Necromancer Runes Novels & Stories

Rosaline had some too, but we didn’t get around to her showing me them before my premature return to Pine Lake and my family. ‘A rune is a symbol, like the ones on the cave wall. Witches carve them on stones or into natural objects to imbue them with power. Dragons have the ancient power inside, and when we use it for the first time a rune appears on our skin. Thereafter we can access the magic more easily, like turning a tap on and off. Once it’s plumbed in, it’s readily available.’ I laugh out loud at how surreal it is, having ancient magic explained to me using twentieth century plumbing metaphors.

Isolde, scanning the runes, mused, "This one radiates anger. So, to counter it, we'll need..." "Calm," Liora finished for her, closing her eyes and murmuring a spell of serenity. The rune reacted, shimmering and then fading. Elysia darted forward, pointing at a rune pulsing with a haunting blue hue. "This one... It's sorrow." Niamh stepped forward, her voice filled with determination. "Then we combat it with joy." Conjuring a series of light orbs that danced and twinkled, she directed them toward the sorrowful rune, which reacted by glowing warmly and dissipating.

The grave hadn’t only held Reive under the ground but also diminished his magic powers and didn’t allow him to restore them. Still, the necromancer had tried. All these years. Every time he noticed some warm-blooded creature run across his field, he fell upon it through the ground with the ghostly cords of the Dark, sucking out its life and magic in their entirety. They were usually foxes, moles or hares. Sometimes, when a human being came into sight, the necromancer tried to kill him, too. But the last time this had happened was so long ago that Reive didn’t even remember whether he’d managed to do it. Mages usually resisted, and only complete non-mages were helpless against Reive.