The Necromancer and the Spy

"STOP THAT RACKET!" a voice from the darkness shouted back. "It's hurting my ears!"

"B-But!" I wailed. "It's a spider! A SPIDER! You know I hate those things!"

Just the sight of the little eight-legged bug was enough to make my skin crawl. I was fine with snakes, lizards, frogs, worms, needles, the undead, ANYTHING except spiders. I was able to tolerate them when I was working, but otherwise…

"Oh for death's sake!" I heard the voice grumble. "My servant will get rid of it. Wait just a moment…"

There were more shuffling sounds and finally the room lit up. I saw at last what the building's interior really looked like without its veil of magic. It was what I considered to be the scariest place on earth. Everything was pink! Pink was my least favorite color just like sweet was my least favorite flavor! And worst of all, the home's inhabitant was as a short, teenage girl that looked as cutesy as a doll. Pink, sweets, cutesy and dolls, with so many things that I hate most in the world, I knew Knight-Captain Sun wouldn't think look for me here in a million years! It was the perfect hiding place and one that I used regularly.

I stared openly at the spider-removing servant so that my eyes could recover from the shock of a pinkness overload. After being away for more than ten months I had lost my immunity. I would take me weeks to build up resistance again. At least the servant was quite handsome looking… except for the fact that he was dead. I wasn't exactly "comfortable" with the idea of undead creatures either, but it was still better than…ugh! Pink.

"With nobody coming to visit me for a while," the master of the house complained. "I was worried that the church had forgotten about me. Are you acting as an ambassador, cleric?"

"Oh, uh…" I flushed embarrassed and glanced down at the white robes I was wearing. "I left behind most of my luggage on my last trip."

The master of the house raised an eye brow and I rubbed my neck sheepishly in response. Although my bangs were long enough to hide part of my face, with most of my hair cut short I looked more like a beautiful man (considering who my colleges were) than a girl. I explained, "It was either this or a bar-maid disguise."

The mental image made the master of the house giggle. I eloquently handed over the bouquet of lollipops I had brought. Once the peace offering had been given she immediately ordered her undead servant to set up a pink (ugh!) tea set.

Aside from the obvious differences between us the home's occupant and I got along rather swimmingly. Our favorite subject of conversation was bashing on the current Sun Knight, of course, but we also liked to talk about other things. Whenever I came over to visit I would bring either candy or sweets from my (now former) favorite bakery and she would bring out the tea she had been safe guarding for me. Never underestimate the power of tea.

Although I felt extremely uncomfortable sharing a tea set with a "young looking" woman and her plush toys, I knew it was a better deal than slinking around the church shadows all day. At least this way I could have an intelligible conversation instead of just replying with three dots to everything that was, in a way, even harder for my comrades to decipher than Knight-Captain Sun's outrageous speeches.

"Knight-Captain Sun hasn't come by recently either?" I asked with some doubt in my voice. Using the undead as punching bags was supposed to be his main way to relieve his work-related stress.

The master of the house shook her head with a pout and I sighed.

"He's shirking on his responsibilities again." I dropped my eyes to glare coldly at the hot beverage in my hands. It could only mean one thing. "He must have a new girlfriend."

"You don't know?" The master of the house asked shocked.

It was my turn to shake my head in reply and pout. My job was to know such things after all. Eliminating anything that posed a threat to the image of the Sun Knight or the Church was part of "my job". Unfortunately Knight-Captain Sun didn't make things easy for me. It was something of a tradition actually because I seem to remember my predecessor complaining about the exact same thing.

Dammit! Why can't he just resign himself to be a church hermit?! I sent an inquisitive thought in a skyward direction and got the distinct impression that the complaint had been openly ignored. I sighed again and informed my host, "After I hid his wine, he sent me to the other continent for ten months."

This was met with murmurs of sympathy.

"Now that I think about it, is that a new servant? Your last one had green eyes… I think." I commented lightly to change the subject.

"Sun destroyed my last one six weeks ago," my host replied mournfully. "He has such a bad temper."

We both groaned at the same time and then began giggling helplessly.

It was always like this. We would spend a few minutes getting all the "formalities" out of the way (meaning we mutually complained about Sun) and then the subject would change to another direction. I would tell her about church gossip and news from outside the city and she would give me a thorough history lesson about the continent and how it had changed over the centuries. Under any other circumstances I would be so bold as to call us "friends".

But we couldn't really be friends. This arrangement was just a convenience so I could keep an eye on the church's on-call necromancer. I used the arrangement for my own convenience, though. As a spy it was very hard for me to maintain any long-term relationships (such as with the young baker I had been flirting with off and on between missions). The necromancer had agreed to the bargain because I kept her from "being bored" all the time and a bored necromancer was a dangerous one.

There were a few conditions to the arrangement, however. The first and for most was that Knight-Captain Sun must never find out about it. Secondly, even though we knew each other's names we wouldn't use them. This was mostly for my sake so that I didn't forget that we weren't really friends. Additionally, no matter what, the "girl-time" we shared had to be fun. That was the rule that she imposed on me. I had agreed wholeheartedly since I was no match for the necromancer anyway and it gave me a safe zone to be "myself".

Out of all the holy knight positions mine took the least amount of "acting" since I only had to do so on missions, didn't need to attend public events, and was already pretty aloof from the get-go, but I still needed a break now and then. Plus I was a still a girl after all, even if I did swear an oath to serve the God of Light and the church. Luckily nobody has asked me to give up tea parties yet.

Once the tea was finished my necromancer "friend" and I began playing dress up. Being very… ah, "experienced" the necromancer had a whole stock of clothing, weapons, and strange magical artifacts for us to play with. I tried to stay away from anything too weird, but that was hard to do when you agreed to be a necromancer's dress up doll for a day. I used the time as a distraction to avoid thinking about more serious things (like the threat of invasion from another country). I also secretly enjoyed dressing up as a prince (not a princess) and acting out bits from my favorite stories.

"I also have this if you want to try it on," the necromancer said slyly and held up a vintage Sun Knight uniform from the Grisia era.

"You want me to comeback as a death knight, don't you?" I grinned. She knew me and my not-so-secret desire a little too well. "Knight-Captain Sun won't bring you lollipops anymore if I do."

The girly necromancer stuck out her bottom lip before proclaiming, "Then you'll just have to get them for me!"

I laughed, but it wasn't sincere. I had come very close to death once before. After "that" incident, even though he pretended he didn't, Knight-Captain Sun began treating me differently. I hated it. More than anything I wanted things to go back to the way they were before. I wanted him to send me on real missions again rather than those long and boring scouting outings. If it was just reconnaissance then I had people who could do that for me. I didn't have to travel abroad personally unless Knight-Captain Sun ordered me to.

If a close call like "that" had affected Knight-Captain Sun so badly then coming back as an undead creature would just be too cruel. I could never do that to my Captain. Besides, as an undead creature I wouldn't be able to enjoy tea like I do. Even if the God of Light himself ordered me to I would never be able to give up tea.

As soon as I thought that, however, I felt a shiver run up my spine.

My undead host and I shot looks towards the front door. A grin slid across her face and mine went white as a sheet. It seemed like Knight-Captain Sun hadn't found a new "stress reliever" after all, but his timing was very poor. I had been forced into wearing a teal ballroom dress that would make escaping out the back window very difficult at that moment. In the mirror I saw my reflection and grimaced. I didn't think I looked like a girl at all with my redish hair cut to the length of a boy's, but that wasn't the real problem. I glanced at my host and panicked. If he saw us Sun would probably blast us both.

"You could hide in here!" My host pointed to a large wardrobe.

"Wait! What about-?"I started to ask, but was interrupted when she shoved me in the wardrobe. I hissed in warning, "What about my aura?!"

"Don't worry," my host reassured me. "He won't know you're here. Then afterwards we can continue playing!"

Oh, no. I slumped down and tried to settle my flustered heart. If Knight-Captain Sun found me here…

A sick feeling started to grow in my stomach and began moving to the rest of my body. To my great shame I was trembling. If I had my druthers I'd rather fight a dragon. Yes, a dragon right then would definitely be my preference. Knight-Captain Sun was far scarier than a dragon.

…I think. I corrected myself.

I hadn't exactly seen a dragon before so I couldn't say for sure. Nobody had seen a dragon in hundreds of years. I could have been mistaken in thinking that. I quietly continued the debate on Sun vs. a dragon while taking slow, even breaths to clear my head.

It worked.

It's alright, I told myself. I am still (technically) in disguise.

If worse came to worse I could just pretend to be a confused maid- er, young man. I told myself that I could just play it off as being the victim, pretending not to know what was going on or how I got there. An undead creature kidnapping a beautiful… well, reasonably attractive young man for cross dressing wasn't that farfetched-

Except, I knew by just by instinct that it wouldn't work.

He might not be a "legendary" Sun Knight, I reminded myself. But there's really no such thing as an "ordinary" Sun Knight.

As a member of the "cruel hearted" fraction I couldn't sense the dark magic of the house or truly understand magic theory, but even if my hunch about magic was right (and my host could easily hide my faint holy aura) I knew I would be discovered momentarily regardless. I wouldn't credit this ability to magic or skill, but Knight-Captain Sun has a gift for arriving the moment I get into trouble. I don't mean real trouble. I mean that troublesome trouble that will earn me detention for a week. Like when I'm conspiring with necromancers for instance.

And not just any necromancer; I mean "that" necromancer. The very same necromancer that was responsible for "that" incident.

"What are you hiding?" I heard Knight-Captain Sun ask in a suspicious tone.

My heart jumped. His tone unfortunately did not sound like a husband who had just walked in on his wife having an affair. There was genuine animosity in his voice. Well, my host conjured undead creatures for a living and the very thing the "perfect" Sun Knight was supposed to hate most in the world. However, he was using such a tone on the necromancer specifically hired by the church. I knew nothing good would come of that.

"I'm not hiding anything!" The master of the house protested. "Hey! Don't just go through a girl's things as you please! Hey!" But when Knight-Captain Sun opened the wardrobe it was already empty.

With great difficulty I had managed to slip out the window while only tearing the dress a little bit. It was later in the evening than I expected which would make my trip back to the Holy Temple easier. As I made my mad dash up to the city roof tops (a place nobody ever bothered to look for suspicious activity), there was a brilliant flash of holy light behind me coming from the necromancer's house. I paused briefly, but I couldn't see anything.

I sighed yet again.

Knight-Captain Sun did have a nasty temper. I would have to apologize "on his behalf" later. It would be significantly "troublesome" if the church didn't have the use of its on-call necromancer. I just hoped that she wouldn't ask me to replace her undead servant. Maybe she would let me off if I just gave her a list of possible candidates based on the coroner's lists? But somehow I didn't think that was very likely.

Since it was dark enough that I wouldn't be noticed by the casual observer I slowed my pace to a walk. This way I could enjoy the sights of the city I called "home". After hundreds and hundreds of years the capital had gown and changed over time. It was very different from what it had been like in the history books, but I cherished it. The capital was a fairly average-sized for a city. There were far bigger ones scattered across the country, but this was the capital. The capital was where the laws were made, where parliament wasted taxpayer money, where the royal family still acted as hosts to foreign diplomats, and it was where the Holy Temple resided. No matter where they were, the citizens of this country always looked to the capital for leadership and hope. I was happy to be a small part of that. I always wished I could do more, but being the church's eyes and ears was enough.

Speaking of eyes and ears, I suddenly remembered that I needed to check on my spy network. Naturally I had absolute faith in my vice-captain being able to manage without me (hence why he was picked in the first place), but I would feel a lot better about things if I did a thorough check myself.

However, I hadn't forgotten that I had been ordered to take a leave for proper bed rest-

But how could I possible rest when there was so much I still had to do? I thought to myself worriedly.

Still, Knight-Captain Sun had given me a direct order and if I failed to carry it out I wouldn't be allowed to see the light of day for a very, very long time. I decided to leave the major things to my vice-captain a little bit longer. In the meantime I couldn't possibly remain confined in my quarters without going absolutely insane.

There was only one place I could go (now that my "safe zone" had been raided). The list of places I'd rather be than cooped up in my room were, in order: a dragon's lair, a necromancer's house, and the cleric's school located adjacent to the church.

The moment I arrived back at the Holy Temple I freed myself form the ballroom dress and donned my spare cleric's disguise and a wig. So many people came from all over the world to become clerics at the Sanctuary of Light that I could blend in without anyone being the wiser. It was one of my more versatile and easy to get a hold of disguises. If it wasn't for the fact that my healing abilities royally sucked (thankfully I've never had to do more than cast minor heal) I could quite easily pass as a cleric.

The cleric school's library was open all day and all night to give the students every possible opportunity to study, but few actually did. With the exception of the half asleep librarian's assistant watching the front desk the library was completely empty. I suspected that most of the text books were resting on end tables in the dorms collecting dust.

"It's so lonely…" I whispered and caught myself. Lonely? Hadn't I always preferred the peaceful company of books?

I most certainly wasn't dwelling on thoughts about the young baker I fancied nor was I trying to decide if dropping by so far after the wedding would be rude. I stuck with my subtle denial and decided Sun was right. I needed rest. I had been shot, right? One could only imagine what kind of mental trauma that created.

I continued scolding myself for pushing my body and mind too hard not even a day after I had recovered. I left the library and resigned myself to spending some quality time with my bed sheets. I picked up a few historical volumes to keep me company and made my way out to the ornate garden that I used as a shortcut to get back to my room. I muttered some complaints about how my recovery speed was absolutely pitiful and unfortunately, because of that I wasn't looking were I was going, I had failed to consider the possibility that the garden's layout may have been altered in the time I was away, making my picture-like memory of it obsolete. It was so dark that I walked right into a pillar that I was very sure hadn't been there ten months earlier. As a result I fell backwards in surprise dropping my stack of books in the process.

"Ouch!" I quickly cast minor heal so that my delicate face wouldn't bruise. "Who puts a pillar there anyway?"

Unexpectedly the "pillar" began to move. I blinked and froze. What shady character besides me would be out this late at night?

"Ah I'm terribly sorry!" A gentle voice said in alarm. I felt a calloused hand reach for mine and help me back to my feet. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness and I could just barely make out a male figure.

Wait… these calluses… I realized something alarming and let go of the gentleman's hands quickly. I needed to leave immediately. In a very girlish voice I stuttered, "I-I'm alright. P-please pay me no mind… Ah! My books!"

"Here, allow me-" the gentleman spoke an incantation and a flash of holy light gave us something to see by. This ability not only revealed the identity of the gentleman in question, it also proved my hunch correct. The calloused hands I had felt belonged to a skilled archer. Fortunately my hood was up so I remained unrecognized by none other than-

"Oh! Leaf Knight! I'm s-sorry!" I stammered helplessly but was thinking more along the lines of, and what scandalous things are the good guys doing this time of night that I'll have to cover up later? Hmmm?

Fortunately Knight-Captain Leaf was genuinely a good guy for the most part, but everybody has their quirks. Knight-Captain Sun is a womanizer; Knight-Captain Storm has a secret gambling addiction-

And if anybody says that I have a tea addiction I'll sock them in the face! I need it to stay awake and clean up the messes that these guys make!

Knight-Captain Leaf handed me the books and I pretended to shyly back away. I wore a mask most of the time, but it didn't hurt to be careful. After all, the biggest scandal in the church was me! If the continent found out that there was a woman (who is not a cleric) working so closely with a group of some of the most beautiful men in the country it would make the entire female population from girls to grannies hate me. I'd get a constant stream of hate mail, death threats, and ballads dedicated to me (conveniently) heroically dying as a young virgin.

I love my job, dammit! I declared with great passion in a skyward direction. Even I'm not immune to the beauty that surrounds me. Strong, well-built men living by the faith in their god and by the sword! How dare Knight-Captain Sun order me to live without my sparkly eye-candy for ten months?

A pair of warm hands wrapped around my clenched fist and I could feel myself being dragged somewhere. Knight-Captain Leaf was pulling me towards the temple.

"Umm…" I started to ask.

"I'm so relieved!" Knight-Captain Leaf flashed me a smile. "I didn't think any of the clerics would be awake this hour, but the matter is most urgent. I don't think it can wait until morning."

Say what? My expression and mind went totally blank in confusion.

"Judgment is really scary, so I couldn't refuse his request. I'm so glad I found a cleric right away!" Knight-Captain Leaf pulled me a little faster now. "We should hurry; it's not good to keep Knight-Captain Judgment waiting!"

"Judgment?! But wait…" I wanted to shout in warning, but it was useless.

But I'm not a cleric! I'm a holy knight!