… and thus, necromancy is a dangerous art that only those in tune with the Great God of the Death Tides should practice. Any and all aspiring necromancers or other practitioners of necromancy are required to prove their worthiness through completion of a test.
Any and all necromancers with a license are required to report to the Death Tide Sect of the Blue Order at regular intervals. Any mortal caught practicing necromancy without a license will be fined 15,000 Chips at a minimum, and at an average rate determined by a committee between the Blue Order and the Great Chiefs.
This bill is active as of June 12th, 301.
-Ending remarks of the Necromancy Regulation Statute of 301
*=====*
Mori tapped her foot on the clocksteel deck, annoyed, “Look,” she said to the orcish guard in front of her, holding an odd mix between a spear and a gun, “I don’t see what you’re getting at here.”
The orc’s brow furrowed in frustration, only abated by a deep breath. He ground his teeth and glared fiercely at her, “What is there not to understand?” he growled, “I don’t care who you are, what you are, or who you know, but you can’t make this many undead!” he shouted, “You’re endangering the lives of everyone around you!”
Mori returned his glare with one twice as fierce, “And how do you suppose that?” she asked, venom-laden words only serving to make the guard angrier.
“‘Cause they’re fucking undead, you skeletal bitch! They could break away from your control at any moment and tear into the populous at large! The monsters we found in that boat of yours could kill hundreds of people!” he screamed.
Mori stopped tapping her foot and took a step forward, “Are you saying that I, a lich, am so incompetent that I not only make my undead desire the blood of the living, but that I am so incompetent that I would let them loose? Are you trying to be serious here?” Mori asked, trying to weave a subtle Connection between them.
He gripped his spear so tightly that his knuckles’ dark green skin went white, “Are you seriously trying to tell me that your undead don’t want to kill the living!? DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A GODS DAMNED TODDLER!?” he screamed, his voice echoing off of the outer walls.
Mori gave him a flat stare, “Unio,” she said, turning behind her, “Do whatever you want with him,” she said. The man paled and raised his gun-spear and fired into Unio’s body. The bullet sunk into the slime, but did nothing but jiggle him. Unio leapt forward, latching onto the orc’s leg and causing him to scream. Flailing around, he tried to pry the slime from his body, but Unio stayed latched on as he crawled up the man’s body, reaching his head before his companions could react. Instead of killing the man, or even hurting him, Unio sat on the man’s head, refusing to move. After another minute of useless flailing, the guard fell silent.
The orc glared at her, “What’s your game, lich? What’s your trick?” he ground out, trying and failing to push Unio from his head.
Mori deadpanned, “Don’t you have just the tiniest , smallest, most insignificant suspicion that I just want to do this stuff because it’s relieving? Because I find it enjoyable? Because that, and to protect my ship, is why I am making undead,” she emphatically explained, “So, now that the fact that my undead will only kill things I tell them to is established, can you get the hell off my skiff?”
The guard sputtered, eventually grunting in rage-filled acceptance, “Fine. We’ll be back to throw you in the brig, just you wait.” Unio jumped from his head and into Mori’s arms at the group of guards left without another word. Sighing, Mori looked out to the small crowd gathered around the commotion, “Go find something else to do! Get out of here!” she yelled to the crowd. They grumbled and left in groups, eventually leaving the space in front of the gangplank of the Kharon empty.
Just then, Fara walked up to the skiff with a young man following behind her. Mori waved to her as she walked up the plank, “Hey, Fara. Did you see that?” she asked.
“Yes,” she said, “Yes I did. What were you doing to get a group of guards angry at you?” she asked, followed by the reluctant young man.
Mori pointed to the far end of the deck, at a large, mantis-like undead with scaly skin stretched across its bony body timidly hiding behind a mast. Its head was like a reptile’s, but with a longer snout; it had two human-like arms, two spike-like arms made of malformed rib bones protruding from its chest, and four legs, two of which being the same as the spike-like arms. A wide bone plate covered its lower back and pelvis, acting as armor, “I was making some undead because I got angry at Mr. scaly rapist again and the guards came to bother me about it,” she briefly explained.
Fara looked at the undead, timidly looking back at her, and sighed, “You know, I was wondering about Unio, but do all of your undead act like lost puppies or something?”
Mori’s eye-fire shaped itself to resemble her raising an eyebrow, “Is that not normal?” she asked.
“Yeah, not normal,” Fara replied, “Normally, undead have an extreme personality trait that depends on the necromancer’s specific type. Some are raging beasts that can barely be controlled, others are obsessed with food, wealth, or killing; some are even obsessed with defending some long forgotten, long lost ruin. Yours though… I don’t even know what drives them…” she stated, looking into Unio.
“What do you mean by ‘drives them?’ They just are. That’s it.” Mori stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Fara furrowed her brow, “‘Just are?’ What are you trying to say?”
Mori shrugged, “They just are. They want to live, I guess… It’s hard to put into words… Like, why do you want to live?”
Fara thought for a bit, “Because I want to make a moving fortress the likes of which the world has never seen,” she said resolutely.
Mori shook her head, “No! After that. What happens when you make your fortress? What happens when you’re at the top? What happens when you’re done?”
“Done? You’re never done. There’s always more,” Fara replied confusedly.
“Exactly! You’re never done! And- and… I don’t know… There’s something beyond that, I know it, but I can’t figure out what…” she said, downcast. After a moment, her mood turned on a dime and she locked gazes with the young man following Fara, “Who’s the guy over there? Don’t tell me you’ve already found someone you’re dating…” Mori said.
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Fara laughed, “No, no. That’s not it. He was trying to say something, but I think he’s cursed or something. He can’t speak without some sort of spell taking effect and I was hoping you could… um…” she leaned in next to Mori, speaking in a whisper, “‘Speak’ with him. He has something to say, apparently.” she said. They turned to the Mokan, who became nervous at the sight of Mori.
Mori turned back to Fara, “I don’t know if I can,” she whispered, “It’s really hard not to probe the mind of my target when Connecting. Actually, how did you know I could do that?”
Fara shrugged, “The word ‘psychic’ is a pretty obvious indicator to what powers you have, you know. Did your world not have that word?” she asked.
“Of course we had that word! I think. Anyway, I’ll try my best,” Mori said.
*=====*
Fara nodded, “That’s all I’m asking for,” she said as Mori walked up to the young man. Mokan shied away for a moment, but stayed still as she placed a skeletal hand on his forehead and he closed his eyes. Oddly enough, Fara felt no mana move, felt nothing change in the air. For a long few minutes, they stood there, not moving, before Mokan opened his eyes.
“I get it,” Mori said, “I think that's a good idea… Just make sure you’re sneaky. Alright?” she asked. Mokan nodded quickly, sprinting off and down the plank, disappearing into the crowd. Mori nodded to herself, turning to Fara, “We’ll have to expect guests…” she said, “Both good and bad.”
Fara glared, “You did something didn’t you?” she accused, “What did you do?”
Mori winced as Fara spoke, “Um… sorry… that… Look, he has a sister and those thugs are threatening her to make him work with them. So… We’ll have to either stay discrete, take care of them, or leave early. I doubt you want to leave early, so we’ll have to keep our heads down or take ‘em out ourselves,” she said.
Fara’s glare lightened, replaced with an remorseful look, “We can’t take them on,” Fara said.
“Why not?” Mori asked, perplexion showing in her eyes.
“We don’t know how strong they are. Going into this without knowing that or having a sure-fire way of knocking them out is dangerous. Like I said, a gang of pirates won’t be as strong as real hunters, guards, or the like, so we can go after them. But these guys…”
“They’re the same thing, but without a skiff. Why are they so strong, then?”
Fara looked at her rifle, thinking, “They had someone at least level 30 doing muggings. A group with that kind of power is… too strong for us…” she said.
Mori tutted, “No, no. Think about it like this: A thug is a thug, no matter how high up in an organization they are. Someone like that may like doing what they do and you may have just ran into someone important in that group,” she guessed.
Fara shrugged, “Maybe, but we aren’t going to assume anything before we do this.”
Mori’s eye-flames rolled, “Fine. If we’re going to do this like a siege, then we should get a sense of our strengths. What level are you at?”
Fara took a moment, opening her Status Page. She had not looked at it at all since their battle with the pirates, something done for reasons that eluded her.
[Name: Fara Notchings
Species: Human
Variant: Desertborn
Level: 19(78%)
Traits:
Physical: (Dexterous Muscles V), (Purifying Hand), (Enhanced Eyesight III), (Increased Stamina), (Increased Regeneration), (Dense Musculature II), (Reduced Gravity II), (Free Slot)*4
Spiritual: (Enhanced Mind III), (Multi-rune Casting), (Enhanced Focus), (Mechanical Affinity X), (Free Slot)*4
Granted Traits: (None)]
“Level 19… I’m eleven levels away from being able to upgrade [Mechanical Affinity X]...” she muttered.
“Well, that’s good then. You’ll get there soon enough. Anyway, how many Trait slots do you have?” Mori asked.
“Four. So let’s see… I’m going to have to use them, huh?” she asked.
Mori nodded, “Yeah, probably. First, though, we should go shopping to get some important stuff before we get besieged on the Kharon.”
Fara looked around, “Alright, that sounds like a good idea. I don’t want to starve to death, after all,” she agreed. After a few minutes of preparation, they made their way into the crowd of people, thicker than before. The first thing they bought was ammunition: the standard infantry rounds used by most Clockwork guns and Fara’s guns. They then stopped by a food stall, where they were able to buy a lot of jerky, made from some cattle bug or other but enough to feed three people for a while.
As Fara was giving the bag of jerky to Mori she spoke, “Hey, I’ve been wondering…”
“Hm?”
“Why are you alright with putting yourself into danger for some random kid who tried to mug you?” she asked.
Fara turned and shrugged, “I guess I’m just that good of a person…” she mused. Mori nodded, going with her explanation, “But what about you? Why are you doing this? You don’t know him, nor me, really. Why then?”
Mori glanced around the stall for a moment, “Dunno, really. It just feels… right. No real other reason for it. Well, for you it was because you and your mom helped me a bunch and I like you, so I wanted to help you. Besides, you’re my friend. A friend that trusted me quite easily, but a friend nonetheless,” she said with a good natured chuckle.
Fara rolled her eyes, “I trusted you because my Ma did. Whatever reason she had for trusting you is none of my business. Besides, you seem like a good enough person.”
“Even though I’m a lich.”
“Even though you’re a lich,” Fara repeated, “Anyway, do we need anything else?” she asked. Mori nodded quickly and spoke to the wary merchant in front of them in a hushed tone. The man pointed a bit down the dock and she dragged her along to a ship parked in one of the outcroppings. In front of the plank was an insectoid, a butterfly type, with a forest of antennae sticking out of their head. On their back, two beautiful black and white wings stuck out of their shirt. Fara was never repulsed by insectoids like some, but this was the first one that truly fascinated her.
Mori nodded to the butterfly insectoid, placing a hand on the counter, “Good evening,” she said, “Do you have a queen sized mattress?” she asked simply, “Something comfortable if you have it.”
Like all insectoids, the mattress merchant held up a clawed hand, tracing words in the air that were filled in by mana, [Yes, I can find something like that. 2000 chips for it.]
Mori was about to respond, but Fara stopped her, stepping forward, “Couldn’t you lower it a bit? They are not that hard to transport, are they?” Fara asked rhetorically.
The merchant shook their head, [No, they aren’t, but that’s including the fee to transport it to your skiff. If you want to take it yourself, then I’ll knock it down to 1500.] they wrote, [I’m not one for needless haggling, so take it or leave it.]
Mori nodded, “Alright, I’ll take it,” she said, pulling out some of the larger metal coins and placing them on the table, “I’ll carry it for you.”
The insectoid picked the coins up, counting them before nodding, [Thank you for your business. I’ll have a few of mine take it out of the hold. You take it from there.] They nodded, following the insectoid onto their skiff. Fara assumed the merchant had used their pheromone language to call ahead of their arrival, because a few mattresses were already laid out and ready to be taken by them. After a few minutes of choosing, they chose one and Mori lifted it onto her back and carried it to the Kharon.
She followed Mori into a bedroom, filled with opulence and luxury, and helped her change the mattress and sheets, noticing the lich’s seeming abundant hatred of the previous ones. They placed the mattress onto the frame, Mori being the first one to lie on it, quickly followed by Fara, “Ahh… this is nice…” she said, “When you’re not sleeping, can I use it?”
Fara laughed, “Sure, sure. I don’t mind. I think that’s only fair,” she said, yawning, “Actually, I’m pretty tired right now… I think I’m going to sleep. What are you going to do?” she asked Mori.
“Hmm… maybe some more necromancy and a bit of reading; I found a book on basic mana types I can read while you’re not awake to teach,” she said, “Alright, get some rest. ‘Night.”
Fara smiled, “Good night, Mori,” she said as the lich left the room, leaving Fara to rest.