Chronicles of a Mage, Book One

Chapter 7: Sweet Home

There we were outside Inderishas. The captain was addressing about 30 or so guards, all lined in neat rows and to the side was me and the enigmatic noble boy whose name, he told me was Mathra. When the captain finished talking to her men she came to us. "Sorry for making you two wait"
"It's no trouble at all. Why exactly did you call for me out here" Mathra askes
"Well when we get to Tlalil, Sorace here will be walking around town by himself to look for his family and whatever else might be there"
"And that's where I come in?" Mathra said
"Yes. I want you to escort Sorace. And kill any undead you find while you're at it. "
"Understood captain. I swear on my family no harm will come to you" Mathra vowed with a quick bow.
"Good. Then let's move out!" The captain said while facing her unit.
"Shall we?" I said.
The journey was mostly uneventful asides from me talking to Eeuna about why we can't have a suit of armour like the Captain has and that even if we did have one, I would barely be able to wear it. At nightfall we made camp and rested until dawn when we marched again.
After a days' worth of walking we arrived in front of Tlalil. There was barely any smoke now. When we approached the gate (to call it a gate was giving it too much credit though. It was more like an opening between two walls) we saw the mangled corpses of the guards. It was a gruesome sight, worse than zombies because at least they were already decomposing. I saw Mathra holding in the urge to vomit. "You, get to burning these corpses." Captain said, pointing to one of her subordinates
"Why are they burning the corpses?" Eeuna asked
"Well you know how I've told you the story of all the tombs in Thele and how a mage turned all the buried bodies into undead? Ever since then it's been custom to cremate the dead, lest they turn into undead." I briefly explained before Captain issued her next order.
"Everyone get into formation. You two" she was pointing at me and Mathra "You're free to do what you want" So with that me and Mathra walked a bit further to enter through the east gate, while Captain and her men entered through the west gate.
When we walked inside Tlalil's walls we were greeted by the sight of a couple half burnt buildings and shambling corpses. Mathra drew his rapier and fought the monsters. He was elegantly avoiding the zombies attacks and made precise thrusts aimed towards the joints of it's arms and legs, which crippled the zombies. While he was dealing with that I made a flourish with my hand to shoot a ball of flame at a zombie that was about to get the jump on him. Noticing me shooting the zombie behind him, Mathra quickly twisted and parried an attack that would have cleaved his head had he noticed a second too late.
"Thank you." 
"Thank me later." I said as I finished off the one Mathra already maimed. "Looks like this area's clear, but let's still be on our guard"
"Agreed, it would be embarrassing if we got snuck up on in a place as quiet as this. Say is this town always so hushed?" Mathra said while surveying the surrounding town.
"Now that you mention it, Tlalil is usually filled with chatter and footsteps. But now everything feels much more... hollow. I don't see a single body asides from the undead we killed. Where is everyone?" The streets were empty asides from barrels and crates to side and a few wagons. Other than that an eerie silence filled the air.
"Maybe they've all hidden somewhere? These zombies are pretty clumsy so everyone would've had plenty of time to outrun them"
"But that just doesn't make any sense. Fighting zombies is easy enough for a novice mage like me and this town has it's fair share of retired soldiers and uncle is a skilled mage" What was going on here? I've had so many mysteries, having another just felt repetitive "*sigh* well standing here and talking about hypotheticals won't get us anywhere. Come on my house is this way"
And so we spent some time wandering the streets and killing undead. There were a few skeletons and zombies that had weapons or armour both but still we handled them amicably. I also tried getting into the library but to my despair it had been burnt the worst out of all the buildings, to the point of the whole thing looking like it was ready to collapse from a sneeze. In any case, we found no trace of survivors anywhere.

After about 15 minutes of we finally came to a stop in front of my house.
"Well. Welcome to my house" I said
"It is quite the humble abode. I see that it's also a smidge bigger than the other houses" Mathra said, not very impressed. He probably grew up in some mansion so this house would've been nothing to him. The house was also entirely unscathed, no burn marks or anything. It was like someone picked up my house from elsewhere and dropped it right here in Tlalil.
"Well I dare say that my family is a more well off than most. And it seems my uncle has done a good job of keeping it safe. Please, come inside" I beckoned Mathra as if welcoming any other guest into my home. Inside was the place I'd grown so fond off though something was a bit off. There were a lot of missing items, stuff that was here when I'd left but not anymore. All except for a conspicous letter on the table.
"Woah what is this feeling? I feel so... rejuvinated" Mathra said
"I sense it too. Hmm so this is how they kept the house safe and why the undead seem to avoid this area. It would seem my Aunt has cast some sort of spell to surround the house with positive energy." I pointed out, feeling calm and tranquil
"Positive energy? What's that?" Mathra asked
"I too am curious about this positive energy stuff" Eeuna interjected unhelpfully.
"It's like this. There exists two kinds of energy that have to do with the living and unliving. Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead and negative energy does the opposite. Necromancy is the kind of magic that deals with channeling these two energies through spells and- well I'm getting off topic. All you need to know is positive energy will heal you while negative energy will kill you." I certainly would've loved to delve deeper into a discussion about necromancy  but now wouldn't be the best time to talk about that. What was more interesting was the envelope addressed to me with a red seal. Seeing me looking at the letter, Mathra spoke
"I'm assuming your family doesn't just leave letters just lying around. Why don't you read it? I'll go over there and give you a little privacy" Mathra then walked to the corner of the room while I  opened the envelope.
There was writing inside and touching the letter gave off a faint tingle. This combined with the pristine handwriting led me to conclude that this was written with magic. Whatever was written here, my uncle wanted it written quickly. It read:

Dear Sorace
I know this must come as a shock to you; seeing your hometown in such a state. When the undead attacked I had your aunt put up a barrier of positive energy to buy me time. Time so that I may gather up all the research and knowledge I had and bring it to the basement. Inside the basement is not only where I research you see, but it also contains a teleporter. The teleporter only has enough mana to be used once however so I'm afraid it won't work for you. Where have I gone you may wonder? Well the teleporter leads to a location in the city of Kizikurt where I may continue my work.
You may or may not think it a cowardly move, but know this: what happened here in Tlalil was no accident. There are powers at play, powers greater than you or I that lurk in the shadows of this world. Tlalil was just their first move but those who lurk in the shadows will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. I can say no more than that, to give you a better explanation would require me to speak with you in person.
This brings me to my request of you. I need you to travel all the way to Kizirukt. It will be a long, treacherous journey and there will be times where you will want nothing more than to give up. But I did not make this decision lightly. Within you lies boundless power.
From, Your Uncle Maugen