Revealed: Necromancer's Blight: Book 2

by D. L. Harrison

  I whistled, that’s a long ass time.

  Sara smirked and read my face, “For an immortal being, not so long. Next, he meditated on the solution, but he wasn’t able to discover one, not a direct one, so he tried a different approach, a multi-generational approach you could say.

  “This time it took him three hundred years, to be sure he hadn’t made a mistake like his brothers. He only had one chance to make things right, he was the last of his kind. He knew after his attempt to fix it, by using all his creation power, he would be reduced in power, age, and die. When he was sure, he took several human women as his mates, and started a fourth race. The Blood.”

  I shook my head in disbelief, “He created the blood to save necromancers?”

  Sara shrugged, “Yes, and I’ll get to how it all went wrong. The blood have the six abilities needed to make things right.”

  Six abilities? Strong, detect the taint, immune to the taint, and judgement. That was only four.

  She said, “They’re immune to the taint, strong, can detect the taint, and they have judgement so they’ll know if a necromancer can be saved. What you don’t know, is they can remove the taint from a necromancer, and the sixth ability is the bond which makes it all work.”

  “The bond?”

  She replied, “Yes. The bond serves two functions. Actually, three. A necromancer will feel and even be attracted to a compatible blood. Not all necromancers and blood can bond, but he built in enough diversity in the Blood to account for all the genetic drift in necromancers. That was important, for the next generation, which was the true fix.

  “How it was supposed to work, is the Blood chase down the necromancers, and would judge them. If they were too insane to be saved, they’d be killed quickly and with mercy. If they weren’t insane, the bond would allow the Blood to clean the taint through energy exchange. They would also be a shield from that point on, a necromancer would be able to use their powers safely while touching or even simply being close to their bonded.

  “Finally, he believed if the bonded, the ones matched up correctly, had children, their children would be what was intended in the first place, a perfect mix of the two races which would create the new necromancer race that had both a dominant gene for necromancy, as well as increased strength, immunity to the blight, and all the rest of it, combined into one being.”

  I frowned, “Carl told me the Blood had weakened over the years, from joining with humans.”

  She laughed, “Another deception, I doubt even Carl knows. Let me ask you something, how do you feel about their mating practices, and their regimented lives?”

  “I hate it.”

  She nodded, “Do you think a human would put up with it, if they married into their race?”

  I sighed, “Another control. A lie so their people wouldn’t seek to be more, and wouldn’t be tempted from their duty.”

  She said, “Exactly, the Blood today are as powerful as the first created generation was.”

  “Still, I’m not sure how the Nephilim was different. The bond would dictate who was mated with who?”

  She shook her head, “Ten percent or so, on average. A necromancer will feel the bond with about ten percent of the blood females or vice versa. It was the Nephilim’s intention that the couples be given a choice, limited perhaps, but still a choice. Same for the female necromancers, they’d feel a potential bond with about ten percent of the blood males.”

  “What about the Blood, why would they do it?”

  She shrugged, “Hero complex? I think he arranged that too. Saving a whole race is the ultimate expression of that. I was also told the bond could be broken, if the couple turned out to be incompatible in some way, and another could be chosen. At least, until they gave their mating oath, then that was it. Eventually that kind of thing would stir the emotions. The necromancers would need their partner, and the Blood would want to feel needed and useful. He figured nature would take its course at that point.”

  That wasn’t as bad as what the blood were doing now, at least in that scenario they had a choice. A lot of choices. It also explained why I could bond with both Serena and Christina, they were probably very close to the same DNA structure as sisters, so both of them fell in that ten percent compatibility with what I would need to have children without risk of being tainted. Maybe it was even higher than ten percent for me, since I was already half-blood?

  Wait. Then why am I at risk to the blight?

  “Would the new race feel the bond?”

  She replied, “Yes and no. Not with a Blood if they were fully immune to the taint, but a member of the new necromancer race could feel it with a member of the old and not immune necromancer race. Given that you feel that bond with a Blood, I’m afraid whoever your mother and father were, they weren’t compatible to that extent, and wouldn’t have felt the bond. You’re close, as any necromancer and blood having a child would be, but not quite close enough to gain full immunity.”

  I nodded, the Blood had apparently missed five times in a row. Not statistically improbable if there was only a ten percent chance. I didn’t suppose they gave the necromancer females a choice of rapists. I grimaced at that thought.

  When that fully sunk in, all she’d just told me, the pain of losing Christina came back full force for a moment, as I realized the truth. Her true duty had actually aligned with our love for each other, her true duty would have been to be with me. Duty wasn’t enough, even in that case, but we’d had love between us as well, hadn’t we? No, it wasn’t enough, just duty, but what we had, had been enough. She’d… thrown it away instead of fighting for it. Disgust filled me and I tried to push it down.

  It also made me wonder though, how much of our relationship, and the love I felt, were built on that bond and initial obsession I had toward the mystery what she was. Christina was high maintenance, had unrealistic expectations in a mate, and was fickle, definitely not my usual type, or what usually attracted me. I felt guilty having those thoughts, but when I really thought about it, I wondered if I’d have fell for her so hard without feeling the bond between us, or the way her being a ghost magnet had intrigued me. No doubt, her looks had contributed as well.

  How much of it had just been built up in my head? Christina did smile a lot, and was kind, and had a lot of good qualities but…

  Outside of her stunning looks, Serena was far more my type than Christina had been. Serena was fun, witty, strong, confident, stubborn, and gorgeous, everything I liked in a woman. So why didn’t I feel anything like that for Serena? Was it a mixture of the bond, and my obsession with Christina that had precluded any real attraction with any other woman? Not that it mattered now, it was a moot point.

  Still, my friendship with Serena was as easy as breathing, and drama free for the most part. It wasn’t the first time I’d wondered if I’d fell for the wrong sister. What would have happened if I’d met Serena first?

  Regardless, my discovery was too little too late, and I’m not sure it would have even made a difference. Would Carl, or his superiors believed any of what I’d just learned? Or would they take it as a sign to finally turn on me?

  Wait a minute.

  “Sara, the oath is to hunt necromancers, until the blight was gone from this world.”

  Sara nodded, “I’ll get to that, are you ready for the rest of the story? You… kind of zoned out on me there.”

  I blushed, “Sorry, yes, go ahead.”

  “So, after knocking up a bunch of women with the seeds of the new race, he returned to the council. It’d been five hundred years since he’d left to come up with a solution and a lot had changed. Only the Fae representative was the same. The other races lived for lesser lifespans and had been replaced. He also noticed the four races had split, gone their separate ways, though the council was still together the races were very much segregated, and had been warring. He immediately realized the problem, the Fae had turned the races against each other in an effort to have them destroy themselves. Freeing the Fae and giving
them equal authority with the other races hadn’t slaked their thirst to rule all. But… It was too late for him to destroy them, his power was spent.

  “He was weak, and had used up most of his power and therefore his eternal life to create the Blood. He had to do something, but what? Rather than betray his knowledge of the Fae’s perfidy to the Fae, or even the other races, he told the council the truth of what he’d been doing for five hundred years, and the seeds for fixing the necromancer race were planted so they could rejoin the council. He told them everything about his plan, and then requested they swear a blood oath, to collect them when they were of age, and have the Blood swear a blood oath so they’d never forget their duty toward the necromancers. He didn’t think he’d be alive to do it himself. He needed to play a longer game to thwart the Fae.”

  She paused for a minute, “The Fae were determined not to allow the necromancers to be restored, but gave the oath anyway, when they heard the wording of the oath, they realized they could play on the words and twist things. Of course, the other council members all knew the true meaning of the oath which was a problem for them. The Greek language has many words for hunt. One of them does indeed mean to track and kill, but the word hunt in this case merely means to chase, track, or even course.

  “The oath was originally meant to mean the Blood would track the necromancers, and remove the blight from the world, not by killing the necromancers, but by using the bond to cleanse them of it. The Fae were stuck with it, they couldn’t betray a blood oath without harming themselves, not one made with a Nephilim, even a slowly dying one, but they were word lawyers and would be able to twist it. The one thing they couldn’t twist was the peace part, the last Nephilim had backed them into a corner with a bluff, and they knew they’d no longer be able to trick the Witches and Shifters to war on each other.”

  I pondered that a moment, if he really was too weak to fight them, why didn’t he just reveal the truth of them? Why not just have the other races join up and destroy them and be done with it. Damned Fae had invaded Earth, and tried to rule, didn’t they deserve to be stopped more permanently? I wasn’t sure, maybe the other races’ leaders wouldn’t have believed it, or the war wouldn’t have gone the way I was thinking it would. The Fae had set the races against each other, perhaps they wouldn’t have trusted each other enough to team up, the Witches and Shifters I mean. The necromancers were out of the picture, either in hiding, or practicing their power and going insane, and the Blood were nothing but fetuses in their mother’s wombs.

  She continued, “He left at that point again, and meditated on the future, to look for a solution to this new vexing problem, which burned out most of the rest of his power and aged him decades. That’s when he wrote down the prophecy, and had it hidden until it was found just a hundred years ago. He was livid that it would take so long, but he also knew the Fae would at least fail at their main goal, no matter what happened to the supernatural races in the end.”

  I asked, “What do you mean?”

  She said, “The supernatural races were created to protect humanity when the Nephilim were gone. From the Fae, or other unseen dangers. They were the inheritor of the Nephilim’s responsibilities, though they didn’t turn out quite as they’d envisioned. What I mean is, the end of the story isn’t written, the prophecy is a possible future, each line makes up the road signs for the way to win and see the Nephilim’s plan to save the necromancers come to fruition, but it isn’t a guarantee. But… even if the Fae continue to thwart his design, the humans are now safe.

  The human cities are full of iron, and modern weapons. The Fae couldn’t possibly enslave even one human city in this time period, much less the world, they’d get slaughtered. Humans don’t have guns, but they have bullets, bombs, and other technologies to level the field. More than that, the iron will cancel out the Fae’s magic. That’s why the Fae live in the deep forest, and support hiding the supernatural world from humans in this age. Their ambition to rule is already ashes.”

  I frowned, “If that’s true, then why are they so dead set against the Necromancer’s being reclaimed, and remade through the blood to what they should be?”

  She smirked, “Spite, they enjoy making others suffer and starting trouble, and secondly because of this very conversation. The necromancers can talk to the spirits that have passed on, and if the rest of the supernatural world found out the truth of what the Fae had done, how much they’d been used, misled for thousands of years, and for what reasons, they’d probably wipe out the Fae in retaliation.”

  Damn, I was going to have to be careful with this information, and think on it for a while before I acted on it. There was no simple solution, and I’d be a target no matter what I did.

  She smirked as she read my face, “Yes, keep your head down, if they find out you know the truth, you’ll be hunted.”

  I ignored the fact she didn’t seem at all upset by that idea.

  I nodded soberly, “We got a little off track, what happened after he wrote down and hid the prophecy?”

  She said, “He returned back to the council to die. In the month he was gone, the Fae realized the truth and full extent of his infirmity, and were chagrined that they’d fallen for the bluff and had taken the oath in the first place. But they had a plan as well. They poisoned the whole council, killing the heads of the Witches and Shifters, as well as the last Nephilim. Because he was so weakened, he wasn’t immune to the poison.”

  I frowned, “He knew it was coming?”

  She nodded, “He’d put his counterplan in place, bluffed the Fae into making the oath, and left the future a guiding prophecy. It was all he could do, and he was tired of life. There was nothing else he could have done, and he wanted to rest with his brothers and sisters in the afterlife.”

  “Alright, then what? What good does it do to kill the council?”

  She explained, “The Fae had convinced the others to keep the nature of the Blood a secret. They were bound to keep them safe by blood oath, and to administer the oath to the Blood when they were old enough to understand it. The Fae argued that in that moment they were safe in their mother’s wombs, but only if they remained a secret. There were too many shifters and witches at that time that hated the necromancers for the insanity and death they’d caused over the last five hundred years, and one of them might have gone to slaughter the lot of them. Who knows, they might have even been right. Regardless, at that point, the only ones alive that knew the truth of what the Blood were supposed to accomplish, were the Fae.

  “They knew they couldn’t lie to a Nephilim because like the Blood, the Nephilim race had judgement, but they misled the newly elected councilors for the Shifters and Witches on what the Nephilim’s plan was. They could lie or mislead the other races with impunity. They told them about the oath, but instead of hunting the necromancers to save them by removing the blight, they told the council the blood was made to hunt the necromancers and kill them until the blight was removed from the world. That was the true reason for killing the other races’ leaders, so they could misguide their replacements.

  “Both interpretations fit equally as well, kill or cleanse, since the oath doesn’t mention what they had to do to remove the blight. At the same time, the Fae knew that the Blood’s designed nature wasn’t truly equipped for war, but more for rescue. Their abilities were perfectly tailored to save the necromancers from the blight, and build the true necromancer race in a partnership of sorts. So, they lied further, and convinced the witches that they were to help the blood at the Nephilim’s last request, by enchanting daggers and swords they could use in battle, and if necessary help track the necromancers.”

  I sighed, “You’ve got to be shitting me. Why didn’t they question the deaths of their leaders?”

  She said, “The Fae said the Nephilim died of natural causes, and that his decaying and released magic had fouled the food and drink in the council chambers. The Fae happen to be immune to poison, and the previous Nephilim deaths had caused other r
andom magical effects, some disastrous, so they bought it. Of course, they were careful that when the Blood finally did come, to make sure the witches were declared their primary supervisors, and that they explained all that had happened to the Blood, the purpose of their new race, and the oath and its meaning. Since the witches truly believed it, judgement didn’t reveal any of it as lies. One of the blood joined the council at that point, and the hunt to kill the necromancers started.

  “The Fae want the status quo for two reasons, the fight with the necromancers keeps both the Blood and Witch population down, since they can’t turn them against each other anymore, it’s the only way to manage them. More importantly, if the necromancers are saved, and the true necromancer race is born as they should have been from the start, then the supernatural community will learn about all the Fae did to turn two races into weapons with lies and misdirection. They also do it because they love to cause strife, and they’re angry that the other races have lasted despite their best efforts.”

  I asked, “Do you know if any of the others like me found this out, the four that came before me?”

  She shook her head, “I don’t think so, I got the impression I was the first to visit with the spirits of the Nephilim. They’re kind of scary, and powerful, most other ghosts avoid them and I would’ve as well if you hadn’t made me curious, but they were kind enough to me. The other four before you were raised in the lies and duty of the Blood race, and then were betrayed in the end, when they pushed their powers too far and got tainted.

  “It’s just a guess, but I’d say they focused on learning all they could about the council and how to better fight back. They’d have been brainwashed like the rest of the Blood, and would’ve never wondered about a possible hidden truth. They weren’t raised apart like you were, and wouldn’t have looked at the history of things with a jaundiced eye.”

  That… made sense. The whole thing was a nightmare though, an ongoing war which has lasted countless centuries, and all of it based on the lies and perfidy of the Fae, and the mistakes of four demi-gods playing god and failing at it. I wasn’t sure if I was the person in the prophecy, I kind of doubted it, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I imagined if I told Carl, I’d be lucky to be alive by the end of the conversation. Maybe.