King of Necromancers:Part 2

Jp with D2
Necrosis ignored her for a moment as he opened the book, "This is known as the Zhaun'ol de' tangin, or the Book of Days. My greatest suffering." The book floated over to Ursa, and the pages it was open to was about, her. "You appeared on this book, more names besides my own appeared in this book, for reasons unknown."

Floating in the air before her, Ursa watched as the book opening the pages flipping quickly from one to the next until it finally settled upon a half-finished passage written oddly enough in her own hand.

“I wrote this … “ Ursa offered softly rereading the passage recalling that she had only written in passing the week before. Flipping back through the pages she saw other passages and entire pages recorded in her hand squeezed between countless passages recorded by others.

“This book contains everything … “ She offered in astonishment as she reached as far back as a record of those days she had learned to read and write. “ Ever passage or page, letter or correspondence, everything I have ever written in my lifetime … This makes no sense?”

"It is a curse artifact, created to mock me. Cursed necromancers, all somehow connected, their passages, their letters, ideas, everything. Written down. Nothing in this library, in this realm makes sense in the technical ways of our world." Necrosis gently sighed and had the book float back to him, flipping through the pages, he stopped at an old passage in green text, "Starting passage was from my foolish days."

Ursa frowned her annoyance as the book slipped from her grasp.

“Odd isn’t it, how every word I have ever written on a page is recorded there.” She mused softly wondering briefly at the idea.” and I’m no Necromancer by any stretch of the imagination and yet somehow it contains a record of my words from the very first to the last.”

Ursa rolled her eyes in thought. “Wait!’ she sounded off offering the Lich an upwards glance.

“In the book, I’m the only Black Order member that I saw recorded in those pages and you knew my name before I had even spoken it. That means you’ve read everything I ... “

She paused then thoughtfully. “Of course you have, its silly of me to thing for a second that you wouldn’t have.”

Ursa reflected then for a moment more. “Are you why Kelmoran was here ?“

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Kelmoran took only part of my teachings, and molded as he saw fit. He views my ideals of balance and the use of my power for the world and not individually as foolish and weak. He might have been right, he might have been wrong." The tired archlich waved the book away, however as if it had a mind of its own, it floated towards Ursa again. Necrosis paid no attention, "Kelmoran was probably after my vast knowledge, which brings me to my questions, why are you here, Ursa Blacksong of the Black Order? Perhaps to learn, gain knowledge of the old times, maybe even hear a tale of old?"

Ursa shrugged as the tome floated back to her opening itself to the last page she had been viewing in the moments before.

“Nothing so grand as all that.” She mused aloud as she scanned through the pages of the tome turning from one page to the next. “ My intentions originally were to just lead those overzealous church knights that have been hunting my ass the last week or so into the ruins of Grey Haven and let the ancient magics that linger there deal with them. I only managed to get myself stuck here when one of my spells backfired and triggered a plainial shift into the endless dark.”

She reached forward stopping the tome from turning to the next page so she could absorb what was written there.

“To be honest I had no idea who you were or that you were even here in the first place.” She shrugged again. “I just ended up here trying to avoid getting myself killed by a pack of Dark Elves I ran into in the tunnels.”

"Strange, many who have come here, came with a purpose. None have stumbled here by accident. However this library only exists where it is required. Perhaps you were brought here for a reason."

“Fate has a purpose for us all or so I am told.” Ursa mused

His hands glided through the bookshelves, searching for something, "Has the Black Order forgotten about the old days, the church, Aeran as a whole? What of the fey, the tales warning entire kingdoms not to be blinded by faith, the cost of the balance."

“The Black Order is all but gone, I doubt there are enough of us left who know much of anything beyond the little knowledge we’ve read from the pages few books we could scavenge from the ruined libraries of our temples.”

Slowly, the arch lich hand stopped as it reached an impossibly ancient leather book aged beyond what seemed possible. Its pages, seemingly made of solid rock petrified by countless years.
Necrosis opened the book and flipped through the pages,

"I see now, Fernoia is gone, with the fey, and the only ones who could possibly remember those dark times would be, no one. Curses." He slammed the book shut and tucked it back in place. "So, the Church of Sarnia, they are behind my decline of students. Always the religious ones to start a darker age, expansion of a religion that not everyone wants to believe will only result in suffering, and awakening that thing."

“ Orla would know something perhaps ... “ Ursa spoke aloud in passing as she read through the pages then Zhaun'ol de' tangin saw fit to show her. “ She was fey of old that Kelmoran had trapped in the Dreaming long before I had arrived there. We escaped somehow but I lost track of her during the fighting that followed afterward.”

Necrosis thought for a moment, "Ah, Orla Carling the last spark of natural chaos from Fernoia. I've read about her. If I'm not mistaken, she is currently in…" With a flick of his wrist, a floating green crystal orb zoomed to the undead being, "Zatar. Odd place. It never quite fitted in this world. She seems to have been divided, her main half as a slave to a woman named Lucretia. A servant of the Nameless, of course. The other seems to be with her companions. It also seems she's not the only divided one. Draken Sainte, the future king of Dalen, is also in Zatar, but divided as well. " His eye sockets seem to rise in interest, "Oh Zatar, about to become a beacon of chaos, something we need in this land."

“As if the lands were not chaotic enough.” Ursa trying to catch a glimpse of whatever image that may have appeared in the crystal orb.

He flicked the orb away, "However, I cannot act. My mission remains the same, keep the balance." The magical orb landed gently on a shelf.

“Mission?” Ursa sounded offering the Archlich an upward glance.”Keeping the balance for what?”

"The balance of life and death. It is part of my curse, I cannot pass on unless the balance is restored and I find someone worthy to watch over it. I have restored centuries ago, but time after time again, I failed to find someone worthy to take my spot so I may pass on. The world has changed greatly in these passing times, I no longer wish to live on, I desire rest." He let out a huff of dead air.

Ursa had to take a moment to absorb what the arch-lich had said before finally giving voice to her thoughts. “ How do you bring balance to something that was never balanced to begin with. I mean you cant really restore something to a state that was never there to be begin with can you?"

"You can break it." He reached his hand out to the Zhaun'ol de' tangin. The ancient scripture floated to his hand, he opened his palm, allowing the book to float over it, and without even touching the pages, he began to flip to the beginning of the book. "As the dawn reached a new night, the balance of life and death shook at the might of the one they called, Mortem. The powerful necromantic conquer had conquered nearly everything, except for one thing, the true power of life over death. As ignorant as the man had become, with his undead abominations and his army of thralls, he wished to become the greatest necromancer of all time, to conquer death." The book flipped its pages as he read became faster and more violent, "So he prepared a ritual, a resurrection spell to revive an ancient people, an entire kingdom from the dead, his home, to prove he bowed to no one, to nothing, not even death. With his great power, he used his power to rip a hole from the living world and the afterlife in order to bring them all to life. In a great awe of power, he was successful, but at a price. The balance was cracking already from his dark deeds, but it was this action that shattered the balance. For a time, there was no difference between the living world and the dead." The pages slowed down as he reached closer to the end, "So the Lord of Darkness himself acted, he cursed the necromancer, to remain til the balance was restored, and to make sure it never happened again, protect it. He turned the mage into a twisted being of bone and steel, to represent his old ways. He then took his only sense of humanity, his wife and daughter. Mortem, enraged with himself, damned himself and his old ways. He changed his name to Necrosis, to represent his rotting image, and did his duty, his curse." He shut the book, "That is my curse."