That would have been okay if there weren’t also two undead zombies in the corner gnawing on their own set of bones. When the undead on the left turned its empty eye sockets in my direction, I took a step back and ran into a solid body. I yelped and jumped forwards.
I turned to find a middle-aged man in a tweed jacket and matching pants. His dark beard was greying at the edges. The man cleared his throat. “Going somewhere, ladies?” he asked.
“Ahh...” That was about all I could get out before my focus locked on the undead again. Sophie was completely mute beside me.
“Justine,” the man said, “please take your pets out of the classroom. It seems to be distracting our new students.”
The girl who had escorted us here clapped her hands. The zombies stood to attention. They marched out with Justine like well-trained soldiers. I couldn’t help thinking about the undead I had to face during my first semester trials. If Justine lost control of her pets, they would undoubtedly tear us to pieces. I made up my mind to carry the demon blade with me at all times.
When Justine returned minus her pets, I only relaxed marginally. “Alright, everybody,” the man said. “Let’s settle in.” He indicated to a few spare cushions. Dragging one of the bigger ones out to the front of the room, he sat down on it. The other students followed suit facing him. I tried not to think who and what might have touched the cushions as I sat down with my legs crossed in front of me.
“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Professor Flint. I’m glad to see we have some new faces. I congratulate you on getting past your prejudices. Few of the supernatural community ever trespass over these hallowed halls for no better reason than ignorance.”
I sat on my hands, thankful that he couldn’t read my thoughts. Right now, I wanted to run out of these hallowed halls. I’d made the mistake of staring at the bones on the floor. I swear I could see maggots burrowing into the bone marrow. I fought hard to keep my gag reflex in check.
“This semester you have signed up to learn Undead Magic. The name itself does a poor job at describing what is a complex and elegant branch of magic. The Council would have you believe that the skills you possess are evil. But what is life without death? What is light without darkness? If there is no horror, how can there be beauty? Everything is about balance. We bring that balance to the world even though we are shunned for it.”
I could see the other students around me nodding. Sophie was glancing surreptitiously at them, her mouth in a soft but thin line. With her reputation and ancestry, I was pretty sure she could relate to what they were saying. At the same time, it probably scared her. That was exactly how I was feeling.
“Now,” Professor Flint said. “Let’s try and get as much of the theory out of the way early on in the piece so we can concentrate on the practical. Turn your textbooks to page six.”
I did so. It was a chapter on the origin of the undead. “Who would like to read for us?”
Justine raised her hand. The professor nodded at her. She started at the top of the page. “‘For as long as sorcery has been present, there has been necromancy to balance it,’” she started. As she read, I noticed her pointed incisors snagging on her bottom lip. She was a vampire.
Mixed feelings warred inside of me. The history of undead magic was like the inverse of Herbology. It was mostly the same trajectory. The only difference was that one arm was about life and the living and the other arm was about death. Both of them had a heavy emphasis on balance.
I wasn’t sure whether Justine was unwittingly adding compulsion to her voice while she read but I found myself in an almost trance-like state. “‘It is a little-known fact that the mage who founded the First Order was a necromancer,’” Justine read. “‘The field of necromancy has steep connections to the Hell dimension. Thus, we are best equipped to guard against it.’”
“Thank you, Justine,” Professor Flint said. “Now if you could all open the packages you have in front of you, we will try some basic reversion spells.”
I wasn’t sure when he’d done it, but a hessian sack had appeared by my feet. Inside was a smoothed piece of obsidian rock, a red thread, a black candle, and some salt. I was thinking it was all pretty tame when Professor Flint stepped in front of me and handed me another bag of bones. “Um…”
He smiled. “It won’t come to life unless you ask it to,” he said, like it was somehow comforting. He stepped away and handed Sophie the same. I mimicked screaming. Sophie promptly dropped the bones on the floor. She prodded them with her foot.
“Now,” the professor said. “Turn to page two hundred and three in the textbook. There you will find the basic summoning spell and wards to keep the spirits in the bone circle.”
Everyone else in the room got to it. I couldn’t keep my eyes off Justine. She arranged the bones into a circle. Next, she placed the obsidian rock in the centre and dripped black wax over it. She sprinkled salt around the edge. It was when she slashed her pointer finger with a razor blade and pressed it to the obsidian that my alarm bells blared. I flipped to the page in question. Yep. There it was. The tip that blood made necromancy stronger.
I couldn’t fault its effectiveness. Justine chanted the summoning spell. Right before my eyes, a cloud of mist appeared inside her circle. One by one the other students completed the summoning.
“Is
