I was proud to be regarded as a High Noble, but a goddess? And one for the dead? No. I didn’t want to do all of this to create more uncaring beings to worship. I considered that I wanted to kill two beings who had decided that dividing half the planet between each of them and then deciding to eternally harvest souls killed in a never ending tug of war.

And then build concrete towers on their remains and turn mountains and oceans into centres of Mining excellence. We would take apart the world a piece and a time and spread from this castle across the lands until we owned all and made use of all. Energy could be taken or harnessed, trees and coal were in abundance and magic was an easy to access resource to drain.

Eventually, this planet would be transformed as spaceports were built and we exported ores and rare minerals dug from the bones of the earth and the deep, dark places where the ancient dragons would slumber. All would become part of more than themselves.

We would become as a Corporation. A word which I had a rough concept of but appeared to me to simply be a type of kingdom but governed with sufficient rules and guidelines to protect all and harness energy.

The lands of the world would be transformed in time as we began to employ all and eliminate those who refused to work. Dead or alive as I was, all would find use and purpose. But not for my Ladies and Gentleman of Bone. Those and any other villages around the mountains would join me in management roles. A type of leader.

Goddess indeed. Both of them had considered me a goddess. Poor things, poor ancient things locked away and used to work until their bones cracked and they were used to grow more crops for the living necromancer who rules over them.

While the thought was appreciated, I wasn’t going to become annoyed at this. I didn’t understand the magic that animated them as skeleton slaves and guards for the ruined castle nor did I fully understand the technology which had given me a second chance but they deserved my kindness, my guidance.

I would talk for the dead, provide and build them the afterlife they deserved but only those who deserved my...deserved...work for me. No. To serve me. No. To support my efforts in constructing an initial Mining base. My guards, not my workers. My explorers, not my slaves. Never my slaves.

Even those who fought against me would be coerced with an ideal representation of their afterlives as I tore down the veils from their eyes of their false gods, their immortals. Ah. My mind was purely unfocused. Surely an effect of the Mining Drone operating on an autonomous level. I needed to find a way to form a connection and be aware of the situation at all times even when I inside this virtual reality, perhaps I could assign one of my Ladies and Gentleman of Bone to a position of strategy.

Castles with their High Born nobles inside always faced difficulties from outside threats, mine would be no different eventually. There were no hackers, no software viruses which would try to infiltrate my bastion built of souls and numbers but there was magic. And with the power of sorcery, good or evil, there was much that could be done.

All of this took me less than a pico-second to register and consider before I turned my full High Noble attention to the two in front of me. The looks on their faces were akin to mine when I had seen my Father and brother safely return from a hunt or my Mother and I had been on a trip to the battlefield at the base of the mountain range where our village was hidden and came back without being spotted by patrols from either side.

‘Both of you will rise. I need to make this clear to all my Ladies and Gentleman of Bone. I am not a goddess risen from the depths of the underworld to protect you, I am not a being of immense power come to provide you salvation and protection from the goods and evils of the world. I am a worker and a provider of business opportunity. Tell me, the others, do they sleep or do they wait in their own rooms? I have yet to explore this castle of ours and we have little time before I am given warning of intruders outside this place. Back in the...real world. Such as it is.’

We remained inside my bedroom, the bed had been made by my Lady-in-waiting and an eternal summers sunshine shined through the open window as fresh air wafted in. There was no bird song, no other life, no calls or cries of workers in fields.

I hadn’t looked out of the window for fear of seeing a blank void before me for the risk of breaking this illusion but staying inside my bedroom, despite the beautiful and clearly expensive hangings and furniture wasn’t an option.

The Seneschal and the young woman in the green dress who was quite pretty to my eyes but with rather pale skin, far more than it should have been continued to look at me. Neither of them responded and had simply froze in position. I took this immediately as a resource allocation issue. When prompted by the Necro-System if I wanted to continue running the Mind Palace such as it was without shutting down I had agreed. I was aware that this was an act of vanity on my part. In truth I had simply spent years alone with nobody but animated bone, dead creatures which growled at me and the occasional harsh word from my former Master or Mistress who was due a swift punishment.

I had been called a goddess by two living reanimated and housed souls in what must have come across as a heaven in their eyes but even a deity had limits. I would have to temporarily sacrifice others to that these two would perform their duties accordingly.

Obviously there was a strict reason for which I was cast inside the bedroom of a High Born noblewoman and not in front of the gates of this castle. There were power reserves within the Necro-Mecha due to killing and harvesting a large number of non-sentient creatures but clearly not enough to create a Mind Palace large enough to maintain it.

A noblewoman which I had died to become should hold authority and clear understanding over all her subjects. I called out to the Necro-System and in turn resisted the urge to directly enter the floating white skull with green lines of data held within the helmet over which the proto-type self-improvement bonding device had formed over the skeleton.

Raising a soft warm hand to my cheek I wondered if I pressed my own skin to the others inside this place would they be as holograms or wraiths and my flesh and bone would pass through them or would physical contact be possible.

I wanted revenge but I didn’t want blood on my hands or my clothing. Wielding a teeth-bone lash against bare skin was how I had been punished on occasion. I wanted the necromancer called Eike to enjoy a little taste. If the power could be spared I would ask my Seneschal to appoint one of my remaining Ladies and Gentleman of Bone as a guard.

The lack of movement from either figure as they remained frozen with knees on the rich carpet and arms and hands outwards in supplication to me reminded me of a term. There was a word for this. A technological word. The pair were pre-loading segments of data but were….buffer. No, buffering. This was akin to a play on a stage where the performers needed to prepare their props, make-up and costumes before hand in order to perform the entire show with a short break.

‘Necro-System. No. Self-Improvement Unit. I will continue to call you Necro-System as I myself am designate Necro-Mecha. We will work in partnership. I am not your owner and you are not my slave. Please. Do not ruin my beautiful room by displaying a projection of a screen in this room. We need to set limits, inside my Castle of the Damned you will not allow any technology no matter how convenient. After all, I’m assuming this form I inhabit is a hard light projection of sorts so going to the bathroom or performing my daily or when my monthly visitor comes. I would prefer not having to use bog moss if possible thank you and that goes for my Ladies of Bone. But if my mind is changed I will let you know. And to work, you will deactivate or send to sleep the others inhabiting this castle except my Seneschal. Please provide them with good dreams and then I need an active holding cell prepared for our new visitor. That is of course Eike. Resume command, administrator access by designate: Lady Necro-Mecha confirmed.’

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I did not expect a response, not verbally, not a single red light appearing and flashing and spoiling my illusion but there was a tightness within the very air itself as though a giant had been holding a breath and released it. My eyes blinked for a moment and my Lady-in-waiting was gone. Simply gone as though she had been a phantasm of my mind or a ghost summoned and dismissed at will.

In front of me stood my reliable Seneschal, his trim and older form bowed politely once more as he continued as though he had never stopped.

‘Your Lady-in-waiting has been recalled as per your instructions. I regret that I have little else to show you but a holding cell for your interest but I am quite happy to say that your chosen guest has been relocated and secured. All soul binds and blood ritual ties to both essential software systems have been cut-off as has his connection with the Dark Emperor my Lady.’

His eyes looked at me, matching his black clothing as he raised himself from his bow and stood and gestured to the open doorway of my room which I had yet to leave. There was awareness in them which told me that he knew exactly what I was, where he was and what his existence meant.

I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. As with all my Ladies and Gentleman of Bone I knew nothing of their formal lives, their flesh and bone appearances only that my mock dragon fire had burnt their osseous matter into ashes and their souls had been transferred to me according to my will.

‘Please. We have two options my Lady. You can either transfer between rooms and areas of your Castle of the Damned by simply willing it or we might walk through a doorway and enter another room. This is entirely your choice. I myself do not have any form of direct or indirect access to any essential systems beyond maintaining the integrity of both your castle and inhabitants. There are guards...fierce things which protect us from outside influence as I understand but..ah..I talk too much. Please forgive an old, old, old man. I was once a private servant to a diplomat from the Celestial Empire. He often called me a diédiébùxiū zhě. My apologies my Lady.’

The words he spoke were odd in a way as he spoke them with a lyrical tone as though a wandering minstrel sang a song but there was a purpose in them. According to the basic galactic language upgrade which had enhanced my consciousness from a peasants family daughter he called himself a box of chatter.

I smiled at his words, at his self-depreciation and sense of humour. The fact that he didn’t originate from a place near the castle was an insight. I wondered what lives the other inhabitants had lived and what histories they had experienced.

‘A chatter box. One who talks and talks because they like it. I like it. What is your name my Seneschal?’ I asked before I had decided to simply shift the room by will.

We could talk further as we entered the holding cell which the Necro-System had provided and according to my will built and supplied with functionality and purpose. I wanted to throw Eike off their feet, to stumble as I had. Although my former Master or Mistress may have encountered a technological wonder in the form of the small crashed spaceship which I had located there had been no bonding. No education.

My immediate surroundings shifted from the luxurious room of a standard High Born Noble Lady to a sterile room. My soft dress remained unchanged as did the clothing of the man who called himself Seneschal. The room itself consisted of a single pair metal interlocking doors with a keypad unit and emergency alarm button set into the wall. The floors and walls were made of a light blue material which was cold to the touch as I found when I reached out a hand.

In the centre of the room there was a large semi-transparent white plastic cube in which a figure sat on the floor, their black robes covered with runes and silver images of bone and skulls.

Turning towards me the man in black held out a hand as though offering me a platter of food and scowled lightly.

‘My Lady. To answer your name, in truth our names and identities were stripped from us. I recall that once I was a servant of a man hailing from a place called the Celestial Empire. But it was a very long time ago. In truth, I cannot recall if it existed on this planet or I was a visitor from a portal in another world. All that matters is that I am your Seneschal. I will guard your Castle of the Damned, maintain authority amongst its servants and obey your wishes. I think that once I used to be an assassin, my body knows skills which were never forgotten over a hundred years of death. But I digress, our...guest here has many, many questions. Time is fluid inside this place. I have tried to talk but...the one called Eike simply screams to obey. Please. Lead us.’

I would tolerate many things, I would make mistakes I knew because of my youth. I was inexperienced in many, many ways but my family had died. Been butchered as had my friends. The villagers who had likely escaped and sought refuge at the ruined castle of the necromancer Eike had not been as lucky as I.

He had used their flesh to create golems, their souls as sacrifices to the statue of the Dark Emperor inside the altar which I had damaged. All in order to create a half-backup of his soul in case his little experiment with the Mining Drone and the resident prototype bonding machine had failed.

‘Seneschal. You will come when I call. You will not sleep or dream but you may return to your duties. I will call you shortly. I will tell you, whether my Ladies and Gentleman of Bone are sleeping, dreaming or awake you will tell them one thing.’

I rubbed my fingers on the soft fabric of my noblewoman’s dress. Beauty, health, finery, a castle of my own and rooms and servants within. No. I would always remember one detail.

The man in black simply turned his gaze towards the figure Eike sitting inside the large plastic semi-transparent cube and I saw his lips purse as a fierce light passed his eyes as he inclined his head ever so slowly and the edges of his mouth began to lift.

He was not a bad man, even if he had been an assassin in his old life. All of his sins had been paid for in a lifetime of undead servitude.

Without turning his attention towards me he simply dropped his gaze to the light blue material which made up the floor and spoke lightly as his black gloved hands clenched tightly.

‘My Lady. I wish to serve. Please speak and I will appear. Impart on me your words so I may share it with the others of your household.’

There were options at my disposal. The Mining Drone had functions, abilities which would appear as magic to the eyes of the uneducated but there was something which had fascinated me and I wanted to deeply apply in real life upon a suitable target.

The adventurers were closing in on the location of the altar to the Dark Emperor, the ruined castle had been set alight and the smoke was noticeable leagues away. I wanted punishment but I needed to learn capabilities further. This artificial reality, this holding cell of a spaceship example prison cell would suffice. And all I needed was a test subject and I was in desperate need of both answers on how the necromancer Eike had dealt with previous adventurers, their strategies and weaknesses.

‘You will tell them this. You are all my Ladies and Gentleman of Bone. I love all of you and I will keep you safe. And before you fade away, a final gift from me. The screams that Eike directed at you will be given back in return.’

I smiled then. Thankful that I had no mirror for I had seen video of what could be done to living flesh with one of the powerful tools at my command. Bodies could be taken apart and rebuilt with sufficient ease and instruction. The fool within the plastic cube, or at least the half-soul which had been stolen by me had thought to use the Mining Drone as a weapon of war when it was capable of so much more when configured to work a device designed to upgrade planetary civilisations.

‘Hello Eike. You don’t recognise me. Necro-System, activate dissembler nano swarm. Target his eyes and then deconstruct and build them a hundred times. Then target his bones. Scream for me Eike. Scream for me as you screamed against one of my workers. One of my beloved of bone.’

I turned off the sound inside the cube and watched the face of the man in black as he gave me a dreadful smile likely mirrored on my own face and he walked out of the double doors of the holding cell after entering a configuration on the keypad next to the door.

Answers would be soon. After all. I had re-assembler swarms as well and a band of adventurers to kill in the real world. I only hoped that the Mining Drone remained safe from harm as it ran autonomously. I would find out soon enough. Time was fluid in this place.