When Katani’s lantern flickered it sent a short burst of fear through his heart.
He knew in his head that if it went out he could snap his fingers and two gnolls would come in an instant, bearing more lanterns or whatever he might need. Whatever could be had in the kingdom.
It was a small kingdom, though, so many things that were not yet within his reach. Security, for one. Raids from smaller gnoll clans had all but stopped since they had raised the walls and — more importantly — bought or plundered the crystals of what used to be the nearby clans.
It had been a virtuous cycle while it was happening: a clan raids, their members die, and then the kingdom keeps their crystals. The crystal respawns a gnoll, level 1 and without knowledge, which the kingdom educates to be a good citizen. Thus each raid grew his kingdom.
The clans had been angry at first. It was customary to return the crystals after a battle, and his refusal to do so brought much consternation. The tribes had even banded together for a large assault that nearly ruined his nascent kingdom, but they did not have the secrets of organization: their coalition fell apart. Now the leaders of that assault were his loyal subjects, respawned and trained in how to best serve their new nation.
Not every victory, however, was that permanent.
He peered into the prison’s depths, the pit with steep sides and spiked room, and in the lantern’s dim light he could see the drying ockdine husks. Dozens of them kept in a dry grave, desiccated bodies dying mere days after they revived.
When an ockdine respawned from its crystal it was moist and vibrant, and made attempt after attempt to escape, running into the spiked ceiling with ferocity and confusion. It would try to grasp the spikes, but would inevitably slip and fall back down. Then the lack of water crippled it, affecting first its ability to climb the walls and then its ability to even move. The last day was spent in hellish agony as lack of water led the ockdine’s physical body to crumble and leave only their soul.
A mere hours later the process would begin once more.
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Why did the ockdine keep sending soldiers to their deaths? To an eternity in torment? That was like sending a gnoll to fight in the water, where each revival was a drowning… except the suffering here was far more drawn out.
Perhaps they thought to rescue their fallen brethren? But no, it was the attacks that led to these suffering prisoners, and even then they’d gone after the humans instead of trying to find the ockdine that had disappeared.
What was it about the humans that was so dangerous? The humans had strange powers, yes, but why risk so much to destroy the power? Why did the ockdine not seek instead to make that power their own?
Katani wished he could speak their language, just for a moment, so that he could ask them what they were thinking putting both of their respective kingdoms at so much risk. One moved and made a sound in its soft bubbling speech, a sound as loud as a cough — practically a scream for them.
“I’m sorry,” he said to the prisoner. “I know it’s not fair. I know you don’t even remember attacking us.“
He backed away from the pit then went up the stairs, extinguishing his torch at the top and letting the guards lock the door securely behind him. His palace, aside from the one room, was filled with happy sights: experimental magic, his growing army, and weapon production facilities that were just about ready.
It was early days for each of these pursuits, and they were focused on military preparedness by necessity, but soon that necessity would be eliminated. Soon he would have the crystals of the outer tribes and they would respawn as loyal subjects, trained to fight for the glory of gnoll-kind. Soon their borders would be secured and they would be able to defend against the Great Civilizations.
With security achieved, they would begin the truly epic task: discovery.
How to better work the earth.
How to expand to the water and the sky.
Most importantly, how to fully retain memories, levels, and skills after a respawn ceremony.
An immortal kingdom.
He would share his discoveries with the other races, if they cooperated sufficiently. He felt no need to kill or destroy without purpose. He’d hoped the humans would be the first such race to benefit, as the human question weighed heavily on the greatest minds of this world, but their souls were still elusive.
Without control over their respawns it would be impossible to integrate the humans into his kingdom.
Well, they would start over. They would train someone to replace Nakat — maybe multiple someones — and be sure to apply even greater psychological controls than before.
Until they found the humans’ crystals the experiments would continue.