just a bit.
Cinis’ sinful smirk was met with Ephy’s sweet one as they exchanged a glance, and while their combined powers coursed through the air around me, a chill ran down my spine.
Chapter 20
The Ember Priestess smiled with pride and closed her palm, and the remnants of the blue flames flickered out and vanished with tufts of smoke. Ephy shrugged modestly, and she stopped the steam from seeping out of her hands.
“See?” Cinis purred. “Together, we are some good accomplices.”
“I can see that,” I admitted with a grin. “I’m impressed.”
“But we still have to wait until the ritual is over to attack,” Cinis informed me. “No sooner, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed. “For the time being, then, let’s try and find a better position. I don’t know if pushing the glass through before firing is really the best tactic to take if we’re all in this together.”
The two women laughed lightly and nodded their heads.
“So, which way?” Ephy asked.
“This way,” I whispered.
I quietly jogged to the edge of the dilapidated building, and then to the other side near the main door of the house.
It was not a fancy entrance by any means. The door was large enough for the dragonkin to fit through, but it was basic and made from simple dark oak. It was propped slightly ajar with a door stopper while excess smoke seeped out, and I knew we could just walk in there if we needed to, but it was a risk.
“Are you sure you want to go through there?” Cinis asked as she inspected the dark wooden door.
“Well, the windows are all sealed with glass, and the building is made of stone,” I whispered. “Do you have a better suggestion?”
Both women shook their heads, and I pushed the door open enough for the three of us to form into a line and glide through the gap. Once we were all in, I held my finger to my mouth to remind them to be as quiet as they could be, and I nudged the door back to the same position I had found it in before.
The house itself wasn’t like anything I was expecting. Like Myokos’ shop, it was far bigger on the inside than I had anticipated. The front door led to a long corridor that was made from bricks and lighted with slender torches that dotted walls.
Our footsteps made a light clicking sound on the floor, so I tried to push myself up onto the balls of my feet, but given the entire home was stone with no rugs around, every little noise seemed to echo twice as loud.
Doors jutted out from the left side of us as we carried on through the hallway, and each one was finished with a bronzed knob. We slowly continued down the corridor until we came to the end, and the last room didn’t have a door. Instead, an archway was framed in stone, and the hint of a purple glow illuminated the area beyond.
When I looked through the archway, a dividing wall the same shape as the entrance was mounted a few feet beyond us, and a wide, red, stained-glass window gleamed in the center. Purple smoke sifted to the left and right of this divide, and through the glass, I could just barely make out the silhouette of the necromancer and her cauldron.
“Crouch down,” I said to Ephy and Cinis, and I got myself as low to the floor as I could. “They’re in here, so be careful and get ready to attack if we need to.”
Ephy nodded a bit too optimistically while Cinis just narrowed her piercing eyes and looked into the direction of the necromancer’s room.
As we inched closer, the smoke that radiated from the dragonkin became thicker, and the smell became more potent while the sunset light through the window cast everything in an ominous hue. Now that I was more used to the stench, it didn’t have the same effects on me as it had at first, but the deadly smell still made my head light and my stomach turn.
We looked through the red glass as the necromancer started chanting. Her voice was too low for me to understand from this distance, and she held her hands up to the ceiling and started to turn them around each other. Her tone sounded almost demonic, like something had possessed her body, but then she suddenly raised her voice, and her words echoed around the large stone room.
“Lost souls!” the necromancer called out. “Cross through the divide. Gather thy dragonkin from the afterlives, for I summon thee to return the dead back to me, and so it shall be.”
The necromancer repeated the chant three times as she continued to bundle her hands around each other and swung her head backward. When she finished the chanting, she drew a deep breath and slowly turned her to the dragonkin.
Suddenly, black bubbles emerged from the ground, and they looked like they were made from the same thick tar that shot from the dragonkin’s mouth. The bubbles boiled and popped all over the place, and then they merged into balls and started to curdle around the necromancer’s feet.
The necromancer chuckled wickedly and began to stroll through the muck, and I instinctively threw my hands in front of the two women that crouched on
either side of me.
“Get down, and stay out of sight,” I instructed them in a harsh whisper.
They both followed my order and ducked lower to the floor, and Ephy edged behind me and took Cinis’ hand for comfort. The two women were now on the right side of me, and they clutched each other while I inched up to peer through the stained-glass window again.
The floor wasn’t entirely covered by the black, bubbling liquid. There was enough space for the necromancer to weave her way around them, and they spluttered and spat their substance around the room in a furious way.
I watched as the widow glided her eyes over each bubble, and it was like she was looking for something in particular, but I wasn’t sure what exactly. Each tarrish bubble looked the same to me, but then I saw her eye up one in particular.
The longer the necromancer stared at this spot, the more spherical the bubble became compared to the others. Then she reached down and picked up the seeping, gooey ball in her hand. The black liquid ran between her spidery fingers and dropped to the floor, and when it did reach the stones again, it began to bubble and burst all over again.
The necromancer smiled as she brought her dripping hands over to the bowl that hung above the dragonkin. It was the same bowl she had poured the smoke inducing substance into earlier, and once she deposited the tar into the bowl, she stood back and raised her hands to the ceiling.
“Thank you, souls,” she declared to the smoky room. “My need for you has come to an end, and now you may rest until I summon you again.”
She chanted this over and over again, and then she pushed the bowl above the dragonkin in a circular motion. It started doing laps above the ghostly outline of the beast, and what happened next made my jaw unhinge.
I instantly pulled Cinis up from her seated position, and I nudged her to look through the window. I didn’t do the same for Ephy because I figured it would frighten her, but Cinis was gaping just as much as me now.
“What the fuck…” Cinis whispered.
“Mm-hmm.” I nodded.
Beyond the pane of glass, the boiling tar-like bubbles started to cool, but instead of vanishing back into the stonework, they turned into black grubs that looked oil-slicked and slimy. They were all fat, and as long as my forefinger, and they wriggled and climbed over each other until the whole floor writhed with them.
