by Rani Clark
“Vladimir, why do you have a mini Mothman?” Freddie asked.
“Zachary dropped him off because his teacher didn’t wish to care for him so Jaska’s taking care of him,” Mr. Ragnar replied. “He likes him.”
“His name is Lantern,” Jaska replied as he scooped a small spoonful of noodles and sauce onto his plate.
“He’s adorable.”
“I like taking care of him.” He ate his small plate quickly, mopping up the excess sauce with a roll. He was full already from the small amount that he had eaten, he was finding himself wanting to eat less and less. If it was a necromancy thing then his master wouldn’t be eating either.
He scratched his chest, suddenly aware of the slight burn where the red mark was. He waited until Lantern was finished before excusing himself. Lantern ran up the stairs, Jaska followed. The creature wanted to play with his train set. Jaska helped him set up the track, trying to ignore the increasing pain and burn on his skin.
“Your master is grouchy.”
“Monarch, I have a question,” he said to his Spirit Guide. “My chest has been bothering me.”
“When did it start?”
“When I started doing summoning circles.”
“Hm. Take off your hoodie, let me have a look.” Monarch leaned forward as he took his shirt off.
Jaska looked down at his skin. The red mark was getting worse and there were black lines peeking through. Monarch reached forward and touched him with his cold hands. Jaska flinched, but the cold felt good against his burning skin. “What is it?”
“Uh . . . it’s-it’s nothing,” Monarch pulled his hand back.
“You never stutter. What is it?”
Monarch sighed, “I’m not one hundred percent sure that it’s something bad. I mean, I can’t see the whole thing so there’s no telling if it’s actually Death’s Mark.”
“Death . . . Death’s Mark?” He stared at the creature, “What in the hell does that mean?” he demanded.
“In the world of necromancy death is something that you deal with on an everyday basis, but it isn’t a creature like I am. It’s . . . far more dangerous.”
“Do you know anything about this?”
“Not really. I know the stories, but they’re just stories. I’ll look in to it, alright?” Monarch stood, “If you need anything call me.”
He watched as his Spirit Guide vanished, he slipped his hoodie back on. Telling Mr. Ragnar about this right after he had summoned a monster didn’t seem like a good idea so he decided to keep it to himself for the time being. It might not even be that mark, Monarch wasn’t sure. Until he knew for certain, he wasn’t going to make his master hesitate in letting him visit his family.
21
Freddie had stayed the night and Leif wasn’t happy about it, that much was easy to see. When Jaska asked him to keep an eye on Lantern, Leif nodded and told him he was going grocery shopping so he would take Lantern with him. Jaska thanked him before going down to the basement. Freddie and Mr. Ragnar were already there, but they weren’t preparing for his lesson. Seeing his teacher kiss someone was an uncomfortable experience. He cleared his throat and the two stopped.
“Ready?” Mr. Ragnar asked, standing up from the couch. “This will be fun, I promise.”
“Hm.”
His master began to move things on his desk until he found a marker. “Until you get better at this you’ll need to draw symbols on your hands to get things started. Eventually you won’t have to, it shouldn’t take more than a few months for that to happen with the level of power you have.”
“What kind of symbols?”
“I have a book you can study. For now, we’ll try a basic one.” He held out his hand, “Whichever hand is dominant.”
Jaska held out his left hand and watched Mr. Ragnar draw a simple circle with a triangle in the middle. “Do I need to put one on my other hand?”
“Not right now.” He clipped the cap back onto the marker, “You already know how to tap into the kinds of feelings you need to summon things. For this you need those same types of feelings only slightly different.”
“What do you mean?”
Freddie shook her head, “He means you need a different memory. I’m guessing you’ve been using the same one for the circles?”
“Yes, the first time my dad hit me,” he remarked. “Monarch told me I needed the worst, scariest one.”
She nodded, obviously uncomfortable with what she had heard. “Exactly. It’s just because you’re new to this, soon you won’t have to think about those kinds of things. For this, I find it best to think about a time you were scared. When I was first learning, I used the time that I fell into the water in the middle of the night during winter.”
“That memory I’ve been using is the scariest.”
Mr. Ragnar spoke up then, “What about when Ty’s father attacked you?”
That had been scary. Being hit by someone your own age was one thing, but when it was an adult it was ten times worse. “Ok.”
“Good. Keep that feeling and try to concentrate on it. That mark will start to glow if you get it right.”
Jaska took a deep breath and tried to go back to that feeling. It was easy, he was good at recognizing terror since most of his earlier life had been spent feeling only that. The mark began to glow white. “It’s glowing.”
“That was quick.” Mr. Ragnar nodded, “Alright, now that you know what it feels like, get it to glow and then force the energy you’re feeling from the mark into the air above your hand.”
“How do I-?”
“It isn’t an exact science. Sit on the couch though, you won’t get as tired that way.”
Jaska looked down at his hand as he recalled the terror and made the mark glow again. This time, he tried to be aware of the air above the mark. It definitely felt heavier. He took a deep breath and pushed up slightly with the muscles in his hand. A light puff of black smoke appeared, but dissipated just as quickly. With an angry sigh, he tried again and managed again to make the smoke appear. After what felt like forever the smoke got thicker and he was able to hold it in the palm of his hand.
“Good job,” Mr. Ragnar told him with a smile, “Now push it out onto the ground.”
He grunted and did as he was told. The smoke fell lightly to the ground with a thump, scorching the spot where it landed. Jaska let his hand drop. “Is that right, sir?”
“Good job. We’ll practice that until you can throw it without drawing a mark on your hand and then we can move on to what you saw me using the other day though you are years away from doing anything I can do.”
Jaska nodded and continued to practice with the smoke. Monarch appeared beside him, not saying a word as he put his hand on his shoulder. He felt a sudden burst of energy and threw the smoke down. It cracked against the floor with a thump.
“Nicely done, Jaska,” Monarch told him with a smile.
“Your energy helps?”
“It most certainly does.”
“Spirit Guides can lend a hand. The more inexperienced the necromancer is, the more help a guide is. Oh, Freddie this is Jaska’s Spirit Guide Monarch. Monarch, this is my girlfriend Freddie Hallows.”
Monarch tipped his hat, “Pleasure to meet you. Jaska’s told me all about you and that party he was subjected to.”
“I don’t think it was that bad of a party,” she said. “Monarch. That name sounds familiar.”
“Yes, I was a serial killer. Emphasis on was. I’m not one anymore and I just want to help Jaska.”
“They get along quite well.” Mr. Ragnar folded his arms across his chest, “Even if Monarch encourages reckless behavior.”
“I tried with all my power to stop him,” he remarked with a laugh in his voice. “Lighten up, Vladimir.”
Mr. Ragnar rolled his eyes, “Keep practicing, Jaska. I’ll get you some water.”
Jaska glanced at Monarch and then continued to practice. Freddie sat by the fire, watching him as he practiced with the heavy mist. “
Freddie, I was told that Mr. Ragnar-” but he didn’t get the rest of the question out as his master came down the steps with his water.
“How is it coming?” he asked, setting the water bottle on the table.
“Fine. What am I supposed to be able to do with this mist exactly?”
“If you make it into a ball you can throw it and injure someone. There’s another mist you can project for camouflage if you need it. You’ll notice this mist is heavier.” He held out his hands, the dark mist crawling along his fingers. It covered his hands before he brought them together and created a small ball. “Like that.”
“How do you do that?’ Jaska asked.
“It’s a matter of being able to control the weight. It’ll take time.”
Everything here took time. All it did was remind him that he could never go back home. He could visit Germany and see his family, but he would never be able to go home again. Jaska let his hands drop. “Sir, when can we go back to Germany?”
“Next week.”
“Ok.” He put his hands up and continued practicing the mist, trying to concentrate. Monarch reached out and put his hand on Jaska’s shoulder. This time it wasn’t for energy. Jaska glanced at him and nodded his thanks.
Mr. Ragnar called up a black fire on his hand and began to toss it back and forth. Freddie shook her head, “Don’t show off.”
“I’m not.” He dropped his hand, “You know, I haven’t seen you use your fire in what feels like forever.”
Freddie raised an eyebrow, “Fine. Jaska, do you want to see two Master Necromancers fight? We can show you what sort of power we’re both capable of.”
Jaska nodded, “Can you beat Mr. Ragnar?”
Freddie smiled, “With a hand tied behind my back.”
“Then I would love to see it.”
“Oh god, me too,” Monarch agreed.
Mr. Ragnar frowned, “Funny. Come on then. We need to do this outside.”
Jaska and Monarch followed the two upstairs and out to the backyard. Jaska sat on the porch and watched as Freddie and Mr. Ragnar faced each other. Mr. Ragnar made the first move, firing a blast of white energy at his girlfriend. Freddie put up her hand and deflected it easily. Mr. Ragnar used his other hand as she was blocking it, but Freddie blocked the second one too.
“Come on, babe, a little harder,” she said with a smile.
Mr. Ragnar narrowed his eyes and slammed the mist into the ground. It bubbled around them, snaking forward to Freddie’s feet. She summoned her own mist and leapt into the air, creating a platform to stand on. Jaska watched his teacher make his bow and arrow again. Freddie dodged the arrows and leapt over him, landing behind him as she brought out smoke that crackled and punched him in the chest as he turned. Mr. Ragnar slammed into the snow, creating a puff around him.
Freddie stepped up to him, “You look so cute on your back,” she remarked with a smile. “Do you want to try again?”
“No.” He sat up, “You’re incredibly better than me. It’s quite a turn on.”
Jaska stood, “I don’t want-”
“Relax, please. Anyway, that’s a small use of power with a fight. I wasn’t trying to kill anyone.” Mr. Ragnar stood up, “Freddie could kill me if she wanted to and necromancers know how to pull their power.”
Monarch chuckled, “Miss Hallows, you are fantastic. How did you land a woman like this, Vladimir? Powerful, brilliant, well-dressed, and oh so beautiful.”
“Did you lure people to their death with compliments?”
Monarch laughed, “You don’t want to know.”
Mr. Ragnar became visibly uncomfortable, Jaska noticed the way he turned his head and moved his left foot back. “Can I go to my room?” Jaska asked.
“Please don’t ask me things like that. If you don’t want to practice anymore we don’t have to.”
Jaska turned without a word and went into the house. Monarch appeared when he shut the door to his room. “Something wrong?”
“I don’t know. I thought I was getting better with being here. I haven’t had to deal with Mr. Ragnar like this since we’ve been practicing while he’s been working.”
“You haven’t been here for very long, it’s going to take a while to get used to it.”
“I guess.”
“Excited to visit your family?”
“Yes. I hate not being able to talk to them. I thought I would be able to handle this, I didn’t think that I needed my mom around all of the time, but I miss them.”
“I think it’s because you were taken like you were. If it had been under normal circumstances you might have been better. Right?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Jaska looked at him, “Thank you for helping me out with everything.”
“My pleasure. I was worried when I was told I would be your Spirit Guide, it was why I took so long.”
“Why?”
Monarch laughed, “I hate teenagers.”
Jaska knew how he felt. He hated teenagers too. He sat on his bed and looked at the Spirit Guide he had hated. “Me too.”
“Do you want to try summoning again tonight?”
“Not for a bit. What I did was dangerous and stupid.”
“We don’t have to try anything that powerful. We should try to keep a ghost around and speak to it.”
“Maybe later.”
“Alright. See you later then.”
He leaned back on his bed and looked at his hand. The mark was going to need to be washed away. He sat up and crossed his legs, closing his eyes as he thought back to when Ty’s father had assaulted him. The heavy mist appeared in his palm like it had before. He took a deep breath and brought up his other hand. He cupped both of his hands to try to form the ball of mist. Much to his surprise, it happened quickly. Jaska smiled and let his hands gently drop, aiming not to upset the mist. He took a deep breath and pushed more mist out until it began to roll off of the bed, covering the comforter and floor.
He dropped his hands and the mist dissipated. Sweat was dripping down his forehead and his hands shook. His smile dropped. He was good at this. He was so good at this and he didn’t understand why. This was the last thing he wanted to be good at. If he was good Mr. Ragnar would hesitate to let him go if it ever came to that.
“Monarch?”
His Spirit Guide appeared, “That was quick,” he said. “What’s up?”
“I’m good at this, aren’t I?”
“Necromancy? Yes. You’re incredibly good. You have a real talent for it. Why?”
“Mr. Ragnar knows I’m good at this.”
“I think he knew when he marked you.” Monarch sat on the bed and crossed his legs, “Why do you look sick? You should be happy. Not everyone has it so easy. Necromancers are always a natural at this since not everyone can do it, but you’re better than a lot of them already. Hell, you might even be better than Ragnar in a few years.”
“What if I don’t want to do this?”
“He isn’t going to make you, but you do need to learn some stuff for safety reasons. You know that, he’s told you before.”
“I guess.”
“What did you want to do before this mess?”
“In life? I got accepted into Cambridge, but I don’t really know what I wanted, not really. I was just going to become a lawyer.”
“If you didn’t know, how do you know that you didn’t want to become a necromancer? You don’t have to be like Vladimir.”
“What else could I do?”
“Help people, if you like. You can talk to the dead and summon them after all. You could open a shop to sell supplies to necromancers, you could become a teacher. There’s a lot you could do.”
“I guess.”
“You know, just because you’re good doesn’t mean that Vladimir wouldn’t let you go if he had the opportunity to let you go. He likes you, but he wouldn’t ever keep you hostage.”
“You really think that?”
Monarch shrugged, “I do. For all his faults, Vladimir Ragnar isn’t e
xactly a monster. He may have killed his family and is basically a killer for hire, but I don’t think he would intentionally hurt you. Especially after you nearly got him killed and all he did to punish you was request you help him clean up the yard.”
“I really did almost get him killed. Not like I meant to, but I feel bad.”