Fascinating geography

At this news, Dan doubled over with laughter and wiped his face with the sleeves of his robe.

– Should you have heard his sermons in church…

– For… this is why I called the first religious reformer. I filmed his entire performance for the archive. You are… Master Julius… don’t worry so much, otherwise your heart will begin to play pranks, you will die… Am I going to have to call you to lectures later? And this one… he will go back to the dead tomorrow. It’s strange that you didn’t notice Isaac Newton among the gardeners last week.

The magician’s face stretched out in surprise.

«So this is who collected all the unripe apples in the Hradcany gardens…» he whispered, slapping his hand on his forehead.

Dan made a displeased grimace: wow, he is conducting the most ingenious experiments, but they can’t at least praise him, for some reason they are angry. While making justification speeches, the young necromancer backed away from the master advancing on him, and perhaps he would have crushed the composition, carelessly sitting on the table, if the mentor had not stopped the onslaught due to an absurd reason.

The necromancer’s wonderful dragon, an animal no larger than a German shepherd, could not stand the noise and, waking up, clung to the master’s robe just below the waist.

– Well done, dragon! – the guy winked at his pet, which angered the master even more.

«He’s lived in the world for a quarter of a century,» he said offended, «and he’s having fun like a little child.»

With a withering glance, he looked at the presumptuous dragon, who, looking guiltily at the master, crawled to the far corner of the room and began to write something down in a thick notebook with a spring.

«I would have kicked you out a long time ago, Dan,» Julius muttered, adjusting his robe, «but I can’t.» Not a single student of our school has had such strength as you have since the time of the great Wenceslas. If we let you go, then the time is not far off when personalities like the Devil from Old Town Square will become interested in you.

The master sat down on the edge of the sofa, where the dragon was sleeping a minute ago. It was clear that he wanted to make peace with the student, despite the scandal he had just created. The old necromancer patted the sofa next to him with his palm, saying, go, Dan, there’s something to do.

More than anything else, the young magician was afraid of being expelled: graduating from a regular school, college, taking up one of the branches of magic, and then being so absurdly thrown out of a magical institution – a shame for a hereditary necromancer. What does it look like if you are expelled not from some provincial school, but from the world-famous School of Necromancy in Prague Castle?

The last thing Julius said gave Dan hope: if the mentor was able to recognize the remarkable strength in him, then he was unlikely to send him away. And he, picking up the hem of his robe, sat down next to her.

At the same time, the young necromancer’s conscience whispered: «Where is your pride, Dan? This man almost crushed you to dust a few minutes ago!»

«You are very strong, Dan,» Julius sighed, «but, unfortunately, you are too careless and defenseless.» Do you think it was just that the great Wenceslas wrote the main rule back in the twelfth century – do not call unnecessarily? And you use very strong magic to satisfy your curiosity. I repeat, not once in five hundred years has a single necromancer managed to summon a person for more than ten minutes. I’m generally silent about your hotbed of celebrities.

«What is it, a breeding ground,» Dan waved his hand, «childish pranks, reincarnated mice, boring stuff.»

Judging by what he had just said, he was not at all aware of his strength. Julius looked in horror at the young necromancer, who had just turned twenty-five two weeks ago, and who naively considered such powerful magic to be nothing. The mentor himself, for example, would not have been able to hold out such a rat city for more than five minutes, and even after the end of the operation he would have lain around in a sleepy state for half a day and would have eaten for three.

He remembered his first experience very well. Then, three hundred years ago, when Julius was not much younger than his current student, he went to the cemetery at night to call his drowned sister back into the world. Fifteen years have already passed since the dishonored girl threw herself into the waters of the Vltava, but the then young necromancer brother was sure that sister Katinka would want to look at the blue sky again and climb the mountain in Petr?n. Exactly at midnight, the young magician began the ceremony: he lit a candle and began to read invoking spells. And the girl returned. In the dim light, the brother saw her pale violet skin, tangled bleached hair, empty eye sockets and… long nails that no one had cut in fifteen years. Before he had time to realize that Katinka did not want to live, these uncircumcised claws, stained with earth and the flesh of the dead, dug into his cheek. The magician screamed, trying to cast a spell and call his sister away, but the revived suicide decided to take revenge on her brother to the last, and grabbed his chest with her other hand. The necromancer screamed in hellish pain. And Julius would not have taught the young boy Dan three hundred years later if that night and at the very moment when the sister wanted to tear his heart out of his brother’s chest, a priest had not appeared at the cemetery. As soon as drops of holy water touched the girl’s body, she released the helpless magician and went back to the grave.

After that day, Julius was treated for two years by the best healer in Prague. But three scars on his cheek and five on his chest, with their pain, for three hundred years, reminded the magician of the most useful lesson in his life, and for a long time they would not let him forget this nightmare.

His student Dan did not care at all about his health or safety. The boy had more than enough strength, despite the fact that two dozen souls of long-dead people were wandering around the tennis table in his room, and another one was waiting for feedback on the observation deck. For some reason, it seemed to Julius that if suddenly they all went to the third layer, as the Kingdom of the Dead was also called, Dan would give up and restore everything back in fifteen minutes.

It was not for nothing that all the necromancers were thin, physically weak and ate a lot. All these are signs of overexpenditure in calling from the third layer. Dan was different from his colleagues: he was tall, strong and did not at all suffer from excessive thinness. But the guy always ate not just for three, but for five! It was clear that he was not like everyone else.

«You don’t understand your strength, my boy,» Julius spoke slowly, trying to calm the restless student, «abilities like yours cannot be obtained anywhere except from birth.» You don’t need our school, even if it’s the best in the world. You, Dan, have the honor of becoming the most powerful necromancer of our time. But you don’t understand! And it’s dangerous! Because sooner or later your ignorance will be used not for the most noble purposes. As long as you are in Prague Castle, you are safe, but if you take a few steps away from the gate…

The master, stroking the scar on his cheek, spoke kindly, but instructively.

«I’m flattered, of course,» Dan spread his hands, blushing from the praise, «but why do I need such power?» I wanted to be an ordinary medical examiner in Prague. Summon murdered victims at trial, which is what all more or less powerful necromancers do. And as a hobby, I always dreamed of running a celebrity museum. Like, outdo Madame Tussauds from the first layer of the world: she has wax dolls, but I would have living ones! People would take pictures with them for money. Do you understand?

The young necromancer knew how to trick his teacher, because for a good hundred years Julius had been crazy about photography.

Dan lounged on the sofa, dreamily looking at the ceiling. There, Renaissance masters painted biblical scenes. The paintings were so beautiful and interesting that the magician who lived here for five whole years was ready to endlessly look at the drawings on the ceiling of his room. Probably at that moment he dreamed of a personal museum and the profits he would receive from ticket sales.

The mentor got up from the sofa and walked around the mouse composition several times. He muttered incomprehensible words under his breath and pulled at his beard.

Arrogant Dan, dizzy with his own power, sat on the sofa and was already drawing up cost estimates for the creation of the museum.

– Do you know how each of your calls ends? – Julius suddenly asked the guy.

«The disincarnation of the body into which I put my soul,» blurted out the young necromancer. «That’s why I call upon the dilapidated skeletons who have applied to move to the dead. As required by the Council.

The mentor just shook his head:

«That’s what it’s written in the textbooks we cram at school.» This is what happens when you call upon the soul of a rabbit, caterpillar or elephant. The same thing happens when a murdered victim is summoned in court. But when it’s far from being for the investigation…

What is the difference, exactly? Dan glanced sideways at his mentor, distracted from his dreams.

– The textbooks do not say what the consequences of calling without the permission of the Council are. Why, you ask? Because not every necromancer is able to pull out a soul for investigation, and experimenting, as you do, can only occur to a normal person after a hangover. In addition, for mass resurrection they can be disincarnated. And imagine that you live for yourself, relax on the third layer, and then they call you and say: «Go on a business trip for three days to the upper layers for a skeleton!» What would you do, Dan.

The guy, realizing how the soul was summoned, smiled impudently. But the warning about disincarnation haunted him. And the teacher continued. Yes, everything is not so simple on this third layer, where they go after death. After all, the souls of the revived exist at the expense of necromancers, which is why all the magicians of this specialization were weak. What price Dan paid for experiments with so many people is not at all clear, because the guy’s health was fine. True, Julius, slyly narrowing his eyes, whispered at the end:

– I have one suspicion about what becomes of the souls you call. And if this is so, everything is simply terrible!

From such words of the master, the young necromancer shuddered.

– Are you afraid? – the teacher grinned. – So that’s great! Because in the near future you will only have to be afraid. A hunt has been announced for you. No, not the police. These goblins and orcs are stupid and so weak that they are not able to fight such a strong magician like you on their own. After all, you know how to call the souls of the departed into any body, the Council allows protective necromancy. Eh, such an enemy’s death is much faster than from a battle mage’s fireball. And the hunters already know that you are here, in Prague Castle. No magical protection of our school will hide you from the omnipresent enemy. He will be waiting for the moment when you leave the gate. You’re not a coward to hide in a tower, are you?

The young necromancer’s eyes widened and he, opening his mouth, silently stared at his mentor.

– Does the name Pink FIFA mean anything to you? – Julius asked slyly, but Dan didn’t answer, he just shook his head.

«It didn’t tell me anything either,» the master said sadly, «but now my entire mailbox on the orconet is filled with messages from this person.» She wants you dead or alive. How did she know about you, but…

– You know, Mr. Julius, I’m not interested in this glamorous Fifa, tell her so!

– Even if she blackmails me and promises to destroy the entire school? – the mentor glanced sideways at the student. – I feel sorry for the tourists from the first layer: there will be no City, where will the poor things go? Where will I scare them by appearing in their world as a ghost? Especially when one gives the other a camera and says: «Could you take a picture of me, please? note 1» They will rush up the high steps of the palace or even this hostel where you and I are sitting now, they will throw the camera, I get the equipment.

– Aren’t you tired of these tourist jokes! – Dan smiled.

It’s clear why it’s not beneficial for Julius to host a battle on school grounds.

– Yes, even if the whole Czech Republic is demolished, I will call everyone back! And I will build the City again! – the guy had no idea of the limits of his power and already imagined that he was capable of much.

– Don’t get carried away! – the master reprimanded him. «The hour is not far off when you realize how weak you are.»

This is a serious matter. Dan didn’t even feel like smiling, and his little dragon, coughing, got out of the corner and, settling down on the sofa next to his owner, read:

We’ll go to FIFA Pink together: Me and my friend Evil Dan, Mighty power of this world!