Chapter 12: The Curse
VI
Howard's father, the twin of his uncle yet far skinnier, entered the panic room to ensure his son was safe and to relay the all clear in person. He gasped and stumbled as he came in. His most trusted guards were laid out on the floor, fast asleep. Howards new friend, a pale dark haired boy whom his family had described as being strange but very knowledgeable, at last night’s dinner, was stretched out on the floor. Osseus lay in a puddle of black blood, which appeared oddly small for the knife that was in his heart. Leviticus Phillips didn’t have time for such details however as his son, Howard, was nowhere to be seen.
How? He thought as he frantically searched the tiny room. There was practically nothing here, only some barrels containing food, water and a few board games. The world swam about him and he collapsed into the arms of a police lieutenant that had followed him in. This doesn't make sense, it doesn’t make any sense!
He had just lost his brother and had spent twenty years coming to terms with the fact that tomorrow would likely be his last day. How could his son have been kidnaped; or worse?
The lieutenant, a man by the name of David (of no relation), was more critical of the scene. He let one of his juniors take the burden he was holding before examining the room. The door had not been forced and there were no other means in or out. He had learned that Howard was the only one inside with a key. The guards were still breathing but after checking the child’s pulse he was sure he was not. The blackness of the blood seemed at first a clue but he knew some people of mixed race didn’t always have the same coloured fluids.
His summary of events ran thus: Howard had quarrelled with this new found friend. Howard’s mother had spoken highly of him but he was still new and it was easy to hide one’s true self for but a day.
The guards would have tried to stop them but they had been discovered asleep roughly in the position they had stood watch. This meant they were knocked out before they could react. Being of a high Level no simple spell would have worked on them. A poison might have, since it worked on a physical level, but there was no way anyone could have administered it without them moving. David would have liked to ask the guards for their input but nothing had been able to wake them. It was likely some artefact Osseus took in here with in; perhaps he had been planning villany for some time? Was the elusive archer some associate of his? Why then did the young Phillips go on the run? David came to the only possible conclusion, the house wasn’t safe and Howard still feared for his life.
The lieutenant chided one of his officers who had picked up a dried fish from a barrel of the same and had started teasing another officer who was scared of them. David made him put it back. No one noticed the eye peering up from the barrel for the brief moment it was visible before The fish covered it once more.
☠
Lying on the ground and pretending to be dead was, of all things, boring. When I had come up with the plan I had been excited to stab myself in the chest; Howard had asked if I couldn’t also hide in one of the barrels. I told him that there wasn't enough room and that if both of us disappeared they might be too suspicious. That was a load of crap, I was just curious to see what would happen if I stabbed myself in my zombie heart. I had discovered I could be rendered unconscious from a strike to the head, could I be knocked from this body with a strike to the heart? It’s something I’d rather discover on my own terms than that of an enemy. Howard asked if I had a spell which would fake the appearance of death, something using death mana? I simply smiled at him before stabbing Hal’s old knife through my heart. I took pleasure in the shocked look on Howard’s face but once he saw that nothing had happened, he relaxed; slapping me on the shoulders for scaring him. I was a mite disappointed, the only result of my injury was a trickle of black blood - with no pumping heart to spray it everywhere. I supposed that this confirmed what is common knowledge, a zombie’s weak spot is their brain.
When Howard's father entered, after we had been hiding and waiting for an hour, I could sense Howard’s uneasiness at his fathers reaction. Even though I couldn’t see Howard I could feel he wanted to jump up and tell him everything was fine. He knew, however, that sticking to the plan was for the best.
The detective narrated his thoughts aloud and when he came to the fact that Howard would have had a key I thought I saw steam rising from the fish barrel, out of the corner of my glassy eyes. He was likely embarrassed as he had forgotten that fact when we devised the plan; it didn’t matter; it could be to our advantage that our foe thought me dead.
I was taken to the house’s hospital wing; another job for the town’s mortician. Thankfully the deceased lord was more of a priority, so I was left alone in the ward. I could only hope that Howard would get a chance to sneak out; then again they could lock him in there after their work, and he could just open the door - he had a key. I felt a little safer in the knowledge that Pugna was watching over him, her vow not to fight might be an issue however.
I lay, unmoving on the bed for several hours, not willing to take any undue risk. Naturally, when the light through the windows was waning and I thought it time to get up, the door to the hospital opened. It was only a small army of maids, they scrubbed and cleaned everything in a matter of seconds, shut the curtains, then moved onto the next room. I had had a cloth sheet draped over my face so I had to assume much of what they were doing.
When they left I was finally able to once more rise from the dead. I scrounged from a cupboard some spare linens, bundled them up, and gave them the rough shape of a body - to stop anyone from noticing my absence. I activated my Life Sense by blurring my eyes and I could see the swarm of staff as they ravaged one room then the next, leaving them in impeccable condition.
Congratulations:
* Life Sense has reached Lv.11
* You have earned 1 SP
There were also guards roaming the halls, which came as no surprise; there had been quite a bit of excitement at the Phillips house today. I considered how to heal the hole in my chest, the last two times I had healed something by using the lifeforce of a living being and the System hadn’t given me a spell for it. I had been keeping notes on what exactly the System would and wouldn’t do and in the back of my mind a theory was slowly forming. It was still a bud however and I had other concerns.
Being in the hospital wing of a wealthy family I was able to find an elixir brimming with life mana, with hints of earth. No doubt made from some very valuable herb. I sliced the lock with Wind Blade and felt my taxed mana system protest. My misfortune was compounded by the fact one of the guards had heard something. Still having my Life Sense active, I was able to see the golden outline of his figure as it stalked toward the door, with its sabre drawn - since the skill had gone past Lv.10 I was able to see things clearer than before and could use a weaker version of my larger life forms sight, whilst seeing normally. I wondered briefly if that advancement had been made because of how I was using the skill, if I had used it more to examine microscopic organisms would it have developed differently?
☠
The wary guard opened the door to the hospital room and looked about. The room was dark but he carried a lantern. He swept it over the beds seeing the corpse of the boy, still under the blankets. A breeze ruffled his hair and he saw what must have caused the sound. The maids had left the window open so he strode to it and shut it with a thump. He thought he heard a muffled scream right after he slammed the window but dismissed it. Must have been the wind, he thought; sheathing his sabre.
☠
Vaulting the window and catching the sill before I fell three stories was only just within the Strength of this Zombie body. I saw the guard walk into the room, see the open window and dismiss the sound, all the while my hands - slick with my own blood - slipped ever further off the ledge. The slamming of the window was the last straw and I tumbled more than twenty feet, letting out an involuntary yelp before I clamped my mouth shut. If this body was in any state to do so, I might have tried to slow my fall with Wind Breath. Sadly, it was not.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it; my fall was arrested by the loving embrace of a rose bush. I was skewered like a porcupine by thorns, but my bones were not broken and neither was the vial of elixir I had swiped. Phillip’s guards patrolled the house but I had a few minutes before they would make it to this side. I scrambled out from the flowers, there was no way I could hide the squashed and broken batch of shrubbery so I had to move quickly.
The strong life mana in the elixir would only harm my body but using the third law of magic, opposites attract, I would be able to make a powerful undead healing spell. Whispering arcane words to focus the first layer, moving my sore hands to make the second, and dancing the correct steps for the third I completed my spell. The Spikes which stuck out of me wiggled their way free, dropping to the soil. The hole in my chest sealed itself up leaving not even a scar. I looked down at my ruined clothes, which had been new only this morning, and sighed.
Congratulations:
* You have learned the Necrotic Healing spell
I padded around the house, sticking to the soft soil of the flower bed and avoiding the crunchy gravel of the path which meandered its way around the garden. I had to wait several times at corners until the patrols continued ahead but before long I made it back to the statue of the wise man. I looked about the area for Howard but seeing no one, I proceeded to open the secret passage.
When the yawning hole into darkness opened I was finally able to see Howard, holding a dying candle and sitting on the floor waiting. He started at the opening but relaxed when he saw it were I. Just then a cry came from the other side of the house where I had squished the roses. Howard ushered me quickly into the tunnel right before it closed of its own accord.
“What took you so long?” he hissed, obviously pissed.
“There was a nurse sitting in the infirmary all day.” I replied, not rising to his level of anger. This seemed to calm him slightly - though not completely.
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“I’ve been waiting here for hours and we might not have much time to save my father.
“How did you get away so quickly?” I asked. Choosing not to embarrass him with the matter of the safe room key. I was surprised he got here so quickly as last I had seen he was in an armoured room surrounded by inspectors.
“Apparently the servants have standing orders to replace the supplies in all of the safe rooms when any of them is used. An unlucky footman was tasked with carrying my barrel to the pantry. The kitchen is on the ground floor and just next to this statue, so, when the staff stopped for their lunch, I snuck out and was here in a matter of moments.” he explained, matter-of-factly. He shrugged off his antsiness as we started on our mission.
Making our way through the passage didn't take much time. The lack of dust or spiderwebs now made more sense. We entered the empty room once more. Just before his candle spluttered out Howard was forced to light another which was sitting in the room. I saw with Life Sense that, as the alarm had been raised outside, most of the guards were now searching the exterior; an unintentional boon. The smashed window had been boarded and the body of Howard’s uncle had been moved. I was grateful for the latter as I remember the effect it had on him the last time we were here.
Technically the master chambers now belonged to Howard's father but given the family was still in mourning, not to mention the state the rooms were in, he remained in his old chambers, just next door.
Using Life Sense I was able to see the older man pacing back and forth in his rooms. Despite the thinning of the guards; two remained, stationed outside the lord’s door. Howard had wanted to tell his father everything but given we were likely dealing with a mind mage I didn’t think that was wise. He might sneak into the rooms, read the lord's mind, and decide to bounce before we could catch him. We did however agree to act immediately if it looked like his father was about to eat or drink anything - we had never confirmed but it seemed likely his uncle was poisoned to death. I didn’t believe that it would happen this time however, from what I had gathered each of them had died from a different cause. So I waited with my eyes trained on his father, able to make out his every fretful step since Life Sense had levelled up. Howard kept his attention on the painting which marked the secret passage and both of us made sure we weren’t visible if anyone were to enter from either entrance. I thought it likely the killer would use this means of ingress, given the cleanliness of the secret passage I speculated he had used it often. Perhaps he had learned of it by reading the mind of one of the previous house heads? The number of guards which swarmed about would also likely convince him to use this entrance.
We waited… and waited. Nothing happened for hours. Eventually the excitement I had wore off and they gave up the search, everyone returning to their posts. Out of boredom, Howard and I had started playing a word game in whispered voices from across the room. I had just responded to ratechin with narcolepsy when a creak stopped me mid word. It was incredibly faint and may have been a guard shifting his weight slightly; still, both of us fell silent and strained our ears. Something like this had happened three times already tonight and had turned out to be nothing. It felt different this time however, Howard must have felt it too as after 10 minutes both of us still remained silent. Howard put out his candle.
The painting slowly began to swing on silent hinges. Neither of us moved a muscle, waiting for the perfect moment. Whomever they were, they were cautious, for although the door was well oiled they maintained a slow and steady pace. A dark figure slipped in and looked about, a thief's lamp in hand. It only illuminated a thin sliver, with faint light from an inclosed candle. Once they were firmly within the room, both Howard and I acted in unison. He slammed the painting shut and stood in front of it. I knocked over a bookshelf and wedged it against the door to prevent the guards from entering. If he controlled their minds this could get messy. With a flourish of the Flame spell I then lit all the candles in the room at once, from the chandelier to the candlesticks on the walls. We were finally able to see the man who tormented this family for so many years.
Congratulations:
* Flame has reached Lv.4
When his face was revealed I don’t think either of us was surprised, he had the look of a villain. He squinted through the sudden light. The armed men and women guarding the Lord had heard the commotion and were already thumping on the door. To no avail, the book case was lodged good against a floor board, they wouldn’t be getting in anytime soon.
I took a moment to truly examine the man. His hair was black, the edges tainted with grey. It was slicked back with some form of oil. His face had freckles but they were faded. Long ago he was exposed to the sun on a daily basis but his pale complexion said that hadn’t been the case for some years. Someone who rose in rank, someone clever? I thought. Perhaps I might be able to end this peacefully?
“Give it up. You’re caught, if you surrender now you will be spared.” I lied. Hearing this the noises on the other side of the door rose and the banging increased as more joined the attempt to enter.
Howard thumped a war hammer, the length of his arm, against his hand menacingly - a twisted grin blemishing his features. I had no idea when or where he had gotten his hands on the weapon.
The man’s eyes blazed for a second with anger but he quickly tamped it down. He stepped toward me slowly, his arms raised.
“You’ve got me, I’ll come quietly.” He said in as soothing a voice as he could manage. Which was far from comforting, his voice was so rough as to sound half lost. I saw then that there was a nasty scar on his neck. We waited, tense, as he approached. When he was only a few feet away I saw a twitch in his shoulders.
I had expected a mental spell which I was ready and prepared to counter. Sand came out from his sleeve and straight into my eyes. I didn’t need my eyes to see but my reaction was reflexive and exactly what this curser expected. He darted forward, narrowly missing Howard’s strike. Howard’s hammer cracked against the floorboards and the efforts at the door doubled once more. With each striked the door would bend in slightly, giving them a glimpse into the room every few seconds, before it snapped back.
The attacker seized me from behind and held something cold at my throat. I felt his head behind me, turning left and right; frantically looking for a way out.
“One step closer!” he threatened, causing Howard to back up slowly.
“You know that spell I used earlier?” I asked Howard, pointing towards my heart.
“Stop talking.” My foe said harshly. Yanking me back and nicking my neck. It didn’t matter as Howard had understood me. He kept walking closer.
“Stay back I said!” he croaked, growing more frantic. Howard didn’t falter, keeping his hammer in a guard position as he approached steadily. The man backed up in time with Howard until we were against the wall. I hadn’t tried to break free as I wasn’t sure I could survive a complete decapitation; but if he tried to slice my neck I could just play dead.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he nearly screamed as Howard didn’t cease his advance. When he was within striking range he mumbled “Screw it,” before dropping the knife and slapping a palm to my forehead.
He almost caught me unawares again but I had been waiting for this moment. As he tried to activate a mind controlling spell I was half tempted to let him, to see what might happen with my Possession skill. In a split second I rejected the fun little test and pushed mental mana at the spell which had been forming around his hand. Using the second law of magic, like repulses like, I was able to push back his spell shape, stopping it from entering my body.
He had trained his mana pathways more extensively than this body’s former own, and, given time, he would go through my block. He wasn’t given time however, as Howard hadn’t been wasting it. As we contested wills the man’s eyes widened; not expecting to see what he must have assumed to be another mental mage. He was too distracted to fully dodge Howards blow. He did regain his senses just in time to move his head but that meant the spike of the hammer planted itself in the meat of his shoulder. His concentration broke and the battle of wills came to an abrupt end with his hand left smoking. He screamed and the noise was accompanied by the sound of chopping.
The dozen or so guards outside the door had given up on smashing it down and had started using axes to cut their way in. The door was solid and thick however and only a small hole had been made so far. I glanced through and saw Howard’s father, we locked eyes and I couldn’t decipher the expression his face pulled.
My attention was brought back to the fight when the injured man sprung away. He remained in a crouched guard, his demeanour like a cornered feral; all sneering and barking. Blood dripped from his wound and onto the rug.
“Your neck.” Howard commented, without much concern. Never once taking his attention from the man whose death I saw in his eyes. We stood side by side, hemming him in.
Howard let fall a chop aimed to scare the man back. It didn’t work, the enemy shot into his guard, taking the blow to his back and grimacing. He got what he wanted however, landing his left palm on Howard’s head - the right still charred. Before I could stop him the spell took effect. I had to divert the Flame spell I was using as he moved too close to my friend.
The hole in the door had grown to the size of a hand. Our foe, who I suspected to be Porcus Villam’s son, laughed like a mad man. Howard withdrew his hammer from the man’s back and turned to stand beside him. Looking at me with vacant eyes.
“It doesn’t matter if you take him hostage, you’ll never get away.” I said, indicating the furious mob clawing their way in.
“Hostage?” the man asked in a wheezing cackle.
He pointed at me and Howard began to advance. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Howard was between me and my foe. I tried Lesser Sleep but the mind control spell superseded it and nothing happened. I backed away from one mechanical strike, thinking to launch a spell at Villam but he had used the opportunity to slash at me with his knife and cut me across the chest. I hissed as I thought Fuck it.
There was a way to force any mental mana out of his system, I had used a slower version before, now I just needed to use much more mana - and it would hurt… a lot. Taking Howard’s next attack, the same as the black haired man had, it was my turn to lay my left palm on his forehead.
“No!” The mad man screamed as I flooded the boy with mental mana straight from my soul. My left arm caught fire, the mana paths literally burning up. Howard convulsed violently while still somehow standing. I had nearly cleared his entire nervous system when that cursed man acted. He shot a mental stunning spell right at where the two sources of mental mana clashed, in the cluster of nerves at the stomach. The old spell shape and the new, fueled by my raw mana, started to mingle; trying to change. I had made more than enough spells to know exactly what was about to happen.
“Shit!” I yelled, my hand welded to Howards skull. The resulting explosion sent everyone in the room flying.
When I scrambled to my feet, blinking away stars, I saw Villam was doing the same on the other side of the room. Howard on the other hand was in far worse shape. His guts had been exploded, entrails hanging from the chandelier. I saw his soul begin to float away and, acting without thinking, I sprinted over. Leaping up I grabbed the soul from midair with my good hand using Soul Manipulation and slammed it back into his disembowelled body.
Congratulations:
* Well done! You’ve finally raised the dead, took you long enough. Isn’t that what Lich’s are supposed to do? I’ll let you choose the Necromancer Class as a Subclass if you can pull yourself together. Yours – D. xoxoxo
What?! I thought.
His father had grabbed an axe and with frantic desperation improved upon the pace of three other men. When Howard sat up, taking an involuntary breath, his father screamed and clawed himself through the door.
The mental mage had taken the opportunity to jump out of the window. It was three stories to the ground but he had evidently thought it a better chance of survival. I took a moment to ensure Howard was well, apart from being undead. Thanks to my assistance his mind had remained intact though he was now a Wight. Seeing his father running towards us with so much grief in his heart that it was hard to look upon his face, I chose the easier path and followed Villam out the window. From his father’s perspective; I raised my hand to his son, my arm caught fire, his son had exploded - thinking about that I looked at my arm as I fell, it was a grotesque lump of flesh mostly in one piece - I had then jumped in the air and slammed a closed fist into his son’s remains and he had sat up. I hoped he would be okay.
If I just catch this man I could still get this to work, I thought, seconds before hitting the ground arse first. There was a squelch when I landed and all my vertebrae fractured. I looked down, “Shit!” I cursed aloud.
Standing up with great effort I wiped what was left of Villam’s brain matter from my rear. Panicked, and not knowing what to do for the first time in a long time, I started to run - or tried to. My back wobbled side to side like jelly. Using Necrotic Healing I was able to achieve a passable hobbling sprint through the gardens and out into the forest before anyone could find me. The only part of me I couldn’t heal was my left arm as the mana pathways had been completely destroyed. With a moonless night as my only cover I left Dommoc with as much speed as I could manage.