“Hey Arkay, you used to be a death god, what are your thoughts on necromancy?”
Arkay glanced up from his bowl of noodles, still chewing. “What?”
“You know, necromancy. Bringing the dead back to life. Creating zombies. Making skeleton armies!” Kallis seemed particularly bouncy as he sat down next to Arkay with a bag of potato and carrot crisps. “Surely you hate necromancy and all that!”
“That’s a random thing to ask.”
“Yeah well I read about it in an article and wanted your opinion on it!”
Arkay shrugged, putting his bowl to one side. “It really depends.”
“On what?”
“On the… type of necromancy.”
“What do you mean?” Kallis asked, now looking confused. “Do you hate all of it or what?”
“Well, it depends. I’m obviously against taking the bones of the deceased and creating skeletal armies, but that’s not really necromancy, that’s telekinesis, just desecrating bones and being a general bastard.”
“What do you consider “real necromancy” to be?”
“It’s the general attempt to bring someone back from the dead. Technically, a doctor is a type of necromancer, as are first-aid responders.”
Kallis tilted his head to one side. “I thought your universe was a rather magical one? Like, spells and rituals and magic energies?”
“Uh… not really. Like, Thraki and Banikans can do some magic but it was never really as efficient as science and medical technologies. Every race was looking into expanding their life spans. As was my sister, she was always trying to find ways to keep me out of the way.”
“The snake one or the whale one?”
“Yisini…” Arkay paused, realizing that Kallis probably didn’t know his sisters’ names. “The snake one. From what I’ve heard from back home, she’s pretty much managed to do it.”
“So… You don’t have a problem with necromancy?”
“If it’s true necromancy, then yeah, I don’t have a problem. But what I do prefer is consenting necromancy. Feel free to experiment, but get the consent of either the dead person or the dead person’s family before you try to bring them back to life, and don’t desecrate their graves. Making zombies or skeletons or making mindless drones or otherwise abusing the dead was what always bothered me, and what I always destroyed. But actual attempts to bring back the dead, I always let them try.”
“Huh…” Kallis trailed off, somewhat unsure how to answer. “I never thought about it like that.”
“How comes?” It was Arkay’s turn to ask questions. “How do you feel about necromancy?”
“I was always instructed to destroy anything even remotely close to necromancy. The other guys thought it was evil, so I did as I was told.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. Do you still feel that way?”
Kallis thought to himself, then shrugged. “I may have grown up completely against necromancy but the way you put it does make a bit of sense.”
Arkay smiled, picking up his bowl again. “Only a bit of sense?”
“You know what I mean. But thank you for opening up my mind a bit…” Kallis sighed. “I guess necromancy isn’t so bad after all…”