Harper's Pathos

Chapter Twenty-Three: The True Necromancer

The corpses of the four guards stood still in the dimly lit sandstone hallway and blocked the entrance to the catacombs, only in motion when their horrid twitching went into effect, or when one's pained groans sent a shudder down its hunched spine. The priest had been right. These were not normal undead.

As the whistle sounded from her companion's lips, Nadia leapt from the shadows behind the pillar where she had hidden. None of the corpses could notice her before her dagger had plunged through the side of one's neck. It let out a distorted wail and attempted to turn to face her. It only succeeded in twisting its arm around at a sickening angle and twitching violently as it made to grab the woman.

Its head jerked back and forth as if trying to free itself from the neck. Nadia assisted in this by driving the knife to the side, resulting in a loud snap and the creature's near decapitation. As the zombie hit the ground, a shrill hiss escaped its lips and a bright crimson flashed from its eyes for a moment before fading. Finishing this, it ceased all movement.

Nadia had not attracted the attention of the undead before, but the screams of the one she slew certainly had. As the remaining three jerked towards her, she was glad the group had planned for this. A whip of violet flame lashed between her and two of the monsters, causing enough of a stir amongst the husks that only one of the three continued towards her.

As her second opponent lunged forward like an awful sort of coiled spring, Nadia used its clumsy movements against it. She sidestepped the creature's tackle, giving it a shove as it passed. The screeching body slammed face-first into a nearby column, leaving it stunned just long enough for her to strike. The dagger pierced the back of the skull with the same deadly precision as it had before. Another red flash came as she slid her weapon out and the creature's lifeless body crumpled to the ground.

Nadia turned to the others, and immediately found that her faith in Morgan's combat abilities was not misplaced. One zombie lay already dismantled on the ground, legs bent in the wrong direction and head twisted nearly all the way around. The other hissed out a horrible scream and wriggled and writhed as the raven-haired sorceress held it to a wall by the throat and immolated its skull with lilac fire.

A minute later Morgan was piling the corpses up to the side of the hallway and mumbling to herself. Nadia called out to the priest, "It is done, you may come out."

The bald man gingerly stepped out from behind his column, "Lucemae's mercy, that was awful! Those screams..."

Nadia took a step towards the man to console him, but words came from the necromancer which troubled her.

"We need to catch one of these without putting it down."

"What?" Nadia asked, turning to face Morgan, "We have no idea how many of these things are further down in the necropolis, and now is when you decide you need a test subject?"

The sorceress was hunched over a corpse, lilac light glowing at each finger tip, clearly investigating the magic that made these creatures. "Your priest was right. These things are wrong. I have a hypothesis as to how, but I need a live subject to prove it."

"And you couldn't have suggested that before we killed these four? We could have planned for it and- Hey, are you even listening?" Nadia reached out to put a hand on Morgan's shoulder in an attempt to turn her. Instead, she found her wrist in her companion's tight grip.

"Don't," Morgan commanded, throwing the other woman's arm to the side. Her gaze was fierce.

"Excuse me?" asked Nadia, more confused than offended.

"Don't touch me! You kept kicking me under the table in the meeting room and now you're trying to put your hands on me. Stop!"

"You were being a bitch in the meeting room! And now you-" Nadia stopped mid-sentence when she saw the way Morgan flinched at this.