In the middle of the night, a thunderous crack came from downstairs. I sat up, whipping my head towards the door. My heart rattled, and I couldn’t catch my breath. My blood ran cold as the doorknob slowly turned and the door opened. Just as I was about to scream, I saw Uncle Leopold’s face. He held his hand up to me.

“I’ll be right back. Stay up here,” he whispered, then tiptoed downstairs.

I slid over to the ajar door with my ear cupped against the wood. Glass was breaking wood was smashing. My uncle’s words echoed in my head, but I wanted to investigate with him and—

“Ahhh!” my uncle screamed, which was followed by a slapping sound and a cacophony of plated footsteps. Tears spilled from the corner of my eyes. A thump shook the floor.

“What are you doing here?” my uncle yelled.

“Don’t raise your voice to me!” Another smack rang through the house. “Don’t you know who I am?!”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness!” Uncle Leopold shouted. “But please, tell me what I’ve done wrong, for I don’t know!”

Slow laughter built up into a cackling shriek. “It all makes sense now. You’ve been using necromancy to pump out all that work. It’s a shame. I was an admirer for the longest time. Looks like your prices are gonna shoot up in value.”

I grabbed the sack and knife from my drawer.

“No!” I yelped, racing down the steps into the living room. Members of the Silver Army lined the walls, clutching their poleaxes at their sides, staring forward. King Mozer gripped my uncle’s hair while he was on his knees. Uncle Leopold’s face was covered in crimson.

King Mozer beamed at me with a sadistic, crooked grin. “Oh? And who might this be?” he said with a slithery voice.

“Vlark you!” Uncle Leopold cursed. “It’s me you want. Leave him out of this! Go, run!”

“Or stay!” King Mozer shouted, still staring at me with chilling blue eyes that pierced my soul. “He looks like the perfect age to witness death for the first time. You know, I was younger than him when I witnessed my first live killing—eight years old. I watched a member from the Silver Army slice up a necromancer.” King Mozer ripped out a short sword from the top of his cane and chuckled. “It’s fun when history repeats itself.”

“Run now! Get out of here!” Uncle Leopold shouted over tears that raced out of his eyes.

I sprinted towards the back of the house, and the Silver Army chased after me.

“Halt! I give the vlarking orders around here, last I checked! I didn’t tell you to chase after him!” Mozer hollered.

The Silver Army stopped and returned to the living room.

As I bolted out through the back of the house, powered by adrenaline, I heard King Mozer order from the living room, “Let him go! He carries enough shame! When he thinks back on his sadness, he’ll realize that it was necromancy that robbed him of his family, and when he’s older, he’ll thank me for what I did!”

I ran to the stable, jammed the key in the gate, and got Betty out. I hopped on her back, and we shot off into the night. My heart drummed, sweat poured, and tears streamed. I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing; I just kept riding south at full speed. The thought of going to my parents’ house crossed my mind, and that was the default plan, but it made my stomach tie in knots.

What would I tell my parents? What would my mom think of her brother if I told the truth? They seemed so happy to kick me out of the house.

Betty continued to gallop through the night. I wasn’t tired in the slightest, even though I thought I’d need some sleep. Following the roads, we traveled to the southeast of Lavarund. It was the only decision that made sense.

When the sun rose and hovered over the horizon, exhaustion hit me like a hammer. I pulled Betty off the trail to a campsite where travelers were coming and going. All eyes were on me. I was by far the youngest one there, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable. The two Silver Army guards standing by two horses didn’t pay much attention to me, but just the sight of them and their red emblem on their plates, the Lavarund flag (which was the symbol of fire), made my heart sink.

I tied up Betty to a post and gazed at a map. Grayed-out was the southeast region, shaped in a dog-leg in the middle of the Poro Sea, but they left the two major cities labeled. Orbavue was one of them, which was slightly south of the official border. It was a major port center for the Poro Sea. I remember reading that it had a population of 60% Necromancers, 30% witches, and 10% humans. The city that was calling my name was Nezura. A society with 95% Necromancers and 5% witches. It was located at the end of the dog-leg, practically on the opposite side of Orbavue.

My lips pulled up on both sides while my eyelids sank. “Be back soon,” I whispered to Betty and rubbed the side of her neck. Trudging deep into the campsite, I found a patch of dirt tucked away with the help of trees. I collapsed to the ground, and my eyes closed without my control.

I was in my bedroom at my uncle’s house, and a bright light shined through the window. Birds chirped songs to each other outside. The smell of bacon greeted my nose, and just as I got out of bed, Uncle Leopold came inside.

“Uncle Leopold!” I raced over to him and squeezed him with a crushing hug.

“Maximilian,” he said gently.

“I had a horrible nightmare.”

“I’m sorry, Maximilian.”

“Huh?” I could feel Uncle Leopold fade in my arms.

“I can’t stay any longer. I wish I could.”

“No!” I shrieked. “What do you mean? You just came into my room.”

“Yes, but it’s time for me to go.”

“Why are you leaving?”

“You’ll be fine. Trust your gut. Whatever you do, you won’t be wrong.”

“What? Why are you saying this?”

“Goodbye. I’m terribly sorry for everything. I did what I thought was best. Please, find it in your heart to forgive me.”

“Uncle Leopold! You can’t leave; I need you! You did nothing wrong!” My arms tightened around him as I cried, but he faded into nothing. It was just me, alone in the room. The light from the window brightened, making me squint.

The blinding sun burned my eyelids. A sadness lingered like a viral infection. I woke up, gripped my shirt, and felt my arms. My lungs trembled. This is real. Rubbing my eyes with my knuckles, I cleared away some tears. It took me a moment to realize where I was and what I had been doing. I took the bag off my back and checked to make sure no one was around.

What did my uncle leave me with?

I had my knife, which was in pristine condition, and I pulled open the small bag. For a moment, I thought it may have been a weapon or a charm. But his gift made me cry.

A pouch full of gold coins.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’d never seen so much money before in my life; there had to be at least fifty gold coins in there. I felt the smooth metallic medallions.

My stomach roared. This lingering ache left me hungry yet void of an appetite at the same time. I jogged back to the posts where the travelers had tied up their horses. There were only a dozen of them parked, and not a single one was Betty. I must’ve looked them up and down a thousand times, but no, it was true. Betty was gone.

I screamed with every ounce of air in my lungs.

I circled around the campsite, hollering, “Betty! Betty! Betty!” but there was no reply. Not a single horse perked their ears.

I trudged back to the map and studied how much ground I still had to cover. Judging by the sun’s distance, it was early in the afternoon. I could probably make it to Orbavue late in the evening and maybe sleep in a park or something. I sprinted away from the map and continued down the path to the Southeast.

During my run, there was nothing but farmland and rolling hills. The sun was setting on the horizon, and I was finally getting close to the Southeast border, but I had to cross through the Orbavue Forest. Coming up to it, the sun had descended completely. My knees wobbled with each step, my stomach felt like it shrank in size, and I was parched. My heels and shoulders weighed a thousand pounds.

Entering the forest, I just wanted to collapse on the grass and fall asleep again, but I forced myself to keep going. It helped that I had never seen trees like the ones in the Orbavue Forest. Tall pines with purple needles. Each one took up twice the size of a regular full-grown pine. There were so many trees they blocked out the light, making my surroundings much darker as the sun still gifted the sky an indirect shine. My skin tingled, the air was colder, and a fog formed around me, thickening with every second. The owls and crickets performed their nightly symphony, which I didn’t mind, but I shivered when I heard a howl echo from the forest. The adrenaline that kicked in sped up my legs along the path. Did the howl come from behind me or in front of me?

There was something else that made my skin crawl. Pairs of round blue lights blinked at me from the trees and through the fog. I had no idea what I was looking at, but the lights followed me like a set of pupils.

Another howl shook me to my core. I stopped and scanned my surroundings, trying to peer through the fog. Any tiredness I had earlier was gone. I was wide awake, ready to take flight.