“So how’d you become a member of the Unholy 7 Frau Lange?” Alfso asked innocently.
“Master Vol promoted me.” she said curtly and they continued to walk together in awkward silence.
A few minutes passed before Ribold asked, “So how’d you become a necromancer?”
“Desperation.” she responded as she shifted her little Isidor over a different shoulder and he held onto her. Seeing him up close was only more terrifying. Baby Isidor was obviously a thrall. His skin was a bluish white and his eyes, when he rarely opened them were as completely black as pitch at night.
Chakken asked next, “So did you kill your baby?”
From behind Oskar tackled him with explosive force and pinned him to the ground. By the time he understood what was happening Baby Isidor was crawling on his chest and stared at him eye to pitch black eye.
The infant giggled and opened its mouth and Frau Lange spoke through the infant. Her mouth was moving in sync with the infant’s and a darker mix of her voice spoke through the child, “Would you like me to tear you apart limb from limb?”
Chakken tried to delay the inevitable, “Uh, no. I was just-” his chains snagged the infant's leg and dragged it up into the air and Chakken ruthlessly buried it within a compressed ball of chains that exploded into metal fragments. Isidor smashed through the debris and Chakken tried to swipe it again with another chain. It swung it’s fat little hands and the chain was torn apart from the force with a loud snap. The infant landed back on his chest and began to strangle him.
Ribold reacted first, “Stop it!” Draihan appeared behind him, still an apparently soulless minion and Frau Lange was taken aback. She stepped forward and caressed his emotionless face.
“So it’s true, Draihan. Even you were reduced to this.”
“You knew him?”
“Of course I did. We all know each other. He taught me what I know.”
“Would you let Chakken go please?”
“Oh!” she said as if she hadn’t noticed her infant thrall had just dominated Chakken and was killing him. She looked down at Chakken in disgust, “Don’t ever suggest I don’t love my children again.”
“F-Fine!” Chakken sputtered as Isidor backflipped impossibly high to land back on Frau Lange. She held him to her breast and fed him. Draihan stepped back into his coffin and sank beneath the ground ominously.
“I thought thralls can’t eat or they’ll burst.”
“Because I restored enough of his digestive tract he’ll pass it later. It’s more of a routine for him. It makes him comfortable. Oskar and Isidor have remnants of their former selves within them but they can’t communicate. And now they’ll never age either.”
“I see.” Ribold replied cautiously.
“I heard about Alfso’s Bahamut and just watched Chakken’s chains but you Ribold are a mystery.”
“Why?”
“What’s your specialty?”
“Specialty?”
“Alfso creates hybrids, Chakken makes chains. How about you?”
“Uh, I don’t know.”
“You’re one of the Unholy 7 and you don’t know? You must be joking.”
“Nope.”
“What did Draihan teach you?”
“Responsibility?”
“Responsibility isn’t summoned from the earth in a coffin boy,” she said mimicking Draihan’s crass tone.
“Well I learned to inhabit a fish, and resurrected a chicken and a few small animals.”
“So are you an animal specialist?”
“Not really. I did make Draihan a thrall.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want to let him go.”
Frau Lange smiled at him sadly. “I heard the church attacked you and your mother.”
“I guess that’s why I want to be a great necromancer. So I can defend myself and if necessary bring my mother back from the dead.”
Frau Lange eyed him doubtfully and changed the subject, “Maybe we’re alike then Ribold. I became a necromancer to get my children back after they died.”
Ribold looked at her pantomiming breastfeeding Isidor and Oskar gently clinging to her skirt as they walked. “Yeah I get it. For us at least, necromancy is love.”
“Still you have to get better Ribold. Draihan if used correctly can dramatically expand your battle potential. But only if you use him right. An undead chicken and a fish isn’t going to hold off a priest with a flaming sword.”
“I know. Della Rovere is after me, the Pope too. So I guess I have to be the greatest necromancer ever.”
“You want to surpass Vol?” she said with a hint of incredulousness.
“If he can beat Della Rovere and the Pope then yeah. I want to be at least as good as Master Vol.”
“Well for one thing you know Vol can summon countless undead. What’s your limit?”
“My limit?”
“How many can you summon at a time?”
“I don’t know. As many as I have I guess.”
They came upon a field of crows and Frau Lange smiled.
“Well you do have a chicken. So perhaps avians are ok. How would you like to test your limit?”
“Ok I guess why?”
“You’re going to try ressurecting a murder of crows.”
“I thought about it but I lost my net and can never get close.”
“The thing about necromancers Ribold is that we are never alone. We’ll help you,” she said and quietly she whispered to Oskar and Isidor. Oskar wandered off and a loud snap echoed in the forest. He returned with a massive branch that appeared to be the size of a small tree. Its broken end was strips of torn wood. As for Isidor he turned and sat on her shoulder like a monkey ready to pounce.
“Oskar, Isidor, go play.”
The two boys rushed into the field. Isidor launched off of Frau Lange with enough force to cause her to grunt in pain and visibly recoil from the pressure. Her shoulder was bruised and the infant thrall landed in the middle of the pack on top of two crows, their necks already snapped. Isidor then bounced around snapping necks in his tiny little fingers before most could get off the ground. As they began to fly he leapt into the air and used two as platforms to kick higher into the air sending them spiraling into the ground. He grasped a third’s neck and flung it at the fourth which spiraled into the fifth hard enough to cause it to fall to the ground. As it tried to take off again Isidor was already in front of it and stomped it’s skull into the mud killing it instantly. A loud crash and a series of frantic cries echoed out as Oscar used the branch as a fly swatter to annihilate the second murder.
“Well Ribold, show us what you have.” Frau Lange gestured encouragingly at the carnage before him. Ribold ran over to Isidor first and Isidor just stared at him with his void eyes and mimicked a smile. Ribold began to quickly resurrect one crow after another. Isidor had broken them carefully and Ribold had little difficulty restoring them completely. Frau Lange watched in awe as Ribold finished resurrecting Isidor’s batch.
Alfso raised a hand and looked up to her, “Frau Lange? Would it be ok for me to take samples? I might be able to make a crow chimera someday.”
“I don’t see why not Alfso.”
“Thanks! Hey Ribold! Save some for me!” Alfso shouted as he ran off.
Sitting a comfortable distance away from Frau Lange, Chakken muttered to himself, “They’re both crazy.”
“Says the boy who wears chains everywhere.” Frau Lange retorted as Alfso plucked the feathers from a crow.
“Bondage builds character. That’s what my master used to say.”
“You were a slave?”
“Born into it.”
“Shouldn’t you… Enjoy your freedom more? If I were you I’d never want to see a chain again.” she said sympathetically.
“That’s why you’re wrong. The chains make me feel loved and safe.”
“What about your mother?”
“I didn’t know her but Viti said she was strangled to death by a customer a few weeks after I was born. She died in service making others happy. It was a good way to die.”
Stolen story; please report.
“How, how could you say that?” Frau Lange asked in shock.
“We are all bound to something. I’m bound to my chains and follow Ribold and Chakken in part because they killed the masters I served.”
“For revenge?” she asked, her voice rising with her concern.
“No, they killed my masters and so that makes them my new masters. I have to please them. Otherwise my life holds no value...”
“But you could at least try to be free,” Frau Lange said. “You might just like it.”
“I tried it at Vol’s insistence for a few hours and it’s terrifying. How do you decide what to do? How do you know what’s right or wrong? How do you deal with the crippling loneliness and isolation? No you keep your ideals of freedom and I’ll keep these chains. Besides you’re just a slave too.”
“What makes you say that?”
“You’re bound to those children. You wouldn’t discard them because they’re too important to you. These chains are the same.,” Chakken said, grasping his chains like a child with a warm blanket.
“I’ll never abandon my children.” she said with absolute conviction.
Chakken smiled at his victory. “Tell you what Frau Lange... I’ll think about discarding these chains as soon as you discard those children”
Frau Lange considered what he said for a moment as her boys ran about playing in the field while Ribold resurrected the last few crows. “But you're not alone. Ribold and Alfso are your friends not masters. And I’m here too,” she hugged him and he shuddered in fear. Human touch was a terrifying unknown. His master’s fist was all he knew and he cowered. Behind him Isidor was flying in to take his head off. Frau Lange looked Isidor in the eyes and raised her hand, “It’s ok. It’s alright. We’re all ok now.”
The wind of Isidor’s incoming midair haymaker that would have surely decapitated him blew gently in his hair and Chakken turned to see nothing. Isidor stood angry and jealous behind him, prepared to tear out Chakken’s spine at a moment’s notice.
“Lady Lange! Something’s wrong!” Ribold called out.
Frau Lange stood up and dusted herself off. She held out her hand and Isidor crawled up her arm and sat on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” she called out.
“I resurrected 15 crows but now it’s getting much harder to breathe!”
“Stop there for today and leave the rest to Alfso! Don’t take any new crows for now.”
“Ok. But I don’t have any small coffins for them.”
“You don’t need them.”
“But why not?”
“Give me your hand.”
“Ok.” Ribold said and let her take his hand. From her black frilly laced sleeve an undead mouse raced out and sat in his hand. Ribold instinctively recoiled but Frau Lange’s grasp was far stronger than he’d realized and the mouse rested in his hand, its whiskers tickling him.
“How’d you do that?”
“For larger summons you do need a coffin or similar object but for little ones you can bring them out of your garments. It’s why so many necromancers wear large loose clothes.”
“But I thought they only come from the ground.”
“That’s just the basics you were taught. Underground there are no eyes to witness the void of death that the coffins are summoned from. You can do the same anywhere no eye can see, like your sleeves.”
“Ok let me try-”
“You are already exhausted so not today. We’ll try again tomorrow.”
“Fine,” Ribold said reluctantly. He was excited to try and control a murder of crows at the same time. It was way different than one angry man and a small group of critters. Ribold never had to think beyond two dimensions for fighting but the crows would be extremely useful.
***
In the distance Junior Prioress Mary Ward and Prioress Sofia Bolotova watched them very carefully.
“The Holy Mother mentioned two members of the Unholy 7. There’s three now!” Mary said with a mixture of excitement and fear.
“Frau Lange is more than a match for both of us. We mustn’t be discovered. If something happens you must go and report to the Holy Mother immediately. Until then we just watch.”
***
Mary and Sofia were disguised as travelers and had followed the group of the Unholy 7 for days. It seemed they were trying to reunite with Ruprecht the Plague, going from plague ridden town to plague ridden town. And four of the Unholy 7 uniting could only mean trouble.
“It’s been awhile since we’ve seen them,” Mary remarked.
“We must be careful, alerting them would only cause them to change their plan. We know they’re going to Calw to investigate the plague so we can afford to stay back.”
“The fog’s rolling in,” Mary said nervously.
“And so it is.” Sofia replied dryly.
Staring at the wave of fog rolling in Mary asked“What would we do if they were waiting for us in there?”
“Die I’d imagine. I could take one, maybe two of the boys but Frau Lange wasn’t promoted recently. She’s been Unholy 7 for years and we still don’t fully understand her methods of necromancy. We’ve only heard she keeps her children into battle and tears her opponents apart.” Sofia said grimly.
“She brings her children into battle? What kind of mother would expose her children to that kind of violence?”
“Perhaps the same kind of mother that sends little girls to die at Eriam’s hideout.”
Mary overlooked Sofia’s heresy, she wasn’t from the western church and wasn’t obligated to be loyal but still that stung. And Mary’s fear only increased. Her battle with Eriam was desperate and the idea of fighting the evil version of Abbess Faustina with two more Eriams was more than she could bear.
A scream echoed out ahead, it sounded like a young woman. Sofia stopped to consider while Mary drew her misericorde and ran ahead disappearing into the fog.
Mary followed the echoing screams and rounded a corner to see an armored girl desperately fighting skeletons. Mary threw herself at the first one and stabbed it with the misericorde. The skeleton erupted into flames and fell apart.
“Help me!” Fabienne shouted.
Mary cut down skeleton after skeleton with ease. As the last one burned Fabienne stepped forward. “Thank you so,so,so, so much Holy Sister!”
Mary wasn’t used to being the hero, “Well it’s nothing really. We should always help each other.”
“No, after I escaped the plague at Calw I got attacked by these skeletons! It was so awful. You’re my hero! Thank you so much!”
Mary wasn’t sure what to do and thought back on her time feeding the poor, “Well God bless you. Speaking of which you said you were from Calw?”
“Yes. They say a plaguemaster is killing everyone! My parents were ill and sent me away!”
“We’re going there. We’ll put a stop to it.”
“Indeed we will Mary,” Sofia said with her mortar and pestle drawn.
“Oh you’re not alone after all?” Fabienne said disappointed.
“Get away from her Mary.”
“What? Why? She was being attacked.”
“She’s wearing armor and doesn’t have a scratch on her.”
“What-” Mary said as Fabienne sucker punched her. Mary went sprawling into the gravel as Sofia stepped between them.
“How’d you know I was lying?”
Completely unblinking at the threat before them Sofia replied, “The armor, the lack of damage, the ease of which Mary dispatched the skeletons, and the fact that you said you were from Calw. It’s a German town and you’re speaking with a French accent.”
Fabienne dove behind the tree behind her and came out of a roll with her coffin shield leveled at Sofia while the mortar sailed by shattering a boulder just behind where Fabienne had just stood.
Fabienne smiled psychotically, “The Unholy 7 asked me to distract you but… Well, I could always just kill you! You can be distracted in hell!” Fabienne charged at Sofia and drew a shortsword from her shield. Sofia tossed the mortar into the air and as it fell behind Fabienne it halted midair and Sofia threw her pestle at it. Fabienne raised her shield and was blown backwards with explosive force. Fabienne tried to redirect the pestle but ultimately deflected her out of the pestle’s path with her narrowly avoiding being crushed. The pestle struck the mortar with a loud clack! Furthermore Sofia withdrew the pestle psychically and began a barrage of strikes as the pestle floated from angle to angle before colliding with the mortar.
In the brief time she could recover Fabienne angled her coffin shield 45 degrees higher than Sofia and from the surface poured dozens of skeletons. They were in good condition and well armed. Sofia was beset upon by six and counting armored skeletal soldiers. Without much by way of close range weapons available Mary was forced to ignore Fabienne and save her superior. Mary drew her misericorde and ignited it with a flick of her wrist. She plunged it into the back of one skeleton that burst into flaming ashes dropping it’s gear. It’s chainmail cuirass had a white hot hole consisting of molten iron droplets surrounding the wound. Mary slashed down two more as Sofia recalled both the mortar and pestle. Sofia took a few minor injuries but was completely outraged. Sofia slammed the mortar into the skull of the nearest enemy, reducing its head into a powdery cloud.
Fabienne smiled and continued launching skeletal minions at the two sisters but it was losing its effectiveness. Sofia could no longer reliably strike at Fabienne but at the same time now prepared none of the thralls could get through her mortar and pestle defences.
“To hell with it,” Mary said to no one in particular and reached for a hidden clasp underneath her habit’s wimple and yanked hard. Mary’s habit fell to the ground with a loud clang revealing an all black unitard underneath. Sofia scoffed but Mary was now thirty pounds lighter than before. Fabienne cocked her head in confusion before raising her shield again. Mary stepped forward with a burst of blinding speed, sprinting under Fabienne’s airborne thralls and drove the misericorde two handedly at Fabienne who had little choice but to block. The misericorde ran through a skeleton emerging from Fabienne’s portal and the shield bubbled over with the skeleton’s ashes.
Mary’s misericorde struck rapidly and from multiple angles and Fabienne had difficulty keeping up. Mary hammered on the shield and aimed for any gap Fabienne presented. Enraged, Fabienne pushed herself shield first against Mary pushing her back far enough for Fabienne to gain some precious distance.
“Not bad but you’re as good as dead!” Fabienne said frustrated, “Renee!” she shouted desperately and Fabienne stepped into her own shield now suspended from the point she said the magic words. Fabienne stepped through the shield but came out the other side with no resistance..
“What did you do?” Mary asked but received no response.
This new “Fabienne” raised her sword and struck down. Mary tried to block and was nearly cleaved in half from the sheer force of the impact brushing aside Mary’s fiery dagger and cutting deep into her collarbone.
“Mary!” Sofia shouted as she threw her mortar past her and sent the pestle sailing. Their opponent caught it with her bare hands. Sofia looked on in shock as her projectile was tossed aside. Sofia leapt forward and swung her mortar down and was swatted aside and landed in a heap. Mary lost most of her movement in her left arm and grasped the misericorde in her right now blazing even hotter than before.
Mary leapt back into action with wild one armed swings leaving a trail of embers and roared. Still being blocked blow for blow Mary leapt upon the shield itself, hanging on with one leg looped around the coffin and swung at her enemy’s face. From the shield came a sword that stabbed Mary in her gut. Mary fell from the top of the shield and cried out. As Sofia struggled to stand she saw a hand grasp “Fabienne” and pull her inside the shield. Stepping back out Fabienne exhaled, “Wow! Wasn’t that exciting?! It’s not often I have to call on Renee!” Mary twitched and raised her now extinguished misericorde and Fabienne kicked it from her grasp. The dagger spun through the air and landed the hollow of a tree.
“Nuh uh! Not again! You need to calm down girl!” Fabienne kicked Mary in her wounded stomach and a winded Mary let out a gasping scream. Fabienne launched more skeletons to attack Sofia and leaned down face to face with a muddy defeated Mary. Fabienne drew her shortsword again and placed it on Mary’s wounded shoulder. This time Fabienne said menacingly, “Thank your god Fabienne of the Dual was only hired to play with you,” and pushed Mary back into the mud. With a snap of Fabienne’s fingers the skeletons ceased their attacks and crumbled into dust. Sofia looked on with horror as Fabienne sheathed her sword. “I’m almost done with her now.” Fabienne said with a sadistic smile.
“Stop!” Sofia said desperately.
Fabienne looked at her with a pitiable look as one skeleton that had apparently not been dismissed struck her from behind with a massive club. Fabienne and her remaining skeletal thrall dragged both of them to a nearby ravine. Katharsis’s raven descended nearby and landed on the anchor of a small suspension bridge that crossed the ravine.
“I did as you asked, master. In spite of my better judgement they’re both alive.” The half dead raven made a spitting gesture. Fabienne retorted in anger, “Well then, maybe I should’ve bashed both their brains out after all! How about that then!?” The raven looked down the ravine and squawked. “Really? Della Rovere’s here already?” The raven shook itself violently and continued squawking. “Fine fine, don’t say a word boss.” Fabienne grabbed Sofia by her hair and rolled her over the ravine. “Just let me do the hard part boss.” She grabbed Mary by her shin as she started to become conscious again.
Mary opened her eyes. She said weakly, “What are you doing to us? Stop it.”
Fabienne took no notice and said, “Whatever you say boss.”
Mary felt the world shift and repeated strikes of pain. When she opened her eyes Fabienne was staring down at her from high above with the silhouette of a raven on her shoulder.
A man cried out, “Good God!” and rushed over. As Mary drifted unconscious she sensed herself swaddled in a cloud of scarlet.