Week 3: Necromancer - Part 1

Much to Lu’s Dismay, they had to wait three more days before they could continue their journey. During this time they kept practicing their swordplay with Helvia much to the amusement of the other people in the garrison. One time some of the veterans wanted to join in and challenged Lu to do some sparring, but even three-on-one barely counted as a warmup. Lu rarely managed to defeat Helvia, specially once she started to take it seriously and ditched the imperial sword for an Impetus Glaive, or in this case a curvy stick with a pillow tied to one end. It was her weapon of choice and it showed, the only two encounters Lu won was because in one of them the pillow fell off and during the other she got too carried away and broke the handle against the floor. On the dusk of their fourth day, one of the soldiers came looking for Helvia while they were having dinner and took them to the top floors to meet the mage she would be escorting.

In the morning of the next day, after having early breakfast, Lu went to prepare the wagon for continued their journey. The mules were well rested, the back had been cleaned and the commander had been generous enough to gift them some blankets and preserved food for the rest of the trip. It was an unusual gesture, but Helvia being a Dragonkin had its benefits in that people would treat her like nobility by default and try to get in her good graces even if she was in all intents and purposes a legionary with no connections or authority. Once everything was ready they took the cart to the road leading south and waited there, as instructed. Not too long after Helvia walked out wearing her full armour and they whistled to get her attention. Besides her was a short elven woman, which looked a bit younger than Lu, wearing a crown of marigold flowers around her head contrasting beautifully against her dark skin.

Her factions were sharp and delicate like a princess or a muse, with a sharp nose, thick lips and perfect eyebrows she looked like the ideal of beauty Lu never thought possible could exist. She was wearing a thick wool coat that was way too long for her under which Lu could see her colourful and baggy linen shirt and trousers which definitely were designed for a much warmer climate. Her leather boots were muddy and old, just like the belt and pouches she carried on her waist. On her back she carried a large traveling backpack that seemed to be full of mostly books, hanging from it were pots, cups, wands, a knife and an assortment of items of different shapes and sizes wrapped in cloths or bundled together with precarious knots. She was also using as a waking stick a spiral staff of wrinkled ebony wood taller than her, with the top shaped into a hand of excessively large fingers wrapped around a perfectly white skull. Resting on her shoulders was the stole of the imperial mages, boasting three golden circles and striped with blue, red and amber lines.

“Our companion here is Lu.” Said Helvia, jumping in the front of the cart and taking the reins from them. “They are a nice kid, if a bit rough around the edges.”

“Aren’t we all.” The elf laughed like the chirping of birds. She sat on the back of the cart, setting up her things in a neat pile before coming closer to the font to greet Lu. “Hello! My name is Aregoma, nice to meet you.” Her smile was the type of beautiful that inspired people to write ballads, paint, and dream of love. Her intense amber eyes were also beautiful, but had some eerie quality to them, like they were dry or hollow, made out of glass, like the eyes of a recently deceased person.

“Nice to meet you, Highmage Aregoma.” They replied on a stiff tone, not knowing what to do with their hands.

The elf giggled. “Not a Highmage yet. Just call me Aregoma, or Are.”

“I thought Elves always had long composite names.” Lu asked.

Aregoma set up a blanket to sit on. “Yes if you add a family name, but I don’t really have a family in the elf sense anymore so I don’t use one.”

After a few seconds of awkward silence Helvia nudged Lu with her elbow. “I am sorry, didn’t mean to be rude.” They said.

“No worries, you didn’t know.”

The following hours were spent on some small talk about the weather, their trip so far and what the expected route was. In order to get to the river they had to traverse a not very well kept route through the forest and in more than one occasion Lu and Helvia had to work together to remove some branches or boulders that obstructed the road. One time a full tree was blocking the path and while Helvia was evaluating the best workaround Aregoma used her magic. She stood in front of the tree, feet on a line as if she was balancing on something, and pronounced an incantation while she span her body clockwise waving her staff in a full circle around herself without moving her feet, finishing her chant as the skull on the staff gently tapped the fallen log. Within seconds the wood rotted and cracked and after a minute it looked like a hundred years had passed for the wood. It had become light and brittle, trivial to break into pieces and carry away. Satisfied, she sat back down on the cart to continue studying one of her books while the other two did the physical labour.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

*****

“I will keep watch.” Said Aregoma while Lu was heating up some of their meat and bread over a fire, preparing to spend the night by the side of the road. “I can sleep during the day tomorrow.”

“I thought elves didn’t need to sleep” mentioned Helvia, tying the mules to a tree.

“You know, on my father’s side of the family I am ‘the human one’.” Laughed the mage. “In reality elves have longer cycles than most other races so they tend to sleep for twenty to thirty hours and then spend about four days without needing to sleep.” She sat down to warm her hands by the fire. “But I am not a full elf and I have gotten used to the rhythm of other people at the academy so I tend to sleep around eight hours out of every twenty-four.”

“So was your father and elf and your mom a human or how does that work?” Asked Lu.

Aregoma laughed “Do you usually ask people about details of their parent’s intercourse?”

“No!” Lu blushed “That is not what I meant...”

“I know, I know” Aregoma laughed again. “Most elves you will meet are not really proper elves, as some might put it. They tend to be a mix of Elf and human or something else, but human is the most common. You guys are freaks.” She said smiling, but her eyes were lost in the distance. “So is not that one of my parents was an elf and the other human and I am half each, is more than both of my parents where already mixed, but my dad is more elf than my mom if that satisfies your curiosity.”

“I have met some ‘true’ elves” Said Helvia. “I their ears are much pointier and tend to be much taller...”

“No that is not it either.” Interrupted Aregoma “Those are ‘forest elves’ like my dad was, they are more elvish than the ones in the empire. My dad’s family had some Kalavites, those are true elves, almost twice as tall as you” She said looking at Helvia “And her limbs are so long and pointy they look like branches, and they are always wrinkly because most of them are super old. Those are the elves that seem to not have to sleep and live for Five centuries, everything else is just a watered down copy.” There was silence while Lu served the heated meat and buttered bread. Everyone ate quietly. Afterwards Helvia and Lu went to sleep while Aregoma stayed up with one of her books.

Lu had trouble staying asleep. Even next to the campfire and in their sleeping bag the cold of the night was very uncomfortable. They wondered how Helvia was sleeping so well with both her arms outside in the cold, maybe dragonkin had some internal fire heating them or something. They turned around, their back facing the campfire and just at the right angle to observe the elf reading and muttering something under her breath, sitting with crossed legs in such a way that each feet rested at the top of the opposite thigh. Under the flickering light of the fire her angular factions took an almost ethereal look which combined with the still fresh marigolds in her hair made Lu feel as if they were spying on a fey creature. She took one of the flowers from her braids and held it between her index finger and thumb, eyes closed as she inhaled and exhaled deeply and slowly. Taking air in the flower between her fingers dried and withered as if it had suddenly realized it had been ripped out days ago. When she exhaled it recovered its previous vigour. Lu watched hypnotized the magical waning and growth of the orange flower for a few minutes before realising that she was not merely breathing in and out, she was saying something. Very subtle, merely a syllable, a chant.

Then the elf opened her eyes and looked at Lu, like she knew. “Can’t you sleep?” She asked, inserting the flower back again on its position among the rest of the crown.

“Not really.” Lu whispered, getting out of the sleeping bag and covering their shoulders with it, using it as a makeshift blanket. They walked away from the fire and sat nearby Aregoma, as not to disturb the sleeping soldier. “It makes me uneasy to sleep in the open like this. And it is a bit cold.”

“Understandable. Maybe you can take a nap during the day tomorrow. Hopefully we will get to a town in time for next night.” Aregoma closed her book and stretched her legs. “So why are you traveling to the academy?”

Lu took a moment to think their answer. “I thought Helvia would have told you already.”

“She did give me a short explanation, but I want to know your version as well.”