Role

Chapter 2

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The necromancer's guild of Teth Azeleth was small, yet it held growing power
within the city, second only to the High Priestess and her students.
Although, even she thought long and hard about crossing the Hlandinis, the
necromancer who was now Khalmarnasa's mentor. It was strange indeed that a
male should hold such influence in the dark-elf society, but it was whispered
that there was knowledge he possessed which even the fanatics of the Spider
Queen feared. His lessons to Khalmarnasa revealed the reasons for the black
fire of her elemental spells, were in fact due to her affinity with the
negative place, a talent few even in the necromancer's craft possessed. He
spoke to her of order and reason, the strict rigor of the necromancer's
craft, the need for perfection in all things to minimize the inherent failure
of reanimation. He was, in his own way, a harder taskmaster that any who had
schooled Khalmarnasa in her young life, exacting excellence from her at every
turn, and for this she grew to admire and respect him like she had no other
male. For his part, he had in all his years, never come across a young mage
with such a talent for the arts of the negative plane, and for this reason he
revealed to her things he had shown to no other student.

The candle between them flickered. Khalmarnasa's eyes began to droop,
exhausted by the day's lessons, she almost thought the words she heard were
imagined when they floated to her. 'Have you heard the name Destuvius, young
one?' Her mind snapped out of the laconic reverie which had been dragging her
towards sleep. 'Who? No, the name is not familiar.' she replied. 'He is one
of the younger Gods' her mentor replied. 'A God who upholds that which we
revere. One who understands the grand design.' And so began her tutelage in
the Destuvian Order.
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