Chapter 21

As it would take some time to clear away the ships strewn over the riverbed, the Sorcerer King and Lady Shalltear returned to the Sorcerous Kingdom to attend to matters there. Though the Water Elemental Monoliths had long advanced downriver, Ludmila did not fly over to watch their progress. It was His Majesty’s excursion, after all – it wouldn’t do to examine their findings ahead of him.

Instead, she remained on her vessel, patiently awaiting his return. An Elder Lich from the Royal Army headquarters would contact her once every thirty minutes for a status update. Otherwise, she was left mostly alone to dwell on His Majesty’s questions and the way in which she had answered them.

I said too much.

Like her friend, Clara, Ludmila had no desire to mince words when it came to matters of crucial importance. Nor would she consider lying to His Majesty over their most recent topic. She would not have answered differently, but that did not mean that regrets were absent in the wake of her reply.

The Sorcerer King surely knew everything she spoke of and more besides. Speaking of histories he was well aware of was akin to relating the tales of a famous figure to the figure himself. She didn’t know what had come over her – the stream of disjointed and poorly-constructed rationale must have sounded laughably inept to His Majesty.

As she agonised over her response and what it might mean for the future, a looming figure drifted into her peripheral vision. At first, she thought it was one of the Elementals, returned for some reason. After looking over, however, she found herself staring at a wall that stood in the water.

Ludmila blinked several times, unsure of what she was looking at. Her eyes followed glowing, wooden boards until they came across a massive hole in the wall. On the other side of its jagged, curled-up edges was what looked like the interior of a building. A number of Wights, Skeleton Mages and Skeleton Warriors looked back at her. Her gaze moved upwards until they found a railing over three metres above the waterline. Behind the railing were three towering masts with tattered sails.

It was a ship – one that she imagined would have been more at home sailing the seas of the world. One that looked to be three times the length of her own.

How the ship stayed afloat in its condition or how its tattered sails could be of any use was beyond her. She scanned the railing until she came across the crimson-eyed gaze of an Undead being, who was looking back down at her. It took less than a second for her to realise that it was not in the form of a Human.

Massive hands ending in sharp claws clutched the railing, and the being itself was a good metre taller than she was. A skeletal frame filled out its tattered brown robes, and its barrel chest made it look more a warrior than anything else. After some thought, Ludmila decided that if it had living flesh, it would have been something like one of the Krkonoše Rangers. A felid-type Beastman, albeit a good metre shorter than the ones living in her demesne.

The skeletal Beastman examined her vessel in return. The points of his eyes moved away from her: over the Death Knights, Death Priests and Vampire Brides in the hold; to the Death Warrior and its Skeleton crew. It then looked to its left and right: to its own crew of Wights, Skeleton Mages and Skeleton Warriors…then its gaze returned to her.

“Mine’s bigger,” it said in a gruff, masculine voice.

“Much bigger,” Ludmila replied diplomatically.

A snort came in response, and the Undead Beastman leaned its elbows on the railing.

“I’ve not seen you around these parts – I’d have certainly remembered such a fine lady if I had. Whose ensign are you flying, miss…”

Ludmila straightened, then lowered her head in a curtsey.

“Apologies for my late introduction,” she said. “Baroness Ludmila Zahradnik, of the Sorcerous Kingdom.”

“Iškur, Captain of the Ruin’s Wake. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Baroness Zahradnik.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Captain Iškur.”

Ludmila smiled up at him, not quite sure what else to say. The Sorcerer King had mentioned something about the vessel’s existence, but she hadn’t expected it to sail right up to her. At least Captain Iškur was polite. He had a polished, charming air to him: one that differed dramatically from the depictions of intelligent Undead in tales. Then again, so did many of the Undead servitors of the Sorcerer King.

“It won’t do to have us talking like this,” he said. “Would you like to come aboard, my lady?”

“You don’t plan on whisking me away somewhere?”

“Perish the thought!” Iškur laughed, “We’re all proper gentlemen here. Besides, those are your Elementals working out there, aren’t they? We wouldn’t get very far if we tried sailing off with you.”

“What makes you think that the Elemental Monoliths are mine?”

“Well, the members of your retinue are too weak to summon those monstrosities, but there’s quite a lot of mana coming off of your esteemed person.”

Iškur could detect mana. Did that mean that, despite his imposing ‘physique’, he was an Elder Lich? A quick assessment put him at around the same level as Nonna. If he had hostile intentions, an Elder Lich probably wouldn’t invite their target into close quarters.

Ludmila activated her hairpin and flew up to join him. The height of the deck offered a commanding view of the surroundings, but the mist still limited her vision.

“Thank you for your invitation, captain.”

“Just Iškur is fine,” he replied, “It’s always good to have visitors from abroad. How far off is this Sorcerous Kingdom that you hail from?”

The Elder Lich’s skeletal tail waved lazily back and forth. He seemed completely at ease…at least if his body language matched that of the living.

“Not far away,” Ludmila said. “Right next door, actually – the border is about two hundred kilometres upriver.”

“Well, that’s grand news!” Iškur exclaimed, “We’ve been surrounded by the living for as long as I can remember, so it’s nice to finally have some proper and friendly neighbours.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

She wondered what he meant by that. Was it the fact that the surrounding nations sent forces to suppress the Undead along their borders? Perhaps, like their mindless counterparts, intelligent Undead who manifested naturally harboured the same views towards the living. Most of the local lore suggested this, though her recent experiences often made her wonder if it was really the case.

“Were you born here?”

“Sure was,” the Elder Lich replied. “I came into being about a hundred and fifty years ago in old Lagaš – the big city just south of here.”

Lagaš. At long last, they had a name.

“The people in the region don’t seem to have any names for the locations in this place,” she said. “It’s just the ‘Katze Plains’ to them. Where did you come across the name of the city?”

“Because I was born here?” He looked at her strangely, “You’re born knowing all sorts of things, right? Like how to cast the spells that you manifested with. Skills and Abilities too. You can’t say you don’t know where you were born, can you?”

Ludmila knew where she had been born as a Human, but that was knowledge gained after she matured enough to communicate. She had no idea what the place she rose as a Revenant was called.

“I was hoping you could shed some light on the history of this place,” she said. “When it was occupied by the living.”

“Ah, I see. Yeah, I get that way sometimes too: you get so focused on figuring something out that everything revolves around it. You don’t look like an Elder Lich, though – I thought that was just something we did.”

“I’m a Revenant.”

“A Revenant…” Iškur tapped his chin with a claw, “I can’t say I’ve heard of those before. Well, not like it’s unexpected. The more powerful Undead get, the less normal they seem to be. There’s a bunch of odd fellows in Corpus, too.”

She furrowed her brow at the unknown reference.

“‘Corpus’?”

“Haven’t heard of them?” The Elder Lich seemed to frown, then shrugged, “Well, I guess we are out on the edge of nowhere. Corpus of the Abyss is a sort of loose association for cognizant Undead. If I understand things correctly, it used to be all hush-hush, but they’ve started branching out to be more...substantial, if you get what I mean. Most of them still stick to their own business, but a handful have gone into some pretty interesting ventures.”

“I wasn’t aware there were any places for the Undead to branch out to.”

“Where there’s life, there’s death, yeah? I wouldn’t be surprised if there are plenty of places like our cosy little home here.”

“So you’re a member of this Corpus of the Abyss?”

“More like a customer. One of their more prominent members founded something like a merchant company. Every five years or so, some of their agents come by to trade. I hear that they’re even willing to deal with the living if you can believe that. There’s another guy that founded some sort of cabal with living members, too. Zur...Zur-something. Strange, huh?”

For an Elder Lich – at least those with whom she was familiar with – Iškur was very chatty. Maybe he was just excited about meeting someone new.

“I suppose it would depend on the living you’re used to dealing with,” she said. “On that note, it’s part of the reason why I’m here. We’re mapping the river’s course and charting a navigable route to the inland sea beyond. Once we’ve established a few things, our nation will be engaging in trade with whoever is willing to deal with us.”

“Interesting…what will you be selling? Magic items? Scrolls? Research materials?”

“That would be up to our merchants,” Ludmila replied. “I assume that they will work with any market that is open to us. Since the nation was founded on an agrarian territory, the bulk of our exports will be grain, lumber, and the like. Undead servitors minimise the cost of labour, so we expect our products to be quite competitive.”

“I see,” Iškur said. “I’m no good at the whole merchant thing, but it does seem like an efficient way to secure resources if you can find someone willing to trade with you. We have to get by on salvage here – those Corpus guys may as well be using Turn Undead on us when they quote their prices.”

Ludmila tried to imagine a cabal of Elder Liches fleeing in terror from a Merchant. So far, Iškur made them seem like normal people…or was that because they were all fellow Undead?

“Things should be looking up in the near future,” she said. “My demesne was quite poor before the Sorcerous Kingdom annexed the territory it was in, and I feel that we’re doing very well for ourselves now. Even knowledge has value, so you may find that you have more to offer than you think.”

“I sure hope that’s the case,” he replied. “We tried that once – trading the hard-earned knowledge from our research. Those Corpus Merchants just turned up their noses like it was all beneath them.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ludmila frowned. “My House has had its share of poor experiences with Merchants.”

Living or Undead, it seemed that there were always those who callously tread on the hard work of others.

“You’re not a Merchant then?”

“House Zahradnik is a militant noble house. Most of my friends are from merchant houses, however. I believe that they can be trusted to conduct business in good faith.”

The Elder Lich paused at that. His tail settled on the deck.

“Friends, huh,” he rubbed his jaw. “It’s strange that we’ve never heard of the Sorcerous Kingdom until now – especially when it’s right next to us. The way you make it sound, the Undead there have had more than enough time to create communities of their own. How long have you been there for now?”

“The Sorcerous Kingdom was founded at the end of this last winter. I was a scion of Re-Estize’s nobility before that.”

Captain Iškur crossed his arms over his ribcage. He tilted his gaze upwards, leaning one way, then the other.

“I’ll admit that I’m getting slightly confused. As far as I know, Re-Estize is a Human nation – one of the ones that keep sending pesky Adventurers into the plains.”

“That’s right.”

“And they just happened to have a bunch of Undead aristocrats?”

“Ah, no, I was a Human until recently.”

Iškur scratched his bare skull with a clawed hand.

“So this ‘Sorcerous Kingdom’ took the land from Re-Estize a bit over half a year ago.”

“Yes.”

“I think I get it. Are Revenants a species of intelligent Undead that can turn others into more of themselves, like Vampires?”

“Not that I know of,” Ludmila said. “My liege is a Vampire, but she had nothing to do with my Undead state. The vast majority of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s subjects number amongst the living. The friends that I spoke of were friends that I made when I was a Human.”

The Elder Lich put his hands on his hips, blowing out a sigh.

“Well, now I’m just plain confused. Did someone rewrite the rules of the world while I wasn’t looking?”

“…is that even possible?”

“There is strong circumstantial evidence that points to it happening at least once in the past. Erm, that’s not one of those bits of knowledge I can sell, is it?”

“I have no idea.”

Perhaps His Majesty would be interested, but it was something that amounted to a useless piece of trivia for most.

“Hmm…I suppose this discussion should be left for later. Now that we know about each other, will the Sorcerous Kingdom be sending someone who is authorised to negotiate on its behalf?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Ludmila replied. “He should be returning soon.”