“Please do not assume. To do so would only make asses out of you and me.” - Old Ptolodeccan saying.

One often faulty preconception or assumption that people had about necromancers was the expectation that they were specialists.

Such an assumption came to be due to how most necromancers favor a specific approach in the use of their talents, and in most cases, would rarely be seen using it in different manners. Those who favor using their necromancy to animate entire hordes of undead would do so whenever they could, while those who favored fewer but higher powered undead would similarly follow their own approach.

In truth, however, most necromancers – at least the ones from the Lichdom – had learned how to tackle various problems using different approaches where necessary. It was only later in life that they would typically specialize in certain approaches they favored over the rest. Even so, the skills they had learned wouldn’t be forgotten just like that.

Case in point, an agent who trained with the Death’s Hand like Eilonwy would be familiar with various techniques that she could perform using her necromancy, even if her preferred approach was to use her elite skeletal minions to fight for her. It was one such technique she used to find the young Emir’s older brother in his hiding spot.

Even before the three of them left the city, Eilonwy had sent out flying undead messengers that flew towards the eight cardinal directions with Shahadur as the center. Each of the undead messengers carried half a dozen tiny undead constructs that resembled spiders at a glance. They were so small that most people would never suspect them for what they actually were.

Each time one of the flying messengers notices a suspicious point or enemy base, it would drop one of the tiny spiders. The tiny construct would float gently down due to its miniscule weight, and Eilonwy would be able to “see” through it to check out the location from afar. Such a technique was difficult and quite mana-intensive to perform, but for Eilonwy, who was used to delicately controlling eleven minions simultaneously in close combat, it was easy enough to do.

It should be noted that even when some necromancers controlled hordes of hundreds of undead, they almost never directly controlled them, as instead they gave “directions” towards their undead, which followed pre-set commands already part of the spell used to reanimate them. The fighting capability of such undead, which moved poorly as they only followed pre-set commands, were poor at best, but they come in such large numbers as to overrun that weakness by sheer quantity.

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In contrast, those who controlled their undead minions directly like a puppeteer moves their puppets would be able to have far greater control, which made their minions far deadlier in battle. It was typically only done for higher-grade undead, however, and most necromancers split the difference by giving more focus to higher grade undead under their command while the majority received only directions.

Someone like Eilonwy who was used to practically splitting her mind into twelve parts – eleven to control her undead minions and one for her own body – would find it trivial to split her attention to even more parts when it was only for minor commands and observation. The greater distance involved ate up her mana, but the smaller constructs consume much less compared to her usual high-grade minions that it more than evened out.

As a result, even before the three departed from Shahadur, Eilonwy had already located where the Emir’s older brother hid himself. Conveniently, his hideout was to the north-east, whereas their own next destination was to the Saran Khanate further to the north. Once Eilonwy had discovered the hideout, she had dropped several more of the tiny constructs to keep watch around the area while she recalled the flying messengers.

The three headed straight towards where the Emir’s older brother hid himself, which was not within a military base or the like, but a town under his control near the northern border of the Emirate’s territory. In a way it was indeed a far safer hiding spot, as it would have been difficult for even Zayid’s assassins to find him there, if they could even get that far into enemy territory.

What he did not expect was that it rendered him more vulnerable to Aideen’s trio than if he had hidden himself in one of the military camps belonging to his forces.

Aideen, Kino, and Eilonwy traveled discreetly towards the town the Emir’s elder brother was hidden in, and while the other two girls kept watch for her, Aideen snuck into the mansion where the man was hiding. It didn’t take her long to understand why the man had hidden himself there instead of a safer military camp. The Emir’s older brother clearly enjoyed his worldly pleasures, if his corpulent form was an indication. He also clearly had a very active night life, as evidenced by the three exhausted women who laid asleep haphazardly in his room, all of them completely naked.

It would be easy enough for Aideen to end the man’s life on the spot with a strike of her staff, but that would be a too-obvious assassination. The insinuation that the young Emir would resort to assassins might have repercussions in the future, even if the act was completely justified. As such, she opted for a different approach.

Aideen gently touched the man and worked her magic on his body, subtle alterations that the sleeping man never even noticed at all. She did not do much overall, as she merely made some minor adjustments on the man’s already unhealthy body to achieve the result she wanted before leaving as quietly as she came. The Emir’s older brother looked no worse for wear in her departure, but the “gift” she left him would likely assert itself soon enough.

She had merely thinned the walls of the blood vessels at certain vital areas of the man’s brain so that the next time he was excited and had his blood pumping vigorously for a prolonged period of time, like when he next embraced a woman, for example, they would rupture from the pressure. Usually such ruptures would result in strokes, which varied greatly in effect, but if the rupture happened where Aideen set it to take place, it would almost certainly be a fatal one.

The only thing Aideen felt sorry for was the unpleasant surprise and trauma she might have inadvertently caused one of the women.