The Necromancer: Part Three
by J Jericho Born
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear," said Giles as he took off his glasses and placed them on the high school cafeteria table he was seated at.

"A triple 'oh dear', this must be trouble," wittingly said Xander as the group of Buffy, Willow, and Xander abandoned their lunches and leaned in closer.

"What you have described to me sounds distinctly like two necromancers," diagnosed Giles.

"Necromancers?" questioned Buffy.

"You mean like in WarCraft?" blurted Xander.

"Oh, yeah, and when you click on them too many times they get mad at you," said Willow as she and Xander shared a grin.

"Anyway, back to reality here," snapped Buffy.

"So what type of undead baddies are we talking about?" asked Buffy.

"For all intents and purposes these individuals are both human and alive," corrected Giles.

"I feel an explanation coming," predicted Xander.

"Necromancers, put simply, are practitioners of the undead. You see, according to folklore it all originated back in a prosperous ancient civilization. There was a type of scientist fellow who was fascinated with death, more specifically how to avoid it. His research led way to a following of individuals dedicated to finding a means to circumvent death. Eventually this group of intellectuals was corrupted into the demon summoning craftsmen of undead we know as necromancers," explained Giles.

He returned his glasses to his face and continued, "Soon these necromancers took over control of this prosperous civilization and conquered all the other nations they could find. Eventually they were overthrown somehow. Fearing another takeover, an agreement was made between nations that made practicing the art of necromancy punished by summary execution. A type of inquisition time followed and all necromancers and all of their materials were purged from the populace."

"So if all necromancers were wiped out how can we have two here in Sunnydale?" inquired Willow.

"I doubt these two alone could have laid low for several thousand years. Nor is it probable that they figured out the intricacies of necromancy on their own. Perhaps a small hand full of necromancers escaped to a place where no one could find them and established a community there," speculated Giles.

"Wait a minute, who cares where they came from? I mean, Buffy has taken on worse. Why doesn't she just march down to whatever dung pile they call home and whoop them back to purgedville?" asked Xander.

"Necromancers may not posses the brawn and fighting ability of the vampires we are used to, but we shouldn't underestimate them. In their dealings with death they have most certainly come up with a trick or two for avoiding it and inflicting it for that matter. From what Buffy tells us these two have a plan. We'd do best to collect as much information as we can and get an idea of how to deal with them," returned Giles.

"So what do you suggest we do in the mean time?" inquired an impatient Buffy. She had heard this speech many times before.

"I'd suggest you get to class," interrupted a snoopy Principal Snyder. Buffy glanced back over her shoulder to spy the brooding principal's face.

"Right, off to class now," Giles affirmed in his most authoritative voice.

He cleared his throat and added, "We can continue our discussion after school in the library."


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