The Golden Apprentice - Tales of Death and Victory. Vol I

Year Zero - Chapter III

I

Brila's mother was a diplomat from Ilya who ended up marrying the prince of Soren, but she never stopped doing her work and reporting back to the northern kingdom. All the girl knew was that, before her death, her mother was secretly investigating a member of the court who had caught the iliyan king's attention. "I saw it... I was just six years old when that happened," Brila told them with a pained look on her face. "A man in black entered my parents' room, my father was there too, I was hidden behind the door... He pulled out a sword and stabbed her".

"Why didn't your father do something?" Danë asked.

"The man had an enchanted voice, he said "don't move" and none of us could move a finger", she shivered just from remembering. "After he killed my mother, he told my father to say that a rogue had invaded the room and escaped, then like a ghost he disappeared! When I tried to tell that to people, no one believed me!"

The girl started crying and the other children tried to comfort her, with the exception of Tamara who was still mad. "And where does the seer come from?" The daughter of the cook inquired.

"She showed up at the palace a few months ago offering private readings, king Veres is very superstitious so he accepted", Brila sniffed. "On my turn she told me that I was right about the man who killed my mother, that I should look for the necromancer in Mirha and bring other children with me".

Nikola pondered for a moment and traded looks with the eldest of her group, she seemed concerned. Hiria nodded, "The girl is telling the truth, but the goddess won't tell me who the seer or that man are".

"I see", the necromancer nodded to herself and crossed her arms. "Well, I guess it was your destiny to come see me, there has to be something I can do for you kids, I'm a woman of many tricks".

"Can you teach us how to bring people back from the dead?" Tamara asked.

The woman laughed and shook her head, "What I do can't be teached, there's no other person like me in this world, simply because this world can't produce someone like me".

"But you're here, and you have those powers", Merwen scratched his head.

"I'm not from this world, dear", her smile was cocky. She was having fun with their confusion, but didn't seem to be lying, "Quite literally, in the sense that I was not born here".

"How?" Maëri finally said something. She had been quiet the whole time, her eyes wide paying attention to everything that happened around her. The little girl was scared, for a good amount of reasons, and Nikola noticed it, getting to her height to speak with her.

"The world where I am from is far different from this one, there are more people who have powers, not like me though, I'm quite unique there too", she told and gestured wide. "In my world, technology is far more advanced than here, which allows men to change themselves, to send a bomb from one side of the planet to the other by just pushing a button".

The small girl looked at one of the buttons of her dress and pressed it confused, the woman laughed again. Danë raised his hand and the necromancer pointed at him, "What do you mean by 'change themselves'?"

"Give them abilities of all kinds, my great great grandfather, for example, got changed by an evil man who wanted to use him as a weapon", she showed them her right hand. "He cursed my ancestor with this ability to kill and revive living things, but he didn't want to be used as a weapon for evil, so he rebelled".

"There was no one else like him?" Kon asked. "No one like you?"

She shook her head, "Some tried to recreate this power, but my ancestor didn't allow them... And his descendants were responsible to keep this power safe from the hands of more bad people".