Gvera Cross - Blackheart Ravensoul (books for 9th graders .TXT) 📗

strong gust of wind tore off the hood and Gvera saw that the woman had long white hair, all of it was snow white aside from one black lock on the left side of her face. The knights said something to the woman but the girl did not understand, it was not the common tongue used in Midland. The woman seemed to become angered by their words . The men attacked, raising their swords to strike . Suddenly the woman's hair began to glow white, her eyes became blank and gave off the same glow. She rose above ground, into the air and put her hands together as if praying. Then pulled her hands apart and Gvera saw the same spider web like strings connecting the hands, the strings parted growing longer and binding together into thick ropes of white glowing energy. The woman used them as tentacles and grabbed the closest two soldiers. The moment the white strings made contact the men began to scream in pain, their skin burned with white flames and soon the armour fell empty to ground, nothing left of their owners but ash. The other two riders stood and watched as their comrades were killed, the woman said something to them and they turned around and ran. The light from her hair faded and the woman landed on the ground giving a sigh. Then she turned the head towards Gvera. "Who are you, answer me" it sound more like an order and the girl opened her mouth to reply but suddenly woke up from the noise in the cave.

Gvera opened her eyes, it was bright and the brightness blinded her so the closed them again. There were noises in the distance, one in particular, she heard it in her dream but couldn't make out what it was, now it was clear – a rooster. Gvera sat up in bed and looked around, no rooster in sight. She noticed the curtain move and Will walked in with a bucket full of eggs.

"Morning" –he greeted " the rooster woke you up?"

"Yeah"

"You'll get used to it. Deira's usually on egg duty but she's away right now. Aleera is out checking the traps, I'm going down to help her, and you wouldn't mind milking the cow, would you?"

"Cow?" Gvera was confused, she remembered being high on a mountain

"Yeah, it's higher up he pointed at the ceiling of the cave."

Will left, the girl dressed still thinking how a cow could get up this high. She took the bucket and pulled the curtain aside looking outside. What she saw was just a small ledge and a long fall down. Then she looked up but saw only the rocky mountain rising up, no cows. She went back inside thinking what to do, Aleera and Will moved up and down the mountain somehow, there had to something she missed, so she marched back outside. Just as the girl was about to pull the curtain aside Aleera showed up.

"Morning, what's with the bucket?"

"Morning, where do keep the cows?"

"Let me guess, Wills idea"

Gvera nodded.

"Usually, Deira does it" Aleera walked to right edge of the small platform and Gvera thought she was going to jump down" it's easy once you get used to it. " when she looked down she saw a rope ladder going down to the lower ledge.

The ledge below was much wider, there were two ladders there, one was leading down and the other went up, there was also a light: a rather large box made of wooden planks attached to a pulley by ropes. They climbed up the ladder into another cave, it was smaller and instead of furniture full of animal pens. There were chickens , four pink pigs, two sheep, a nanny goat happily munching on dry grass, some ponies with thick long coats and a lone cow.

"We can't keep the animals on the ground because of wolves and other wild animals that come to the valley. – Aleera explained." Have you milked a cow before?"

"The clan kept goats mostly, but I think I'll manage"

Gvera confidently marched over to the cow while Aleera fed the animals. The cow mooed, happy to be rid of the heavy burden, now Gvera ended up with a heavy bucket. They lowered the buckets down, Aleera milked the goat, using the lift and pulled them up to the cave using a long stick with a hook. Aleera then started making breakfast.

"Yesterday you said something about an old legend" the girl spoke when they sat down to eat oat porridge.

"Right, but first let me ask you, how much do you know about necromancers?"

"Nothing really, I just read some bits in a book my dad had, about the m being able to call monsters from beyond."

"Well then, I guess I'd best start at the beginning then. Do you know why the symbol of our magic is a spider?"

"Because the strings look like spider webs?" Gvera tried to guess

" Most people think that, but no. It more related to our history than our powers. In the beginning when the world was much different and the five magics were only beginning to form all necromancer were male. Their power much greater that even that of the strongest today. That power came with a price, they could not reproduce or just like a spider they would and sucking the life out of their partner. "

"But you and me are necromancers, so then how did…?"

"No one really knows how or when things changed, the records of past events only reveal this much. In the beginning all necromancers were men, their power would awaken at the age between fifteen and sixteen , their hair and eyes would turn completely white , they lived as wanderers and would die twenty years after the power awakened, it is assumed that their powers was so strong it would drain their life over the course of twenty years."

" I see, but what does this have to do with the death creature king?"

"Well, there is a legend from those days, one king awoke as a necromancer and ended up killing his lover by accident. Losing someone you love is never easy, stricken by grief he tried to bring her back to life. We can resurrect corpses and bones but it not the same as a living breathing human. He tried to truly bring her back, so he ventured in to Death trying to reach the ninth veil. There are nine veil that divide Death, beyond the ninth one is the door to a different kind of Death, that is where most human souls go. The dead can pass these veils easily but death creatures cant. The deeper you go the more powerful creatures you will encounter, but it is dangerous. One doesn't physically enter Death, only in spirit but if a spirit stays the too long, one risks to truly die. The king found a way to increase the time span he could spend away from his body, passing through one veil after the other, he gained more and more power, he began to care more about power than resurrecting his lover. However the further he went the faster his body aged, he realised he will die soon. And so, he did what no one had ever attempted before, he killed his subjects and sucked out their lives making himself young again and at the same time it made him more powerful. He kept killing his subject until the no one was left, the other kingdoms noticed it and they were terrified, so when the king's spirit was wandering in Death they destroyed his physical body. But he had already transformed into something beyond human, his spirit returned even without a body and started to kill anyone it came across. The most powerful magic users were called to stop him and after many battles they managed to seal him between the strongest veils of Death. "

"I see, the king from Death could be a reference to this." Gvera realised she knew next to nothing about necromancers and herself. " I guest only a necromancer would have known what the letter truly meant, that's why death creatures tried to steal the scroll."

"All of this would be of great interest to my sister, but unfortunately she isn't here" Aleera sighed" I could teach you the basics of necromancy but unlike you I don't have the Power."

"What's that?"

"There are two kinds of necromancy the basic one that allows to resurrect corpses and the more complex one that involves death creatures. The second one is highly valued, however not all necromancers are able to use the second one, meaning they don't the Power that that enables then to do so, these resurrection necromancers are considered inferior to those who do have the Power. Elvira had the Power, but I'm unable to go beyond resurrection. I can't teach you much."

" Anything will be a great help" Gvera said" I need to get ready for the fight with a monster after all."

"Gvera, this is not your responsibility." Aleera stated "The Order started this mess they should be the ones to clean it up, not you and your magician friend."

"I don't know if the Order knows about this, or how to tell them that bad things are happening." Gvera answered

"They'll find out eventually, now come on we're going down."

They climbed down to the ladders to a mountain path leading down. It was rocky and narrow, Gvera felt a little scared but with each turn and bend the ground seemed to getting closer. The path ended above ground, however. There were deep gashes in the mountain side, Aleera easily climbed down putting her hands and feet in them. Gvera followed, she wasn't used to climbing but managed to get down safely. She could feel death in the air but it was faint. In the distance stood some wooden crosses and a strange looking carving of a wolf put on top of a log sticking out of the ground.

"That's an old buried ground" Aleera said " We'll train there."

"Now, observe" Aleera stood in the center of the burial ground and put her palms together.

Thin threads appeared as she pulled them apart. The lines from each finger began do extend and dove underground. Gvera could feel the surge of energy, the ground moved – something was digging it's way up. Two giant wolves jumped out, they were unmistakably dead, patches of rotten meat and fur, bones visible where the flesh had already decomposed.

"They are my hunters, despite the appearance they are fast and agile" Aleera boasted

" Can I do that too?"

"After years of training you might, for now let's focus on the basics." Aleera sent one of her hunters to dig in the ground. It came back with a rotting hand in it's jaws.

"You will practice with this." Aleera took the hand and tossed to Gvera, the girl reluctantly caught it.

" Before you can control a zombie you must master the control of separate body parts because they are essentially what make up a corpse."

With a wave of her wrist Aleera attached the strings from the hunter to the hand. It moved and Gvera dropped it in surprise. The hand walked on its fingers as if some strange spider.

"Now you try"

Gvera put her palms together and tried to will the strings to attach to the hand, it worked but the hand didn't move just from that.

"How do it make it move?" the girl looked at her teacher.

"Pour your energy into it, the dead don't have their own energy so they can't move"

Gvera knew about energy from her training as a witch but this was so much different than making fireballs or looking for lost objects. Just like she normally would for a spell, the girl focused the flow of energy into her hand but instead of changeling it into fire she tried to send into the strings stretching from her fingertips. It seemed to be working, the strings came alive with a white glow, but it