Not long ago the new king of Midlothia outlawed magic. Wizards were rounded up and put to death. People hunted them down like bandits and strung them up or stoned them, believing they were better off without magic.
Now the kingdom is at war, and they are losing. If they don’t come up with something soon, they will be overrun and swallowed into the empire to the northeast. The king’s council advises him to seek out the wizards in hiding.
The archwizard sends Gidian, a powerful young mage, to help the king. Gidian is suspicious and paranoid, and rightfully so, but when he is sent on what he believes to be a useless quest he finds instead a vast source of power… and a new threat.
Things used to be so clear for Gidian, and he hated non-mages as much as they hated him. Now he finds himself torn between two sides, and he’s determined he’ll win both battles. Even if it kills him.
Part of the Into the Dark series.
She spoke first, when they were finally nearing the temple district.
“I’m a little surprised.”
“Oh? About what, my dear?”
“Well,” she ducked her head as they walked, “I had assumed that you’d invited me to the palace to show off. I had even wondered if you could really get into a dinner at the palace. You don’t seem very…”
“Noble?”
He saw her ears turn red, but her face was still hidden from his line of sight. “I don’t mean it to sound that way.”
He chuckled, “My blood is as common as it comes. It’s only time and power that allows me to walk amongst kings.”
She looked up at him now, curiosity on her face. “I never asked you how you could do that… with the injured people the other day. You’re a mage, aren’t you?”
He smirked, staring out at the street ahead of them. “I am a necromancer.”
She stopped suddenly and he paused, looking down at her and meeting her gaze. Her eyes were troubled, her brow drawn together. “You’re a death mage?” she whispered.
He nodded. “The best of them.”
Part of the Into the Dark series.
Ventrovius is a natural born necromancer. Spirits have found him and followed him all the days of his long life, and it has been a VERY long life. He has risen to power then cast it off more than once. Despite his centuries, he looks like nothing more than a young rogue, lazy and without morals.
In this time, in this place, he is simply a necromancer. He lives with an exiled cleric of the White God, in a tiny cottage off the beaten path, where the cleric tends her garden and he reads his books. It’s a peaceful existence… more so than he deserves.
When a strange darkness threatens the entire world, a fog that seems necromantic in origin, he finds himself in the middle of a quest to save humanity. His reasons for helping are his own, and the heroes need his help, but will the world appreciate it in the end?
He travels with these unlikely heroes, their guide through a land turned by the darkness. Along the way he encounters pieces of his past that will haunt him, and faces truths about his present that will add to the burdens he already bears.
The weight of his past is greater than any darkness.