Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 52

Mortimer stood around nervously. His side hurt. He hoped Angela and Solara would show up soon. He could use somebody to talk to. Mortimer never had any casual talks with his parents, and his relatives even less so. Still, on his face was a smile. It was well practiced just for situations like this.

Besides them, there was no one to talk to. Dr. Stevenson didn’t count. Being triple Mortimer’s age, there was only so much they could have in common. Mortimer only managed to spend a short time talking with him before breaking off to stand alone, performing casual nonsense chat with various people attending his party.

Robert had already made plans, so he wasn’t able to attend. Well, he’d mostly been there to fill up the numbers anyway. Alex, on the other hand… Alex could have been here. Then Mortimer wouldn’t have had to stand so awkwardly alone in the middle of these people. Even when they talked to him, Mortimer was alone, although he might have prefered real aloneness even more so.

However, Alex wasn’t here. It was understandable, really, considering what had happened earlier. It hadn’t really bothered Mortimer, but he understood. He could really have used someone to talk to instead of standing there holding his drink with a fake smile. He glanced at the door again.

Mortimer dropped his glass. Somehow, he kept a straight face, and even better, he caught the glass with the fingertips of his other hand. Nobody else was even looking at the door, but Mortimer couldn’t look away.

There was Angela. She had on a very nice dress, not something Mortimer had seen before though. He supposed many people would find her quite attractive, but she was his cousin. Still, he hadn’t dropped his glass because of her.

No, it was Solara. He hadn’t actually been sure if she would come. Mortimer wasn’t an expert on fashion by any means, but that didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate seeing it sometimes. Solara, well, she looked great. Beautiful. Maybe only Mortimer would be so astounded. As Ruby, he’d seen her in more revealing clothing. Here, though, it was really her. Mortimer concentrated very hard to not look too much like he was staring. That, at least, he had practice at.

After a moment that felt like an hour but was hopefully just a few seconds, Mortimer realized he had a good excuse to go talk to them. Besides the fact that he invited them, he was somewhat responsible for greeting his guests. Plus, they were his friends. At the very least, they were his cousin and her friend.

“Solara. Angela. Welcome to my party.” With a flourish of his hand, he bowed to them formally. At the very least in this situation he could fake real interactions. After all, he had nineteen years of practice now. He straightened back up slowly, again conscious of his side hurting. He kept his fake smile on, but it was slightly more real.

He wasn’t really aware of their responses, but they both had smiles that were probably real. Well, they could leave at any time, and he couldn’t leave, since this was his house. After some more greetings he offered them some refreshments from the table.

Then, Mortimer had a thought. He looked at the clock. Normally, it would have been his cell phone, but that wasn’t appropriate in this setting. There was a nice grandfather clock nearby, though. The time… it was close enough. He made the excuse that he had to go talk to some people, which was true, and went off to the side of the room.

Soon, music started. People rearranged themselves around the room. Some moved towards the edges, while some moved to or remained in the middle and started dancing. Mortimer reappeared next to Solara and Angela.

“May I have this dance?” Mortimer offered his hand to Solara. Rationally, he knew she wouldn’t refuse. That didn’t stop him from feeling nervous.

Fortunately, Solara took his hand. That was something, but she could easily do so just out of politeness. He knew he would have, were the situations reversed. Well, if it were someone else. He would obviously be more than happy to dance with her not just out of politeness.

Mortimer was still nervous about the dance. Part of it was dancing with Solara, but part of it wasn’t for himself directly. What if she didn’t know the dance? Well, he knew she could dance, but he didn’t want to embarrass her if she had any trouble. He’d picked a slow song to make any potential embarrassments less noticeable.

Mortimer needn’t have worried. She was a good dancer. Better than him, because he was out of practice. It did help some that he was in better shape than he’d ever been in before.

Mortimer felt the end of the song came too soon. He would have liked it to go on forever, but it was for the best that it didn’t. Although he was in good shape, Mortimer felt like he had just sprinted a mile. He dropped Solara off near Angela and went over to the refreshments.

He wasn’t really hungry, but it was a good place to stand around. He watched the rest of the partygoers, and saw Angela and Solara talking, but he couldn’t tell about what. Eventually, Angela made her way over to him.

“Feeling better?” she asked.

“What?”

Angela grinned. “Your smile is real now. It wasn’t before.”

Mortimer avoided commenting on that by asking her to dance.

It was fun. It wasn’t anything new to him, since he’d grown up with Angela around and they’d always attended the same parties- mostly for each other. It was fun, but it didn’t feel like dancing with Solara.

Although it was fun, Mortimer was starting to feel the press of people around him, so after the dance he retreated off to the side, into somewhere that didn’t look like a corner but provided him with the same comfort.

“Having fun?”

Mortimer almost jumped. He hadn’t noticed anyone around. He turned to see Master Valarao. Well, he’d recognized the voice, but the turning happened at the same time.

“How could I not have fun at my own party?”

Master Valarao smiled. “Well, I’m glad that you are now.” He sniffed the air. “How’s your side?”

“You can tell? It’s not that bad. If I don’t strain it, it will be fine.”

“Good, I don’t want my best disciple passing out in the middle of the room. It would make me look bad.”

“Aren’t I your only disciple?”

“Exactly. If I couldn’t even keep one disciple in shape, I’d be laughed out of my country.”

“...We’re not in your country.”

“Well, I’d be dragged back then laughed right out again.”

Mortimer’s smile was still real. “Thanks for earlier. I wasn’t sure what to do.”

“No problem. I would appreciate it if the consultation on such matters was kept to a minimum, however. Not that I don’t like to help, but…”

“I understand.”

Mortimer was left alone. He looked around the room, then sighed internally. He wanted to dance with Solara again, but he saw his parents looking at him pointedly. Mortimer went over to Angela and Solara.

“How are you liking the party?”

“It’s… very nice.” Solara looked like she felt that was a huge understatement.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. As one of the few guests that are not family, it has become my responsibility to introduce you to the owners of the house. My parents, of course.” Mortimer looked at Angela. “You should come as well.” What Mortimer didn’t say out loud was ‘help me I need backup’.

Fortunately, she heard his silent plea, and came along with them.

“Mother, father,” Mortimer nodded to both, “This is my friend from school, Solara Vail.” He didn’t know if friend was even appropriate, but it would have been more awkward to say “Angela’s Friend”.

Mortimer then introduced his parents, and was quickly out of his pre-formulated sentences for the formal situations. Fortunately, Angela was there to help him under the force of his parents’ polite but inquisitive stares.

“She’s very smart. She’s always had top grades, and has a full scholarship.”

Mortimer hadn’t known that. In fact, he knew very little about her except what he’d snooped noticed in her diary. There hadn’t been that much information about her life except her interests, nothing about family and little about school.

Fortunately for Mortimer and Solara, Mortimer’s parents weren’t intending a full interrogation at the current time. They seemed content with the introduction.

For the rest of the evening, Mortimer danced with Solara every chance he got, within reason. His skills at reading people weren’t very good, so he wasn’t sure how much she enjoyed it. She was smiling, though, so at least she felt good enough to fake it. One point on the side of her not being unhappy was that she stayed most of the evening. She wasn’t the last person to leave, but she certainly wasn’t the first.

At the end of the day, Mortimer collapsed on his bed. He didn’t even want to think about playing Royal Road. He was physically and mentally exhausted. It was reasonable, with the party and what had happened before. What he needed now was just some nice, restful sleep. He did at least have the energy to change his clothes before he went to sleep. He sighed slightly when he looked at his knife lying on his nightstand. He wondered if he should name it.

End Chapter 52

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