Heather the Necromancer

The battle in the forest was over in moments as Moon and a dozen others appeared out of thin air. Her skeletons wounded a couple but were no match for the numbers. Heather tried to run, but one of them was the dark-furred catperson that was with the death knight, and he was on her in moments.

Heather was wrestled to the ground, tied and dragged back to the town hall. They tied her to a chair and locked her in a back room where they left her sitting for hours.

At one point, she heard yelling in another room. It was Moon arguing with somebody about Heather and some part of the plan that had gone wrong.

She tried to hear the details but couldn't make out any words that were not yelled. Time and again, she tried to free her hands, but they were bound tightly. As she struggled, she couldn't help but see the image of Frank as he crumpled to the ground. It was the insect person from the adventuring group. He dropped down from the trees above and impaled Frank with four daggers at once.

Moon said something about surprise attacks doing massive damage, but Heather didn't understand what that meant. Even now, as she sat in silence, she saw the light of Frank's eyes fade away. She hoped the stone he buried worked, and he was safely back in the graveyard.

As she was lost in thought, the door opened, and Moon sauntered in holding Heather's panel.

“Looking for this were you?” Moon asked, waving the panel before her.

“Why did you take my panel?” Heather yelled.

“Why for the money, of course,” Moon said with her crooked smile.

“But you can’t use it!” Heather yelled. “Only I can touch it.”

“How true,” Moon said with a smile. “Fortunately, you came running, so now I have the panel and you.”

“What good will that do you? All I can do with it is make my choices.”

“Exactly,” Moon said. “I need to make sure you make the right ones.”

“But why did you even help us? Why not take my panel when we were in town?”

“You still don't understand,” Moon said with a smile. “I knew you were level one or two the moment I laid eyes on you. You may be a necromancer now, but until you hit level three, you can change your class. If you change your class, you're no good to me.”

“Why does my class matter?” Heather asked.

“Ha!” Moon laughed. “Didn't you hear anything I said? Necromancers are banned! There is a bounty on them so high even your Frank would turn you in if he knew how much.”

Heather hung her head as she realized the truth. “You need me to level to three, so I am stuck as a necromancer. Then you can turn me in for the bounty.”

“Finally, you understand,” Moon said as she started to pace the room. “I could have ambushed you on the street, but I needed to know where your lair was. I have to destroy it so they can trap you at a spawn point. I also knew your level was too low. Nobody with a clue walks around with their panel where anybody can see it. I knew you were fresh into the world and easy pickings. You told us exactly where your lair was and let my boys explore the whole thing. I hoped they would level you first, and you would be stuck. Then we swipe the panel and lure you back. I was surprised to see you still haven't leveled. You really are bad at this.”

“Well, too bad, because I didn't level,” Heather mocked.

Moon let out a deep laugh. “Don’t you worry, we can fix that.”

Heather glared at her as she paced the room with that smug smile.

“How are you going to fix that?” she dared to ask.

Moon walked up and leaned over to look Heather in the eyes.

“We rounded up a couple of monster players for you to kill. They are outcasts like that ghoul you call a friend.”

“I’m not killing anybody!” Heather yelled.

Moon stood up and grabbed Heather by the cheeks. “Oh, no? Do you know where your precious Frank is now?”

“He respawned in his graveyard,” Heather said. “He will come back for me!”

Moon shook her head. “You really are naive. I have an old friend of yours waiting for him. Frank won't be coming for you any time soon.”

“What have you done to Frank?” Heather cried.

“Oh, he's in good hands. That death knight you killed, just happens to be one of my friends. He's waiting for Frank with another unholy blade, and unless you cooperate, he will keep impaling your undead friend again and again.”

“You’re a monster!” Heather yelled. “Why would you do this?”

“I already told you, love, it's everyone for themselves. With the money you're worth as a necromancer, I could buy a small kingdom and a palace to rule it from. Not to mention being recognized as a hero of the realm.”

“I am going to make you pay for all this!”

“Hahahahaha!” Moon laughed. “Honey, you’re never going to get passed level three. You’re going to be another bottom tier player leveling a couple of times and then being reset. Only the strong and the ruthless have what it takes to climb out of the lower levels.”

Heather glared at her as her breathing came in angry deep breaths. She wanted to beat Moon to death with the panel and drag her body to Frank.

“You look like you need a little time to think about it,” Moon said. “I will give you another couple of hours. Just remember Frank is suffering every minute of it, and it's your fault. When I come back, you will be ready to make the right choice. All you have to do to end Frank's suffering is a couple of quick kills.”

Heather watched Moon strut away, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She pulled at her binds again and made her wrists hurt in the process.

“Frank!” she sobbed as tears came to her eyes. “You were the only nice person I met here, and your paying for it!”

She lowered her head as her tears fell to her dress when she heard a sound. She looked up as there was a thump in another room, followed by a voice.

“Keep quiet, a voice said.

“I’m doing the best I can. I don’t play a bloody stealth class.”

Heather looked around as the door handle to her room jiggled.

“I told you it would be locked,” a voice said.

“And I told you I can cast an open lock spell, now step aside.”

“Just do it fast before somebody sees us!”

The door handle glowed blue briefly and then opened slowly.

“Shhh!” Margus, the dwarf, said as he crept clumsily into the room.

“You!” Heather growled. “You tricked us!”

“Shhh! Keep your bloody voice down. We don't need to attract any attention.

As Heather watched the tall erudite man with gray skin slipped into the room behind the dwarf and closed the door.

“What are you two doing?” Heather asked as Eribold stood at the door listening as Margus moved to her.

“Don't you recognize a blood rescue when you see one?” the dwarf asked.

“You’re rescuing me?” Heather asked. “After you lied to me at the graveyard and stole my panel?”

“We didn’t lie to you or steal your panel,” Eribold said from the door. “That was all Thexis.”

“The bug person?” Heather asked.

Margus drew a small knife and started to cut the rope on her wrist.

“Aye, that shifty bugger was put in our group by Moon. She said he was a good thief and just needed a little experience to level. We didn't see any reason to say no, but about the time of our third clearing, he slipped away. Said he was going to ambush the next group, but he didn't show back up until after we killed it.”

Heather felt her hands coming loose as Margus spoke and looked to Eribold.

“So, you two did want to play?”

“We did, but Moon apparently had other ideas,” Eribold said.

“Truth is we wanted to go to the city,” Margus said. “But you set us back a few hours with your trick, so we stayed the night here. Moon came round and introduced herself and we told her about what happened.”

Heather felt guilty for the trick she played as her hands finally came free, and Margus started on the rope at her feet.

“Moon was very interested in our story,” Eribold continued. “We told her about how you were working with the ghoul, and she asked us directly if you were a necromancer. We told her we didn't know, but then you showed up in town. We saw you and made the mistake of telling Moon you were here.”

“That's when we all confronted you. We didn't realize that all Moon was after was proof you were a necromancer,” Margus finished.

Heather felt her feet come free, and she stood up and looked around.

“So, why are you helping me now?”

The two exchanged a glance, and Eribold answered.

“Because Dixie overheard Moon talking to a death knight about you. She heard what Moon was planning and told us.

After spending time with you in the graveyard, we realized you were alright and just trying to help a friend. You don't deserve what Moon is planning for you.”

“So, Dixie is nice too?” Heather asked.

“She was,” Eribold said.

“What do you mean she was?” Heather asked.

“She made the mistake of running to tell that backstabbing insect. She didn't know he was working for Moon. He crippled her and took her straight to Moon. I saw him drag her in here, and we haven't seen her since.”

“How terrible,” Heather said.

“Shhh,” Eribold said as he leaned his ear against the door. They were silent a few moments as somebody walked by the door down the hall.

Heather breathed a sigh of relief when the footsteps faded away.

“What is your plan now?” Heather asked.

“We get you out of here, and we all run,” the dwarf said.

“I can't,” Heather replied. “Moon has my panel, and Dixie could be in here still.”

“We've searched all the lower rooms on this side,” Margus said. “If she is still in here, she has to be on the other side, but that's where Moon's thugs are.”

“We can’t leave her here,” Heather said as she started to pace.

“Look, lass, Moon isn't one for playing fair. We want Dixie out as bad as you do, but we are both level one, we can't take those goons. They bloody well butchered half the town last time.”

“They butchered half the town?” Heather asked.

Eribold sighed. “Moon told us the story about the rival players who kept attacking the town. We did some searching to see if we could find where their lair or camp or whatever they use.”

“But we found nothing,” Margus said. “Dixie and I did some snooping around town here. She managed to spot some people going using tunnels behind the town hall. Dixie has a racial ability to blend into plants and be nearly invisible. She watched the tunnel and realized the people going in and out were the ones who attacked the town. They work for bloody Moon.”

“They work for her?” Heather asked, unable to believe it.

“She encourages people coming from spawn to settle here,” Eribold said. “Once they have accumulated enough wealth, she arranges an attack on the city to drive them out. While they are walking back from spawn, she loots their houses and hides it in the vault here. She tells them the raiders carried it off.”

“And she bloody well levels her friends on the townspeople,” Margus added.

“She’s a pirate,” Heather said. “What a terrible way to treat people. She lies to everybody.”

“Aye,” Margus said. “And if it weren't for Dixie spying on her, Eribold and I would be next on her list.”

“We have to get back to the graveyard. Frank is there. She has him trapped,” Heather said.

“Are you crazy?” Margus asked. “If she finds you missing, the graveyard is the first place she is going to look.”

Heather chewed on her lip as her mind worked on a solution. Frank was trapped and suffering, Dixie was likely doing the same somewhere else, and Moon had her panel. As time grew short, she struggled to think of a solution, but all she could think of was Frank.

Frank opened his eyes with flaring rage. He burst out of the soil of his tomb and immediately felt a searing pain as a sword went through his back.

“Remember me?” the death knight said as he leaned over the blade. “Did you think we weren’t going to come back?”

Frank twisted on the blade as the weapon sapped his strength and crippled him. He clawed at the ground as if to crawl away, but the death knight only laughed.

“I couldn't believe it when Moon said she was working you two. When she told me what I needed to do, I practically kissed her.”

“You work for Moon, then?”

“I work for whoever pays the most. What Moon is offering to make you suffer would have had your grandma down here, twisting this blade.” He gave it a shake as Frank groaned. “She was right, though. She said you would have some trick to respawn. She knew the girl was clueless, but you were paying attention and didn't trust her. She decided you were the perfect pawn in her plan for the girl.”

“What do you want with Heather?” Frank groaned.

The Death knight knelt over him with one hand firmly on the sword.

“Your little girlfriend is worth a fortune. King Kevin pays anybody who captures a necromancer in kingdoms. Moon and I are going to be kings and queens of our own, and your girl is going to pay for it.”

“She isn’t a full necromancer yet,” Frank groaned. “She is only level two.”

“Moon has a plan for that,” he said. “She hoped the little group she sent in would level her up, but in case it didn't, she has a backup plan, and you're it.”

“How am I going to do anything?” Frank wheezed.

“You see, Moon has some volunteers. Some more ugly players like you. If your little girlfriend doesn't kill them and level up, I am going to stay here and drain you again, and again, and again.”

Frank started to laugh. “So Moon wants Heather to level to three and be stuck as a necromancer so she can turn her in.”

The death knight twisted the sword, and Frank groaned but went back to laughing.

“What is so funny? You like pain?”

“No,” Frank laughed. “You idiots didn't take something into consideration.”

“Oh, and what's that?”

“Heather didn’t level up,” Frank repeated.

“I already told you Moon has that covered.”

Frank turned to look over his shoulder at the death knight. “But I did!”

A low growl echoed in the room, and the death knight looked up to see a large black dog with blazing red eyes.

“Too bad, you don't dare pull your sword out of my back,” Frank laughed. “Grave hounds can't be hit by nonmagical weapons.”

“Bloody hell,” the Death knight said before the hound leaped on him.

Frank listened to the Death knights cries of pain and the savage growls of the grave hound. When, at last, the death knight died, the sword in his back vanished.

He struggled to his hands and knees, and his roar echoed in the halls of his tomb. He then turned to the massive dog and reached out a hand.

“Heather was right. A dog was a much better choice,” Frank said as she scratched the dog's chin.

He took a moment to kneel in his pit and heal before getting to his feet. He planned for this to happen, but he hadn't counted on them wanting Heather alive. He assumed they would kill her, and she would respawn. If she did, her panel would come back with her. If they were waiting here for them, the dog would be here to tip the odds in his favor. Now the plan had changed. Heather was in real danger of being forced to level three and then turned over to Kevin. If that happened, she would be imprisoned or taken to a spawn to be killed over and over until she was allowed to reset.

He needed a new plan, and he needed one fast. Moon clearly knew how to hide from his sight, and she had more help than he could handle alone. He had only one good choice, and he ran off to make it.