(A/N: Lirael's poor technique with ringing the bells will be addressed, and I will not upload the next one till I know I have readers, so post a review)
The Abhorsen Lirael drew Saraneth, smelling and tasting the tang of free magic and sensing Death. A rustling was heard coming from the trees surrounding the clearing, "That won't work you know," a voice of a young male, no free magic had been inside his voice, so it may have been something else... no, the voice came from the same direction as the sense of Death.
"Who are you?" Lirael shouted to delay as she called upon the Charter.
"Neither the bells, nor your ability with the Charter would work against me, I am at a whole new level," the voice rang with Charter for truth, "I mean you no harm," Charter for truth and surrender, "I am simply one who was born in Death, yet truly lives in life," a thud came from the direction of the voice as the young man jumped out of the tree.
Lirael put away the bell, but still drew on the Charter, keeping a spell for binding and fire ready to slow him down should he attack
A Charter light flared into existence right under the tree, "I shall only come closer if you permit it," he added a seemingly redundant Charter for truth. The light brightened a bit to reveal the form of a young man, that the voice would seem to belong to, "Reach out with your senses, though you will find that though I am associated with Death and Free Magic, you will see that I am alive and use the Charter," he added the last part to emphasize the redundancy of the entire statement.
He was not lying, Lirael felt the life within him, "Come closer," he had a heavy aura of Free Magic, but the smell faded away and was replaced with rosemary, a familiar smell that she couldn't quite place why it felt uncomfortable, "What are you?"
As he got closer she noticed he was pale and had deep black hair, covering his forehead, he wore bandages covering his entire body, she assumed as he was wearing pants, excluding his neck an up, "I'm not entirely sure as to the what, in my 17 years of living I have not learned much more than I told you. I was a still-born, and had gotten to the Seventh Precinct of Death when Astarael awoke," Lirael suddenly remembered why the smell of rosemary made her uncomfortable and she bent over and vomited, "Yes, you met her, my mother as I call her. She decided she liked me for whatever reason and pulled me out of death, reuniting me with my body and gave me the breath of life. I had been left where I died on the road, the woman who gave birth to me dead and reanimated as well as her husband. My corpse however was left behind, thought of as unsuitable by the many Dead and even the Necromancers Hedge and Chlorr. I wandered off, eating rotten fruit falling off of trees I survived for over a month, then a traveling merchant picked me up on one of the many occasions I had cried out of my loneliness. He had broken off from his group to travel alone in his retirement to find himself a nice place to settle after Orranis was sealed. He raised me in secrecy, knowing the tang of Free Magic, but also knowing I was a child. When I was five he gave me a Charter mark on my forehead hoping to counter the smell of Free Magic, he was relieved when it was replaced with the smell of my mother, rosemary," He sat down, "After he died, I went into Death after him, I don't know what I planned to do when I found his spirit, but in I went. There I met my mother Astarael and she gave me more power and sent me back into life after explaining it all. I began to wander and now here I am"
Lirael blinked twice at the unbelievable story and shook her head, "Do you really expect me to believe that story?"
"Believe, don't believe, all the same to me, but you need an explanation as to why I smell of Death and Free Magic even though," Charter for truth began to mix in his words, "I am human and I am not a necromancer"
"Well why don't you just repeat the story using the Charter for truth you so like using?" she asked exasperated.
"Because that would take away all the fun," he chuckled.
"Well, regardless, I'm going to check your Charter mark to see if you are corrupted," She was about to push his hair out of the way to check but he grabbed her hand.
"Could you leave my hair in place but just touch my whole forehead, I've got a nasty scar I would rather not show"
"I guess so," She slipped her hand under his hair and felt the familiar Charter, and felt some she didn't recognize.
He pulled her hand away, "Satisfied Abhorsen?"
"Yes," she took a gulp of air and sat. He sat with her and immediately a large amount of Greater Dead began to form up around them.
"Not again, third time today guys, how many times do I have to send you back to death?" Lirael went for her bells and the young man held out his hand, "Not gonna work,"
She took out the bell anyways, Saraneth, the Binder.
"Ok, just to let you know, these guys are attracted by my power and some of them are able to draw on it," He grabbed on a loose end of the bandage on each forearm and held.
She took out Kibeth as well and began ringing them in a formation of various Charter Marks of Binding and sending. The command was clear but she spoke the command with Free Magic, blistering her lips and singeing her tongue, "Return to Death and walk swiftly to the Ninth Gate and beyond!"
Some of the weaker ones obeyed, squirming attempting to break free of the spell, but they went through. Some stayed, not even being pushed back into Death, just like the young man said, "Just like I said, but more than I thought stayed, no matter, I shall bind them and prevent them from drawing on me anymore, and I shall channel their power into the River, sending them on a swifter journey, I'm tired of these particular ones and I need some sleep," He tugged on the bandages, causing them to come off his arms, showing off Charter tattoos covering his arms. He clapped, sending off a shock-wave filled with Charter marks, this injured most of them, but did not stop them from gathering materials to make themselves Mordicants.
"This is impossible!" Lirael screamed, "They cannot be doing this! A necromancer would need to create the bodies and summon them!" She looked over at the young man who had blood profusely dripping from his forehead, down his face. She looked at her hands and saw blood there as well.
"Sorry, my scar bleeds in the presence of Dead, as I just said," he closed his eyes, summoning up Charter marks as he continued speaking, "I encountered these particular ones twice today and several more in between, they've been coming since my mother increased my power by becoming one with me, she wasn't able to pour all her power into me as it would cause the River of Death to flow in my wake, only did enough to make me able to see into Death permanently. But anyways, they're collecting my blood now so I'm gonna..." He closed his hand around the spell, Lirael knew only one Charter Mark in it, the Master Mark, the powerful one that sealed the spell, the same one she used to prevent the Stilken from escaping the room. The Charter Marks on both his arms lit up and so did the ones on his torso under the bandages, connecting the two. The same spell began glowing in his other hand and he threw the two at the various Dead collecting mud and branches. The spells struck the ground, at first silently then a loud bang and bright flash of light came out as the spell unraveled it's many Charter marks. The Charter Marks on his fingers began to glow, strings of Charter wrapped around the now weakened Dead and connected to his fingers. He yanked up on the strings and clasped his hands together in front of his lips and muttered a few Charter. They flowed down the string to the Dead, went into them and disappeared, a few seconds later Free Magic began traveling up the strings back to him. He pulled his hands apart and clenched them into fists, the strings tightening on the Dead, "Do it, do it now!" he barked.
Lirael snapped out of the daze caused by the dead building themselves and repeated what she had done earlier. The young man pointed at her mouth when she hesitated on saying the words and a Charter spell shot at her.
"It dulls the effect of Free Magic, NOW!"
She shook her head, "Return to Death and go to the Ninth Gate and beyond!" she rang Saraneth in a triangle as the young man swiftly repeated what she said with more Free Magic in his words, his spell somehow rode on her ringing of Saraneth and he released the strings. The Dead fading back into Death.
He fell to his knees and clutched his chest. He stood, "Work is not done yet, can't collapse into a heap till it is," he held his hands together as if in prayer and began muttering, the bandage rewrapped itself around his now-burnt arms, burnt from the sheer amount of Magic, both Charter and Free he had used. The bandage glowed and his arms had healed. He then restored the bandage and created a large amount of small complex Sendings. He muttered a bit more and a headband of Charter appeared around his forehead, the blood on his face retreating into it. He opened his eyes, "The Sendings will take me to follow you" He collapsed, the Sendings catching him and forming themselves into a cot made of Charter with a billion tiny legs.
Lirael sighed, wishing she had one herself.
The young man raised a hand and traced a Charter symbol in the air, it floated over to her lips and healed her.
She sighed, "It's gonna be a long night," she yawned and lay down, the battle had exhausted her too much to head back to the Abhorsen house.