The Necromancer's Stone; Back in Session

After the past few weeks the prospect of returning to school seemed dull and boring; even more so than it normally did.  Still, the stability of her old routine would inevitably help give her a better perspective on the events of the holidays.  Help her get a healthy understanding of what she was dealing with.  Thalia still barely knew Hal, and besides the business relationship he'd proposed she was hoping they'd be able to build a romantic one as well.  She'd have to be on her best behavior on Friday, and if she wanted to look her best too than she'd need to avoid picking fights as well.  Makeup only went oh so far after all.
Thalia shouldered her bag of books, reagents, and the other miscellaneous implements of a mage-in-training.  It was a post Holiday tradition.  Most of the year these things would have been kept in the school's vast, meticulously enchanted lockers.  Over the Holidays though, the students were expected to keep their valuables at home, where the school couldn't be held responsible for their loss.  It was a good policy, and had lead to a noticeable decline in break-ins over the holidays by forgetful students and enterprising thieves; all too often other, less forgetful, students.
The path leading up to the Arcane Academy from the neighboring town, the creatively named 'taxable citizens say what' although most people preferred to call it 'what', was a series of eighty-four staircases that winded up a mountain.  Each staircase consisted of precisely eighty-four steps, and each step was eighty-four inches across.  Rumor had it that the figure had some higher magical significance.  They were also an even foot deep, and rose six inches a step.  No one could figure out if that had any importance at all, but a lot of people insisted it must be important somehow.  Thalia just assumed that it was because the last person to remodel the Academy's staircase, the infamous Necromancer Petra Laerdsfeld, liked to mess with people.  It was one of the few things that she and Professor Zinksfeld agreed on, alongside of such great truths as 'cats are evil' and 'the school restoration teacher doesn't know what they're doing.'.
The school had built the dorms to the right of the staircase, and then wrapped them halfway around the facility.  Room assignment was random; but everyone knew that the richest kids got the closest rooms.  Which worked out fine, the poor kids were usually more used to walking anyways.  The only ones who really had to suffer were students like Thalia who actually lived in What and had to walk the stairs every day, instead of just once a semester.  Wards against teleporting into or out of the school grounds meant that she could either learn how to fly or never worry about exercise.
Thalia had resolved to learn how to break teleport wards back in her first year, and was still working on it.

First class of the day was the much dreaded Enchanting.  Professor Zinksfeld was, by reputation and observation, the best enchanter, teacher, and swordswoman in the known universe.  At least part of that was experience, it was a poorly kept secret that she was an immortal.  Not like her Father and his friends were immortal, a real immortal.  She hadn't stumbled upon some well of eternal youth, invincibility, and general not-dying-ness; the way most immortals had.  As best as anyone could tell, she'd just been around forever.  Thalia remembered that both Hal and the Sage from Appeni had mentioned the Professor.  Perhaps she knew where the Professor was from, or more importantly, when she was from.  One of the books she'd read about the Shade Invasion referred to 'Death and her Daughter'.  Zinksfeld, translated properly, meant 'Death's Daughter'.  Literally it was 'Daughter of Death', but that lacked a certain poetic sound.  Death, Zink, had been long rumored to be the very same Petra Laerdsfeld responsible for the two hour staircase Thalia suffered through every day.  That would mean that both the Professor and Death had shared a first name.  The possibility occurred to Thalia that they were one and the same, but the books were pretty clear about the death of Death.  It was, well, hard to overlook; especially since Anatolia's ecosystem had yet to recover.  To say nothing of the shade of black that its star now shone.
"Miss Thansfeld, nice of you to join us.  I heard about your episode at the Hapsburg."
"Thank you for your concern, but I assure you, I'm quite healthy."
"Oh good, then you should have no problems making it down to the police to help them return the girl's body to her parents?"
"I assume they want me to turn myself in as well?"
"They don't have a case, sadly.  Local law makes it clear that killing is permitted in self-defense, and several witness have come forward to attest to that.  I'd slap your wrist but I don't think it would do any good.  Now if everyone could open their books to page Eighty-Four."  Thalia saw a faint flicker of surprise fade from Petra's face as quickly as it had appeared.  "My apologies, perhaps this would be a good time to discuss tracing the origins of an enchantment.  Seeing as some, infinitely mischievous, student has enchanted my book so that all the pages are page Eighty-Four."
Thalia smiled.  It was good to be back to normal.