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Yay, Caz is starting new story. Go, me!

Ivan: Well, so long as its not another deathfic, we're happy.

Look at the title!

Ivan: Necro... mancer? Do I... want to know?

You'll find out!

Mia: I am scared. Is that normal?

Yes, Mia, very normal.

Mia: O... okay... well, Camelot owns Golden Sun, as you should know by now! On with the story!

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- Tomegathericon -

"This is a nice looking book," Sheba said approvingly as she ran her hand over the fine black leather cover. It was a deep sooty black, with red and blue lines running over it, and an intelligible script scrawled on the cover. Inside, there were various pictures and accompanying text, all painstakingly scribed in with fine ink. The pages were crisp and white, as if the book itself was brand new, but for all they knew, it could be well over a hundred years old. This book was the Tomegathericon, a book of dark magic, and the group had acquired it in Kibombo, a gift from the Gabomba.

"Some of the pictures are very gory," Felix commented, flicking through the pages. The pictures depicted such scenes as decaptiation and people writhing in pain, while black snakes crawled all over their bodies. There were also pictures of monsters, like a Demon that was very similar to the ones they had encountered in the Gabomba Statue or a huge, headless suit of armour that looked very formidable and frightening. The text referred to him as 'Dullahan, the Shadow, Guardian of Iris' and Felix privately hoped that they would not actually meet this scary creature, but he wasn't going to say it out loud.

"Definitely not a choice of bedtime reading then," Picard sat in a corner of the room, polishing his Black Orb with a cloth until it gleamed and showed his reflection in the clear, uncut glass. The Kibombonians had not been too gentle with it when they were taking it from Madra, to Kibombo, and it had gotten some smears on it, which did not impress the Lemurian. He could hardly wait to get back to their ship, but they were staying in Madra at the moment in the inn and they could go to the ship tomorrow, it was already too late to go on, the sky ha already dark for a while now.

"Looks like you can revive people too," Felix's gaze rested on a diagram of a corpse changing state, so that it looked exactly as it would have just before death, and then rising to a standing position, looking well and healthy. "This is definitely a useful book then. And we got it for free as well."

"And that underground cave wasn't too bad either, not like Airs Rock," Sheba brushed her hand through her blonde hair as if fearing there might still be sand in there, lodged in by the blustery winds they had struggled against to get Reveal for her. "How many days did we spend in that place? Four or five?"

"Six," said Jenna decisively, chewing on a slice of buttered bread. "I thought we would be in that stupid place forever."

"No kidding," Sheba grimaced. "It took a long time bathing before I got rid of all that sand. But Reveal isn't too bad, finding money and other treasures hidden in pots is much easier now." She leaned over to look closer at a picture of a wooden puppet dancing in front of a person. The person appeared to be frozen in fear, their face a solid mask of pure fright, sweat pouring down their skin. "I don't get it, what's so scary about that wooden puppet?"

"Fire Puppet," Felix read out loud. "Venus, 7 points, used to paralyse your foe in fear."

"If it's a fire puppet, shouldn't it be Mars?" Jenna wiped breadcrumbs off her mouth and dusted them off her skirt.

"That's what it says," Felix insisted. "Venus elemental. Don't ask me why."

"So, if you should equip it on yourself, it changes your Psynergy?" Kraden mused, walking over to the table. "That is very interesting. Like that Mysterious Card we also have. I wonder if there are other items similar to this. On our quest, we should be sure to find them all, if we possibly can."

"The Djinn can change our Psynergy too," Sheba held out her hand and a Djinn appeared in her hand, before taking to the air and flying around in circles around her head. "Whoah, slow down, Breath, you'll make me dizzy if you keep on going like that." Breath let out an amused sound and dropped onto her head, looking very comfortable up there. Sheba smiled. "I really do like having the Djinn with us, its like having a lot of pets in a way, except they actually talk back."

"And you can just argue with them," Jenna folded her arms. 'Right, Cannon?' The stubborn and fiery Mars Djinn just made a disgruntled noise inside her mind and did not answer.

Picard got off the chair and walked across the room to carefully place his Black Orb inside a dusty leather knapsack. "There, sparkling clean again. Tomorrow we can return to the ship. I do hope my ship is alright, but it should be, considering the door's magically locked. I doubt even a monster could get into that ship."

"I wouldn't be sure, monsters are sneaky little things," Felix recalled the time a Wolf had nearly managed to jump him from the back. Luckily, he had heard it growl slightly and turned around, pulling his sword out just in time to strike back. "Those annoying things just keep coming back again and again, it's as if there's millions of them."

Sheba let out a yawn and placed her hand over her mouth. "Is it that late already? I'm so tired."

"Yeah, it's pretty late," Felix got up, pushing the chair back. It made a scraping sound on the floor as it grated over the wooden floorboards. "I'm going to go to bed now, we'll probably have a long day tomorrow, especially now that we have the ship and we can go even further. Probably even more monsters to meet as well, but I'll live."

"Yes, we should get an early night tonight, you can spend tomorrow learning about how to use a ship," Picard plopped onto one of the beds and pulled the gold bands off his ponytail, letting his aquamarine hair fall down around his shoulders. "It'll be tiring work, I can assure you."

"Goodnight," Sheba smiled as she walked out of the room, rubbing her tired eyes.

"'Night, Felix, 'night, Picard, goodnight Kraden," Jenna followed her out of the room.

"I look forwards to tomorrow," Kraden was currently saying. "Now that we have the ship, the journey has many new prospects for us, who knows what we'll find? Ah, well, I should get to bed too. Goodnight, everybody." And he left the room, leaving Felix and Picard alone.

"I am so freaking tired..." Felix fell down onto his bed, burying his face into the bedcovers. "Stupid monsters."

-

Jenna sighed, tossing and turning in her bed. She was restless, unable to drop off to sleep, even though she felt so tired. It seemed that something was not allowing her to rest, there was something that she had to do before she could actually go to sleep. Letting out a soft cry of frustration, Jenna sat up and pushed back the bedcovers, looking around the dark room. A small rectangle of moonlight lit up the room, revealing that Sheba was already fast asleep. Jenna slid her legs over the edge of the bed and got up, padding softly across the room and exiting into the hallway.

Jenna realised that she wanted to have a look at the Tomegathericon. She was not exactly sure why, as looking at gory pictures was not quite her thing, but it might make for some interesting reading and she might even drop off while doing so. Jenna looked towards Felix and Picard's room, where she knew the Tomegathericon was, and crept towards the slightly ajar door, carefully pushing it open. Jenna peered in and confirmed that the two were asleep, so she quietly tiptoed in, heading to the table where the shiny black book was. It actually seemed to be calling to her, but she shook the feeling off and reached out for it, albeit nervously. Time seemed to come to a standstill as she reached for it, unnerved by the darkness and how eerily silent it was, the only sound being a strange whispering, which could be excused as the wind rustling through the branches. Jenna's hand touched the cover and she grasped the book with her fingers, slowly levering it off the table and holding it with both hands.

A loud sound shook through the room and Jenna jumped, almost letting out a shocked exclamation, her heart hammering away. She realised that it was just Picard, who had let out a snore, and sighed in relief, walking back towards the door and silently slipping out. Jenna padded across the dimly lit hallway, finding a chair to sit on, conveniently placed under a dull, flickering candle fixed into the wall. Jenna laid the book on her lap and flicked through the pages, looking at the drawings and skimming over the text. There was not much in there to interest her at the moment, and she flicked through the pages faster and faster until she came to the last two pages, scribed in red ink, which was odd as previously black ink had been used and she wondered at the change of colour, peering closer at the small text.

The text seemed to tell of a creature, who was dark as the night and a powerful black magic practictioner as well as a necromancer, who had found his home in the book. That part, Jenna did not quite understand. Accompanying the text was a picture of a skeletal figure wearing a hooded cloak. On the second page was a sort of poem. Jenna started to read it aloud in a quiet whisper, so she would not risk awakening everybody.

'Creature of darkness, creature of night,
Who is hidden away from the light,
Come you now to me,
Let your presence once more be,
In this blackest hour,
That sealed away power,
Once more come to this place,
Once more I'll see your face,
Come, great beast of shade,
Your freedom has been made."

Jenna was stunned as she realised exactly what the spell might be. It sounded like a summoning spell, to bring forth a dark creature, presumably the creature the text spoke of, and he must be in the book. The Tomegathericon slid off Jenna's lap and fell to the floor, smoke issuing from the centre of the pages. A musty smell accompanied the swirling smoke and Jenna grimaced at it, watching the swirling smoke. A dark figure formed among the smoke and it faded away, to reveal a skeletal being, essentially a skeleton with no flesh or organs, just dry white bones, wearing a black and red cloak with a hood. The mouth was fixed into a sinister grin, and a dull red light blazed in the skeleton's eyes. Jenna fought down the urge to scream, rooted to the chair by the horrible spectacle.

"Who are you who has revived me from my eternal prison inside the Tomegathericon?" The skeleton boomed. "I, the great Necromancer, Skelltullar, was sealed away centuries past, doomed to spend eternity inside that accursed book which I once used of my own free well. Now I am free, this world will know my presence once more. What are you, girl? A wielder of Psynergy, an Adept?"

"Y-yes," Jenna squeaked, her eyes widening. This guy had evil written all over him and she had the bad feeling that she had just done something very wrong. Again. As if breaking rules and going into Sol Sanctum so long ago hadn't been bad enough, now she had let an evil skeleton out of the book? At this rate, she would be in jail before she was even 20. "I... um... y-you wouldn't mind getting back into the book, would you?"

"Are you nuts?" Skelltullar ground his teeth. "I couldn't wait to get out of that book. Well, it seems that you're just a little girl, you couldn't be of much use... but... maybe... we'll see..." Jenna shrank back as he raised a finger. A pulsing black light floated out of his bony finger and floated along until it met with Jenna's forehead and sank into the skin, disappearing from view. Jenna gasped and clamped a hand to her forehead. She felt nothing but a dull ache where the strange light had gone in. "I am sure that we will meet again someday. But for now, I must go and see the world I left so long ago. Farewell." The skeleton necromancer reached down and picked up the Tomegathericon, disappearing in a billow of dark, murky smoke.

Jenna shakily got to her feet, hoping desperately that this was just a dream. But somehow it did not seem like a dream, she knew that it was horribly real. And even worse, now the Tomegathericon was gone. Surely everybody else would notice, and then she would have to explain what she had done, she let some evil skeleton with the power to raise the dead out of the book and lost it in the process, and she didn't even know how to get him back in. Feeling horribly guilty, Jenna crept back into her room and slid underneath the bedcovers. Surprisingly, sleep claimed her within minutes and she slept fitfully throughout the night.

-

Dun dun dun... stupid Jenna...

Jenna: Hey! T.T You made me unleash an evil skeleton dude?

Yeah, you're evil, alright.

Isaac: But we're good, not evil...

Really?

Isaac: ...

Garet: Please review!