Elruin slept on a bed made of living plants, layers of moss stacked atop vines in a web that would make a spider dizzy. It was by far the most comfortable bed she had ever experienced in her life. She awoke to the smell of cooked food, and so rushed to get ready; Mother and Father became cross when the children weren't at the table in time; she and her siblings missed out on more meals that way.

"Early riser, that's good," Cali said when the girl peeked in. "Eat up, we have a long day ahead and I don't know if we'll have time for lunch."

"Where's Miss Rena, and Lyra?" Nothing more than polite chatter while she got her plate ready.

"At church," Cali said. "Rena has always been a devout believer, spends an hour at the church praying every day, and at least one more volunteering. That's part of why Lyra chose her."

"What are the other reasons?" Perhaps if Elruin knew, she could convince Lyra to play with her.

"The priests will tell you 'purity'," Calenda said, though her tone was dismissive. "But, they'll never be able to explain exactly what purity means. They say 'if you have to ask, you'll never understand', then act like that's wisdom instead of deception. All we know for certain is she always picks religiously devout women, though she doesn't seem to favor any particular religion, and only those who have never killed any living animal, except maybe some plants and bugs. If you ask me, that's filter enough."

Elruin began to eat while Cali talked, enjoying another dish made entirely of vegetables. Perhaps that was another part of making Lyra happy, since Cali seemed happy enough to share in the mutton at Aunt Leyli's farm.

"Speaking of purity, we have to talk about your pet," Cali said. Elruin considered it quite rude of her to talk while she was eating, but there wasn't much she could do to object under the circumstances. "I kept it quiet, but you have to destroy it. Or, better still, we get another Exorcist and let her destroy it, in front of several members of the Guard."

"But why? Mister Clackybones saved us."

"No, you saved us," Cali emphasized. "That thing is an abomination with no mind and no soul. Controlling one is a crime, as is choosing to allow one to exist when you have the power to destroy it. The fact that it was naturally spawned, and you used it to save lives, is the only reason you can walk away from this without being executed, or worse." 'Worse' was an understatement for the ages. Elruin was young, and had a ridiculously potent bloodline. There was the possibility that she would be locked in an antimagic cage and used as breeding stock. She would be nowhere near the first to suffer that fate.

"But why?" Elruin looked Calenda in the eyes, breaking social protocol in the process. "Like you said, I control Mister Clackybones. He can't hurt me, or anyone unless I say so."

"You control the shell," Calenda said. "But not the force that created it in the first place. The walking corpses are nothing but a symptom, the disease itself infects the spiritual layer of the world, where souls reside, and where magic power is drawn from. If not destroyed, it will spread and consume everything. And that includes those necromancers who think that, somehow, they'll be the first exception to the rule. You can't control the taint, nobody can."

"Do you know that for certain?" Elruin asked. "Maybe you just don't know how?"

Cali sighed. "You're lucky you're cute, because people have been killed over lesser heresies." She took a deep breath. "Ell, there are five Greater Gods and three Ancestral gods of Death that I know of. Some don't just allow, but encourage murder, torture, human sacrifice, and acts of evil that would make you cry to hear spoken. Even they demand the annihilation of all undead taint. Don't be the fool who rushes in where even Gods fear to tread."

Elruin had nothing she could say against that argument, save that she still wanted to keep Mister Clackybones. "But he saved us."

"The exorcist and inquisitor will hear about what happened at that farm, and that includes you taking that thing. Then they'll return, and they'll want to know what happened, and I'll have no choice but to tell the truth. I can bend it, a little, and not mention how much you argued against destroying the monster. As a wild talent, maybe you don't know how to destroy it. Do you?"

Elruin hesitated for a moment; she knew the song, suspected she knew how to break the song, but she couldn't be certain. "I don't know, I've never tried."

Cali took a slow breath. "Good. That's good. The situation was stable, and it was better to wait until we had an expert available, on the off chance that you make things worse trying to fix them. I'm no necromancer, I don't know how to cleanse taint or what might go wrong in the process. They can't fault me for caution outside an emergency. But the team has no doubt already left, and will probably return by tonight. If that monster isn't destroyed by then, you will be, and I'll be lucky if I'm not as well."

"Oh." Elruin looked down. "But."

"Look, it will take time to get another Exorcist ready. There's only a few of them in the city, and one's out on business. We can go to the library, find what you want to know while we wait. I'm sure you'll understand when you have a chance to think about it."

Elruin disagreed, but she still didn't see much choice. Nothing short of taking Mister Clackybones and running away would save him, and that would upset Cali and everyone else.

During the walk to the library, Elruin tried to find another subject of conversation: clothing. Her new dress was nice, but it wasn't hers, and she didn't want to be a burden and destroy even more outfits that weren't hers. "Cali, is there a way to keep my clothes from being destroyed?"

Cali looked at her. "Outside expensive mage-tempered material like Rig uses? Don't use magic in clothes you want to keep. Or at least don't use strong magic, you can get away with the gentle stuff."

"So it's not just me?"

"No, it's not just you, it's everyone," Cali said. "Some elements are better than others, but it happens to all of us one way or another. Sometimes, I wish I was a fire mage, at least having your clothes burn off looks intimidating. Mine just grow mold and rot away. But when did you ever lose clothes to your magic?"

Elruin thought back, and every outfit destroyed so far had been thanks to mud, being shot by Father, wild animal attacks, and a bad man exploding. "I destroyed the arm of my dress when playing with Lady Juna and Lord Garit. He showed me a new trick, and it burned the sleeve. I almost fell over, after."

"Ah, then don't use that spell," Calenda responded. "The twins take training as seriously as everything else they do. If you don't push yourself to those levels, you shouldn't have any problems. But I'll look into some low quality mage-tempered cloth for training. They'll demand you have something at any academy, anyway. Speaking of, maybe that's a way to save time. I can contact an academy Exorcist while you study at the library."

Then we kill Mister Clackybones. "Okay."

The library itself was larger than the barn that held the cows at the farm, made of stone like most of the city. "Is everything stone here?" she asked.

"It's to be expected, when earth mages are the most common type in the city. Also, some of the oldest architecture comes from buildings abandoned by the dwarves before humans reclaimed the land from the wilderness."

Calenda led them to a woman working behind a table, next to another table with a man who would help the male guests. "Hello, I was hoping you could help me."

"With pleasure," the woman said. Then she noticed Calenda's clothing. "To what do we owe the honor of being visited by a priestess?"

"I'm in the process of getting this girl ready for an Academy Evaluation," Calenda said as she put a hand on Elruin's shoulder. "It may take some time, and she wishes to study in the meantime. Please help her as you can, until I return."

"I'll do everything in my power, Priestess." The librarian came to a handful of conclusions in quick succession. A girl so young with Academy potential came from a line of power, and had wealth to back it. Perhaps it was unusual for noble scion to wear such modest clothes, but that simply meant her family didn't want her to stand out.

"Then I am relieved. Elruin, be a good girl for the nice lady."

Elruin stood in polite subservience to the woman. "Hello, I am Elruin. Please, I'd like to read more about the history and, umm, politics of the city."

"My name is Mipa," the librarian said as she continued her evaluation. Her dark hair and eyes, and pale features, suggested a exotic origin, which made her a foreign guest. As such, it wasn't too bizarre that a child of her age would want to get started on learning the local upper class customs. She was no doubt being groomed to a position of great power, perhaps a foreign diplomat to Engeval. "That is quite the topic. Let us start with the founding of our largest city, Engewal, and work from there."

While a mere peasant like her had no hope of receiving a position of real power, there were any number of lesser positions required by nobles that would be a step up from her current lot in life.

Whatever misconceptions the librarian had, Calenda made no effort to correct them. No untrue or even misleading statement had been made. It was not her fault the idea a child of twelve had more ability than most second-year academy students was too unbelievable to cross anyone's mind.

Calenda shook her head as she left, and asked herself again why she was doing so much to help this girl.

Some part of her hoped she wasn't like Garit and Juna, gaining favor with someone of obvious power, in order to leverage it later. Necromancers were rare to begin with, only a handful stronger than Elruin, and none younger than twice her age. If the girl could be convinced to abandon her empathy for the undead, she'd be a power to behold.