Heather the Necromancer

Heather felt angry as she followed Frank across the grasslands. Moon set her up and took her panel, but neither of them understood why. As they made the long walk back to the town, they both had time to ponder it.

“So she can’t use it at all?” Heather asked.

Frank shook his head. “No. This is why I said I didn't think I could do anything with your panel. Only the person it belongs to can use it. I can look at the screens, but I can't make any changes.”

“I should have let you try, though,” Heather said. “I wanted out, but as soon as I had the panel, I got carried away playing with it.”

“Of course you did because it's fun,” he said. “I wish I was chosen. I would have played with it a ton more and tried all sorts of combos.”

Heather smiled to hear his encouragement. She couldn't argue that it was fun to play with the options. She could be anything she wanted, who wouldn't want to play with that? She smiled as she thought about the succubus and shook her head. “That's playing too much.”

“What is?” Frank asked.

“Nothing!” Heather squeaked.

Frank glanced back at her and then went on. “She must have a reason for wanting it, but I can't think of anything. Whatever it is, she went to a great deal of trouble. She could have attacked us in the town, or stolen it while you were sleeping. Instead, she let you take it back and then sent people to steal it. It doesn't make any sense.”

“Maybe she was afraid of you?” Heather suggested.

Frank disagreed. “I don't think she was. That whole time Moon was talking to us felt like an act. She was being overly helpful and trying to put us at ease. She never once seemed like she felt on the defensive.”

Heather chewed on that thought as they reached the edge of the forest. The sun moved to it's setting position over an hour ago. It would be dark by the time they reached the town. She didn't like the idea of being there at night and certainly didn't want to stay at the inn again.

As time passed, the sun moved again, and the stars filled the sky. A strange ringed moon rose to the north that seemed to give off little light. The forest became a maze of dark patches and shadows that played tricks on the eyes. As they skulked through the trees, it became apparent Frank was leading her around the objects.

“How can you see anything?” she asked.

“Undead can see in the dark better than a cat. We can also see the living easier.”

“You can see them easier?”

Frank glanced back before continuing. “All animals have a glow around them that indicates they are living. Undead can see this glow. It makes it hard for the living to hide from an undead.”

“So, you see a glow around me when you look at me?”

“Yeah, it's a soft blue light. Some powerful undead can even see beings that are magically shifted or invisible.”

“Magically shifted? What is that?”

“It works kind of how movies do dimensions. They move out of this one into a sort of parallel one. Sometimes they can interact with this world still, but usually, all they can do is see it. It's super useful for passing through walls thought because nothing is solid to them.”

“So, they are like ghosts?” Heather asked.

“Sort of,” Frank agreed. “Ghosts exist in two dimensions, here and the ethereal.”

“All this is too confusing!” Heather groaned.

“You will figure it all out if you play a necromancer,” Frank said. “They can do all sorts of things like that.”

“I don't know,” Heather said. “I was thinking about what you said. Maybe I should change classes. If Moon was telling the truth about that part, then maybe being a necromancer is too dangerous.”

Frank was quiet a long moment, and all she heard was the sound of the skeletons walking on the forest floor.

“If Moon was telling the truth, then I understand if you want to change. Honestly, I think you should, but I also think you should be allowed to play what you want. If the necromancer is bugged, then that's the visitor's problem, and they need to fix it. They do make changes from time to time. People laugh and call them bug fixes. They had one bug where rain would fall out of a blue sky sometimes.”

“That must have been odd,” Heather said as she ducked under a branch.

“I never saw it. I read about it before I came in, but the point is this bug on your class could be fixed already.”

“So, there might be no reason to ban necromancers anymore?”

“Maybe, but the visitors never tell us what they change. Somebody would need to level up and see if it's fixed.”

“But that won’t happen if they keep killing them,” Heather said.

Frank nodded his agreement.

Heather stumbled over a bush as a thought haunted her mind.

“Frank, do all players spawn in the forest?”

“No, why did you want to know that?”

“I was just wondering how they could kill the necromancers over and over. Even if you reset them and they go back to a spawn point, you would have to find them again.”

“I see what you're getting at. The spawn points don't work like you think. First, there are only about fifty of them. They are scattered across the center of the world in a star-shaped pattern. From what I know about it, there is a ton of world outside the pattern, but if you die, you respawn at the closest point.”

“So if they killed one, they could figure out where he was likely to spawn?”

“Probably,” Frank said. “If they were smart and they knew they were going to face one, they would have people waiting at the spawn.”

“Do you think they would do that?”

Frank turned to look at her with narrow eyes. “I would.”

Heather felt a chill from the way he looked at her and the finality of his voice. She went to think about it more when he suddenly stopped and held up a hand.

“Tell your skeletons to wait here,” he said.

“Why?” I thought we needed them?”

“They make too much noise walking in the forest. I want to sneak up on the town without them first.”

“Are we close?” Heather asked nervously.

“It should be over the next hill,” he said.

She turned to the skeletons and ordered them to wait where they were. They silently complied and didn’t move when she walked away from them.

“Keep low and follow me,” Frank said as he picked his way down a hillside, trying to stay hidden in the brush.

Heather stepped on twigs and got her dress caught on brambles. She grumbled that she hadn’t thought to change into her jeans. She was sure this dress would be torn and useless before the night was over. She added that to her list of reasons to be angry at Moon when Frank stopped again.

He stood motionless, looking all around before moving again. Slowly he crept up the slope of the next hill until he was looking over the lip.

Below them in a valley was the little town of Twilightfalls. Lights could be seen in many of the windows, and a dark form of a player walked the street. Heather crept up and crouched next to him as he studied the scene nodding his head.

“Do you see anything?” she asked.

“I see plenty,” he said. “And I don’t like it.”

“What do you mean?”

“They know we're coming,” Frank said. He pointed to various ruined houses and showed her where to look. “They have people hiding in all those buildings on the side.”

“How can you tell?” Heather asked. “I can’t see a thing.”

“I can see the light the living give off bleeding through the walls. Its an ambush waiting for us.”

“But how could they know to set it up right here?” Heather asked.

“Because somebody told them,” Frank said.

Heather's eyes went wide, and she looked around nervously.

“What do we do?”

“We turn around and deal with the two elves who alerted them,” Frank said as he turned about.

“Very good,” Nanya said as she stepped out from hiding thirty paces behind them. “Moon was right. You are the real danger.”

“Why are you doing this?” Heather asked. “We just wanted to be friends.”

“Don’t waste your breath,” Frank said. “She has no sympathy.”

“Oh, but that's where you're wrong,” Kerrigorn said as he stepped out of the shadows on the other side. “Nanya has plenty of sympathy. She sympathizes with our need for gold and resources.”

“So, the whole town is working together, but you won't work with us?” Heather asked.

“What did you expect?” Nanya asked. “You're a necromancer, and he's a monster. Your whole purpose for existing is to be hunted down and killed.”

“We are both players like you are!” Heather argued. “We have a right to exist!”

“Not anymore,” Kerrigorn said as he leveled his spear at them.

Heather went to say something, but Frank held up a hand to silence her. “Neither of them care about you or me. All they care about is what's best for themselves.”

“It's all anybody cares about in this world,” Nanya said. “All the amazing powers and abilities come at much higher levels. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to be at least thirty.”

“Too bad you two won’t be seeing it,” Frank said.

He suddenly raced for Nanya with his claws out and his mouth wide. She stepped back as she fired an arrow scoring a deep puncture on Frank's shoulder. He ran in, and she loosed another hitting him in the chest, but he hardly slowed. “Kerrigorn!” she cried before Frank pounced on her.

“Stop!” Kerrigorn yelled. “Or I will impale the necromancer!”

Frank looked up from where he sat hovering over Nanya, who flailed to get out of his grasp. Her arm was bitten and blood poured out as Frank casually used his ghoul touch to paralyze her.

“You won’t hurt Heather,” Frank said. “Not even to save Nanya.”

“I will!” Kerrigorn yelled as he pressed the spear to Heather’s throat.

Heather felt the cold of the spear press on her skin, and she wondered what it was going to be like to respawn.

Frank stood tall and stepped on Nanya, pinning her to the ground. He wanted to make sure Kerrigorn was watching him, and he had his undivided attention.

“I am going to eat your throat out and drag your carcass back to my graveyard to feed me,” he said in a cold dead voice.

Kerrigorn tensed and held his ground, holding the spear to Heather. “I swear I will kill her.”

Frank laughed and kicked a log aside, causing it to roll down the hill.

Kerrigorn locked eyes with him as the log tumbled to a stop.

“What was that supposed to accomplish?” he asked.

“I just needed to make a little noise,” Frank said.

Kerrigorn laughed. “Why? Were you hoping I would be frightened by a rolling log?”

“No,” Frank said with a toothy smile. “I just didn’t want you to hear the skeletons coming.”

Kerrigorn looked to his right as the skeletons hacked away at him with sword and axes.

Heather stumbled away as the spear came off her throat and quickly retreated.

Frank turned back to Nanya and lifted her by a leg holding her in the air before finally tearing out her throat. He cast the body aside as Heather hid behind a tree.

“Where did they come from?” Heather gasped.

“They are your skeletons. If you are ever threatened when they are nearby, they will come even if you don’t call them.”

“You knew they were watching us?”

“I wasn't sure. I didn't see them with my sight, but the ambush is waiting exactly where are going to come out. That means somebody warned them.

“How can you know all this?” Heather asked. “It’s like you can read their minds.”

“I am a gamer,” he said. “I know how gamer’s think. The question now is, were these two players in Moons plans, or were they pawns?”

“Pawns, I can assure you,” Moon said before a searing pain burned into franks back, followed by three more.

“Frank!” Heather screamed as the light in his eyes went out.