Ledo's Tale 1

[Jezerai]

((By way of introduction, I have created a Vulmane necromancer.  I say this because I realize that it is unlikely that any of you will meet him.  When we were debating what classes should be allowed in Saga, Ana said something about wanting to see a necromancer with an original back story explaining why they were not evil.  I took it as something of a challenge and came up with the following.  This picks up where Jezerai's Tale 2 ended. ))



The light was bright and hurt his eyes. He groaned, unable to move, and was so disoriented that it took him several seconds to realize that the pain he felt came from a physical body. His eyes flew open in surprise, blinded and watering in the unaccustomed light for several seconds. His questing hands felt ground beneath them and when he ran them down his form, he felt a corporeal body.

Ledo found himself in a world ablaze with color. The air was full of scent and a cacophony of sound. He looked around him in wonder. The pale grey of the plane of the dead was there, but could only be faintly seen, like a double image mimicking the outlines of the more brightly hued living world. It took a few moments for the reality to sink in. Ledo was alive. After over a hundred years walking the lands of the dead, he now walked the lands of the living. Instead of bringing him joy, the thought filled him with horror. Unnatural life! He was not intended to live again and had never sought such a thing.

As his senses adjusted to the overwhelming sensations pressing against him, his next thought was panicked worry. Where was Jezerai? He vividly recalled seeing her pale form sink to the ground. Had she lived or did she even now walk among the dead? He could not sense her and it took him a few seconds to realize the significance of the fact that he could still sense the lands of the dead. But her absence there might only mean that she had moved beyond this plane and even now awaited rebirth in the ordinary cycle. Discovering that he could sense and control the dead did not make him any happier with his fate. While he had communed with spirits and had been a spirit guide, controlling the wandering dead seemed a perversion of the natural order.

Ledo's first thought was to find his pupil if she still lived. His heart ached at the thought that he might be here in the land of the living and she in the lands of the dead. He here beyond his time, and her gone long before she should be. She had spoken a lot of her guild, Strength and Honour, and the people that were to be found there. He decided to set out for Venik Ragnew, where they were quartered, and see if they knew anything of Jezerai's fate.

[Jezerai]

At first Jezerai could not believe that the Vulmane necromancer standing across from her was her dear friend, Ledo.  But his very embarrassment to be making the claim was convincing, and when he raised his brown eyes to meet hers, the warmth of his gaze removed all doubt.  Jezerai embraced Ledo, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks.  Ledo's return embrace was more restrained, but no less affectionate.

Jezerai had been suspicious when Lothiriel told her that a Vulmane necromancer claiming to be Ledo had been at the tavern looking for her.  Of course, Lothiriel did not really know who Ledo was.  Jezerai had never been comfortable talking about the spirits that were haunting her or the companion that Boudeccai had brought to her.  Lothiriel could not know how very incredible her account sounded.  The Ledo that Jezerai knew had been dead for over one hundred years.  He existed only as a spirit guide, held to the physical plane by his head, shrunken and worn about the neck first of Boudeccai, the shaman and later by Jezerai herself.  His appearances in the physical plane were brief and cost him much in energy.  But Lothiriel had told her that this Vulmane had said that she would know where to find him.  This intrigued Jezerai and eventually led her to see whether, in fact, the necromancer would be in the only place she could imagine that Ledo would go if he were in fact alive again.

During the long nights that Jezerai was stuck in the spiritual plane among the restless dead, Ledo had stayed with her.  He had been a companion, but more than that he had been a life line holding her anchored to sanity in that awful place.  They had talked of deep truths when small talk ran out.  Jezerai had told him her entire life story, holding back nothing of the darker pieces of her history.  Ledo had likewise told her of his history.  Ledo had always spoken of the island where he met his patron god as the place that held his heart.  He had spoken of visiting that place during all times of turmoil in his life.  The island lay north of Halgarad, an idyllic spot untouched by the years that had passed.  If, in fact, Ledo had returned there would be no other place he would go.  And so Jezerai was drawn to this place by curiosity and, coming here, she had found her friend though strangely altered.

Now the two sat side by side, Jezerai holding the furred hand of her dearest friend in both of hers.  "Tell me," she asked beseechingly, "How has this come to be?"

Ledo looked down at his lap.  "I can only guess, my dear child."  He coughed in embarrassment.  "I suppose you are not really such a child compared to me now."  He stopped a minute.  "I understand a bit about death now, you see.  I think that when I drew off the tainted jinn from all those spirits in an effort to save you, I inadvertently sucked up enough power to cross the threshold of death and back into life, though a strangely altered life."  He shook his head.  "I became what we sought to prevent, my dear.  Those spirits wanted to live again, I did not.  Now I have no choice.  And to find myself a necromancer.  I think I appear to be Vulmane because I was a Raku shaman and held in that form in the spirit world, although I really have no connection with the Vulmane beyond that.  I sprang into existence much as you see me now, full grown though new in my powers.  I have no mother and father living now, and still think of my mother and father in my former existence as my parents."  Ledo turned mournful eyes on Jezerai.  "You must believe me, my dear.  I never sought this second life.  If given the choice I would have passed on to the next cycle of death rather than return.  But here I am.  As a shaman, I have a great reverence for life and to follow the will of the gods.  I must believe that there is purpose in my presence and a further call for my services to Telon, though I cannot imagine what that would be.  Believe me, I find being a necromancer a horror and indeed my very existence to be a burden.  I cannot imagine that you look on me with anything other than abhorrence."

Jezerai wrapped her arm around Ledo.  "My dear friend and teacher.  I am very sorry that you feel this way though I understand how that would be.  But I love you dearly and am very happy to have you walk through this life with me.  Whatever the gods will for you, I will be there to share."  Jezerai hugged Ledo close and sent a small prayer of thanks for his presence though she did not believe in the gods and knew her happiness was a very selfish thing.