Chapter 37

While walking over through the boisterous crowd of celebrating Norn Alvar wondered not for the first time if his idea was a good one or just plain stupid. He knew nothing about the man he was walking towards besides what the man had told the children at the introductory day and thus felt too out of control for his liking…

Soon Alvar had arrived before the old man who had a curious expression on his face as he could clearly see that Alvar had something to ask of the old man.

"Hello." Alvar began, not sure how else to start but knew that now, when he had come this far, that he needed to finish why he had come to the necromancer.

"Hello to you too. Can I help you with something, young one?" The old man replied while slurping from his drink in amusement at Alvar's awkward energy that surrounded him like a cloud of dust.

"Yes! Uhm, you see tonight the Havroune of the raven spirit told us that a group of hunters, that died a couple weeks ago, hadn't moved on into the mists where they would be picked up by the patron spirits in order to be escorted into the underworld…" Alvar rattled down, causing the man's eyes to grow from amused to solemn in an instant.

"Yes, I have heard of the matter. Most curious…" the old man replied with his old, yet silky, voice while also stroking his beard in thought.

"So, I was wondering if you knew of any way that enabled someone to gain control over a person's soul when they were about to move on into the mists." Alvar asked, causing the man to hum in thought after which he returned his gaze to Alvar while a question bloomed on his lips.

"I may know but why are you asking in the first place? This is way out of your league, young man." The necromancers question not really startling Alvar as he had guessed as much already when he had made the decision to come over and talk to the man.

"One of the men in the group that fell was my uncle. So you see that I have a rather big motivation to help, if only a little bit…" Alvar replied causing the old man to nod in understanding.

"I see. That does put that incident into perspective indeed. Still, I am not sure if I should tell you about such knowledge as you will not be able to do anything anyway for quite a while, if ever…" The old man said causing Alvar to frown in frustration, even though he had expected as much already.

None the less he at least hoped to know what was going on, for the peace of his mind, no matter if he could help or not. "Could you please tell me? I know I won't be able to do anything but I just need to know! Please, tell me!" Alvar said while bowing his head to which the old necromancer let out a sigh of helplessness.

After a while of silence between the two the old man responded. "Alright, I will tell you but you must swear to me that you will not share the knowledge lightly with just anybody, understood?" Causing Alvar to nod furiously in reply.

"There are various ways to accomplish such an endeavour but all have side effects as such magic usually requires an enormous amount of will to dominate and possess. Another way I could imagine is if one had the ability to enter the mists on their own free will, which you may know, only very rarely is an ability given to mankind. Of course there may yet exist other ways that I am not privy to that have been created newly or existed without my knowledge in the first place…" The old necromancer said causing Alvar to crease his eyebrows in distaste.

"But how would someone even be able to keep control over a soul? I mean, souls aren't really touchable right? So that means you would need to use mana manipulation to keep them under control and that for how long now? A few weeks? Who does have that much mana in their possession?" Alvar asked back to which the old man regarded Alvar with a curious light in his eyes, obviously surprised at Alvar's deduction.

"Indeed, young man. You have a bright head on your shoulders. Pity you didn't pick the necromancer as your profession. We may have yet formed something remarkable out of you…" The old man spoke causing Alvar to shrug his shoulders in semi apology.

"Who knows what the future may bring? Maybe I'll learn something from you still someday or so." Alvar responded with a small smile, echoed by the old man upon hearing Alvar's words.

Indeed, that may yet still hap---!" The old man was interrupted though by the bonfire simmering down in the middle of the great hall, while a frosty wind had entered the great hall, an eerie whisper in the air that reminded Alvar of one particular situation he had been witness too, causing a fearful shiver to run down his spine and his fists to clench in barely surpressed anger.

"Jormag!" Alvar grit out through his clenched teeth causing the old necromancer's eyes to widen in shock at Alvar's words, after which he shoved Alvar behind him in protection, while various men and women had stood up from their places and taken up arms in preparation for what was to come…