I knew that I wasn’t truly breathing air, not in the sense that it was real but my breath remained rapid and my eyes held tightly shut as a rapping noise on a wooden door called my attention.

A voice politely called out, it didn’t address me by name though. The accent of it was strange, though to my forced state of awareness I knew that it was simply educated and trained.

I was far used to the rough dialects of peasants, we knew each other in the village and when a rare outsider would visit for trade or entertainment we would pretend that we couldn’t understand them and used our local words for confusion until they had worked out our little jokes.

Entertainment on an isolated mountain village with a ruined, abandoned castle and a necromancer for a neighbour was usually short and rough. I took in a deep breath, my fingers remained clutched on the same soft fabric of the noblewoman’s dress I had once dreamed of wearing.

Likely, my personal image was the same, I was fresh, my body experienced no pains or aches and my stomach remained full. Even as an illusion the effect was impressive. I hadn’t wanted to push my family away from me, but truthfully, I had seen them die and heard their screams as I scrambled through dirt, mud and bloodied rocks to escape the village as it was burnt to the ground and the inhabitants killed.

I paused, waiting for the familiar sound in which the Necro-System had tried to gain my attention. A ringing tone echoed outwards which I did not wish to hear. My control of the Necro-Mecha would need to be maintained if I was to take my revenge, the strangeness of this place, the way that reality would alter according to my will was surely my intent placed upon the proto-type bonded self-improvement system.

Even the dress of the noblewoman, the muddy hovel of my birth and life were all fabrications by a technologically advanced machine and software. I wouldn’t be surprised if magic in this world could have pulled the same trick or at least similar enough that the mind would be fooled but the living were a different matter to the dead.

I was dead but my physical form had reappeared again, not my actual body, but an ideal form, a ghost of a dream of a foolish young girl who became a young woman and had thoughts of becoming a noblewoman.

Forcing my eyes to open I held my breath before taking in a sharp intake and quickly examining my surroundings. The same voice knocked at a wooden surface, my eyes noticed an ornately decorated door inside a room I assumed was a bedroom. The style of which had been much as I had previously requested of the Necro-System.

A window built entirely of glass framed in metal edges was open and a breeze wafted in of summer and fresh flowers as a beam of sunlight fell upon the bare skin of my face. A large and elaborate bed with sheets of white and red with silver stitching, matching pillows atop it and sarcenet covering it. An unknown emblem of a noble house hung down from the frame of the bed above the canopy.

The floors were solid wooden planks and the walls were largely stone but covered in wall hangings to trap in the heat as much as provide a form of decoration. A single one of them if I had sold it when I had been alive would have been enough to feed my family and keep us for at least a full month.

Clearly, this room was an expensive one, well-presented, entirely clean and devoid of any smells or odours which could have caused offence to my senses and entirely fake. Even the nobles had to void their bowels and through it out of the window or they would have it taken away by a gong farmer. For me, we simply designated a place in the village and kept it far away from where we lived. The crops needed something to help them to grow after all.

‘Necro-System, you have most details right but there are clear errors here. I will move forward in a moment after I rest my beating heart a moment more but you will notify me immediately if you locate the remains of the necromancer designate: Eike. I do not need confirmation of this message.’

I was aware that in a house of a High Born, such a fine bed would have been the most expensive piece of furniture inside the entire household. For me to welcome guests into my own bedroom was as much to impress as it was to manage.

‘An illusion but a beautiful one. Still a trick though, I could spend my time in this room gazing through the window as my soul becomes consumed for power as the Necro-Mecha turns on the one that instils order and action. No. I will accept your gift but I need a dungeon, a place to store a necromancer, a place where they will suffer as they made me in turn. This room is odd and I’m not talking about the fresh air nor my own lack of discomfort. I feel changed, my mind has been altered in a form. This isn’t me, or rather I’m taking on a new role. A High born noblewoman indeed.’

I had grown up sleeping on straw mattresses until my mother had saved enough money for coverings and my father had saved what animal skins he could from his hunts with my brother and my sister and I had prepared them to keep us warm during the cooler days of the year.

The knocking at the door carried on again as the same voice called out although this time it was with a little more concern calling out for a noble lady to please respond. Squeezing my hands and ignoring the rest of the fine decorations of the room including several paintings on the wall, statues and other expensive items I walked over to the only wooden door leading in and out of the room. My high-heeled boots clicked on the floor as I walked over and took in another breath before pulling onto the handle.

‘My Lady. Your servant awaits. We have prepared a holding cell for your preparation. Would you care to inspect it?’ said the figure who then politely bowed.

The appearance of the man was not surprising to me, he was older than me by several decades but his clothing was entirely black and trim. A stern look, he wouldn’t have looked out of place as a priest but he remained entirely blank faced until I responded to him.

He had a sharpness about him despite his lack of emotional. In his eyes there was awareness, deep awareness of his situation. He knew exactly who I was and where we were but he only asked for my permission.

‘A holding cell. Are you a function of the Necro-System then? A piece of software designed to assist me in my building of a virtual reality prison room? A delight to meet you, do you have a name or do I need to give you one?’

The man half-smiled and bowed once more before talking again.

‘I am Seneschal of this Castle of the Damned. In this place, we dead may live once more. I was...appropriated recently and suitably educated by what you call the Necro-System. I am thankful for my second chance at living once more. Also my lady, I thank you for your previous gift of your decoration upon my old bones. You will find your other servants here are grateful, the ladies especially for the pretty ribbons you bestowed on them. Our souls are are your disposal my lady. Do you care for refreshments or a short tour of your domain? I have yet to instruct all of your direct instructions but have made assumptions of your personal preferences based on orders. Congratulations my Lady. I hope your revenge upon the necromancer Eike will be as delicious as your personal taste in clothing. I mean no offence of course, merely the humble musings of a servant.’

The fact that he knew me and even thanked me meant that he was either a construct built from my memory, my dreams or the storybooks I read as a young girl and carried on reading as I grew older to learn my basic letters.

Our village had only a hundred or so inhabitants, more likely double that as we took in survivors from other villages on the rare occasion and had some wandering ones who settled down with us. I recalled the names and appearances of most of them but this man had either been educated by the Necro-System or the alternative was far more interesting.

I nodded my head and raised a soft hand in his direction, gesturing for him to rise from his bow.

‘You understand modern technology, you said holding cell. As far as I know this planet exists on a mostly degraded level of technology and culture. New advances are stifled or ignored in the face of the two immortals and the value of magic. How aware are you exactly?’

If this being was going to be as aware as I was and there were more servants akin to him then I needed to be careful. My soul was resting inside a blue helmet covering a skeleton inside a piece of advanced software and then it was plunged into a simulation, a false reality as a modified Mining Drone altered to appear as a golem style humanoid dragon form hunted down the remnant soul of my dead Master of Mistress.

‘My Lady. I repeat, I am Seneschal of this Castle of the Damned. I exist to serve you in this place and manage it on your behalf for those servants of yours who live here. If I have displeased you or caused offence I am able to be dismissed at your will. I was offered a choice, we all were once our souls were taken by your flames and liquid fire and our old bones broke apart and crumbled into ashes.’

The name of this place surprised me. A Castle of the Damned, a fitting place for me to live inside when I wasn’t directly piloting the Necro-Mecha. Time it appeared inside this place flowed far slower than I had first considered. I was changing I knew, the alterations made to my mind to educate me to a galactic standard was beginning to alter my perceptions.

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I grieved my dead family and the memory of their deaths remained fresh enough but time had dulled the emotions which had caused me to cry alone, inside a ruined castle, hiding my tears from a merciless necromancer I called Master or Mistress and skeletons being my only outlet for conversations.

‘I know you then. You were one of the skeletons I decorated. A male then, my limited education before my awakening into new horizons remained correct. The pelvic cavity, rib cage and shoulders all were right. My Ladies and Gentleman of Bone, stolen away from the clutches of the Dark Emperor into an afterlife I will build. Are you loyal Seneschal? Do I control you or does the Necro-System of another deeper, older form of numbers and information control you?’

To my surprise the man before me showed genuine emotion on his face as he fell onto his knees with hands raised in supplication to me.

‘...My...My Lady. You showed compassion for the dead. You do not know the meaning of your actions. We were bone, trapped inside forms but our senses were aware until your blessed fire freed us and we were restored in this place. Yes, we are damned ones for we forsake the belief in the Dark Emperor and follow another. In this Castle of the Damned we all follow your instructions only. I warn you that there are guards here, silent things which do not speak as we did. They do not threaten but only watch and maintain when they appear. Please. Lead us all into glorious salvation!’

I did not ask to become a saviour, I hadn’t asked for my village to be destroyed and my only salvation a half-mad necromancer who was far more used to conversing with dead things and spirits than a young woman but I would take on the role.

‘Seneschal. Off your knees. I’ll accept your introductions for the rest of the servants in this place but how many are there inside this Castle of the Damned? I only see a single bedroom and this doorway and corridor beyond.’

The man on the floor shook as he pushed with one hand on the floor, rising up in one smooth motion before the same expressionless look reappeared on his face. He brushed off and straightened his black clothing before he raised a hand and held up five fingers on one hand with the other hand held in a fist for the common for ten.

‘Fifty. Fifty of my Gentleman of Ladies and bone inside this place. A small army if I needed it. The guards, have they threatened you in any form?’

The man calling himself Seneschal simply shook his head.

‘They are here to….protect you I believe and maintain stability in this place. They are strange things, creatures of flesh and bone and metal yes. And I was a reanimated skeleton with a little clothing from you as a gift. Please, I have wasted your time. We do not need to spend time walking though, the construction of this place is different. Through your intent you only need to walk through one door and appear in another room. Please. Follow me my Lady.’

I paused for a moment, uncertain before my gaze fell upon the finery of the room in which I had awakened up in. The open window with its fresh air and fixed beam of sunlight shining in, the bed, more comfortable than any I had ever dreamed of sleeping in in my dreams.

The finery I wore, the sensation of the fine fabrics on my skin. I touched my face softly. Inside this room there would be a mirror, large enough for me to disrobe and view a body which held no blemishes, no scars, hair neatly combed and plaited. A young woman who had yet to experience the hardships of the world. Who had never suffered or wanted for anything.

I knew that the concept was false, even the High born had their own difficulties and trials to face but here inside this place called a Castle of the Damned I was believed in. I had purpose and all it took was for me to be sacrificed by a necromancer who beat me for sleeping for too long, who beat me for talking to skeletons of their creation because I was so lonely.

All of this was fake. A software simulation of my soul and the captured souls of others trying to establish my perfect reality to make me work better, to perform and act according to task. I had been given no clear instructions, no orders, not even guidance on how to build a virtual reality space.

‘My Lady?’ asked the one called Seneschal when he saw me turn my back to him and simply gaze around the room and at my own hands.

I wondered for a moment if I could hurt myself in such a place. If I did look a mirror than I would shatter it in an instant with my bare skin, such as it was. I screamed when I saw my reflection inside a metal spoon with the faces of my dead Father and Mother gazing at me.

‘Seneschal. Take me to the holding cell. I’m going to need tools of disorientation, not torture. We’re going to bring your old slaver here, you can tell the others and he or she will be familiar with pain. No, we need trickery and power. Necro-System, I know you’re listening to me. So is the ancient thing hidden deep within you. No noises, tell me directly. Have you found the lost soul of Eike yet?’

The text appeared in my mind rather than my field of vision as the man in front of me turned and stood in the open doorway awaiting my command.

I raised a hand to the man in black.

‘One moment. I need to deal with the physical world before we can move forward. Warn me if you see any of the...guards of metal, flesh and bone. You can call them cyborgs. Not that I expected but they should exist to protect in some form. I would like to examine one in detail later. Do not engage them in combat unless to protect yourselves, you may pass on my instructions to the rest of my Gentleman and Ladies of Bone. Necro-System, what do you mean that you encountered resistance? The undead should have stopped when the necromancer died unless...ah. Residual energy. He set traps.

Sighing inwardly I wondered why the Necro-System hadn’t warned me of potential threats or simply recalled me into the physical form of the Necro-Mecha to actively fight when I recalled that I had given specific instructions only to notify me when the target was within two metres and visual range.

Of course the old necromancer had hidden themselves away and either put in monsters, traps or guardians to protect the hiding place for half of their soul.

The latter message would be adventurers approaching the old necromancers ruined castle, likely more in a hurry if they saw a fire break out and smoke rising into the skies above it. I hadn’t thought and given away my position as clearly as using a flare in an open ocean. The knowledge and awareness of media the Necro-System offered me was proving to be more useful than I thought.

If the power set of the other hostiles was anathema to the blood ritual operating system then it meant that they would be from the side of so-called goodness and would look to purify what they called evil.

I had lingered for too long in this place. I need literal physical eyes and would need to take control of the skeleton pilot granted that power levels were no longer an issue. I closed my eyes tightly and breathed in the smells of summer before I spoke again.

‘Necro-System, temporarily end virtual reality setting designate: Castle of the Damned and bring me back out of here. I need to see exactly what you’re facing. Seneschal. Guard this place in my absence.’

I needed Mining Drone strength for this task. Not the trappings of dead dreams and memories.

The world darkened.