"You shouldn't be moving yet," Lance cautioned, seeing Doevm lean on his spear for support.
"Do you understand the issues you are about to face?" Doevm insisted, ignoring the mage's comnt.
Lance sat on the edge of Doevm's bed and sighed. "I understand. You will not regret your decision."
"This is odd," Doevm said. "I have heard that line more tis than I can rember. I think this is the first ti I have believed it." He shut the curtains and paused. Lance's proposition replayed itself over and over again. 'If only I had t a mage like you sooner. If you were Head Mage instead of Glenin, I wonder what the academy would look like today.' He turned around to face the dical wing. Dozens of prying eyes watched his every move. 'Then again, if you tried to teach dark magic a year ago the War Monks would have killed you.'
"Do you need help?" an older student asked upon seeing Doevm limp across the dical wing. The student hurried over and offered him a shoulder to lean on.
"No thank you," Doevm replied. He pointed to the curtained off area next to the pile of demon corpses. "I just need to make sure my friend is ok."
"I understand," the student replied. "My na's Jonathan. Just let know if you need anything." Jonathan shook Doevm's hand and hurried off.
'That was odd.' Doevm thought. He limped three more paces when another student approached him.
"Is there sothing I can help you with?" the student asked. "I regained a sliver of mana back if you need a spell or two from ."
"I'm fine." Doevm insisted.
"I am free if you need . I owe you at least that much. I'm Nathan by the way." The student hurried off just like the last.
'Are they implying sothing?' Doevm thought. 'I'm not that much worse off than the others. Is this a form of hazing? The students didn't seem to be doing anything, at least on the surface.'
"Are you a necromancer?" another annoyance asked as Doevm passed by the foot of her bed. "Can you bring people back like normal people?"
Doevm shook his head: "You'd want an experienced holy elent user for that. Even then there's consequences of defying death."
The girl sighed. "Oh. I wouldn't want to do that to my friend. Thank you."
Doevm nodded: "If you will excuse ."
"Hey Cerlius, do you rember from your class? By the goddess what is that sll? Let's talk later."
Doevm furrowed his brows. "What sm-" The stench of the dead hit the forr Lich like a brick wall. A cacophony of horrid slls invaded his nostrils and wrestled with the fresh air in his lungs, causing him to cough and gag. Glancing down he found a trail of blood leading from the pile of demons and to the curtains hiding Thomas from the world. Doevm blinked back tears and walked through the curtains.
Broken, bloody remains lay scattered about the claw-marked ground. Two bat-like wings rested over a back covered with scales and red fur. A pair of horns grew between misshapen bunny ears. The rabbit feet were anything but lucky.
Thomas sat with his head against a window - watching the sunrise as fog reclaid the frozen swamp. He tucked his knees against his chest in an effort to make himself smaller.
"Thomas?" Doevm asked. He knew who it was but asked anyway. The ntal connection between himself and the hideous creature was certain: that thing was Thomas.
Thomas didn't move. 'Leave alone,' he said through their ntal link.
Doevm raised an eyebrow. 'Impressive. You've figured out how to communicate through the link.'
Thomas curled up tighter. 'Why does the sunlight bother ?'
"Because you're an Undead," Doevm spoke.
'I know I'm a monster. Can't you do sothing to fix , permanently? You have magic, right?'
"I have no "fix" besides death. Look at ."
Thomas curled up tighter. 'I'm just going to attack you, aren't I? I already attacked Frey.'
"He looked fine to ," Doevm said. "Stand." The Shadox obeyed its master's order.
"Hate! (Wait)!" Doevm barely understood Thomas's plea. As he "spoke" for the first ti, the array of teeth clacked together. So poked out of his cheeks. "I shon' wan oo. (I don't want to)."
'You're a bit shorter than Frey like this. Turn around.'
The Shadox obeyed its master's order. Fangs, molars, buckteeth, and other bony protrusions jutted out of Thomas's gaping maw as if soone stuffed a bucket of teeth into his mouth. Doevm saw himself reflected in two black orbs, Thomas's eyes. Endless drool flowed down Thomas's shirt. 'I can't even close my mouth.'
Doevm inhaled sharply. "How much did you eat? What have you done to yourself?"
'I didn't want the others to leave behind. I wanted to be stronger.'
Doevm shook his head. "You poor fool." He reached for Thomas's shoulder but the young noble stepped away.
'I'm too weak. If you can't help , what am I supposed to do? I can't control this. I can't face the others like this.'
Doevm had to stare at his own reflection as he explained the situation to Thomas's inhuman, expressionless face. "You can not overpower your instincts through sheer force of will or you will destroy yourself. You can never control it, only manage it. Imagine this like a disease. Food is the only dicine. Co to at tis when you feel like you're losing your grip. Not if, when."
'What about if I don't tell you in ti? Should I bite my tongue or stab my legs or-'
"If you can't get to , get away from people as fast as you can. Don't think. Run."
Thomas's ears folded against his head, and he lowered his head. 'Can you turn back, even if it's only temporary?'
Doevm looked the creature up and down. "Hold still."
Light blasted through the window and a reverberant blast shook the building. Doevm stumbled into the wall. "That wasn't ." The two looked to the window, through which was the knight's academy. The smoke had stopped rising. Golden and silver glints accompanied thunderous blasts as if the previous lightning storm was simply a warm up. Humanoid monsters sward around two glints.
"Looks like reinforcents finally arrived," Doevm said.
'What reinforcents?'
"General Finlish." Doevm said. "He returned to take out the trash that we couldn't be bothered to pick up."
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