Kobayashi Maru

“Unlikely. He probably can only stray so far from the stylus.”

Finally the apparition poked his upper body through the void. “Good news. Bad news.”

“Good news,” Anna started.

“It leads to the surface.”

“Bad news?” Clayton inquired anxiously.

“It’s an empty vertical shaft. The walls are mostly smooth. There’s no reasonable way to climb up and I’m incorporeal so I can’t throw anything down. But…” By the sound of his voice, it sounded like the stylus had already cooked something up.

“But what,” Anna said, annoyed.

“You won’t like it,” the apparition teased.

“Then the answer is no.”

“You didn’t even hear me out!”

“Blah blah blah necromancy.” Anna paused for mock tension. “Sound about right?”

“Ugh.” The apparition stepped through the hole entirely, swatting at both Anna and Clayton with his hands, directing them to part aside. “Worst. Apprentice. Ever.” He started floating down the hallway, visibly counting alcoves.

Anna gave chase. “Whatever you are going to do, I don’t approve.”

“Wah, wah. Sour grapes,” he replied flipping a hand while keeping his back to her. “You only object because you haven’t the spine for it.” The apparition suddenly stopped, spun on a block heel, and thrust both arms out with dramatic flair. Purple-black arcs of energy exploded from his fingertips, forking hundreds of times as they shot up and down the hallway, disappearing around junctions, each individual bolt striking an alcove.

There was a moment’s pause. Then the dead began to stir.

Bones began to beat against the insides of the seals. The sound was terrifying and all encompassing as the passage funneled the horrible sound up and down its length. Clayton appeared panicked as he looked around, eyes wide. “They are breaking out!”

“Stop it!” Anna demanded.

“Pfffttt. Too late.”

One by one the skeletons broke though their seals, some tumbling out and face planting, others crawling out more carefully. Many were whole. Most were adult sized. A few were missing limbs. Those with only one leg hopped.

They moved slowly, painfully, as if crippled by debilitating arthritis, dry bones rattling against the stone and each other as they began to press toward the living. Anna’s hair stood on the back of her neck. Clayton frantically searched for any place to hide. There was nowhere to run.

“Well… you could command them to stop. I’m sure they’ll obey you better than me.”

“I-I won’t,” Anna refused in a dry voice.

“Then thank me for doing your job.”

The skeletons continued their intimidating march, before harmlessly passing by, heading to the hole in the painting. One by one they slipped through and disappeared out of sight. With only a single hole and so many arrivals, a dense queue soon formed. Anna was surrounded as the undead packed in tightly around her. Their sharp bony bodies pressed into her. She shuddered.

They did not speak. They did not breathe. Yet each one was a past life. A name. A face. Who did they love? What did they fear? Had they died with dignity? Anna felt her emotions swelling inside. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she started to apologize as mindless bones pressed into her, slowly filing past.

“Why on earth are you apologizing?”

“This isn’t right!”

The apparition's face turned ugly while the skeletons marched directly through him. “You’re a necromancer now, apprentice. You will be feared for it. Judged for it. Embrace the wrong!”

Anna glared, shooting eyebeams of hateful energy.

“Finally,” the apparition exhaled with exasperation, rising high enough to float shoulders above the sea of slow moving skulls. “I see that. You’re not so holy after all.”

“I won’t command them, but maybe I should command you!” Anna thrust her hand into her apron pocket, strangling the stylus with her left fist.

“Oh, please do. Command my soul. Or destroy me outright with death magic. Go on,” he urged, “Take your first step, apprentice.” The apparition smirked with satisfaction.

Anna gripped the stylus with all her might, heart pounding with fury.

“If it makes it easier for you, I deserve it. I have slain armies. Raised hordes of undead.” He gestured his hands above the sea of skulls. “This? Hah. This is nothing. I am but a fraction of what I used to be. But you. You will be greater than I ever was. One million words?!” He laughed with pride. “Your power will be unmatched. The realm will be helpless to your script.”

“Bahahaha!”

“Now. Do what no other can. Ruin me forever. Command me. Or scatter my soul to nothingness.”

“Anna! No!”

Anna couldn’t see Clayton through the crowd, but she could clearly hear him.

“Do not compromise yourself!”

Like pulling a sword from its sheath, Anna drew out the stylus, holding it up over her head, business end pointed up. The utensil faintly quivered in her hand with trepidation.

“Yes. Yes. Write my ending, apprentice.”

Anna huffed, shoulders rising and falling with rage. She could end this miserable necromancer once and for all, in one brief sentence. “Before I do. Tell me. Why be trapped within a stylus? Whomever did this to you showed you some measure of mercy. Why?!”

The apparition’s smirk drew slowly into a blank expression.

“Must I command the answer from you?!”

“Anna! Please! Put it down! Do not fall for this!”

“I cannot recall.”

Apparition and Anna locked eyes. Neither spoke. Her breaths slowed.

The stylus slowly lowered. It then slipped into the apron pocket.

“If they showed you mercy-” Anna exhaled with great emotional burden, “-then I will honor that decision.”

“Is this mercy though?” the apparition asked, gesturing to himself, then to the apron pocket. “Trapped forever? Reduced to nothing more than a scribing tool? No. It is but an inferior punishment. Now write. Make me cease to exist.”

“Trapped or not, you still have free will. That is mercy.” Anna looked to the skeletons to her right and left. “You could have shown them the same kindness. Rather than disrespect their remains.”

“You should realize that if you escape with me, you are bringing doom to the realm. I was put away here for a reason. Releasing me from this prison will be certain to end the living.”

“Will you be able to live with the weight of that, apprentice?”

Anna swallowed hard.

It was difficult to refute the logic. He was a convict imprisoned in this place. Removing the stylus was the equivalent of a jail break.

The apparition sensed the opening. “Hard to be lawful good when you help chaotic evil break free of its chains. Hmm?”

“Don’t D and D me!”

He smiled at the outburst. “Here’s your options. Use death magic and -poof- me.” The apparition made dual hand explosions by flicking his fingers outwards in unison. “That would be justice. Lawful.”

“But evil.”

“Is it? I’ve been tried and convicted. You were just trying to keep the prisoner from escaping. Seems justifiable.”

“I’m not using death magic.”

“Then by your escaping, you help me escape, releasing my terror back to the realm. Quite evil.”

“We can leave him behind,” Clayton interjected.

“Hah. There’s no way you’re getting out of this on your own,” the spirit sneered over his shoulder. He looked back at Anna. “Not without using death magic.”

“You need me or necro. Whether you want to admit it or not.”

“Kobayashi maru,” Anna muttered softly. An unwinnable situation. “Or the appearance of one.”

“So what’s it going to be? Hmm?”

“I’m not going to let you cheat me into using death magic.”

“Fine then,” the apparition replied with an open handed shrug. “We escape and you doom the realm by releasing me. Sounds lovely.”

“You assume I am passive because I won’t use death magic. But if you think I’m going to enable you to terrorize the realm again, you’re sorely mistaken.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he smirked.