“Nothing,” Luke replied as he sheathed his blade and helped the woman up on shaky legs. “I did absolutely nothing to her.”
The woman let out a hacking cough, and trembled. Then, she fell asleep in his arms. Luke supported her as the flaming blades of the Dawnbringers were aimed his direction. “Oh, come on! I fucking helped you all. Why would I hurt one of you?”
The Captain had a scowl on her face. “Then how do you explain what happened?”
“The Fog Guardians had a grey aura,” Luke said as he stayed put. “Does that ring any bells?”
“Death,” one of the Dawnbringer soldiers muttered. “Greys and blacks, those are the colors of death.”
“Well it wasn’t me,” Luke said. “Perhaps it's because this place is so steeped in it, and the Fog Creepers were…hatched here? I found records of a mass killing some ten years ago to prevent a plague from reaching Mistbrook.”
“Show me,” Captain Stephanie said, keeping her blade trained on Luke, but waving for one of her men to take the women from him.
Luke passed the woman off and then went over to the still-closed door of the Necromancer’s chambers. He tried the door, only to find it was stuck. Tilting his shoulder forward and thwacking into it, he was able to get it open, and then use his arms to open it the rest of the way.
The room looked identical to how he had left it, and he glanced at the door frame, realizing that the Fog Creeper’s presence must have brought more moisture, and thus the wood expanded, making it stick more. He shrugged, moved over to the records, and held out the book logging what happened at the fort. “Here you go.”
The Captain cautiously reached forward for the book, snatched it, then retreated to the other room. “Don’t move,” she said.
Luke glanced down at the books, notes, and scrolls. All of the information about the Necromancer. “Can I at least collate and compile this information the Necromancer was putting together for you?”
“Fine.”
Luke pulled his pack off and fished around, finding his journal and charcoal pencil. Quickly sharpening the edge on the table edge, he activated his VITAE overlay and scoured the Necromancer’s notes. What he discovered was a plethora of Death-aspected Arts and Aspects. But, one in particular stood out to him, because it detailed the process that created him. A blasphemous Art. The information didn’t translate directly to Luke’s usual Art readout, and instead was in prose.
“The means to create an Echo Dead, with the same prowess, abilities, and capacity to retain their body’s faculties is well-established. But with this new variant, one should be capable of using all of the Arts and Aspects of the passed-on soul. The process requires at least ten bodies, though more is better, and the shredding of at least one soul to create the primordial goop that allows for magic to be used. That goop is then bound to the body to be raised.
Luke thought, That explains the slick, slightly sticky stuff that I felt on my chest when I first woke up. I thought it was blood, but it might’ve been this primordial goop stuff.
He finished jotting down his notes, then shoved his journal into his backpack, and put all the books and papers into neat piles. The journal the Captain was reading was really well-written with plenty of descriptions, and she seemed engrossed with it. Her companions had spread out elsewhere in the fort, as Luke didn’t see them.
Luke cleared his throat. “Done? Convinced?”
The woman looked up at him and gently closed the book. “For now? Yes. Now, you mentioned creating some type of command beacon for the dead?”
Luke nodded. Then, mentally, he added, I don’t know how to do it, but I can make one. How do I make it?
[Go to where Death is present.]
Luke pointed up to the ceiling. “We need to go to wherever they killed all the people who were diseased. Wherever the mass culling happened.”
The Captain pointed up the stairs. “I believe I saw a much grassier section. Lots of corpses buried there, I wager.”
Luke walked ahead of her and headed upstairs. He saw some of the dawnbringers, setting to securing the location with old furniture and other detritus, with one stationed outside the main doors. That Dawnbringer fell into step with the Captain behind him, and Luke headed to the eastern part of the fort grounds.
There, he saw two things. First was a very verdant, lush, green grassy section. The other section was more bare dirt. But, he could almost feel the permeation on the more northern of the two areas, with the bare dirt. As he crouched down and inspected the ground, he could feel it even more, and pressing his palm to the surface, a warm sensation spread up from it.
[This is the place of Death.]
[You already have the power as part of Enduring Soul, and the limitations have been discussed.]
Right then, Luke thought. Then…I guess I order my soul to split—
The moment the thought went through his mind, Luke could feel it. He felt hollow, as if he could never be filled and would be a yawning void, wishing for any type of fulfillment. Life was empty, pointless, and for a few seconds, he knew that he was just some corpse, just a shadow of himself.
That feeling rapidly faded and was replaced by a craving unlike any Luke had ever had before. His body craved something, but didn’t know what, and was sending weird signals to his brain that were equally confusing. Luke attributed the sensations to the fact that he had just split off ninety percent of his soul.
The ground in front of him warbled, then stilled. A moment later, a white-grey, spectral form manifested. Luke almost laughed in spite of the momentous situation, because he saw himself. Not him as William Whitemane’s body, but him as in the him from back on Earth. The spectre was him: little bit of a dad bod, shaved-bald head, bit of muscle in the arms and legs with an obvious love for good cooking. The scar on his bottom lip was prominent, and the spiritual figure stood up straight.
“Well, isn’t this something?” the Grave Node asked.
Luke was going to reply, but the Captain interrupted by walking over, holding the holy, blazing sword up. “What is this?”
Luke gestured to his spectral self, who took a little bow. “This is…was…me. Was what I looked like before I got into this body.”
The Grave Node nodded sagely. “Yup. I’m the Grave Node assigned to the Fort here. I don’t have to be like this, though.” The body shifted, distorted, morphed, and compressed down until Luke was looking at his favorite animal—a flying squirrel. It was floating on invisible currents in a constant hover. “See?”
Stephanie deactivated her blade and sheathed it. “You didn’t violate Soul Law?” she asked Luke.
“This is my soul,” Luke replied. “Well, ninety-percent of it. But it’s okay! The god of Death quite literally gave me the go-ahead to do this.” He tapped his chestplate with his knuckles. “My soul regenerates.”
The Captain looked at her companion, who shrugged. Stephanie then looked at Luke. “And this Grave Node of yours can control Undead?”
“Oh yeah,” the Grave Node replied. It flew over to the grassy area. “What do you want, boss? We’ve got a Command Limit of 43, so we can get a lot of Mindless Undead or a few Echo Dead.”
Luke looked at the Captain. “Well? I figure some skeletons to do the heavy lifting and scut work around here. They can also keep watch.”
“Show me what you can do,” the woman replied.
The Grave Node flew into the ground, and a few seconds later, a series of boney hands shot up from the ground. The bones were clean of all flesh long-since eaten away by bugs and critters, but were bound together by the same white-grey essence as the Grave Node itself. The flying squirrel flew over to land on Luke’s shoulder, and he could feel the tiny amount of weight.
Within thirty seconds, eight skeletons of varying heights and bone density, held together with the split-off-soul’s power and sustained by that will, stood at attention.
The Captain walked over and inspected them like she was inspecting a line of troops. “Hmm…show me you have full control.”
“Oooh! I’ve got it!” the flying squirrel made a clicking noise.
To Luke’s amusement, the entire group of skeletons began dancing Michael Jackon’s Thriller. Or, rather, a rendition of it, since Luke only remembered a few movements from his high school talent show, and apparently his Grave Node only referenced what Luke could recall.
[Quest Completed!]
[Title: Reclaim your ground.]
[“Now you lay claim. Do what you set out to do.”]
[Reward Granted!]
[Name: Infuse Weapon 1.]
[Power Type: Martial.]
[Duration: Committed.]
[Mana: 5.]
[Stamina: 5.]
[Effect: The user infuses their weapon with a Power Type (or combination). The types available are determined by existing Art and Aspect capabilities. 1% of inflicted damage is converted to the applied Power Type.]
[Experience Gained: 175. Current Experience: 561 / 1000.]
[You have three questions. Ask them now, and ask them quickly.]
Then, Luke thought, Is this me?
[It is a fraction of you. It is not you. Think of it like a program of yourself.]
As the Captain walked toward Luke he thought, Next question: can this Grave Node be contacted once I leave the area?
[Meditate for an hour in dark solitude, and you will be able to mentally correspond.]
Last question then. The corpses all rose at once: does my Grave Node have Mana, Stamina, and Health?
[Yes, as do all things.]
The voice faded, and Luke looked at the flying squirrel on his shoulder. “Mind taking on the body of a Dawnbringer? Just like a generic guy?”
“You got it.” The Grave Node spirit flew off his shoulder and formed a version of the Captain approaching them.
The Captain said, “Well, I’ve seen enough. This thing will stick around?”
“As long as it isn’t destroyed,” Luke said as he went to pat it on the shoulder but his hand met only a little resistance before going through it. “Erm, yeah. Grave Node, let’s give you a name for the sake of the people here.”
The Grave Node nodded. “Sure. How about you do simple naming with Greek Alphabet? I’ll be Alpha.”
Luke nodded. “Alright, Alpha.” He looked at the Captain. “I’m ordering you to obey her orders.”
Captain Stephanie pointed to the fort’s main building. “Go clear out all the bodies, debris, and other clutter.”
Alpha saluted, then began moving that way. The skeletons stopped their dancing and fell into step behind Alpha.
Luke crossed his arms as the Captain remained behind with him. “Well? Seen enough?”
She looked at him and nodded. “I have. You obviously have control over it, and you just ceded control to me…” Her hand, which hadn’t left her sword’s hilt, drifted away from the pommel. “I will not apologize for judging you as I did, because this is all completely unheard of and unprecedented. But, I will admit when I am wrong, and apologize for treating you so harshly.”
“Good. Now, I think we should head inside and help out. The sooner the fort is cleared out, the sooner we can move all that debris to the outside and shore up the broken northern wall.” Luke headed over to the building and joined in the effort with the skeletons, who were being skeptically regarded by the Dawbringers.
Captain Stephanie moved past Luke and explained what she saw, and at that the troops relaxed and began to join in. By the time it was fully nightfall, the interior of the fort had been completely cleaned out. All of the Necromancer’s records were handed over, though Luke did not share that he had made a journal entry about each of the bits that mattered to him.
The bodies were also kept separate. They were mangled beyond recognition, and the Captain set Alpha’s Undead to bury them, which they did.
By the time the moon was high overhead, the job was done, and Alpha with the Undead set to patrol the fort’s exterior walls. The Dawnbringers placed two of their own on rotation on the ground floor, at the front entrance and armory door, while the rest went up to the second floor to lay out bedrolls.
Luke chose to sit in the Entry Hall, and had his travel pack out on the ground next to him, his back to the wall. He was reviewing his journal notes, when the Captain next to him said, “Mind if I join you?”
Luke looked up at her, took a breath, and said, “Sure.”
Stephanie sank down onto the floor next to him, a canteen full of some alcohol in hand. “Do you drink?”
“I can taste it, but not get drunk,” Luke replied as he shut his journal and made polite eye contact.
“Shame, that.” She took a sip of the canteen and grimaced. “Damn, it’s stronger than I remember.”
Luke put his hands on his knees. “When the others arrive tomorrow, we fix the fort…then I think I’m leaving.”
“Oh? Already?” She shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me one bit.”
Luke was about to reply, but Alpha’s voice echoed in his head. “Hey, boss. I’ve got some movement on the northern edge here. It’s beyond the wall, in the treeline. But, it’s the smashed part of the wall.
Luke stood up and grabbed his sword. “Movement on the northern side. I’ll investigate.”
The Captain nodded. “I’ll go with you.”