Suggested Listening

Calenda arrived home long before the others, and so spent an inordinate amount of time hiding in a nearby alleyway, petting the ebony furball. "If I'd known you were so soft, I'd have done this sooner. I think I was trying to distance myself from this carnival of death that's replaced my life, and you were an easy representative of it. Sorry."

Mort showed no indication that he comprehended her words, but he was the only ear she could speak to in this moment of confusion. For his part, he appreciated the necromancy-laded scratches that were almost as good as his owner's.

"I was trying to pretend away what I am." Cali looked at her hands. "No chance I'll be able to do that, again." Even after burning a great deal of power sprinting half the distance of the city, she still had enough power in her that her veins and fingernails matched the color of the squirrel she was scratching. There was so much of it in the atmosphere that she couldn't expend enough of it.

"Think if I hit myself enough times, I'll be able to drain off all the excess energy?" Cali looked into the glowing red eyes in the darkness. "Stupid question. If it was that easy, someone else would have fixed it before we got here."

Cali felt the field of necromancy shifted in response to Elruin's presence well before seeing her. The experience was nothing new to her, but she had never before been able to do it at such a range. She spotted Elruin's guests in tow while looking for an angle to approach without being seen by onlookers.

Mort hopped off her lap moments later, and scaled his way down the building, leaving no secrets to who his favorite was.

Cali tried to sigh, but she'd forgotten to breathe beforehand. Instead she increased the intensity of the magic which flowed through her veins in place of blood, a series of pulses like that of a heartbeat. Elruin looked straight toward her, confirming that the girl's range of detection was at least as good as her own improved abilities.

Elruin stopped to talk to Lemia for a moment, buying enough time for Mort to reach her. Lemia went on with the woman and children, while Elruin waited until they were out of sight to start approaching Cali's location.

Cali hopped down into the dark streets, and took a deep breath before stepping into enough light to allow Elruin to see what she'd become. "Awful brave of you to walk into a dark alley alone like this, what if I was the necromancer?"

"I knew it was you." Elruin stood observing all the changes in Calenda's pattern, then decided that her sister needed a hug. For a brief moment before she could adapt, Cali's new power numbed her skin. "Your song's changed, but it's not different. Like the same melody using different instruments. Besides, we saw the monster and you're nothing like it."

"You found the monster?" Cali wouldn't consciously realize it for some time, but knowing she wasn't like them made her feel far better. She returned Elruin's hug, while remaining conscious that her strength was far greater now than it had been. "Where? What happened?"

"After we went to the poor side of town, I sensed..."

By the time Elruin finished, Lemia was coming back outside. "They're inside, now what was s... four below!" Lemia's hands went to her mouth. "Cali? What happened to you?"

"I made a desperate choice, and these are the consequences." Calenda drew back the cloak she wore to reveal that the alterations across her face and neck. "It's not all bad, I have to be at least twice as strong as I was before, but do you think you can redo my disguise?"

Lemia moved close, hesitated, then touched Calenda's skin. "I... maybe. Right now part of me wants to take some of your skin for study. Your body is almost like it was made from necroleather." Even as she spoke, the dyes spread across her skin, this time far thicker than they had been before.

"I have enough enemies trying to take chunks out of me, don't you start, too." Cali forced a smile. "Besides, there were two zombies just like me, but without the intelligence, you can carve one of them up. They're tough, but stupid and not indestructible. We'll see if Elruin can't take control over one to study later."

"This necromancer's abilities are unbelievable, most would call them impossible." Lemia glanced over at Elruin, knowing full well the girl had similar capabilities. "We saw a spellcaster undead. It wasn't rune magic, but a true undead mage. And now we learn the necromancer can make necrotempered zombies. Tell me the truth, do we stand a chance in hell of winning?"

"Yes!" Elruin crossed her arms, trying her best to convey seriousness. "It has some clever tricks, but now that I've seen them I can do it, too. This is nowhere near as powerful as Claron, and we killed him! He's only scary because he keeps running and hiding from us. All we need to do is catch him and we can beat him."

"Too bad dark purple skin is almost unheard of, it's the only skin color that'd hide your new... uh... look." Lemia changed the subject away from the necromancer, knowing full well that Elruin's confidence was based on any number of flawed assumptions, not the least of which was her belief that she, who was having trouble on basic potion magic, was a match for a mage whose technique was superior to that of many archmages. "We should go inside, maybe I'll be able to cobble together something more effective with my full kit."

"What about your guests?" Calenda, too, allowed Elruin to keep her illusions that this fight could be so easily won. What they encountered thus seemed closer to a probing strike to harass and test the enemy for weaknesses, rather than a proper engagement, or so her instincts were screaming to her. If this was the necromancer's idea of a harassment campaign, then open war would be a slaughter.

"Don't worry, they're already asleep," Lemia said. "I made them take a poppy tincture and sent them to bed. It's potent stuff, the building could catch fire and they'd sleep through it. With any luck, it'll help them forget what happened tonight." She doubted it, but considering the dreamlike nature of the illusions, there was a chance. After tonight she felt the need to embrace what little hope she could find. The alternative was to collapse into despair.

Several minutes later, the three of them were sitting on the floor while Lemia did her work on Cali's disguise. "Alright, I think that'll hold. I had to include sarite powder to maintain the charge and keep the necromantic energies from decomposing the dyes. Mages will notice if they look, but you can play it off as a form of camouflage and ward against magic. They might ask why you don't just use magical armor, but this is a lot cheaper than armor and is keyed against necromancy, so it makes sense in current context."

Calenda considered it for a moment. "I'll claim it's a religious practice."

"Huh, you didn't strike me as the heretical type."

"Ecross teaches that one must adapt and grow, to change who we are into something better in order to overcome the challenges in our lives. This is adaptation, and thus I honor the teachings." Calenda closed her eyes, longing for the time when those words brought her comfort and strength. "Unorthodox though it might be. Now that I'm taken care of, how do you plan to help those poor people in our bedroom."

"I can protect them, just like with you, but without the dying part." Elruin stopped to think about it for a moment. "Although if they did want to be like you, it would make it a lot easier. And now that I know how to make these necrotempered zombies, they could even-"

"How about if we call that a backup plan, and look for something that doesn't involve them following you around for the rest of your life?" As ambivalent as Calenda was on her current state of being, sure knew she had no desire to encourage Elruin to create more of her.

"I don't see the problem," a young girl's voice said from the ceiling. "Simple transposition is all you need."

Suggested Listening

Calenda rolled to her feet before the voice finished with 'don't'. "Who are you? Show yourself!"

Everyone else was slower to ready themselves, and still getting into a defensive position when a head with long purple hair stuck itself through a hole in the ceiling which hadn't been there a moment ago. "Hiyaaaa!" She screamed, then landed with a thud on the ground. "Oww! What did they make this floor out of, rock?"

Elruin watched and heard the girl's complex, alien, song, while pair of black squirrels climbed up her legs to seek shelter from the noisy intruder. "She's not a child, even though she looks like one."

"Cute game you're playing, but it's not fooling us." Calenda wished she had a decent weapon to threaten her with, but she hadn't had a chance to fix the guisarme and her basic throwing knives no longer held much meaning against anything close to her strength. "What are you?"

"Oh, poo, you're no fun." The girl climbed to her feet and rubbed her behind, even though she landed on her head. "I'm here to give you a hand, and you're being terrible hosts. What happened to putting out a nice pot of tea, and talking about how great it is to see each other again? Did your sense of hospitality die with the rest of you?"

"Her name is Ada. She doesn't mean any harm, which makes her all the more dangerous." Scratch came up through the floor in a much more graceful display than their other surprise guest. He gave a meaningful nod to Calenda. "Hey, Sis, lovin' the new look."

"Scratch!" Ada jumped toward Scratch, arms spread as she ran through the spirit and hugged open air. "It's been so long!"Your new friends are quite rude, you know. Not like you at all, you're my favorite because you're always so polite!"

Scratch looked at the others while floating behind Ada's back. "You heard the crazy lady, be more like me, I'm a regular Prince Charming." His amusement was feigned, for he knew better than most that they were one wrong word from utter disaster. "It ain't their fault, lots of mortals get on edge when people drop in without sending word ahead."

"But I did! And they were ever-so-grateful and thanked me for..." Ada stopped for a moment. "Oh, that hasn't happened yet, has it?"

"Totally understandable, happens to the best of us." Scratch looked at the others. "Isn't that right?"

"Sure, I forget things that haven't happened yet all the time," Lemia said while backing toward a possible exit. She'd seen more than a handful of the unhinged during her years in the slum, but none of them held the sort of power this girl had. She wielded void magic the same way Elruin wielded necromancy; an intrinsic bond that was as natural to them as walking was to normal people.

"You, too?!" Ada appeared behind Lemia without any indication that she was moving. "I'm so glad to hear that! I mean, not that it happens to you, but sometimes it feels like I'm the only one in the world that has that problem!"

"Gah!" Lemia jumped and twisted the wrong direction, then back around to face Ada while the madwoman kept rambling. "Uh, sure, now can you remind me why we, uh, are going to thank you?"

"Oh, yeah, I asked you why you don't just transpose the rune magic onto, uh, her." Ada pointed at Cali. "The magic won't hurt her."

"Transpose? I don't know what that means..." Lemia considered her words, and their implications. "... Yet?"

Ada rolled her eyes. "Why can't causality learn to keep up? Look, it's easy, I'll show you. Hey, necromancer." She pointed to Elruin. "Blast me, right now! Don't worry, you can't hurt me, nobody can. Well, one person can, but I think she's asleep right now."

Elruin hesitated for long enough that Scratch took initiative. "Don't worry, Ada knows what she's doing, for a certain loose definition of 'doing'. This won't hurt anyone." He left out the word 'important' at the end.

"Alright, if you're sure it won't hurt you." Elruin brought up her hand, and put a conscious effort into reducing her power to the weakest possible blast before she fired upon Ada. A moment later, Calenda gasped as she received a fresh dose of 'clean' necromantic power. Elruin turned her head to look at her big sister. "You made me hit Cali?"

"No, I transposed Cali and myself," Ada said. "The spell hit me, but it's her essence that felt the effects."

Lemia caught on fastest. "So if we transpose the runebone victims with Cali right before we set them off, then they'll hit her instead. But since she's already dead, it won't have any impact! That's brilliant. There's just one problem: I can't cast that spell."

"But you have sarite to cast it with!"

"I do?" Lemia recovered. "Are you sure that's something that's happened?"

"Yeah, it's right here." Ada lifted one of the crystals Lemia carried that came off the void tendril-monsters between her finger and thumb. "See?"

Oh. "I, uh, learn how to use those later."

"C'mon, Ada, you can't expect mere mortals like them to keep up with the likes of you," Scratch said. Later, he'd explain to Lemia how he'd saved her, complete with a description of how she was going to repay him. "Surely there was a time when you needed time to learn things?"

"Ugh, don't remind me." Ada put her hands over her blushing face. "Fine, I'll do it slow and you watch."

The next ten minutes were a lesson for all of them in the gulf between their talents. Ada's impatient desire to skip past the learning process became ever more apparent, but in time she did manage to show Lemia how to harness and attune herself to void shards while Cali and Elruin stayed on the sidelines trying to comprehend the jumbled mess of magic that was Ada's power.

"And now that you know how to transpose, I better get those sweet cakes you're about to promise me."

"I..." Lemia hadn't so much as thought about sweet cakes before Ada brought the subject up. "Sure, I know a great bakery. Just be sure to visit after I buy them, or we might go through this mess all over again."

"Again?" Ada shook her head. "And I thought I had it bad. But I gotta go now before they find out I've been visiting. Tell Uewatsu I'm gonna eat sweets until I get so fat that I can't see my toes!"

This is why there are rules! Scratch considered his options, torn between the possibility of making himself look suspicious to the others, or risking the confrontation start too soon and end with him dying for real. His best chance was that they'd imagine it was more of her rambling lunacy.

"They?" Calenda dashed his hope that nobody would think too much of the madwoman's words. "Who's 'they'?"

"You don't know? It's the guys playing with you."

"You're getting confused again," Scratch tried in vain. "Nobody's playing with us. Yet." Perhaps he could play off the choice of words as him cooperating with Ada's delusions.

"I'm quite sure they are, because they found a crazy necromancer and moved him here, and the crazy fire dude who thought he was a god, and the... uh... oh, right, I guess I'm not supposed to talk about that. Bye!" Ada fell through the floor, into another of her magic generated holes in reality.

"Huh, well that was g-urk!" Scratch was interrupted from his attempt to dive into the ground by Calenda's grip on his head.

"Now where do you imagine you are going?" Cali pulled him away from his refuged and held him at eye level. "Start explaining, before I become the first person ever to murder a ghost."

"Sorry, sis, others beat y-ouch! Okay, fine, I'll tell you what I know!" He lied to her face, while formulating the more complex web of half truths and whole fabrications he needed to weave together to hold the deceptions together. "It ain't much, but remember that death cult I mentioned way back when?"

"Something about them wanting to kill the world, right?" Calenda scoffed, making it clear she didn't buy it. "We both know that a group like that can't do what these guys seem to have done."

"Okay, look, they have a better reason behind their goals than I made it sound. But, let me ask a question that explains it. How many people do you know are twins, or triplets? How often do you see single children being born at all?"

"I don't know, single children are pretty rare, maybe one in fifty births?" Calenda looked over at Elruin for a moment. "Ell was a singular birth, are we supposed to believe that's their motive? Killing single children?"

"No, they're not that discriminate, and their goals run deeper," Scratch said. "Here's another question, how long do human women stay pregnant before they give birth?"

"Assuming they don't get pregnant again while already pregnant? Almost a full season. This is common knowledge, and I don't see what it has to do with anything."

"Because it's not normal," Scratch said. "Even two hundred years ago, triplets were more rare than single births are today. Six hundred years ago, and single children were more than half of all births. I'm told that long ago, back when things were stable, it took nine months for human babies to be born, and twins were only one in every eight births. Other animals were also slower. Still faster than humans, but not this much faster."

"Let's pretend I believe you." The problem for Calenda was that she was starting to believe it, if only because nobody would believe such an outlandish lie. "Why? And what does this have to do with the cult?"

"The buildup of life magic, somehow." Scratch knew he had to keep that a secret, whatever else he revealed. "I don't know how or why, I don't think anyone does, but life magic has been growing in strength for thousands of years. A little more, a little faster, every generation. This death cult is... trying to reverse the process. By killing lots and lots of people, monsters, and animals. I think they have some sort of more complex strategy, damned if I know what it is." He was damned, and he did know, and they could not be allowed to find out.

"And this is where we come in?" Cali asked. "Why?"

"What part of 'I don't know' do you not understand?"

"Then start guessing!" Calenda squeezed, inflicting what she hoped was pain on the annoying ghost.

"Okay! Fine! I'll guess." Scratch writhed, putting on a good show. "They don't act all the time, they do things in cycles, so I'm guessing there's some sort of ritual component. Or maybe they work like nomads and pick a new place to wreck every few years. The world's big, maybe it takes centuries for them to run out of new places and go back to the old ones?"

"And what does this have to do with them messing with us?" Since Lemia couldn't threaten Scratch, she relied on Cali to do it for her.

"I! Don't! Know!" Scratch shifted some more. "Maybe they're hoping to spark an undeath wildfire? That'd keep a land nice and cleansed of life energy for a long time while they move on to a new project. Or maybe, being a death cult, they like to study necromancers? The only thing I can say for certain is that nothing survives their attention, be it people or nations, they don't leave living witnesses."

Pity there weren't any gods who could control Ada, or Scratch would have prayed to it that she didn't show up again until it was too late. But if there was a god that could control Ada, he could have prayed to it to fix the real problem.

Calenda relaxed her grip and allowed Scratch to escape. "It... makes more sense than I care to admit. Tell me, what's your role in this tale? And I don't want to hear you say you have none."

"If I have my way? I'd like to march up to them start carving away every part of them that they don't need to survive, and then leave the rest in the sun to dry. Unfortunately for me, I've yet to find anyone strong enough to stop them. Except maybe Ada, and she wouldn't kill a goldfish. Unless she was trying to keep it alive, then all bets are off."

The whole time, Elruin had been listening, and imagining how these people had been killing people for so long. If they were responsible for Claron, then they were also responsible for Cali having to die and all the other terrible things that they saw.

"Then I'm going to get strong enough to stop them.