The Necromancer's Apprentice

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Crono

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Original poster
In the trading village of Cran, a man waits. The man wares a dark green cloak with a golden trim branching off into several symbols that decorated the fabric. Black, unkept hair hung in strands, occasionally covering his eyes making him brush it off with a pale hand. A little bottle of transparent green fluid hung by a string on his neck below two pale blue eyes and a peaceful smile. This man sat in a tavern filled with different creature of all sorts and he waited, for his apprentice. Of whom, had seen the poster he had pitched up around the world to come to this tavern and "look for the one with a bird of smoke."
 
A young woman wearing a very strange red hood walked down the dusty road to Cran. People often found her strange, though she couldn't blame them. Bright red eyes glowed from under the hood and green smoke seemed to float around her, emitted from a golden smoking pipe in her hands. Her long brown hair was tucked away but stray locks could be seen escaping her cloak. Why was she here? She had heard rumors of a necromancer in need of an apprentice, both from travellers, fellow magic-users and posters scattered all over the place. She turned the corner into a tavern, pushing the door open and covering her nose from the sudden smell. All sorts of animals were loitering about in the building, their musk mingling together to create a strange smell. She looked about, looking for this 'bird of smoke' that was mentioned in the poster. Her red eyes glowed at the sight of this bird, flapping around in the corner and without hesitation, she slowly walked towards it, careful not to step on the smaller creatures.
 
The raven composed of smoke and ash cawed and fluttered over to its maker, the man. It dived back into the wooden pipe he was smoking and he waved her over with a friendly smile. The man, surprisingly enough, looked about the same age as the woman. When she finally reached him he said ",Evening miss. Is there someone your searching for?"
 
"A necromancer. I assume that's you?" she asked in a toneless voice. She was happy yet cautious at the sight of him. She wasn't sure if the necromancer was legitimate, as rumors of fakes and scams were being whispered all over the place. "I am-" she paused, thinking about something, "They call me Snake." She only planned to tell him her alias, not a lot of people knew her true name, and she didn't want to give it to someone she didn't even know.
 
"I am Noxel, master necromancer and Noxel means... me I suppose." He got up from his seat and bowed graciously "It's a pleasure to meet you Snake. Judging by your interest in that little trick of mine I suppose that your heir to become my apprentice?" Noxel sat back down and gestured to the seat at the other side of his small table.
 
She shrugged, "I suppose." She sat down, turning her body to face him. She placed the golden smoke pipe on the table, breathing out a mouthful of green smoke. "What will I learn as your apprentice?" she asked curiously, careful to keep her tone without much emotion.
 
"I'm not a fan of that question. It gets people too... excited." Noxel let out a sigh but continued. "As my apprentice you will learn many, many things. Such as but certainly not limited to: bending darkness and soul essence to your will, crossing between Heaven, Hell, and Limbo as well as learning about there inhabitants, summoning the spirits of the dead (yes, that includes dragon spirits), and, eventually, learning to fully and perfectly revive people."
 
Snake thought about it, he did seem more and more like a legitamite necromancer now. "Useful skills," she murmured, keeping her voice steady. "Bending darkness and the essence of the soul?" she chuckled emotionlessly, pulling back her hood and shaking her long brown hair loose. She eyed him with her glowing red eyes, "You must be very experienced," she hissed in a snake like voice. "Being able to revive the dead."
 
"I've been working on it for a very long time. In fact I invented the perfect resurrection. Of course there is a extremely high price to pay for me to teach you." Noxel's tone darkened as he said this, this was the most horrific part of becoming a necromancer.
 
"Oh? A perfect resurrection? Interesting," she said, twirling a lock of her brown hair. She looked at him with confident eyes. "And that price is...?" she asked, her eyebrows raising. She was willing to pay him anything - she had nothing to lose anyway.
 
Noxel gave a sad sigh, and pulled a large stack of papers out from under the table. "You have to fill out all this paperwork to be my apprentice, The Board of Necromancy, otherwise known as T.B.O.N. is a stubborn bunch."
 
A long, slender hand left the cloak and took the piece of paper, her red eyes leaving Noxel to peer at it. "What kind of information do I have to give? And...do you have a quill?"
 
"Name, date of birth, some such, the other. As well as a bunch of rules that you can forget most of as soon as you sign." Noxel replied, then pulled out a red and gold colored feather as well as a bottle of ink out of.
 
Taking the feather, she admired the colours before dipping it in the ink, scrawling her details onto the piece of paper, covering it with her body as she wrote. She would have to write her true name, which she didn't want Noxel to see. She read the rules and took them to memory, before flipping the piece of paper over and handing it back to him.
 
He sealed the paper in a envelope then took the feather and scrached it on the table, causing the end to alight "phoenix feather." He explained. Noxel had only just brushed the envelope against the flame when it combusted into smoke and flew out a open window. "We will get a reply soon, but as we wait I really must ask, what would make you want to be tutored by a silly man like me?"
 
Snake tapped the table with a long painted nail, she shrugged. "Life experience." That's all she said. She really had no excuse why she wanted to learn such dark magic, but she liked magic in general. Her knowledge of poisons wasn't enough for her, she wanted to learn more. "Poisons are my specialty, that is why they call me Snake."
 
"Ah... I see. It's ju-" out of the crowd of creatures in the tavern a massive ogre rose from his seat and looked around the room with pupil-less pale blue eyes as Noxel suddenly became very interested in the window beside him. The ogre grunted and left. Noxel exhaled deeply and removed his hood exposing the streaks of gray in his hair. "I'm sorry, that colorblind oaf and I got into a little debate on mandrake root prices and now he wants my head."
 
"You tried to bargain with an ogre?" for the first time in the night, she laughed aloud, earning a few stares from nearby customers. "You're a brave man. Ogres are so..." she shuddered, rubbing her arms. "If the Board approves me, where will we be going first?" Where could they go? The capital? With strange technology and bright shining lights with strange magic? Or a shady town practising the wondrous black arts?
 
"I travel a lot, in fact I live in a carriage. The first place we will go to is Inic, a human town where I have a job to do. But we will train on the way as well as there." At that moment, a crow flue in and rested on Noxel's head. He gave a annoyed sigh and reached up to except the letter in its claws. He then handed it to Snake. "Would you like the honors?"
 
Inic? The place was rather small but she liked it there. The humans had a strange interest in her wares. "A job? What kind of job? she asked curiously, leaning in to look in his face. She flinched at the crow and sat back in her seat, Snake eyed it with her glowing red eyes before taking the letter and opening it. She nodded, reading its contents. "Well, looks like they approve."
 
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