#now she's just bound to this guy on an island smaller than my big toe

[snowy-atlas]

Finally watched the Violet Evergarden movie and not to be dramatic but THIS

Is possibly the worst thing I've seen all day

[lionhart-w]

Necromancer

He was in a dark room - it was impossible to tell how big it was - and he was in a kneeling position. Desmond tried standing up but there was something firmly holding him in this by the second more uncomfortable position. Desmond started to sweat heavily and his breathing grew louder and louder. Then he threw up. The stinging warm mash wandered up his throat, passed through his mouth and finally dripped down his chin. What were probably minutes felt like days. Every second agony as his head started to hurt and the vomiting didn’t stop. Then it stopped. He was standing upright and his chin was free of sick. Silhouettes started to trace around him. After a while Desmond could make out a mountain and very distant lights. Another amount of time passed (it was strange… he could feel a large amount of time passing but it didn’t feel like he had spent any of it) and he could see everything around him. It was dark but he could see. Not that there was much there. A gray dessert and the shape of the mountain, which was more prominent than before.

“Chapes!”, a male voice echoed from somewhere deep, deep beneath Desmond.

His vision locked on a large building seemingly carved out of the mountain. He started walking towards it but soon started running - sprinting. Desmond didn’t fall or trip over the dunes. Then when he wanted to cross a stream running between two especially large dunes, he woke. 

———————————————

Desmond woke up smelling a salty-acidic smell. He felt cooked. Hot and his clothes were drenched with throw-up and sweat. Vaguely remembering the night before he tried to jump up but found himself bound. Ezekiel must have bound him in this unbelievably awkward position. 

“Ezekiel?”, Desmond shouted.

“I’m here.”, he was somewhere behind him.

“Look, I am so sorry.”

“Well, you should be.”, said the other man and moved into his field of view. He had a dark purple spot on the left side of his face. “But you drank almost a liter of Demon-Juice and, except for drinking that, was basically not your fault.”

A few moments of awkward silence passed.

“Why am I bound then?”

“Just for insurance. Never seen a human drink more than a shot of that stuff without having both kidneys fail and or falling into a deep coma. I tested you for every possessing demon, hellish parasite and Necromantic magic traces.”

“So why am I bound?”

“Because the testing for the Necromancy traces showed positive, Desmond.”

“What? How?”

“You tell me.”

“Wha- no! I don’t do nectar mancy!”

“Necromancy.”

“Huh?”

“THEN TELL ME WHY YOU DRANK A WHOLE LITER OF DAIMOCIT WITHOUT HAVING EVERY ORGAN IN YOUR BODY FAIL!”

“I don’t know, Ezekiel.”

“Necromancy has died out except for one guy and he is locked up in the Immortal asylum on Ahall and can’t fucking move!”

“Maybe your test was flawed! Do it again!”

“I already did — five times!”

“Then… wait did you just say immortal?”

Ezekiel stared at Desmond for a while. “Maybe.”, he finally said.

“Immortality is real? You can live forever?”

“Well… no. You are either born into it or, as the last Necromancer did, try out an experimental way that horribly went wrong and end up being a sentient kull for the rest of eternity. And- why am I telling you this?”, he thought for a moment. “NECROMANCER!”

Knock knock

“Guys? Are you okay?”, Hester shouted through the door.

“Come in!” said Ezekiel.

“Oh lord. Is he possessed?”, she said almost casually as she entered.

“No. But he is a Necromancer.”

“Nonsense. Necromancy went extinct 800 years ago.”

“I found traces of Necromantic magic in his scalp.”

“Maybe Morgan flung a turd at him but he is not a fricking Necromancer.”

She went over to Desmond, pulled out a knife and started sawing at the thick ropes that bound him there. 

“No!”, Ezekiel shouted and he darted towards them.

“Don’t you come any closer, Azriel!”, she pointed the knife at Ezekiel.

He stopped dead. “Azriel?”

Hester lowered her knife and continued cutting Desmond’s bounds. Ezekiel just stood there, watching them gloomily now.

“Forget that.”, Hester calmly said to Desmond but she looked very, very sad all of a sudden.

“Alright. Thanks.”, he said rubbing his wrists.

“You’re welcome.”

“You got the bandages?”, asked Ezekiel.

“Yup.”, she said as she drew a metal case out of her backpack.

Another couple of moments of awkward silence.

“Let me help you with that.”, offered Desmond but was soon looking down the barrel of Ezekiel’s gun.

“I ain’t trusting you yet, Desmond. So if you want to keep your brains I suggest we keep our distance.”

Desmond nodded briefly and went to the sink to wash himself up a little. He could hear Ezekiel, trying to keep his voice down, debating with Hester over whether to trust him. “He could have done something with the Djinn!”, he said.

“If you kill him I will-“

“You will what? Be salty?”

“I will stick your stupid head where the sun don’t shine.”, he didn’t say much after that.

Desmond didn’t want to go outside since he didn’t want to spark any suspicions (not that he would do anything suspicious), so he went into the other room. He looked at each of them again. Unsurprisingly they all were still in place. Just the metal flagon was gone. Desmond lied down and thought about the creature that erupted from it. He thought of the dizzying effect it had on him. Those deep, black eye-holes that made his head hurt. He remembered that skull that sat over the Djinn’s containment and then, within seconds he connected the dots.

The skull wasn’t there anymore and that creature had a similar one. He sprang up and rushed to the main room.

“EZEKIEL!”, Desmond shouted. 

“WHAT?!”, the other man answered.

“The skull!”

“What skull?”

“It- There was a skull over the flagon! It’s gone and it looked like the thing’s!”

Ezekiel remained silent. Then he repeated: “What skull?!”

“Come on! I’ll show ya!”

He hurled back to the bedroom and pointed to the skull’s empty place.

“Do I have to say it again? What skull?!”

“Wha- There- I explained it already.”

“I never had any skulls here, Desmond.”, Ezekiel calmly explained.

“But-“

“Skulls carry bad energies. I wouldn’t bring one without the peel in here.”

“Peel? Oh lord, that’s a weird way of saying skin. But what did I see then?”

“I don’t know but you’re gonna have to do me a favor.”

Did Desmond imagine that skull? Why would he? He doesn’t know anything about skulls.

“What do you need?”, Desmond finally asked.

“I need you to shave your head.”

“Excuse me? What for?”

“We need to go to the city and you’re missing so we need to change your appearance.”

“What do we need from the city?”

“Hester tells me that lumberjacks have been going missing on Fonrica for the past years and I suspect a demon is doing that. Also, I’m bored.”

“Why do I have to come?”

“Because I can’t let you be alone with this many ingredients for summonings after the necromancy thing.”

Desmond considered asking further into Ezekiel’s questionable morality but decided it would still be there when he had more energy. Right now he felt like curling up in the bed and die, but that could wait as well. He cut down his hair so that only a light reddish bristle remained. Desmond hadn’t shaved his face for a few days and his facial hair grew like rambling weed so that a messy beard was obscuring half of his face. 

Hester had left shortly after she and Ezekiel argued so he and Ezekiel made their way through the dense forest towards the water without her. 

“Has Morgan gotten out of his cage the other night, by the way?”, Desmond asked.

“No. Why?”

“I had another nightmare. I guess it was just a regular one.”

“What did you dream?”

“Can’t really remember. I just know it was stressful.”

“Probably the Daimocit had its effects on you.”, Ezekiel muttered something under his breath and looked a bit disappointed as he glanced at Desmond after he finished.

Soon they could see the sea glittering in the afternoon sun and Desmond couldn’t help but relax as he smelled the stinky steam-motor of their ferry. For additional disguise, the two men wore hats and Desmond was pretty sure Ezekiel put on some make-up. 

“Where to?”

“Not your harbor-apartment. They were watching it after you went missing.”

“Really? I don’t think that they’ll be observing a victim’s home.”

“No, I just don’t wanna go there because I broke a lamp on my way out.”

“What? That wasn’t mine! I’m gonna have to pay the landlord.”

“What? Why?”

“Why?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Because it was his, Ezekiel.”

“Yes…”, he shut up for a minute before continuing. “…but why? You’ve been kidnapped. Why would you have to pay for something a good looking criminal broke?”

“Well… I don’t have insurance.”

“That’s ridiculous! Even without insurance, you should not have to pay that. Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Unless they can’t know you live there. Reasons for that would be…”, he thought for a moment. “…being a fugitive? An escaped prisoner? A refugee? You did say you were from Ukune. Or maybe an illegal immigrant?”

Desmond looked at his toes to avoid eye contact.

“It was one of them, wasn’t it? I can tell by that very obvious averting of eye contact.”

“I… It is none of your business, Mister Rave.”

“Rave? Oh yeah. That’s my name. But you can tell me, Desmond. I am, after all, your closest friend.”

He was the closest thing he had to a friend. “No.” But still not an actual one.

“Oh come on-“, Ezekiel was cut off by the shouts of ferrymen, docking into the harbor.

“We’ll continue later.”, said Ezekiel, as they walked off the ferry.

They had arrived on Simm.

“You asked where to. We’ll spend about an hour here on Haven Boulevard and then take the next ferry to Fonrica. There Hester organized a hotel room for about a week for us.”

“And we’ll hunt the demon?”

“Probably some plant demon or angry island spirit, but yeah. We’ll hunt it.”

“Dope.”

Ezekiel made a sharp left turn into an alleyway. The alley merged into the main street. They were on Simm, which was the last of three smaller islands. The store, Ezekiel had shot the Subrians at, was on Skrimm the first one. They shopped some basic supplies like clothes, some food, and two storm lanterns and then made their way towards Flimm, the middle island, where their ferry left.

They waited inside a rusty shed missing its front wall. They didn’t sit there for long for the ferry had arrived earlier than anticipated. Fonrica was about half an hour away so they settled down beneath a very simplistic sheet metal roof.

The sun was already setting. Desmond thought to himself, that it was odd how fast the day had passed. Ezekiel was asleep and he decided to do the same.