The misadventures of the necromancer

Chapter XXXIV

Seeing the reanimated body of Tamara advancing towards him, Adar feels a brief moment of fear, almost doubting his own innocence. After all, he can't recall the previous night's events, and the victim is now coming for him. After Nero ordered her to catch the murderer.

As the body passes by him, Adar turns around in relief, watching what the undead is pursuing. In the distance, he sees the boy he first encountered this morning, the same boy who had beaten him. The boy initially retreats while still facing Tamara, but as she rapidly approaches, he turns to start running. That's when he begins to shout, "No, Tamara, no. It was an accident. I didn't mean to hurt you."

If being chased by Tamara's body after Nero ordered her to catch her killer wasn't enough to prove his guilt, his confession left no doubt.

Unfortunately for him, her speed leaves him no chance to escape. In an instant she is beside him and grabs his arm, causing him to fall. On the ground, he struggles to free himself waving the arm she's holding, but Adar knows he has no chance. This reanimated body will obey Nero's orders until it's destroyed or given new commands.

"You know it was an accident. It was just because you made me so angry that I lost control. Let me go, let me go..." he screams, increasingly frantic as he tries to break free. But while he could subjugate the girl while she was alive, now it's impossible. The creature before him has no fears, desires, or wills other than those given by her creator.

Perhaps realizing this or understanding that he cannot escape what he did, the pathetic boy begins to whimper.

"I think this leaves no doubt," Adar hears Nero declare behind him. Normally, this would make him turn to the necromancer, but he can't right now. He remembers the girl he talked to during most of the previous night. She at least tried to help him. And didn't deserve to be in this situation. Part of him wants the undead before him to kill the wretch who caused all this or for the villagers to start stringing up a rope for the boy, just as they planned for him.

Suddenly, a new scream erupts. "Necromancer!!!" The innkeeper's voice is filled with fury and rage but also fear. This scream makes Adar turn around. The crowd has moved significantly away from Nero, and the innkeeper faces the necromancer, pointing a finger at him and screaming again, "Necromancer."

Nero, having watched the capture of the killer. Merely turns his head to look at the innkeeper. His expression is calm and almost bored as if he had expected this reaction.

"We must unite and face this monster. Together we will win." These words from the innkeeper prompt some men in the crowd to take a few small steps toward Nero. In some of their hands, weapons start to appear—knives and at least one axe that Adar can see.

Nero, however, remains unconcerned. He seems more interested in observing and studying the crowd.

"Yes, he's right. Together we can defeat this necromancer," Adar hears from his side. As expected, it was the bearded man who had held him. Considering the man hadn't mistreated him Adar decides to warn him. "Yes. Gather everyone. It will make it easier for him to kill you all." The bearded man listens to this and looks intensely at Adar.

"If you do it together, you have a small chance of winning. But this story ends with this village destroyed and most of you dead."

Adar pauses looking at the undead still holding the boy, and continues trying to explain. "That's just a sample of what he's capable of." The man seems to believe what he's hearing, as he should, for it's the honest truth. If he acts wisely, he might survive the day.

"I see the murder of a village girl is no longer important," Nero's reproaching voice sounds. Adar turns back to Nero, thinking it best to see what will happen.

"Well, I won't pretend it's something that surprises me. After all, I'm not one of you," Nero says, facing the innkeeper. While the criticism seems directed at the entire village.

The villagers, at least the ones brave enough to face the necromancer, slowly approach. Adar can only presume they're trying to muster the courage to attack. None of these villagers must have ever faced even a weak mage, much less a necromancer. Something they've only heard about in horror stories. Preparing to fight Nero must require everything they have.

Seeing the approaching conflict, Nero lets out a new laugh. "Oh! Should I be afraid of you?" asks the powerful necromancer. For Adar, this is the question they should be thinking about. But it appears no one in this village has even thought about it. How powerful is the necromancer? The answer, as Adar well knows, is that he's immensely powerful.

But despite not asking this question, Nero's is enough to make them stop and look at each other, trying to decide what to do.

The innkeeper seems ready to motivate them to fight again, but Nero, still apparently joyful, speaks first. "I think you need another little lesson. To wake up to life."

The village's anxiety must explode with this comment, wondering what else he might do. This is the question Adar thinks must be running through these people's minds.

"Hey, Blondie, what was the name of this village?" Nero asks loudly, not even bothering to turn to Seres, who had stayed unnoticed in the crowd. He only intervened when he tried to defend Adar.

Hearing this question, Seres doesn't hesitate to take a step forward, he responds loudly, "This village is called Apple Garden."

Nero nods and proclaims, "Yes, it seemed like something like that."

Nero points in the direction Adar had come from and speaks again. "I assume those are the trees of the mentioned apples?"

Turning around, Adar sees in the distance, rows of well-defined and ordered trees. He concludes it's an orchard. Remembering his conversation with Tamara, he knows that selling apples is very important for this village. It's basically their cash crop.

"Right. Before anything else, Blondie, I don't think we'll stay here long. So get ready to go." Seres hears the order, nods affirmatively, and starts towards the stables. But in front of him, a barrier of villagers appears to stop him.

Nero must have noticed this but seems unconcerned, turning back to the innkeeper to speak. "I promised consequences. Didn't I?"

Quickly, Nero turns to Adar and begins to stretch out his hand. At that moment, Adar knows what's going to happen. He has seen Nero cast the 'Draco's Flames' spell enough times not to be surprised.

A fireball appears in Nero's hand and shoots towards Adar. When it passes by him, he turns to follow it. This fireball passes close to the killer, who seems to have stopped struggling against Tamara's body, also watching what Nero is doing. Before the fireball reaches its destination, another fireball flies over him.

Nothing can stop the fireballs from reaching the village's orchard. One explodes after another, causing a fire in the surrounding trees.

With a fire starting, Adar turns to Nero, truly surprised. Normally, whenever the necromancer had been forced to use this spell, he had always been careful to avoid fires. Several times, he had sent Adar and Seres to put out small fires that, the spell might have caused.

The villagers are scared, but the threat of losing their livelihood reorients their priorities. Several shouts of "fire" are heard, accompanied by calls to fight the starting fire.

Nero's calmness in the face of this scenario is frightening. Adar doesn't understand what the necromancer is doing. If he just wanted to scare this village into cooperation, there was no need to use necromancy. He could have used this spell to destroy something. As he had done when he forced another village to let him make his potions.

Nero's actions are so strange that Adar doesn't know what to think. Meanwhile, the villagers start to organize to put out the fire while it's still relatively small. It occurs to him that perhaps this is the necromancer's plan. Start this fire to gain an opportunity to leave the village without further problems, while they are busy putting it out.

But before they can organize, Nero speaks again. "Girl. If any villager tries to leave here. Kill them!"

The order silences everyone; it must take some time for them to understand exactly what they heard. Even Adar is amazed, as he has never seen the necromancer act like this.

"I said right away, we have to destroy this necromancer. When he's dead, his monster will disappear," proclaims the innkeeper to the rest of the village. And he is right; as the stories say, if they kill Nero, the magic maintaining the undead will disappear.

Once again, he cannot understand Nero. There was no need to give this order.

The necromancer lets out another laugh before speaking. "You're really funny." Making him seem like one of the villains from the necromancer stories that are told.

"He's not wrong. If you all attack me together, you have a chance of victory. Of course, this is only true for those who survive my scorching defense," declares the necromancer calmly and even sounding a bit cheerfully. Making it clear to everyone the risks they will have to take. Now, everyone must understand that gathering in a large group will only make them easy targets for his fireballs.

"But I doubt this village of treacherous cowards dares to face me like that. After all, I can be as terrible as the truth." In this new comment, Nero abandons his relaxed attitude. His voice regains the hard and cold tone it has had at times throughout this whole confusion.

The crowd listens, and some seem to react badly to the insults. Several look to be preparing for a fight to the death. Adar's mouth dries up, due to the feeling of unease. A feeling he had abandoned when Nero decided he was innocent of Tamara's death.

But now it seems the necromancer is indeed asking for a fight. Although Adar trusts the necromancer's superiority, this conflict could end badly, both for their group and the village.

"Lord mage," says a voice beside him. It belongs to the bearded man, who passes by Adar and advances toward Nero. Seeing the man's rapid advance, Nero raises a hand. Reminding him of the conflict they had in the streets of Dantar, where for a moment, Adar was convinced Nero was about to incinerate him along with the thieves trying to rob him.

But the man doesn't get much closer to the necromancer before kneeling in front of him. "Please, lord mage. I know we insulted you in our ignorance. But please show us mercy."

The man had seemed intelligent to Adar before, and now he confirms it. Seeing how this situation can only end badly for his village. He appears to have decided the best way to end this, is to apologize and ask for mercy. And he was lucky in his choice of words, calling Nero a mage and not a necromancer.

Nero spends a few moments looking at the man before responding.

"And how exactly did they insult me?" His voice sounds genuinely intrigued.

"When we accused your servant," the man answers Nero. Adar mentally almost applauds the man's effort. Despite using 'excellency' and 'servant', which Nero tends not to react well to, something this man had no way of knowing. To compensate, he avoided referring to Adar as Nero's friend, which would have been much worse.

Nero lowers himself to be on the same level as the kneeling man, looking him in the face before asking coldly, "And you think that's what angered me?"

Adar observes the man's head lift so he can look directly at the necromancer. Adar can only presume that he is astonished by the question, Adar is as well. Not because he thought Nero was deeply concerned about him. But, because he also doesn't know what angered Nero this much. The best idea he has is that Nero is angry because they disregarded his conclusions about what happened.

"Why should I be angry that you guys, assumed the person lying beside the victim's body could be the culprit?" Nero begins to stand as he speaks. "This is a small place. I think you don't have homicides here. And if they occur, it's more likely due to raiders or something of that kind"

Finally standing, he concludes with a new question, "Am I mistaken in assuming that?" His voice has returned to a friendly tone. But Adar doubts anyone will believe it's genuine again. Just like him, the whole village must think Nero is preparing something.

The man, still kneeling, merely nods his head.

"So why should I be angry with inexperienced people. Making a mistake in their pursuit of justice?" Nero lowers himself again.

"But that’s not what you wanted to do is it?" Despite sounding like a question, Adar doubts anyone believes it is one.

But Nero has not finished speaking, and raising his voice, he continues, "No answer! So let's try this. When I suggested that the innkeeper's son was the murderer, How many people here do you think showed signs of being surprised?"

Quickly, the necromancer stands up and turns to the crowd, slowly observing them. "Come on, all of you. Guess how many people I saw showing shock that someone they’ve known forever could do something this terrible."

Once again, the crowd falls silent. Adar does not understand why. After all, it's perfectly normal that some people in all the confusion wouldn't even comprehend what was happening. Others may simply not be the type that show their emotions. Why is this so important to Nero?

Another laugh escapes Nero as he fixes his gaze directly on the innkeeper. "Such a simple answer. Such a round number. And no one gets it right. Or maybe it's better to say that everyone got it right. No one can be surprised if everyone has already guessed the truth."

"Lord mage, we..." the man begins, having lowered his head.

"I suspect they were relieved." Hearing this, the man falls silent, and Adar feels that the crowd's mood has changed. So far, this crowd has presented itself in various ways, but their anger has been constant. For some reason that he does not understand, this anger has just disappeared.

"I think, when they heard about her disappearance, they all thought the innkeeper's son was to blame. And when given the chance, they were all happy to lay the blame at a stranger's feet." No voice rejects what Nero said, not even the innkeeper. This can only be due to fear of the necromancer's power or because he is right. And Adar does not know which is the correct option.

"From what I gather about the situation, he must have been after the girl for some time. Sometimes treating her like a queen. But in any case, he must have pursued her relentlessly while telling everyone that she was his."

The uneasy silence persists at the powerful necromancer's statements. And hearing about the pursuit, Adar remembers what he talked about with Tamara.

"She only asked about our journey. And how she could do the same." His voice breaks a little as he understands. Why Tamara wanted to talk about his travels.

Nero looks at him and gives a small nod of his head. "She must have wanted to escape from here." Then he looks around, observing the crowd carefully.

"Just to make things clear. You all irritate me because, after failing to protect one of your own, you tried to use us to avoid dealing with what happened." Another declaration met with the crowd's silence. But while Nero was speaking, Seres and the mule exit the stables, as no one remembered to stop him from fetching the creature and their things.

Nero also notices this and speaks again to the kneeling man. "We're leaving. Since I really don't want to stay any longer in this village."

Hearing this, the man lifts his head, which had remained lowered, presumably in a wise attempt not to further anger the necromancer. The relief in his body is visible until he quickly looks behind him in Adar's direction. For a brief moment, Adar thinks he is looking at him.

But Nero's next comment clarifies where the man was looking. "The magic keeping her will disappear soon. Then you can go put out your fire. But until then. You all can look at the consequences of all this."

It really seems the man was looking at the reanimated body of Tamara. She remains standing, watching the crowd to see if anyone moves away, which would lead her to kill that person as Nero ordered.

What surprises Adar is that next to the undead, the boy who had killed her is still sitting on the ground. Initially, this seemed strange to Adar as the creature was no longer holding him.

Why isn't he trying to escape, especially considering the visible fear on his face? That was until he realized that the order to kill anyone who moved away from here included the wretched boy.

If he tries to run, the undead will kill him. And thinking about it, if there is anyone in this village who should understand this, it is him. Who recently felt the power of an undead when he tried to free himself from Tamara's body.

"Grumpy, Blondie, anything to take care of before we leave this hellhole?" Nero's question awakens Adar from his thoughts.

"No, we took care of everything needed yesterday," Seres responds. This leads Adar to nod in agreement with his friend.

"Tamara!" a cry sounds, drawing all eyes to the woman who had fainted when Nero spoke of using necromancy on the girl's body. The woman woke up, and in the confusion, no one had noticed.

As the cry revealed, she only had eyes for Tamara's body. Running towards it, followed by the tall man who previously supported her. "Nara, stop! Don't go near!"

He shouts, trying to prevent her from approaching the undead while she also screams, "Tamara."

The woman runs past Adar to reach Tamara. For a moment, he stretches out to grab her. But in the end, he hesitates. After all, unlike a wild undead, this one will not attack the woman unless Nero orders it. And the necromancer will not do such a thing.

The woman finally reaches Tamara and clings to the lifeless girl's body. "Tamara, Tamara. I had a terrible dream. But you are here, safe."

Adar suspects everyone understands what the woman's terrible dream means. But unfortunately, who dares to tell her the truth? The man chasing her arrives, beginning to struggle with the woman to pull her away from the creature.

"No, Nara. It's not Tamara."

They cling to each other in front of the undead's total indifference. All this with the entire village watching.

"I'm very sorry. But..." Nero begins to speak, his voice sounding truly sad but calm. And maybe it's that calmness that makes the woman stop to listen. "...you heard when I promised Tamara justice. What I did was to fulfill that promise."

In front of Tamara's body, the woman falls to her knees, staring fixedly at what is no longer Tamara.

"I really regret the pain I caused you. But she deserved justice."

The woman begins to cry again as the man hugs her, trying to console her. Nero, for his part, looks at the bearded man still kneeling in front of him. Then he admires the crowd still in silence, but what could they say or do? Finally, Nero fixes his gaze on the innkeeper, shakes his head, and says, "Let's go, I don't want to stay here any longer."

Nero turns to leave. The entire of village watches him go while their trees burn in the distance and the undead girl watches them.

Adar begins to follow Nero, but the woman's crying makes him turn back. He sees what's left of Tamara and, remembering the friendship she showed him, decides to approach the undead.

He isn't far from them and arrives quickly. Here, he can see the girl's expressionless face. The image of her smiling comes to mind, a horrifying contrast with what's in front of him. "I'm sorry, Tamara," he says. This isn’t the first time Adar has apologized to an undead.

In the inn where his group of necromancers conducted their experiments, Adar felt the need to apologize to the group’s victims several times. Not all, as some deserved even worse fates. But those whom Adar had to acknowledge as unfortunate souls. Like Sate and Ged who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He could only offer his apologies from behind protection while the undead they had become tried to kill him. In a way, that made sense—if they were alive, they would have every right to want to kill him. The absence of that fury in Tamara makes him feel worse. She should want to tear them all apart for what happened to her. But the power of Nero's magic controls her.

At this moment, Adar feels a type of fear seeing the necromancer's unnatural abilities. For the first time in a long time, he finds a new reason why it makes sense for people to fear necromancy.

But looking at the poor battered face in front of him. He remembers that's not why he came here. "You tried to help me, but I was of no help to you." Many doubts and mysteries still linger about what happened last night. Like how he ended up lying next to Tamara's lifeless body. Did he go with her there, or was he taken there after she was dead? He doesn't know, but he's certain he couldn't help her.

"Sorry!" he repeats before leaving. As he's about to go, he sees the real killer. Someone who can answer his questions. Someone he wants to hit. Someone he wishes Nero would let see the true nature of the undead. But in the end, he simply leaves. Nero and Seres are waiting for him. Acting otherwise could anger Nero, and as now this whole village can confirm, that's an extremely foolish thing to do.

So Adar joins his traveling companions and departs.

They walk and keep walking. No one pursues them; the village has more to worry about.

In his mind, he tries to make sense of what happened. But he can’t; it’s hard to concentrate, with too many things competing for his thoughts. At one point, he remembers he hasn't eaten since last night, but he can’t feel hunger. All that matters is walking in silence and thinking.

"You let them go too easily," Seres says to Nero, breaking the silence they had maintained. Nero, for his part, says nothing, merely raising an eyebrow at Seres.

"You were planning to hang Adar. But you did nothing to the real killer and his father," Seres' voice carries more than a little criticism towards the necromancer, a rarity for someone usually enamored by Nero's magic.

Nero shrugs nonchalantly before calmly responding, "They are not my responsibility. In the end, they might prefer the noose."

"What?" Seres asks. Adar agrees with the question. What does Nero mean by that? Does he expect the villagers to exact justice?

"Now no one in that village can pretend ignorance. And even if they decide to do nothing now, the future of that family is bleak." Nero looks at the two of them. Realizing that he hasn't explained much.

"Look, it’s like this. That inn must be important for the village’s economy. Which might give them a chance to get away. But someday, things will go wrong in the village. Maybe even because of the fire in the orchards. And on that day, the villagers will need someone to blame." Adar hears the explanation and can’t help but think that's exactly what they did to him.

"That innkeeper might even try to shift the blame onto me. But I'm far gone and only his family will be there. From what I know, being despised in such a small place is really hard." And in a way, Adar agrees with the necromancer. He and Seres come from a village just like this one. People don’t forget. What had happened was serious with consequences for everyone in this village.

Adar understands how Nero is a terrible enemy to have. Another thing Adar realized today is that although the necromancer doesn’t like him. He was the only person who truly tried to find the truth and to be just.

While Adar continues to fear him, he remembers something he already knows, the world is full of people far worse than Nero.

Maybe being stuck with this necromancer isn't the worst.