“Wait...” Nightshade was still staring at me after my casual remark about my line of work “So you’re kinda like a vigilante?”
I took another sip of coffee as I mulled this thought over before sitting the cup down and sighing. “I suppose you could say that, though it doesn’t really cover what we do. Hells, sometimes we’re even hired by the king, nobles, or even the guards so it’s not really vigilantism. Really, if someones got a little gold or some magical items to spare and a problem to solve, they can hire us to get the job done.” I hummed in thought for a moment “I suppose you could compare us to mercenaries but that doesn’t really cover it. Mercenaries are only in it for the money and wherever the money lies, so too does their loyalty, but not all adventurers are like that. There are even some cases of people taking on nearly impossible jobs and then refusing payment for it.”
Twilight looked at me with an inquisitive gleam in her eye, her previous fatigue all but forgotten. “What kind of jobs have you done? I know you said something about bandits and demons but you didn’t really give any details. Also, why do you keep saying ‘we’? Is this some kind of organized business? If so, how is it organized? Is there some central location where everyone picks up jobs?”
“Whoa, one question at a time kid.”
“Hey! I’m not a kid, I am a grown mare!”
“That’s not how I...” I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed “It’s just how I refer to almost everyone. I’m well over six hundred years old, it’s become a bit of a habit to call anyone that isn’t at least two hundred a kid. Trust me, I meant no offense.”
“Six hundred?! Does everybody from your world live that long?”
“What? No. Elves and such usually do but humans normally don’t.” I looked at her with a raised eyebrow “I thought the princesses told you what I am.”
She tilted her head curiously “They said you were a necromancer and that you were something called a human, aside from that they didn’t tell me much about what you were just who.”
“Of course they didn’t” I sighed and looked into my cup of coffee while I thought “I suppose I should tell you. Better you find out this way then learn I hid it later.” I lifted my head and looked the lavender unicorn in the eyes “I’m not really human. I used to be but I traded that long ago for a long enough existence to see my goals done. I’m not really alive either, so you can’t say I’ve ‘lived’ this long.”
This only served to further confuse the mare and her dragon assistant didn’t look to be any less so. The guards, who had already been briefed on this and spoken with me about it, simply sat by and watched expressionlessly.
“I’m what is known as a lich, a member of the unliving and the peak of necromantic achievement so far. In short, I’m undead.”
Twilight stared at me with wide eyes and leaned away while Spike moved closer to her as his eyes widened similarly before speaking in a wavering, uneasy voice.
“Y-you mean, you’re a z-z-zombie?!”
“I am NOT a zombie!” I shouted as I felt a sudden spike of anger before I calmed myself down, reminding myself that dark magic was almost non-existent here and that he was only a child. It’s lucky I did calm down too, seeing as the guards were already standing with weapons at the ready and staring at me levelly. I sighed again “No kid, I’m not a zombie. Zombies are mindless undead with no soul created simply to serve the will of a necromancer. There are many types of undead and what I am is called a lich. While I am undead, I retain my mind and soul... Well, I retained my soul but that’s because I did things a little differently than most liches but that doesn’t really matter right now. The point is that the only differences between me and a living person are that I don’t die, my body functions differently, and I have greater necromantic power than any living person could achieve in their lifetime.”
Spike seemed to relax, content that I wasn’t going to try and eat his brain or something equally ridiculous and Twilight relaxed slightly as well, though most of her fear seemed to be buried by curiosity as she leaned forward.
“If you’re undead then how come you don’t look it? I mean, sure you’re pale but I thought that was just an aspect of humans.”
“I don’t look undead because I’m neither an idiot or a cocky show-off of a necromancer.” Seeing that I only served to confuse everyone in the room again, I explained. “The reason undead look dead beyond pale skin is that they are either created after their bodies become that way or they aren’t properly preserved. Corpse preservation magic isn’t complicated and a permanency augment for enchantments is only slightly more so. The only reason that liches, or any self-made undead, look like rotting corpses is that they either can’t preserve themselves or don’t want to.”
“Why would anyone ever want to look like a rotting corpse?” Twilight sounded disgusted at the very notion of it.
“For the sake of showing off their necromantic power or for intimidation purposes. Some people find a barely covered skull talking to them to be more intimidating than a normal face.” I sighed again, I seemed to be doing a lot of that since I got here. “Honestly, some necromancers are complete and utter fools.”
“So, let me get this straight. You’re an immortal, undead being known as a lich and you have necromantic power beyond that of anyone living. On top of that, you also spend your time fighting bandits and demons on jobs that, as of yet, you haven’t told me about?”
“Well, that’s an accurate enough summation so far, yeah. And I’d tell you about them if we didn’t get off on these tangents.”
“Oh, right. Please, go on.” She turned to the dragonling by her side “Spike, take notes please.”
“Sure thing Twi” Spike reached behind him and pulled a roll of parchment, a quill, and ink from... somewhere. I’ll have to look into that later.
“So, it seems the simplest way to explain this would be to just tell you about one of my adventures. What do you want to hear about? One of my smaller jobs or a bigger one? One by myself or with friends? I’ve done a lot of jobs and every one is a story in and of itself.”
“Well, tell me about your most memorable job. One that was important to you.”
“My most memorable job huh?” I put my hand to my chin and stared at the ceiling for a moment as I thought over my past missions. After a couple of minutes a fond smile came across my face as I reminisced about one of the jobs that holds the most meaning to me. “Yeah, I think I can do that.”
“Now, for you to understand this I’m going to have to first tell you a bit about my world. This information stems from the very beginning of our world, a time when none of the races of Eberron flourished and the world was almost uninhabited. At this time three great dragons came to the world and discovered, or possibly created, a great prophecy that told of things to come for possibly all of Eberron’s future, even today it is coming to pass and we still try to find and decipher it. These dragons are known as the Progenitor Dragons and their names were…” I leaned forward and reached into one of my bags, pulling out three crystals and concealing them in my hand. I then placed a dark purple and black crystal on the table in front of me “Khyber, the dragon below.” I placed a yellow and blue crystal on the table that shined bright “Siberys, the dragon of the heavens above.” and finally a placed a red crystal in between the two “And Eberron, the dragon of the mortal world.” At this point the young dragon was staring at the crystals with an odd look that seemed to be of… hunger? I ignored this and continued on. “These three dragons were believed to be siblings and they fought over the prophecy, destroying the world in the process and killing Siberys. After Siberys’ death Eberron ended the battle by using her own body to restore the world and bring life to it while simultaneously sealing Khyber within its depths. It is said that…” I picked up the crystals and held them all between the fingers of my right hand, showing them to the ponies gathered around the table “... these crystals are fragments of the three great dragons’ bodies and contain pieces of the great prophecy within them. These are known as Dragonshards.”
At this information Spike recoiled slightly with a look of horror. “Those are pieces of… dead dragons?”
I put the Dragonshards back into my pouch as I continued my tale. “It’s possible. Nobody can really know for sure if they are as not even the gods came to be until after these events but it is true that these are scattered in the billions where the dragons are believed to reside. Siberys Dragonshards orbit the world, Khybers are buried deep within, and Eberrons are scattered on or close to the surface. It is also true that they can be used, in great number or massive size, to view the draconic prophecy. Sadly however, only the dragons and a few great scholars have been able to decipher it so the shards are gathered and pawned off as any other jewel would be, nothing more than a pretty rock.”
Twilight got a bit of a confused look “Wait, if nopony was around during all of this, how do you know what happened?”
I smirked and looked at her “The prophecy didn’t begin when the dragons died, it covers their arrival as well. It’s even possible it covers a time before the Progenitor Dragons, though none have managed to find parts that date that far back. Anyways, it seems I went on a bit of a tangent on my own. The important part of this is the Prophecy itself. On Eberron, the world not the dragon though I guess those are one in the same, there are certain houses that are tied to this prophecy. The houses are more like clans really and within these clans there is the potential for the people within them to bear something known as a Dragonmark. It is a symbol that appears on one’s face that signifies your ties to not only your clan but the great prophecy as a whole. These marks give their bearers powers according to the mark. There are many marks but a few of them as an example are the Human house of Cannith’s Mark of Making, the Elven house of Phiarlin’s Mark of Shadow, the Halfling house of Jorasco’s Mark of Healing, and the Dwarven house of Kundarak’s Mark of Warding.”
Twilight tilted her head in confusion “Elven? Halfling? Dwarven?”
“I forgot just how much I’m going have to teach you.” I sighed “They are a few of the races of my world. The Elves are often lithe, agile, and cunning. They are also one of the most long-lived of the races, living for a couple of centuries at least, and generally, though not all, tend to look down on the other races. The Halflings are a small race, similar in appearance to humans but about half of our size. They are a naturally curious and nimble people. Overall they are possibly the most like humans of the races. Dwarves are a short, stout race. They are generally strong, tough, and stubborn, and all around steadfast. Aside from them there are a lot of other races but I’ll tell you more about them later.”
“Anyways, the mark you need to know about for this is the Kundarak Mark of Warding. As the name suggests, it gives the bearer powers that are rather helpful with defenses. They can set magical traps through just their Mark’s power, are naturally adept with protection magics, and are all around good at building defenses and protections. As such, the house of Kundarak has become responsible for most of the banking of the world. Basically, if you need to store something valuable at maximum security, Kundarak is the place to go.”
“Now, for most of the house’s banking career there have been almost no successful break-ins at their banks. One of the closest ever was done by a group hired to test the bank’s security, a group called The Laughing Knives. This group is famed for being quite possibly the best at getting through any and all defenses and reaching any high-security point with little trouble but when they took the job to test Kundarak, they finally met their match. The defenses of the bank’s newest innovation, The Vault of Night, bested them and the group was disheartened, eventually breaking up. Now, The Vault of Night is guarded by pretty much every defensive trick that Kundarak has and quite a few guards on top of that. Also, even if you manage to get past the rest of these defenses, The Vault is considered such a big innovation because it’s not entirely on the plane of Eberron. The Vault exists partially on the plane of shadows and is nearly inaccessible through normal means because of this. The only way to enter The Vault is through a portal connected to it that lies in the heart of the bank on Eberron and is guarded by the most advanced golem that the Kundarak Warders and Cannith artificers have ever been able to create: massive, powerful, and made from adamantine with more reinforcements than any golem ever made before or since.”
“Now, about 13 years ago, about two years after the Laughing Knives break up, there was someone that managed to not only get past all of The Vault’s defenses but also turn them against Kundarak. An elder red dragon by the name of Velah disguised herself as a beautiful elven woman and broke in, holding herself up in the veritable treasure trove of The Vault with all of Kundaraks defenses protecting her. She couldn’t leave The Vault though, because the moment Kundarak found out she had slipped past them they set a veritable army around the entire building and every other possible exit. So, Kundarak found themselves with a bit of a conundrum, how could they get past defenses that beat the best infiltration team ever to walk the streets of Khorvaire?”
“It was while the leaders of Kundarak where mulling this question over that Marek Mulcannus, the halfling leader of the disbanded Laughing Knives, approached them with an offer. You see, he was never satisfied with the way his group’s last job ended. He was certain that, if given another chance, The Laughing Knives could best Kundarak’s defenses and get this dragon out of The Vault. Kundarak, with little other choice in the matter, accepted this offer.”
Twilight spoke up, confused again “But wait, didn’t you say that their group disbanded? how can The Laughing Knives break into The Vault if there are no Laughing Knives?”
I smirked slightly at her question “Ah, that’s where I come in. You see, Marek tried to convince the rest of the old group to get back together for one last job but for one reason or another each of them declined or couldn’t be reached. Marek, unable to solve all of his friend’s problems on his own, sent out a request for adventurers to help him. I found this request and approached him to accept it. Marek was glad for the help and told me that I would be helping Dirge of Karnaath, The Laughing Knives’ weapons master, to acquire a new weapon that he had his sights on ever since losing his prized axe in the first attempt to enter The Vault. I was told to meet him at a place in House Kundarak’s enclave in Stormreach and that I would be meeting two other people that had accepted the job.”
“So, I went to the specified location, a place that is one of Stormreach’s worst kept secrets as it is a business that houses an illegal fighting arena known as the Tharashk Arena. The Arena only accepts combatants from the more… monstrous races of Eberron, ones that are generally viewed as barbaric and that stay away from cities and even towns and have a preferred profession of bandit. This arena, one of the most vicious fighting rings in all of Khorvaire, is hidden underground and accessible through only one entrance, a secret door in a shop housed in the Kundarak Enclave.”
Nightshade raised an eyebrow and looked over at me questioningly “What kind of business would house an illegal fighting arena under it?”
I smiled and chuckled before speaking. “The Tharashk Arena is hidden under one of the most well known shops in Stormreach.” I paused, feeling the need to be a bit dramatic “... The best damned bakery in the city.” and I couldn’t help but laugh as the jaws of everyone around the table simultaneously dropped and they just stared at me with looks of disbelief. “A lot of people seem to have that same reaction. However, the exact reason you’re so surprised is what makes it such a good front for things like that. Nobody suspects the baker.”
“Now, as I was saying, I went to the bakery and found the place almost completely empty aside from the minotaur behind the-” I didn’t manage to finish my sentence before Twilight interrupted me.
“There’s minotaurs in your world too? Interesting, I wonder if there are any differences in our minotaurs and yours.” as she said this I realised a bit of inconsistency with the information I’d been given up to this point.
“Wait, wait, wait, There are minotaurs here? So you don’t have any humanoid races but you have monstrous humanoids?”
“Humanoid? that means ‘resembling a human’ right? Well, I wouldn’t really say Minotaurs look like humans. I mean, at the most basic I guess the body structures are similar but I wouldn’t really say they look like humans.”
“That’s what humanoid means.” I sighed “It just refers to any race that has the same general body structure: bipedal, two arms, and head in the same relative position on the body. Races such as the minotaurs which, admittedly look more like bulls than humans aside from that, are considered ‘monstrous’ humanoids.”
Her eyes sparked with realisation “Oh, then I guess there are a few ‘monstrous humanoids’ here. there’s the minotaurs, ogres, and trolls that come to mind first.” Her face scrunched up in thought for a moment “Wait, I thought you said the monstrous races were barbaric. While minotaurs might be a bit more… aggressive than ponies that’s not to say they’re entirely uncivilised.”
“Well, no, the minotaurs back home aren’t either. In fact, some of them even live rather prosperously in the cities and one of the most famous poets in Stormreach is a minotaur but generally they tend to stay away from the rest of civilisation because they have a reputation brought about by their, as you put it, aggression.”
“Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the bakery was rather empty aside from the minotaur behind the counter and Dirge, the human I had come to look for. He was a tall, muscular man with dark brown hair and wearing full plate mail armor while arguing with the previously mentioned minotaur about wanting to fight in The Arena and the minotaur just kept replying with ‘you know the rules, no humans in the ring. you can watch as much as you like but fighting is off limits.’ I cleared my throat to get their attention, walked up to Dirge, and led him off to one of the tables to talk, much to the minotaurs relief. I told him I was sent by Marek and he said he wouldn’t agree to do the job without a new axe and when I offered to get him one he told me he’d only accept a magical axe known as the Oath of Droaam, which just happened to be the prize for beating the current champion of The Tharashk Arena. As we were talking, two women entered the bakery dressed in armor and carrying weapons, leaving little doubt in my mind that they were adventurers and I got their attention, asking them to come over believing that they were the other two Marek had hired.”
“The first was a young human woman of about five and a half feet in height, only a couple inches shorter than me. She had dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail and she wore a robe absolutely covered in pockets, small quivers filled with bolts, and a couple of sheathed daggers. Her face seemed to be quite pretty but it was hard to tell behind her massive goggles with knobs on the side. On her back, she had a large, repeating crossbow and there was a large smile on her face.When she saw me she raised a hand as if shielding her eyes from something bright then reached up with her other hand to turn one of the knobs on her goggles. When she lowered her other hand the lenses on the goggles were a few shades darker.”
“Behind her sauntered an elven woman slightly taller than her.The most obvious feature on her was her deep, dark blue hair kept to shoulder length by hair clips. On her back she had a large bow and a quiver bristling with arrows and in holsters on her belt she had two simple looking scimitars. She wore leather armor and a large smile on her face, looking as if she was in a perpetual state of happiness. When I called her over she practically skipped over to our table and went to take a seat. Somehow though, despite a complete lack of anything to trip on, she managed to fall over onto me and knock me to the floor before landing on top of me.” this had everyone else at the table giggling and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory “Yeah, she didn’t make the best first impression.”
“After sorting ourselves out and me getting the elven woman off of me we all took a seat at the table and began talking. I found out that, yes, these were the other two adventurers that had accepted Marek’s job request and we all introduced ourselves, the human naming herself as Maywild and the elf calling herself Suki. I filled them in on the situation and, after a bit of discussion with Dirge remaining adamant about not taking on the bank job without the Oath of Droaam, we decided that we would have to get the axe. Maywild suggested we sneak in and steal it but Dirge told us that it was kept under a shield spell inside the arena itself, to be claimed the moment that the champion is slain. This really left us with only one option, enter the arena and win the axe.”
Nightshade spoke up from the side “But I thought you said that humans weren’t allowed in the ring. Did you plan on having the elf fight in there by herself?”
“No, elves aren’t allowed in the ring either, pretty much only the monstrous races are allowed without special permission. However, Dirge said he had a contact on the inside that could get us the password to enter and with that we could probably bluff our way into the ring. If all went well then the one in charge wouldn’t even know until the fight started and at that point they’d just let the contestants deal with us. Afterall, the crowd would likely go into a frenzy the moment they saw a couple humans and an elf in the ring and would be eager to watch us get slaughtered in there.”
Twilight looked at me with a hint of surprise and confusion “But, I don’t understand why you would be willing to do this in the first place. This fighting ring sounds pretty dangerous, why would you risk your lives just to get this guy an axe?”
Well, for one thing, the Oath has quite a few powerful enchantments on it, even by Eberron’s standards, where enchanted items are pretty commonplace. For another, Dirge was likely our best bet at getting through some of the tougher defenses in The Vault and we couldn’t just let Velah sit up there with pretty much all of the most valuable and powerful items Kundarak had. And finally, the Arena wasn’t really known for having strong competitors. In fact, the common challenger is pretty weak in there, they just come in rather large mobs. The only real challenge would be the champion, Dreadheart the Unbeaten, and his sidekick along with his pack of trained wolves. Together, that group had managed to remain champion for about four or five years, impressive in any fighting ring. But the three of us weren’t exactly easy to beat either, an ancient Necromancer, a highly skilled and agile swordswoman, and a cunning master mechanic coming prepared with traps, alchemical explosives, and a veritable arsenal of bolts for her repeating crossbow, we were a pretty good group for taking down a couple of targets. Our only real problem was our lack of anyone with a strong defensive style, we were pretty much all offense. Overall though, we didn’t see the fight as too much of a risk and it was a necessary one at that.”
“So, we prepared ourselves for battle, were told how to find the contact, and made our way into the underground passageways to the Arena, telling the guards we were there to watch the show. We got a few odd looks, an old man and two young women coming to see a fight like that was pretty strange, but Maywild was able to talk our way through and we got into the arena.
From what I could see it looked like we would be fighting in a fairly open circle but I turned to Suki and Maywild and pulled out a pair of necklaces from my pouch, identical down to the small white stone set in the center, and asked them to wear them, saying they would help protect them in case one of my spells went astray. That wasn’t entirely untrue, as the necklaces did have an enchantment to protect the wearer from magic but it was a fairly weak spell unless blocking necromantic spells, in which case it was highly potent. They dismissed my worries, saying we would have plenty of room to fight but agreed anyways and put them on before stepping out into the arena.”
“The fight started and, as expected, the crowd went into a frenzy the moment they saw us and the promoter for the fight was furious that we had snuck in but there was nothing he could do without angering the audience even more so he let us stay, figuring there was no way we would survive even one round.” I smirked and chuckled darkly “And oh did we prove him wrong. We went through the first round untouched entirely; Suki unslinging her bow, Maywild readying her crossbow, and me channeling spells constantly, the contestants didn’t even get a chance to get close to us. The next few rounds proceeded with equal ease, Suki eventually switching to her scimitars and practically dancing through the mobs of foes while Maywild hurled exploding flasks and shot down enemies with pinpoint precision. We managed to make it to the final round almost unharmed.”
“That’s when things started to go downhill.” I sighed as I leaned forward. “Dreadheart came into the arena and we saw firsthand why he and his team were unbeaten. He and his sidekick were massive trolls, each wielding clubs bigger than me and Dreadheart’s being enchanted with an Otto’s Resistable Dance spell that occasionally triggered on contact. On top of this there was the pack of trained wolves to worry about. The animals would dart around the ring, harrying us and distracting us for the trolls to strike us from behind. The battle was not going well and the three of us got separated to either end of the ring, Maywild and Suki fighting back to back against the sidekick and the entire wolf pack while I fought Dreadheart himself.”
“Already, I was having trouble. I wasn’t able to use my necromancy without revealing myself which would likely end up with not only Dreadheart, his group, and everyone in the stands trying to kill me but the women I had come in with as well. And even if I got away, the rumors would spread and I wouldn’t be able to show my face in the city for quite a while without angry mobs trying to destroy the ‘vile necromancer’. I was at a severe disadvantage because of this already and then Dreadheart managed to close the distance between us and shatter the bones in one of my arms. Then, while I was attempting to cast another spell, his club came down on my other arm, shattering it as well. Both arms useless, I couldn’t cast most of my spells, and the ones I could were all but useless. I chanced a look over at the other two and saw they weren’t really doing any better. They were surrounded by the wolves and both were covered in slashes and bite marks while barely managing to evade the sidekick’s massive club. If this continued, there was no way we would have managed to live. I had only one choice now. I had only one spell that I could cast without my arms that would be able to both get Dreadheart off of me and save the other two. However, in order to do so, I had to reveal myself as a necromancer. There was no going back after I cast it, there’s no way to deny that the spell is necromancy and only a master necromancer could even learn the spell, let alone cast it, but it was the only option.”
Twilight looked at me with excitement and the unbridled curiosity that can be seen in any mage about to hear about powerful new magic “What spell?”
“Wail of the Banshee.” I stated in a level voice. The reaction around the table was almost a unanimous blank look of incomprehension. Unanimous, that is, except for Twilight Sparkle who lost her curiosity entirely and her eyes widened in shock. “So, it would seem you’ve done thorough research Miss Sparkle, I didn’t think anyone would have heard of the spell here.”
She gulped before speaking in a slightly shaky voice “I read about it in a rare book on necromancy, the only one I’ve ever found. It said that nopony had ever been able to cast it before. It’s actually become something of a myth.” She paused and licked her lips before continuing “A-are you saying that you can actually… cast it?”
Spike interrupted before I could respond with a look of curiosity “Why Twilight? What does it do?” Twilight seemed to go a bit pale beneath her coat as she turned to the young hatchling and started trying to stammer out an excuse to not say it but I simply talked over her in a calm, monotone voice.
“It infuses the voice of the caster with necromantic magic which is then released in a wail that kills all that hear it.”
The eyes of the remaining three widened and they all visibly recoiled from me at this statement but Spike’s reaction was the most extreme. He dropped the quill and parchment from his hands and fell in an attempt to scramble as far away from me as possible, keeping his wide eyes on me the whole time until he eventually scooted himself back into the corner.
I simply sipped at the now cold coffee in front of me and responded in an equally casual tone as before. “Why the look of surprise? Necromancy is the magic of death, killing and reanimating are it’s two specialties, and reanimation requires a corpse to perform it on.” I looked around the room, seeing that this did nothing to ease the fears of the young dragon and that the guards were still equally tense I sighed and dropped my head into my hand “Would you relax? I’m not going to use any of my necromancy except in self defense. Besides, if it makes you feel any better, I doubt I could cast any of my stronger spells with how little energy I can get from this Ley Line, the Wail included.” Surprisingly, this seemed to work marginally as the guards relaxed slightly and Spike’s seemed to calm down slightly and move back over toward the table, though staying noticeably farther away from me and closer to Twilight than before.
Twilight simply sighed and wrapped a foreleg around him, pulling him closer before staring at me “Would you please not scare Spike like that? He is a baby dragon after all and I was trying to find a gentler way of putting it.”
I simply shrugged “You’re the one who asked me to tell you about one of my adventures. They may all be quite different ordeals but they almost all have one thing in common. Death. And honestly, it’s probably best he be told flat out instead of beating around the bush and trying to sugar coat it. I am a necromancer, when I fight, I fight to kill. Simple as that.” Twilight looked like she was about to respond but i cut her off “Anyways, back to the story.” She huffed but relented and let me continue my tale.
“So, backed into a corner with time running out I had no choice but to reveal myself as a necromancer to save my allies and get the job done. I drew a large amount of necromantic magic into me, threw my head back, and let it all out in one loud, ghostly wail. Dreadheart, being right at the epicenter of the spell, never stood a chance and dropped to the ground in an instant. The wolves were the next to feel the effects, dropping to their bellies and their ears laying back flat as they whined before the full effect hit them and their whining stopped. Finally, it reached Maywild, Suki, and the sidekick. The girls, both already weakened from their wounds, dropped to their knees and covered their ears but were otherwise unharmed as the gems in their necklaces turned slowly from a pure white to a dark, inky black. The sidekick however, wasn’t so lucky and fell, meeting the same fate as Dreadheart himself. The magic stopped short just before reaching the crowd who all covered their ears and shut their eyes tight against the unearthly sound. Finally, as I channeled the dark magic through me my undead body began to use this power to mend itself, mending the shattered bones and closing all of my wounds while my eyes began to glow a deep crimson.”
“As the spell finally ended and my scream trailed off into silence I lowered my head and looked around, taking in the corpses of the now defeated champion and his group and the injured women shakily removing their hands from their ears, apparently not entirely unaffected but still alive. Finally, I saw that with Dreadheart’s death the barrier around the flaming axe at the other end of the arena had disappeared. I calmly strode over and picked up the axe, pulling an old strap designed to hold a staff on one’s back and slipped the axe’s handle into it.”
“I turned to the women as they were standing up, both of them turning towards me with grins on their faces that surprised me to no end. Then, Maywild said something that, to this day, has been the most shocking thing anyone has ever said to me…”
“‘Well, it took you long enough!’”
Everyone around the table just stared at me in confusion. Finally, Brightblade broke the silence “Really? That’s the most shocking thing that has ever been said you you?” I nodded. “In six hundred years, the most shocking thing you’ve heard is ‘it took you long enough’?” I nodded again.
“Well, it’s not the words themselves that shocked me so much but the implication behind it. She just saw me cast a spell that was undeniably necromancy, considered one of the most vile of magics, and wasn’t surprised, scared, or even angry. She just basically told me in those few words ‘I knew all along you were a necromancer, you should have done that earlier and saved us all this trouble.’ And not only that, she did it with a happy, carefree grin and absolutely no malice or ill intent in her voice. She honestly didn’t care that I was a necromancer, to her I was her ally and a mage, nothing more.” I chuckled “Well, I thought so at least, then I found out later that she even knew I was a lich all along.”
Brightblade simply tilted his head in confusion before asking “How did she know that?”
“Remember how I said she shielded her eyes and darkened her goggles when she first saw me?” everyone around the table nodded “Well, it turns out that those goggles let her see magic. And not just weaved spells either, she could see any fluctuation of the ley lines through them and liches are surrounded by dark magic, it’s what fuels our existence, so looking at me was like kind of like looking directly at a bright light for her and it didn’t take her long to make the jump from ‘surrounded by dark magic’ to ‘undead necromancer’ to ‘lich’. And Suki didn’t care either, she just saw me as an ally and she might have even seen me as a friend back then, I’m not sure.”
“Anyways, after that the crowd and the promoter were enraged and started to open the gate to the arena so they could come and tear us limb from limb so we beat a hasty retreat through a Dimension Door spell, delivered the axe, and continued on to help the Laughing Knives break into the Vault and defeat Velah. After that the girls promised to keep my secret and, feeling I could trust them, I gave them a way to keep in contact with me. We’ve worked together many times since and I consider them my closest friends, they’re almost like family to me honestly.”
Twilight opened her mouth to say something but before she could we heard a knock at the door downstairs. “Were you expecting company?”
Twilight looked toward the stairs “No, not that I know of. It’s probably somepony come to check out a book from the library, I’ll go answer it and be back in a moment.” With that, she stood up and trotted off down the stairs.
Spike stood up and followed behind her saying “I’ll go with ya Twi.”
Curious, I followed behind them and stopped at the top of the stairs overlooking the door. When Twilight reached the door she opened it and seemed a little surprised to see a pink pony with a fluffy pink mane and tail on the other side looking a little aggravated. She said something about wanting to talk to Twilight and she was let in, the unicorn closing the door behind her.
Not wanting to eavesdrop on their conversation I went back up the stairs and sat at the table again and the three of us waited in silence for a few minute. Eventually the two walked back up the stairs, Twilight with a mixed look of confusion and shock.
“So, what was that about?” I asked.
“That was Pinkie, one of my friends. She wanted to talk about something.” she paused for a moment thinking “She also said to ‘tell Yeta I’ll throw him a party later. I’d throw him one now but I’m a teensy bit busy at the moment.’”
I raised an eyebrow in surprise “Oh, so you told her that I was up here?”
She hesitated for a moment “No… I didn’t. I also never told her your name before…” she said this with confusion clear in her voice and my eyes widened slightly.
“Then, how did she…”
“I don’t know…”
I thought for a moment “... Maybe she saw me come in earlier? or heard about it?”
“Yeah, that has to be it.” Twilight said, taking her seat again. I shrugged off my confusion and turned back to the table to face her but a small thought drifted at the edge of my mind.
‘but how did she know my name?’