NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Traitor
The rogue who’d suddenly revealed her true necrotic nature to the world crossed her shortswords in an X-pattern and they were imbued with twin powers, one with Necrosis, and the other with what I’m certain was the energy of darkness.
That was when the fighter’s empowerment buff from the cleric ran out. He was thrown backwards by the Antigo’s next attack, and landed next to the corpse of his religiously-inclined party member. He stared into his friend’s dead eyes, but then pushed himself away, remembering where he was.
I was just watching with a mix between amusement and surprise. The big reveal had indeed been unexpected, and I’d also not been expecting to win this battle. For all that I’d justified it to myself, I still hadn’t managed to really accept the loss.
Normally, I would probably be mad at the rogue, since one of my biggest pet peeves in D&D was players suddenly stabbing the party in the back, and it sorta felt like cheating, but, well… She was undead. In my experience as a DM, undead didn’t team up with the living unless they somehow shared a common enemy, or still considered themselves members of the living. Considering she’d been hiding her true identity and had just backstabbed the party, I thought it likely that she’d been using them, but no longer had a use for them.
Perhaps she’d come to the realization that the dungeon was controlled by me, a lich, and wanted to team up for some reason? I didn’t exactly know what was going on, but so far, I was liking it. Her actions had garnered me plenty of tools for me to look over, knowledge to be gained, and bags of holding. I’d hear her out at the very least. Well, hand-sign her out? I had no idea what language she was speaking.
I was mostly full of energy, so I quickly used Create Undead in the first room, summoning and animating an Antigo, just as… insurance. Those items were mine.
Oop, the original Antigo just took the fighter's head off, I probably should've been watching for that.
The Antigo eyed the remaining rogue. It seemed to have realized the same thing as I did. This lady was not alive. It didn't seem to want to attack her, but I had my hand on the trigger, just waiting for her to twitch wrong.
She slowly stepped around the Antigo, keeping an eye on it as she made her way to the treasure chests. She looked down at the chests for a moment, then called out some gibberish into the open air. Her eyes darted around the room, but then she let out a frustrated huff and started digging around in the party leader's stuff.
I was half tempted to strike her down there and then for the sin of messing with my loot, but I was curious so I let her rummage. Eventually, she pulled out a roll of paper and chucked it at the back wall. She then gestured to the scroll and slowly brought her fist to her face. I understood the gesture, and directed the Antigo to stand between her and the wall, then Molded a small hole into it and sent a basic jackalope to fetch it for me.
Once I'd obtained the scroll, I looked down at it. I couldn't understand its purpose, but I felt no hostile magic in it. I pressed the scroll to my head, and… nothing happened.
Right. My mind wasn't stored in my skull. I let out a rasping chuckle and placed the scroll on my Phylactery instead.
I felt something happen, and saw a bond form between the gem and the scroll with my Bondsight. The paper crumbles turned to dust, but I was more interested in watching with Bondsight. The scroll had been made of pure magic, and its dissolution had been a result of that magic being pulled away from the scroll and into a ball at the end of the bond. I couldn't sense the ball with anything other than my Bondsight, but it was definitely there. Not for long, though. The ball began to suck in the energy of the bond as well, and for a moment I feared for my Phylactery, but then I saw that it was actually just pulling itself towards the Phylactery. I still couldn't sense any danger from the magic in the air or the bond, so I let it proceed.
Soon, the ball of energy impacted my Phylactery, and I felt a sudden shift, though I couldn't tell where it happened or what it meant. I did have an idea, though.
I pulled out the picture book I'd stolen from the now-deceased sorcerer, and found that I could understand the symbols on it. Now, that isn't to say I was an expert in the language, but I understood the words. Putting sentences together was a bit more difficult, but I had an understanding of it at minimum.
I turned my attention back to the strange undead, and this time understood as she said, "Do you understand now? Please tell me you're not just some mindless undead that managed to luck into a Domain Skill."
I had my Antigo wave at her and give her a thumbs up as a response. She cussed under her breath, the word meaning something like "Unintelligent Pig." At least, those were the symbols that made up the word.
The language was weird. There were basic words to describe things, mostly concepts, but they didn't use letters. Instead, they used a sort of runic word system, with most words having symbols attached to them. There were also words that were just a rough combination of two others. For example, books weren't a unique word, but instead a mix of symbols: "Knowledge-Given." Bookcases had that as a prefix, then "Belonging" as a suffix, and librarians were just bookcase people.
Single-symbol words were mostly reserved for body parts, states of being, and descriptors like color and emotion. Magic was also its own word, as were all its types and derivatives. Necrosis, for example, was a series of lines in a rough skull shape, and Spatium was a swirl. The things most closely related to those magic types had squares around them. Death was Necrosis in a box, as was the idea of space, of a place in which things can exist, simply Spatium encapsulated by a square.
Again, the language was weird, but relatively simplistic in design, so long as you knew all the symbols, their derivatives, and correct combinations. It also allowed for new words to be made very quickly and easily, though it was a bit brutish and some of the words came out sounding harsh.
In any case, the lady immediately started making demands. "We need to get far away from here, and quickly!"
I looked at her through my Domain's Omnipresence, and she looked back at me. Creepy. In my body, I looked at the Phylactery I was bound to.
The Antigo slowly shook its head, and she let out a frustrated growl. This girl was just a big 'ol bundle of rage, wasn't she?
"They know what you are!" Wat? "Did you seriously not expect people to use Soothen magic to figure out what created a large, underground lair full of monsters?"
Uh oh. Did these people have divination spells? I looked through the dictionary and reviewed my knowledge.
Crap. They had divination magic. More specifically, Soothen, which allowed people to do stuff similar to what I did with my Omnipresence. Basically, strong enough Soothsayers could basically look wherever they wanted and see whatever they wanted.
If I'd thought to surround my dungeon in lead, I would have probably been safe. I didn't, though, and now…
I unsealed the entrance to my safe room and had the Antigo escort her inside.
I would choose to trust her. For now. If she made moves on my Phylactery, then I'd slice her to ribbons with the Antigo.
She stared into the room, mesmerized by the gem. She took a step forwards, and I had the Antigo lean in to stare with her, placing its hand on her shoulder. Her body froze in place and she looked at the beast. Alone, she stood no chance against my boss monster, and she knew it.
"Now, I hope you understand why I cannot simply leave. I am bound to this place," I explained, causing her to look in my direction. "My body could leave, but I would be leaving my very soul vulnerable."
"Pig-Filth. You're a lich." She facepalmed when she saw the state I was in. "You wouldn't happen to have the Incorporate Phylactery Boon, would you?"
I shook my skull.
"What do you have?"
"Undead Possession and Reconstitution. That's about it."
"Reconstitution, hmm. Would I be correct in assuming that is the reason why your body is made entirely of Necrosis?" She continued to query. "To my knowledge, the Boon that allows masters of the undead to create zombies and such without having corpses on hand is incompatible with Undead Possession."
This time she was graced with an affirmative nod of my head. She turned contemplative after that.
"I'm not fully aware of the Phylactery Boon tree–" the word wasn't exactly tree, more like Many-Way, but I chose to interpret it that way, "–but that sounds like it would be on the right path to obtaining Drain Phylactery. Again, I'm not too knowledgeable about your Boon trees, since much of that knowledge is hidden for the safety of those who have them, but I've heard of the Drain Phylactery Boon in stories before. You need to get that so we can get out of here!"
I shrugged, then had the Antigo escort her out of the room. She briefly protested, but I stopped wasting my attention on her.
Instead, I focused on my Phylactery. I needed to level this thing up quickly. I'd had an idea before, but had wanted to hold off until my Spatium Manipulation had leveled again, and for good reason.
I drew on my Reconstitution Boon, but quickly realized that it wasn't going to work. The Boon was meant to form a body to house my consciousness, and it was cast through my Phylactery. My Phylactery needed to have an imprint of me. I could possess normal undead, though I'd never tried it since I thought it would be uncomfortable to share a body with something else, but that was because they already had a space for the consciousness. There would be an adjustment period, as your own consciousness would need to wear down that space like a new shoe, but it could happen.
Pure Necrosis wouldn't naturally form that space, and I didn't know how to do it manually, so my soul needed to be in my Phylactery. In other words, I needed to die first.
With extreme trepidation, I dissolved my body into my influence, returning my mind to my soul. The dense Necrosis came apart, and I quickly reasserted my dominance over it, not letting it spread away. I also drew my Domain in, packing it tighter and tighter until it filled only this room.
This was a bit dangerous, as I would no longer be capable of fighting back against invaders, but it was important to ensure that the new body I would make for myself was as strong as possible. For this body, I wanted to use every ability at my disposal. I would build it with Necrosis, strengthen it with my Domain, and… Yes, I would infuse it with Spatium.
Hopefully this didn't break my mind.
The energy economy of magic was pretty interesting. I assumed that it was based on a mix between my race, Lich, and my specialization, Spatial Lich. When I converted my "mental energy," which was also known as Mentum to the people of this world, into Necrosis, there was perfect efficiency. For every "point" of Mentum I put in, I'd get one Necrosis out. Spatium was much worse though, with perhaps a 5:1 ratio. About 4/5ths of the energy was just lost in conversion. While in my Phylactery, though, it was perhaps closer to 2:1.
I'd theorized that it was due to resistance caused by a lack of that mana type in my body. My Phylactery, on the other hand, was extremely pure to my senses, mostly carrying pure Mentum inside it. If I could increase the density of magic in my body, then my efficiency should go up, and if I managed to infuse some Spatium into it, then it should also become much easier to use that magic as well.
For now, it was still just a theory, but I was almost completely certain that building such a body would at least increase the level of Reconstitution. If it wasn't enough, then I would have to sit around and grind for a time.
I hoped it wouldn't come to that. The undead rogue–I should get her name later–seemed to be in a rush.
I wasn't completely sure that I trusted her yet, but I figured that there was no harm in trying to level my Phylactery. The ability to move around more easily was something I would have wanted anyways. If this "Incorporate Phylactery" Boon didn't show up in the next level… well, I'd cross that bridge if and when I got to it.
In any case, I wanted to pour all of the Mentum I had into this new body. I wanted an even distribution between Spatium and Necrosis, in hopes of giving myself a way to create them both at maximum efficiency. To do that, I'd need to slowly split my Mentum into both of those groups. Since one point of Mentum made one Necrosis but only half that in Spatium, that meant I'd need to pour 2/3rds of my power into making Spatium, but the remainder could become Necrosis.
I spent a moment visualizing my Mentum capacity. It wasn't an exact science, but I could generally feel how much I had at a time, and I just had to imagine a pool of water that was about the same size. I then split the pool into thirds, reserving how much I needed for each task. I was going to move slowly, using my passive Mentum regeneration to control the power.
After waiting a while for my Mentum to fully recover, I started forming a new body, but then came to a halt for precisely three reasons.
First, the energy wasn't mixing right. Necrosis wanted to kill everything, converting it into more Necrosis, and Spatium just wanted to impact and alter reality. The Necrosis was fighting the impassive Spatium as it tried to deepen the impact the body I was making had on the world. I needed to spend an additional amount of Mentum to bond them together properly, and needed to add that to my variables. I was already going to be moving at a pretty slow pace, but I didn't want this process to take days.
Second, I was trying to compact the influence of my Domain into the body. It was working pretty well, and I could feel my control increasing, even without needing to expend Mentum due to the nature of my influence, though it was steadily increasing the amount of Necrosis stored in the body I was making, creating an imbalance and further destabilizing the Spatium as the Necrosis tried to eat it. Yet another thing to add to the variables.
The last reason I stopped was because I realized that I would soon be walking among mortals. Sure, some people would probably be able to tell what I was pretty quickly no matter what I did, but I could at least try to look human from a distance. Maybe the lady outside had a way to disguise my energy like she'd done with her own?
Anyways, I changed the template I was using, replacing the skeleton with my old body. I hadn't understood it perfectly before, but I didn't really need to. I wouldn't have organs, mostly just bones and flesh. I also removed some of the… vulnerabilities of the male form. Not like I was going to need them.
The framework was colorless, and I tried to influence that slightly, but knew that whatever I put in would be altered by the energies I was using. Necrosis wasn't exactly vibrant, closer to gray and sometimes blue if you got enough of it together, and Spatium didn't exactly have a color, meaning it would probably come out as black.
That was fine. My ego wasn't dependent on my appearance, in spite of how handsome of a skeleton I'd made.
As for the new ratios, I had to measure how much Mentum it took to stabilize the energy, drag in my influence, and how much Necrosis energy there was in my Domain. It turned out that I needed an equal amount of energy to both control and fuse the energies I was using, so the ratios of Mentum, Necrosis, and Spatium in the new body would need to be equal.
Additionally, it turned out that my influence contained close to double my total Mentum capacity as Necrosis. I wouldn't be using all of that, not even close, but that was fine. I could completely take Necrosis out of my internal ratios; there was already more than enough in the Domain.
In other words, I didn't actually need to shift my ratios by too much. I actually just had to completely replace my Necrosis with Mentum. To make sure that I wouldn't mess anything up, I discarded all the influence of my Domain of Undeath that I wouldn't be using for this task. It felt wrong to get rid of so much of my progress, but if Ms. Not-Really-An-Adventurer was right, then I probably wouldn't be able to take it with me anyways.
I got to work filling out the framework of my body. Before, I'd gone from the bottom up, but that had led to some slight, almost unnoticeable inconsistencies. This time, I wanted to remove any possibility of that happening. I needed this body to be perfect. For that purpose, I filled in the entire body at once. My Delinear Sight actually came in clutch here, helping to impose limits on my mind as to where the energy was allowed to go, preventing leakages that may have otherwise been caused by this method. It was like using the paint bucket tool on a drawing app. I already had everything lined up, and now I just needed to actually use the tool. Still, I pushed away all other distractions, fully focused on the task at hand.
After some time, the image clicked into place, my energy pool and influence completely drained.
My old body looked pretty good. I hadn't seen the old boy in a while, but it seemed he'd aged quite a bit, what with the ashen hair, graying skin, purple eyes…
My consciousness was dragged along towards the body, and I was soon inhabiting a new body. A buzz drew my attention back to the Phylactery, but first took a moment to inspect myself. I once more had touch, taste, smell.
I sniffed at the air. The smell was pleasant. Who didn't just love the scent of rotting corpses and coagulating blood in the morning? Oh, right, humans, I forgot about those guys.
Now, time for the more important stuff.
I said a silent prayer to wherever god was watching as I looked over my status. Wait, actually, do liches worship gods? Sounds unlikely. Devils? Demon lords? Hmm. Themselves? That's better.
I said a silent prayer to myself as I looked over my status.
Seif Ambrose
Spatial Lich 2
Phylactery 2
Undead Possession 1
Reconstitution 4
Available Boon (Battle Form, Incorporate Phylactery)
Necrosis Manipulation 3
Deadsight 3
Animate Necrosis 4
Shape Necrosis 4
Create Undead 4
Domain of Undeath 4
Spread Undeath 6
Mold Terrain 4
Transmute 3
Omnipresence 3
Available Boon (Omnipotence, Omniscience)
Spatium Manipulation 2
Delinear Sight 3
Stitching 1
Available Boon (Folding, Contraction)
Calling 2
Taglock 4
Nomantic Call 2
Bondsight 1
Enhancements: Willpower, Available Enhancement (Reinforcement, Willpower)
Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo
Suddenly finding myself able to do so, I breathed out an actual sigh. It seemed that everything that I'd used to actually create this new body–with the exception of Necrosis Manipulation, having few relevant boons–had leveled, though I hadn't noticed through my hyperfocus.
First thing's first, I added my Arachnomicons to my Named Belongings. I'd be leaving this test dungeon behind soon, and I didn't want to forget how to make them.
The Battle Form Boon was definitely a cool one. It leaned into actually fighting enemies with your own power, both magical and physical, rather than using minions and traps to deal with them from afar. I needed Incorporate Phylactery, though.
I took the Boon, but held off on actually using it until I'd finished leveling my Skills and specialization.
Omnipotence and Omniscience were two different buffs to the Omnipresence Skill, two sides of the same coin. Omnipotence would give me an almighty pressure within my Domain, crushing all opposition to its Boons and allowing them to work much faster, even through the natural resistance creatures had to them. It was very powerful, and I'm sure that most liches in my position would have taken it, but I took Omniscience. This Boon would give me the same innate knowledge I had with my Skills and Boons over anything within my Domain. It was effectively an ultimate information-gathering option, and that was something I was very interested in. Much like the rest of my Domain, it would be restrained by the presence of other creatures, but it would work on magic tools and even some spells.
The last Boon choice was between Folding and Contraction, but just like last time I'd picked something up from this Skill, I nabbed an additional Willpower Enhancement first. Only then did I delve into what each option would provide.
Just like last time, I felt some strain on my mind, but it was much less than last time. I got the feeling that Stitching and Banding were more like disciplines, and these were simply options within Stitching. In other words, they were things I already would have been able to do if I'd put enough effort into it.
Contraction was the simplest. It would tug the threads of reality inwards, making reality more present in a certain location. It was actually somewhat similar to Banding, in that it would be able to shrink and compact space. I'd tried doing this once before, but I hadn't been able to, since I'd have been pulling on all of reality at once. I did wonder how this Boon got around that, but turned my attention to the other one.
Folding was the trippier of the two choices. It took the threads of reality and bent them on top of each other. I had no idea how it worked. When I used my Delinear Sight with the upgrade Stitching had given it, I saw lines going in every direction, forming a 3d net over all of reality, but this Boon showed just one layer. It isolated the lines of reality and pulled them together, turning two spaces into one.
In essence? It made wormholes.
With Contraction, I could at least guess at how it worked, but I had no clue about Folding, other than its result. Now, that might make it sound riskier, but the last time I'd picked a Boon from Spatium Manipulation, I'd felt a flood of inspiration, where every bit of knowledge and understanding about Stitching that had previously eluded me had inundated my mind with its secrets. The universe had suddenly made sense. Eventually, that state had worn off, as my mind simply couldn't contain all that power, but I'd kept at least some of it.
If that same thing happened here, then Folding would teach me about cosmic secrets I could never have grasped otherwise, while Contraction would give me the final bit of info on how to do something I was already somewhat close to.
The choice was obvious from there, and Folding appeared beneath Stitching.
Seif Ambrose
Spatial Lich 2
Phylactery 2
Undead Possession 1
Reconstitution 4
Incorporate Phylactery 0
Necrosis Manipulation 3
Deadsight 3
Animate Necrosis 4
Shape Necrosis 4
Create Undead 4
Domain of Undeath 4
Spread Undeath 6
Mold Terrain 4
Transmute 3
Omnipresence 3
Omniscience 0
Spatium Manipulation 2
Delinear Sight 3
Stitching 1
Folding 0
Calling 2
Taglock 4
Nomantic Call 2
Bondsight 1
Enhancements: Willpower x2
Named Belongings: Caerbalope, Antigo, Arachnomicon
As I'd expected, understanding flooded my mind upon picking up Folding, and suddenly everything just felt so easy. So simple.
Reality would be whatever I wanted it to be. I had limited the power of Delinear Sight all along, underestimated it. I'd thought that its power must be low, due to it being the first of my Spatium Manipulation Boons.
Not so.
I transformed Mentum into Spatium, the efficiency of doing so massively increased due to the presence of it within my body. I pushed the Spatium Energy into a place within my mind–within my soul. As I did so, I felt my control over Delinear Sight increase massively, and I waved a hand. All but two vertical, parallel layers of strands vanished, and I was left with two dimensional planes. I pushed even more Spatium into Folding, feeling my soul buckle momentarily before my doubly-increased Willpower kicked in, increasing its integrity.
The weft and warp of space was tugged on, Spatium extending the strands, taking their place as they reached for the other plane of reality, which had done the same with their warp strands. The strain of my actions had started to build, but I relied on my Willpower and continued forward. The Spatium formed an intangible bridge between the two planes, and attached one to another. One place became another.
Reality stabilized, and I fell to my knees, a liquified mix of my matter–formed from Spatium and Necrosis–bleeding from my eyes. Had I been mortal, I realized, that would have been my gray matter.
I looked up at my accomplishment, still feeling some connection to it. It looked hazy, as though I were looking at a reflection on glass, two locations showing themselves to me at once. I reached a hand into the small panel of altered space, and felt something in my mind as it passed cleanly through to the other.
It was true. Folding created wormholes. My state of clarity began to fade, but I'd already gained all I needed from it.
With a smile, I removed the Spatium from the strands I'd affected, and they were sucked back into their original places. Reality was made whole once again.
I closed my eyes, allowing myself a moment to recover from what I'd just experienced. Once I felt that my Mentum had fully recovered, I stood and looked at my Phylactery. I placed a fleshy hand on it, and pulled with Incorporate Phylactery.
The icosahedron shattered, and I panicked for a moment, but then the shards were pulled into my body, becoming energy as they passed through my skin. I felt them wander around inside me until they found a good place to settle: my bones.
Better not break any of those.
As my Phylactery became a part of my body, I felt power enter my body. My influence had been compacted into this form, and my Phylactery was the source and controller of that Domain. I knew myself more intimately, could control my body better, and could feel every portion of my flesh with more clarity than ever before, even in life.
Then I recalled why I was doing this, and walked up to the cave wall, pressing a palm against it and stretching some influence out into it. I could extend it without creating more, since there was already so much stored within my body, though it weakened me slightly.
With the tendril of influence I'd extended, I compacted the stone around it, forming a hole. It moved more easily than ever, not only due to the density of the Domain but also due to the Spatium power mixed within it. Spatium naturally altered space and reality, and it wanted nothing more than to help Mold Terrain.
With that done, I stepped into the chamber, looking over my Antigo with a new perspective. Something about standing near it as a fleshy being made it look… extra cute. The rogue ahead looked at me, then looked away. Still not looking at me, she shuffled over to the sorcerer's corpse, fishing a spatial bag out of a pocket before tossing it at me.
"He should have some clothes that fit you. Please warn me before you walk around in the nude." Her tone was somewhere between annoyed and embarrassed.
I looked down at my own body. I supposed that it would normally be pretty weird to walk around like this, but she was undead. Why did she care? Not to mention, those parts were all stripped from my final design, as they only created additional vulnerabilities and weaknesses.
Still, I accepted the bag. Reaching a hand inside it, I felt something similar to my own Domain of Undeath, but with Spatium instead of Necrosis. Was this Banding? I felt that I could probably manage it with some free casting, and resolved to try it out later.
With my hand in the bag, I immediately learned of the contents of the bag. This wasn't my Omniscience, but rather a function of the bag.
The man's clothes were fine, and I threw some on immediately, but I felt that it was somehow lacking. However, his capes and accessories were all gaudy and bright; definitely not my style. Instead, I Created an Antigo. My new Willpower Enhancement allowed me to do so far more quickly and with a lower percentage of my energy than before, and I was soon Shaping the creature into a set of robes for myself.
"What are you doing?" An exasperated voice echoed through the chamber, but I ignored her and kept working, causing her to give an annoyed huff.
I ignored that too and kept working on the robe, though I eventually decided to make it look more like a cloak. I dehaired and tanned it, as I'd done with the Arachnomicons, but kept it flexible so that it wouldn't constantly get in my way. I debated putting the skull of the Antigo on the hood, but ultimately decided against it. I wanted to at least try to blend in. I did make an Antigo skull helmet though, and put it in the bag I'd been handed. You never know when you need to scare someone, so it's best to always be prepared, like a Boy Scout, except with much less care for life and nature and society… okay, not like a Boy Scout at all, fine.
I actually pushed some Spatium into the cloak, which had two primary effects. First, it turned the cloak purple, which was definitely my color. Second, it made the cloak more real. That's pretty hard to put into regular terms, but basically, because it was more real than the things around it, it would break and fall apart more slowly. That was why magic was generally considered brittle and weak when compared to metal unless you got a lot of it in one place. It didn't have any spatial presence.
The second reason was absolutely the reason why I'd put Spatium into the cloak, and definitely not just a cool excuse I'd thought of in the last moment. I was not being sarcastic.
"Are you done admiring yourself yet?" Ms. Ma'am was still being annoying, but I realized that she wasn't going to stop acting like that until I paid attention to her.
Ugh. Why can't real people just act like mobs and sit still and quiet until I tell them to kill something?
"Never. In any case, what should I call you, where do you plan to take me, and why should I trust you?"
"You can call me… Azrael. We'll be heading away from here, and you can trust me because you don't have a choice," she stated haughtily.
Hold up, Azrael? That was the archangel of death. She was undead… that was definitely a fake name, though I'm uncertain of how she knew that name.
"Alright… Azrael," I said before pausing to make it clear that I didn't believe her, "I'm Sei– actually, call me Ambrose." Right, names had some power here. Also, I felt like Ambrose was a better name for a lich than Seif. There was just something about it that felt, well, lichy.
"Mhm. Ambrose." She stared into my eyes before rolling her own and looking away. "Well, we should get going. Moonlight's burning and we won't have long before someone realizes something is amiss and sends someone after us. The further away we can get from here before then, the better."
I frowned at her. "Why are you doing this?" I mean, I appreciated the help–at least, if she was being genuine–but it was suspicious. She could have just stayed out of this, not gotten into trouble. Why put yourself at risk to help a random person? I mean, sure, some undead have a horde mentality, but she was smart and would have been able to realize that it was a bad idea to do… this.
She sighed–an act that was entirely unnecessary for her, since she was dead as nails. "Do you know how rare intelligent undead are? Most of us are batty from the moment they come into being until the day they die. I've had to live among the living–bleh!–just to have people to talk to. When I heard that there was a lair, I got a bit hopeful. I have a reputation for hunting undead, so nobody questioned it when I signed up. When I saw libraries, though? I knew that you were like me."
"Like you?"
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but your memories survived the translation, correct? You became an undead while remembering your life as a human?" She looked hopeful, and got excited when I nodded. "I knew it!" She actually danced a little bit, which was just way too funny. I laughed, and she stopped dancing, seeming to remember I was there.
"Sorry about that, it's just been… a long time since I've seen anyone dance." I smiled at her. "This will be fun, I think."
She smiled too, and we shared a moment. Then she got back on task. "Right. We need to get far, far away from here. No time for screwing around. Let's go!" She started marching… but I had a better idea.
"Walking is for nerds." With that hypocritical statement, I cast Create Undead, making yet another Antigo. I now had three in total, and called the other Created one to my location. I used Shape Necrosis on both of the Created Antigos, and grinned a wicked grin–hey, I could smile again!
As I'd mentioned, walking was for nerds. Azrael and I would be riding in style.