Chapter 2

''Name your champion," the speaker told Missy as I walked to the center of the floor.

Everybody but the speaker and the two heads of the houses that Missy and I were in were in the middle of the floor with us.

"Fel Nesbit," Missy said with a wicked grin.

I tilted my head and looked in confusion as the tiny woman that was with her moved through the crowd to stand in the middle. I reached into my bag of holding, and came out with my belt. I had two daggers on each side, and two health potions on either side. See, us necromancers are known for scary stuff mostly undead related, but it takes a LOT of mana to run our spells, and when we run out and we're solo... unless we have other skills, we are easily defeated.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked Fel.

"You're a mere level 3. Honestly, I'm more worried about killing you on accident and getting in trouble," Fel said, although I could tell she was actually not being snarky, but stating a fact.

I was almost ready to reply when the speaker cried, "Begin!"

Her arms glowed, and she flung out her hands. I barely dodged out of the way as her wind blades whipped past me. I'd sparred against people like this before. They could condense air and send it like blades in a ranged manner. Super high damage. Super high mana cost. With my dexterity stats, I wouldn't be able to dodge forever.

I could tell her accuracy was very good, and it wouldn't be long until she homed in on me and my low stat body. I sent a death bolt her way and she erected a shield of air, but some of it slipped past, hitting her right arm.

She screamed, and the shield dropped as she saw the black lines and decaying skin start flaking off the surface layer of flesh. I'd never used this on a human before, and I almost hesitated in shock.

I thought about using my knives while she was distracted, but instead I closed the twenty feet between us in a couple of seconds, and used both my hands to push her wrists apart as she started to cast wind blades with her good arm. The spell went off towards the ceiling and the smaller woman staggered back. I grabbed her head in both hands as her eyes went wide.

"Life steal," I whispered, activating the spell in both hands in a dual cast.

She started to stagger back, but I pulled her head to mine and held her close to me so she couldn't use her spells without hitting herself. I was too close to her bubble for her to react now. I looked down and locked gazes with her as she gasped.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen to you. It's not your fault," I told her.

For some reason, I kissed her on top of the head to show I really wasn't a monster, as everybody assumed. She slumped to the ground, and I let the mana go. My spell finished, and I was already pulling a potion out. I knocked the stopper off with my thumb, and poured it down her throat as the room around me erupted into screams, shouts, cheers, and jeers.

You have defeated Fel Nesbit in an honor duel.

XP earned!

I held Fel upright afterwards as she sputtered. It wasn't ten seconds later she opened her eyes, staring right into mine.

"I lost?" she asked.

"You lost," I told her quietly, surprised we could hear each other over the hundred or so screaming idiots. "Are you ok now? It was the best health potion I had."

"I... yeah, I'm fine. Let me go."

I did and stood up to my full height. The loudness overwhelmed me for a moment, but the speaker raised both hands and the room quieted.

"A challenge of honor has been answered," the speaker thundered.

"Missy Blackman, your oath—" "I said the loser is indentured. I didn't lose the fight, she did," Missy said.

With a sigh, the speaker looked straight up, and I recalled that those had in fact been her exact words. Holy shit. I didn't want anyone indentured.

"I don't need—" "Some friend you are," Fel snapped at Missy. "Fine, for honor. Terms?"

she asked me.

"I don't want your—" "This was a system sanctioned challenge. You cannot—" "I'll take the bloody oath," Fel shouted, shooting eye daggers at Missy.

I stood there as Fel and the speaker spoke softly.

"We need length of term," the speaker said, "or her value to break the contract."

I didn't want this. Despite that, I figured if these were rich girls who came from rich merchant families, I might as well make life easy, right?

How much to ask for though? I had no idea what 'being rich' actually looked like. In earth money, my parents had been solidly middle class.

Here? I had two gold and three silver to my name. My entire life's savings.

Surely these folks were rich... Time to pull a rabbit out of my butt.

"Three years, or 10,000 gold pieces," I said loudly.

Fel looked up at me and... gulped.

"That sounds reasonable. Now, repeat after me."

She repeated the oath, and the system put up the terms of the contract in front of me. I scrolled down it like I would a webpage, and saw the prompt accept/deny. I noted that deny was grayed out. I couldn't cheat this, could I?

I'd have to figure out how to break a system enforced contract, unless this lady could actually pay the 10k in gold. It was almost a ransom, wasn't it?

But she didn't try to get out of being a champion. She'd gone into this duel eyes wide open. Hopefully her parents would come up with the cash tomorrow.

I clicked accept.

ZEKE WAS the name of the head of our house. He led us out of the dining hall and across the courtyard we'd all mustered in.

"We're headed to West End," he said simply.

We followed him to what to me looked like apartment buildings made out stonework. The windows were glass, with wooden shutters on the outside. This was actually the most modern public housing I'd seen in this world. I saw dozens of smokestacks on top of the building, many of them sending tendrils of smoke into the air.

"How are rooms assigned?" a guy to my right asked.

"First floor is the common area. There is a cafeteria there as well, but only 'fer breakfast and lunch. Supper is always in the great hall, where you were sorted. Second floor is first years. Third floor is second years, fourth floor are the graduating class."

"What about indentured?" a girl asked, sending me a scathing look.

"This year will be... unusual. We never allow an indentured to accompany their masters under normal circumstances. It so happens that this year the indentured is still a student, so is allowed to accompany her master to classes. Unusual, but not unheard of entirely. It's been centuries since we've had this happen, but..."

"Where am I to stay?" Fel asked.

She was the only one standing near me. Everyone else had kept a large bubble away from the scary necromancer. I'd heard many of the whispers and murmurs, even from people I had formerly been fine with at the orphanage. The kiss. The kiss of death. They were calling me a reaper. I'd kissed her, and stolen her soul. There was one lady, however, who was whispering to her friend that my kiss had knocked out the lady who hated guys, so I must be a terrific kisser.

I made note of her, to check her out at a later date. Heh...

"There is a shuttered suite for visiting professors on the first floor, near my quarters. It's got two bedrooms and a small common room. That's where I figure I'm putting them both."

There were mutterings about special treatment, how the school was too scared to deal with me like they ought to. Zeke rolled his eyes, gave me a wink, and turned. The group stopped as he held up his hands.

"Wouldn't you rather the necromancer be rooming right next to the head of the house? It's not like you're going to be sharing walls with him while he practices his arcane arts of necromancy. I will. Anybody want to trade?"

That shut them up. Holy shit, did that shut them up. Suddenly everybody was all for me having the shuttered suite.

"I hate my life," Fel whispered to herself.

"Don't worry, I hate mine too," I whispered back to her.

I'd started walking again, but she started walking half a heartbeat after I did.

OUR SUITE WAS A DUMP. The rugs over the stone floor were tattered.

Cobwebs were everywhere. Dust was thick, like almost half an inch thick in places. The fireplace, which I guess was rare to have in an individual's room, needed a good cleaning. The ticking on the beds was... I didn't want to think about it. Then again... I did have a spell to make sure any nasties weren't going to bite us in our sleep...

"It's not much, but in light of the circumstances... there's two bedrooms here. The master's and the servant's. There's a small privy because this is on an outside wall, and a stand in wash basin and water pump. You have to manually pump—" "I know how they work," I said softly.

Fel looked like she was about to cry. The common room had two threadbare couches, and a coffee table type thing between them. A large window provided daylight, while there were dust covered oil lamps on small shelves around the rooms. I saw two glass containers of oil under a small two person table pushed up under the window. I walked into the larger room to find a large four poster bed. The woodwork was detailed, and I marveled at how much time it must have taken to make it. The curtains and top covering looked to be silk. Delicate. Dusty and cobwebby? You betcha. Horrible? No.

There was a cedar chest nearly six feet long and four feet deep at the foot of the bed, and side tables on either side of the bed, and a carved wooden cabinet for hanging clothing finished off the furniture. The right side of the bedroom's wall was taken up by a large window. I walked over, opening the glass window by sliding it to the side, which made me smile.

Same as Earth. Then I pushed open the wooden shutters, letting more light in.

"Sorry we didn't have this ready—" Zeke started to say.

"Don't worry about it," I told him. "We can manage."

I didn't miss the wince that Fel made as she took in the room.

"I'll get some cleaning supplies out, as well as clean linens sent here.

Honestly though, those mattresses probably need to be beaten out and aired."

"We can manage if you can get us blankets, sheets, pillows, and coverings. Also cleaning supplies. It won't take us long. I've already got lots of plans for this suite," I said, again noting Fel making a face.

"Sure, sure. Do you want to see the servant's quarters?"

Actually it was just a room with a window and trunk, and a small cot off to the side.

"Naw, no worries. I appreciate you not... treating me like a pariah," I told him.

He held out his hand, and a shocked me took it.

"You're going to get that from the others. Me? No. I know the truth about your class. You could have done so much more, so much worse in that duel. You even gave her a greater healing potion afterwards. You weren't required to, and I doubt Miss Blackman would have spent that sort of coin..."

"You did what?" Fel asked, her voice high and tight.

"He gave you a bloody fecking healing potion worth a gold piece, even though you were only knocked out from his spell work. Yes, your health was low and he sapped all yer stamina, but he healed ya back to full and held you upright until yer stamina started regenerating."

"I... thank you, Master." I knew those words tasted bitter in her mouth, and I hated hearing them.

"Thank you, Mister Zeke. I think we got it from here."

Zeke took the hint and headed out. Before he walked all the way out though, he pulled out two ornate looking keys, and put them on the small table by the door. I almost smacked my forehead with my palms. Yeah, I would in fact want to lock the door. When he gave me a short wave and shut the door, I turned around to Fel.

"First things first... How is your mana control?" I asked her.

"Level 6," Fel said, not looking me in the eye.

"Holy crap! Really?!"

She just nodded.

"Ok. Window in the big bedroom is open. Until we get cleaning supplies and a broom, can you use your wind gust to blow the cobwebs and dust out the window? It's going to suck, but I don't have the same sort of power..."

"I... yes, Master."

"Oh, and my first official rule: my name is Morgan. Never call me 'master'."

"Yes... Morgan." Again, she wouldn't hold my gaze.

I walked into the big bedroom and put my hand on the bed. I cast life steal on the mattress twice, until I could feel that no more insects were alive. I shook it out as Fel waited for me to get out of the way. I took the drapes off the bed, and the silk covering from over the top, and brought it into what I'd call our living room. I heard the sound of air moving quickly and a big dust cloud kicked up.

I hurried and opened the window in the living room so the dust wouldn't choke us out, and looked around. This place, it wasn't bad. While Fel worked in there, I went into the indoor privy. There was a... well, in our world it would basically be a pit toilet, or an outhouse. This one seemingly had some sort of ventilation system that ran up the wall, so gasses had somewhere to escape. The bathing spot was basically a stonework shower base with stone sides to keep the water in. Two galvanized buckets stood ready to be filled and heated on the fireplace. The hand washing basin next to the pump resembled a pedestal sink. It wasn't as bad in here, but the door had been closed. There was a small hatch-style window, and I opened that up as well.

I immediately heard a snatch of conversation and, if I had to guess, it was from directly above me.

"I hope we don't hear her screams. It's horrible what he did to her. She basically has to do whatever he says. Can you believe it?" a male voice said.

"What else do you expect from a death affinity? I give the girl a week before she kills herself," a lady's voice replied.

"You don't think her parents can afford to buy off her indenture?"

"Hers? Not likely. They probably have a dozen coppers to their name."

The woman's tone was wicked.

The couple erupted in laughter. A knock at the door had me turning, and I walked into the living room as Zeke let himself back in. He had this world's version of a broom, a mop, a bucket, and a pile of rags under one arm. I nodded to him.

"Thanks," I told him as he fanned the air in front of himself.

"No problem. Having her wind tunnel the room?" he asked.

"Yup."