As they got closer to the camp where the rebellion was waiting out their siege, the smell of rotten flesh grew stronger and stronger, to a point where Anastacia started to wish she had a mask too. Just before she reached the top of the last little hill they had to hike over, Anastacia started to feel the presence of hundreds of necromancers in front of them. Most of them were at least competent to a point where it would take more than a handful of warriors to take them out, but amongst them were dozens of more powerful ones. Once she was able to see the entire camp from the hill, she realized that there were way more capable necromancers out there than she had assumed, and the army Coquelicot had put together was probably the most dangerous thing in the world at the time. Though it still barely looked like an army, all of them did have the usual black uniforms, but almost nothing else; no weapons, no armor, no banners or flags anywhere, just a lot of pale people sitting around and probably thinking about skeletons.
“The world would be a better place if I just attacked them now.” She mumbled and stared into the distance over the camp. “This is the Mournvalley I know and despise.”
“Yeah, they are more like the ones you know.” Periwinkle admitted.
“Be honest, do you think it’s a good idea to let Coquelicot run the show here?” Anastacia asked.
The inquisitor stayed silent for a while and stared into the sky above them. “It’s the least bad option of a bunch of terrible options we have…” He laughed. “While we might not be quite as messed up as you think, necromancers and regular people don’t mix well at all, but maybe in the future if we get lucky. If Mournvalley was left without a leader everyone respects, necromancers would spread outside our borders way too quickly and run into all kinds of conflicts. It wouldn’t take long before a lot of people would get killed and they would actually have a reason to hate us. Coquelicot plans on getting us out there, but at a controlled pace and hopefully earn us a bit better reputation.”
“If you say so. Don’t make me regret this.” Anastacia sighed and started walking towards the camp.
As she got closer, more and more necromancers started to notice her, and the previously almost quiet camp started to show some signs of life. A few necromancers came up to meet her, but Anastacia glared at them before just rudely walking past. No one seemed to have any idea how to welcome her, as she was not an inquisitor or any of the other officer of the rebellion, but she dwarfed all of them with her presence. So it was unclear if she was to be considered a superior since the rankings in the rebellion were largely based on strength, or if she should just be taken to Coquelicot. A few of them had correctly guessed Anastacia’s identity and weren’t entirely sure whether she was on their side at all since they didn’t know she opposed the old ways, but they were calmed by the sight of the inquisitor accompanying her.
Anastacia stopped when she was almost surrounded by the rebellion’s soldiers and looked around for Coquelicot.
After the initial confusion, the army reached a conclusion on the matter and suddenly kneeled to the violet-cloaked necromancer.
Slightly surprised and confused, Anastacia turned to Periwinkle only to receive an equally confused shrug. She figured that she needed to say something and cleared her throat. “Fuck all of you. I was guilt tripped and blackmailed into coming here and finish this bullshit. I couldn’t care less if all of you died horribly but looks like that won’t happen today.” She said and flipped the bird to the utterly baffled army. “Now can someone tell me where Coquelicot is?”
After a brief and extremely awkward moment of silence, a path towards one of the tents by the edge of the camp started to open between the kneeling necromancers.
As they walked past the ranks, the necromancers around Anastacia kneeled even deeper, no doubt equally from respect and fear now, but another thing Periwinkle noticed was that those among the soldiers that had the gift of being able to work with still living matter, stared at King with their eyes full of terror and fear. No doubt this was the first time they saw something that was so lifelike, yet something they could do nothing to. Having been at the unfortunate end of the simulacrum’s massive sword recently, it was a feeling he understood well.
Anastacia could already feel Coquelicot’s presence in a large blue tent that had been set up at one end of the camp, as far from the castle as possible. There was still at least four kilometers between it and the camp, but the leader of the rebellion was no doubt nervous about Amaranth somehow gaining control of her arms and stayed as far away as possible while still remaining effective.
She peeked into the tent and was greeted by the familiar stern look of the new high inquisitor.
Coquelicot sat behind a table that had a map of the area open on it while using two of her skeletal hands to move around small stones on it, the other four slowly repeated a set of four different poses behind her for some reason. “She’s trying to take them, moving them helps me to remain in control.” She explained pithily and pointed at another chair on Anastacia’s side of the table. “Sit, we have lots to discuss.”
Anastacia did as she was asked and told King to stand guard outside.
Suddenly Periwinkle stepped in and bowed deep to his superior. “I’ve carried out the mission you’ve given me, fetched Anastacia and done what I can to make her train.” He reported without raising his head.
“I can see that, you aren’t needed here.” Coquelicot stated coldly, visibly disgusted by the masked necromancer and stared at him until he left the tent.
“Wow, you’re harsh on him. He’s a total shit but still… Wow.” Anastacia pointed out and put her feet on the table.
“He’s just so… I don’t know, he just reminds me of someone and I’m trying to take over a country here, so I don’t need that right now.” The high inquisitor said and laughed dryly. “I see he at least managed to teach you something, you’re becoming quite frightening these days. I do hope that you haven’t changed your mind about not wanting anything to do with us once we’re done here.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Anastacia grinned. “I want even less to do with you assholes than ever.”
“Good, let us start then. It’s getting late and I’d rather want to know if you can do this before it gets dark. If you fail, I have to send a message to Madame Sanguine about reinforcements and to be honest I do not want to deal with her right now.” Coquelicot said, took out a small pouch from one of the drawers of the table and put something from it in her mouth before tossing the pouch on the table.
“Madame Sanguine, you’ve managed to drag her into this?” Anastacia asked and grabbed the pouch to see what was in it.
Madame Sanguine was supposedly a powerful necromancer that resided in a cavern in northern Mournvalley, far away from anything important. She was an enigmatic character barely anyone had seen and even fewer lived to tell others about it. There were multiple rumors about her floating around, like how she was at least five hundred years old and never aged, or that she wasn’t actually a necromancer, but simply had the same abilities despite being something entirely different. She had been completely uninterested in the cult’s matters, and after many failed attempts to contact her, the royals just gave up, and by the days before the rebellion, Madame Sanguine had fallen into obscurity and legend, to a point where Anastacia only knew about her because she was mentioned in a few books.
“I gave the undesirables to her, together they can gather all the meat they want and roll around in it for all I care. They still agreed to clean bones for us and this way I don’t have to deal with those lunatics on my own.” Coquelicot shrugged and circled the area where Madame Sanguine resided in on the map with her finger. “Letting the world see them wouldn’t do us any favors either.”
Anastacia was digging through the pouch to see what was in it. She took out a small round candy and rolled it between her fingers.
“These are amazing, it’s like eating pure sugar.” The high necromancer said with something resembling excitement in her voice. “The whole rebellion was worth it just because we can now import these.”
“Yeah, candies are great. Did you know there’s a whole bunch of different kinds? I haven’t had the time to try all of them, but so far all of them have been mind-blowing.” Anastacia joined in on the excitement. “There’s ones that taste like strawberries, apples, mint… oh and toffee! You need to try toffee, it’s really annoying to eat because it sticks to your teeth, but it’s basically just edible happiness.”
The two of them got caught up in a conversation about different foods Anastacia had discovered in the outside world and which of them Coquelicot should consider importing later. It may have taken a bit longer than what conversation about sweets between two of the most powerful necromancers in the world, that were supposed to be discussing matters that would probably end up changing the world should have taken, but both of them certainly needed a small break.
Coquelicot cleared her throat and placed a small stone on the map in front of her. “So, like I was saying… Let’s get started. The castle is there and we’re over here, the distance between us and Amaranth is roughly four thousand two hundred and twelve meters, according to our scouts. Any closer than this runs the risk of being attacked by anything that was stored in the collection hall of the castle and even now we’ve been forced to leave behind the collections in our possession, though there are still some conventional weaponry in the storage tent in case we need them. Besides the obvious, there aren’t really any other threats left in the castle though, and with the rest of the red inquisition dead, only a fraction of the collection can be used by the people inside at once, so expect the biggest and the meanest ones they have. We’ve taken out whatever she has thrown at us, but she’s clearly been saving some just for you.”
“Yay.” Anastacia commented and took a better look at the map. She could use the main road to the castle to cross the river and avoid any other difficult terrain between the camp and the castle. There was no point in trying to be sneaky since Amaranth had probably been keeping track of her for a while already, so just waltzing to the gates and kicking them down would have to do.
Coquelicot took out a drawing of the castle entrance and crossed two spots on it. “You can drop the drawbridge by cutting the chains from these points, just use any piece of bone you find along the way. Or just swim and go through a wall, up to you.” She explained.
“Yeah, I don’t think getting there is the problem here though. How do I kill Amaranth, and can I even do it?” Anastacia asked and pushed aside the drawing.
Coquelicot closed her eyes and moved her arms around for a while, measuring Anastacia’s progress and readiness for the task at hand. “In your current state, she won’t stand a chance if you just make it into the castle. Though you’re still a moron, so keep the simulacrum close and protect it, he can make sure no one tries anything dirty.” She said and smiled with what appeared to be genuine confidence in their plan for the day. “The scouts say that she appears to be waiting for you on the rooftop garden.”
Anastacia went through the areas of the castle she knew in her mind, but that didn’t sound at all familiar. “There’s a rooftop garden?”
After rubbing her brow and mumbling something under her breath, Coquelicot looked through some blueprints she had gathered, but they clearly offered no help. “Just find a staircase and go up, okay?” She said and tossed the papers off the table.
Anastacia nodded and gave a quick thumbs up to the high necromancer.
Coquelicot got up, walked around the table to grab Anastacia by the sides of her face and stared straight into her eyes. “Before you go, there’s one thing you must understand: this is not a rescue mission, we are here to kill everyone in there. No matter who or how much anyone begs for your help, do not take their side. After my scouts confirm that Amaranth is gone, we will go in and kill every man, woman and child in there – aside from you of course.” She stated as clearly as she could before letting go. “That is if you don’t kill them first, this is your last chance at a revenge after all.”
Anastacia nodded, she had no interest in saving anyone, nor did she particularly want to go out of her way to kill them. She would just have to wing it and see if someone was in the way too much. She got up as well and was about to leave but turned around by the door. “There’s something I need to ask you.” She said and slipped on the topaz ring from her pocket to guarantee Coquelicot’s next answer would be an honest one. “Am I going to die today?”
Coquelicot seemed surprised by the question. “I do not know. If you do, it will not be by my command.” She answered.
“Thanks.” Anastacia nodded and left the tent.
As soon as she stepped back into the light of the setting sun, she noticed the cause of her concern over her own life, staring right at her from the distance. On top of the hill she had climbed over to get to the camp, stood nine menacing figures. Clothed with the same shade of blue as Periwinkle, the remaining members of the new inquisition waited, more than likely just to make sure Anastacia was aware of their presence and that they had not forgotten about Alice.
Though their leader had given her word and promised not to attack Anastacia, it remained to be seen if all nine inquisitors were as loyal to her as they were supposed to be.
Anastacia sighed and tapped King on the back. “Let’s go then. I want to show you my room and maybe set it on fire… again.”