BH Ch. 01: Graveyard Shift

There was a house on a hill in the city of Nightvale which was greatly feared by the inhabitants. There was nothing unusual about it, there were no eerie lights in the window nor gargoyles leering down on passer-by's. In fact it was a very pleasant looking three storey abode with magnificent views across the harbour. The gardens were well tended and in full bloom with a variety of colours and scented flowers that sent a floral fragrance through the surrounding streets. There were even two well-groomed cats who paraded around the grounds in feline superiority.

Many folk took a wide berth of the house, some even refused to walk down the same street muttering to others that it was a cursed place. If you found the right merchant he would tell you a story of who lived there although to catch a sight of the owner was a rare thing indeed. The same man would tell you the owner was over three hundred years old yet appeared no older than thirty winters. He would also whisper in your ear she was a sorceress of great power who seduced young boys and ate their hearts while in copulation.

Young Tadbot stood looking up at the house wishing he had never spoken to the old merchant in the first place. Now he had got spooked by a stupid story that probably wasn't true anyway. Unlike many others, he knew exactly who lived here and he knew she preferred to keep to herself to avoid any misunderstandings in the city. He had only been here once before when delivering a package from the Guild. That time his orders were to leave it by the door but this time he had been instructed to deliver something personally.

Tadbot had to admit he was caught between curiosity and fear which was emphasised by his shaking fingers as he gripped the black wax scroll holder. By trade he was a messenger and had been working for the Guild in Nightvale for the entire summer. It paid well and they fed him which he couldn't grumble about but there was something far too secretive which bordered on dangerous about his deliveries.

His current consignment was a scroll tube which looked ordinary enough but it felt cold and a little clammy to the touch. Every time he adjusted his grip, a shiver went up his spine as if something was sending warning signals scurrying across his nerves. He hadn't told the other messengers back at the Guild about who lived here, he had been sworn to secrecy by the administrator and warned that opening his mouth would have dire consequences.

The first time he was here, he had caught a glimpse of the owner at the third storey window, only briefly but enough to recognize her. Portraits hung proudly in the Guild halls of their top hunters over the decades and hers was there among some of the finest.

Her name was Mariesse and she was a Necromancer of some renown.

Tadbot had been lucky enough to sneak into the Guild archives one evening and found out as much as he could about her. Surprisingly she was mentioned little in the recent histories but her name appeared more and more frequently the further he tracked back thorough the archives. He had stopped at three hundred and fifty years ago thinking that the old merchant's stories may be right. If he had been right about her age then perhaps he was right about her eating young men's hearts as well.

He almost jumped out of his skin as one of cats rubbed its furry body against his leg to snap him from his reverie. He took two steps back much to the cat's displeasure who scowled at him and hissed menacingly before skulking off with its tail raised in disgust. Tadbot took a deep breath and approached the front door of the house. It looked normal enough, no twisted face or undead slime coated the surface.

The street was empty as it often was in this part of the city. Very few travelled these roads near the Necromancer house for fear of getting their souls sucked out or used for some form of sinister experiment. Tadbot had only one way of finding out if the rumours were true and that was to deliver the scroll tube to its destination.

After spending another minute trapped in his own thoughts his body moved and he raised a hand to knock at the door. His hand didn't even touch the wooden surface before he heard a click and it swung open smoothly before him in invitation. Tadbot's eyes nearly bugged out of his head at what lay within. If he hadn't known better he would have thought he was looking into the private chambers of a royal queen.

Opulent furnishings unlike anything he had ever seen before graced the entire room. Ruffled crimson silk drapes edged with gold trim decorated the windows and entry ways and finely carved wooden chairs plumply padded with pearl dust satin fabric were neatly arranged around the ground floor. Two large paintings hung on the walls, one was particularly breath taking which depicted the city harbour in painstaking detail. The other was of a realistic looking field of red flowers that looked like you would be able to reach in and pluck one of the petals right off the stalks.

As Tadbot was admiring the paintings, he realized he had taken several steps inside the house and the door was swinging shut behind him. He panicked momentarily and raced towards it, almost getting his fingers trapped in the doorframe. The door latched into place and no amount of rattling and pulling would open it.

Tadbot thought this was the moment that the room would begin to change and all the wonderful furnishing would melt before his eyes and reveal themselves to be twisted, rotten things with no life in them.

No matter how hard he stared, nothing changed. In fact the more he looked, the more wonders he saw. A spectacular brass statue of a dragon with jade eyes was in one corner and, in another, a large fist sized ruby enclosed in a glass pedestal. The ceiling was painted as well, an impressive fresco detailing the battle between gods and mortals.

Just as he thought the room was going to burst his mind from a cultural overload, a soft sigh filled the room. He glimpsed something out the corner of his eye and spun quickly to see what it was. There was only set of stairs leading up to the second storey, nothing more. As he stood there gazing upwards, wondering if he should investigate, another sigh buzzed around his ears.

It was so strong he actually battered his ears in annoyance as if a swarm of flies had attacked him.

'Please don't dawdle young man,' a disembodied voice droned inside his head. It sounded like an echo from far away but it was definitely a woman's voice.

Tadbot took a step back and then forward and then spun around in a dance of confusion that caused the voice in his head to chuckle. 'Come up the stairs. Don't worry, I don't bite!'

It sounded cheerful enough but Tadbot was not used to being spoken to by a person who wasn't in the same room as him. So he opened his mouth and tried to speak but no recognizable sounds came from his mouth.

'Oh do hurry my boy. You have something for me?' The voice asked politely.

'Urghhhh,' Tadbot responded and then thought it would just be better to nod his head which was silly because nobody was in the room with him.

'Good!' The voice trilled lightly. 'Now, if you would be so kind as to make your way up the stairs?'

Tadbot took some faltering steps and made it up two of the stairs. The voice congratulated him pleasantly, 'That's it! Up we go! All the way!'

He graciously obeyed the command although his legs felt like they didn't belong to him. When he got halfway up the voice buzzed inside his head once again.

'I do hope you like my house. Did you like downstairs?' Tadbot went to answer but the voice carried on before he could even grunt a reply. 'The dragon was from a land far to the east called Nagaska. The ruby was a gift from the Dwarves of Stonecrag for helping them to dispose of a particularly unpleasant rock fiend.'

Tadbot listened dumbly to the voice until he got to the top of the stairs and a landing area with a corridor lined with closed doors.

'This way young man, if you please. You don't want to go into any of those rooms.' The voice encouraged and Tadbot's body responded by walking straight down the corridor and around the corner to another staircase.

'Come now, you are almost there,' the voice was sounding less disembodied now, the tone was clearer and more precise then it had been.

Tadbot reached the third storey which was a massive open plan room even more striking then the downstairs area had been. His eyes could barely take in everything he was seeing. Display cases filled with all manner of precious metals and valuable jewels filled the room in neat rows. The walls were exquisitely wood panelled a deep rich brown colour and the floor appeared to be black marble flecked with gold.

Tadbot thought that if you took a prized trophy from every king in the land then it would not match the treasures that lay before him. Breath-taking was an understatement which also made him realize he was literally holding his. He sucked in a big lungful of air and snorted like a farmyard animal.

On the far side of the room was a high back chair of red fabric that was almost as tall as him. It was facing a slightly open window that spilled soft shards of light into the room and the gentle chorus of birdsong could be heard from outside. He felt a presence was sitting in that chair but he could not see them from where he was standing.

An elegant hand drifted into view from one side of the tall chair. It was pale but flawless with two elaborate golden sheaths decorating the index and middle fingers. The hand beckoned him and the sweetest voice he had ever heard spoke to him.

'Come my boy, come over here.'

It was the same voice he had first heard downstairs but this time it was not in his head. He was hearing it with his own ears for the first time. Life seemed to flood back into his legs and a small wave of nausea passed over him. Perhaps it was best to get this over with and leave the house as soon as possible. He had never experienced anything like this in his life and he wasn't sure if he wanted to ever again.

He walked briskly towards the chair, being careful not to knock one of the priceless looking treasures to the ground in his haste. There was a small incense holder burning on a desk under the window which gave the room a sweet fragrance of apples and cinnamon. Tadbot eventually rounded on the owner of the house and came face to face with Mariesse the Necromancer for the first time.

She was sat cross legged in the high backed chair and was dressed in a sheer black ankle length dress. The middle of the dress was a plunging v-line that exposed the sides of her breasts but a clinging black webbing hugged the skin there to keep it together. What looked like long grey coloured bones decorated her back and shoulders - it looked to Tadbot like a giant skeletal hand was about to engulf her.

Pretty jewels decorated her neck and forehead where a crown of sorts rested. It was a thing of bladed grey iron set with white gleaming stones that also functioned as an impressive looking headband to keep her long hair from her face. Her hair was an interesting shade of violet, perfectly styled without a hair out of place. She looked just like her picture in the Guild hall although her eyes were closed in that picture. They were closed now as well.

'Welcome young man,' her lips moved softly but her eyes remained closed. 'I do hope you aren't scared?'

Tadbot wanted to answer but instead he stared at her breasts as they gently strained against her dress as she breathed. Just as he thought he had plucked up the courage to answer her she raised a hand to silence him as if she had sensed he was about to speak.

'Do you hear that?' she asked, tilting her head gently to one side.

Tadbot listened and heard the faint lilt of musical instruments and song. Sometimes troubadours performed near the docks as part of a local mummers group. He cleared his throat and mustered up his first words in what seemed like an age.

'The music?' It came out a more high pitched then he wanted, hardly manly.

'Yes! The music!' Mariesse smiled briefly as she began to tap a foot to the far away rhythm. 'I do so love music! I was thinking of having a large feast in the city with music and troubadours on every street corner. What do you think?'

Tadbot blinked, was he swapping small talk with a rather ad intimidating woman? Remember she will eat your heart! A small voice reminded him in his head. This time he thought it was his own conscience at least and not the disembodied voice of the Necromancer.

Mariesse continued when he never replied. 'You are scared of me aren't you boy?'

Tadbot shook his head, 'Eh, n-no.'

'No? But I can sense it my boy. It's very rude to lie to a lady in her own home.'

He should have apologised but the next words came blurting out. 'Can you read my mind?'

She laughed at that, waving the fingers of one hand idly in the air. 'More than that, I can sense your soul.'

Tadbot flinched as a teacup and saucer floated past his shoulder towards the Necromancer. She plucked it from the air and took a small tip of steaming liquid.

'You can see my soul?' Tadbot asked.

'I can,' she took another sip and then rested the cup on the arm of her chair. 'Whatever has that silly merchant been telling you now? Is it the one about me eating young boy's hearts?'

Tadbot nodded, afraid to speak and began to perspire quite excessively. 'Yes.'

'Pay no heed to him, he was a Guild member once but I had him thrown out for stealing. Now tell answer me again boy, are you afraid of me?'

Tadbot gathered himself, this could be test - perhaps she would have him promoted if he showed no fear. 'No my lady,' he answered in the strongest voice he could muster.

'Really?' She asked in amusement and slowly opened her eyes.

Tadbot fell onto his backside and shimmied up against the wall. Her eyes were completely white, not the white of cataracts of a blind woman but shining white like she had a thousand trapped souls swimming behind her sockets. She stood and walked towards him, a belt of skulls at her waist gnashed their teeth at him and the bone spikes on her back twitched and danced in anticipation.

He closed his eyes, whimpering as he braced himself for his soul to get sucked right out from his body. When he dared open one eye slightly Mariesse was still standing over him with a hand outstretched.

'You have something for me?' She asked pleasantly.

Tadbot remembered the scroll tube in his hand and quickly slapped it into her palm a little too firmly. She did not complain though and turned on her heels, unsealing the tube and rolling out the parchment before reseating herself to read the contents.

Her face remained impassive throughout and she rolled the parchment up when finished and popped it back into its wax tube. 'Well, well, well,' she murmured sipping at her tea. 'That sounds like quite a challenge.'

Tadbot had somehow managed to half stand by sliding his body up the wall like a giant slug but now she was looking at him again.

'Tell the Guild, I accept and will leave post haste,' Mariesse informed Tadbot who nodded frantically in relief.

The Necromancer was up out of her chair and gliding around the room fussing with the many treasures and splendours on display. She eventually brought forth a ghastly looking bone staff that looked like the spinal column of a great beast with a demonic horned skull capping it.

'You will tell them my boy, won't you?' She didn't wait for him to reply. 'And don't try to sneak any of the treasures out, they are all cursed unfortunately. I keep them here to control them.'

Tadbot quickly took his hands off of a small table he was leaning up against. Mariesse turned her back and made several elaborate hand gestures before speaking in a tongue that sounded like the most awful, ear rending language in the world. Each syllable seemed to scrape his soul and scratch at his skin with grim holistic violence.

A blazing flash of light blinded him temporarily and when he had regained his vision a huge glowing hex symbol hung suspended in the room with a glowing portal at the centre that resembled a churning whirlpool. The wails from the portal sounded like hell itself was about to be unleashed and Tadbot thought momentarily of throwing himself out the window.

Mariesse walked calmly towards the portal with her staff at her side, her dress and hair whipping around as some unearthly gale that reeked of mouldy earth and rotten things howled through the room. As her body passed through there was another flash and the hex symbol vanished as if it had never been there. Tadbot stared agape at what he had just witnessed.

Then he laughed.

Then he ran.

* * * * * * * * * *

A soul portal was a complex discipline of arcane magic to conjure but Mariesse had mastered it many centuries ago. It allowed her to travel from place to place in the blink of an eye and made the job of chasing bounties a little bit easier. There was one slight drawback to using soul portals though.

The transfer of her body from one place to another tugged at her physical form. It was the lost souls trapped in limbo that were drawn to the living and would constantly prod, tug and barge just to touch a physical form once again. If one lost concentration then they would be trapped in limbo with no way out.

Mariesse never lost concentration but she was rather annoyed that their fingers snagged her dress which had been woven from the skin of a Shadow Demon and was a potent ward against many forms of black magic. Her body hurtled through the portal and then a bright flash signalled her arrival at her destination. A huge hex symbol formed in the sky as she softly descended, her dress shredded into fragments, the bits whirling around her like a tornado of black flies.

Her feet touched the ground and the hex faded, the portal closing in upon itself with a wail of torture as limbo once again swallowed the souls trapped there. Mariesse stood there for a moment, her slender body exposed after her clothing had been ripped to pieces. She sighed and struck the ground with her bone staff firmly. Instantly, the pieces of the Shadow Demon dress glowed and began to merge and stick to her body.

She started to walk forward, the dress gradually reforming as she casually strolled along surveying her surroundings. A rather imposing graveyard lay before her, the stone walls and iron railings were crumbling and rusted in sympathy for the decomposing inhabitants beneath the earth. An oppressive iron grey sky loomed overhead, a rumble of thunder adding to the despair of this place.

Mariesse could feel the age of the graveyard, there were ancient spirits here and the things in the ground had been dead a very long time. Even the few trees that were dotted around the grounds were devoid of leaves and resembled dark husks of their former glory. The grass was a colourless carpet of dead vegetation mixed with dirt and mud. Some inscription on the tombs and headstones were barely visible anymore such was the age of the stone.

This was a sad place which was unsurprising to Mariesse. It was just like Lord Kolvuk to choose such a miserable place to reside. She had to admit that when she read his letter Tadbot had delivered it seemed rather unusual. The bounty was from Lord Kolvuk himself, asking her to battle him. She would have laughed had it not been so desperate. Kolvuk was an old vampire and adversary who was clearly waning and needed a potent source of power to drain to sustain him.

It was most certainly a trap but Mariesse was intrigued. Kolvuk had been quiet for almost a century when Mariesse had last taken down a brood of his which had been terrorizing the countryside. He had slipped from her grasp then but not before killing several of her friends and Guild members. He had killed and enslaved too many over the course of history and now it was time to claim his undead heart once and for all.