Serenity couldn’t warn the others; he could only hope they’d play along with him. Stojan Tasi had said Hale had been in interrogations before; hopefully that was good enough.
Serenity reached out to his Incarnate of Death and let it settle over him. It wasn’t the same as an Aspect at all, now that he’d done it this way. Death simply responded to him.
It explained some of what he’d experienced with the Adept Aspect Form; that was a transformation skill, rather than simply calling on an Aspect, but it had still felt more complete than the Aspect Forms he’d had in the past. He’d assumed it was simply because he was a living creature taking on a Death Aspect, instead of an undead creature, but now he suspected it was the difference between an Aspect and an Incarnate. They were similar and yet completely different.
He’d have to explore it more in the future if he really wanted to understand. He wasn’t sure he would; he really didn’t want to depend on Death that way. Not this time.
The woman already looked shocked, and off to the side he could see that Stojan Tasi had also noticed something. Hale and Katya didn’t seem to have noticed yet. Serenity could feel that both Stojan Tasi and the woman had significant Death Affinities; the City Lord’s was better than the captive’s.
There was an odd rule he’d heard somewhere when he’d been breaking curses, that only dhampir were allowed to do Death magic in the Shining Caverns. At the time, it’d been reassuring, if strange; at least he wasn’t going to get in trouble with anyone official for breaking curses using Death magic; if he did, all he’d have to do is show that he was a dhampir. He’d have done it anyway; the curse was a nasty thing. It was still better to be within the legal boundaries.
It made a lot more sense now that he knew the City Lord was a dhampir with a significant Death Affinity. Affinities that extreme were hard to get without using them.
Serenity drew some of his magic out and formed it into a solid-sided pyramid. It was the traditional shape for a DeathLord of the Necropolis, and he knew the woman would recognize it. He rather hoped the City Lord wouldn’t, but he didn’t think he’d be that lucky.
As the mana flowed out, he found himself growing coldly furious with the woman, rather than dizzy. He knew some of it had to be from how much mana he was using and triggered Second Wind. It helped, but he was still angry with her. He wasn’t sure he was angry enough to actually carry out the threat he was about to make, but he was certainly angry enough to make it seem real.
The pyramid seemed simple, but it was anything but simple to do, and making the shape quickly and precisely from only Death mana was an exercise in power and control - Affinity and Concept. Making it visible to everyone instead of only those with Death affinity as a solid inactive spellform was a display of Aspect. Those were all easier than they should have been; it felt like the symbol flew together. The one thing it didn’t show was his Tier; yes, it took most of his mana to make, but once it was made, it was stable and it took very little mana to control.
By making that shape, he was declaring himself a DeathLord to anyone who saw it. While it was theoretically possible to fake the symbol, anyone who could do that using Death magic was qualified to use it; illusion magic had been tried, but it didn’t work for long. DeathLords would hunt down a fake.
If he was lucky, only the woman would know what it meant, but he doubted he’d be that lucky. If Rakyn was right and the world paid attention to him-
[Welcome to Tzintkra, DeathLord]
[A Seat is prepared for you]
There it was. Tzintkra itself had acknowledged him as a DeathLord. It gave him certain rights over the Necropolis itself and thereby its people; only a DeathLord could be Lord of the Necropolis, after all, and there were generally very few on Tzintkra. He hoped it wouldn’t complicate his trip, but it shouldn’t. Probably. Especially if no people here other than the woman recognized the symbol.
A quick glance at the others told him that Hale and Katya almost certainly hadn’t. He was less certain of the City Lord. He no longer looked surprised, only bored, which was a bad sign. He was sure he’d have to explain himself later, but for now he had the terrorist to deal with.
Serenity floated the magical construct over to near the woman. “You will tell me now or you will tell me later. Speak.”
Serenity realized he’d been lying to himself earlier. He was definitely angry enough with the woman to carry through on his threat. He’d given her more of a choice than she’d given the people she’d cursed.
The woman stared at the pyramid for a long moment, then seemed to try to push herself into the wall to get farther from it. Serenity waited.
It wasn’t very long before she looked from the pyramid to Serenity. “Lord.”
Serenity was getting very tired of being called that - and he couldn’t even deny it this time. It was true, and it was what he was banking on to get her to answer questions.
“Speak. Start with your name and why you’re here."
“Pelni Sukaj. I - we were sent here to raise an army using a new type of curse I created. It can spread in a new way, actually make easily controlled undead that sustain themselves! It’s not all that expensive, either; I can take a living person and turn them into a vector that will transform half a dozen others for only a few monster cores of the desired type, with one more for control! It’s a fantastic-”
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Serenity felt slightly ill at the enthusiasm the woman had for ruining others’ lives and interrupted her. “I don’t need the sales pitch. Tell me, was Stojan Kenna a vampire or was that a side effect of giving him control of the undead you created?” He wanted to know, and he was sure Kenna’s uncle did, as well.
Pelni twitched away from Serenity. “A vampire? No? He wasn’t-”
“But you were using cores from Bloody Red vampires to give him a Sire’s ability to control the undead.” Serenity didn’t ask; he simply stated it as a fact. Everything added up now. She’d found a way to use monster cores to curse someone into becoming a monster like the cores she’d used; because she was using the cores from undead, they became undead.
The curse didn’t die when they turned, so it would be reinforced by the core they developed and try to spread both the curse and the change to others. It was likely that the reason she was seeing it weaken and spread to fewer people was that it required Essence to spread, and most of the Essence was consumed in the transformations; it would take time to rebuild.
It was likely that any new monster carrying the curse would develop slower, since some of their power would go to the curse. It was also likely that they would continue to spread the curse until it was removed or the body was destroyed.
It was clever, especially since she couldn’t see essence, and insidious. He could counter it now, since she’d used Death-based cores and a death-based curse. He might be able to counter it in the future with Essence magic as he learned more about that, but whether or not he could counter it didn’t help others.
“Who sent you here?”
Pelni didn’t immediately answer. After a moment, Serenity moved the Death-pyramid directly in front of her eyes. He didn’t have to say anything to make the threat clear.
She swallowed and focused on the pyramid. “M-my sponsor is Tibral Unalgos. He-he’s the one that funded the mission, and sent the Stojan. I don’t know if there’s more behind him, I just don’t know!” She squeaked a bit as she finished speaking.
Serenity moved the pyramid farther away. It wouldn’t make her harder to kill, but it might make her feel more comfortable about speaking, since it was a clear reward. “Did he provide the dreamstones?”
“Dreamstones? Oh! The box-traps the Stojan wanted that Messenger to deliver? No, he brought them. I just had to provide the muscle to help move everyone to the warehouse and then curse them. Easy enough since they’re sleeping, I have a couple spirits tied to me, they possess the bodies and they move themselves. I was planning to use them to get out of here but I guess that won’t be necessary?”
She kept possession-capable ghosts tied to herself at all times. She was definitely not safety-conscious in any way. Serenity felt for the ghosts and found them tied to the bones of her pinky fingers. There were several other things she hadn’t mentioned connected to herself in a similar manner.
“No, it won’t be necessary.” Serenity was going to make sure it wouldn’t be possible. There were several ways he could do that, but the one that would be the most impressive was to use the sigil he’d created as an extension of his power. Normally, pushing a DeathLord sigil into a person would kill them, but Serenity knew it was simply a matter of control. Control that most DeathLords didn’t bother with.
He stood unmoving, his concentration absorbed as he pushed the sigil into her chest, then swept it around her body, removing all of the Death-based magics she’d tied to herself. She didn’t resist; Serenity expected that she was in shock that she wasn’t dead, and didn’t move in case somehow that changed things. It would have been much harder if she’d resisted him or even moved at all.
He went after the two spirits last. It took energy to move the sigil and steal the links, but he’d regain it all and more if he took the power back. Several minutes passed before the sigil slipped back out of her chest where it had entered. It was smaller and there was a slight fuzz surrounding it from all the energies it’d picked up, but it was still clearly a pyramid.
Serenity floated the pyramid over to himself. “I don’t have any further questions. However, you see that man over there?” Serenity pointed at Stojan Tasi, the City Lord.
Once Pelni nodded, Serenity continued. “Answer his questions as if they were mine. I don’t want to have to come back. Understood?”
Pelni nodded rapidly.
Serenity brought the pyramid up to his mouth, compressed it to be no more than an inch per side, and ate it in one bite. It wasn’t necessary for him to do that to reabsorb it, but it was easier; this way, his body did all the work. It was also much more impressive than simply dissolving the pyramid, which was normal; most DeathLords couldn’t simply absorb Death energy, after all.
Serenity stalked out of the room, tapping Hale and Katya’s shoulders to get them to follow him. It wasn’t until the door was closed behind him that he released his tenuous grip on his Death Incarnate and leaned against a wall, mentally tired.
Serenity hadn’t expected Stojan Tasi to follow them out, but he did. Once the door closed, the City Lord held a finger to his lips, then led the others back out of the building and into a third building that connected to the same courtyard. The new building felt abandoned, unlike the first two; there weren’t whispers of sound in the distance as other people moved around.
They were led into what had to be either a large study or a small library. There was a lit fireplace with a small group of stuffed chairs huddled close to its warmth. One of the small walls had a chair sitting in front of a large desk - more of a drafting table than a desk to Serenity's eye - piled with paper. The other walls were covered in bookcases that seemed filled with oversized books and folders.
“Why did that work? That was nothing like any interrogation I’ve ever been in.” Hale picked one of the chairs farthest from the fire and sat down. “It was more like someone getting called on the carpet than an interrogation.”
Serenity picked his own chair. He might as well be clear; he knew the City Lord understood what happened, and he had the feeling he’d make sure Hale knew even if Serenity didn’t say anything. It was obvious they had a long-standing friendly relationship. “I told her to talk or I’d kill her, raise her from the dead, and make her corpse talk.”
When Hale blinked and didn’t say anything, Serenity continued, “I also made it clear I could do it. As far as I can tell, she answered honestly.”
“She did,” the City Lord stated. “The cells are enchanted to let me know when someone lies. Thank you for your help. I should warn you against going to the Necropolis. The City Lord doesn’t allow threats to her to live, and I’m pretty sure she’d see you as a threat.”