Lita Burke

The Dramatis Personæ is the roster of conjurers and sentient magical creatures staying in the many rooms, grottos, and byways of Lita’s castle. Here is the guest book for the Enchanters of Sye Tower.

Sumer [ˈsu mər] proper noun, c.3300 BC; Sumerian < Akkadian; also Sumernor’mylnburne

• Profession: Ghost
• Race: Human, male, deceased
• Appearance: Brown eyes, brown hair, medium build
• Common Name: Sumer (“Summon”)
• Private Name: Sumernor’mylnburne (“One who summons from the millstream”)
• Church Title: Sciomancer
• Native Magic: Mer (water), Causa (mind)
• Education: Seri Finishing School, Sciomancy Isor Church School
• Milieu: Ghost Sumer is a denizen of the Enchanters of Sye world

Sumernor’mylnburne was a Church Sciomancer magician in the seaside town of Isor over one hundred fifty years ago. Known for his talent with calligraphy, he produced beautiful custom copies of the Church’s Book of the Dead. He was also a natural seer of ghosts. Sumer counseled the confused ghosts of the recent dead to finding their way to the Fields of Yalu.

A flirtatious woman compromised his magic by marrying him so she could learn his private name on their wedding night. She used his powerful magic to steal money from the Church, and then fled Isor and her hasty marriage.

Sumer faced expulsion and a life of shame. He petitioned the local Isor Enchanter School for intervention. The Enchanters agreed to help. Grandmaster Sahn gave him a new private name so Sumernor’mylnburne could return to sanctioned Sciomancy. The Church annulled his marriage, and the Sciomancer never remarried.

The deep wasting sickness claimed Sumer in his seventieth year. At his request, he underwent the preparation for ghostly interment. Upon his death, Sumernor’mylnburne became a resident ghost in the Old Church catacombs at Isor. Because of the skillful magic of his fellow Sciomancers, Sumer was a biddable ghost. He willingly answered summons from Church and Enchanter magicians and had remarkable mental skills for the incorporeal. Two generations of Isor Sciomancers tended his relic cache in the catacombs, and Sumernor’mylnburne flourished as a land-bound ghost.

A mad miscreant attacked the Isor catacombs and  disturbed many of the ghosts’ caches. Among others, she destroyed the relic that kept Sumer tethered to the earthly realm.

The Isor Sciomancers were unable to restore Sumer’s relic. As per protocol, the local Church erected a proper tomb in the Old Burial Yard, placed what remained of Sumer inside, and performed the rites to send for his ghost. Sumernor’mylnburne responded this last time, conversed a while with his former colleagues, and then left for his last home in the Fields of Yalu.

Visit some more with Ghost Sumernor’mylnburne in these Enchanter of Sye stories:

• Wrath, Prequel to Tredan’s Bane
• Tredan’s Bane