While they traveled, Jolen turned to Lelwyn. “So, just how do we to fight this necromancer?” the elf asked.

Kirel chuckled. “We’ll be doing the bulk of the actual fighting,” he explained. “You and Rikel will mostly be keeping the Necromancer’s minions off of us. Alive and otherwise.”

Lelwyn sighed. “Kirel’s usual bluntness aside, he is correct. Also, know you that a Necromancer can animate corpses. Should you encounter one you know to be dead, try not to hesitate at their countenance; any hesitation in battle could mean the end of us all” he added unhelpfully.

Bewr placed her hand on Jolen’s shoulder. “Try to remember that it won’t actually be them, just a magical construct that just happens to be made out of what used to be their bodies,” she added.

Jolen nodded. “I’ll do my best to keep that in mind,” he gulped, his face ashen with fear.

Rikel laughed humorlessly. “Don’t worry yourself about being embarrassed because of your fear. According to the briefings I had in the army, nobody reacts well the first time it happens to them,” she assured him. “It’s supposed to be one of those things that one must encounter for themselves to truly understand. Admittedly, my knowledge is second-hand; I was fortunate enough to never face a necromancer, or any of their fallen minions, while I served in the army of Elrlith.”

Kirel huffed. “Wait! Are you saying that the army actually gave useful information to their personnel?” he asked, sarcastically.

Rikel glared at him. “As a former knight, I have to officially take offense to that kind of joke. As a former foot soldier, well, I may have found it amusing. Unofficially, of course!” she quickly clarified with a wink.

Kirel nodded. “Of course,” he agreed with a smile.

Rikel turned to Lelwyn. “So, other than reanimating corpses, what else can a necromancer do?”

Lelwyn chuckled. “A full listing would take days to recount. To put it concisely, a powerful necromancer can do a twisted negation of near anything a normal mage can do: healing, summoning, enchanting, and even elemental.”

Bewr chimed in, “that’s why it’s so important that the both of you let the three of us deal with spell-work. At best, you might act as a slight distraction to a necromancer. At worst, you’ll distract the three of us and we’ll all die.”

Rikel nodded. “Understood.”

Jolen added, “if you think that best.”

Kirel poked Bewr. “Amazing how quickly your micromanaging habits come back, isn’t it?” he quipped.

Bewr turned to him. “Would you have actually said anything different?” she demanded. When Kirel didn’t answer, Bewr crossed her arms over her chest. “I thought not,” she smirked in triumph.

Kirel and Bewr spent the next several minutes refusing to talk to each other. When Jolen got tired of the silence, he gestured to the Silreth. “So, how did your horse come by having an Elvish name?” he asked.

Kirel dropped his shoulders. “Telina named them,” he whispered sadly.

Jolen nodded. “I suspected as much,” he admitted. “Let me guess, the lot of you never bothered to name your horses so Telina decided to give them names before any of you had a chance to object.”

Bewr laughed sadly. “That’s pretty much how it went,” she choked out.

Jolen smiled. “She did the same thing when we were children,” he explained.

Rikel interrupted Jolen’s reminiscing by holding up her hand. “This is where we need to get off of the road,” she informed the others.

The group stepped down from their cart, tied their horses to a tree, and followed Rikel to the cottage.

Once the group was able to see the cottage, Rikel drew her sword. “Let me go in first,” she ordered. “I’ll let you know when it’s safe for the rest of you to follow.”

Jolen turned to Lelwyn. “One thing I’m not understanding. Aren’t you the one in charge of this little group?” he asked.

“Aye,” Lelwyn answered. “Though, with Rikel’s years of service as a captain in the army, we all agreed that she should be in tactical command should combat occur.”

Rikel’s voice called out from the entrance of the cottage. “The entrance is deserted and free of defenses! You can come in!” The group quickly ran into the cottage and started searching.

While the group tried to find anything of use in the cottage, Jolen suddenly laughed. Before anybody could ask him why he was laughing, he turned to Rikel. “Rikel,” he started, “I need you to take about two paces towards Bewr.”

Rikel, confused, did as she was asked. Once where she was directed, Jolen started lifting the rug off of the floor, revealing a hatch.

As Rikel made to lift up the hatch, Jolen stopped her. “Wait!” he warned and then turned to Bewr. “You said you saw them leave. How?”

Bewr walked over to him. “They used a teleportation snapper.” She told him. At his confused look, she continued. “It’s an enchanted object that, when broken, will teleport the holder, or holders, to a predetermined location. I still have no idea how they managed to get their hands on one; they’re outrageously expensive!” she added.

Jolen nodded. “Why not use the hatch?” he mused before snapping his fingers. “The hatch is a trap for us!”

Rikel drew her sword. “They know we’re back?” she demanded in terror.

Jolen lifted his hands up reassuringly. “Not us, specifically,” he clarified. “I meant, it’s a trap for anybody who discovered the cottage.”

Kirel started channeling his magic. “Would a lightning bolt through the hatch disarm the trap?”

Lelwyn barked a humorless laugh. “Aye. It’d likely also demolish the building and flatten the woods for a league in any direction,” he warned.

Kirel dismissed the spell he started. “Okay, bad idea.”

Jolen pointed at Kirel. “Can you put up a barrier?” At Kirel’s nod, Jolen continued, “okay, make one. Everybody but Rikel, get behind it while the two of us deal with the trap.”

Rikel nodded at the plan and the mages did as instructed. Once the mage trio was safely behind a lightning barrier, Jolen looked at Rikel. “Can you lift the hatch by less than an inch?” he asked. Rikel nodded and did so.

Jolen flattened himself on the ground and looked under the hatch. “I see a rope I could cut. It should disarm the trap. Though, I’ll need your sword to do so,” he admitted to Rikel. Rikel pulled out her sword and handed it to him. He took the sword and carefully slid the blade under the hatch, cutting the rope underneath.

Once the rope was cut, he lifted up the hatch, revealing a ladder going into the darkness. He nodded to the mages. “It’s as safe as it’s ever going to be,” he mused.

Rikel descended the ladder while Kirel brought down his lightning barrier. Before Lelwyn started down the ladder, he cast a light spell and revealed a tunnel dug from the dirt.

Once they were all finished climbing down the ladder, Lelwyn addressed the group. “Odd that the ladder would be at the very end of the tunnel.”

Jolen shook his head. “Not if they knew exactly what they were looking for and where it was.”

Lelwyn turned to Jolen. “Were that the case, would they not have dug to the precise location of what they were looking for?”

Rikel got between the two of them. “This tunnel heads back towards the road. Any attempt to dig there could have been discovered. Stay behind me,” she ordered before walking down the tunnel.

Kirel put up another lightning barrier in front of the group and kept it moving in front of them.

Jolen leaned over to Bewr and whispered, “I know little of magic,” he admitted. “But, from what my sister told me, I was under the impression that keeping a spell up like that is exhausting. Wouldn’t it be easier to only cast that spell when necessary?”

Kirel grunted. “I’m not making that mistake again if it’s the last thing I do,” he swore.

Bewr and Lelwyn lowered their heads in grief while Jolen raised an eyebrow in confusion.

Before Jolen could inquire further, Lelwyn walked in front of the others. “Let us make haste. We don’t want Rikel to get too far ahead,” he observed.

As they reached a small room at the end of the tunnel, the three mages all grabbed their heads in pain, causing Kirel’s barrier spell to end.

Jolen quickly started pulling them back into the tunnel with worry on his face.

Lelwyn stopped Jolen. “It was a momentary distraction,” he assured. “Now that we are aware of the magical ambiance of the area, we shall be able to adapt.”

Bewr walked to the center of the room. “I don’t think I felt this much ambient magic at the academy!” she exclaimed.

Rikel cleared her throat. “If the three of you are okay now. There’s something here you should see,” she reported.

The three of them walked towards Rikel and saw a space carved out of the side of the tunnel.

Bewr reached her hand out to the hole. “This is magic on a scale I’ve never encountered before. I think there was a Nertel artifact here!” she screamed in terror.

Jolen got the group’s attention. “I’ve heard mages say the name ‘Nertel’ before but I’m afraid that I have no idea who that is,” he admitted.

Kirel walked back to Jolen, motioning for Rikel to join them. “I’d rather only explain this once,” he told her once they were all together. “Nertel was the first Enchanter of the Mage’s council. He’s considered by most to be the greatest enchanter who ever lived. If an artifact made by Nertel fell into the wrong hands, the damage that could be done would literally be unable to be put into words,” he explained in uncharacteristic seriousness.

Bewr cried out in terror again. She turned to the others with tears rolling down her face. “It’s not even here anymore. All of the magic that we’re feeling is just the residual energy from this artifact having been here. I can’t even imagine what an artifact with this much power would have been designed to do!”

Rikel nodded. “Okay, is there any way of tracking the magic from this artifact?”

“Nay,” Lelwyn answered. “Magic is naught but undetectable unless one is practically on top of it and cannot be tracked from afar. Otherwise, we’d be able to track the origin of the curse that befell Midway directly,” he added.

Rikel rubbed her chin. “Without some clue about where to go, I think we should risk splitting up. Somebody needs to head to Elrlith and brief the Mage’s Council.”

Lelwyn nodded. “I concur. Let us venture back whence we came to deliberate who goes where,” he ordered.

As the group started leaving the room, Jolen bent down and picked up a dagger that was lying on the ground.

Bewr turned to him. “What do you have there?” she asked in curiosity.

Jolen handed over the dagger. “It’s just a dagger I saw lying on the ground,” he explained.

Bewr let out a low whistle. “Don’t you just have some pretty enchantments?” she asked the dagger rhetorically.

Rikel was immediately on her guard. “Why would the poachers leave behind such a valuable weapon?” she asked.

Bewr sighed while continuing walking back outside. “Without getting into all the nuance of Enchantment Theory, it’d be easiest to just say that only a mage would be able to use the dagger as it is now. To anybody else, it’d just be a well-made dagger,” she lectured.

Bewr motioned Kirel over before continuing. “If you give the two of us some time tonight, we should be able to analyze the Rune Matrix. If it’s not dangerous, we’ll tune it to Jolen so that he can use it,” she added.

Before anyone could comment, they reached the door leading out of the cottage. As they were leaving the cottage, Kirel suddenly pulled Lelwyn and Bewr back. “Wait!” he shouted in alarm. “What happened to the body of the poacher that Rikel killed when we were here yesterday?”

Rikel ran to where the poacher’s body was supposed to be. “I never made a dedicated study of track reading,” she admitted. “But I don’t think I see any tracks other than ours and the poacher’s. It’s as though his corpse just stood up and walked away.”

Lelwyn scratched his head. “With a necromancer involved, that is not exactly outside the realm of possibility,” he pointed out.

Jolen ran over and knelt to the ground to look as well. “I concur with Rikel,” he announced while rubbing his chin. “It appears that these poachers have been working with the necromancer,” he surmised. “It would help to explain why we never knew about them,” he added.

Lelwyn nodded. “A wise assumption,” he admitted while walking over.

Bewr whimpered in fright. Rikel turned to her. “What’s wrong, Bewr?” the knight asked.

Bewr gulped. “There are some extremely powerful and deadly necromancy spells that require living sacrifices to power them. Depending on how many victims the poachers brought, the necromancer could cast an extremely dangerous and far reaching spell. The growth stasis spell could even be expanded to cover the entire forest!” she realized in horror.

Kirel lost his balance. “It may be even worse than that,” he announced. “What if the necromancer got his hands on the artifact that was dug out from the tunnel?” he asked.

The color drained from Bewr’s face. She quickly reached into her bag and pulled out her book. After she was able to consult her notes for a few moments and do a few calculations, she looked up. “The curse could even reach Elrlith,” she whispered in fright.

Rikel turned to the mages. “Okay, simplify this for us non-mages, please. Worst case scenario, what would that mean?” she asked.

Kirel stepped forward. “I’ll see if I can simplify it for you since you lack our background of magical education,” he started, trying to collect his thoughts. “Think of it this way: no crops grow, no children of any kind are born, either people or animals, nobody grows or ages, and wounds don’t heal.”

Rikel nodded with a sickened countenance. “Okay, that is bad” she admitted. “How long would that state last?”

Bewr placed a hand on Rikel’s arm. “With the amount of power in that artifact, the curse could easily be made permanent,” she explained.

Rikel gulped. “Oh,” she whispered. “Could such a curse be countered or dispelled?”

Lelwyn shook his head. “Nay,” he objected. “Without knowing the details of the cure itself, a counter would have be strong enough to overwhelm the curse instead of simply disrupting it. The amount of energy that would be required may very well exceed that of every mage in Elrlith working as one. Further, such a spell could not be cast without considerable risk. Finally, an unconscionable sacrifice would be required,” he explained. “That is also why we did not attempt to end the curse in Midway while we were there,” he finished his impromptu lecture.

Jolen stopped examining the tracks and stood up. “So stopping this necromancer now is our only hope of preventing this, right?” he clarified.

Bewr nodded grimly. “I can’t think of anything else,” she admitted. “Assuming that we’re even right about what the poachers were doing and their connection to the necromancer who cast the curse on Midway,” she added.

Lelwyn shook his head. “With the curses being as high as they are, we can scarcely afford not to take that assumption as basic fact,” he countered.

Jolen walked back to the road. “Then what are we waiting for?” he demanded from the others.

Kirel laughed humorlessly. “A place to start looking would be nice,” he answered sarcastically.

Bewr shoved Kirel with her shoulder. “Kirel’s usual abrasiveness aside, I agree with him,” she admitted.

Lelwyn placed his hand on Bewr’s shoulder. “Aye, aimlessly wandering the forest will be of no boon to anybody, least of all the denizens of Midway,” he added.

Jolen nodded. “Further, we have no way of knowing that the necromancer is even still in the forest,” he reluctantly acknowledged.

Rikel nodded and started pacing. “Agreed,” she concurred while rubbing her chin in thought. She suddenly stopped, having thought of something. “Since using magic to track the origin of the curse on Midway directly isn’t possible, is there any way of tracking the corpse of the poacher I killed instead?” she asked the mages.

Bewr and Lelwyn smiled at each other. “Well, that depends,” Bewr started while grinning. “How thoroughly did you clean your sword last night?”