We arrived in the village. Looking around, I saw the houses designed like in a medieval age. Some were made of bricks with a chimney on top.

The people there wore the same type of clothes as Emily. A lot of them were talking and interacting with each other; some were casting magic.

As the two of us continued walking, I noticed something. They were looking at us in a strange manner, as if they didn't want us to be here. It made me curious, but I chose not to ask Emily; she just remained silent.

“It’s that girl, right?” said a voice from the crowd.

“Yeah. It’s her,” whispered by a different voice.

The people gossiped as they looked in our direction. However, Emily kept looking down. We then arrived at the plaza.

“Emily, you should eat first.” After she took her meals, we bought stocks for our food supply. We then decided to go home.

I really want the two of us to look around, but seeing Emily’s face, I don’t think that’s a good idea..

Suddenly, a group of women approached us. There were three of them: the first one was short and had a blonde curly hair.

She looks like an ojou sama-type character.

The second one was a head taller and had a blue hair in twintails.

Whoa, a necromancer in twintails.

The third one was tall and had a black long hair.

She looks physically strong. It’s a cool beauty.

All of them are very beautiful, and each had a different scepter.

The three necromancers then confronted us. “Hey you, fake necromancer...” the blonde girl shouted.

Fake necromancer?

The blonde girl kept shouting but Emily ignored her; she stayed silent and continued walking. The three then went towards us and all of a sudden, the blonde girl pushed Emily, knocking her down. Good thing I was holding the food we bought.

“Emily,” I shouted.

“Hey, fake necromancer, don’t just ignore us,” the blonde girl mocked Emily.

“Yeah, you should know your place,” the blue-haired girl spoke as she bent at Emily.

Seeing this, I couldn’t contain it anymore, so I confronted them.

“Stop this. You're hurting her. Don’t you think ganging up on people is wrong?” The girls then glanced at me.

The blonde girl then talked to Emily, “heh, so the fake necromancer is controlling a skeleton to talk back to us, huh.”

Controlling? Me?

“How dare you...” the blonde girl tried to slap Emily, however, I immediately blocked her hand.

“I don’t know what you're saying, but Emily is not controlling me.”

“Huh?” the blonde girl said to me with a puzzled look. “Shut up, you puny skeleton.”

She backed off, raised her scepter and started chanting a spell.

As I prepared myself, I started to write a fireball rune, however, Emily held my hands preventing me to finish my spell.

“Emily?”

Why?

The blonde girl then pointed her scepter at me and a green light came forth from its tip. However, nothing happened as it hit me.

Huh? That’s it?

“W-What?” The blonde girl’s eyes widened. “This… This is impossible.”

“Maybe you did it wrong sis. Aria, help me out a bit.”

The other two then cast the same spell. However, it produced the same results.

“Impossible.” The blue-haired girl looked in shocked. “Is this reanimation?” The crowd then surrounded us.

“Did I just hear reanimation?” a voice from the crowd.

“She just said reanimation, right?” murmured a different voice.

“Really? She means that spell, right?” whispered by another.

It seems the people started gossiping. Is reanimation a rare spell?

“Let’s go Emily.” As I grabbed her hands, I helped her got up.

The three necromancers were dumbfounded; they couldn’t speak. Emily and I decided to go home after that.

On the way, Emily was silent. “Emily, please talk to me.” However, she ignored me as if she didn’t hear a thing. “Please, I want to help you.” But, she never responded.

As we arrived to her house, I realized something.

Why does Emily live far from the other necromancers? Why is she living in this secluded house, all by herself?

“Come, Hiiro,” Emily displayed a forced smile.

As I enter the house, Emily hugged me.

“Emily?” Confused, however, when I looked at her, she was crying.

Seeing this, my heart twinge; I couldn’t take it anymore. As gentle as I can, I hugged her back to give comfort.

“If you want someone to talk to, I’m here to listen.” Looking in Emily’s eyes, I patted her head, “I'm your friend right?” I asked as I tried to smile with my bony face. “You're not alone anymore.”

The two of us went to the table and sat in the chairs. Emily seemed hesitant to speak.

“Don’t worry, Emily,” I spoke as I looked into her eyes. “Whatever you say, I won’t hate you nor I’m going to leave you; I will stay by your side for as long as you live.”

Emily looked at me; she then braced herself and told me everything.

Night came, I couldn’t sleep. There was a lot of things going on inside my mind, and it kept bothering me since Emily and I discussed. Since Emily was sleeping, I decided to go outside the house. Darkness covered the sky as the clouds concealed the light coming from the stars and the moon. As I climbed to the roof of the house, my favorite place, the deafening silence struck me. It was perfect for reflecting the things I heard from Emily this morning. As I lay down, I started to think.

It’s been a long time since I went to the roof.

“So Emily, is not a full-blooded necromancer.”

In order for someone to become a full-blooded necromancer, one of its parents must also be a full-blooded necromancer, so that the child would inherit the immortality. However, Emily is just a normal human. She was abandoned by her real parents. Her foster mother found her in front of her house and decided to adopt her. But, adopting a human was a taboo in the village, so they were banished. Her mother then decided to live here.

There’s also that thing with reanimation.

Emily said that reanimation is forbidden spell, however, she doesn’t know the reason why. Also, since I’ve been revived only by incomplete reanimation, she needed to continuously supplying me with her life energy.

“If Emily dies, I will also die.”

However, me dying did not bother me at all. Rather, the one thing that shocked me the most, was that my existence alone, puts Emily’s life at risk.

Emily’s life energy is decreasing because of me.

“Should I… Should I tell her to cancel the spell?”

But she would be left alone. Without friends or family, she would be crying, depressed and empty.

“I know the feeling since I experienced it before.”

It was when my family and I moved to the Philippines. Those years of friendship and bond that I made together with my classmates in Japan, all gone in an instant. That is, until Lily came to my life.

“I can’t… I just can’t leave her.”

There’s also the fact that she’s being ridiculed by her fellow necromancers.

As I raised my hands to the sky, I said, “father, mother, what should I do?”

Morning came, the light from the sun woke me up; I was sleeping on the roof.

“I need to talk to Emily.”

Sitting in the chair, I was waiting for Emily. Then, I walked towards her, the moment I saw her came down from the stairs. “Emily, please let me help look for your mother.”

“Hiiro? W-Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

“It’s just that… It came to me that… I’ve been doing nothing but practice elemental magic this past few days.” Looking into her eyes, I held both of her hands. “Emily, I want to help you. Using the magic you taught me, I want you to be reunited with your mother.”

“Hiiro.” She then looked at me.

“Please, Emily,” I pleaded as I bowed.

“Hiiro, please don’t,” she replied. “I should be the one requesting for help, not you.”

“No, Emily, I’m the one who needs to request,” As I raise my head, I looked at her. “You’re overworking yourself too much.”

“Hiiro, don’t tell me, you knew?” she asked.

“Yes, I notice one day, after practice, during my meditation, you would always go to the forest. You’re looking for your mother, right? You could have just told me. I’ll gladly help you if you did.”

“But… I… I don’t want to be a bother to...”

“It’s not a bother,” I interrupted her. “Friends help each other in times of need. I’m your friend, right? Please, Emily, let me help you.”

And after you reanimate your mother, please cancel the reanimation you cast on me. I don’t want to put your life into danger any longer. At the very least, even if I’m gone, you won't be lonely anymore. And since your mother is a necromancer, she might help you increase your life energy.

“Hiiro.” There was a bit of silence. “Please... help me.”

“Of course. I will gladly help you”

Weeks passed, and I kept on practicing magic; I learned the four basic elemental spells: fireball, water ball, earth wall and air slash. Emily and I scheduled to look for her mother’s remains every three days. We went to different places asking people. At first, I thought, that looking for her mother would be hard, considering that her flesh should’ve been decayed. But Emily said that a necromancer’s body would never rot.

It’s already been a month and we still haven’t found any lead.

It was nighttime. Laying down on the roof, I reflected on the things that happened...

“It’s a good thing that I’m progressing in magic but we’re at a dead end looking for her mother...”

“Hiiro, think positive. Think positive.” This was a favorite quote of Lily.

Lily, why do you always pop up inside of my head?

“Come to think of it, when I was alive I used to climb to our roof to code my programs.”

Though my mother would always scold me for doing that.

“I really miss programming.” As I looked at the sky, I thought of something. “Hmm. I just realized something. Rune writing is very similar with programming.”

Just like a code, a rune have symbols and words. Each of these corresponds to a function or attribute of a spell. An example would be the word “fire” on a fireball rune, which literally means to produce a small fire.

“I wonder if I can incorporate programming, in a rune, like the while loop for example? Hmmm... I’ll experiment on it later.

In computer programming, using a while-loop means repeating a certain function until it meets a condition. In layman's terms, it is to repeat an action until you order it to stop.