#Headmaster Qadim | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

heliotrope-journey · 2 years

Text

The Day Necromancers Rejoice Their Gift

Good evening, vampire hunters.

Heliotrope Journey: Son of a Hustler has resumed development and tonight, I’ve started sketching a goblet-shaped urn that will first be seen in LionHead Mansion. It could use a couple of skulls.

The mansion was not always the grim edifice that a small number of guests decide to lodge in. Before Frederick and co. departed for Baudelaire City in The Heliotrope Chronicles, our hero attended a party hosted by a wealthy student to celebrate her graduation from a college in Amherst. LionHead Mansion once had a separate wing that contained a Renaissance-styled ballroom and an underground fountain beneath its floors. This section was reserved for special events at prices only the upper class would be privileged to set their feet in. Business flourished at the venue until the night Frederick attended the party. A fallen angel he had been seeing accompanied him, was unwittingly tasked by Dracula’s adoptive son, Azrael, to slay the graduate the party is honoring. The last the girl, Abigail, was seen was when she headed to the bathroom to brush her hair. The next thing a classmate saw where she stood was ash in front of a sink.

Save for her, Frederick, Jill, Franz, and Abigail’s mother, every guest had gotten intoxicated from the beverages served. They were not initially alcoholic, but while the fallen angel followed Abigail, some of the spectres serving Azrael had laced an herb into the drinks that changed them into rum to prevent detection. Police were summoned and intoxicated guests were taken into custody. It was later discovered that Abigail’s father died under the same circumstances. The fallen angel discovered Azrael’s ruse shortly after Frederick returned to his room. Dracula was still considerably weak from the events of 1962 and his short encounters with Frederick, Eforie, Taner, Idyia, and co. have done little to ease his ailing strength.

The souls that belonged to father and daughter will give the Dark Lord the nourishment he desires to begin his plans to conquer the wizarding school on Mt. Greylock. Try as this fallen angel may to impede Azrael, he disappears into the night. To make up for his involvement, he sought vengeance on the Veiled Nocturne and vowed Frederick should join his efforts. He contemplates transforming the boy into a demon to give him a better advantage against human foes and while he slept, he fused his soul with a slain creature from the Inferno. Before the transformation could be completed, though, Sidiyq Qadim attacked the fallen angel and a brief battle between them woke Frederick up. He sided with his long-time friend and the angel, heartbroken and betrayed, had vanished. He has not been seen that night.

The next day, the headmaster of the school on Mt. Greylock, having learned about the tragedy of two innocent non-magic lives, launched an attack on the necromancers living in the mansion with four members of the faculty and select members of the Order of the Dragon by his side. The wing was destroyed in the battle, weapons and grimoires were plundered, and spirits were shriveled up by holy relics. The mansion’s purpose as a necropolis still lingers, but until that incident, it was cleverly concealed from the mortal world by its compliant staff. Michaela does not dwell on its history nor the events that led to the ballroom’s demise during her eventual stay, but her involvement will mark the death of an abductor and another soul that will never sleep again. Einsam was, however, spared when Michaela saved him.

Treyton will certainly need lots of it after surviving another encounter with a solomonari-in-training on All Saints Day aka the Scholomance’s Admission Day. Now inside the cemetery's chapel, he and his new friends are dangerously close to the entrance of the Scholomance and it is here where the boys must stick together even if the odds of winning this fight is looking slim. Confused about what’s going on? Please refer to the stories written last year and the year before that to help get you up to speed. Spoilers below. Photo by Nazrin Babashova on Unsplash.

“Dude, that was close.” Mitica said after he and Treyton shut the colossal doors. “That bastard’s minions nearly laid a hair on you.” “We’ve walked right into a corner.” Treyton was not excited to celebrate. Homer had them and Miron surrounded in the graveyard moments ago. The vampire boy’s dark magic was only effective enough to hold them back. Treyton had no magic on him and Mitica is incapable of performing area attacks with his wind magic. The philosopher’s stone was as good as gone. “Regardless of your complaining,” Miron said. “We’ll have to stay in here until sunrise. The boy wizard’s sorcery is at its peak when the autumn air is this crisp and the night is so dark.” Treyton looks at the doors and his surroundings. The bleak orange color on the statues and the polished bricks did not improve his mood. He felt anxious about coming inside the chapel. “Then what are we going to do for supper?” he asked. He saw no point about arguing what could’ve been done. “Anyone want to share a cup of blood?” Miron offered. “If we can find an altar room, there may be a goblet I can drip it in. Then I wouldn’t be by myself when the rest of the populace succumbs to old age.” Mitica didn’t say a word. It is as if he had no objection and will gladly join his friend in eternal life. Treyton, using his better judgment to refrain from poison, took a step back. “I’m just going to tear apart the bricks to find a practical substance.” He walked down the hall to his right. None of the boys have been inside the chapel in their lives so Mitica and Miron followed him.

Treyton’s sword was strong enough to cut through stone so looking for food in the walls did not seem to trouble him. Miron found a goblet of blood spilled on the floor and licked it up like a dog drinking from a bowl. Mitica was in no mood to do the same so he ate a piece of fresh bread that was tucked behind a cracked brick in the wall next to a hooded statue. Treyton didn’t find much, but a bronze amethyst-crested chalice containing a vanilla milkshake, a green apple, and a sponge cake simmered his appetite for a while. He continued to walk. “Are you still hungry?” Miron worriedly asked the boy. “No, I’m good.” Treyton answered with a stubborn look on his face. “That was just what I needed.” “But you didn’t eat enough.” Miron walked a little faster until he was next to him. “You sure you don’t want my blood?” “Are you gross? No!” Treyton answered. “And quit offering me blood. I can’t stand the smell nor can I think to taste it.” “Okay, then.” Miron broke one of the tall candelabras with his axe. “But don’t get mad at me if we can’t find any more treats.” “It’s always been the least of my problems so I won’t.” Treyton said. “That’s enough from both of you.” Mitica touched Miron’s shoulder. “We haven’t been in here in our lives and we have yet to find a place to rest with three dark wizards chasing us. We’ll become easier targets if we are at each other’s necks.” Treyton stops in his tracks. A skull, tucked into a corner, was glaring right at him. “Our predicament could be worse anyway.” He sighed. “We have yet to die in here. Someone already has.” “I don’t see why a few bones laying around is a concern.” Miron shrugged. “Perhaps the caretakers believe it is appropriate to use them as decorations. I feel like a party crasher.” Treyton picks up a rib once the boys enter a chamber that contains the statues of beggars that have presumably stayed in the chapel during Humanity’s Abrogation. “The bones aren’t made of clay, stupid.” He said. “Not once have I seen one laying around in Teodosie.” “It’s abandoned….” Mitica rightfully concluded.

“No, it’s been visited.” Treyton theorized after picking up another skull. “These bones wouldn’t be here otherwise.” “Or there were refugees from the anarchy that could have barricaded themselves in here and perished from starvation.” Miron stroked his cheek while breaking another candelabra. “You’ll be joining them shortly, gentlemen.” The voice of a young female echoed abruptly. The sly solomonari-in-training, Hedi, emerged from a stone coffin and unsheathed her dagger. “Hand over the stone and I’ll treat you to a proper supper. Promise.” “Okay.” Treyton picks up a lemon-colored limestone from the floor and hands it to Hedi. “What do your kind eat when you’re hiding from Hemera?” Hedi looks over the stone and crushes it with her fist. “Not that stone, you idiot!!!” she growled. “The Philosopher’s Stone. Don’t make it any harder than it has to be.” “You came alone, did you not?” Treyton stared at her. “How can you possibly make this harder?” “Watch me.” Hedi jumped onto the coffin and stabbed her dagger into a statue of a sad-looking saint. It quickly dissolved into rubble and from that pile emerged a flock of flying statue heads with bat wings to give them flight and a single hand where a neck should be. “A little bit about me before they make you fork over the stone; the ability to command cherubim was taught in my favorite course in the Scholomance. It is an elective for some of us with promise to devote our services to Mother Earth.” Though Treyton was listening, his friends were too occupied with finding a place to hide from the flock to listen. He looked at one rogue cherub charging at him from above. “I’d surrender if I were you. Their grips will shatter your bones into dust.” Treyton jumps toward the cherub, points his sword at it, and smashes it into pieces. “I’ll pass, thank you, miss. Obliteration of the dark arts is my specialty.” Hedi did not look convinced. The cherub statues were approaching the boys in increased numbers. Treyton stared coldly at them and gripped his sword while Mitica and Miron were cornered in a lower level where a cherub is about to headbutt one of them. “Now say it again.” She goaded. “Obliteration of the dark arts is my specialty. That doesn’t need repeating, you witch.” He swung his sword at the approaching cherubs, splitting them in half and causing their remains to fall to the floor. Treyton, confidently, ran after the cherub that grabbed Mitica in the back and attempted to drag him away. Hedi watched as the flock slowly swarmed her foes. She was neither contented nor disappointed. She kept her dagger out, waiting for a slip up in her plan. It won’t be long before Treyton realizes where the increase numbers are coming from, but as soon as his friends tire out, she will make her move and steal the Philosopher’s Stone. One of the two is bound to have it and for the first time since Dracula’s fall, the Veiled Nocturne will have a more permanent leader.

Sincerely,

2 notes · View notes