The Necromancer

Chapter 6, Part 5

Skip took my hand again as we teleported back to Mashasca Abbey. I didn't really have the heart to tell her that Lamneras had lied to her in a vain attempt to be a good wingman. He thought that Skip could get past the whole 'husband' thing if we just spent enough time together. But he hadn't been there that night as she gingerly creaked the box open. He hadn't seen the heartbreaking look in her eye as she gazed on that one charred legbone and still saw her husband. She was his forever.

Lamneras was waiting on a squarish lump of stone in the ruins of the Abbey. He must have zipped back to Bermatora, because he was there with a whole chest full of ingredients and a large black cauldron simmering over a low fire. He'd also brought Skip's redwood box with her husband's bones. I knew that was the whole reason we were here, but I guess a tiny part of me was still hoping that she'd forget about that. Behind him, Mog was slumped against a shattered stone wall, snoring so loudly that it sounded like the rocky outcropping was crumbling into the sea. Looks like our vague instructions to Lamneras on where to find Mog had been clear enough. 

"Honey, I'm home!" Skip called to him. He stirred, looked up, and jumped to his feet causing the wall behind him to crumble and collapse. 

"SKIP!" Each massive step caused more and more of the ruins to fall apart as he ran over to greet Skip. He grabbed her by the waist in his massive hands and held her up to his eye level. "Back!"

She laughed and hugged his thumb. "Yeah, I'm back, buddy. Good to see you again. Hope things went well in the woods while we were out exploring the city."

Mog nodded. "BORING."

"Well well!" Lamneras chimed in, coming up behind Mog's tree trunk of a leg. He seemed strangely at ease with the big ogre; it had taken me a good while to get used to him. Not that I was really given a choice. "Can it be? Were you successful?" 

I held up Professor Magdat's blood and sapphire with a grin. 

My old friend shook his head and smiled back. "I don't know how you do it, Winston."

Skip laughed. "He was a real charmer. Made quite the impression on this Professor Magdat."

I crossed the empty ruins toward Lammy's fire, handed him the blood, and lingered by the warm flames for just for a bit. I could still feel the chilling wind from the Academy in my bones. Lamneras promptly added the blood to the potion, turning it from a thick black ooze into pure, shimmering liquid gold. 

"That was the last ingredient I needed," Lamneras declared. He knocked the handle of the wooden spoon on the edge of the cauldron, spattering drops of molten gold back into the mixture. "We're all ready to turn you into Professor Magdat, Skip."

She looked down at the potion, clearly skeptical. "That's all? We're done? Ready to face Amcerlizar?"

Lamneras and I both nodded. "That's it," I told her. "I just need to resummon Lirk and we're all set. You turn into Professor Magdat for a few minutes, you give Amcerlizar a call, and then Lirk attacks him. As soon as he fights back against Lirk, the Ruby will fry him. Then the Dragonheart is ours, and Amcerlizar is defeated."

"Sounds so simple." She tried to force a smile, but I could tell that she was uncomfortable with something. Her eyes never left the boiling pot of golden potion. "Let's hope it is." I didn't quite know how to respond to that, and Lamneras stayed quiet as well. "So," she continued. "All I have to do is drink some of this?"

Lamneras and I traded looks. "Not quite," he told her. "You... need to bathe in it."

She rolled her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me." She dipped one finger in, and it came out all wrinkly, just like Professor Magdat's. Not hot, young, blonde Professor Magdat, either: 700-year-old-and-wrinkly Professor Magdat.