===

  Jevrick’s Main Quest: Become Mayor of Maplebrook

  Side Quests:

  

  
• Kick these dirty paladins out of town.


  
• Return scythe to Marvin the Merchant.


  
• Discover the secret of the strange green powder.


  
• Defend Maplebrook from. . . trees with swords?


  
• Deal with the Greenfolk and kobolds.


  
• Find and kill Green Thumb.


  

  Undead Servants: 5

  Maplebrook’s Population: 800-1000~

  ===

  The battle was over, but there were still fires to tend to. I summoned my last portal between the river and the town, grabbed buckets with the help of my undead thralls, and we went to work dousing the flames.

  The folks of Maplebrook gathered around, assessing the damage.

  “You!” someone shouted—and before I could address the clamor, there was another, “You!” from behind me.

  I swiveled to see a mob of townsfolk marching toward me on one flank, and the paladins approaching from the other—weapons and farming tools drawn on either side.

  I maintained my poise and stepped toward the center fountain where Clyde’s statue stood proudly, and awaited the oncoming confrontation. I was rather spent, there were no more portals, and just a few spells I could cast. But that’s what a noble mayor would do: face his people, stand up to bullies, and act dignified while doing it.

  The mob surrounded me, the paladins and guardsman Ronald at the front.

  The sergeant grunted. “Now then, come cooperatively, eh?” he said to me.

  I gazed up to the noble visage of Clyde. His life was given to protecting this town, and so was mine, in a manner of speaking. No, I would not go quietly. I had a purpose.

  I climbed upon the pedestal and hung from the side of Clyde’s outstretched hand.

  The townsfolk gasped, and the paladins gripped their swords.

  Atan just watched with a quizzical stare.

  “I will not go!” I said proudly. “Not because I do not respect the law, but because there is unfinished business here. Many have succumbed to death, many have suffered, but I stood against it. I fought by your side and dispatched your foes. If you elect me, I will stand against your enemies. I swear!”

  There was a pause for a moment. I began to think that had worked.

  Then someone shouted, “He killed Jakoby and those paladins!”

  There was a great cheer and much booing. I became flustered and could nary get a word in.

  But then Nora stepped out of the crowd with her not-so-dead uncle.

  The crowd hushed.

  Von Jakoby, the old man I had raised, waved his hand. “I am not dead. No longer, anyway. I had struck at the mage first and hit his protective charm. He brought me back.”

  Atan stepped forward. “Aye, and me too.”

  Pride welled in my chest.

  The paladin said, “He has come to save us, not destroy us. This town would have been torn asunder if not for his help.”

  The crowd murmured.

  Then Ronald declared, “Are you mad? I will not vote for this. . . daemon!”

  “Yeah!” Much of the crowd shouted.

  I tried to rebut. “I’m not—”

  One of the paladins, a broad-shouldered male, said, “Necromancers are abominations to the Celestials. It should be destroyed!"

  “Yeah!” The crowd agreed, and soon the shouts were up again, declaring that I should be taken away and executed.

  All that went through my head was the word ‘failure’. Then came memories of my far past, and my apparent destiny to forever fail at capturing the approval of others. Maybe I was just a monster.

  Then, an opening came.

  “And he killed Mayor Clyde!” a woman yelled.

  Me? They still believed it had been me? That infuriated me to no end, as the crowd sweltered in their decries.

  “No!” My voice boomed with the eminence of my magical prowess.

  The crowd hushed.

  “No,” I repeated, this time in my dignified tone. “It was not me—Oh, that I know you might not believe. But, in truth, it was the paladins that killed Mayor Clyde. In their recklessness, they murdered him. I loved that man. I owed him more than you could possibly fathom. Say what you will about me, but I will not allow the truth to be sullied.”

  There was murmur amongst the mob.

  The paladins looked to each other, and then to Atan, who clenched his jaw.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Liar,” Ronald said.

  “He is not,” Atan argued, stepping up to the fountain by my side. “He speaks truth. It. . . it was my fellow knight and I who killed your poor mayor. This wizard had little to do with the incident, other than defend himself. Godrick was too fervent, and killed Clyde in the process. Jevrick has not come to harm this town. I believe him wholly that he is a servant of Maplebrook, not its antagonist.”

  “What are you doing, ser?” Sergeant Drake huffed.

  Atan stood firm. “Our town has been set on all sides by bandits and kobolds, yet Jevrick has secured an end to both trials. You look for leadership? It is the man who stands here.”

  The crowd didn’t seem to know much how to respond, looking around to each other, gawking, whispering.

  The Sergeant stepped forward, sword drawn.

  Atan bore his hammer in response.

  “Stand aside,” Drake said. “This wizard is an affront to the will of the Obelisk. He—”

  “Enough! Let’s do this already!” The broad-shouldered knight lobbed a trident at me, which held an obsidian crystal within its head, glistening with dark power.

  I had no time to react, the weapon piercing my body. Searing pain that I'd not felt in ages filled my chest and rocked my limbs. Veins of violet cracked through my bones. What is this magic?

  “Anima Vifica!” I screamed as my vision faded to black.

  ***

  I awoke in a space of darkness, white mist crawling across the floor. I was standing, cold. I looked down at my chest and saw that I wore nothing. In fact, I was not my skeletal self at all; I was a human again. I pressed my flesh with pallid hands. Was this true death?

  “Who are you?” a dark voice said. Its words scraped my mind like stone against granite.

  “I. . . I am Jevrick.”

  “No.” The voice boomed in my skull.

  I fell to my knees and pressed my hands against my ears.

  “Who are you to speak to me?”

  I had no worldly idea who it was I was speaking to in the first place, or what, for that matter. In fact, if my spell had worked, then I should have been reborn the instant I had died. So, either my spell had failed and I was truly dead, or something had interfered with the rebirth process. But what could have done that?

  That obsidian crystal, perhaps?

  “Are you. . . that rock those paladins worship?”

  “Rock?” The voice pierced my thoughts.

  I doubled over to throw up, but nothing came.

  “I am the Great Obelisk. I am the earth itself. I am what was, before man trod upon the world, and before daemons sought to burn it. None but the Celestials themselves have seen existence as I, and still their strength pales to mine. You stand within my domain. Trespasser."

  My vision blurred and my mind quaked. I collapsed to my knees. I thought I might die. No. . . This is not my time. “Ja’ka leiak nah rosh!” I said in the ancient tongue, a prayer I swore I’d not mutter again.

  The pain stopped, and I felt silence.

  Then the voice returned, but calmer, almost a whisper. “How do you know those words?”

  I pushed myself to my knees and rubbed my temples. “It was the language of my old master, Commander Dread.”

  There was silence again, this time for a long time. I was wrapped in the darkness and mist, and thought I might be there for the rest of my existence.

  “Those words you spoke,” the voice finally said. “Do you know their meaning?”

  I stood now, feeling a chill wash over me. “Ye-yes. It is part of a powerful ward.”

  “Yes. . . I see now.” The voice spoke in its deep tone once more, but this time it did not hurt to hear its words. “You will return. I will command my servants to bother you no longer.”

  “Wha—”

  The clouds swirled around me, and the darkness peeled away to the rippling blue sky. . . no; that was water. I had fallen into the fountain. I swung my arms up and gripped the edge of the fountain to pull myself up.

  Clang!

  Something prevented me from getting up. The trident! It was still in me. I pulled it out and emerged from the waters.

  The crowd was still gathered there. The paladin who had attacked me was hunched over, as if he’d just tossed the trident at me. Had time not passed while I was gone?

  I dragged myself out of the fountain, splashing liquid across the cobbled road. I still held the trident and examined it to look at the obsidian crystal—but all that remained of the gem was muddied dust.

  “Gah!” That paladin who had attacked me doubled over and grabbed his chest.

  His fellow knights dropped to his aid, but to no avail. The knight dropped to the ground unmoving, lifeless.

  Sergeant Drake looked up to me with furious eyes. He drew his sword. “You—” The man paused, his eyes twitching as if in some trance.

  The other paladins quirked their heads to the side, as if hearing something from off in the distance. Atan too turned his head in the same manner.

  A flutter began in my chest. Was I about to witness a deus ex machina?

  Sergeant Drake’s eyes flickered, and he looked around as if he’d just awakened in the middle of the town. He finally settled his eyes on me, scoffed, then turned to his knights. “Let’s go.”

  The four of them affirmed and began stripping the armor off of their fallen comrade.

  Ronald’s eyes bulged. “What? Where are you going? You can’t just leave us with him!”

  Afterlives, I hated this guy.

  Sergeant Drake turned back and said, “The Obelisk has spoken.” Without another bit of explanation, the group of paladins strapped the armor and body of the dead paladin to a horse, hopped onto their own steeds, and galloped away.

  Atan still remained, however.

  The crowd seemed as dumbstruck as I.

  I didn’t know who or what this Obelisk was, but I couldn’t help but say a mental thanks for its assistance in the matter.

  A young guardsman chimed up. “Uh, so. . . who’s going to be our mayor?”

  Oh, right! The election! “Well, I suppose it is time we vote, is it not?”

  Ronald scoffed. “Drek the election, we have dead to bury and houses to fix.”

  “Well then,” I said, “let’s get this town back in shape, shall we?”

  The townsfolk dispersed agreeingly to deal with their various tasks.

  I sighed, somewhat disappointed. I was not one to leave things hanging, and a town without a mayor seemed like a rather critical dangling thread. I turned back to the townhall, which had remained largely unscathed during the fighting. “Well,” I said to Atan who remained by my side. “Someone should act in charge during the interim period leading up to an election, don’t you think?”

  The paladin gave me a plain look, then walked away.

  I shrugged. A mayor-elect still had a role of leadership and a duty to inspire his people, did he not? What better place to do that than from the townhall?

  I smiled, opened the door to the large building, and strolled up to my new—temporary—office.

  ===

  Jevrick’s Main Quest: Become Mayor Interim-Mayor-Elect of Maplebrook? [Completed. . .?]

  Side Quests:

  

  
• Return scythe to Marvin the Merchant.


  

  

  
• Discover the secret of the strange green powder.


  
• Kick these dirty paladins out of town.


  

  Undead Servants: 5

  Maplebrook’s Population: 800-1000~

  ===

  A vote for the necromancer is a vote for the future!

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  - Jonco

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