A flash of white exploded from the suddenly animated ancient as she felt the unexplainable need to skip rather than walk as she neared her favourite thing. Behind the petite undead, a blast of air closed the door behind her right before running into Iris. In an instant, her cheek felt warm as she nuzzled against her creation feeling finally at peace from the illogical reality ruling everywhere outside of the door behind her.
The humans had a weird way of understanding magic, thinking the ritual rather than the manipulation of mana was the reason why the spell existed. To Kia's great confusion, the humans were not ignorant of either the system or the existence of mana which caused the ancient a headache as she tried to come to the same conclusion as the living. In truth, it did not matter if a mage snapped their fingers, waved their hands or simply thought about a spell as long as the impulse was great enough for the soul to start doing its work with the System working as a sort of catalyst handing the soul a prepared list of things it could do. Basing the entire theory of magic on the presumption that the ritual in it of itself held any sort of arcane power was flawed. It wasn't completely wrong as the System in its strange ways the Tyrant of Necropolis couldn't comprehend did make exceptions. The rite in which she used Iris's soul as an Anchor to remain outside of her domain was an example of a tradition so old the System simply gave it power.
Unfortunately for humans, such examples seemed to be sparsely sprinkled through the different elements. Their belief greatly simplified how magic actually works but at the same time, the humans seemed obsessed with learning by repeating complicated series of hand motions which, paradoxically enough made their simplified system of belief harder to learn for them than the ancient expected.
This is why they have to cheat so much!
"I could get used to this." The voice of her creation pulled the necromancer from her thoughts.
Kia didn't recall when Iris had sat down on a couch nor how she had already climbed on top of her throne's lap but she wasn't about to complain as she made sure the taller undead couldn't stand up and leave her.
Without realising the cold as ice girl rested her head against the elf and felt something vibrate inside her neck causing a noise Iris called a purr to escape her lips. She couldn't understand why her body was making this particular noise but she felt like it was the correct thing to do while she watched Iris gazing at her from above. The thoughts, always passing through her mind with incredible speed slowed down and gave way to the hum as Kia felt Iris's hand on her back.
"How was your day, Kia?" Her creation asked before the mage's mind drifted away into a sunny meadow, in a calm measured voice.
"It was good." The ancient replied, her cheek glued onto the risen's shoulder.
"I'm happy to hear that." She felt her creation's lips curl into a small smile.
"...What is that paper?" After taking a properly comfortable position on her warm throne the undead mage noticed a piece of paper lying on the table next to them. She extended her arm and pointed two fingers at the paper, causing it to levitate toward her while surrounded by a halo of dim light.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"This?" Iris reached for the floating letter, causing her creator to huff loudly as the gentle feeling of the risen's fingers running through her hair momentarily stopped. "... I wanted to talk about this with you, Kia." She said after quickly scanning the letter's contents.
"Hmmm?"
"Kia, did something happen yesterday?" The elf asked. "I had seen that the windows near our room had disappeared.
"I... I don't remember."
“Are you sure?”
“No.” The ancient felt strange as she failed to answer her creation’s question. She couldn’t understand why her body turned stiff, unable to obey her mental commands or why she was unable to hold Iris’s stare, needing to turn her head away as her cheek felt cold.
“…” Her throne exhaled loudly causing Kia to start wondering about the risen anatomy given the frequency at which her throne did this. Turning her attention somewhere else only caused the necromancer to feel an even stronger need to make the small upside-down smile on Iris’s face to flip over.
Wait, she is meant to make me happy not the other way around! And why am I also breathing, it must be her fault.
“Kia please when you use spells make sure there are no expansive crystal windows nearby… actually try to not use spells near expansive objects while we are here,” Her creation said and the ancient listened closely. When in Iris’s house, do as Iris do. She nodded. “Unless it’s for self-defence then ignore what I said.” Iris quickly added after a moment of watching the ancient.
“But it was self-defence.” Kia suddenly remembered an annoying human lowering onto one knee in front of her.
“Kia, didn’t you say you didn’t remember what happened?”
“But I remember a human with long hair kneeling in front of me and asking me to take her as a servant, she was super annoying.” The ancient recalled while also remembering the touch of the metal gauntlet on her hand while she blasted the human.
“I see…” Iris had raised her eyebrow as her creator spoke which dropped into a low frown as Kia absentmindedly caressed her palm. Kia felt something disappear from her throne as dark predatory bloodlust leaked into the link they shared. The petite undead uselessly exhaled air out of her body as she felt Iris’s gaze no longer linger on her.
“I’m going to return to that later but for now I want to tell you something," Iris said while waving the unfamiliar envelope. "We were fined by the mages one hundred and eighty gold to forgive whatever might have happened between you and that knight."
"What do we do now?" Kia asked as she sensed in her creation's mind that the sum of tribute asked by the humans was enormous.
"Pay of course, we have enough but this will wipe out most of our savings." The risen spoke in a calm measured voice while also stroking Kia's hair. "But that is not what I wanted to talk about."
"Than about what?" The ancient struggled to think of something more important than paying off such a huge tribute, especially when she couldn't sense any desire to murder the human to whom they owed the tribute to, proving that the debt was invalid by invoking the Right of Power and Prowess.
"I wanted to ask you how would you feel if I started going to the city and-"
"Are you leaving me? Iris, I'm very sor-" The ancient felt something grab her soul while she struggled to speak imagining herself abandoned for what had she done by her favourite creation.
"Kia it is rude to interrupt while another is speaking," The tight hold something dark had on Kia's soul couldn't compare to the force she felt when Iris gently pressed her finger against her lips. "I'm very happy to see that you care about my companionship as much as I do but let me finish. I wanted to start going to the city and work as an adventurer."
"But why?" The pale girl said. "I don't understand."
"Didn't you say that you want me to get more powerful? I would have an opportunity to level up and earn some change while doing so. Also, staying in a room like this reminds me of something I don't want to." The tall risen continued to speak in her voice which sounded so warm to the cold-undead that she was afraid of drifting away while her creation spoke to her.
"B-but you will come back to me?" The Tyrant of Necropolis's fingers curled up around the plain dress her risen wore as she spoke.
"Of course Kia," Iris responded, her words coming out as a half giggle finding her creator's words amusing. " I will be sure to only take quests I would be certain of completing in a day, hopefully before your arrival. Where else could I find such an adorable kitten?"
"Iris!?" The girl lost balance as the elf's supporting arms abandoned their duties and attacked her nape. A loud laughter reverberated through the room as the arcane caster tried powerlessly to fight off the predator on top of her.