Chapter Text
The Red Kingdom was planning something.
It has been a ten-day since the coronation of Queen Mae of the Blue Kingdom, and Nom was nervous. Not for Mae, she was an excellent queen, but for the Red Kingdom’s new monarch.
King Frogue was expanding to the remnants of the Forgotten Kingdom, renaming it to the “Frogotten Kingdom” for his own ego. Even more suspicious, he named Sausage and Katie as his personal advisor and bodyguard respectively.
The Necromancer had an air of the unnatural around him, like he was dabbling in something wrong and unwelcome in nature. Nom guessed that Necromancy would go against the natural laws of the world.
Nom didn’t know, he wasn’t a mage. The few cantrips and spells he knew came from picking it up over the years, such as the D I V I N E L I G H T spell.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
Katie, his precious, foolish little sister, has been ordered to stay by King Frogue’s side constantly, never parting from his shadow. The King stated that this new decree was for his own safety, but that couldn’t be all there was to it. Lady Katie was still a new knight. No, there must be another reason.
And Nom was determined to find out.
Thus, he went to his Queen.
Ever since gaining her title, Mae had less time to sneak about the Red Kingdom, as the Kingdom came before her previous duties as a rogue.
So, she had instructed her closest friends, Scott and 4C, to spy on the Red Kingdom during her reign. She assigned 4C to watch the King Frogue, and for Scott to monitor the King’s advisor, the Necromancer, Sausage.
So when the nature mage requested her and Nom’s presence in the throne room, Nom knew it could not have been good news.
“He’s built a summoning circle.” Scott reported, kneeling in front of Mae on the throne.
“A what?” Mae asked. Her face was solemn, but confused. “Please explain every detail to the best of your ability. I am not educated in most magic terms. I only know certain arcane tricks and spells for traps. What is a summoning circle?”
“Of course, your Majesty,” Scott stood up. His petals that topped his staff bloomed, and a glowing illusion started to form in the center orb. His magic shimmered gently, and a miniature image of a chalk circle drawn on the ground appeared within the orb on his staff.
Nom couldn’t help but feel a little proud of Scott. The illusion was perfect. In his short time here, his magic capability has grown so much. Imagine what he will be able to do in the future.
“Sometimes, magic requires more than an incantation and mana. It requires time and components. Rituals are when a spell or magical effect is created through a ritual circle, an arcane drawing the siphons magic from the surroundings using special components. A summoning circle is a type of ritual circle, made for summoning rituals. Conjuring something that isn’t there, or allowing a creature to enter our plane of existence.” Scott explained hesitantly. He seemed unsure of his own knowledge on the subject.
Ridiculous. Scott is a prodigy in magic.
Mae paused for a moment, taking in the information, before asking “Do you have much knowledge on summoning rituals?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Scott answered. “I was never officially schooled in magic. Everything I just told you is either what I taught myself or what I learned from a book that Eloise lent me. I’ve performed a few summoning rituals from that book, but only ones that summon nature spirits and familiars.
“Sausage has summoned undead before, but never needed a ritual. Why does he need one now?” Nom asked. He was worried about what the necromancer was planning.
“He’s either summoning a powerful undead entity, or summoning a different type of dead.” Scott explained. “Zombies and skeletons are undead minions he can control, but there are other types of undead; Ghosts, ghouls, wraiths, even death knights. I don’t know the full capabilities of Sausage, nor what he is summoning. I only know the names of monsters, not what they can do.”
The vines on his staff were growing and dissipating over and over again, twisting around the wood like writhing snakes. The giant flower kept opening and closing its petals. It was clear that Scott was tense.
Mae’s face darkened. She turned to Nom.
“Summon the rest of the Kingdom. Eloise is off visiting her parents, but everyone else should be present. Get Lady Graecie, Sir Owain, Shandrea, and 4C. We are going to have an intervention.”
That's how Nom got to be here now. In front of the Red Kingdom gates, with the rest of the Blue Kingdom. The sun was just setting, painting the landscape in a bloody crimson. How fitting for a kingdom named after that colour; even the sky was foreboding.
Nom was stationed on the left of his Queen, the crown glinting atop of Mae’s head. Sir Owain was on her right, sword in hand. He said nothing, and the helmet gave away nothing of true feelings.
Good ol’ Owain.
Scott was behind Nom, and Shandrea was trailing after Owain, her bare feet silent on the grass. 4C was behind Scott at the back of the party, watching their rear. Lady Graecie led the party, spear in hand and a calm smile on her face. But Nom could tell that was a false expression. He knew Graecie’s oath meant the world to her, and whatever Sausage was doing must be going directly against everything she stood for.
Graecie was a Knight of the Ancients, also known as a Green Knight. They took an oath to protect the natural order of the world, to protect life and happiness. They watched over the growth of the wild, protected the happiness of innocent people and creatures alike, and slaughtered those who posed a threat to their mission.
Graecie was respected heavily by Nom for this reason. She only served Blue Kingdom because she wanted the people there to thrive and she could still continue her Knight duties, not because of loyalty to a Monarch.
Graecie was older than any of them, and she was still very young for an elf. She took her oath over 100 years ago, and had been fighting for Blue Kingdom for at least half of that. She must have fought plenty of necromancers before, or at least was familiar with their practices. Graecie was peaceful most of the time, however was ruthless and merciless to those who messed with the order of the world. Ergo; Necromancers.
The Red Kingdom's gate was open, so Graecie marched straight in, leading the rest of Blue into the Kingdom.
In the center of the Kingdom, members were gathered around a candle circle.
King Frogue, Lady Apo, Ser Bek, Princess Cherri, Kitty, and Cam were surrounding the circle, standing back a bit as they watched a hooded figure curiously light the candles, the Necromancer. Katie was also there, watching Sausage with a sort of fascinated look in her eyes.
Sausage, dressed in his typical cloak, was going around the circle, mumbling incantations as he lit each candle. The circle was drawn in red and white chalk, with straight lines forming a pentagram. Components were placed within the spaces of star; dried sage, burning incense, bones, and some other magical plants that Nom didn’t recognise. As he finished lighting the last candle, he looked up and frowned.
“What are you doing here? You were not invited.”
Queen Mae walked forward, and stood beside Graecie. “I had heard reports of you creating a summoning circle. I wanted your statement to see what you are doing?”
“Hah, we don’t have to tell you anything!” The Mage Cam shouted, standing in front of Sausage as if to protect him.
“Yes, you do.” Graecie coldly. She had no smile on her face now. She brandished her spear, and pointed at Sausage. There was no mercy in her eyes.
“I can respect necromancers who deal in life and death magic fairly, as they half to be extremely careful in what they do, and death magic has a lot of rules. But I have also seen what happens when Necromancers go too far, when they summon something so unnatural and destructive, entire lands are decimated.” Greacie stated, eyes boring into the heterochromic ones of the Necromancer.
“It was bad enough when you permanently re-animated the body of the horse. When mages summon skeletons and zombies to fight for them, it is only temporary until their bodies return to the earth. However, that undead horse remaining here breaks the boundaries of life. If you’ve broken that rule, what other rules will you break? What are you summoning?!?”
Sausage regarded the angry elf for a moment, surprised at first, before confusion cleared from his eyes.
“You fight for nature. Makes sense, for an elf. I assure you, that this ritual is not dangerous. I will explain it to you, if you promise not to interfere." Sausage held up his hands to calm Graecie. It was so very unlike Sausage, that Graecie paused, then pulled her spear back.
Nom was confused. Sausage had been nothing but a pain in the Blue Kingdom’s backside for the entirety of his stay at Red. Why was he being so accepting of Graecie’s demands?
He’s afraid, Nom realised. An angry Graecie is a dangerous Graecie. Speaking of the elf…
Graecie considered for a moment, then nodded her head. She still gripped her spear tightly though, tense.
“Okay,” Sausage breathed out, relieved. “This spell is a much more powerful version of Speak with the Dead. It summons the souls of the dead and allows them to converse freely with the living for up to 24 hours. A spell this big costs a lot of magical energy, so a ritual and components are required. Nothing will be given a solid form. I only wanted to give my fellow Kingdom members and friends the chance to speak with their loved ones who have passed. Is this to your satisfaction?" Sausage spat out the last bit sarcastically, before remembering who he was speaking to. It was clear he did not like Blue Kingdom's presence.
“And the souls won’t be able to escape?” Graecie asked skeptically.
“No. They will remain within the confines of the circle.” Sausage answered.
Graecie sighed. “Very well, we will take our leave. I just wanted to be sure you were not making a mistake. I don’t care how this war goes, if you think summoning something special will help you win, it will not. Summoning the wrong monster will cause devastation for both kingdoms.”
Sausage sneered. “You can’t control what I can and can’t do, elf.”
That’s it.
Nom stepped forward, gripping his sword. “Hey! Mind your tone, you don’t get to speak to her that way.”
“Nom, it’s okay,” Graecie sighed. She seemed hurt, but not shocked. She turned around to leave.
“No, it’s not! He is not the first Red Kingdom member to insult your race and dignity, but he will be that last!” He continued walking.
“Nom, he's not worth it.” Graecie started turning back around.
“Let’s just go back to Blue- wAIT STOP WALKING!”
Nom stopped abruptly, turning back quickly to look at Graecie. “What, what’s wrong?!?”
Graecie just looked scared, and looked down at the ground.
More specifically, the ground where Nom was standing.
Nom looked down. In his anger, he didn’t take note of where he was standing. He was now inside the ritual circle. Each candle bursts into flame, fires blazing, before settling back down. The flames then turned blue, like the flames of a soul lantern. At the same time, Sausage fell to his knees with a pained groan. His eyes shut with anguish.
“Spirits, that’s a lot of souls,” he moaned in pain. He opened his eyes wide, and Nom was horrified to see that they slowly being consumed by inky darkness, before turning completely pitch black. Whites of the eyes and everything.
“Sausage! What is going on?” Nom cried. He couldn’t move, it was like his feet were glued to the circle.
Nom felt a surge of energy rush from underneath him. A strong wind rose up from beneath his feat, causing his hair and cape to billow.
“Nom!” Scott shouted, rushing forward. However, stopped short, slamming into some sort of an invisible barrier. The ritual circle had trapped him inside.
“This is how the ritual works. A person steps into the circle and the souls of the dead that wish to talk to them are given visible forms. Only one person can enter the circle at a time, so that the spell doesn’t confuse who the souls are trying to reach. The more souls attempting to speak to the person, the more energy the ritual takes from the mage casting it.” Sausage explained. He was still doubled over. He looked exhausted, eyes still pools of inky darkness. It’s was as if the ritual was sapping all the life from him, his magical energy being drawn straight into the circle.
“You have a lot of ghosts, knight.”
The blue flames of the candles rose higher, and what seemed to be sparks began to float off the candles. Only the sparks didn’t dissipate, but began to grow larger, forming little balls of blue fire in the air. The circle was made out of 15 candles, with the points of a pentagram on every 3rd candle.
“What are these floating fire things?” Nom asked nervously. He admitted to himself that he was a bit frightened. He didn’t understand death magic.
“Will’o Wisps. Souls of the dead. Each one of them is a person who has passed.” Sausage explained. “My, that is a lot. You have been busy.” He didn’t look totally surprised at the sheer number of them, just morbidly fascinated.
The wisps began to float, higher and higher into the air. The candle flames kept on producing more and more souls, it seemed to be never ending. Soon, the air around Nom was filled with hundreds of wisps stretching forever in the sky. They never left the confines of the circle, just rose higher and higher in the sky to make room for more.
Finally, the fires calmed down, and no more wisps were produced. If Nom were to guess, there were over 200 of them.
Some began to float down from the sky, before there was a wisp on top of each candle. These wisps were the brightest.
“The ones that glow the most are the most eager to speak.” Sausage mumbled.
“Speak? Why would ghosts want to speak with me? The only dead people I know are-” Nom cut himself off, the realization setting in.
The only dead people he knows are the people he’s killed.
Nom looked up at the sheer number above his head. He looked like he was going to be sick. Nine hells…
He then looked at the brightest wisps above each candle. 15 candles, to be exact.
“Sausage, how do we stop this ritual? I don’t want to speak with any of the dead!” Nom demanded fervently. He was beginning to hyperventilate.
Spirits no- NO! Anything but them.
“You can’t stop the ritual unless at least one spirit has spoken with you. The dead want to be heard.” Sausage told him.
The necromancer was now sitting down, leaning against the Healer, Cam. Nom hadn’t noticed him run over to Sausage. In fact, his mind was so focused on the ritual that he had blocked out the people watching him.
Ser Bek, Lady Apokuna, Princess Cherri, Frogue, and Kitty were all staring at him perplexed. They didn’t understand the reason for his panic.
Shandrea’s brows were furrowed, and her mouth was open in horror. She looked scared for him.
Owain’s helmet revealed nothing. Typical.
Mae looked frightened for him, tears coming to her eyes. She didn’t get why Nom was upset, but his panic must have been hurting her empathetic heart.
Graecie looked upset and saddened, but not frightened. Her eyes held pity for Nom, a knowing look in her stare. She also has released what was happening.
4C was cowering behind Graecie, cloak hood covering his face. He seemed terrified.
Scott looked scared, but he held his staff firmly in hand. His beautiful peridot eyes bore into Nom’s, which were quickly filling with unshed tears. He nodded minutely to Nom as if to say; “I am here,”
Katie just stood still. She was next to Sausage and Cam, staring at her brother. She seemed stressed and worried, but mostly confused at her brother’s reaction.
Nom began to look around rapidly, body trembling, eyes darting everywhere, looking for an escape. He started slamming against the invisible barrier with his fists, shield, legs, anything to make it budge, but it was pointless. He was trapped.
“Please get me out of here! Sausage!” He began to shout.
“I cannot, knight. I am sorry.” Sausage answered with pity. He sounded sincere.
“PLEASE!” Nom screamed, voice breaking with emotion.
Everyone was silent, watching Nom breakdown in heaving breaths, still banging against the barrier. No one had ever seen him like this.
Please. Don’t make me face them.
“Why, Captain? I thought you would want to see an old friend,”