“We don’t know,” Abaris answers me, a mild sense of worry in his voice.

I sigh. “When did she leave?”

“Two days ago,” replies Pearl.

Two days.

I was unconscious for five days.

Three.

Oh.

(Yeah, I think you know what happened,) my Assistant says.

“Alright, stay here. I’m going to go get her.”

I reach out to the wraiths I’d been controlling before... everything happened here and find that I’ve got approximately three thousand of them drifting confusedly in a large area a short distance away from the town.

Well, that at least answers another question... if I lose consciousness while they’re performing my instructions, they just get confused.

(Or is it that they were doing things that used your will secondhand, and when your will wasn’t available it broke their instructions?) Nyx asks.

Which is a very good point, a very good point indeed.

…

You seem to have a handle on this already, yeah?

(Of course, I do, it’s less structured but otherwise this isn’t much different from runic instructions used in automation. I’ve literally done this for over half a millennium.)

Huh.

I’m going to make use of that in the future.

With the background soundtrack of Nyx sighing, I reach out through my swarm and offer them a much simpler instruction – scatter, find my death knight, report through our bond, and wait for further instructions.

And execute!

…

…

This is taking a while.

…

At least I haven’t passed out, I guess.

***

After two hours of waiting without results, complete with verifying that my swarm was indeed on the move and searching, I have another idea. And this time, I’m going to significantly limit it – the last thing I need right now is another long nap.

At random, I choose half a dozen individuals from the swarm, and offer them a new set of instructions. They’re mostly unchanged, although I do add in an extra step: use my will to reprogram any other wraiths within range to search for my death knight in the same way as the ones I’ve already had searching. I deliberately exclude any instructions to call first, as well as making sure the new programming they’ll retransmit doesn’t add any more will burden.

We’ll see if that’s enough... actually, let’s just do that with one first, instead of half a dozen.

I set my newly programmed spawn loose, and it immediately goes about its business. I feel the pull on my mind instantly, almost like a tickle in the back of my consciousness.

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Yeah, that should be doable then.

I reprogram and start two more in the same way, and after a few moments I can confirm that it appears the draw on my will is at least linear... as long as I’m not trying to spread my will among thousands and thousands of them at the same time, it should be fine.

(Yeah, you’re definitely going to take the risk.)

Ignoring Nyx’s most recent completely unnecessary commentary, I select a larger block of the swarm so that the group of transmitters numbers an even one hundred. Why one hundred? Well, no reason, really. And I set them loose.

The burden on my mind immediately heightens, enough that I feel like I’m focusing on a task despite not actually doing anything.

This will be fine. I sit down on one of the unoccupied chairs and only then notice that the rest of my party has resumed their conversation, apparently about the new growth outside and how quickly it seems to be progressing.

But I don’t have much attention to dedicate to that at the moment.

And so of course, Abaris attempts to include me.

“What do you think, Nemesis?”

I silently shrug.

Omorth tilts his head. “Nothing at all.”

“Busy,” I mutter. “Find wife.”

Speaking while focusing on these many things is very difficult, much more difficult than I’d expected, but I’m not about to stop now.

The three offer each other a glance before resuming their conversations among themselves.

***

Another four hours have passed with no sign of any of my spawn reporting having seen her.

…

…

I finally retract my will from the ones I’ve set to reprogram the others. This isn’t getting anywhere.

(Well, I have an idea,) my Assistant offers.

Yeah? Anything’s better than the complete lack of results I’ve had so far, let me have it.

(First, I think I know why they haven’t found her.)

…

Alright. Why?

She responds simply by pulling up a Skill from my Status.

[Stealth 8]

Oh.

(Yeah. They’re pretty dumb, they’re not hard to hide from. Izahne’s Stealth is higher level than yours too, by a significant margin.)

That makes sense, so my spawn couldn’t find her because for some reason she’s hiding.

(So, here’s my actual idea. You have an active Blood Pact with her, and you’ve commented before that you can vaguely tell where she is from it. Right?)

I stand dumbfounded. She’s absolutely right.

Why didn’t I think of that?

(Probably because you’re still an idiot, despite all that new knowledge and whatever else rattling around your empty head,) she snaps.

Because of course she does. At least I have regular reminders that she’s at best compelled to help while remaining a complete and total bitch.

(Asshole.)

A total bitch who has good ideas, which I’m going to exploit now.

I press my will against the bond I share with my death knight and notice an odd silence instead of her usual slurry of emotions. Instead of asking Nyx something else she’ll find a way to mock me for, I just focus on the feeling of where exactly she is and find at least her general direction almost immediately.

Dematerializing into my usual ash cloud self, comfortable but much denser than I was in the past, I take off at high speed, quickly enough that the surrounding terrain passes in a blur.

Speaking of blurs... when I feel myself getting close enough to Izahne, a blurred form charges me with a feral leap, covering what must be at least a quarter mile in one go.

And passes right through me. Having an immaterial form is convenient sometimes!

Not convenient for her though, since it’s definitely Izahne and she’s definitely lost control. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that she couldn’t bring herself to feed on our other party members or even me while I was asleep.

I sigh as she continues to leap through me, desperately attempting to gain any sort of purchase. I’m going to have to work harder on teaching her what it means to be a monster. Maybe hunting criminals or something will help.

Lashing out with a multitude of feelers I catch and pin her in the air, spreading her limbs in every direction while she struggles and strains in vain, continuously snapping her jaws in the air.

Huh. Can’t say I’m entirely sure what to do with her now... but I can at least try a few things, I guess. First, since it works for waking people up...

My Will Surge presses against her, both from my presence and through our bond. I start gently and then press harder and harder until I feel her begin to give, eventually leading her to stop squirming entirely and stare blankly at me with heavy lidded eyes.

“Are you awake?” I ask, and she doesn’t answer, simply returning one heavy blink.

That’s fine, I can work with this.

I drift closer and materialize my left forearm, pressing it across her mouth as before so it lines up with her teeth, and use a pair of feelers to make her bite down.

The mana drain hits me immediately, not heavy enough to be worrisome but plenty to make it clear that she’s not in control of the Skill. A few moments later, she simply goes limp as our bond lightly emits a feeling of relief.

“You’ve worked hard. Rest now. When you wake, I’ll teach you the right way to handle this, because what you’ve done is very much the wrong way.”

And of course, my Assistant just has to interrupt the moment by saying, (She can’t hear you.)

Strategically and not one bit spitefully, I choose to ignore her the rest of the way back to town.