The tower in Chicago that holds the Adventurer’s Guild is Tribune Tower. One of the few remaining buildings from before the change really, as many of the taller towers fell apart from various monster attacks. Tribune Tower managed to hold up reasonably well, and serves as the hub of the adventurer’s guild. The Prince’s “palace” is just next door, and the area where the tower was held up incredibly well after the change.

The upper floors were turned into a rookery for the various flying monsters that the beast tamers had managed to claim, with some of them being available for mail and such, while others, like Reginald, were big enough to be ridden. Most of the creatures here are things like hawks and eagles, though I do notice one phoenix that’s off on its own, as well as a Couatl, or Feathered Snake.

Ashley escorts us downwards. The majority of the guilds everyday business happens in the lowest parts of the tower, either underground or on the main floor. The main floor has become the Hub, where all of the junior most adventurers go to accept quests and such, however it is also the place where one can find out about the requirements for advancement to the next rank, as well as, for some of the classes, apply to take your test.

Granted, no one has taken the test to advance as a Necromancer since the change happened, so this will be interesting.

As we approach the counter, and I am reminded to be extremely grateful to mages with the ability to create teleportation networks, the room gets quiet. I think people just realized that the guild master is escorting two people to the counter for some reason. Anytime something like that happens I imagine people are trying to figure out what’s going on, but Anubis and I kept my actual class a well-kept secret for a long time. So no one knows what’s going on.

The crowd parts before us, as we get near the receptionist’s desk. One of them looks over, sees the Guild Master being followed by two people, and gets a slightly panicked look on her face.

“Guild Member Felicia,” Ashley says, just loud enough that her voice rings in the open space, “I need you to go and get the keys for the Trial Room. Make sure to bring back the key for the Trial of the Necromancer.” She looks at the girl sternly, as a silent ripple goes out through the crowd.

As the girl runs to get the keys, which I’m guessing aren’t kept in the Hub Hall, a man steps forward.

“Guild Master,” he says, “Does this mean someone is taking the Trial of advancement for Necromancer?” It’s common knowledge that the Gods made sure there was a space set aside for each trial that they saw as relevant. Some of the Trial spaces share a room, because they hold the trial in the wild, and just use the trial space for the ceremony acknowledging an advancement. However, this wasn’t true for the Necromancer, which everyone saw as a class that no one would take, or the rooms would never be used.

That’s how badly necromancers aren’t appreciated here.

She sighs, giving me a glare, before looking at the guild member and saying, “Yes, there is someone who wishes to advance to the D grade as a necromancer. They have exceeded all the requirements by quite a margin, and have also received the permission of their deity to take this test.”

The man thinks this over for a moment, “All right, but why weren’t they executed before this?”

There is a rumble from the hall, and Ashley frowns.

“Necromancers, as I was reminded a short while ago, are a protected profession under the Adventurer’s Guild Charter. Any area where necromancers are being executed as you say, will no longer receive the benefits of a guild hall, and any guild member seen taking part in such an execution other than to stop it will be kicked out of the guild immediately.”

“Moreover, if any necromancer seeks acknowledgement by the guild, they’re to be escorted to the nearest central Guild Hall to take the Trial of the Necromancer, and they are required to take harder trials than any other member as they get stronger.”

A voice sounds out in the hall, “Necromancers are supposed to walk the path between the world of the dead, and the world of the living. They serve as the Gods first tool in fighting against the corruption of unlife, but the path is long and treacherous. Those necromancers who lose their way, burn their souls until it is completely black, and they become liches, serving the powers of unlife alone, instead of administrating the souls of the dead into the next life as they should.”

The voice is feminine, but with a hard edge in it. I glance over, and see the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, though she has a remarkable amount of similarities to Anubis. For one, she must be at least nine and a half feet tall. Strikingly beautiful, she has a bow slung across her back, and a quiver attached slightly tilted on her belt. Her clothes are all leather, though from what animals they could have come from I have no idea, as they are the most beautiful pelts I’ve ever seen. As I glance over, she smiles slightly.

“Anubis has made a good choice with this one. He has learned the proper rituals, and has already warded the entire eastern side of the Chicago territory with charms that will keep the dead from ever rising there, as long as the charms are untouched. Also he has mastered the use of two of the four Necromantic Arts, Blood and Bone magic. Enough so that he was able to fight off trolls, and assist in saving the Tempests almost three years ago.”

Hearing that I have a specific endorsement by one god, and apparently the support of another Goddess, silences the grumbling of the crowd. Artemis, for that’s the only person this could be, smiles at me and says, “Good hunting on your mission young necromancer. You’ll need it.” And then she disappears in a flash of light.

I’m not exactly sure what happened there. Neither is anyone else, but it’s working in my favor. After all, when a Goddess wishes you luck on a mission, no one is going to do anything, for fear that either the mission, if failed, will end the world or something. Or they’ll be smited for hindering said mission.

So it’s almost like a get out of jail free card, except this time it’s everyone’s prejudice that I’m getting away from, at least for the moment.

Thankfully, while everyone is still recovering from the divine visitation, the woman, Felicia, returns with a set of keys. And on this key is one that stands out, at least to me. Made from solid gold, it’s a literal skeleton key, with the key made to resemble a dancing skeleton. Kind of weird.

Ashley hurries us out, glancing at me and asking, “Did you arrange that?”

I sigh, “I didn’t, but I wouldn’t put it past Anubis. He’s kind of sneaky like that.”

She nods and also sighs. “Yesterday, life was so simple!” she groans.

Me and Alyssa just look at her and smile, somewhat apologetically.

*****

We are taken to another hall, this one underground. There are a bunch of doors in this hall, each one beautifully engraved with a motif of some kind. On the Guardian’s door is a motif of Bears and trees, while on the Soldiers door is one of swords and hawks.

We pass these doors, going towards the back of the Hall. There, to the left hand side of the hall, is a door made from some black metal. The motif on the door is skulls and wailing souls. Most people wouldn’t know that, but as a Necromancer, I’ve seen them, and this is a perfect rendition of the angry souls of the dead.

Felicia takes out the skeleton key, and Ashley nods to her, then looks at me.

“You will have three hours to complete your trial. There were some other warnings with the Necromancer’s Trial that the Charter warned me of to tell you now. If you die in the trial, the door will flash, and your body will be returned to outside the door. If you fail the trial, you must seek permission from your deity to attempt this again. And the last warning is clearly from the Gods. It is, be true to yourself. Attempting to clear the trial by giving what you think are the correct answers, will cause you to fail instead. Solve the problems the way you know you should, not the way you think you should.”

I smile. Cryptic as always, that last part could have come straight from Anubis’ mouth. But I do understand, and I realize why Anubis was confident I could pass this trial.

Nodding my head, Felicia inserts the key, opens the door, and I step forward into darkness.

*****

The darkness of this room is like ink, so thick I feel I could actually drink it in. I don’t and instead close my eyes, walking forward until my magic is telling me something is different.

I open them and I’m astonished.

The area I’m in now is the sitting room at my old funeral home. I look down and I’m wearing the shirt and tie I would normally wear for work. I look around, and see that there is a wake in progress. The majority of the people are smiling and recounting stories about the deceased. Only this time, one thing is different.

I can see the soul of the deceased. She hasn’t moved on yet, and is instead hovering around a young boy in the back of the room. I look around, and see a youngish man, he’s probably around my age, who’s crying as friends and relatives try to console him, and I know he’s the father.

I don’t remember this case exactly, but the largest number of deaths that we answered were fatal car accidents. So it isn’t hard to figure out generally what happened.

I walk over to the boy, and whisper under my breath the one soul magic spell that Anubis taught me. Speak with the Dead, a spell that allows me to converse with the souls of those that have died recently, or if their soul is still hanging around.

“What are you doing?” I intone, in a low voice, but directed by magic. The soul of the woman looks to me.

“Please, you have to help me. I need to be here for my son. I need to protect him!” she says.

I shake my head. “No. Your time is up, and you should be moving on. I will try to comfort him, but you can’t stay with him any longer.”

She starts to get mad, and I notice that a few of the nearby tables start shaking slightly. She’s obviously got some serious power here. “You can’t tell me what I can do! My son needs me, and I will stay here to protect him!”

I start preparing a ritual. The ritual is rather simple in fact, even if carrying it out sucks. It’s a blood magic ritual, basically changing a drop of blood into a drop of holy water that will cleanse an area of any spirits trying to act.

At this point, instead of talking with the mother, I go to the boy. I kneel down before him, and say, “My name’s Daniel, what’s yours?”

The boy looks at me and says, “Billy.”

“Well, Billy,” I say, “Do you miss your mom?” He nods his head.

“Has everyone told you that she’s going on to a better place?” He nods again.

“But has anyone told you why she needs to move on to that better place?” At this point he looks at me and shakes his head, no.

“Well Billy,” I say, “Everyone has to die someday. That means they can’t stay here with those that they love. If they try, bad things start to happen, as the person who died can’t give up on those that they love. They might try to stay with them.”

“But when they do, they only end up hurting the ones they love.” At this point, I know the woman’s soul is also listening, “It starts off as them trying to protect you, but they don’t have any power to reach into our world anymore. So they try to take that power. And the only place that they can take that power from, is the same people that they love.”

“After a while, this causes the love they had for their loved ones to get twisted. Especially as you try to go and live your life. The person that loved you sees you living your life as forgetting them. But you aren’t, not really. You’re just living your life.” The boy is crying slightly now, but he looks at me and smiles.

“Thank you,” he says. I turn to look at the mother’s soul, and she smiles and says, “Thank you, Necromancer,” before fading away.

Then the world goes black again.

*****

The next vision I see is something I’m sure will horrify me to my death, and possibly beyond.

I’m on a section of asphalt, but that’s the only reassuring thing about this new landscape. The sky is a dark red, and as I look around, I can see the cracks in the ground glowing with green light. Souls are coming in and out of those cracks, and I can hear the wailing, even though they are almost two miles away from me.

I turn and see a city, burning with sickly green flames. I remember Anubis telling me about those flames. Soul Fire, one of the strongest spells of fallen Necromancers. I glance just down the road and see the corpses of a pack of dogs, all of them missing pieces. And almost all of their souls are missing.

Only two remain, a pair of Dobermans that look enough alike I’d guess they were a sibling pair. I approach cautiously, as the souls of animals can be more dangerous than the souls of humans, just like the living in that regard. I’m suddenly thankful that I have the Holy Blood ritual prepared.

But both of the hounds look at me with eyes that are pleading for something. It takes me a minute to think of an answer, and when I do, I nearly smack my forehead.

“Anubis, Guardian of the Dead, please hear me. I ask that you translate the wishes of these two beasts to me, so that I may pass their souls on to you.”

I instantly hear a chuckle. “Smart move, kid.” says my patron, “They want revenge on the ghouls that did this to their pack. Both volunteer to help you with this. You officially have permission from the Gods of Death to raise these two as your familiars.”

I blink, before smiling and saying aloud, “Okay,” I say to both the dogs and Anubis.

Looking at the dogs I say, “Lead me to your bodies, I will reattach you to them.” Both hounds lead me to a pile of corpses, and I see the parts of different ghouls that they managed to rip off of the corpses.

Using Bone magic to reanimate the corpses enough to move them off the Doberman’s bodies, I quickly notice that neither dog has a head. Looking around for a moment leads me to finding both skulls of the dogs, picked mostly clean of brain and flesh. Using bone magic once more, I finish cleaning off the heads, and think about how I’m going to do this.

First, I take the hound’s bodies, and conduct the necessary ritual to transfer the vital organs into Canopic Jars. Reinserting those jars into the corpses, once I’ve cleaned out the other vital organs, will provide the power source in Death Energy for them. I leave the muscle and fur of both hounds alone, besides using the blood magic ritual, “Grateful Repose”, which allows both to remain without rotting. I’ll have to figure out a more permanent solution later for them.

Then, using bone magic, I reattach the skulls to their bodies, and carefully remove my two most precious materials, magic cores.

Magic cores are extremely rare currently, as they are only found in monsters that have some form of aptitude for magic. Each one is fairly specific, but they are an amazing resource for any spell caster, as they can be used in a number of fairly complex spells and rituals for varying effect. I plan to use these, placing them in the skulls, as anchors for the souls of the hounds.

Then I proceed to draw out the magic circles for the rituals. Each ritual will be the same, and it essentially is a combined reanimation with the soul contract of a familiar. The name of the ritual is the Ritual of Soul Sharing, and it means that quite literally. I share part of my soul with both of them, allowing us to find each other if separated, and if I die, both of them will pass on as well. If they die, they will come to me, returning my piece of soul, and I will need to release them, or prepare another body for them if they don’t want to move on.

The most important part of this, is that it will allow the three of us to communicate with each other without my having to ask Anubis for a favor when I want to know what they want.

As I finish the circles, both hounds’ souls go over and rest above their respective bodies. I sit down between the two circles and start to intone the words of the ritual.

“By the powers that reach beyond life, I call you back to this mortal realm. I ask that you come of your own will, as I will not force this on you. I call you back to travel with me, to be my companions.” At this point, the ritual has actually begun, and a dense whirlpool of blue energy appears above each skull.

“I’ve prepared the hosts. They have the energy to carry you once more, in unlife as in life. They have an anchor, to hold your souls here. They have the full form you once held, damaged now as it was at death.” At this, both hounds are pulled into the whirlpool, and sucked toward the head.

“I willingly share my soul with you both. I do so, so that you will be complete once more. I do so, so that you may understand me, and I ask that you share your soul with me so I may understand you. I thank you for this sharing of souls.” At this point, I nearly scream as my soul has two pieces cut off. The pain is intense, and I vaguely hear both of the hounds howling as well. And then, it’s done. The skulls of the hounds light up with blue flame which seems to come from their eyes, but it also lends itself into being their ears.

The first weird part is that I can feel both of them. I know that the modifications I made to their bodies seem weird to them, and then they both feel me as well.

It surprises all of us, but we quickly come around. This hellish landscape is seriously creeping me out, and I nod to the both of them, “Let’s go kill some ghouls.”

*****

Thankfully, they didn’t move to far away. If it wasn’t for the fact that there is a lot of Death Energy around, I suspect my ritual would have attracted their attention. However, they didn’t notice, and they’re only a small group, about ten of them. The ghoul leading them is clearly close to becoming a Wight, which would be a serious problem, however I feel confident about us taking them, especially since they’re just sitting around a pile of debris.

I start of by pulling out a handful of bones. Knuckle bones and teeth specifically. The teeth have an enchantment on them to amplify their kinetic force. Basically makes them move very quickly. And the knuckle bones I, as quickly as possible, draw the correct runes on them for a blood magic spell.

Blood Boil is probably one of my most disgusting spells in my opinion, as the spell causes someone’s blood to literally start boiling. It only lasts a couple of minutes, but the effects can be huge, especially if used as part of a surprise attack. I pull out my back up weapon from the bag of holding I hide it in, and load it with teeth first. The teeth are already “programmed” so that when they are launched from the barrel, they’ll activate and propel themselves to an extreme speed.

The three of us crawl up as close as we can to the group of ghouls, and when we are about twenty feet away, I stand up and unload a single round into the skull of one of the ghouls.

This is the hounds signal, as they rush up and tear the throats of a pair of ghouls. Within moments it’s down to three against seven.

I load the next round in as the hounds keep the ghoul off of me. I prepare a blood magic spell as I finish loading, this time with a knuckle bone, and take off another ghoul’s head.

With the element of surprise almost fully finished for now, it turns into a melee. I duck the slash from the head ghoul, as I draw my knives and cut at it.

The ghoul jumps back, hissing at me like a feral cat, but it wasn’t paying enough attention. One of the hounds takes it by surprise as it manages to pounce on, and then tear the arm off of, the leading ghoul.

At that point, I rush up and sink both of my knives into the ghoul’s cranium. From there the fight just gets easier. Without a leader to organize them and give them orders, two of the ghouls start fighting each other, and we swiftly kill the rest. Ghouls are one of the stranger undead, as without a leader, the pack will fight each other until a leader is chosen. Even in the middle of combat with someone else.

Works for me though.

As the last ghoul dies, everything except me and the hounds, freezes. I look around, and see Anubis standing a little ways away looking at the city.

I walk up, with one hound on either side, and he turns and smiles.

“Congratulations kid. You’ve passed the trial. And you were right, you’re going to be a Mortician. Though that means you get to figure out blood and bone magic on your own from now on.”

I chuckle, looking at the hounds, “Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to be as big a problem as I once feared.”

He smiles his strange smile. “No, no it isn’t. And I imagine they’ll be a great help to you during your travels,” he sighs, “This world was once very much like your Earth. But the necromancers here failed their duty to the dead, and this is what happened.”

I nod my head, my mood somber once more. Realizing that this could be Earth one day, makes me shiver in fear.

“I won’t let this happen to my home,” I say.

He looks at me and smiles again, “I believe it. Before I go, I have a gift from all of the Gods of Death." He hands me two masks, one silver, the other gold.

"At least now, you can tell them apart." he laughs as he fades away, and that inky darkness sweeps me away again.