Chapter 8

**Noch**


Arasule was banging and clattering around in her potions room as I walked past her closed door. I noticed that Fog was watching her door from the other side of the corridor in bafflement. He hadn’t seen her in her potion rooms in centuries, scratch that he hadn’t seen her this active in centuries.

He caught sight of me and gave me a silent questioning look that said; *What The Hell Has Gotten Into Her?!*

I chuckled to myself and walked over to her door. I still hadn’t told Fog about the surprise that we had planned. I probably should tell him since he was going to have to help out with this, but I was feeling a little evil. He can have a meltdown in a minute.

I knocked on Ara’s door and when I only heard further clattering I opened the door a little and peeked in. The room was cluttered and sun was streaming in from one of the windows looking out into the middle courtyard, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. There was so much DUST!

I cautiously pushed the door open some more to see what on earth the old bat was up to. Only when she got a face full of me in the doorway did she finally react. A blood rot bomb came flying through the air for my head without any warning. I ducked and caught it in a cushion of energy, not wanting any stray vapes escaping into the air close to me.

“You have gotten slow Ara, you would usually be trying to kill me with a second weapon by now.” I commented too soon. Just when I finished my sentence I ducked, narrowly dodging a tomahawk to the head. It went sailing into the wall behind me and impaled a poor curtain.

“Really Ara?” I asked as I walked in.

“I can’t help my gut reaction at having intruders.” She glared at me then continued her rummaging, shifting this box then that one, cleaning haphazardly as she went.
I shook my head at her deadly antics and snapped my fingers, sending energy through the room, dispersing all the floating dust bunnies and all the dust on the surfaces. Ara just gave me a scowl.

“I was getting around to that you troll turd.” She huffed and dived under the table to drag out yet another box.

“You would have died from suffocation if not hay fever by the time that you did.” I retorted, putting the blood rot bomb carefully back where it belonged. Only she knew how to treat the infection from that bomb and she had never necessarily been fond of the idea of saving me from one of her inventions. Or anyone else for that matter. That’s one of the reasons why the Ga’s were so wonderfully amazing.

She scoffed under the table and gave a triumphant whoop. Though, her victory was soured as she banged her head under the table when trying to stand and cursed. I knew my face was pulling ridiculously, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was all I could do to stop from laughing and having her try to murder me again.
She brandished a book in her clutches and jumped up happily, then quickly switched to giving me one good scowl before she smiled and turned back to the book. I blinked. The old Hag smiled at me!

Shaking off my surprise, I turned my focus to the book she was clutching victoriously. “What do you have there?”

“Something that will help us dispel the magic on our girl, I hope.” She tossed the book to me and I caught it. It had the symbols of necromancer and warlock work on it. I started paging through the thick volume and found where the pages on soul spells started taking shape. “This might just be able to help us.” I pondered sitting distractedly on a chair.

“The spell would have taken its own toll on the body of the victim by now,” Ara started explaining “if we end up dispelling this thing, her memories and emerging power will undoubtedly take even more of a toll on the body since it has been suppressed for so long.” She looked over my shoulder at some of the pages. “Merianna will be suffering for a while even after we dispel the magic.” She said morbidly.

We heard a thunk from behind us and whirled around. Ara had already reached for a weapon, while I reflexively grabbed a hold of her hand which held the weapon before she could let it fly. Fog was standing in the doorway looking like he had just seen a ghost. He had put a hand on the table next to him to stabilize himself and in doing so had knocked over a candle. I had actually forgotten that Fog was still there.

“Hi Fog! Nice of you to join us. You came at just the right time!” I said cheerfully as I stood up and walked over to him. He didn’t say anything, he seemed to be running circles in his own mind as I steered him over to the chair I was sitting on a second ago. Fog also hadn’t mentioned Merianna’s name in a very long time, and none of us had ever really felt the need to mention it through the years.

Fog collapsed into the chair. He was silent as he took a second to get his thoughts in order. Then he whipped his head back around to me and pinned me with a stare. “What is going on? Tell me now. First, Ara is practically going on a rampage in this room that she hasn’t set foot in for the past few centuries. Then you come back from wherever you went looking like you have stumbled across the fountain of youth! Good heavens, you guys actually seem like your old selves!!! And the next thing I know is that you mention Merianna’s name!”

Fog really did look like he was going to have a fit and fall over dead at any given moment with the flood of emotions, which was funny in its own right. The ‘funny’ factor vanished quickly though as his eyes seemed to burn with hope.

“Well old friend, you aren’t wrong about your assumptions.” I said looking him in the eyes. “We found her, she’s still alive.” I smiled.

Fog sat still for another second, then suddenly stood and paced like a mad man with a scowl on his face. Although we knew full well that he was thinking furiously at the moment, probably even going on a mental rant that probably went something like: That blasted child, did she think it was funny disappearing like that?! Was this whole thing some kind of 2000 year old prank for her amusement?! Wait until I get my hands on that child, she’ll get the conking of a lifetime… and so on.

“Fog, it wasn’t her fault that she suddenly went awol, there is actually a very nasty story behind the whole thing.” I explained in a placating tone.

I could practically see Fog’s thoughts grind to a halt. He turned to me and Ara. “Fill me in.”

“Well, the other night Hezerial suddenly pops into my room and starts rambling on about, she doesn’t remember him and whatnot and I asked who and he said Merianna. At first I didn’t believe him until he showed me his memory of the encounter. There were corrupt fae after her, trying to kill her and that was when his protector instincts kicked in. After he finished ranting we went over to her place and I saw her myself, then we followed her to a shop and that was where we bumped into Thyrion of all people. Then he started ranting on about how we can’t let her see us or else she will die and so on and so forth, so after that I came back to the Order and looked through the scrying bowl, there was another attempt on her life as she was driving home. Thyrion and Hezerial both jumped to the rescue just by the way. By the sound of what Thyrion said there was a spell put on Merianna to keep her suppressed, and as soon as her memories start leaking out there is no way to stop her descent into an early grave again. Thyrion has tried what he could over the years every time she came back apparently, but she always ends up dying from this thing like it's overloading her mind in one go. So Ara and I have decided that in spite of what Thyrion says, we have to bring her home.”

Fog blinked at me for a second, trying to take in the information and shortened revelations I had just dumped on him. I had to admit, I was secretly amused by his perplexed expression.

“Basically it sounds like someone has put a spell on her soul just after she died in that battle, hence why no one has been able to feel or sense her since then.” Ara shrugged matter of fact as she touched the book that she dug up.

Fog slumped back into the chair and sat there thinking for a minute. “She suffers when she remembers?” He asked softly.

Ara looked up at me with a worried frown like she didn’t think of this little fact at first.

I reluctantly nodded my head. “Yes, she goes into a great deal of pain when her memories emerge. So much pain that her nose even starts bleeding.”

Ara’s mouth drew into a very tight line and Fog closed his eyes. “The spell then does sound like something connected to necromancy, but there is also another possibility.” Fog said, steepling his fingers.

Ara and I looked at him expectantly.

“Some Warlocks with links to the dead or the undead also have been known to be able to do spells that firmly link them to the souls of people. Necromancers sometimes at least have a small amount of empathy towards the souls, but Warlocks very rarely share the same sentiments. Their spells are focused on sticking no matter what, especially with the more ruthless ones.”

“So we could either be dealing with a Necromancer or a powerful Warlock.” Or maybe something completely different. I mused to myself, remembering that the bastard Dermon was also still missing in action.

“I won’t know what we are dealing with unless I see her myself.” Ara walked around her desk and plopped the book onto its surface. “In the meantime, I’m going to research the shit out of soul spells. The two of you can do something useful and go see Neila and the Ga’s and fill them in since we will need their help in this.” She said and immediately started digging her nose into the thick volume.

“Don’t you maybe mean because Merianna is Nelia’s sister and she might be worried?” I teased as I slowly started reversing out of the room. Ara let a dagger fly and I ducked, snickering as it embedded itself into the wall behind me.

“How sweet little Merianna can have a HEALER for a sister I will never understand!” She self-righteously declared as she made ready to fly another dagger. “Now go and be useful!” Fog quickly darted out of the room before she could let the other dagger fly. I darted out behind him and heard a solid thunk on the door behind me.
I chuckled as Fog and I started walking down the corridors. Looking over at him, I saw his face slowly lighting up like the information was all finally starting to sink in. He looked over at me with a grin spreading over his face.

“Things are finally going to be lively again, aren’t they?” He asked with a gleam in his eye.

I grinned right back at him. “Finally.” I agreed

Fog went in a different direction as I headed for the greenhouse where I knew Nelia would be busy working.

The greenhouse door barely creaked as I opened it to peek inside. I saw Nelia on one of the higher loft sections watering some herbs and tending to new saplings. Her silver blonde curls were all braided together in a long rope down to her shapely bottom, the dress she wore showed off all her womanly curves that Merianna had forever been envious of. Just remembering the times that Merianna had spent glaring at her sister’s chest from across the room had me chuckling.

Nelia heard me and straightened from what she was doing, she turned around and I got a full eye full of what Merianna had always glared at. Nelia’s dress, even though it had a high neckline didn’t even seem to try to hide her assets, in fact it seemed to make them look even bigger than they were. Her honey brown eyes found me and her light eyebrows pulled down in a frown as she came walking down the stairs. Her full lips pulled down in a worried line as she got closer. That was one trait the sisters definitely always shared, the facial features and coloring. Although Merianna was Nelia’s opposite in all other ways.

“Noch!” She said as she lifted the hem of her skirt so it didn’t snag. The flowing blue dress she wore was one of the gifts given to her by Merianna. Merianna might have been a brute in battle and had zero sense in decorating, but she knew good style when she saw it.

“Hey Nelia, long time no see.” I greeted back, even though I did see her in passing glances. Long-time no talk was more like it.

“What are you doing here? I rarely see you coming into the greenhouse.” She asked, still frowning. It was like she assumed something bad had happened and someone needed medical attention, which was actually a valid concern. Her words actually made me reflect on how I’d been treating her these past few centuries.

“I’m hurt, you make it sound like I gave up one of the biggest loves of my life. Plus it looks like you have everything under control here without my help.” I said looking around.

And I was right, the plants were all arranged in a way that would give each species the best advantage to grow. Be it via sunlight, water drainage, ground level, soil type or any of the rest. Levels upon levels of plants were blooming, growing, sprouting, just all in all positively flourishing. The water that drained out from the top ran down all the levels to all the other plants so they all hydrated equally or as was their need. Even trees were growing to their full height in this enormous greenhouse. There was not one spot that wasn’t touched by vegetation, sweet grass and moss also roamed in various spots.

“Well, it’s the one place where I feel like I can relax. Plus, it has always kept me busy.” She added almost to herself as she looked around.

I knew full well what she meant, when Merianna was here she mostly ended up in the infirmary because she loved getting into sparring matches and taking bounties. Being in the infirmary was the norm for Nelia back then. The sisters always ended up laughing when they were in there.

I heaved a sigh and smiled. “Well, I’m pretty sure you would be shacked up in the infirmary again in no time.”

She gave me a puzzled look like I’ve lost my mind. “Doubtful unless you get new students.” She muttered dryly.

I responded with an evil grin. “I’ll have you make a bet with me on that Nelia.”

She raised her eyebrow like I’ve seen Merianna do a million times before. “You sound like no matter what I say or bet, you would win it hands down anyway. What’s going on Noch?”

“I guess I have to fill you in anyway since we’ll be needing your expert help.”

I filled her in on the whole story like I did with Fog, from the moment the angelic guardian trespassed into my room to where our suspicions were lying at the moment. Through the whole talk Neila got paler and paler and her mouth hung open in disbelief.

After I finished she just kept staring at me. I frowned and waved my hand in front of her face. “Nelia? Did you actually hear everything I just said?” Nelia gave a slight nod but didn’t move otherwise.

“Your sister is alive and coming home.” I said helpfully.

For a heartbeat she didn’t move, then her face broke out into a glorious smile, a smile that I haven’t seen in so long I almost balked at the look on her face. Her face flushed with color and she let out the most adorable squeal I’ve ever heard. I was attacked with a bone crushing hug as she jiggled in delight. I might have been a little out of breath but I didn’t try to jump out of her enthusiastic embrace.

When she suddenly let me go I nearly failed to catch my balance.

“I’ll make the needed preparations!!!” She yelled as she practically flew up the stairs to the wooden loft in the big tree.

“I’ll send you a burner note when we are all going to have a meeting later!” I yelled back, not sure if she heard me or not.

I shook my head at myself and chuckled as I walked out. No doubt things were going to get very lively around here again. Once we were sure that Merianna wouldn’t die because of that spell on her soul, we will have the biggest party that anyone had ever seen in the Order. Even if membership was lacking somewhat at the moment...

I smiled with a spring in my step as I made my way to check on the supplies of wine and mead we still had stashed in the basement, just to make sure we actually still had some available. Who knew what havoc Ara might have wreaked in there on her binge.

Then straight after that, I had to go and create a corpse.