A young guard was passing through the armoury when an unusual glow of bluish light caught his attention. Curious, the young guard peered into the dark armoury to see a sword, still sheathed in its scabbard, emitting a faint, pulsating, blue glow. The guard walked towards the blade and picked it up. A faint humming sound could be heard from within the scabbard. Mesmerized by the glowing and humming sword inside, the guard did not notice the magical runes etched upon the scabbard. Nor did he see the warning engraved on it. The guard placed his hands on the hilt of the sword and was about the unsheathe it when he felt an uncomfortable feeling in his gut, but his curiosity won and he unsheathed the blade.
A dim blue glow spread over the armoury as the sword was released from its scabbard. The guard held the sword to admire it when all of a sudden, a disembodied voice could be heard.
"You…are…not…my…master….," it whispered.
Suddenly fearful, the guard tried to drop the sword. But his hands would not budge. In fact, his entire body refused to obey his commands. He merely stood there, frozen, and unable to move.
"I…hunger…, feed…me…," it whispered again.
"David? Are you ok?" came a voice from the entrance. Another guard, one slightly older than the one now known as David, was standing at the entrance of the armoury. A look of concern was apparent on his face.
"Sustenance…," the sword whispered.
David took a step forward. Then another. His body moving of its own accord. Then, it began to run. The older guard, taken by surprise, did not react in time and before he knew it, a sword was rammed up till its hilt into his gut. He cried out in pain before falling onto the ground. He looked at David with an unmistakable look of betrayal on his face before his body began shrivelling up until it was nothing more than a dried out husk.
David's face on the other hand was one of pure terror. If he had knew this would have happened, he never would have touched this accursed sword.
"Delicious…More…," the sword whispered again. This time forcing David to walk outside of the armoury.
"I knew it!" Vaezar yelled as he saw Animensis in the hands of the young guard. "Let go of that sword!"
David looked at the white haired young man standing in front of his captain and Lord Gerald, both of which had looks of pure horror upon their faces. He wanted to yell out, to tell them that he can't let go of the sword. But his mouth refused to open. Instead, he began walking towards them with the sword in his hand.
"Screw this," cursed Vaezar. He saw that the guard wasn't going to be able to release Animensis and knew from experience what was bound to happen next. And so he ran towards the young guard and kicked him straight in his guts.
The impact of the kick knocked David onto the floor and as a result, the sword fell out of his hands. The moment the sword left his hands, David regained full control over his body. He slowly sat up, his abdomen still aching from the kick he had received.
The moment Animensis left the guard's hand, Vaezar quickly snatched it up and went in search of its scabbard. The whispers of the sword could be heard in his mind, but he paid them no heed. He quickly found the scabbard where the young guard had dropped it and sheathed Animensis immediately. The moment the sword was fully sheathed, the whisperings stopped. Vaezar turned around, saw the withered corpse of the dead guard, then glared at the young guard.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? YOU NEARLY DOOMED US ALL!" he yelled at the young guard. "The protection runes etched on the scabbard, and the warnings engraved on it, and still you thought it was a good idea to unsheathe it?" he continued.
"I-I had no idea… I-I didn't see the warning…," replied the young guard, his voice thick with fear.
After the heat of the moment subsided, both the guard captain and Lord Gerald went to inspect the body of the dead guard.
"This is necromancy all right, why is it that you have such a sword in your possession?" Lord Gerald asked Vaezar.
"It does not matter, for I shall be leaving immediately. I think one death is more than enough justification on why separating me from my sword is a bad idea," replied Vaezar.
"Unfortunately, this is solid evidence that you are a necromancer. As such, we simply cannot allow you to leave this place," replied Lord Gerald as he drew his own sword. The captain also drew his sword and yelled for the other guards to come back them up. A total of 6 other guards came to help, their swords drawn and at the ready.
"I don't think that would be wise, Lord Gerald," said Vaezar as he rested a hand on the hilt of Animensis. "As you have seen, Animensis is no ordinary sword. I sincerely hope that the soul of one guard is all that it would have to devour today," he continued as he engaged Lord Gerald in a vicious stare down. His striking blue eyes glowing slightly with an unholy light. It was Lord Gerald who broke the stare first.
"Tell your men to stand down, captain," said Lord Gerald, sheathing his sword. He knew that no good would come from engaging the necromancer here. His spouse and his two sons would never forgive him if he put his life at risk here. Best let the necromancer be someone else's problem.
"Sir?" asked the captain, confused.
Lord Gerald glared at the captain.
"S-stand down, men!" the captain yelled to his men.
The guards all sheathed their swords. The moment they did, Vaezar breathed a sigh of relief and removed his hand from Animensis' hilt.
"I'll need my bag and cloak back as well," he said.
Lord Gerald nodded and sent one of the guards to retrieve Vaezar's belongings. As soon as the guard returned, he passed the bag and cloak back to Vaezar and Vaezar nodded his appreciation before donning his cloak and bag. He then proceeded to leave the guardhouse, only pausing momentarily to look at the young boy, who appeared to have fallen back to sleep in his cell.
Outside of the guardhouse, the sun had just begun to rise from the east, casting a warm, orange glow across the sky. Vaezar looked up into the sky briefly. Then pulled up his hood and began to walk out of the town.
Back in the guardhouse, David and the other guards were busy cleaning up the corpse of the dead guard while Lord Gerald pulled the captain aside to talk about what had just happened.
"Lord Gerald, surely you aren't just going to let a necromancer walk free, are you?" asked the captain.
"Of course not, captain. But we need to be careful when dealing with these kinds of people. They wield powers far beyond our understanding. One wrong move and we could easily end up like your poor guard over there. I very much enjoy living, and I'm sure you do too. So let's handle this in the safest way possible, alright?" said Lord Gerald.
"You do have a point, my lord. So, how should we handle this situation?" asked the captain.
"Contact the Paladins of Ezra and give them the full description of the necromancer we just saw. Let them handle him," replied Lord Gerald.
"Ah… That is most wise, my lord. I shall do so right away!" said the captain with a salute. He then turned around and yelled. "DAVID! Saddle a horse and head straight for the city of Ezrania! We need you to bring a message!"
David ran to the captain as soon as he heard his name. After receiving his instructions, he quickly saluted and went off to saddle a horse.
"Now, I trust you'll be able to handle everything here, captain?" asked Lord Gerald.
"Yes, Lord Gerald," the captain replied.
"Good, I'll have to get going then. The mistress is waiting for me, and it wouldn't do to make her worry," replied Lord Gerald with a chuckle.
"Have a good day then, Lord Gerald," said the captain.
"Oh, and one more thing before I forget," said Lord Gerald as he passed a heavy purse filled with enough gold coins to feed a family for several months, to the captain. "For the family of the dead guard. Tell them that I offer my deepest condolences and that he was felled in the line of duty."
"Yes, my lord," said the captain. He too felt saddened over the loss of one of his men. Death maybe inevitable, but surely there were better ways to go than having one's soul sucked straight out of his body. The captain paused a moment to think about what might have happened to the soul of the dead guard, will it still ascend to the plane of souls? Or was it forever trapped within that accursed blade? He shook his head. Best not to think about it.
As he walked back to his office, he walked past the cell of the young boy.
"I told you yesterday that it would happen, I told you he would die," came the boy's voice.
"Quiet you, I would have thought that a day in that cell would teach you to shut your mouth. This is a mere coincidence, nothing more," replied the captain.
"It's no coincidence! I saw it in my dream! I saw the withered husk, and the sword that glowed blue!" said the boy with some spirit.
The captain stopped. He turned around and looked at the boy, who was pouting behind the bars of his cell. He thought about what the boy had said. It was true, the boy had walked up to the dead guard just a day ago and pointed at him, saying that he would lose his life if he went to work the next day. Of course, no one took him seriously that day and the guards laughed it off initially. But then the kid began going into gory detail about how the guard's soul would be sucked out of his body and so on. In the end, they decided to teach the kid a lesson and put him in a cell for a day. They fed him and took care of him of course, but still, the kid needed to learn his lesson. Then there was what happened today. It happened exactly as the kid had told them. A glowing blue sword, and a withered husk. The captain then continued walking, ignoring the kid for now. Perhaps it would be better to also hand the kid over to the Paladins when they arrived? Maybe they would know what to do with him…