Chapter Text
8 Years Ago
It was a beautiful day on Tir Asleen, and Kit Tanthalos was absolutely wretchedly miserable.
One reason she was miserable was that Airk had taken her bike. He had his own to use, but the tire needed a patch and instead of just patching it like any decent brother would do he’d taken Kit’s without even asking.
Another reason she was miserable was that halfway through the morning her mother had found her lazing in the garden, listless and grumpy with no bike to ride and nowhere to go anyway with Airk off somewhere and Jade gone with Ballantine on a supply run that was going to last a whole week, and had shoved Kit into a starched dress from the back of her closet and forced her to come along on a stupid social call.
Thirty minutes in, sick of the conversation (polite, boring) and having had her fill of lemonade (too watery) and sandwiches (not enough filling), Kit excused herself to the restroom and made a break for it, slipping out of the house and into the street before they’d even realized she was gone.
Once free of polite society she found herself brooding on the big, choking, aching reason she was miserable, the one that was going to drive her insane in the end - it had been a month with no word. One month ago exactly (she knew, she’d been counting the days each morning when she woke up and each night in her bed) her father had hitched a ride to the nearest shuttle stop early in the morning. He hadn’t asked Kit and Airk to see him off, hadn’t even woken them. Kit had woken on her own, later than usual, and the moment she stepped out of her bedroom into the hallway she’d known from the quality of the silence that something was terribly wrong.
She’d crept down to the kitchen and found her mother at the table, back to Kit and hands clutched around a precious mug of coffee. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
Sorsha had responded too quickly, too tightly. “There’s nothing wrong. Everything’s fine.”
“Oh, okay. Where’s dad?”
“He had to leave for a while.”
More details had come in drips over the next few days: he’d taken the first shuttle available off-planet. Sorsha didn’t know where he’d gone. She didn’t know when he’d be back. He hadn’t left any messages for his children, hadn’t even mentioned them at all during his and Sorsha’s brief conversation.
Still, Kit had hoped they’d hear something. He couldn’t have just left, could he? She’d visited the comms office every day to check for a message from him, a letter, a video, even just one line to say he was okay.
Her mother got silent and cold when Kit brought up her missing father. Airk pushed too hard in the opposite direction, laughing and joking and acting like their father had never existed at all.
And Kit, after a full month, had realized it was finally time to accept that he hadn’t cared, no matter how well he’d been able to pretend at times.
So now she was stomping through the grass at the side of the road, no destination in mind, just the need to get away. The grass itched where it brushed up against her ankles, the sun beat down on her head, and the dress she’d been forced into choked around the neck and cuffs and scratched at her skin everywhere else.
She was so caught up in her own misery she hadn’t even heard the sound of the car behind her until it was careening around a corner and she was forced to fling herself into the bushes by the side of the road to avoid becoming a sunburned, bad-tempered hood ornament.
Kit groaned. Of course she’d had the luck to land in a pricker bush instead of a softer variety of vegetation. She was scratched all over, what felt like a whole branch had tangled itself in her hair, and she was sure her palms and knees would be skinned bloody where she’d landed.
It took her a solid minute to struggle out of the bush and another two to remove the majority of the thorns from her hair and dress. Her knees and hands were skinned, and her dress was torn in places and spotted with blood. She’d be catching hell from her mother later for this, even though it hadn’t even been her fault.
Once she made it back to the road, she spotted the body of a rabbit she didn’t remember being there before lying motionless and bloody on the pavement. “Ick,” Kit said aloud. “Sorry buddy. Guess I got lucky, huh?”
The rabbit had not responded, which was just as expected. It did, however, twitch, which made Kit jump a bit. Not quite dead, then. Poor little guy. Should she… help it somehow? Maybe just put it out of it’s misery?
The rabbit twitched again, and Kit jumped again. And then it kept twitching. Not even twitching, really. Moving. It was sort of shambling along into the ditch beside the road with a jerking, uneven gait that Kit was sure was not natural.
She backed up a step. The rabbit stilled.
She stepped forwards. It started moving again, no less unsettling than before.
Her fists clenched involuntarily. The rabbit curled in on itself, ears to tail, as though it were being squeezed.
Oh, no. Nope. No. Absolutely not. Yuck.
Could it be her who was doing this? It couldn’t, right? She was no necromancer and neither were her parents.
But her grandmother was.
Her grandmother had been a necromancer so powerful her name was known throughout the galaxy, and so evil that once she’d been apprehended Kit’s family had been forced to settle out here at the absolute ass-end of civilization, in hiding in everything but name.
Necromancy tended to run in families, she knew that. Not every person, not even every generation, but if there was one necromancer in a family odds were there would eventually be another. In some families, necromantic lineage was even prized - Bavmorda had tried in vain to pull the power out of Kit’s mother and had been enraged when she’d failed.
Sorsha had done the opposite. She’d settled where no known necromancers lived and taught her children of the way the power had corrupted her mother until there had been no choice but to take her down.
Kit could never, ever tell anyone about what she’d just done.
—
Today
Two hours later they were standing before Sorsha in the Tanthalos living room. Kit hadn’t wanted to tell her of their misadventure right away, if even at all, and Jade was inclined to agree. She needed time to think about it, was all. Kit, a necromancer? She supposed that part shouldn’t be terribly surprising. Kit’s grandmother had been a powerful one by all accounts, she must have handed the aptitude down. But Kit, a necromancer and aware of it? Kit, somehow able to pull bodies out of the ground to protect them in a fight?
Jade had thought they’d shared all their secrets with one another. Kit was the only one other than Ballantine that knew about Jade’s mother and the gravestones, knew she still cried about it at night sometimes and had held Jade in her arms when the tears came. She’d assumed she’d known everything there was to know about Kit, too. Every fight with her mother, the way she desperately missed her father who’d left the solar system behind when Kit was twelve, the way the thought of staying on this planet and in this town her whole life frustrated her until she wanted to claw her own skin off, until she needed to go drink herself silly in some tavern to forget.
Apparently there was some part of Kit that even Jade didn’t know.
They’d meant to sneak back into town and keep the contents of their morning to themselves for the time being. They hadn’t even made it to the stables before Sorsha met them on the street, looking pale and tight-lipped. Turned out a pack of bandits had stumbled into the town square an hour ago, off their heads babbling about being attacked by a necromancer. Most people didn’t give the story any credence. Perhaps they’d had some bad moonshine, or too many lonely days on the road had driven them mad.
Sorsha, with her unerring instincts about her daughter’s nose for trouble, had come to the correct conclusion.
They’d told Sorsha their story from both sides, Jade how she’d been cornered and on the losing end when suddenly bodies had erupted around her and the bandits seemed the lesser of her troubles, Kit how when she’d realized they had no chance she had felt… a force, a power, surging out of her in her desperation.
“This wasn’t the first time, was it?” Sorsha asked.
Kit hesitated a long moment, refusing to meet Jade’s eyes even though Jade knew Kit could see her. “…No.”
“How long have you known?”
Kit, almost too quiet for Jade to hear: “Since I was twelve.”
Eight years. Eight years and she hadn’t told Jade a thing. She thought Kit had trusted her more than that.
“You’ll need training,” Sorsha had said to Kit then. “It would be better if you’d started sooner, before you were doing your own workings completely without… well. Never mind that now. You’re starting late, but at least you’re starting.”
“How?” Kit said. “There’s no necromancers here. Not on this planet, not even in this system. You always say that’s why we came here.”
“There’s one,” Sorsha said. “An old friend. He always said he’d teach her, when the time came. I don’t think he’ll be opposed to taking you on as well.”
“Who’s her?” Kit said, sounding more befuddled by the moment.
Jade, closer to the window and not involved in the present conversation, had just spotted old Prunella from the tavern coming up the walk to the front door with her arm around the red-haired muffin genius that Kit hated so much. Airk was scampering behind the two of them looking as confused as Kit.
Prunella didn’t even bother to knock, just came right in. “I came as soon as I got your note. But whatever happened, it’s got nothing to do with Elora. She’s been with your boy all morning, they didn’t even leave town.”
The realization dawned slowly on Kit, but once it did she wasted no time making herself heard. “Muffin girl? You’re sending me away to learn necromancy with muffin girl?”
—
So it was out, then. Eight years of lying by omission and avoiding her mother’s eyes when she spoke about Bavmorda, eight years of lying to Jade when there was nothing she wanted to do less, of hiding her ability and knowing that if she ever lost control in front of Jade that would be it. Jade would be disgusted by what she’d done. Any reasonable person would, really. It would terrify her.
And Jade had been terrified by it, Kit could see that in the way she’d been babbling about a necromancer when Kit had come to. But she hadn’t seemed to be terrified of Kit, at least not at first. She’d been hovering bordering on clingy with her afterwards, insisting that Kit rest in her lap in the shade until Jade was satisfied she wasn’t going to keel over again and then giving her a leg up onto Eclipse and guiding her into the saddle with her hands like she was six years old or something. And yeah, that had pissed Kit off a bit but also she’d enjoyed the feeling of resting her head on the strong softness of Jade’s thighs while Jade gently smoothed her hand through Kit’s hair enough that she wasn’t going to complain about the attention even if it made her feel a tad pathetic.
Point was, Jade hadn’t acted like she was horrified by Kit. At least not until later, once they’d returned to Kit’s mother’s house and the truth had come out. Then she’d been distant, had barely spoken to Kit and excused herself as soon as Sorsha turned to making arrangement’s for Kit and Elora’s training, claiming she needed to let Ballantine know she was alright what with bandits on the loose. Kit hadn’t had a chance to ask her if anything was wrong, if they were ok.
She needed a drink.
She’d excused herself from dinner to pack but hadn’t gotten very far. She’d upended the contents of her drawers onto the bed, then tossed a few shirts haphazardly into an ancient suitcase before flinging herself facedown to brood in the pile of clothing she’d created.
She’d be leaving as soon as they got word back from Willow. It could be as early as tomorrow. She really needed to get ready.
But it wasn’t like she was going to get anything done tonight, not after the stress of the day.
Fuck it. Kit left her clothes on the bed, her suitcase on the floor, and slipped on her least-muddy pair of boots and a jacket. She tucked her keys and a few bills in the pocket, then crept past Airk in the living room watching some decade-old syndicated soap opera and slipped out the front door.
She headed for Prunella’s. Where else was there to go, really? Town like this there were only a few places to drink this late, and even fewer that were reputable enough that you weren’t taking your life in your hands when you patronized them. Prunella’s bar didn’t have a name really, it was just called Prunella’s after the gray-haired no-nonsense barkeep. She kept her regular customers watered and kept the sort who were just there to make trouble out, and even though she dealt with shortages same as everyone else in this town her drinks never made you go blind and only made you spend the next day hovering over the toilet if you had far more than the recommended amount.
Prunella wasn’t there when Kit sidled up to her usual spot at the bar. “Family emergency,” the bartender said. “Everyone’s alright, she just needed the night off.”
Kit suddenly realized that Prunella’s family emergency must be Elora. She was Elora’s mom, or something like that. Kit had never been too clear on their actual relationship and Prunella seemed too old to have a daughter Elora’s age - she was only a year ahead of Kit in school, she couldn’t be more than twenty-two - but Prunella was the one who raised her at any rate.
They’d all known about Elora. That had become clear pretty much as soon as Prunella and Elora had come bursting into the house earlier that day. Prunella, Sorsha, even their “old friend” Willow who Kit hadn’t even heard about until today.
Kit was only on her second sip, settling in for a good long sulk, when she heard a familiar yet dreaded voice behind her.
“Well you’ve certainly made yourself scarce these past… oh, what is it, ten months?” Lili said, and Kit gritted her teeth. Trapped, less than half a drink in, without even Jade to have her back. Could she not even have one peaceful, undisturbed glass of rotgut to take the edge off before she’s sent away to necromancy boarding school?
Kit didn’t bother to turn around. “I think it’s normal not to want to see you,” she said, “considering we broke up.”
“That was on you,” Lili said. “And I can’t say I’ve done too badly for myself since then, but pickings are slim in this town and you’re just about the best morsel I’ve seen around.”
Disgusting, Kit thought, and then and wrong. Did she forget about Jade or something?
Lili swung herself onto the empty stool beside Kit’s and motioned to the bartender for a drink. “I heard something interesting today.”
Kit froze.
“I heard some bandits ran into a necromancer on the road, not too far from town. A powerful one. Enough to raise six bodies right out of their graves.” Lili shrugged. “Seems like most people don’t think the story is true. Anyone who could do that must be powerful, or trained, or both. And there’s no one like that on Tir Asleen.”
Kit unfroze enough to speak. “Yep. They’ve gotta be lying, or crazy. There aren’t any necromancers around here, why would there be? It sucks here, they’d go somewhere better, like… I dunno, just better. Not here.” Fuck, she’s babbling. Stop it, Kit. “I just mean I think the bandits didn’t see anything, or don’t know what they -“
Lili stopped her in her tracks. “Funny. Everyone’s so sure it’s not true, but somehow I think it is.”
Kit knocked the rest of her glass back in one go and staggered off her stool, coughing. She slammed the glass down and tossed a few bills on the bar without counting. “Can’t stay, keep the change, bye,” she yelled over her shoulder while hightailing it for the door.
“Wait, Kit, I just need to talk to you,” Lili yelled after her, but Kit didn’t dare a glance back.
—
Kit wandered up and down the main street of town a few times after leaving Prunella’s, taking the occasional glance behind her and keeping alert for the sound of Lili following her. She was left alone though, thankfully. The horrifying thought that Lili hadn’t followed because she was too busy telling everyone in Prunella’s what she’d seen ten months ago suddenly occurred to her and Kit walked faster, no destination in mind but desperate to burn off her anxiety. She briefly considering going into one of the less reputable taverns that lined the street, but the last time she’d ignored Jade’s reservations and gone to one of those she’d ended up with bruised knuckles, a black eye, and the first really bad hangover of her life. So maybe not tonight. She’s in enough trouble with her mom already.
A few minutes later, Kit found herself in front of the small house where Jade lived with Ballantine.
It’s late. She shouldn’t.
It’s not that late. Jade was probably still awake, tucked into bed reading some battered paperback from the town library.
Kit crept around the perimeter of the house until she could spot the light in Jade’s second floor window. She stooped, felt around in the dirt until she found a pebble light enough to not do any damage, then aimed.
A few seconds after her pebble hit the window with a plink, Jade’s face appeared between the curtains. “Kit,” she hissed. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready to leave?”
Kit shrugged. “Wanted to see you. Let me in?”
Jade glanced behind her. “Ballantine’s asleep.”
“I’ll be quiet.”
“You’re never quiet.”
“Jaaade,” Kit said, whining just a bit, “I’ll be quiet this time, okay? Promise.”
Jade sighed. “Meet me at the front door.”
Kit was around the front of the house in seconds, bouncing on her toes waiting for Jade to unlock the door. She followed Jade up the stairs, doing her best to step lightly on the creaky ones, then slipped after Jade into her bedroom.
“So,” Jade said.
“So…” Kit echoed, unsure suddenly. Why had she come here? To see Jade, obviously. To reassure herself that Jade wasn’t mad, didn’t hate her.
“When are you leaving?” Jade asked.
Kit shrugged. “Mom’s going to book our trip as soon as she hears back from Willow. A few days, maybe?”
“Oh,” Jade said. “That’s soon.”
“It really is,” Kit said. “But it’s not like I’m gonna miss much about this place, you know?” She snorted. “Like, what’s there to miss? Bad drinks? Local busybodies? The Friday night horse traffic jam on Main Street?”
“Yeah,” Jade said faintly. “Not much to recommend this place at all.”
Kit suddenly felt a tickle of guilt and rushed to correct herself. “Except you. You’re what I’m going to miss.”
Jade smiled, just a little one, but it still made Kit’s heart flutter a bit, still made her forget her awful day and her run-in with Lili and her secret being out for just a moment, just long enough to feel a sweet hit of relief from everything on her mind.
Kit went to Jade, folded her in her arms and rested her chin on Jade’s shoulder as Jade wrapped her arms around Kit’s back. Well, one arm. The other arm was holding a book, and Kit suddenly realized that Jade hadn’t put it down even once while she’d been here, not even when she’d come downstairs to let Kit in.
Kit made a grab for the book and Jade snatched it away, making to toss it into the crevice between her bed and the wall. But Kit was faster and dove across Jade to catch the book before it disappeared, landing on the bed with a wince as an elbow collided with her stomach but with Jade’s current read securely in her hands. It was old, spine creased in several places and pages yellowed, with a cover depicting -
“The Necromancer’s Marriage Season, Jade? A trashy romance novel? What are you, fifty?”
Jade rolled her eyes. “It was the only book the library had that even mentioned necromancers. I thought it was worth a shot.”
“Oh,” Kit said. “Jade are you… looking up necromancy because of me?”
“You’re my best friend,” Jade said. “Least I can do is learn about it.”
Kit could feel a blush spreading to the tips of her ears. “And did you learn anything?”
Jade snorted. “Not in the slightest. I think I actually might know less now. If you believe this book, being a necromancer is mostly about going to balls and getting caught in compromising positions down dark corridors.”
Kit suddenly became aware of how close they were, how they’d landed on the bad tangled together with Kit half on top of Jade. “Do you think that’s what I’ll end up doing?” she said, voice coming out rough, barely above a whisper. “Get caught in compromising positions?”
She was so close she could see Jade’d throat work as she swallowed. “Yeah, maybe. The compromising position of Elora cursing your brains out of your head because you keep being a dick to her for no reason.”
“No.” Kit shook her head vehemently. “Don’t even mention Elora right now.”
It was a bad idea. It was a bad idea, and she didn’t even have being drunk as a plausible out right now. But… she might not see Jade for a long time. And Jade was so close, and she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been thinking about this for a while, about how Jade would taste and how warm her mouth would be against Kit’s.
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Jade’s, and after half a breath Jade kissed back.
It was nothing like kissing any of the handful of other girls she’d kissed. It was so much better. Jade’s mouth opened under hers as she sucked gently at Jade’s bottom lip and god it felt so good to feel Jade breathing against her, to wrap a hand around Jade’s strong shoulder and feel Jade gently brush a lock of hair out of her eyes and deepen the kiss.
When she finally pulled back, Jade looked shocked. Not bad shocked. Just shocked. And Kit supposed that was fair enough. She was pretty surprised, too. And she’d like to stay, but… she was already overwhelmed by what she’d just done, and what else she wanted to do, and how she’d be leaving here soon for the first time in her life and she had no idea when she’d see Jade again. It was just too much right now.
Kit staggered upright. “I’m gonna miss you, okay? So, so much. I really will.”
And then she stumbled out the door of Jade’s bedroom and down the stairs, not remembering to tread lightly on the creaky ones even a little bit.
—
The following morning a message from Willow arrived at the Tanthalos residence, expressing surprise at hearing from Sorsha after so long but nonetheless imploring Elora and Kit to come begin their training as soon as possible.
Fifteen minutes after that, Jade came knocking on their door to pledge her service to Kit. And of course that made Kit laugh. (“Your service, Jade? Wow, that trashy book must have really gotten into you.”) But it also made something inside her thrill just a bit, and when Jade turned to Sorsha and said solemnly that “Where Kit goes, I go,” and that Kit would have her sword for her training and whatever came after, Kit got overwhelmed enough that she had to make a quick retreat to the kitchen for a glass of water before she embarrassed herself.
And three days after that, Kit and Jade and muffin girl and all of their suitcases (Kit’s overstuffed nearly to the point of breaking the zipper) bundled into the back of Sorsha’s rattling old car and were driven to the shuttle station for their red-eye trip to Nelwyn.