It didn’t happen the next day, or even the day after that, but it wasn’t long before a new problem did eventually show up.

Eugene watched the unknown group approach the city wall under the cover of darkness. Not that it mattered. One of the patrols had spotted this group hours ago and had alerted him with a runner. The reason Eugene knew this group was up to no good was the fact that they were cloaked in invisibility as well as concealment from undead.

Not that it did them any good though. Norman had managed to convince Nolia to fund five devices that could cut through magical concealment. It probably helped that her lifemate Saliu was on the team that constructed the devices. Eugene was sure he made a tidy little profit from the venture. He didn’t mind that, everyone needed to make a living.

It only took a few days for the team led by Saliu to construct the devices and Eugene assigned one to each gate leading into the city. They now had two gates. The main gate and one to the North. There was a discussion about adding a third but Eugene was trying to prevent that from happening until more guards were trained up.

It was hard enough keeping two gates staffed all the time with Death Knights. But once the new guards were trained up, he could reduce the number of knights at each gate and replace them with twice their number of normal guards. He really wished this group of refugees had come with classers. It would have made his job much easier. But life didn’t always give you what you wished for.

The third and fourth devices were assigned to patrols outside the city. And the fifth and last device was kept in reserve in case one of the other ones was broken or lost.

He put the device, which resembled simple binoculars, to his eyes and watched as the group moved into the trap he had set.

Once they were in place, he nodded toward Norman. “They’re in position.”

***

Norman acknowledged Eugene even though he could already see the enemies were in position thanks to his amulet. But he wanted to keep the properties of his amulet a secret. Norman squeezed down on the bone held in his hand and it crumbled to dust.

About a hundred yards from the wall, a red glow raced across the ground, highlighting the lines of a spell. Norman could see the startled response from this unknown group as they tried to flee the area of his spell, but they were already too late. It was his first test of the modified mana vacuum and he was curious to see the results.

The Mana Vacuum was so powerful, it dragged the people closer to the center as it tried to absorb all of the ambient mana in the area and that included the air. Since Norman hadn’t added any external constraint to the spell, it just kept pulling.

One of the people in the group shoved his hand into the ground and was able to arrest his pull toward the violently swirling sphere at the center of the spell. Norman pointed him out to Eugene. “Looks like at least one with a calling.”

Eugene nodded in response.

Soon the spell reached capacity, leaving this unknown group completely exposed. Norman had added the reactor symbol to the spell to prevent an explosion. That along with a gate would allow the mana to slowly release back into the environment over the next few hours. It wasn’t an ideal solution but Norman wanted prisoners if possible, not a massive explosion outside the walls of Ashvale.

The group was quick to recover, but not quick enough. Two squads of Death Knights had already surrounded them and were moving in to capture or kill. Norman didn’t particularly care which method they employed. The knights practically appeared from the dark landscape thanks to their armor so the unknown enemy didn’t notice them until it was too late.

One of the people pulled something off his belt and chucked it at the Knights. There was a popping sound and Norman realized the person had thrown a grenade. There was even a burst of automatic gunfire from another, but it seemed like the other four unknown individuals had no way to attack. Norman thought they might be mages. And without mana, they were left defenseless.

The Death Knights did not go easy on these attackers as they barrelled through the bullets and into melee range where a quick but violent exchange took place. The three with guns were quickly dispatched and the other four were captured and secured via mana-absorbing cuffs. Norman couldn’t take credit for the design of the cuffs, those had been Grobert’s project after he learned Norman had stolen one of the orbs from the gron. Grobert was more impressed than he was mad at Norman’s theft.

At the time Grobert learned he had the sphere, Norman hadn’t been able to duplicate the magitech on his own. Now though, Norman probably could. Only the orb had been stolen by the Brotherhood along with everything else of value. And Norman hadn’t spent enough time studying it to remember its pathways. But Grobert did remember how they worked. He agreed to create the cuffs but refused to disclose the methods they used to function as they did. He said if Norman could figure it out, that was different. But Grobert didn’t make it easy on him.

The cuffs worked similarly to the silver balls the gron used to remove spells because they contained a similar sphere inside of them. The magic of the cuffs forced the wearer to grip the magical sphere in the center, preventing them from recovering mana or casting spells. There were so many false paths in the orb structure that Norman had given up trying to decipher them for now. He had more important things to do than try to pick apart Grobert’s little puzzle.

He watched dispassionately as the bodies were stored and the prisoners were marched toward the barracks where cells had been built. They had come to cause harm to his people and his city, they no longer had any right to his mercy.

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“Shall we go say hi to our new guests?”

Eugene gestured toward the stairs leading off the rampart and Norman followed him.

They didn’t immediately go to speak with the prisoners. The first thing Norman did was inspect the three corpses.

It didn’t take long to notice the abundance of tattoo’s the three had. “Prison tats?” Norman asked.

Eugene leaned in for a closer look. “Some of them. The rest are gang tattoos. I don’t recognize any of the gangs though, so they were probably small-time ones. Early reports indicate that the Southern California area may be controlled by the gangs.”

Norman only nodded since they weren’t in a secure room to discuss their spies and what they were able to uncover about the situation in California.

He put off questioning the souls of the dead men and moved to another room. Norman took a seat at a table and Eugene hovered in the corner near the door. Soon a human woman was brought in and forced into a chair across from him. Her cuffs were magically drawn to a thin metal plate on the table in front of her, effectively immobilizing her.

Norman could see the defiance in the woman’s eyes. He supposed it made sense. Without his armor, he probably looked like some weak little bureaucrat. He decided to play off of that assumption.

“Greetings. My name is Norman, may I have yours?”

Instead of answering, the woman hocked a glob of spit his way. It never made it to him of course. The wad of phlegm impacted an invisible field of magic separating the two halves of the table.

Norman quirked his eyebrow at the woman, not bothered by her display. “Shall I mark your name down as spitty?”

Seeing as her token of resistance had no effect, she slumped back in her chair and refused to speak. That didn’t stop Norman from trying to question her.

He started off with simple things, name, rank, origin, age… that one almost got her to say something but she managed to stop herself. Norman smiled, which seemed to irritate the taciturn woman.

“Sensitive about that subject are we?”

“Fuck you, you undead piece of shit!”

Norman cheered internally. His goal wasn’t to get answers, not yet anyway, but to get her to talk. And he was good at getting women to talk to him.

He questioned her for another thirty minutes but the woman quickly realized what he was trying to do and refused to speak further. It was only when the guard came to remove her that she had any outward reaction. As she turned around, she saw Eugene silently standing in the corner and nearly screamed.

After the woman was led out, Norman turned toward Eugene. “What do you suppose that reaction was all about?”

“Not sure. Maybe I reminded her of someone?”

Norman made a mental note of that and had the guard bring in the next prisoner.

All of the prisoners were tight-lipped, but every half hour, Norman brought in the next. Then he repeated this, over and over and over again, not giving the prisoners any time to rest or relax. He was undead, he didn’t need sleep or rest.

It took four days of constantly interrupted sleep for the first prisoner to crack.

“Shut the fuck up and let me sleep!” the man cried.

“I will let you sleep, as soon as you answer my questions.”

The man broke down in sobs but Norman ignored him. “Name?”

“Donny,” the man replied, sounding defeated.

“Why did you come here, Donny?”

“We were tasked with killing the leadership and sowing chaos.”

“Why?”

“To prevent you from supplying the Council with more undead.”

“Who told you that we supply the Council with undead?”

“I don’t know,” the man sobbed, “I only knew what our orders were.”

“And who issued you these orders?”

“Commander Alvarez.”

“Who is Commander Alvarez?”

The man was like a broken dam after Norman finally got his name. Unfortunately, he didn’t know much. But Norman now understood a bit about how the Southern California Alliance worked. They did indeed employ the gangs, but it wasn’t voluntary, they were pressed into service. Used as shock troops against the hordes of undead that hounded their northern border.

Commander Alvarez was a military officer that had been stationed in Southern California prior to the fall, but he wasn’t the one in charge. Donny didn’t know who was. He was just part of a strike team sent to eliminate high-value enemy targets.

Going by the fact that Donny’s group wasn’t ex-military and had no military training, Norman suspected they were more along the lines of a sacrificial force meant to test his defenses. He told Eugene as much after he dispatched the man.

After removing the corpse, they brought in the next person. The three remaining people soon realized they were being called up quicker than they were before and one by one, their iron will started to evaporate and they all spilled their guts.

The first woman he had spoken to was the last to break.

“Evelynn, this doesn’t have to be so difficult, just tell me what I want to know, and you can go.”

“Yeah, like how you let the others go. Fuck you. I know you killed them.”

Norman just shrugged. “What would you have done in my situation? Some unknown group attempts to enter your town with the intent to kill your leaders and cause chaos. Would you simply… let them go so they could try again?”

Evelynn squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. “You’re one to talk. Your undead have killed thousands.”

Norman shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of this news, but whoever fed your leadership that story was lying. Our leadership has never set foot in Council territory, nor would we ever agree to supply them with undead.”

“That’s a lie! You lie!”

“I’m afraid it’s the truth. Why would I have to lie to you? But do you know why I know it’s the truth?”

Evelynn didn’t respond but Norman continued anyway. “It’s because I’m the leader here. And I don’t treat in mindless undead.”

She scoffed at him, “Oh, yeah, then what about him?” She jerked her head toward the corner Eugene was standing in.

“Fuck you, Lady. I have more of a mind than you do.” Evelynn jumped at Eugene’s words. Had she really thought Eugene was a mindless undead this entire time? He supposed it would explain her initial reaction.

After Eugene’s comment, the woman sagged in her seat, looking defeated. “Just kill me and get this over with, I’m so fucking tired.”

Norman once again shook his head. “I’m not going to kill you, Evelynn. What would be the point? Your leadership would just try and send another team. Maybe a capable one this time.” She growled at Norman calling her team incapable, but she couldn’t deny they had failed. “No, I’m going to send you back, so you can deliver them a message.”

“What message?” She asked in exhaustion.

Norman leaned forward. “Stay. The. Fuck. Out. Of. My. Territory.”

With those words relayed to the woman, Norman stood and smoothed out his suit. “Take her back to her cell, and give her some food. Once she is rested and recovered, have a squad of Knights convey her to the border.” Norman turned back toward Evelynn and she flinched away from him. “If I ever see you within my borders again, you will beg for death, am I clear?”

She nodded quickly, not looking Norman in the eyes.

Satisfied that he had gotten his point across, Norman walked out of the room. He was tired, hungry, and annoyed by this constant low-level harassment of his people. It was time for him to take a more proactive approach.