“What do you mean I can`t be your apprentice?”, Grey yelled in utter disbelief.

  “I don`t want you to become a Necromancer. Please Grey, you need to listen to me. I will help you become anything you want to be, just not that.”, Thanatos decred, determined not to be swayed on the matter.

  “I don`t understand! Why wouldn’t you want me to become your apprentice? I read one of the books you keep hidden away. I`ve read your history. You did so much, helped so many people. Why can`t I do the same?”, Grey was overwhelmed. Her mind ran frantic with confusion and feelings of rejection.

  “Sweetie, please. I never wanted you to find out about that side of me. Necromancy isn`t something to be taken so lightly, it`s dangerous. Trust me when I say this, no good can come from it. Trust that I know what I am talking about and ask me no more. I know this must hurt you but I am only doing what I think is best for you. If only you knew…”, Thanatos mented on the past, looking at Grey`s devastated expression, struggling to strengthen their resolve against their daughters crushed hopes.

  “No! Expin it to me. You have to. You can`t just deny me this without a reason, without cause. It isn`t fair. You took care of me, raised me, educated me. I used to think it was all leading up to becoming your apprentice. But if that`s not the reason then why? Why do all this?”, Grey pleaded, unsure of herself. Her emotions were in total rebellion feelings and thoughts colliding propelling her to speak before she had a chance to think.

  Finally Thanatos rose to their feet shaken by their daughters admittance.

  “I did it because I love you. Because you are my daughter, my child. I have given you everything I can, not because I expect something but because you deserve it. When I first id eyes on you at the orphanage cold and dying. You looked back at me with the strength and determination lost in so many others. Despite this I knew that if I left you would have succumb to that harsh environment like so many before you. Determination like that, I couldn’t allow it. I took you from that pce and nurtured your strength, gave you a second chance, because you deserved it.”, Thanatos grew quiet, lost in the memory of that day. “You were just one of many, the one that held on. The one that kept on fighting despite everything. I couldn’t save the other children but I could save you. So I did.”

  Grey stood silent, encapsuted by her father`s words. She took a step towards them and took their skeletal hand.

  “Dad, please. You saved me and gave me everything so that I could one day make my own choices, shape my own destiny. Right? This is the destiny I choose; to carry on your legacy. Please, don`t deny me this.”, Grey begged her father. She begged with every fibre of her being, every cell in her body, she begged like she had never begged before.

  In the few times that she challenged her father they had always responded respectfully. Listened to her case and expined their point of view. Ground was given and taken on both fronts and was done so fairly. But this was different. No excuse, no reasoning, this wasn`t fair.

  Thanatos lowered their daughters hand and led her to her room.

  “Let me tell you a bedtime story, like I used to do when you were small. Listen to every word of it and in the morning if you still feel the same then I shall grant you your request.”, Thanatos looked Grey in the eyes, helping her into bed like they had done when she was little. She respected her father`s request and listened intently to every word.

  Thanatos began to tell Grey of their past. Of their life on the surface. Their life of flesh and blood. Of their apprentices, their children. Altor the Young, Breok the Introverted, Charlein the Questionable and Doxel the Eager. Of all they learned together and all the good they did. They almost let themselves feel a drop of pride in all they had once done, once been. Then the room grew cold and the story went on. Of their apprentices betrayal. No, not a betrayal, a delusion. A delusion that led them to becoming enemies. A delusion that led Thanatos to returning each of them to the dirt.

  Grey looked into the eyes of her father sorrowful and unable to understand their pain. She reached out to hold their hand in hers but they recoiled disgusted with themselves and their past.

  “In the end I had no choice but to kill them. Each and every one of them. But it didn`t stop there. They too had apprentices of their own and they had already begun their ‘great pn’. I rallied those still loyal to me and we tried to stop them. We fought for years until I alone remained. All we had built, destroyed. All the good we had achieved, erased. Cities burned, innocents sughtered in the thousands, the world above still hasn’t fully recovered.”, Thanatos finished.

  “Dad, I…”, Grey stopped. She let the words sink in further, looked at her father and saw the raw emotion exuding itself from his skeletal form. Nothing she said in this moment could take away that pain, that regret.

  “Necromancy is power and power corrupts.”, Thanatos mented.

  “It didn`t corrupt you.”, Grey added hopefully.

  “No. But it did blind me. It blinded me to the corruption growing before me. I loved every one of my apprentices, my children, as I love you. I cannot bear the thought of having to do to you what I had to do to them. To have to make that choice again or bring more suffering to this world through my teachings. So please, please understand why I cannot teach you or make you my apprentice.”, Thanatos pleaded, his body shaking like Grey had never seen it do before.

  “Dad, I understand your fear. I understand your hesitation. But I can be different. I can be the exception to the rule, like you are. I can learn from the mistakes and be better. I have something your other apprentices didn`t have. I have the benefit of hindsight.”, Grey argued, taking both her father`s hands, looking into their eyes and pleading with them. “Let me right the wrongs and allow your legacy a chance at redemption. Let me be your st apprentice. Let me be the st necromancer.”

  [---]

  Grey couldn`t sleep that night thoughts of her possible future filling her mind. Thanatos had heard her words and felt her intent and could not argue against it. They requested time to think instructing Grey to seek them out ter the next day. Many things pgued Thanatos`s mind and conscience all growing less important in the face of their daughter. It was the most human thing they had experienced in a long time and it filled them with wavering certainty.

  Grey decided to go out and wonder the streets aimlessly itching for something, anything to take her mind off of her father`s pending decision and the anticipation that came with it.

  Wrapped in all the bedding she could carry out with her she climbed onto Whiskers back and gently urged him into the cold night.

  The dropping temperature heralded the end of the day as people carried their warmth out of the streets and into their homes. The days were short in the Undercity, twelve hours to be exact. In the depths where the sun wasn’t even a thought it was the mushrooms that dictated the schedule of time. Growing a lot faster than standard crops they required more vigint attention to cultivate properly.

  Grey had heard stories when she was younger of other pces functioning on a twenty four hour day. The idea was unfathomable, to sleep for so long and be awake for even longer. It sounded torturous. Even more horrifying were seasons, times of the year where the temperature would change and bring with it a host of weather based disasters. The most weather the Undercity experienced was a light fog in the mornings.

  The streets were lit by oil nterns slowly growing dimmer as they ran ever closer to becoming dry. Every now and then Grey would pass a member of the Cartel refilling the mps. The Cartel, the unofficial government of the Undercity, it was their duty to make sure the Undercity never fell into darkness. Her father had told her of how they rose to power, from a small mp lighters guild into the entity it was today with its finger on the pulse of every citizen. Once in a while Willow would speak of them with venom in her mouth. She would never expin why and Grey would prefer such foul words stayed out of such a pretty mouth. Surely they weren`t all that bad, they did keep the city from descending into darkness after all.

  Fog began to drift towards Grey and Whiskers. Strange, fog was usually a morning thing, this could only mean one thing. They rounded a corner and stopped abruptly finding the source of the fog. A wall of mine workers most likely leaving work brought their heat with them through the cold city. They were a mass of dishevelled, dirt covered men and woman of various shapes and sizes. The one thing they all shared in common was their impeccable muscuture and the pick`s they rested upon their shoulders.

  Grey urged Whiskers to move aside not wanting to get in the way of the exhausted slow moving river of bourers. Each and every one of them had sunken eyes bloodshot from being exposed to hours of dust in the mines. They paid Grey no mind concerning themselves with more pressing and immediate desires such as food, drink and sleep.

  “Oi stranger!”, a voice yelled out to her from amongst the crowd. She looked around thinking for a second that the comment was targeted at someone else but only she was there. She peered into the crowd but could not pinpoint where the voice had come from.

  Seconds ter a tall slim muscur figure pushed their way through the crowd and pnted themselves before Grey, pick strapped practically to their back.

  It was a boy, she thought, a Goblin boy? No, too tall, an orc? No, not tall enough and far to lean. He must have been a half-orc. His faded green skin was barely visible underneath the yers of caked on dust. It was his face that gave him away, yellow eyes and small protruding tusks from his mouth. His hair was side swept to the right a long scar decorating the left side of his shaven scalp. He stood invigorated by his youth and smiled at Grey with his tusks poking their way past soft lips dabbed neatly with pink cy. He wore the signature thick leather metal tipped boots of a miner and a skirt of rat fur. The skirt looked quite expensive. His upper torso glistened with sweat catching the flickering mp light casting detailed shadows on his muscur chiselled build. He was the prettiest boy she had ever seen.

  “What`s a fine looking dy like yourself doing here at this hour? Best run along home before someone starts to worry where their little girl wondered off to.”, he giggled, pyfully teasing her with his words while examining her with not so respectful eyes.

  Grey straightened her back in an attempt to appear imposing despite her fragile physique. She was no stranger to bullies, she had encountered quite a few growing up. Sure being home bound for her most recent years had left her a little rusty. But she was confident she could stand up to him, especially with Whiskers backing her up.

  “I think you best be minding your business sir. I am not some princess in need of rescuing.”, in truth, she had dreamed of being a princess but wasn`t about to tell him that. She petted Whiskers gently on the side of his head making him bare his fangs. This brought him to the would be bullies attention.

  The boy took a step back once he had noticed the beast she rode upon but maintained his composure not letting himself be startled.

  “You`ve got some attitude. That’s good. I`d love to stay and chat but I`ve got some friends waiting for me. Maybe I`ll see you around, if I`m lucky.”, he remarked with a wink, slinking back into the crowd of miners disappearing from sight but not from thought.

  Eventually the mass of miners trickled down the street and disappeared entirely into the night. Grey was left alone with Whiskers and the young man`s impression fresh in her mind. She shook her head gently forcing herself to forget him. She tugged at Whiskers ear gently and gestured for him to take her to Willow.

  [---]

  “So do you think your dad is going to agree?”, Willow asked, preoccupied with coaxing fire flies into a jar. They only came out for an hour each night spending the majority of their time burrowed inside mushrooms. They went for a fortune on the bck market as an alternative light source. Willow just wanted them for personal use. As a farmer she understood the danger of over exploiting a resource.

  “Honestly, I don`t know. They have good reason not to. I would be disappointed if they said no but I wouldn`t be able to argue with them. You know, I knew they were old but I never really realised how old until now. Can you imagine living for hundreds of years? How do you not get bored?”, Grey wondered out loud, digging out some dirt from underneath her nails.

  “How do you not get lonely is my thought. Boredom is easy, things change every day. But finding someone to love when you`re so different from everyone. Must have been hard. Makes me grateful.”, Willow replied, wiping some hair from her face behind her ear staring at Grey lovingly. The glow from the fire flies causing the sweat on her cheeks to glisten magically.

  Grey blushed, charmed by Willow`s words. Their retionship was still in its infancy but their friendship had been going strong for years. This change in their dynamic had felt right to Grey, it felt natural.

  She stared at her in silence, infatuated with her beauty. She looked over every little detail of her face and committed them to memory.

  “What?”, Willow asked anxiously, distracted by Grey`s staring.

  Grey stared harder repying everything she loved about Willow in her head. Reminding herself how lucky she was to have her in her life.

  “Stop that. It’s embarrassing.”, Willow demanded shyly.

  Grey imagined all their possible futures together and found none of them cking in enjoyment.

  “Grey please. You`re making me nervous and I still have a lot of work to do.”, Willow pleaded fumbling with the st jar she used to catch some fireflies.

  “Sorry. You know I would help you if I could but I`m weak and frail.”, Grey began, gingerly putting on a performance to exaggerate her fragility.

  “And not a Goblin.”, Willow added. She rose from the ground , firefly jars in hand and proceeded to pce them around her crops. The oil mps were running out of fuel and she couldn’t afford to be left in the dark.

  “Hey now. That’s discrimination I`ll have you know.”, Grey corrected, teasingly sticking her tongue out.

  “I ain`t discriminating. Just pointing out a fact. I have several generations worth of knowledge in this lil brain of mine on the finer points of mushroom farming. That kind of knowledge can`t be taught in a few days you know.”, Willow expined, weeding out wilted mushrooms and turning the soil.

  “True. But surely it`s not all brain matter involved. I`m sure there is a lot of bour intensive stuff that anybody could help with.”, Grey enquired, generally interested in the ins and outs of Willows profession.

  “I mean sure but you are hardly suited for that kind of work, no offense, and hiring people is expensive. Not to mention I can`t risk a failed crop, that would be the end of me”. Willow stood up and wiped the sweat from her brow looking over her dimmer than usual fields. “Damn Cartel, never around when you need them. What am I paying them for anyway? To only keep my farm lit for half a day? Absurd!”, Willow compined.

  “Wait, you have to pay them for the light?”, Grey asked curiously.

  “Yupe, more than half my crop yield.”, Willow remarked frustrated.

  “Half?.”, Grey announced shocked. “That`s insane. No way mp oil is that expensive.”

  “You`re probably right.”, Willow agreed, “But what can I do, what can anyone do. They`re our only option. There is no alternative and fireflies just aren’t sustainable enough. Hell, even if they were the Cartel would probably make me pay for them too”.

  “I`m sorry Willow. I didn`t realise the Cartel was that bad. If my dad lets me become his apprentice I will find a way to use my powers to help you.”, Grey promised. “At the very least I`ll make sure we get you a discount on bonemeal.”

  “You don`t need to worry about me Grey.”, Willow remarked stretching her arms up in relief. “I`ll be okay. I have my world and you have yours. No need for you to sacrifice for me. You gotta put yourself first.”

  “I will. But your apart of my world too you know. So no compining if that includes me helping you out.”, Grey remarked with a honeyed smile and a wink.

  [---]

  Grey returned home ter than intended to find her father behind the counter, the room illuminated by an unnatural light she had never seen before. On the store front counter was a rat in a cage sat before them. In the Undercity one could find two kinds of rats; the kind you ate and the kind that ate you. Fortunately this was the former.

  “Hi Dad.”, Grey greeted, unsure of what she was looking at.

  “I have decided, to teach you Necromancy.”, Thanatos began slowly and with great authority. “I will be teaching you the basic`s and nothing more. If Necromancy is to survive then it shall do so at your behest and of its own merit. Like all things it is a tool, it can achieve things great and small, good and evil. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”, Grey responded respectfully, taking the full weight of her father`s words.

  “Then come closer and let me begin. Necromancy is the manipution of life and death. By tapping into the life essence of all things including yourself you can bestow commands and even sentience on things that are and have long been departed. All living creatures share a single commonality, a soul. Take this rat.”

  Thanatos gestured to the creature in the cage and hovered their skeletal hand over it. The rat began to writhe and contort until a glowing green essence extruded itself from the creatures body and into their hand. The creature died as the st of its life left its body to sit in the palm of Thanatos`s hand. A few second passed and with pointed fingers they directed the essence back into the corpse of the rat. Its body twitched back to unlife and a feint green glow had emerged in its eyes. The same kind of glow that permeated around the room.

  “Do you see daughter. The basics of necromancy is the manipution of the soul and its energies. Is this something you still desire?”, Thanatos enquired bluntly.

  They instructed as they had done so many times before with so many other apprentices. The only difference this time is that it would be the st. The removed the responsibility from themselves and bestowed it upon Grey. They accepted; that if the worst came to pass it would not be by their hand. They would not stop their daughter like they had done with others before. They gave her what she wanted and it was her that would have to live with the consequences of that.

  “Yes.” She responded once more, strengthening her resolve and vowing to herself to be better than those who came before her.

  “Then lower your hand over this creature and concentrate. Concentrate and feel the life flowing through it. Feel it`s heartbeat, feel the blood coursing through its veins. Feel it and take hold of it.”