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My latest recruit found herself in a realm of utter darkness. She swung her axe – it had been dropped back in the second-floor veranda, but her mental self-image was tied to a fluted steel axe. There was nothing to hit; a futile gesture. As soon as the shadows had taken her, her fate was sealed.
“Helgetha, was it?” I chuckled, my voice emanating out from the ether. “Of Fireforge? Some new settlement from beyond the valley?”
“Aye, undead fiend. This valley has been taken in righteous conquest by the steel-smiths of Fireforge.”
This was the first concrete word on the outside world since I first entered the barrow some untold years ago, now.
“We have come to slay you, foul beast!” The warrioress swung her axe once more.
“I’m sure.”
“Know that you meet your end by Helgetha, daughter of War-chief Turin, wife by conquest-treaty to Novak of Starfall. Mother to warband leaders Gothelred and Tetheled. Face me, evil spirit, and meet your doom.”
“Hmmm. Wife of the Starfall chief, eh? You know, I once came from Starfall. Long, long ago.”
The warrioress spat into the void.
“Yes, it is the vassal’s legends that drew us here, beast. Fight me, monster.”
“Oh, you’re not in a position to fight anyone right now,” I said.
“It is but a matter of time before my comrades rescue me from this strange prison.”
I cracked a smile, as much as I could in my desiccated form. “Tell me, how long do you think you’ve been trapped in here?”
Outside the cocoon, scarcely more than an hour had passed. But I had total control over the pocket realm within the chrysalid. A year or so had passed, by Helgetha’s measure.”
“Your allies told me a great deal about Fireforge and modern Starfall,” I say. “They lasted no more than a couple of days. You’re quite strong-willed.”
Helgetha grimaced. She held her axe aloft, waiting to hit anyone or anything that approached her. But it was just her in a void of darkness as far as the eye could see.
“Surely you’ve felt it by now,” I said. “That corrupting miasma? I’ll stop by again in a few months or so. See how you’re holding up.”
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I let the pocket realm advance another month or so. It was purely an illusion of time passing. The cocoon itself remained deathly still. Satisfied that I’d made my point, I peered back into this domain.
“Honorless fiend! Face me.”
I apparated my shade directly in front of Helgetha. She swung her axe, but it phased right through.
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I moved the apparition back a few dozen paces. The warrioress took off after me, axe drawn. Only, no amount of movement changed her position in this endless plain. From her point of view, she would chase after me indefinitely, always appearing as if I was just out of reach.
I left my shade there for a bit to lurch around my chamber, did a little bit of maintenance on the upper two floors to get them back into shape for any future visitors. When I next checked in, some untold weeks had passed from the viewpoint of my latest guest. All the while, the threads of fate began to stir, drawing her inexorably into my service. It might not manifest now, but every moment she lay trapped in the chrysalis drew her towards an ultimate fate.
“You’re still chasing me?” I chuckled. “Well, that’s tenacious. No doubt you’ve felt this fell miasma you’ve been breathing in all this time?”
The warrioress panted, hands on her knees. “Bah. Get back here. And fight me. With honor.”
“Oh? We’ve already fought. That’s how you ended up here, my dear. Just go ahead and breathe deeply of this abyssal miasma.”
There was a great deal going on in the background of this chrysalid. Woven fates pending towards a singular purpose, with all threads that didn’t conform to this fate being excised.
“There is no way out of this place for you,” I said. “Not without accepting this changing fate.”
“I won’t…”
“You will, eventually.” My chuckle had a sinister air to it. “I’d offer a knife by which to accept your fate. But you seem to have a blade upon you already.”
Once more, I left this plain and mulled about on my throne. A watch pot never boils. I’d been through this with the two other captured intruders earlier. They’d already succumbed to the miasma, general despair, and the fate-weaving nature of this dark ancient magic by the time I checked in for the first time.
I let an hour or two pass in the desert of the real. Then, I returned to that nightmare realm.
“Oh Helgetha. Are you still with us?”
The warrioress was there, on her knees, trying to hold herself up with her axe. She breathed in great gasps, each inhalation consuming more of the murky miasma that filled this realm.
I popped out again for just a moment. To observe the cocoon from the outside. Then, I returned to check up on its cargo.
“Hello? Are you still there?” I asked, as casually as my grotesque and skeletal appearance would allow.
The warrioress waited before, axe held awkwardly up to her neck. She had a wide, mad smile upon her face. And then…
My connection to the domain faded. I was spat out back on my throne.
The cocoon pulsed, then its greater bulk near the midsection lowered to the ground. The fibrous make of the cocoon retreated back into the shadows.
I’d been playing with powers I hadn’t quite understood. With the previous lich dead before this power could be wielded, it was a gamble as to the end results. But it was a gamble that had paid off.
Helgetha, the warrioress, sat kneeling on the floor before the throne. Her head was down.
“What is your name?” I asked.
“Helgetha, daughter of War-chief Turin, wife by conquest-treaty to Novak of Starfall. Mother to warband leaders Gothelred and Tetheled.” Her head remained bowed.
Her memories were still intact. Good. Better than the average wight.
“And if any of these people were to come to the barrow. What would you do?”
Helgetha’s skin was pallid, but not rotten. She was, for all intents and purposes, still alive. But it was an arrested state of life, unaging. A superior state of frozen in place, technically living, unlike my own skeletal state.
“I would slay them without question, if they were to attack the barrow, and if they could not be subdued for delivery to you.”
“Oh? Even your own family?” I cracked that desiccated smile. “And why is this? What is your purpose?”
Helgetha looked up, revealing a red gleam in her eyes.
“To serve the lich forever,” the fallen warrioress growled.
Her two companions, who’d tried fleeing when it all went south, remained by the door with those same red eyes. They were far more effective than a simple wight. They were capable of thought, still fiercely loyal, and with ageless bodies that would never rot. They could carry on actual conversations, freely providing any information they knew prior to having been claimed. And they could even operate outside the barrow.
“Rise,” I ordered the warrioress.
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And that, my darling, is how I met your mother. But that story is still a few centuries down the line. There’s much yet to discuss in the interim…
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