Hunter led the group back to the tower with a haul from the village. Volodar left behind some of the bandit’s gear and valuables at the request of Adelia, but a sizeable haul was still obtained, nonetheless. The tower appeared the same as always, its damaged exterior standing as a broken bulwark in this clearing.
Volodar headed towards the tower, “I will leave my forces in your hands Hunter. I must start immediately on the new ideas that I have. I need you to bring back flesh for my experiments as well. Animals will suffice in that regard.”
“Yes, sire,” Hunter responded with a bow of the head. “I will issue orders to them at once.”
Volodar assented as he continued into the tower, which was eerily quiet at the moment. A voice could be heard coming down the stairs, “Volodar, you are back in one piece!”
“I have returned, Lucas. What is the state of the tower?”
Lucas placed his palms out in an extravagant manner as he received the lord of the tower back home. “Nothing of too much worth happened, my lord. The only thing that was mildly entertaining was that some goblinoids made their way from the surrounding mountains found themselves surveying this tower.”
“Goblinoids,” Volodar paused with a pensive look, “why did they come down the mountain range. It happened once when I was a child as well if I recall.”
“Yes, my lord, your memory remains as sharp as ever. I hid you away at the time and told you the teachings of your father. Goblins only ever bear banners and organize once a chieftain leads their ranks. It means that the tribes are united once more.”
Adelia whispered to Volodar, “My lord, is it possible to negotiate with one of these tribes?”
“Perhaps,” Volodar said slowly, “goblins have always been known as conniving and weak from what I’ve known personally, but that is general knowledge.”
Hunter gazed in from the entranceway, listening to the conversation. “I believe,” Hunter cleared his voice, “that the goblins won’t be able to reason with someone as grand as yourself. They won’t have the intelligence.”
“I see,” Volodar paused, “either way it goes, this doesn’t help me at the moment. We will strike if they strike and bide our time until then. I believe I’m on the verge of a breakthrough here in the defensive dark arts.”
With that, Volodar took his leave back into the hatch as Adelia attempted to follow. Lucas placed his arm out to stop her as she looked him in the eyes. “You better tell me girl, what’s your plan here. You’re a simple maid who has slight proficiency in being a needleworker. I told you before to not play games with the master’s mind. I am not to be left as some sentinel of some damned tower!”
Lucas’ eyes flared red as he went to grab her hand. In response, Hunter grabbed the wrist of Lucas and spoke with his raspy voice. “You are not his servant, Lucas. Do not touch what isn’t yours. Do this again and the master will be served your head next time.”
Adelia looked surprised as Lucas pulled back his arm and responded, “A mere fucking ghoul presumes to tell me what I can and cannot do? I am a vampire from the house of Oriynore! I raised that boy at his father’s request, I have domain over that boy. How dare you be this insolent.”
Hunter looked unfazed as he turned towards Adelia, “This dog is all bark, go to the master and attend him. I’ll figure this out.”
“Thank you,” Adelia whispered as she went into the hatch and chased after Volodar who was already in the process of getting his books from his satchel.
Volodar spoke in a monotone manner as he removed the items from his bag, “I have studied necromantic bloodlines since my childhood, and I feel that I have learnt more by interacting with others than I have through studying.” Adelia was caught off guard as her racing heart from the prior events settled down in his presence. However, Volodar continued with his line of thought, “We have much to experiment with, Adelia.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Time would pass as Volodar would test his gradual growth in that ritual room. The time needed for his incantations became faster as he trained by using them. Adelia would watch on as he would perform new rituals and spells. It was obvious when one wouldn’t work as nothing would happen or his hands would swirl with black color only to dissipate. Trial and error were the processes that lead to success.
In that vein, Hunter would bring back the corpses of wolves and deer from the surrounding forests. Volodar would raise the wolves as part of his army, however, the deer were butchered as he brought the meat into the ritual room. Volodar would take the mass of flesh and try to place them together, pouring dark energies with the fleshy mass.
Even Volodar took a step back as one of these masses failed to rise once more. The skeleton drew its blade and took Adelia behind itself. The failed creation of flesh rose to one knee before collapsing in on itself, gargling before silence filled the room. Volodar kicked the floor in rage, “Damn it. Damn it.”
Adelia waved her hands a bit, “Master, it’s okay. That one was almost a success, it kneeled and tried to speak.”
Volodar sighed and went back to the mass on the floor, ordering the skeleton to assist him in moving it back to the center. “I will raise this as my own body double. I have not trained as a crafter of corpses for my entire life to be bested by the unknown.” Stepping towards the mass, Volodar tried a different approach. He placed his right hand upon the creature. Dark tendrils extending in a multitude of ways off his hand went into the chest of the creature. He looked towards Adelia, “If I succeed, this creature will have the ability to appear just the way I am. I’m sure that this will eat most of my energy.”
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“Mold your flesh to my image and be mine to command. I grant you the name Doppel, rise and be mine for eternity.” The lights of the room shimmered, and the candles were blown out, leaving only the magical lights within the room. Darkness swirled for a moment before being absorbed into the mass of flesh that appeared to be seven feet in size.
What used to surprise Adelia and send shivers down through her spine no longer impacted her as harshly. Instead of watching through fear, she watched with wonder as the magic moved. This creature was a sight to behold. The energy that poured into this creature was enough to remind her of how she felt the first time she casted her weak cantrips.
Adelia and the skeleton brought Volodar to his chair, where he watched as the mass of flesh shuddered and stood upright. The head of the creature almost reaching the height of the dugout ceiling.
It kneeled before Volodar as a voice echoed from within the creature, “Life, Life everlasting. Thank you for this honor.”
Volodar stared at the creature and spoke to no one in particular, “I’m unsure what it knows as I imparted a small part of my soul within him. Please assist him if he lacks any knowledge. It will take me a while to recover from this.”
Doppel seized the opportunity to respond, “I see small fragments of a past you lived, my lord.” The creature had two holes for eyes that were hollow and nothing else that constituted a face. Simply a booming voice that echoed from around the creature.
Volodar spoke in a tired, yet firm manner. “Doppel, I made you with a purpose in mind. Transform into me if you could.” The body of flesh morphed as it looked like a twin of Volodar in front of him. Volodar stood up and grabbed the chin of the doppelganger as he moved it left to right. “This,” Volodar said, “is uncanny to say the least. How do you feel Doppel?”
Doppel spoke without hesitation, “I feel joy when I am near you, my lord.”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I need to know if you are structurally sound.”
It clasped over its body and looked back to Volodar, “I am a perfect creation, no faults could lie in a creation of yours.” Volodar frowned and leaned back into the chair once more.
“We will talk at lengths later about your strengths and weaknesses, but revert to your old form for now and introduce yourself to my other creations. They will know you’re mine. Introduce yourself to Hunter in particular.”
Its voice trailed off as it stood to leave, “As you wish, lord.” It ducked under the door to exit the room as its body struggled to move through the halls. Adelia looked out the door and watched as the creature struggled to escape.
“You may need a larger hallway, my lord,” Adelia jested.
“I may,” Volodar’s said in a disinterested tone, “I need you to leave the room for a minute, skeleton. Stop anyone from entering the room.”
The skeleton followed the order as it left the room with Adelia in tow. “Not you, Adelia. I want you to stay for a moment.”
Adelia paused as she looked back towards Volodar and nodded affirmatively. Once the ramshackle door was closed, Volodar looked over Adelia and silence fell over the room. Volodar cleared his voice as he spoke, “Lucas has taught me many things about the outside world, however, it’s clear to me that some of my understandings are incorrect. How do you think I operate with the common folk?”
“Well,” Adelia shuffled her hands a bit, “I mean no offense at all my lord, but you lack what is normally called common sense.”
Volodar gave a small chuckle, “I lack common sense. You’re the only one whose said that to me so far.” The corners of his lips raised slightly. “Do go on though, tell me what you think I should’ve done differently.”
“Sir,” Adelia’s mind wracked with past events, “you should try to not reanimate the dead in front of the common folk. It scares peoples and they have been told that necromancers were evil their entire lives. They don’t know you like I do.”
“I see, Lucas told me that it was a sign of strength to reanimate the dead in front of others. He told me that my father would do so frequently.”
Adelia’s eyes seemed to light up, “Lucas is misguided, master. I believe that the reason he wanted me here in the first place is to give you the perspective of the living. I didn’t know how to show you what we were like because you should’ve known yourself. You’re not dead.”
Volodar looked towards her, “I have been feeling something lately, so I believe that you are doing your job. There’s this feeling I get like now, when a ritual succeeds, or I learn something about necromancy that I knew not before. I have felt this in other ways, though. I felt that way when I saw my creations perform well at Tamarak, as well.”
Adelia paused, unable to find the correct words for the situation. “That feeling you feel, it could be happiness,” her voice trailed off as she walked towards Volodar. She knelt by his side and grabbed his hands, “I believe that you’ve made wonderful progress so far and I want to be by your side as you go even farther.”
“And you will,” Volodar states, “one doesn’t easily dissociate from a necromancer once they have been claimed.” Volodar rose from his chair and walked towards the door, “I believe we have a doppelganger to examine.”
Adelia’s perked up as she followed closely behind Volodar, “Yes, my lord.”
It didn’t take long for Doppel to appear as his large stature was outside talking with Hunter. They both bowed in respect to Volodar as he approached. “I take it that you guys have gotten acquainted?”
Hunter laughed, “Yes, my lord. It seems we may have more in common than not. Very robust, he can take quite the beating.”
Volodar furrowed his brow to this, “Be gentle with him. I designed him as a body double for when I need to attend events or create a diversion. I don’t know if he can cast any magic though. Maybe since he has a part of me powering him, he could in theory.” Volodar jostled in his bag as he directed Doppel in what to do. They performed the ritual and the gem had faint black energies swirling within its blue mass. “Okay,” Volodar said, “he does have an aptitude for petty necromancy. I don’t know entirely what applications this could be useful for. Perhaps weakening someone or perhaps with my skill, he can master the creation of minor undead.”
Silence permeated the group for a moment as Volodar’s eyes widened. “I know just the thing that we could do. Lucas said that we were scouted by the goblinoids. This is good news. We will speak to them in person and make their intentions in my domain clear. Should they refuse and attack us, Doppel will have a nice training session one on one with me.”
Doppel fell to one knee as his voice echoed, “I would be honored to train with the master.”
“You too, Adelia,” Volodar added, “I may not be able to assist with your life magic, but we can put that cantrip to good use during this trip.
Adelia seemed playful as she walked alongside him, “I would like that, very much.”
“Good. Let’s pay the goblins a visit, shall we.”