"Then, that will have to do. Although my... formula is strong. Still, I am a man of great means. I can afford to replace my equipment from time to time. I'll take it. What is your asking price, and How long will it be before it will be ready?" The necromancer was a shrewd customer indeed.
Cassia had been listening in on the conversation the whole time. Strutting into the room, she became suspicious of the man's motives. "Why exactly do you need this... item?"
"Dear girl, some things are best left unspoken. You would not understand if I told you." The necromancer worried about what might happen next. At the very least, he would have to give a long explanation, if he was lucky. If he was not lucky, it could come to blows.
"And what is that supposed to mean? You think I don't know about the undead? I used to fight them back in my early days as an adventurer." Cassia had fought low-level undead, largely created by weaker necromancers. A half-powered skeleton was not a major threat, although it was quite a scary thing.
"Ah, then surely you must know the majesty of it. To be able to give new life to what was once dead and gone. The power it gives you... it is truly a thing of beauty. To be like a god... it is a grandeur beyond your comprehension."
"Your ideas about beauty and what really IS beautiful are two very different things!" Cassia was starting to get a little upset. She had lost friends and allies to the undead before, and while a deal or two with a necromancer was one thing, she did not want to think that anyone should actually help these dark mages propagate their "art."
For his part, the necromancer did not appear angry, or if he was in fact mad, he did not show it. "I did not expect you to understand. I was unsure of it at first, back when I was an apprentice. My master was a strict man, and he did not tolerate my pathetic squeamishness. The first conjuring was hard, and I nearly passed out when I saw my first zombie. The second time was easier, though, and the third conjuration was even easier than that. A few times later, it was like casting any other spell, although this one came with benefits..."
"What do you mean by 'benefits'?" Cassia truly hoped it did not mean what she thought it did.
"Oh, dear girl, you mustn't think that I use the undead for... intimate purposes. No, of course not! My wife would kill me if I did, and it is a sick thing to do in any case, dear gods! I mean to say that the undead can be used as soldiers, guards, servants, what have you. They can work all day, never complain, and I don't have to pay them anything. What more could a lord possibly desire?"
Cassia was taken aback, not at the fact that the necromancer was married, but that he was a noble. "You... are of high birth?"
"Hardly. I gained my title from the king of my land. He granted it to me not out of lineage or favoritism, but out of the usefulness he saw in me. You see, in my country, a king's army is made up of his own men, but that is rarely sufficient by itself. No. A king needs the armed support of his vassals, of which I am one... for now. The prospect of forces who never bleed, can march day and night, never desert from battle, and can fight until they fall apart is a most appealing one to a monarch who is always busy fighting wars."
The female equine was starting to piece together the situation. A noble who raised the dead, a king who fought wars all the time, an army made of living and undead troops. The next logical question was-
"Why is your king fighting so many wars?" Cassia asked him.
The necromancer looked at her, weighing the situation. If he had told someone who was able to get to his lands, it might make a difference. He had nothing to gain by telling her, but he might lose the confidence of the male whom he needed the tube from.
"The king is challenged from within and without. Enemy armies covet his soil, and many of the nobility do not support his policies on taxation and his open-mindedness towards practitioners of my kind."
Crossing her arms, the female equine could see it clearly now. "The king is a tyrant who consorts with dark mages and fights against his own people? I think I know what is going on here. Why should we help you?"
"It is not as simple as you make it sound, girl. Yes, it is true that I am a mage who practices spells and rituals that are not allowed in most countries, and that many people distrust me for it. This is not in question. However, the situation is more complex than that. If you would give me a moment, I will explain."
"Oh, this will be good." Cassia's eyes lit up in anticipation of what she expected to be a tale full of euphemisms for all sorts of evil deeds.
"My name is... well, names are not important. I can tell you where I am from, though. I hail from the land of Dhara. Does that ring a bell?"
"I've heard of that land, but do not know much about it. I know enough to tell that it doesn't have a strong tradition of dark magic; none of the lands in that part of the world tolerate it."
"What you say is true, girl. They do not, in fact, allow it. At least, not formally. By law, it is illegal, though the king of Dhara can grant a dispensation in extraordinary circumstances, so that I may continue sending undying armies."
"He lets you raise the dead just to help him. I see where this is going. Tyrants are the same everywhere." Cassia's words were true, although...
"The king is not a tyrant in the sense of your kings in these lands. No, he is not a despot, for an autocrat does not need the consent of the nobility to pass taxes or to declare war. At least, not normally."
"Has he done these things without the nobles's consent?"
"Yes. He had no choice. The royal coffers need cash to raise armies and resist foreign invaders... and to take back what is rightfully our land. We lost a series of wars about a century back, and with them, about a third of our country. The king wishes to reclaim our territory, but his wars did not proceed as planned. Several foreign states have allied against us, and now, instead of reclaiming our lands, we could lose our very independence."
"Oh? And only you can prevent that with your undead armies? Is that it? Do you expect me to believe that?" Cassia could not believe it.
"What you believe and what is true are two very different things, girl. So far, my forces have given the kingdom of Dhara enough manpower to hold off the enemy. With every battle , our numbers increase... or at least, they used to, until the enemies began burning the corpses every time they won a fight. I have not been able to raise as many undead as I would like to. So, I need to make them individually more powerful. To that end, I have concocted a formula which will double their strength and speed, and yet I need to find a way to inject it into them. The containers I have which hold the formula are ancient and their craftsmanship is unknown in my land."
"If that's the case, how did you get them?" Alima interjected into the conversation, curious to find out what was going on.
"I... inherited them from my old master when he died."
"Did you kill him?" Alima asked, as if it was a perfectly innocent question.
"Yes. I did. It was either me or him. That is our way. My useful life to him was at an end. He had gotten all of the grunt work from me that he could squeeze, and my power was rapidly approaching the point that I might be a threat. At least, that's what he thought. I had already been a threat months before he took measures to remove me."
"What exactly did he try to do to "remove you"? Cassia queried.
"He sent several heavily-armed undead to kill me before raising my corpse. They were past apprentices of his, and I was going to be added to their numbers. My survival was a close thing, I confess. The spell I used to take control of the undead did not work as well as I had thought it would. Still, it worked, although my success depended on my master's overconfidence. He thought he could simply send the undead after me while he slept. I sent them back to him before he woke. I think you can figure out the rest."
"So, why did you come to the Dracon lands?" Alima did not connect the dots, although Cassia did.
"The quality of Dracon metalwork is famous. No... not famous, it is revered. Your desert lands have almost every kind of metal and ore known to mankind, and many that are unknown to mankind as well. Naturally, this would be my first stop on the path to finding a tool that I could not acquire anywhere else."
Cassia turned to the one who would be making the tube in the first place. "Torvin, what do you think of all this?"
