Tainted roots

While I had never met one before—since there was a big debate on whether or not they were extinct—I knew she was a necromancer. Her energy was dark and cold, feeling the way I’d imagine the inside of a grave to feel. It wasn't insidious as I thought it would be. I always imagined their magic to feel oily and wrong, like it was clinging to your body, making you want to shower after being near them. The kind that made you feel like you were slowly dying. I felt none of those things.

She was older than me, but it was unclear by how much. It could be five years, it could be over twenty. However old she was, she didn’t look like the monstrous villain I pictured all necromancers to look like.

Her inky black hair was somehow even darker than Starling’s and had been pulled into a braid wrapping around her head. To say her skin was fair would be a vast understatement. Not surprising since there wasn’t a fucking sun in this realm. Light blue eyes glanced between us. Assessing us and our every movement.

A crease formed between her full eyebrows as she pressed her lips together. Her eyes widened and her mouth gaped open in shock as she took a small step back.

“You’re Mythics,” she whispered in shocked horror. She cleared her throat and her voice came out stronger the next time she spoke. “Why have you come here, and how do you know about this place?”

She was afraid of us. I saw it in the way her hand slightly trembled, and how unsteady her breathing was.

We had been raised to hate and fear the necromancers. Why wouldn’t they do the same with their children? I didn't know her age, but I knew she wasn’t wasn’t five thousand years old. I doubted she was close to a century. With that in mind, I stepped around Koa, raising my hands in a placating gesture to diffuse the situation.

Koa tried to step in front of me again, but I wasn’t having any of that shit, I shoved past him, only for him to grab my waist and pull me back against his chest. Glancing up at him over my shoulder, I had a silent argument with him. His eyes basically said: there’s no way in hell I’m letting you close to her.

While mine said: I’m doing this and you can’t stop me. We held our stare off for almost a minute until he surprisingly relented and let go of my waist. I didn’t push my luck by stepping away from him.

“We were told something we’re looking for is in these tunnels,” I said slowly, turning my attention back to the necromancer, who was still aiming the crossbow at us. I didn’t include our theories as to what we were looking for, just because she wasn’t hostile, didn’t mean we could trust her.

“Who told you? How did you find this realm?” She demanded, her confusion returning.

I glanced back at Koa, but all of his attention was on the necromancer. Tension rode his body as his dragon made himself known. An intimidation tactic, one that was working since she refused to look at him for more than a few seconds.

“We know about this realm because we were here over a month ago, trying to figure out how and why the vampires snuck into our realm. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?"

Her confusion grew, and for the first time, she looked away from us and down at the floor. She lowered her crossbow by a few inches, but we still didn’t move. Despite her being a necromancer, I didn’t want to attack or fight her.

As far as she was concerned, we were invading her home. The same way we felt when the vampires attacked our town.

“I didn’t hear about the attack.” She finally said after a full minute of silence.

“Were the necromancers involved in planning the attack?” Koa asked, his voice holding no malice.

She pursed her lips, looking up at the ceiling. “I don't know, but I’d say yes. Many of our elders hold a deep hatred of Mythics and are waiting for the chance to get even with you.”

It wasn’t lost on me that this was the second time she referred to Mythics as something different than herself. The necromancers no longer considered themselves to be one of us.

“We’re not here to hurt you. We weren’t even expecting to find a necromancer down here, most of our kind believe you all to be extinct. And most don’t know about this realm,” I said keeping my voice gentle, hoping she’d aim her crossbow somewhere else.

“You don’t want to hurt me?” She asked, disbelief heavy in her tone.

“If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead,” Koa simply stated, being completely unhelpful. I sent an exasperated look over my shoulder. Only for him shrug in response, followed by a half smile.

Her dubious expression hadn’t changed. “Really? You aren’t trained to hate and kill us on sight?”

I winced, biting down on my bottom lip. “We’ll, I can’t dispute the hate part, and I’m sure there are a whole number of Mythics that wouldn’t hesitate to attack you. But we aren’t them, I see no reason to start a fight with you,” I said, cringing at my words as soon as I said them.

She debated my answer for several seconds before lowering her crossbow. “If either of you give me any reason to doubt you, I won’t hesitate to shoot you.” She shifted her gaze between us, waiting until I nodded.

There wasn’t a single part of me that didn’t believe her words. She may have been wary and nervous around us, but I could see a hidden strength hiding behind her eyes. Hidden by her unassuming appearance, with her height a few inches shorter than mine, and an innocent face.

“Is it just the two of you?” She asked, looking behind us.

She was still wary of us, which was smart of her. It was strange that I had the urge to reassure a necromancer. I never thought I’d meet one, much less have a civil conversation.

“No, my sister and friend are with us, but we were separated.”

She nodded as if she was expecting that answer. “These tunnels like to do that, what better way to test and train you, than get you all alone and vulnerable.”

“Wait a fucking minute, what do you mean by train you?” I cut in before she could say anything else.

“These tunnels are meant to be used for training.”

My fucking jaw dropped as I stared at her, waiting for her to laugh or indicate she was joking. She wasn’t. “Are you fucking kidding me? This shit is used as training techniques? What’s the point of training if the obstacles kill you?”

She pressed her lips together, clearly trying not to laugh at my response. “They won’t actually kill you. There’s a security measure in place that’ll shut down the traps if you’re at risk of dying.”

Relief hit me hard and fast, to the point I nearly sagged back against Koa. If what she said was true, then Ari and Gemini were okay. There was a chance she was lying, trying to lure us into a false sense of security, but my instincts—even my wolf—were telling me she was telling the truth.

“Okay, which trap separated you?” When I told her which one it was, she groaned. “I’ve always hated that one. Did they get sucked into the wall on the left?” At our nods, she winced. My panic rose again, until she quickly added, “They’re fine, it’s just that path has always been my least favorite. Two words. Snake pit.” She shuddered, and I was right there with her, but for a different reason.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. “Poor Ari.”

Koa shot a disbelieving look in my direction. “Don’t tell me she’s afraid of snakes.”

“Oh, she’d terrified.” She has always had this paralyzing fear of them. Those were the only times I ever saw her freeze. That wasn’t to say it stopped her from going into forests or jungles, but she paid special attention to our surroundings, listening to the telltale sounds they made. The few times we came across them, she’d either freeze in place until I killed and discarded them, or bolted and left me behind.

Not only was she afraid of snakes, but the fear also extended to cobra summoners. Ari has always been wary of them, even though they couldn't transform into snakes. She’d say, they have their souls living inside them. That’s enough. “Can you show us the way to the tunnel they’re using?”

She nodded, not saying another word as she turned on her heel and led the way down the tunnel. Koa stayed close behind me as we followed. “How can she be afraid of them? We’ve faced multiple creatures with snakes attached to them.” Most people when they found out were shocked. Ari gave off the vibe of not being afraid of anything.

Letting out a small chuckle, I shook my head. “Goes to show how little you've been paying attention. She took off when we saw the chimera and wouldn’t even attempt fighting them until the snakes were gone.”

* * * * * * *

We followed her down the winding tunnel, and after several minutes, she paused and lifted her hand to tell us to stop. She pressed her hand against the wall in several unassuming places, and a burst of red light came down from the ceiling before disappearing.

I wasn’t embarrassed to admit I flinched, waiting to be attacked. “What the hell was that?” I asked when she continued walking down the tunnel as if that hadn’t just happened.

“I momentarily disabled the trap.”

I gaped at her in shock. It made sense that they could be shut down and that she knew how to do so since her pants and shirt didn’t show any signs of tears, blood, or any other substances. “Did you train down here?”

She chuckled, but it lacked any warmth or humor. “Oh yeah.”

“Did the necromancers create these traps?” I was pretty sure they hadn’t, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

“I don’t think so, I’m pretty sure it was already here as were all the hideaways.” She had us pause again and tapped a similar pattern on the wall, with a slight variation. The same red light shortly followed. It hadn’t even been a couple of minutes from the last one. Fucking assholes.

I opened my mouth to ask more questions when I realized how rude we’d been. “I’m Jade, and this is Koa.”

She glanced at us over her shoulder, giving a small smile. “Alora.”

We lapsed into silence as we continued through the tunnel, stopping every so often to disable the traps. When we came across another room with multiple tunnels, Alora didn’t stop or slow down, picking the tunnel on the far left.

“You never told me why you came here.”

I winced and looked back at Koa. He inclined his head, and I took that as him saying I should tell her. “We aren’t completely sure, but we think it’s referring to the key the creatures stole from Gemini.”

Alora skidded to a stop, whipping around to face us. “What key? What does it look like?”

The urgency in her tone had me frowning and sharing a look with Koa. I briefly described the necklace and the magic within it. I also brought up how it was stolen and asked if she knew anything about the attack the creatures mounted on the Lunar Eclipse court.

She bit her lip, shaking her head, staring at the floor as she considered something. “I’ve never heard of a purple crystal,” she said slowly, still lost in thought.

“But you know something about another one,” I guessed, thinking about Ari’s theory.

Her eyes lifted to mine as she warily considered me again. “What do you want with them?”

“To keep them out of the wrong hands. We believe they contain ancient magic and can unlock an unknown door that’s best left untouched. As we speak, there are beings terrorizing our lands, possessing Mythics in search of them.”

Whether it was my words or something in my expression, she broke our stare off and reached into her shirt, pulling out a necklace I hadn’t noticed before. Hanging off the chain was a rough-cut deep pink crystal. Just as ugly as Starling’s.

“You’re the guardian.”

“I am,” she confirmed, tucking the necklace back into her shirt.

“Looks like she was right, we did find what we were looking for in the tunnels,” I said to Koa, looking up at him.

“Good to know this trip hasn’t been a complete waste,” he said typing something on his wristband. He'd been doing it off and on the entire time we followed Alora. I was a little surprised he did so, I would’ve thought he would be vigilantly watching her.

“I don’t know where your stolen one is though. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say it’s in our lands and heavily guarded,” Alora began walking again, her pace faster than before.

Great. As always, two steps forward and one step back.

“I’m surprised yours isn’t being guarded with the other one,” Koa said lightly, powering off his wristband.

She laughed again, and like before it lacked any humor. “They don’t know about mine.”

Her bitter tone and the fact she had kept it a secret stunned me into silence. “How do they not know, didn't you get your key from one of your parents?” Koa asked, having not been too stunned to speak like me.

She groaned, exasperated and unsure whether or not to spill her secrets to people she was taught to fear. “My grandmother gave it to me before she was killed by my parents. She never trusted either of them, so she skipped over my father and gave it to me, telling me to never tell any of them and to keep it hidden.”

If I hadn’t been stunned into silence before, I was now. Killing your own mother was unthinkable. I could never even consider doing it to mine, even if she revealed herself to be an evil bitch.

The fact that she had to live with the knowledge that her parents could commit such an act, was devastating. It was clear she had been close with her grandmother, from the pain in her voice and the fact that her grandmother trusted her to hold the key.

It also made me question everything we’d been told about the necromancers. That all of them were power-hungry and without remorse. How they would kill anyone for more power. Now while that seemed to describe Alora’s parents, I didn’t get that vibe from her. It sounded like her grandmother also wasn’t like that since she managed to keep the key a secret and out of the wrong hands.

This new development made me wonder how many innocent necromancers there had been back in the day, that had nothing to do with the atrocities the others were committing, but were still exiled nonetheless.

“Is that why you’re out here all alone?” I asked softly, taking a leap that this wasn’t the necromancer’s region and that she was here alone. I had a feeling ever since she became a guardian, she closed herself off from the others to keep her secret.

“That’s not the only reason,” she whispered, but didn’t elaborate and I didn’t push.

Over the next twenty minutes, we remained quiet as we followed Alora down tunnel after tunnel. She disabled a shitload of traps and my body ached with phantom pains at the thought of what they could’ve been and the pain they would’ve brought. As we moved down a tunnel, the silence was finally broken by far-off swears, and a smile curled my lips.

"What sick fuck thought it would be a good idea to have a fucking snake pit?” Ari screamed. Her fear gave way to anger as it always did after she encountered snakes.

“I still can’t believe you’re afraid of them,” Koa called out, humor lacing his tone. More swears followed and he chuckled in response. A minute later we came around a bend in the tunnel and found Gemini sitting on the ground, wrapping her leg in gauze. Ari was busy pacing back and forth. Blood stained their shirts and pants, along with slashes torn into their clothes. Dried blood was caked on Gemini’s arm, while some stained the roots of Ari’s hair along her forehead.

Ari’s pacing stuttered to a stop when she caught sight of Alora, who hung back in the tunnel, silently observing. Gemini stopped wrapping her leg, staring up at her in amazed shock.

After I introduced them to one another, Ari’s focus darted to where Alora held the crossbow at her side, pointing at the ground. “Are you planning on using that?”

“If need be,” Alora said shifting from one leg to the other.

Ari nodded slowly and then turned her attention back to me. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

Koa let me outline everything we discussed with Alora. Ari and Gemini did a good job of not talking until I was done. “First off, your parents fucking suck,” Ari said as soon as I finished.

Alora chuckled darkly. “You don’t even know the half of it.”

“Can you show me the key?” Gemini asked and Alora nodded, pulling the crystal from her shirt. Gemini slowly approached, the way one would with a scared animal they were trying not to spook. She held out her hand, keeping it a few inches from the crystal, and shut her eyes in concentration. After several moments, they snapped open and she looked at us over her shoulder.

“It’s sorceress energy. We were right about there being five, one for each race.”