Role

Chapter 1

Tsalantha was apprenticed to a conjurer. Unfortunately for her, apprentices were
easily replaced, and it was not long before her master took the decision to feed her
to an unusually powerful demon in return for its services. Being an efficient sort
her master then bartered off the bones that were all that was left of her body to a lich
that was within the city. The elegance of his dark deeds impressed even him. He had
gained the services of a powerful ally, and a whip that drank the life from its
victim in return for the bones, and the risk of discovery was negligible once the lich
departed.

Negligible is a strange word, implying at once the lack of certainty but also confidence in
outcome. In this case, however, the outcome was not one the conjurer would ever have
imagined.

Lich and Vivimancer stood across from each other, the bones laid out in orderly
fashion upon the immense stone table between them. They did not speak, yet communicated
clearly with each other. "I accept your wager.", spoke the lich within the mind of the
vivimancer. "This one is beyond resurrection now, but if you can overcome my power once
I've animated her, then she is yours, and I will cease to oppose you in the chronomancer's
council for a century. If you cannot overcome it, then she is mine, and you will support
me in the council for the next century."

The vivimancer nodded once, almost imperceptibly. The undead mage was powerful, but
even the most animated dead lacked... inspiration, or imagination. The vivimancer knew
what he meant, but it was hard to define. Nevertheless, this was a wager he could not lose,
for the lich had not specified a time limit for the vivimancer to succeed. Besides,
he was confident that his magic would be able to bring life from death, for that was
part of the natural cycle of life that he could readily exploit.

Agreement reached, the two magi began drawing sigils in the air, glowing runes
springing into life before each of them. It was not long before the deep purple of the lich's
runes flared and sank into the bones, which suddenly knit together and sat up,
red eyes aglow. The lich focussed on the skeleton, and it began to move from the room.
Shocked, the vivimancer hurried his magic, realising that he might have lost the contest
before he'd even started, and that his ploy would be foiled if this was clear to the
lich. Thinking quickly, he sketched a final few runes in green and willed them
into life. They were not the magic he had originally planned, but at least this way
he could not lose. The runes flared into incandescence, bathing the skeleton in their
brilliance. The creature shuddered, in seeming pain, before continuing from the
room, yet as it exited, it looked back at the vivimancer.