Under the watchful gaze of all those ghosts standing at the edge of that cavern above us, we walked that way. For a brief moment, I thought about teleporting up there, but that felt wrong. This was an important moment, and just skipping over the whole arrival bit to instantly appear up there was… eh, not great. So, I just walked that way while silently pondering what sort of system the school had set up to get people up there from down here. There had to be something, but I--

  And then it appeared. A glowing golden staircase sort of… unfurled from that higher area. It began as just a pair of tall, gleaming metallic poles that were about ten feet apart, before a single step appeared between them. That extended down and unfolded into a second step, then a third, and so on.

  As we watched, the grand, glowing golden staircase stretched out and continued unfurling until the entire thing was set up, with the bottom step just a few feet in front of us. But the staircase wasn’t done yet. Oh no, not even close. As soon as the basic structure was in place, more elaborate pieces began to appear. Skulls rose into place every few feet, along with a railing that seemed to be made of bones. Both of those were solid black to go with the gold steps. Dark smoke hovered around both sides of the steps, with what looked an awful lot like screaming ghost-faces appearing randomly within, mixed with staccato flashes of greenish lightning.

  Seeing all that, Dad raised an eyebrow while turning slowly to look at me. “Well, it seems like your friend hasn’t lost her flair for the dramatic over the years. If anything, it’s more refined.”

  My head bobbed, a tiny smile finding its way to my face as I replied, “Yeah, and if we don’t go with it and play along, she’ll be so disappointed. I can’t do that to her. Not after she’s been working so hard to keep this place going.” Taking a deep breath, I gestured. “So, let’s do it.”

  With that, I took the lead, while Dad, Miranda, Puriel, Spark, Percy, and Cerberus followed just behind. The four Committee members brought up the rear, staying just a little ways back. But not so far that it wouldn’t be clear we were all together. They just gave us a little bit of space.

  Of course, the staircase wasn’t done being dramatic. Even as we began to walk up it, the sound of deep, loud organ music played ominously. The smoke on either side grew darker and thicker, the images changing from random ghost faces to… to images of me through these past couple years of my life. Both as myself and as Jacob. I saw greenish holographic images of myself fighting, running, surviving so many situations. Most of which there were absolutely no cameras or anything for, so I wasn’t even sure how they had these images. Then I realized, they must’ve downloaded the memories from Jacob himself at some point. These were recreations of those.

  Dad cleared his throat once we were about halfway up, his eyes watching those holographic cloud scenes. “If Laein is trying to make it clear that you need a vacation after everything you’ve been through, you can tell her I’m not the one she needs to convince. Though I think this serves just as well as a warning to anyone out there who thinks they can just force you to take a break.”

  Yeah, as if I wasn’t blushing enough as it was. You got any sort of response in there, Yardbird?

  Oh yeah, a perfect one, she confirmed. Then she promptly took control of our head, turned to look at Dad, and stuck our tongue out at him before blowing a raspberry. Which definitely got the point across in a very mature and adult way. And totally fit the mood as we walked up the stairs.

  Once we made it to the top, the actual school itself lay before us, stretching back through the cavern. The front, bone-like walls were right there, about fifty feet away, with the main gate standing open. All those ghosts we’d seen lined up along the lip of the cave had moved to form up on either side of that gate, leading all the way to the edge of this staircase. They were standing in multiple rows, at military parade attention. And all along the top of that front wall were actual skeleton soldiers in full armor, various weapons raised in salute while their empty eye sockets glowed.

  Then there was that ominous, dramatic organ music. It had gotten louder the higher we climbed, and now it was joined by triumphant trumpet sounds that mixed disturbingly well with the low, deep organ. All of that while the glowing orbs in the skeleton eye holes grew brighter, the purple-glow matched by twin lines of fire that appeared along the path leading to the gate. Those lines of fire were low along the ground, but grew into full twelve-foot flames on either side of the gate itself. And through that, we could see dozens of figures waiting for us to walk that way.

  Leaning closer, Dad murmured, “This is not something they set up in the past thirty seconds.”

  And then, as if to prove his point even more, about a thousand ghosts, in a rainbow pattern of colors, went flying up into the air from various spots inside the walls. They left bright, sparkling colorful trails behind themselves, flying around one another in intricate patterns. After a few seconds of that, they really got creative. The colorful trails blended together to become the image of a giant figure in a hooded cloak, holding a scythe in one hand and a skull in another. But that wasn’t enough. They didn’t just make the ghosts create a static image like that, they actually managed to add movement to it. The figure threw back its head and made an exaggerated laughing motion before raising that skull high in the air. At the same time, its scythe lashed out. Those skeleton guards who were standing atop the wall reacted as though the scythe had actually hit them. They threw themselves clear of the wall very dramatically, before actually exploding apart (a bit loudly) into the various separate bone pieces.

  That avalanche of bones came toward us, but dropped into the open space on either side of where we were standing. There, they actually reformed into skeletons again. But not the same as the ones that were up on the wall. No, the bones raining down around us formed into a single pair of giant skeleton knights. One stood on either side of us, each towering almost thirty feet in height. Which was when the image of the hooded figure still looming over the area above the school itself extended that skull it was holding. The eyes of the skull gave a bright green glow, which then shot out to envelop the two giant skeletons. And when that faded, it looked like the skeletons were wearing emerald armor and holding giant glowing swords. Which they used to point us toward the waiting open gate, literally turning and lowering the blades a bit to indicate that direction.

  All of that, all of the colorful bits, everything that didn’t involve the actual physical skeleton bones, was done with ghosts. Ghosts that glowed in various colors, and worked together to create those images by moving very quickly together and around one another. Even the armor and weapons for the giant skeleton soldiers were made by having a bunch of glowing green ghosts move very close to one another and form those shapes. It was, in a word, awesome.

  “Uh, you know what?” I managed after a moment, once all that had played out and we were left standing there, “I think you may be right about them not putting this together in thirty seconds.”

  “You know, we never had anything like this at Crossroads,” Percival lamented. When we all looked at him, he amended, “I mean, yeah, obviously not the Necromancy. But I was referring to any team sports, or anything like that. I’ve been watching some Bystander movies this year, thanks to Gwen, and they have so many activities to build camaraderie and school spirit. We should have had some plays, dances, even clubs. Don’t they have one where they spin flags or swords around? Our students could’ve been really good at that. And it’d teach coordination.”

  “Color guard,” I informed him, before starting to walk to the open gate. I had a feeling if we stood around the entrance for too much longer without actually going inside, Laein might just try to use those giant skeletons to give me a smack just to get her point across. She’d been very patient so far, but now probably wasn’t the time to push that. Besides, I wanted to see her again too.

  Yeah, it turned out it wasn’t just Laein who was waiting for us. As we passed through the gate, I came up short. There had to be almost a hundred students lined up there, fifty on either side of that front path. I could see a wide mix of species represented, as only about a third of them were human. There were Rakshasa, a couple Vestil, a Kitsune, at least one of the five and a half feet tall bug-with-human-face Teun, a few Nekomata, even one of the telepathic, green-skinned, four-eyed, and no-mouthed Deitezen. And more. There were so many different Alters lined up there, of all ages. All of them were wearing chestplate armor that glowed faintly in various colors (purple, green, or red), and dark, hooded cloaks that were lined with the same color as the armor.

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  Oh yeah, and then there was Laein herself. The small pink figure stood atop a truly massive beast at the end of that line of students (and probably some teachers, to be honest). The beast she was standing on looked like a giant sabretoothed tiger with purple fur and orange eyes, the latter of which appeared to be glowing like actual flames. And speaking of flames, the whole creature was giving off slight, crackling purple fire all along its body. Plus, it was wearing armor. Black and gold giant cat armor with obvious magical runes all along it that were for gods knew what. The giant, fire-covered, armored sabretoothed tiger stood a good twenty feet or so at the shoulder. Laein was perched right atop its head, wearing the same armor and cloak as the others, but in purple, with an orange trim and glow to go with the color scheme of her feline ride.

  “Well,” Calafia started from a bit behind where we were, “I’ll say, she knows how to make a big--”

  Laein’s voice interrupted suddenly, booming through the cavern and all around us. And I was pretty sure she did that intentionally, waiting until someone started to react before interrupting, just to show that she could. “Behold! Our Founder, our Creator and Champion! She who stands between mortality and the gods of Death, and shows that we shall not cower and tremble before their power! She who guides us to our greater destiny, who lifts us to our true path! The force who slew Manakel, tore Fossor from his lofty throne, and taught peace to ageless monsters, rebirthing them as the Ankou! Behold the one who has been our heart, our guiding hand, the light pointing us to the future. She stands here amongst us now, no longer a concept, no longer a voice from the past. She is here, as promised. She stands with us, walks with us, battles alongside us. She is here, and we are whole!”

  Her words were met with a truly deafening roar of approval, not just from the students gathered along either side of the path, but from every ghost surrounding the area too. And there were a lot of them. Thousands of ghosts were here, clearly being summoned and maintained by all these Necromancers. At a glance, I could see that some of the ghosts flickered here or there, or were slightly dimmer. Probably because the ones responsible for those ones weren’t quite strong enough to maintain them fully. But even then, it was an incredible sight. This was an army of ghosts. A true army. All put together, there had to be at least ten thousand ghosts, summoned and empowered by the students and staff of this very school, by the people of the Roundabout.

  I could hear my dad, and a couple of the others behind me, say something. But I couldn’t make out their words with the roar of the crowd still just as strong as it had started. It was starting to make me blush, as I tried to decide if teleporting away right now before coming back later was an option. Maybe if I left and just went to find Laein’s private office I could have a real conversation with her about what was going on? And possibly strangle her just a little bit for this.

  Hey, babe, you need this sort of thing. That wasn’t Yardbird. Apparently she had switched out for Mountebank. You-- okay, we need people to see us this way. Think about it, we’re asking these students to create an army against the Fomorians, to become the only possible force that might be able to stop them. That’ll make them targets, as soon as we reveal ourselves. As soon as the Roundabout is known, the Fomorians will make it a priority to come after us, wherever we are. That’s terrifying. You need to have this reputation, and have it built up, to give those people the courage they need to even try this. They need that morale boost. Laein knows that. She’s spent centuries hyping you up, and now that you’re here, she’s kicking that into overdrive. It’s not about you being comfortable with being seen that way. It’s about what all of them need to see.

  Well, shit, how was I supposed to argue with that? A very soft sigh escaped me, just as the roar finally began to die down. They were staring at me. All of them were staring. Belatedly, I realized the rest of my group had stepped back too, giving me room to stand by myself. Well, as by myself as I ever was with the entire Flique. I was never really alone, and that fact gave me what I needed to straighten up. My staff appeared in one hand, while I took a moment to slowly look over that entire crowd. The good part about taking the time to look over everyone, besides the fact that it probably helped them feel connected when I actually met their gazes for a second, was that it gave me time to think about what I was actually going to say. Wait, hang on, was that what people like Gaia were doing every time they did that sort of thing in a dramatic moment?

  Shaking off that thought, I focused on the moment. My thumb slid over one of the spells on my staff, triggering it with a whispered word to boost the volume of my voice so everyone could hear what I said without making me shout. “I see you’ve been busy while I was away. You’ve taken what began as a thought, a dream, a wish, and brought it to this.” I paused again, moving my gaze back over all those people, but a bit faster that time so it wouldn’t drag on. As my eyes moved, I made a point of slowly smiling. I tried to inject pride into that expression, the way a real teacher or whatnot would have. I had to say something else, so I just pushed the words out, praying silently that they would actually make some sort of sense when it was done.

  “You’ve taken the seed and grown it to a vibrant orchard. There are those who believe we herald loss, that Necromancy can never be more than an evil practice. But we know that we are more. We are not the servants of dark. We are those who stand in the twilight. We give voice to the lost, we give the living a chance to speak with those who have crossed over. We walk in death and in life, our hands extended to guide those of both sides. We stand where the living and dead cannot, to be what they need. We are Necromancers.”

  There was a little help from a few of the Flique in that whole thing, and after getting that much out, I shifted things just a bit to bring it home. “We are the balance between life and death. And right now, there is a force that threatens to break that balance. The Fomorians would see all life extinguished. They would see mortality stomped out on both sides of our line! They would kill the living, and drag the dead into their twisted service! Their ways serve neither life or death, only their own ends. They pervert the balance. They are our true enemies. They are the enemies not only of all life, but of all death. They are the enemies of all. They are true abominations in every sense of the word, and we will stop them. We will end them. We stand in the light and the dark, and we will destroy those who are a threat to both.

  That felt like enough, finally. At least I sure hoped it was, because I was pretty sure if I had to keep talking, I was just going to start rambling. Even more than I already had, that was. I didn’t exactly have anything prepared. So, I just fell silent and prayed inwardly that I didn’t end up sounding too ridiculous. It’d be pretty bad if the first impression I gave the Roundabout students was a bad one, after all the time Laein had spent building up the school. I’d just have to find a--

  Oh, they cheered, that was nice. The roar of approval washed over me, and I had to admit it brought up a bit of a heady feeling. I had to fight the urge to grin like an idiot. If the speech hadn’t managed to expose the fact that I wasn’t actually as deep and mysterious as the founder of a Necromancy school should have been, that would’ve done the trick. I bit my lip and allowed myself a smile that I hoped was polite, engaging, and at least somewhat suited to the role I was supposed to be taking on. That-- wow, that was a lot of cheering. An intimidating amount, really.

  Before I could say anything else, Laein descended from her mount. She did so by stepping forward and then walking down as ghosts appeared with their hands cupped for the small pink figure to put her feet on. And yeah, even now that she was much older, Laein was still pretty diminutive. I could see a little bit of black along the edges of her pink ears, her white hair had hints of green in it, and what had once been small horns had grown into full, elaborately curved ram-like horns around either side of her head. She walked with the assistance of a skull-topped cane, though still seemed pretty spry for all that, so I wasn’t sure how much of it was actually necessary.

  Upon reaching the ground right in front of us, right there in the entryway of the school grounds, Laein addressed the rest of the Roundabout. “Alright, alright! You’ve had a chance to show off. Founder Felicity will be available soon enough for real introductions and to see what you can all do. She’s a busy woman with too much to do to spend time smooching your tooshies! Time to disperse. Facilitators, take your charges on a field trip!”

  There was a chorus of agreements to that, before all those armored and cloaked Necromancers began to disperse. Which they did by having their ghosts pick them up and carry them over the walls, while splitting up into various groups.

  Laein watched them go, waiting until the place was empty aside from my little group before quickly stepping over. I had just a moment to realize what she was doing, before the tiny pink figure embraced me. “Ah! You’ve made it, finally. You’re here.”

  Returning the hug with a smile, I shrugged. “I tried to get around to visiting sooner. I--” A lump found its way to my throat. “I’ve barely seen anything of what you’ve done here, but just from that little display, I can tell… I-- you made this place work, Laein. You--”

  “Shush,” she interrupted. “No more babbling, you’ve come for a reason. Now come…” She released me, giving the others a brief, unimpressed glance before pivoting to start walking away. “There’s much to discuss.

  “And, knowing you, little time to discuss it before the next explosion.”

  Joke Tags: Be The Change You Want To See In The World? Percival. Make A New School And Include All The Clubs You Want. You Can Call It Junction!