Reginald Strauss drifted through the void, for the first time in his recent memory he was at peace. As he floated without care his mind lingered on sights; strange images that he dreamed of with his eyes open.

A picture of a corpse lying on the ground cradled pointlessly by those it left behind; an image of a metal creature impaled by a tree of bone; a mosaic of a hundred metal jellyfish lying dead on the ground; a diagram of a massive portal opening sending through waves after wave of metallic invaders.

Suddenly his vision shifted focusing on five locations; and a spike of fear broke through his apathy shattering the peace of the void. Something about them gave him a wordless fear that even in his thoughts he couldn’t enunciate.

A golden temple dedicated to an unending number of forgotten gods, dying and being reborn with different faces and histories built upon the blood and bones of their previous incarnations.

A dusty blue library located on a spiral staircase stretching upwards to some zenith of knowledge unknowable; the books becoming more esoteric and arcane as it ascended.

Two pyramids touching at the capstone; acting as black and white reflections of each other, they held hundreds of unburied corpses waited for final rites.

A city of bloody vermillion skyscrapers that bent and twisted irregularly as dozens of faceless uniforms went about their daily business only to cower and hide as the city periodically plunged into darkness.

A small wooden cabin sat in the middle of a snowy forest___

A sudden sense of desperation caused him to instinctively jerk his sight away from the locations and a slew of frozen visions flashed in front of his eyes.

A goofy-looking pear shaped alien sitting in a cell playing a harmonica.

A bestial skull observing him hungrily.

A single great tree that suborned weaker foliage beneath its roots.

A tome surrounded by a frozen flame that crackled malevolently.

An invisible beast of monstrous side lurking within a droplet of water.

A set of human-like teeth that sat perfectly within a pair of azure gums. The teeth resolved into a smile and he suddenly felt an inquiring gaze fall upon himself in turn before the connection was severed completely.

xxx

Warden shot up from his sleep before a massive headache caused him to almost blackout again. Wincing in silent agony he slowly slinked back down into what he recognized as a fur carpet trying desperately to retain the visions slipping from his mind; this was a lot harder than normal for him. The world was too bright and loud, even though his closed eyes and the sound of approaching footsteps caused a thundering pulse within the confines of his mind. The footsteps stopped as the person knelt down next to him and placed his hand behind his back gently lifting him up before he felt a bottle brush against his lips.

“Drink,” Surge commanded his quiet sounding thunderous in Warden’s ears. Still he wasn’t going to argue with his doctor and so he opened his mouth and felt a trickle of immensely salty water flow in his mouth and down his throat. He felt the pain spike before it swiftly started to ebb while the brightness of the world simultaneously dimmed. However the bottle didn’t lower and he found himself forced to drink the liquid until all of the fluid was gone and only then was he set down.

“What’s the prognosis?” he asked trying to force down his sense of uneasiness. He had never been a fan of hospitals at the best time and the fact that he had ended up in much needed care twice in the last few days after narrowly escaping his own death put him in a somewhat skittish mood. Right now he just wanted to find someplace quiet and comfy and sleep until he was no longer tired anymore.

“A bunch of news some good and bad,” Surge started before the sound of a door burst open and he flinched at the noise.

“Sir, are you okay?” he flinched as Wendy’s voice drilled into his head only for the pain to fade quickly.

“He’ll be okay,” Surge stated. “Now I must ask you to keep your voice down. He’s slightly sensitive. Can you open your eyes up quickly?”

“I’ll try,” Warden stated before he slowly lifted his eyelids to see a stone room reminiscent of the Eazel architecture. Surge was kneeling next to him and behind him Wendy who was shooting the surgeon a murderous glance. The world seemed a bit brighter today or maybe a bit clearer. Either way he wasn’t prepared for Surge suddenly shining a light in his eyes.

“Yes, keep them open,” the Necromancer stated as he blinked at the small green torch in his hand. “Yes you are completely recovered, but I’m afraid as your doctor I’m going to have place a moratorium on any usage of Psionics in the near future.”

“Psionics,” Warden stated slowly. “Wait I was smoking the enhancers and__” he paused. “I remember something.”

“You overdosed on the Enhancers pushing your abilities far past your current limits,” Surge stated eliciting a growl from Wendy.

“Maybe you shouldn’t give him something that dangerous,” Wendy snarled. “You very nearly killed him, for a moment you weren’t breathing, Sir,” she said quieter with a note of panic in her voice.

“Its fine__” Warden started.

“Not nearly,” Surge interrupted drawing attention to him again as he pulled out a pair of packet of gum. “About three hours ago you were fully dead. You had no brain activity and your heart had stopped beating. You were effectively a corpse for four minutes.” He handed the gum to Warden which he took mechanically.

“Aah,” Warden said slowly putting the pieces together. “Am I a zombie now? That’s what Necromancers do.” He bit into the gum and was surprised to taste something very much like chocolate. It had an unusually smooth taste.

“Another three minutes and you would have been,” Surge stated calmly. “Within seven minutes I can resurrect you but after that it will not be you who comes back. Eat your gum; it will help rebuild the damage done to your body.” He had barely finished his sentence before a punch from the fuming Wendy lashed out and landed on his cheek with a sickening crunch leaving a jaw badly broken and hanging open.

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“Your incompetence actually did kill him,” Wendy stated grabbing him with her other hand and looming over him. “Let’s see how you__”

“Wendy!” Warden yelled. “Just relax. I’ve just gotten out of bed and I really don’t want to deal with this.” His bodyguard physically trembled at that command and for a moment he saw a strange undercurrent of emotion run all over her face before it ended and she released the necromancer setting him down and walking to the wall before standing there silently.

“I agree with that assessment,” Surge stated having reset his jaw while being held. “I agree that it was my mistake not to restrict the dosage and it was an awful one. I should have warned you not to take too many but in my defence it is rather unusual for somebody to manifest that particular Trick.”

“A what?” Warden asked.

“A Trick is a discrete manifestation of burgeoning Psionic powers,” Surge stated almost like a lecturer. “Think of it as a specific power you get when you start using your Psionics. Ninety percent of the time it will either be telepathy or telekinesis. On rarer occasions it may be something like expelling Psionic energy or creating Psionic constructs. In even rarer case they get something like precognition or teleportation.”

“I’m guessing rare isn’t good in this case,” Warden stated.

“I hope you aren’t using your precognition again,” Surge said with a grin before he dropped it. “Yeah, if a Trick is rare then it generally means that there weren’t a lot of people who passed it down. It’s no coincidence that those who turn their Psionics towards becoming powerful seers have a higher than normal chance of going insane or burning out their brains. Precognition coupled with Psionic Enhancers knocked you right the fuck out.”

“I don’t feel any worse for wear though,” Warden stated. “You’ve fixed your mistake quite admirably.” He paused for a moment. “In the interests of being totally honest I think I was aware in some manner just how bad I was doing; I just pushed myself trying to take down the robot.” He paused in thought. “What happened to the robot, did you get him?”

“Undo and I beat him down…” Wendy started before turning towards the Necromancer. “Surge finished him off.”

“It would have died soon,” Surge confirmed. “I just had no time to spare at that particular moment. Regardless it’s always good to kill Anachrobots as soon as possible in the first place. Their very presence is a ticking-time bomb, and speaking of ticking time bombs we need to get back to Coldreach.”

“Why, what happened,” Warden said immediately alert. Just thinking back on Coldreach gave him the feeling that he had forgot something very important.

“Is Coldreach under attack?” she asked gravely.

“In a way,” Surge explained. “What do you know about a Kingdom of the Dead?”

“I’ve never heard of one,” Wendy stated. “Sorry, I know I’m being a bitch but can you get to the point.”

“That goes double for me,” Warden stated. “I know nothing about it and I’m so done with today. How urgent is it.”

“Deliberately creating a Kingdom of the Dead is a crime which can lead to an entire world being destroyed in response by the Necromancers,” Surge stated calmly despite the horror behind his words. “Creating one or being involved in the creation of one is the one act that elicits no mercy from our race and always results in the death of the creator.”

“How do you create one then?” Warden asked, an almost morbid fascination driving him forward.

“I don’t know and even if I did I would probably not be allowed to tell,” Surge stated. “Needless to say the creation of it involves a lot of suffering and death. You cannot create one without being an absolute piece of shit.”

“And there’s one in Coldreach,” Warden stated placing his hands on the ground and trying to get up. Wendy stepped forward trying to help him but his body felt surprisingly light and vigorous. He stood up only now realising that his twisted ankle was as good as new as if it had never been injured. “How do we resolve it?” Warden asked. “How much time do we have to resolve it?”

“Ideal prize would be to contact my species and get them to come and do the job,” Surge started.

“But they might decide to just blow up Coldreach,” Wendy rebutted. “Or they might think that the Boss or I had something to do with it and execute us.”

“The point is moot considering the fact that I can’t contact them,” Surge stated. “Long-ranged communications from Coldreach is offline and it’s an absolute nightmare to try and get a call to Kur at the best of times.”

“Kur is your homeworld?” Wendy asked suddenly.

“The word that you just used is what Choir is translating as the name of the place where the vast majority of Necromancers live,” Surge replied. “It isn’t really a world and it doesn’t really exist in normal three-dimensional space; hence it’s an absolute nightmare to contact.”

“Timeframe,” Warden gently reminded him. He felt odd as if he was tired but his mind was clearer than it had ever been; could this have been a side effect of the treatment

“No specific timeframe,” Surge admitted. “The Kingdom hasn’t solidified yet and it’s in a state of flux so none of the really strong Undead have coagulated. It could take days or years but until it solidifies its expansion will be slow.”

“Great,” Warden said. “Wendy, how are the Solar-Sail Convertors looking.”

“I gave all of the parts from the Anachrobot back to Biffteer,” Wendy said. “He has given me one so far and he says that he should have the next two by tomorrow. He’s working out of a neighbour’s shop at the moment.”

“Good, we can take back the one for the moment and get that and the other one installed,” Warden said. “One of you can pop back tomorrow to pick it up. Right now I need to have a quick chat with Choir and collapse into a bed.”

“That might be a good idea,” Surge stated. “I can move my mattress from my ship and get it decontaminated if you want.”

“Thanks for the offer but I would rather you focus on the installation of the Solar-Sail Convertors,” Warden prioritised. “Wendy how tired are you?”

“I’m wide awake, Sir,” she said immediately with her trademark eagerness.

“See if Choir knows anyplace where with an abundance of game,” Warden stated. “You’re fast and strong enough that you might be able to hunt down some meat and solve our food problem.”

“Yes, Sir,” Wendy saluted. “You can count on me.”

“I know I can,” Warden stated. “Do you know if we got the bounty for the Anachrobot?”

Bounty for Anachrobot claimed. 3 Hearts-50 Scales deposited into current account.

“Never mind I’ve got it,” Warden said. “Choir open up a gate, Wendy bring the convertor. I’ve got nothing for you Surge.” A familiar blue door appeared in front of the trio giving him a sense of relief.

“Leaving so soon,” a familiar voice announced the arrival of Undo; putting Warden in the awkward position of getting caught while leaving and not having even said goodbye. Man how his parents would scold him for committing that faux pas. The blue copy of him stood casually mimicking even his unconscious actions with a disconcerting accuracy.

“We have an emergency back home,” Warden only semi-lied as Undo examined the blue N-Door.

“And I thought that you required the convertors for a ship, to get home. It turns out that you’re probably from a pretty advanced race if you can create one of that,” Undo said whistling.

“He is,” Warden said pointing towards Surge before he looked towards Wendy who gave him a firm shake of the head. “We’re not.”

“That sounds like an interesting story. Well then if you ever come to Alphaspire then feel free to look me up,” Undo said. “I owe you one after all. I’ll let you get back to your nap.” Those words preceded him shifting into an amorphous wave of blue gel and sliding out of the room closing the steel door behind him as he left.

“Thank you,” Warden said a second too late after the door had closed filling him with embarrassment. “You sure you haven’t messed up something in my brain when you were putting it back together,” he joked to Surge receiving a judging look from the Necromancer.

“On the contrary the amount of neurons in your brain has increased by fifteen percent as a result of my ministrations,” Surge replied. “It’s not my fault you started at such a low origin point.”

What could have been a laugh or cough came from Wendy and Warden smiled in response before he stepped through the door. He would interrogate Surge later about the neurons. Right now he needed rest.