The rest of the day was filled with greetings from various people he knew in the city. Questions of what he had been doing since he left were abundant. The answer Alaster gave was different depending on the person. The only people he told the whole truth was Keylan, City Lord of Onigas, and Elliot Siphas. Well, most of the truth.
Alaster kept a few things private.
However, despite what he had expected, most of the people he knew were very busy with the wedding. Alaster did not think that so much went into a simple ceremony where they promised each other to be together. He knew it was important for most people. He just didn’t think it was such a big deal.
Most of the time, the people he knew would say hi, maybe talk with him for a few moments, before they scurried off to complete the preparations. The only one that truly stayed to talk with him was Keylan. And that was only because he had a minimal effect on the wedding. As City Lord, and because it was a noble being married, Keylan was expected to show up, at least for a bit of time. But outside of that, he had nothing to do with the set up.
Alaster had offered his Undead to Astrid so they could set up the wedding and give everyone else some peace and rest before the big day, but she seemed strangely against it. One of his Death Knights, Catherine, had to explain it to him.
Despite Necromancy being a desired Ability, people still found the thought of dead people moving around to be unsettling. Astrid did not want bone and rotten flesh touching anything to do with her special day. Even after Alaster assured her that there would be no rotten flesh. Even he did not like that aspect of Necromancy, which is why it was still his least developed Ability.
Unfortunately, because he was so late to arrive, not that anyone could have contacted him earlier, all the duties had already been delegated. At such a late stage, trying to help people would only hinder it. So, he was left with nothing to do.
Well, he had a ton of work to do. Infiltrating the upper echelon of a Kingdom in order to find and kill people was not an easy task, even for someone as powerful as him. Not only was he directing his Death Knights, who were also his mouthpieces to Lezrem, as he could not mentally communicate with the Lich. But he was also paying close attention to Fenrir’s actions.
Like he had suspected, the second body had developed its own personality. What he had not expected, however, was that there were some things that the second body could hide from him. He sensed that Fenrir was still doing everything he could to aid him, but he still did not like the Wolf being able to act without his supervision.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could really do from this distance. While he watched Fenrir, attempting to familiarize himself with the layout and nature of the Capital city of Lissura, Zolis, he was also steadily growing his army.
As Belgroth and Sedall had told him, as he grew in power, the System’s influence on him weakened. Meaning that so to did its limitations. Alaster no longer had any limit on the number of Minions he could have. Something that he was taking full advantage of.
Despite his attention being pulled in so many different directions, Alaster noted that the only person he knew in Onigas that had not yet said hello to him, was Iris. He knew that her special “Phoenix Order” were hard at work clearing the monsters towards Galmore, but he had not seen them on his way in.
Unfortunately, with his arrival, which had been anything but subtle, it was practically all the city was talking about. It took several hours for his Shadows to overhear anything to do with the Order, and even then, it had not been about Iris herself.
Apparently, after clearing out an Orc Tribe, they had received several serious injuries. Luckily, due to the Order’s specialty of healing themselves and others, none were killed, but there were many close calls. So, they had decided to spend some time resting and recovering afterward.
The City Lord had granted the Order their own special barracks and training ground. After Alaster learned that he sent a handful of his Shadows there. Despite the so called “Recovery Period” Alaster immediately saw through the Shadows that nearly three dozen people were hard at work in the small training grounds.
Some were hauling logs, while others were lifting large stones. Many were running laps around the grounds, while some were sparring. Some of them wore full battle gear, while others wore light clothes.
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From what Alaster could see, the weapons they used were also quite varied. While most of them were using melee weapons. He spotted one person carrying throwing knives while another practiced her archery. He saw large battleaxes, massive shields and small shields, he even saw two people carrying spears.
Overall, it was quite a balanced team. Leaving a Shadow clinging to a nearby wall to oversee the training soldiers, Alaster ordered the rest to enter the building. Despite being ethereal Shadows, they still needed a small gap to get through. Luckily, despite the cold temperatures of the winter, someone had left a window slightly open on the second floor of the three-story stone barracks.
Unfortunately, the window lead into the bath room, which was currently being used by a few of the female Order Members. Alaster quickly rushed his Shadows through, sacrificing a bit of stealth for speed. Enough for one of the Members to glance up from what she was doing but nothing else.
Even though he was seeing through the Shadows’ eyes, he still breathed a sigh of relief. Modesty was one of the only things that remained from his childhood.
Shaking his head to focus, he saw that his Shadows had already begun moving through the barracks, clinging to the walls and even ceilings to avoid detection. Alaster saw and overheard many things, but few were of any importance. That is until one of the Shadows reached the third floor.
Here, there were only a few rooms, as the building narrowed closer to the top. The rooms were typically reserved for the commanders of the unit, and the Order had done the same. Two of the rooms had their residents sleeping in, but most were empty.
At the back of the building, there was a small meeting room, which was currently occupied by Iris, dressed in a casual gown and a young man in well used armor. They were not doing anything indecent, but it was clear just by the small distance between the two that they were close.
They were talking about the wedding, more specifically, they were talking about her plus one. As a dear friend to the bride, and the City Lord’s daughter, it was expected that she would be there with a plus one, but as the City Lord’s daughter, the plus one could not be just anyone.
“Are you sure about this Iris?” The man asked, worried for her.
Iris chuckled and brushed a lock of the man’s brown hair out of his face, “Don’t worry Loka, since I’m the commander of an Order, it would not be surprising or unacceptable for me to bring one of my subordinates.”
The man, apparently named Loka, smiled.
‘Weird name, but who am I to judge?’
“You do realize that I have no idea what to wear or even how to act around a Noble’s wedding?”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll have a servant bring you something to wear, and everyone’s attention will be on Astrid and Arthur. And if they do look over at us, then they will focus on me. I’m sorry to say, but among the other Nobles, you really aren’t that interesting.”
It sounded harsh, but Loka sighed in relief.
“Besides, due to your valiant effort during the Orc Tribe, my father was already considering knighting you.” Iris said off handedly.
Loka’s eyes widened, “What?”
“And believe it or not, I had nothing to do with it. The order’s captains wrote their own reports, as did I, and I turned them in to my father, as we do after every engagement. He was apparently impressed with what we all said and mentioned the possibility of Knighting you to me while we were eating dinner a few nights ago.”
“And you are just telling me now?” Loka asked, poking her lightly in the ribs.
She retreated away from him with a smile, “Yep! And when I show up to the wedding on your arm, it will all but assure it. So long as you don’t do anything stupid.” She added quickly.
“Me? Do something stupid? Never!”
Iris rolled her eyes, “Right. Cause you never do anything stupid. Like courting the City Lord’s daughter?”
Loka shrugged, “What can I say? If Astrid can do it, why can’t I?”
Iris laughed and playfully shoved him.
“By the way, have you heard that the City’s hero has returned?” Loka asked, still laughing.
“Hard not to, its all anyone is talking about.”
“Well, aren’t you going to say hello to your old crush?” Loka teased.
“I will! Eventually. By now I’m certain he knows that I now lead an Order of Special Soldiers. I am a busy woman!”
Loka looked at her deadpan, “Yes, because you are so busy right now.”
“Are you saying spending time with you isn’t important?”
Loka mocked being offended, “Of course not! Being with me is the most important thing! Everyone wants to be with me! You should be honored that you are the one I want to be with!”
Silence filled the room before both of them burst into laughter.
“Oh gods, shut up.”
Loka enveloped her from behind in his arms, lightly kissing her cheek, “What can I say? I have a great personality.”
Iris turned her head to him, their faces mere inches apart, “That’s what I fell in love with.” She whispered before deeply kissing him.
‘Ok, that’s enough of that.’
Alaster thought to himself as he ordered his Shadows out of the room. It was nice to see that she was progressing and happy.
It seemed that everyone he knew was gradually going on with their lives. Astrid was getting married. Isabella was gradually becoming a celebrity in the city for her healing. Lord and Lady Siphas were busy with their newborn son. And now Iris was becoming a powerful military figure within the city as well as having found someone she could rely on.
Alaster was glad that everyone was moving on, but he could not help but notice a sense of sadness. He could not figure out why.
‘The Undead have it easy. No emotions!’