Chapter 5
After introducing Germaine LeNez and her apprentices to the various shops they would need to work with, Ludmila parted ways with the gaggle of excited villagers and returned ho.
‘Ho’ was a temporary residence – one of the three-storey shophouses built around what was currently the sole plaza in the harbour’s comrcial district. The move was made while she was away, before the old hill was refashioned into the one currently looming over the island. With the uncertainties that ca with her new state, she regretted having chosen a location so close to her subjects. Still, having an office and hall to hold audiences and conduct the business of her fief was a necessity.
She only spent as much ti as was required to keep up with work before heading off to continue her self-imposed seclusion. A patrol; an inspection; investigating sothing far removed from other people – there were many plausible excuses to keep herself at a safe distance.
“Welco back, my lady,” Wiluvien greeted her as she passed through the living room.
Ludmila smiled and nodded in reply, eyeing the Half-Elf’s growing belly as she passed her to go upstairs and into her bedroom. Was it really safe for her to be in such close quarters with a pregnant woman?
Much of her ti in the weeks following her return was committed to observing the various types of Undead working around her territory in an effort to understand herself. One of her first worries was that, like many types of Undead, she would leak so sort of miasma or aura that would adversely affect living things nearby. The servitors of the Sorcerer King, however, showed no signs of ‘leaking’ in any way, shape or form. They went about as neatly packaged bundles of negative energy within their Undead bodies. It was also true, however, that the Undead capable of emitting such effects were not made available for lease.
That being said, it appeared the opposite of ‘leaking’ was happening to her. When she had gone to examine one of the patches of negative energy – it was a concerning blotch that occupied the location of one of the forr residences on the old hill – tendrils of darkness started seeping out towards her. She fled in alarm, her thoughts filled with the idea of so dark force entering her body and taking control of her. Ludmila avoided even the tiniest wisps of negative energy she could spot from then on.
The next day, Ludmila returned with a Death Knight, a Bone Vulture, and a Skeleton labourer. She tentatively ordered them near the patch of negative energy, but it didn’t react to their presence. When ca closer to them, the darkness started drifting straight towards her. She retreated again to ponder the result and what it might an.
According to the common knowledge of the region, Undead beings manifested in areas where negative energy accumulated. Where the Undead manifested, it was possible for more powerful Undead to manifest if enough lesser Undead were gathered. Just based on how things were described and the new sense for things that ca with her Undead existence, Ludmila wondered if this explanation originated from another Undead being. The living had a vague sense for the Undead and places where the Undead could rise – sothing like a premonition or a sense of foreboding – but it could not really be described in those terms through that sense alone.
After so thought, she decided that so part of this rationale was flawed. In the months that the hundreds – now thousands – of Undead servitors in Warden’s Vale had been here, there wasn’t a single case of ‘wild’ Undead appearing. As for advanced knowledge about the Undead, she just so happened to have over a dozen Necromancers in her desne. Ludmila had put off eting with them for so ti now, so she made up her mind to head out and get several matters settled at once.
“Headed out, my lady?” Wiluvien asked as Ludmila ca back down the stairs.
“Yes, there are so things I need to catch up on out in the villages.”
“Would you like so lunch?” Her maid asked, “It’s just about done.”
“Go ahead and take your ti,” Ludmila answered. “I am uncertain when I will be back, so please do not delay anything on my account.”
“Understood, my lady. Ah – Nonna dropped off a few ssages this morning. One of them was from Lady Corelyn.”
Ludmila froze in her steps. She had not seen Clara since before her return, and this was the fourth ssage in half as many weeks.
“Please leave everything on my desk,” Ludmila told Wiluvien. “I will take a look at everything once I return.”
She left the building with a frown, plagued by guilt over avoiding her best friend. Normally, she stayed the night with Clara once a week, but Ludmila refused to simply co by as if nothing at all was the matter. The proper words to convey her Undead state eluded her, and it seed foolish to put Clara at risk of harm with so many unknowns. She also dreaded how Clara would take the news. If she broke off their relationship on the spot…
Ludmila shook the increasingly dire thoughts away. She needed more ti to figure things out. Her life was very much the sa, but she herself had beco sothing else. Sotis it felt as if she was rely a spectator in her own ‘life’, going through well-worn routines and carrying out the plans established by her forr existence.
A burst of laughter rose from a building nearby. Germaine LeNez and her apprentices were still where Ludmila had left them, surrounded by admiring residents. Her subjects in the harbour fancied themselves ‘proper city folk’ now that the course of developnt was made clear before their eyes. They leapt on any opportunity to make themselves appear more urban and, in Warden’s Vale, this ant having new houses, new furniture, new fashion and all manner of new magical items. A young and attractive arcane artisan like Germaine LeNez was instantly the centre of attention, and she wore their welco well.
Ludmila made her way off of the island and across the new dam with its new mill, careful not to appear as soone tirelessly sprinting all the way to the first farming village. The second harvest was already well on its way, and she passed between green fields just beginning to show heads of grain. Farrs and their Skeletal labourers could be seen tending to the crops, and occasionally a cart delivering goods to the harbour crossed in the opposite direction.
Upon entering the village, Ludmila quietly slipped into the Lichtower and went to the second floor. She took a deep breath, adjusting the Ring of Non-Detection that had replaced her Ring of Sustenance. Shortly after returning to Warden’s Vale, Ludmila decided that it wasn’t right to keep Sigurd’s Cowl of Warding, and she had both it and his necklace returned. Though Lady Shalltear was not very sympathetic to what she considered an overblown set of worries, she still provided Ludmila with a Ring of Non-Detection to prevent others from detecting her new Undead state. Hopefully, the forr Zurrernorn Necromancers didn’t have so way around it.
She was greeted by the scowl of Isabella Aguado, who ca to answer her knock on the door. The scowl promptly vanished.
“Lady Zahradnik,” she opened the door fully, then lowered her head in greeting. “Welco. Did…did I miss an appointnt? I’m pretty sure nothing ca ahead…”
“No appointnt,” Ludmila told her. “I am still catching up on my work around the fief and ca to address so things here. Was I interrupting anything important?”
“Nothing that requires my undivided attention,” Isabella replied. “Please co in, my lady. I was just trying to figure out how this stupid fetish was made.”
The ‘stupid fetish’ was most likely one of the magic items from the Demihuman army. Germaine LeNez was not the only artisan she had put to task analyzing them: each staffed atelier in her desne had been delivered several to study. Progress was slow and breakthroughs were nonexistent in the month or so since they had started, but Ludmila had no expectation of things being so easy in the first place.
On the way to the desk sitting under one of the windows, they passed a long counter where a dozen black sheets of fabric were laid out.
“These sure are popular…”
“Uh-huh,” Isabella looked over her shoulder. “In hindsight, I should have been making these from the start, but old taboos are hard to shake off – even for Necromancers. Once I started showing them around, though, everyone wanted the things. Even the Lizardn.”
“The Lizardn?”
“A corpse is a corpse is a corpse.”
The sheets on the table were each a Shroud of Sleep – a magic item permanently imbued with the Gentle Repose spell. They were not fashioned in the form that those who usually employed them would be familiar with. Dyed black to hide stains and made to hang on a rack, they were now being sold for household use. The magic item was generally used by temples or Adventurers to preserve corpses for resurrection or burial but, as Isabella had put it, a corpse was a corpse was a corpse.
Any dead animal, be it a fish or a deer or a Human, was a corpse. The Shroud of Sleep did not discriminate. All one had to do was wrap it up within, and the magic item would prevent the ‘corpse’ from rotting. With this item, every household could store unprepared at for long periods without worrying about spoilage.
Though Isabella was aware of this application long before her arrival, she never sold them for fear of being identified as a Necromancer. In Warden’s Vale, however, no one cared so long as you obeyed the law. The Shroud of Sleep – rebranded as a sort of preservation item for unprepared at – ended up as one of the top sellers and most profitable magic item in production so far. Unlike items with a Preservation effect, they were limited to ‘corpses’ but in exchange were a fraction of the cost.
The item had broader effects that belied its unexpected application. Other magic items that complented its use – such as ones that kept flies and other vermin at bay – could be smoothly introduced. This not only directly increased the profits of her magic item industry but acted as a sort of prir for her subjects as to how magic items were integrated into daily living, which further promoted interest in new products.
It had benefits for the environnt as well since the wastage that ca with at storage was eliminated, thus reducing the burdens placed upon the land by hunting and livestock. Her concerns over securing enough supplies to produce preserved ats for her growing population also vanished.
“Speaking of corpses,” Ludmila said after they settled into their seats. “I had so questions…no, to be more precise, I would like to lean on your expertise about a certain concept.”
“A concept…sothing to do with magic items?”
“It has to do with necromancy,” Ludmila replied. “Or at least I think it does.”
Isabella gave her a long look across her desk, shifting slightly in her seat. Before migrating to her forr ho in Re-Estize, Isabella lived in Roble. Openly speaking about necromancy-related topics in the Holy Kingdom was decidedly not conducive to one’s well being, and Re-Estize was not much better.
Once they had gotten over their initial excitent, Isabella and the other Zurrernorn migrants had fallen into a tentative pattern of behaviour when it ca to their once-hidden vocation. They were more than happy to practice their craft and conduct research behind closed doors, but their public face was still that of unassuming arcane artisans. Though they no longer needed to hide, the old habits that revolved around cultural taboos were hard to shake off.
“What ‘concept’ are you referring to?” Isabella asked.
“Negative energy,” Ludmila answered. “Or at least negative energy and its relationship to the Undead. The common sense around here is demonstrably at odds with reality, and this leads to wonder if it has any truth to it.”
“It does, and it doesn’t,” Isabella told her after a mont’s thought. “What the people believe about it happens to naturally-occurring – ahem, ‘wild’ Undead. It doesn’t happen with summoned or created Undead. It being the case with all Undead is just superstition and rot from certain religions, like the Faith of the Four. They don’t make any distinctions over Undead origins. Concerns over having wild Undead appear because we have so many created Undead around here is not a worry at all, if that’s your worry.”
Ludmila nodded to herself as Isabella’s explanation confird her suspicions.
“If that is the case,” Ludmila shifted the topic slightly, “what is it that leads to the appearance of Undead? As the one responsible for the security of this desne, it would be best if I distinguish ‘common sense’ from the truth of the matter.”
“The truth, huh…” Isabella pursed her lips, “As nice as it is to see soone that doesn’t choose to wallow in ignorance, I’m not sure if I can offer you a definitive answer.”
“I thought Zurrernorn is an organization dedicated to the pursuit of necromantic knowledge.”
“They are,” Isabella nodded, “but the way Zurrernorn operates isn’t as great at spreading necromantic knowledge as it is collecting it. Each group functions independently, answering to soone higher up. A lower-rung group in the cabal only has a piece of the picture, and each mber only really knows what their group does. The people that communicate with the higher-ups are few. I suspect that the people at the top of the hierarchy are the only ones that have the closest to what you’d consider a complete picture.”
Isabella smirked to herself, resting her chin on her hand.
“You know, that offer of yours back then hit us in more ways than one.”
“How so?”
“The way you propose to run things here is sothing like the opposite of how most arcane organizations function. Magic cabals – even governnt institutions like the Imperial Ministry of Magic – guard their knowledge jealously.”
“The fruit of your efforts here is also confidential if you’ve forgotten.”
“I understand that,” Isabella waved her free hand in the air, “but it’s not what I ant. Like Zurrernorn, it’s those that exist at the highest levels of any organization that hold the most knowledge. They hoard it: keep it away from those below. Most of the Zurrernorn mbers that have co here – and those that will arrive in the future – all co from these isolated groups that the mysterious people above us string along with bits of knowledge. We work like crazy just for the chance that one of the elite gives us so scraps. Even with a closer relationship, like that between master and apprentice, it’s the sa dynamic.”
“I see. I assud what was happening here wasn’t anything new.”
“At a very basic level, it’s not anything new. The difference is that this barrier – where our superiors jealously guard their knowledge – won’t exist. Even the Imperial Magic Academy only teaches the basics. Past that point, you have to sign up for the Legions or the Ministry of Magic. There are indeed so spells or theories that you probably don’t want in the hands of the wrong person, but they keep a tight lid on everything. The community you’re trying to build here doesn’t exist out there – at least not for all the small people. What Chandler said back then ans more than you know.”
Ludmila wondered how Isabella would react if she told her that the faculties in Warden’s Vale were modelled after the institutions of her faith rather than any arcane organization. The temples had ranks of administrative authority, but the greater the number of Priests and Clerics there were serving the faithful, the better. Even maids were allowed to learn.
“Now that you ntion him, where is Chandler?”
“He prefers to study in his room,” Isabella replied. “I get to bug him about missing you later. Anyways, sorry for getting off-topic. Negative energy, hm…well, the ‘common sense’ isn’t too far off from what I know.”
“Is there anything wrong with it?”
“Not explicitly,” Isabella said. “It’s more like the common sense is very broad. Broad enough to spook people and blow minor things out of proportion. You get one little Skeleton and people think that the place is on its way to becoming the next Katze Plains.”
“Many of the families here have beco accustod to their Undead servitors,” Ludmila told her. “A child that is not aware of the true nature of the ‘one little Skeleton’ that they find lost in a adow one day is a tragedy waiting to happen.”
“I…I didn’t an it like that,” Isabella frowned. “Sorry. With the way you put it there, I guess identifying the sources of negative energy accumulation would be a noble’s first priority. Most people know the big ones: battlefields, places where the dead are gathered, like graveyards and crypts. Places where a whole lot of pain and suffering happen.”
Battlefields…
She had just turned the upper reaches into a battlefield. Death Knights were placed along the riverbank in her territory just in case anything washed up, but Ludmila wondered what the wilderness beyond her southern border looked like now.
“How long does it take for a place to start giving rise to the Undead?” Ludmila asked, “Katze Plains and the E-Rantel cetery are clear examples of this phenona, but the border has seen conflict since this place was settled. The Demihuman tribes out there have been fighting amongst one another for far longer.”
“It takes a lot to get things started,” Isabella answered, “but once it exceeds nature’s capacity to clean up, it’s hard to get rid of. The temples have tended to the E-Rantel cetery since there’s been an E-Rantel, but the place still has Undead popping up on a regular basis. As for the frontier, it’s like I said just now: nature has a way of cleaning things up. You might have Undead showing up after wars and such, but to have things end up like Katze Plains requires so sort of unthinkable catastrophe.”
“I thought Katze was the result of intermittent conflicts in the past between Re-Estize and Baharuth over the valuable river basin.”
Isabella snorted.
“It doesn’t take much to poke holes in that story,” she said. “The Kingdom, the Empire and the Theocracy all have claims on the region dating back centuries. The Kingdom has been around for less than two, and the Empire is younger than the Kingdom. There might have been a conflict there in the past that caused it all, but Re-Estize and Baharuth didn’t exist back then. In all likelihood, it was between the Theocracy and whoever used to be there until the Demon Gods wiped everything out.”
The histories of the region never brought up that point. It was sothing that Ludmila found curious, but what was the chance that one could find a historical record from a source closer to the truth?
“Regardless,” Ludmila said, “I would like to keep my fief free of wild Undead. Nature cleans things up and Priests can work to cleanse or at least suppress it…but I still don’t have any Priests. Is there anything Necromancers can do? As our population grows, it will beco a more pressing issue.”
“Not us from Zurrernorn,” Isabella said. “Our focus was sort of in the opposite direction.”
“I see. One last thing before we move on to other business: how do wild Undead interact with areas of negative energy?”
“That is a very good question,” Isabella told her. “One that I only have speculation and rumours to answer with. Soul Eaters eat souls or sothing, and every second person seems to think that all Undead do. Elder Liches are said to grow by absorbing mana over their long existence, but I have no idea where that story ca from or why everyone seems to believe it. There’s probably a reason why the Undead linger around their birthplaces when they can just as easily pack up and go elsewhere, but whether it’s because of ambient zones of negative energy is anyone’s guess. We all get that sort of creepy feeling when we’re around those places, but it’s not as if any of us can see it.”
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