Dreamer's Throne

As the clear, cloudless blue sky gave way to the darkness of night, Garrett took his place on the Dreamer's throne, taking a moment to review everything that had happened that day. What stuck out most in his mind was Ryn's warning that the people under him were getting a bit restless. Ryn was right. As much as Garrett preferred to keep his plans to himself, that could often come across to the family as a lack of direction, which was deadly for any organization.

For the first hour of his time in the dream, Garrett used Somnia to send out messages, little feelings and snippets of thought that seeped into the minds and hearts of those who carried dream flowers, reassuring them, comforting them, and reminding them that Garrett had a plan. After that, he began to examine the artifacts brought from Lesrak's tomb.

A few days prior, during the night when nobody was around, Delrisa had brought them to Garrett's room. She then made her way down through the basement and back into the tunnels. The largest and most obvious of the objects was the obsidian casket that currently lay under a blanket against the wall. It was called Death's Bed and had been used by Agma-Yoth to extend his life while he absorbed Lesrak's power.

From what Garrett could understand, the function of the casket was simple. By laying down in it, a body would be preserved exactly as it was when it first entered the casket. If he had guessed correctly, Agma-Yoth had entered it when he was on his last breath, forever preserving himself on the cusp of death. Had he been fully undead, it would have been impossible for him to master Lesrak's power. On the other hand, had he been alive, that same power would have corrupted his flesh, killing him, but by preserving himself in that moment when life transitioned to death, Agma-Yoth had been able to keep one foot on both sides, learning to wield Lesrak's powerful flame.

The second artifact Delrisa had brought was the Staff of Bones, a six-and-a-half-foot-tall staff whose top was carved into a skeletal arm that held a gleaming black orb. The orb was something Garrett recognized, as he had seen one not so long ago. Karn, the traveling merchant, had actually offered him a soul bead just like this, claiming that it held an uncountable number of souls. Part of the reason Garrett had rejected the offer was because he already had one, though it wasn't yet under his control.

The final artifact was an iron grimoire whose pages were fused shut. On the front was a simple skull with glowing green eyes that appeared to Garrett to want to suck out his soul. When he had beaten Agma-Yoth, one of the options he had gotten was the skill Skeletal Hand, which would have allowed Garrett to select one of Lesrak's artifacts, immediately gaining control over it. Garrett hadn't chosen the skill, and while he didn't regret it, he did understand its value. As it was, he was unsure whether he might be able to use the power of the throne to bring the mysterious artifacts under his sway.

Ever since Delrisa had brought them to his room, Garrett had been observing them, and wasn't at all surprised to find that the deathly aura that they normally radiated was nowhere to be seen. It was almost absurd, but he got the distinct impression that all three of the artifacts that had been brought into the room were terrified, and had withdrawn the necromantic energy that they normally exuded to avoid angering the throne.

The reason Garrett considered it absurd was because mysterious artifacts didn't have intelligence of their own, though the more he pondered that statement, the more suspicious he found it. After all, the throne itself had acted out on more than one occasion, and seemed to carry a sense of pride and authority that could not be challenged. At the same time, even though the three necromantic artifacts were powerful in their own right, because they controlled the energy they gave off, the throne didn't seem to care about them, letting them exist peacefully around it.

Tonight, Garrett was interested in testing whether that would remain true if the mysterious artifacts were to be forced into revealing their energy. Of the three, the casket was the one he cared about the least, and so, that's where he began, sending a thread of mental energy into it to try to stimulate its power.

Almost immediately, the obsidian casket began to greedily absorb the power he was feeding into it, almost as if it wanted to absorb him. Cutting off the supply of mental energy, Garrett pulled back, but the casket was loath to let him go, and strands of necromantic energy began to spread out, surging towards him as they tried to latch on.

What happened next was both expected and positively terrifying. To Garrett, it felt as if an ancient behemoth sleeping under the throne had suddenly awoken, lazily opening an eye and casting a glance at the obsidian casket, which began to shake, softly at first, and then more and more violently. The gaze from the throne was disdainful, as if the casket, for all its power, was less than nothing.

The vibration in the casket grew stronger and stronger, until suddenly, with a terrific crack, it shattered into pieces, showering the ground in shards of obsidian. A dense aura of death began to spread rapidly in the room, but the throne glowed bright, unleashing a wave of energy that chewed the dark aura to pieces, before devouring it completely.

Garrett, who was sitting on the throne, clinging to the armrest with a white-knuckled grip, swallowed nervously. This was the first time the throne had unleashed this level of power. He had been confident that the mysterious artifact wouldn't be able to overpower the throne, but the discrepancy between their strength caught him off guard.

What was most terrifying about the situation, however, was that Garrett had detected a hint of disapproval in the throne, not directed at the now-destroyed casket, but instead directed at him. He had no idea why the throne would have disapproved of his actions, but he still bowed his head, silently apologizing in his heart.

That seemed to satisfy the throne, and a moment later, another light flashed out, shrouding the obsidian shards on the ground. The light was so bright, Garrett couldn't see, and when it faded a moment later, the casket was back in one piece, though no longer black, but instead a shining, milky white. Drawing in a breath, Garrett stared at it, as a screen popped up in front of him.

Soul crystal casket: Carved from a single piece of the mysterious soul crystal, the soul crystal casket can preserve the body of one on the edge of death, allowing them to persist until a cure is found.

Immediately, Garrett realized a couple of things. This must have been the original form of Death's Bed, before Lesrak's power corrupted it, and whatever intelligence had occupied it was now gone, erased forever. Garrett had a sneaking suspicion that the spirit the throne had erased had been another shard of Agma-Yoth, a suspicion that was confirmed when he glanced over at the grimoire and saw the glowing eyes of the skull wink out as if afraid.

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Gesturing, he lifted the lost library of the necromancer into the air and brought it towards him. The closer it got to the throne, the more terrified the skull on the cover seemed to become. Garrett wasn't sure how a skull could show fear, but it conveyed the emotion perfectly.

When the metal tome fell into his hand, it seemed to let out a silent shriek. The throne appeared to have gone to sleep again, and not wanting to repeat what had happened earlier, Garrett gathered some of the energy that it naturally exuded and began to draw it in around the tome that he held in his hands.

Suddenly, the eyes of the skull snapped back to life, and a wisp of flame emerged from them, shooting towards Garrett. His eyes narrowed dangerously, and he lifted his hand to catch the flame, intending to crush it. Instead, it melted into his palm, causing him to panic slightly. Before he could obliterate the book with the power of the throne, a window obscured his view of the skeleton.

The Lost Library of the Necromancer has offered you a soul contract. Accepting it will grant you ownership of Lesrak's grimoire, the Lost Library of the Necromancer.

As he concentrated on the window, information flooded through Garrett's mind, clearly outlining all of the details around the contract. At its most simple, the contract would bind the spirit to him, transforming it into one of his servants that would operate almost exactly like one of the Dream Flowers.

Garrett's hand paused, a twitch away from obliterating the grimoire and the spirit it contained. While he didn't have any particular interest in necromancy, he couldn't see a downside to this situation, and being able to open the grimoire would ensure that the necromancers under him had access to the spells, as he saw fit, of course.

From frightened, the skull on the front of the grimoire had transformed into a pleading look, as if it was terrified of what Garrett, or more likely the throne he sat on, would do to it. After weighing the pros and cons, Garrett nodded and accepted the soul bond.

At the same time, he condensed a dream seed, flicking it toward the grimoire. Without hesitating, the skull on the front of the book opened its mouth and swallowed the seed whole. Though Garrett trusted the system, he trusted the flowers he could grow more, and almost immediately, the connection he felt with the grimoire grew even stronger.

Opening his hand, he watched as the grimoire rose into the air, its metal cover cracking open and its pages rustling as it flew through the air around him. For a moment, he sat quietly, his eyes closed, as he explored his new connection with the mysterious artifact.

As he observed, the grimoire's spirit began to feed its energy into the seed it had swallowed. Soon, flowers began to bloom, first one, then two. At that point, the spirit seemed to hesitate. However, detecting Garrett's cold attention, a third and a fourth quickly followed. Garrett's mercilessness must have made an impression on the spirit, because it didn't stop there. Soon, a fifth had bloomed as well.

By this point, the roots of the dream flower had invaded every part of the skull, including the flames that burned in its eyes. Garrett's dream flowers were completely immune to Lesrak's flame. Far from damaging the flower, it actually began to pull power out of the fire that burned in the skull's eyes, causing the spirit to start to panic.

With a thought, Garrett told the flower to knock it off. He was relieved to see that he had another way to eliminate the spirit if necessary. After that, he began to explore the grimoire, allowing the spirit to feed the information directly into his mind. Arcane symbols that formed complex spells began to filter into his head, as the spirit did its best to convey what the grimoire contained.

Eventually, Garrett told it to stop, and the flow of knowledge paused. It took him a while to sort through what he had seen. Once he did, his eyes opened, and he let out a low whistle. The Lost Library of the Necromancer was exactly what it sounded like, a tome that contained thousands upon thousands of necromantic texts.

The spirit had no ability to speak, but using what was written in the Lost Library, it could communicate rudimentary ideas. After questioning it, Garrett found himself stunned. Whoever had created the Lost Library of the Necromancer had been ingenious, tying it directly into Lesrak's power, which was the single component that tied all necromancy together.

As the god of the dead, Lesrak's power was necessary for any necromancer who wished to cast spells. In fact, it wasn't an overstatement to say that necromancy couldn't exist without Lesrak. The creator of the grimoire had reverse-engineered this, forging a spell that summoned every tome, journal, or treatise that accessed Lesrak's domain.

Not only did this create a book that contained all existing knowledge of necromancy that had been written down, but it meant that if new discoveries were made, they too would be added here. Scattered throughout the countless tomes existing inside of the Lost Library were spells that covered every single aspect of necromancy, from curses to spirit binding to the raising of the dead. The list was completely exhaustive, and sent a shiver down Garrett's spine.

Every time he began to feel as if he was powerful, he would discover that he hadn't even yet scratched the bottom of the barrel of what this world had to offer. The spirit infused into the grimoire acted as a librarian of sorts, able to sort through and categorize the information, filling the pages of the book with whatever information its bearer wanted to know.

The truth was, Garrett didn't really want to know any of it. Instead, he set the grimoire aside, intending to hand it over to Delrisa the next time she came by.

The last artifact was the Staff of Bones, which Garrett assumed had something to do with the raising of the dead and the storing of souls. After probing the staff, Garrett became quite sure that it didn't have a spirit, a fact confirmed by the grimoire, who clearly felt like the superior artifact.

Putting the staff aside as well to hand over to Delrisa, Garrett finally turned his attention to his main focus for the evening, beginning the attack against the Ebony Alliance. It started with him calling Isabelle from the mirror and sending her flitting through the night toward the Ebony Alliance's territory.

One moment, Garrett was sitting on the throne, and the next, he was flying high over the city as he took direct control of her. The night was clear, which he thought was unfortunate, but Isabelle's dark hair served well enough to hide her figure, allowing her to blend in with the night sky.

To the east of the Klein family territory were two small neighborhoods as well as a double row of houses that sat up against the city wall. This was the territory of the Ebony Alliance, including the large gate that led directly out into the swamp. It was here that the adventurers passed, bringing their goods from the swamp outside into the city.

They were headquartered in an old mansion that had once belonged to a petty nobleman. How it came into the Ebony Association's hands was a mystery that few talked about, and from it, the Ebony Association ruled the surrounding neighborhoods with an iron hand. They were a gang that didn't care about territory, as most of their focus was outside of the city, but what gave them their strength was the fact that all of their members were awakened.