Legacy of the Necromancer [Legacy, BK1 - Completed]

Chapter 1:3

My father's study was too small to hold all of the adults and the 'kids', so they'd moved to the living room. Avery released my hand before turning the corner, as if she were afraid of their judgment. I couldn't blame her. The Families tended to look down on interfering with each other's affairs, and unmarried relations even more so. Arranged marriages were a completely different story, though, since they were a way to ensure that children continued to be born with necromantic talent. The Heads of the Families had to keep meticulous genealogy records to make sure we kept enough distance between the Families lines, and enough fresh blood to keep our Families strong.

Avery left my side to go stand by her mother and sister, who sat on the far couch with my mother. My father stood near the fireplace mantle with my older brother, Liam, and Lyssa, the Head of the Amerson family, only a short step behind him.

"Ezra," Nathan said, his voice flat and cold. He stood on the opposite side of the fire from my father in one of his expensive business suits. His son Collen stood behind him like a shadow. "I thought you went away... to school. How pleasant that you are able to join us. What was it you decided to study again?"

"Chemistry," I said, taking a seat on the piano bench in the back of the room.

Nathan gave me a look of contempt. "There's no point to have you here. A Talentless shouldn't be privileged to the information we'll be discussing here."

"My father summoned me home, and so I came." As a Talentless, I would have no say in what would be decided, but if the Head of my Family asked for me to be present for such an important family decision, I would be. What else could I do?

He turned to my father, and pointed a finger at me. "He needs to leave."

This was why I had hated Nathan Ackland since I was old enough to understand what hate was. Well, to be honest, maybe I didn't hate him. I just disliked him very, very much.

My father's gaze turned icy, the frown lines deepening around his eyes. "He may be Talentless, but he is still a member of the Stanwood Family and I require him to be here."

And cue tension. The room was silent as the two most powerful Necromancers in the world stared each other down. I held my breath, waiting for Nathan to push the issue further. It was Avery's mother who broke the silence though, reaching out to lightly touch the back of Nathan's hand.

"Please, Nathan. Not today. Don't we have enough to deal with?" She barely whispered the words, but everyone heard them anyway.

"Fine," he said, but the glare he shot at me said that it was far from the end of the discussion I'd hear this visit. Lucky me.

Dad stepped forward, clearing his throat. "Let us begin this meeting by taking a moment to remember the life of our comrade, Caleb Manser."

The morning light filtered in through the curtains, tinting the room in the tawny grey of the cloth. As everyone else bowed their heads in respect, I surveyed the gathering. In this little living room, on a shabby mountaintop cabin, were the precious few people in the country who had mastered the necromantic arts. My father and brother were the last two living with enough power to reanimate the dead. Avery and Thea Manser had the Sight, to see truths and that of the present and future. Lyssa Amerson carried her family's ability to speak with the dead and the spirits from beyond. And then there was Nathan. His family possessed the abilities and knowledge of the Blood Rituals. Even my mother and Avery's mother, Evelynn, had power. Although theirs was no where near as powerful as the others. Everyone here was a necromancer. Everyone, except me.

"He was a friend, a husband, a father," Dad continued. "And a necromancer of priceless ability. Caleb Manser, the sixty third Head of the Manser Family, will forever be looked upon as an Elder of our Quadriad, and a great man. May the Great Ones take care of his soul."