Polar Opposites

“That was completely unnecessary,” Langley hissed to her twin.

They were walking along the cobbled street that led into the Academy from the front gates.  In front of them loomed the collection of buildings, walkways, and students.  Behind them lay the smoldering remains of the front gates and some guards that were just now picking themselves up from the dirt.

“Nonsense.  Weren’t going to let us in otherwise.  They know we were students here now, at least,” he replied, smug.

“Yes, because only students of the Academy would be so stupid as to blow up the front gates.”

“Don’t question my methods.  They work.”

Langley shoved her hands into her pockets and was very glad she did not wear her captain’s jacket today.  She didn’t want to be associated with this as a person of rank.

“You know,” she grumbled, “Sometimes, I wish I wasn’t your sister.  Then I tell myself that it could be much worse – we could be identical twins and people would be mistaking me as the perpetrator of your pyromania.”

“Hey, hey,” her brother replied in an offended tone, “It’s called pyromancy, thank you very much.”

The Ark had been docked, the crew given their leave time, and Ajiin had agreed to watch both the ship and Crystal.  Now it was just up to the twins to pull off the last step – talking to Dog.  Both of them knew that they would have to tell him the true source of the necromancy and none of this nonsensical story they’d invented as the official reason.  It was Dog.  You just didn’t lie to him.


He was in his office.  This was a rare occurrence, as he spent most of his time outside or with the animals in the bestiamancy department.  However, office hours were required, and the appearance of the twins delighted him as it meant he could close the door and not have to suffer visits from students with genuine questions over his assignments.

“Have a seat!” he bellowed and the twins sunk into the cushy chairs provided, “Want anything to drink?  Langley, you still take tea?  Sabreur, tonic?”

He produced these out of a cabinet, filled up a mug, and with a bit of pyromancy heated the water for Langley’s tea.

“Now, if that were Sabreur doing that,” she said, taking the cup from him, “he would have blown up the porcelain, much like he did the front gate.”

Dog didn’t even bat an eye.

“You blew up the front gate?”

“Err, yeah, you can call it that.”  Sabreur fiddled with the bottle of tonic.

“Good!” the professor boomed, “Never liked it anyways.  Ugly.  Maybe now the committee for campus improvement will shell out some money to get a nicer one installed.”

There was awkward silence between the three.  Langley tried drinking her tea, found it too hot, and set it down with a loud sigh.

“Dog, you’ve always been our best teacher, a confident, and now that we’ve left school, a good friend.  But I’m going to have to ask something-“

“Just spit it out Langley,” he interrupted, “You don’t have to have the preamble to breaking bad news.  What did you two screw up?”

“Ourselves, actually,” she admitted.

“Thought so, comes with the Stormrider name.  What did Sabreur blow up?  Besides the front gates.”
“Undead penguins,” Langley said immediately, “and lots of them.  At which point, we found the necromancer, because she came tearing out of the midst of them crying and yelling at us for being bad people hurting innocent zombies.”

“I said I was sorry,” Sabreur muttered petulantly.

“Ah,” Dog said after a long moment of silence.  This was a common reaction when the twins tried to explain themselves.  “But it was a necromancer creating the penguins.”

“A pretty strong one too, I’d guess.  But here’s the thing – you know the reasons why necromancy was banned, correct?”

“Of course I do.  Necromancy was banned because of its close ties to the rituals that exist only to leech off of and destroy living creatures.  That and who needs to be animating corpses, honestly?”

“Well, we’ve had Crystal on our ship for the trip back from the south pole and I’ve yet to see her do any of the things that make necromancy illegal.  She raised some fish that our crew caught, but that’s been it.  In fact, I’m starting to suspect she simply could not do any of those things that hurt people – hell – she started crying when zombie penguins caught on fire!  Zombies, Dog!  They were already dead!”

She fell back in her chair.  Dog merely folded his hands on the desk and regarded the two in utmost calm.

“So, what I’m inferring here is that you have a necromancer named Crystal on board your ship, and that not only is she innocent, but she is also probably one of the more moral ‘mancers living.”

“That about sums it up,” Sabreur said, “Except for one thing.  She’s friends with Mihos, Avatar of Vengeance, and one of the seven rulers of the Underworld.  He, uh, kind of threatened our immortal souls if we handed her over to the Cadre.”

More silence between the three.  Langley sat up and drained her tea in two gulps.

“I have something stronger if you’d like,” Dog offered.

“Nope, I’m fine.”

“Well, I suppose that settles it.  If a ruler of the Underworld is involved there’s not much we can do.  You keep this Crystal out of trouble and I’ll smooth out things on this end.  No, you don’t have to recite whatever story you’ve come up with; I can come up with a better one.  What, you think I don’t know how to lie to the Academy officials?  Honestly, what kind of a professor do you think I am?”

“A very very good one,” Langley croaked.

He stood and so did the twins.

“Now, I’m afraid I have to shoo you outta here.  I suspect a couple of my students will be dropping by with questions on the homework I gave them.”

“Out of morbid curiosity, what is it?”

He chuckled.  “Ironic phrasing, Langley.  I’m having them research the behavioral patterns of penguins and then compare them to the undead one, who is currently running loose on campus.  Didn’t like being cooped up in a cage and well, this is the Academy.  It seemed appropriate, and something has to terrify the first years.”

“Brilliant Dog, brilliant.”

“This is why you were always our favorite professor.”

He laughed and opened the door for the two.  There was a student outside, sitting against the wall.  He looked up hopefully.

“One last thing Langley,” Dog said, leaning in closer to whisper, “Professor Tremanis has been skulking about ever since the penguin showed up.  I think she’s looking for the people we sent out after it – that would be you.  Keep clear of her, okay, I don’t know what she’s up to.”

“Tremanis,” Langley whispered thoughtfully, “Isn’t that the one that killed some guy right on campus about seven years back?”

“The one.  Like I said, you might want to avoid her.”

“No worries,” Sabreur said, “She teaches history, doesn’t she?  Well, Langley is an expert at avoiding anything connected to that subject.  We’ll get out of here fine.”

She gave her twin a withering look and exited into the hallway.  The student hopped to his feet and Dog glanced him over.

“You’re not one of mine,” the professor said, and the twins started walking down the hall to the staircase, “What do you want?”

“Sir, well, I was told that you’re the one to see about the undead penguin…”

The conversation fell out of earshot.  However, just as the twins were starting down the stairs, a cry roared down the hall.

“BUT IT CHASED ME DOWN AND STOLE MY LUNCH!  WHAT THE HELL DOES IT NEED THAT FOR; IT’S A ZOMBIE!!”

“Sometimes,” Langley said wistfully, “I really miss this place.”



Sunset on the Ark.  Langley stood at the rail, looking out across the ocean.  There were a few skimmers still moving about in the harbor and their sleek bodies glowed in the red dusk light.  Salt breeze ruffled her hair and picked at the feather in her hat.  She was very still, even when Crystal came to lean on the rail beside her.

“I didn’t get you into trouble, did I?”

“No,” Langley said softly, “You’re fine Crystal, just fine.”

“You know, I don’t remember very much about being with my grandma,” she said thoughtfully, “just that it was a home.  Is it alright to miss a home you can’t remember?”

Langley sighed.  Thought of her own home, far north, with the noisy cousins and the late-night watches out in the ocean, waiting for the storms.  

“That’s fine.  That’s normal.  But Crystal, you don’t need to miss your home anymore.  You’ve got one right here.”

Langley turned to face the girl.  Her hair was gold today, and not blonde, but an unnatural sheen of brilliant gold.

“Crystal, as captain of this skimmer, I hereby declare you as part of Langley’s Ark.  Welcome aboard!”

And there might have been tears in Crystal’s eyes, and just maybe in Langley’s as well, but at that point of time, it really didn’t matter one way or the either.

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