Zoe immediately decided that she was going to keep the true origins of her demonic ascension—and likewise, her initial relationship with Basil—concealed for as long as she could. Sure, it was the total opposite of her initial plan, but to Zoe, plans were more like guidelines. In any case, her latest resolution wasn’t because she thought it would be more strategic—it wasn’t—or that she might be in immediate danger—she was.

She just thought it would be funny.

In any case, the lich and the cultist had fallen silent. It was one of those lulls that occurred naturally in conversations but which was nevertheless awkward. Zoe decided to properly assert herself by breaking it. “So what do we do with the paladin?”

Basil shrugged. “An excellent question from the demon. I suppose some questioning of our own is in order.”

The lich glanced around. “Not here.” snapping its fingers—which Zoe realized looked remarkably more like the digits of an finely-crafted puppet or marionette than a real skeleton—the lich called forth one of its skeletal minions from thin air. Zoe blinked. The flare of astral magic had been so short-lived that she had no time to make any observations beyond the fact that it happened.

The lich gestured at the paladin, and the skeleton bent to pick her up and carry her. Zoe observed an undisguised expression of fury and disgust across the woman’s features, but to her credit, the paladin allowed herself to be slung over the skeleton’s bony shoulder.

“Right then, off we go.” The lich strode forward without looking back, and the skeleton and Basil immediately trailed behind. Zoe glanced back at the harbor, trying to burn it into her memory in case she did need to make a proper escape.

Catching up to the others, she resolved to try to memorize the path back at the same time. She hadn’t exactly been able to spare any attention to where they were going during the initial pursuit. But that did bring up an obvious question.

“Why are we walking?” Basil glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow like she was a complete idiot for even asking. “I mean, if you can just teleport around…”

“I can’t, actually,” the lich said. “I walked here, you know.”

“You definitely didn’t run,” Basil grumbled. “But by that look, I’m guessing you still need more explanation,” he said, this time addressing Zoe. “She can’t teleport just anything. Only soul-bound entities.”

Ah, so the lich is a woman. Filing away that important information so that she wouldn’t make a social faux-pas later, Zoe considered the implications. So first, the skeletons aren’t just autonomous magical constructs—they have souls. Granted, that wasn’t surprising, given the necromancy and the fact that the skeletons were discrete entities according to the System. But to be fair, Earthly depictions of necromancy didn’t always have souls involved. Sometimes skeletons were just puppets.

Whatever. Now I know. Also, the undead were ‘soul-bonded’ to their master—which was evidently something that had significant implications for interactions with abilities. Also, if things do turn ugly, I know to watch out for teleporting skeletons. But at least the lich herself can’t jump me that way.

Zoe frowned. Only being able to teleport minions seemed like a weird restriction on an ability. She began to suspect that the lich could only recall her minions to herself, not drop them around just anywhere. Zoe didn’t ask, though—she would wager that prying about the others’ abilities wouldn’t go over terribly well at this point. For now, I’ll assume that she CAN teleport them around anywhere, until proven otherwise.

Everyone remained silent for the rest of the walk back. Several times, Zoe resolved to ask a question or initiate a conversation—but then she would inevitably hesitate and rethink it. She was pretty sure that they weren’t taking the same route for the way back, though. It was far too simple and straight. Then again, we WERE jumping across balconies and things like that.

So Zoe ended up just experimenting with her new, tier two {Water Meditation}. She could use the technique nearly identically to the way she used the previous ability at level twenty, which was nice. After all, it barely took any conscious thought to maintain a fairly high increase in recovery that way.

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She also knew that she wouldn’t gain any more levels this way, though. At least not quickly. No—Zoe needed to begin experimenting with the evolved aspect of the ability and challenge herself. To that end, she continued smoothing out the chaotic rampage of mana in her spiritual channels.

By the time they finally returned to the chamber with the altar that they had started in, Zoe had spent quite a bit of mana, gained zero levels, and made almost as little actual progress on her task. It was pretty frustrating. It seemed like every time she ironed out one wrinkle, she created an equally bad new one in the process.

Of course, it wasn’t like she would realize it until after she thought she had succeeded, and wasted mana to boot. Really, who ever heard of a meditation technique LOSING you mana? While Zoe didn’t know much about magic at all, she was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to go like this.

Whatever. At least I—

Zoe paused. Her thoughts had been interrupted by a System notification. And it was an ability level-up, no less. Eagerly, Zoe scanned through the latest message.

{Arcane Manipulation has leveled up! Arcane Manipulation is now level 4.}

Zoe glared. Fuck you! That was absolutely not what she was going for. Sure, technically maybe she should be pleased by progressing in a very important ability. But honestly, it just felt like the System was sassing her. Or maybe, if she were a bit more honest, that she had been doing things wrong. So when another notification popped up, she narrowed her eyes, refusing to get her hopes up.

{You have learned a fraction of a primordial ability! Learn more unique fragments to unlock a primordial ability.}

{Fragments learned: 1 / ???}

Zoe just gaped at it. Primordial ability? What? Zoe was starting to get the feeling that there were a lot more complexities to the System than what she had currently experienced—and that wasn’t even taking into account the bizarre ways in which she had already deviated from what was probably the standard human route.

Also, she had never learned only a ‘fraction’ of an ability before. Was that normal? Did it only happen with these ‘primordial’ abilities? Thinking back, Zoe realized that {Devour} had also given her portions of something before. It was a trait, though. Something to look into.

Dismissing her own System for now, Zoe blinked. And then she realized that everyone else was just staring at her silently. She coughed. They were really close. Even the various skeletons were all looking at her with what might pass for a hint of curiosity. How a skull could look curious, Zoe didn’t rightly know.

“Uh, something the matter?”

“I should ask you the same,” the lich drawled. “Lots going on with your connection to the Grand Design, I presume?”

Zoe slowly nodded. “Yeah, something like that.” Clearing her throat again, she pointed at the paladin, who was still lounging uncomfortably in a princess carry. “So how are we going to question her?”

Instead of addressing Zoe, the lich had the skeleton bring the holy warrior up to herself. But before she could begin, the paladin herself spoke. “I’m not telling you anything. You’ll just have to kill me.”

“You know, I don’t think she’s lying,” Basil mused. “My old master tortured one once. I have to give it to these guys, they really do break before they bend.”

The paladin just jerked her chin at him. For her part, the lich looked less certain. “Maybe I will. I could just bring you back as a revenant, you know.”

At this, the paladin erupted into genuine but bitter laughter. “Sure you can. Go ahead, try it. Might as well get this over with.”

The lich towered over her. “It’s either tell me and live, or die and tell me then. Simple choice, if you ask me?”

Sobering up, the paladin shook her head. “You really expect me to fall for that? My soul would blow the other two to bits before you could so much as bind it to my corpse. If you could really bring be back as a revenant, you would have just gone ahead and done it already. But either way, it doesn’t matter. You’re just going to have to kill me.”

Zoe tilted her head. This was quite an interesting interaction, in her opinion. If the paladin was right—well, how would that actually work? Did paladins booby-trap their souls? Was something about their magic inherently anathema to necromancy?

As Zoe considered this, the lich raised a hand, conjuring a ghastly, ethereal green dagger, preparing to plunge it into the paladin’s chest. Well I’ll be damned, Zoe thought. I guess she was wrong. She snorted. Should have bargained for your life, idiot.

The lich brought down her arm. The paladin just smirked. And then the lich stood up, dismissed the glowing dagger, and crossed her robed arms. “Damn it to hell.” She glanced at Basil. “You were right.”

The paladin rolled her eyes at that. “Told you. Nice try though.”

Zoe blinked. Wait, so the lich WAS bluffing—all the way up to the end. I guess she was trying to get her to cave at the last moment. Zoe wondered what else they were going to try. She was a bit annoyed though—she doubted the others would let her go through with the actual killing if she asked. But I really want that experience.

“Fine then. We’ll just have you make an Oath.”

Zoe blinked. An Oath?

The paladin arched a brow. “And why should I ever do that?”

Circling around her and the skeleton holding her, the lich remained silent for a moment. “Because,” she began slowly, “I believe you will find our terms quite… agreeable.”