by J. Carrarn
"Go back to our quarters. I will find you there. The one who starts absorbing mana before I get back will lose an arm," the red and black leader said, without a trace of emotion. The others nodded, and after a moment of inspecting them, he turned and disappeared into one of the hallways.
Sig watched as the other skeletons followed the balcony to the end and up a staircase, before disappearing through another door. He waited until he could no longer hear their footsteps and then floated down to the balcony. Listening carefully, he hovered before the doorway the leader had entered, and looked inside.
It was a long hallway with many doors lining it. Between the doors were bone arms attached to the walls, their hands holding up more of the red orbs. He watched the skeleton march to the end, where a winding staircase led up. As soon as he was out of sight, Sig floated into the corridor. The doors were all closed, and he heard the soft sounds of talking and snoring coming from inside.
Reaching the foot of the stairs, he heard a loud thudding that revealed where the skeleton was, and with a last look back to be sure he wasn't being followed, Sig headed up. He made sure to keep a good distance between him and the other.
There were no windows in the tower, and the spiral of stairs seemed to climb up forever. Any attempt to phase through the walls failed, so he continued climbing, slowly beginning to get worried. If something went wrong, he wouldn't be able to flee. Wary, he let the distance between himself and his quarry increase.
After what felt like ages, the skeleton's thudding footsteps changed direction, moving off to the side before stopping. Sig flowed up slowly and on guard.
The stairs came to an abrupt end at a small archway that led into a narrow chamber. It was longer than it was wide, with benches lining either side. The lead skeleton sat on a bench, staring at the long end of the room. Sig peeked around the corner and saw a door at the other end of the chamber. It had red glowing eye-sockets and a skeletal mouth that seemed to be embedded in the flat bone surface.
An emotionless voice echoed out from the skeletal mouth. "Descrat. You may enter. Her highness Scathia will see you now."
Descrat got up and stomped to the door that opened before he got there. Sig saw a glimpse of a large multi-level room, filled with softly glowing red orbs and large black rugs on the ground. Something moved inside, but before he could see what it was, Descrat blocked his view, and then the door silently closed.
Sig turned away, floating back down the tower stairs. He had seen enough, and it would be foolish to stay. The entire top of the tower was sealed, without a single window or crack, and he couldn't phase through any of the walls.
No, sticking around here would be much too dangerous. Best get back to the others, he thought as he imagined being stuck here without a way out.
The only way to get to Scathia would be to come back during the day. From what he had managed to glean from his last visit, "her highness" would be seated on the large throne, commanding her empire of the undead. That would leave the space at the top of the tower empty, or at least without her in it, making discovering what lay hidden inside that much easier.
Halfway down the tower, soft footsteps echoed up the stairs. Sig shot up against the curved ceiling and spread himself as thinly as he could, making the particles that made up his cloudy wraith form resemble a shadow. Then he closed his eyes tightly, to hide their telltale red glow.
The thudding came closer and then moved under him. He had no idea what it was that gave him away, but suddenly a soft voice hissed.
"Who's there?"
Sig's eyes shot open, and he saw a small zombie with long grey hair turn to him. Its green eyes widened as it raised its hands that held something. Before it could raise the alarm, Sig engulfed the zombie. He felt it thrashing around inside him and was sorely tempted to end it. After another second, he decided against it and flowed further down, ignoring the zombie's attempts to claw free. No longer able to keep to himself compact, he now filled the entire winding staircase as he flowed down the last steps.
It was quiet at the bottom, the doors were still closed, and the orbs shone brightly in the dimness of the hallway. Slowly, and keeping his attention on the doors, Sig flowed to the end of the corridor.
Almost at the exit, he heard a soft muttering come from the right of the balcony. Taking a quick look and being careful to keep as much of himself hidden as possible, he saw two yellow zombies with green plates on their arms and lower body move toward him. Annoyed at this setback, he flowed back into the hallway and listened at the first door to his left. He couldn't hear any speaking or snoring coming from the other side, and pushed against the door. It opened silently, and he quickly moved inside. An incredibly fat zombie lay sprawled out on a bone bed in the corner, a green bubble of snot growing and shrinking from his nose as it snored softly. There were three more unoccupied beds in the room, but other than that, it was sparsely furnished.
Sig closed the door and waited. The footsteps entered the corridor and stopped in front of the door. Hovering behind the door, his cloud form as flat against the wall as he could manage, he watched the door open.
The two zombies entered, chatting softly. As soon as they closed the door, they noticed Sig.
This is becoming tedious. Sig thought as he surged forward, engulfing both zombies. Again he felt the two struggling forms inside, but like the first, they couldn't escape. Not unless he let them. After a little while, the struggling abated, and the two seemed to fall into a stupor.
Filling half the room now, Sig looked at the zombie on the bed. It hadn't moved, and only the bubble of snot at its nose was still growing and shrinking steadily.
Sig left the room, closing the door carefully behind him. He was now far larger than he'd like, filling the corridor. If anyone happened to run into him now, it would look like the passage had been swallowed by a sentient cloud with burning red eyes.
He quickly scanned the balcony and the vast throne room for movement. Seeing no one, he surged toward the exit as fast as he could. The extra weight was making him slower than he liked. As soon as he passed through the entrance he shot out and straight up into the air. His best bet would be to stay as high up as possible. He had learned that most undead never looked up at the sky.
The trip back to the center of the city took a lot longer than the way to the spire. He could feel the drain on his mana-field caused by hauling his three captives with him. When he reached the quarters where the others were still waiting for him, he floated down and through the small windows. A startled gasp informed him that someone was still awake.
From the corner of the room, Tirella stared at him. Her pupilless black eyes still unsettled him, as black as a starless night and lacking any trace of emotion.
"I've got three zombies here. Get ready to silence them, but don't end them," he said softly.
It took only a moment, then Tirella's eyes narrowed, and she nodded. She got up, moving beside Sig.
"Alright, ready," she said, her eyes focused on the middle of Sig.
Sig's wraith form coalesced into his solid shape, and three figures flopped down in the middle of the room. Sig was now standing directly in the middle of the room, and he jumped the first zombie that he had captured in the tower. Before he could even move to the other two, Tirella had them both; a hand wrapped tightly around their lower jaws. Stone grew from two bracelets around her wrists and locked around the struggling zombies' mouths. Gagged, they couldn't speak, but that wouldn't help for long.
"What's going on?" Tatjie scrambled up, waking Derin in the process. The purple-skinned undead groaned as he got up. When he saw the three zombies, he froze, and the lines across his skin glowed a bright blue, illuminating the room in an icy glow.
Sig ignored them. He knew the zombies would start using voiceless speech soon, and he hissed, trying to take a threatening pose like he had seen Solus do on occasion.
"Speak, and I will end you!"
Not sure he would impress them enough, he partially changed b
ack to his cloud shape, growing larger while his eyes turned a bright burning red.
The three zombies stared at the enormous hulking black thing and nodded without making a sound.
Sig pointed at the one he had captured going up the stairs toward Scathia.
"Why were you going up to Scathia?"
A soft, disembodied voice answered. "To inform her of the status at the dig site."
The dig site, Sig thought. He didn't know that much about it, only that there were always undead going there. Deciding to get the other to tell him all it knew later, he looked at the other two.
"And who are you?"
One of the zombies glared at him, and a harsh voice was projected from it.
"Why should we tell you?"
Tirella stepped forward before Sig could reply and put a hand on the zombie.
"Speak," she commanded simply.
The zombie's yellow, murky eyes turned unfocused as he stared at the wall. "We are sphere hunters."
Staring at Tirella, Sig shivered.
She's dangerous, he thought, realizing that now he had yet another thing to worry about. Not for the first time, he wished that Solus was here.
"What are the spheres for?" he said, focusing on the harsh sounding zombie.
It didn't reply, wrinkles appearing on his forehead. Tirella frowned.
"Speak!" she said again, more forcefully this time.
"The cartographers need them to complete the map."
The zombie's voice sounded strained, and his eyes narrowed.
"What maps?" Sig quickly asked.
This time the zombie visibly strained, his muscles bulging. The yellow plates covering his body started to glow. A soft howling filled the room.
Tirella put both her hands around his head, staring straight into his eyes. The zombie went slack, and the howling faded away.
"What are the maps?" she hissed.
The second zombie, now released, didn't move and just stared at what was happening. Derin, Tatjie, and Sig all had looks of amazement and fear on their faces.
"Maps of the surrounding lands, showing all the areas dense with bone-matter."
"Where are they?" Tirella demanded, throbbing veins appearing on her hands.
"In the lowest room of Cranium-spire." A little yellow drool leaked from the zombie's mouth, and he began to shiver.
Tirella turned to Sig, her lips a tight line. "She has done something with him to stop him from talking. I can feel a foreign influence in his mind. We might be able to ask one or two more questions before his mind caves in."
It took a moment for Sig to gather his senses, and then he nodded. "One more question, then we go to the other one."
"Why does Scathia want the maps?"
The zombie's eyes widened, fear appearing on what was visible of his face. Then he went slack, dangling in Tirella's hand, a yellow liquid drooling from his mouth.
"He is gone," Tirella said, putting the body down. With distaste on her face, she turned to Sig. "Someone had somehow placed a lock on his mind."
Confused, Sig tried to understand what she meant.
"Is he ended?" Derin asked from the side, his eyes on the zombie and a look of fear on his face.
"No," Tirella said. "His mind is gone, cracked and fading from the pressure. He might return to a wanderer state or eventually just crumble to dust."
It was quiet in the room, even the other two zombies staring wide-eyed in fear at their fallen companion.
Sig turned to the other two. "Are they the same?"
Tirella focused on the other zombie with yellow plates beside her. The zombie moaned and backed up, but she grabbed his arm. A second later, she released it and stepped to Sig, putting her hand on the one he held.
"Yes… both are the same," she said with a shiver.
"Then we had better think about asking them the right questions," Sig said after a moment.
A stunned silence fell as five pairs of eyes stared at him—two in fear, three in shock.
—
When the first morning light came through the window, three unmoving bodies lay in the center of the room. Sig was silently staring through the window, lost in thought.
Below, the square was bustling, with undead moving out of their quarters and toward the corridors and alleys leading into the city. Dozens of footsteps and voices echoed up to their room.
"So… what do we bloody do now? Back to Skulltown?" Tatjie asked, staring at the bodies.
"We can't. We still don't know how to close the rifts, remember?" Derin replied, his eyes on Tirella, who sat against the wall with a weary expression on her face.
"Well, does it seem likely Scathia will tell us?" Tatjie grunted, waving at the corpses. "You heard them. Bile and grime… she is planning to conquer the entire world!"
"Why, though?" Tirella asked softly. It was the first thing she had said after the third zombie had slipped from her grasp.
Tatjie turned to Tirella. "Huh?"
"Why does she want control over all the undead?"
"How should I know?" Tatjie scowled. "And what does it even matter..."
"Somebody has noticed the missing zombies," Sig said sharply.
The rest took a moment to realize what he meant, and then they scrambled to the window.
Two dozen green-skinned, yellow plated zombies marched down the staircase from the spire. They were almost like exact copies of each other and similar to the two that now lay mind-broken and unmoving in their room. All, except for one.
In the lead was a small black zombie with neat white bone armor and an odd faceplate. It was the most sophisticated and detailed thing Sig had ever seen, and it looked surreal compared to the ragtag undead that moved through the square below the staircase.
"Everybody, stop moving!" the small black zombie cried, striding toward the middle of the square.
"Last night, someone entered The Litch Queen's tower and abducted some of her servants! Open your doors and stand back! Resist, and you will be thrown into the mines… forever!"
"Bile and vomit, now what do we do?" Tatjie said.
Sig fell silent. Since arriving, he had acted as he thought Solus or Drys would have, but now? He could end these guards; he was sure of that, but then what? Take everybody and flee out of the city without finding out how to stop the rifts? How would he explain that to Solus?
The group of undead marched into a building, the previous occupants watching from the side. They were inside for a moment before stamping back out and toward the next one.
"We need to get out of here and hide," Derin said. "After they stop searching, we wait a day, and then we go and see Scathia."
The others looked at him, and he shrugged.
"I've got no idea where!"
As the stomping got closer, Tirella sighed. "I've got an idea. But you're probably not going to like it much."
Tatjie laughed. "It can't be worse than being caught, can it? Even if they don't end us, they will probably toss us into those nasty mines."
Tirella just looked at her with a sly smile.
"Ohhhh," Derin uttered as a grin came to his face.
Meanwhile
Enthrill lay sprawled over one of the chairs in the hall of patterns, following Drys with his green eyes as the other paced up and down the room. A host of tall stone and bone tablets filled the room, each inscribed with a pattern.
"Why are you so nervous? We haven't seen a single rift or any Kaots in days!" he asked in a deep booming voice belying his thin green torso. Enthrill's arms, which were much thicker than his upper body, hung from the sides of the chair. He was slowly tapping the ground with his massive knuckles.
"I know, but something feels off."
"Are you still worried about those missing mana-orbs? If you want, I can head out and harvest some more."
"No, and no. The loss isn't the problem. The problem is the fact that somebody managed to sneak inside and take them without anybody noticing."
"Sig could have done that
easily."
Drys frowned at this, his sharp grey face growing even more angular. "Or someone with similar powers… I've locked that pattern away for a long time, and with good reason. Sig is the only one I gave it to, and the only other one who would be able to inscribe it is Solus."
Footsteps echoed up from a winding bone staircase in the middle of the room, and Drys swirled around. A group of three thin zombies, each carrying a book, ran into the room.
"Three Librarians…" Entrhil whispered in awe.
"You've evolved! Wonderful!" Drys beamed as he stepped forward eagerly. The thin, lithe zombies held out their books. Taking one, he removed a page, stowing it inside his bone chest plate.
"Alright, divide the rest of the pages between the guard towers," Drys ordered.
He turned to Enthrill, who was staring at him with a curious look.
"Follow them, and send out some fast scouts to the outposts on the hills between us and the other cities. Make sure that every outpost has at least one."
He hadn't even finished when Enthrill got up from the chair and made to follow the Libra zombies. Before descending the stairs, Enthrill turned back to face Drys.
"I thought you had lost the Libra pattern after the battle of Skulltown?"
"I did, but that AI, Domain, taught me some new tricks. Soon, there will be many new patterns available in the hall."
"I don't trust that thing… something about it is... off," Enthrill said as he turned and ambled awkwardly down the stairs. His knuckles dragged behind him on the ground, thudding every time they fell down a step.
Drys walked over to an empty bone tablet, as tall as him and twice as wide. Picking up a wyrm tooth, he stood staring at the tablet for a while, deep in thought.
"Neither do I…" he said finally, before starting to draw lines in quick, fluid succession.
—
A blue-glowing skeleton rushed along a narrow path. The glow from within its plated rib cage illuminated the darkness around it. To its left lay a vast, dense forest of bone, while on its right was a large, deep ravine. The ravine's stone edges were cracked and crumbling and had reached the edge of the forest a little way ahead.