There was a house on a hill in the city of Nightvale which was greatly feared by the inhabitants. There was nothing unusual about it, there were no eerie lights in the window nor gargoyles leering down on passer-by's. In fact it was a very pleasant looking three storey abode with magnificent views across the harbour. The gardens were well tended and in full bloom with a variety of colours and scented flowers that sent a floral fragrance through the surrounding streets. There were even two well-groomed cats who paraded around the grounds in feline superiority.
Many folk took a wide berth of the house, some even refused to walk down the same street muttering to others that it was a cursed place. If you found the right merchant he would tell you a story of who lived there although to catch a sight of the owner was a rare thing indeed. The same man would tell you the owner was over three hundred years old yet appeared no older than thirty winters. He would also whisper in your ear she was a sorceress of great power who seduced young boys and ate their hearts while in copulation.
Young Tadbot stood looking up at the house wishing he had never spoken to the old merchant in the first place. Now he had got spooked by a stupid story that probably wasn't true anyway. Unlike many others, he knew exactly who lived here and he knew she preferred to keep to herself to avoid any misunderstandings in the city. He had only been here once before when delivering a package from the Guild. That time his orders were to leave it by the door but this time he had been instructed to deliver something personally.
Tadbot had to admit he was caught between curiosity and fear which was emphasised by his shaking fingers as he gripped the black wax scroll holder. By trade he was a messenger and had been working for the Guild in Nightvale for the entire summer. It paid well and they fed him which he couldn't grumble about but there was something far too secretive which bordered on dangerous about his deliveries.
His current consignment was a scroll tube which looked ordinary enough but it felt cold and a little clammy to the touch. Every time he adjusted his grip, a shiver went up his spine as if something was sending warning signals scurrying across his nerves. He hadn't told the other messengers back at the Guild about who lived here, he had been sworn to secrecy by the administrator and warned that opening his mouth would have dire consequences.
The first time he was here, he had caught a glimpse of the owner at the third storey window, only briefly but enough to recognize her. Portraits hung proudly in the Guild halls of their top hunters over the decades and hers was there among some of the finest.
Her name was Mariesse and she was a Necromancer of some renown.
Tadbot had been lucky enough to sneak into the Guild archives one evening and found out as much as he could about her. Surprisingly she was mentioned little in the recent histories but her name appeared more and more frequently the further he tracked back thorough the archives. He had stopped at three hundred and fifty years ago thinking that the old merchant's stories may be right. If he had been right about her age then perhaps he was right about her eating young men's hearts as well.
He almost jumped out of his skin as one of cats rubbed its furry body against his leg to snap him from his reverie. He took two steps back much to the cat's displeasure who scowled at him and hissed menacingly before skulking off with its tail raised in disgust. Tadbot took a deep breath and approached the front door of the house. It looked normal enough, no twisted face or undead slime coated the surface.
The street was empty as it often was in this part of the city. Very few travelled these roads near the Necromancer house for fear of getting their souls sucked out or used for some form of sinister experiment. Tadbot had only one way of finding out if the rumours were true and that was to deliver the scroll tube to its destination.
After spending another minute trapped in his own thoughts his body moved and he raised a hand to knock at the door. His hand didn't even touch the wooden surface before he heard a click and it swung open smoothly before him in invitation. Tadbot's eyes nearly bugged out of his head at what lay within. If he hadn't known better he would have thought he was looking into the private chambers of a royal queen.
Opulent furnishings unlike anything he had ever seen before graced the entire room. Ruffled crimson silk drapes edged with gold trim decorated the windows and entry ways and finely carved wooden chairs plumply padded with pearl dust satin fabric were neatly arranged around the ground floor. Two large paintings hung on the walls, one was particularly breath taking which depicted the city harbour in painstaking detail. The other was of a realistic looking field of red flowers that looked like you would be able to reach in and pluck one of the petals right off the stalks.
As Tadbot was admiring the paintings, he realized he had taken several steps inside the house and the door was swinging shut behind him. He panicked momentarily and raced towards it, almost getting his fingers trapped in the doorframe. The door latched into place and no amount of rattling and pulling would open it.
Tadbot thought this was the moment that the room would begin to change and all the wonderful furnishing would melt before his eyes and reveal themselves to be twisted, rotten things with no life in them.
No matter how hard he stared, nothing changed. In fact the more he looked, the more wonders he saw. A spectacular brass statue of a dragon with jade eyes was in one corner and, in another, a large fist sized ruby enclosed in a glass pedestal. The ceiling was painted as well, an impressive fresco detailing the battle between gods and mortals.
Just as he thought the room was going to burst his mind from a cultural overload, a soft sigh filled the room. He glimpsed something out the corner of his eye and spun quickly to see what it was. There was only set of stairs leading up to the second storey, nothing more. As he stood there gazing upwards, wondering if he should investigate, another sigh buzzed around his ears.
It was so strong he actually battered his ears in annoyance as if a swarm of flies had attacked him.
'Please don't dawdle young man,' a disembodied voice droned inside his head. It sounded like an echo from far away but it was definitely a woman's voice.
Tadbot took a step back and then forward and then spun around in a dance of confusion that caused the voice in his head to chuckle. 'Come up the stairs. Don't worry, I don't bite!'
It sounded cheerful enough but Tadbot was not used to being spoken to by a person who wasn't in the same room as him. So he opened his mouth and tried to speak but no recognizable sounds came from his mouth.
'Oh do hurry my boy. You have something for me?' The voice asked politely.
'Urghhhh,' Tadbot responded and then thought it would just be better to nod his head which was silly because nobody was in the room with him.
'Good!' The voice trilled lightly. 'Now, if you would be so kind as to make your way up the stairs?'
Tadbot took some faltering steps and made it up two of the stairs. The voice congratulated him pleasantly, 'That's it! Up we go! All the way!'
He graciously obeyed the command although his legs felt like they didn't belong to him. When he got halfway up the voice buzzed inside his head once again.
'I do hope you like my house. Did you like downstairs?' Tadbot went to answer but the voice carried on before he could even grunt a reply. 'The dragon was from a land far to the east called Nagaska. The ruby was a gift from the Dwarves of Stonecrag for helping them to dispose of a particularly unpleasant rock fiend.'
Tadbot listened dumbly to the voice until he got to the top of the stairs and a landing area with a corridor lined with closed doors.
'This way young man, if you please. You don't want to go into any of those rooms.' The voice encouraged and Tadbot's body responded by walking straight down the corridor and around the corner to another staircase.
'Come now, you are almost there,' the voice was sounding less disembodied now, the tone was clearer and more precise then it had been.
Tadbot reached the third storey which was a massive open plan room even more striking then the downstairs area had been. His eyes could barely take in everything he was seeing. Display cases filled with all manner of precious metals and valuable jewels filled the room in neat rows. The walls were exquisitely wood panelled a deep rich brown colour and the floor appeared to be black marble flecked with gold.
Tadbot thought that if you took a prized trophy from every king in the land then it would not match the treasures that lay before him. Breath-taking was an understatement which also made him realize he was literally holding his. He sucked in a big lungful of air and snorted like a farmyard animal.
On the far side of the room was a high back chair of red fabric that was almost as tall as him. It was facing a slightly open window that spilled soft shards of light into the room and the gentle chorus of birdsong could be heard from outside. He felt a presence was sitting in that chair but he could not see them from where he was standing.
An elegant hand drifted into view from one side of the tall chair. It was pale but flawless with two elaborate golden sheaths decorating the index and middle fingers. The hand beckoned him and the sweetest voice he had ever heard spoke to him.
'Come my boy, come over here.'
It was the same voice he had first heard downstairs but this time it was not in his head. He was hearing it with his own ears for the first time. Life seemed to flood back into his legs and a small wave of nausea passed over him. Perhaps it was best to get this over with and leave the house as soon as possible. He had never experienced anything like this in his life and he wasn't sure if he wanted to ever again.
He walked briskly towards the chair, being careful not to knock one of the priceless looking treasures to the ground in his haste. There was a small incense holder burning on a desk under the window which gave the room a sweet fragrance of apples and cinnamon. Tadbot eventually rounded on the owner of the house and came face to face with Mariesse the Necromancer for the first time.
She was sat cross legged in the high backed chair and was dressed in a sheer black ankle length dress. The middle of the dress was a plunging v-line that exposed the sides of her breasts but a clinging black webbing hugged the skin there to keep it together. What looked like long grey coloured bones decorated her back and shoulders - it looked to Tadbot like a giant skeletal hand was about to engulf her.
Pretty jewels decorated her neck and forehead where a crown of sorts rested. It was a thing of bladed grey iron set with white gleaming stones that also functioned as an impressive looking headband to keep her long hair from her face. Her hair was an interesting shade of violet, perfectly styled without a hair out of place. She looked just like her picture in the Guild hall although her eyes were closed in that picture. They were closed now as well.
'Welcome young man,' her lips moved softly but her eyes remained closed. 'I do hope you aren't scared?'
Tadbot wanted to answer but instead he stared at her breasts as they gently strained against her dress as she breathed. Just as he thought he had plucked up the courage to answer her she raised a hand to silence him as if she had sensed he was about to speak.
