Defiant Necromancer (Book 2 stubbed)

Tybalt and Vidalia floated over the capital city of Enh, at night.

“I know this place,” the necromancer said.

“Yep,” Vidalia replied with a quiet smile. “I sense our target is in there.”

She pointed at a large, ornate building that Tybalt almost felt like he recognized.

No, I know it. I’ve only seen it from a distance, never been there, but I know it.

“The Great Temple,” he said quietly. “I… couldn’t afford to make the offerings to even enter. So I kind of avoided it whenever I passed through the capital. I never saw it in person, always stuck to the working class parts of the city…”

He remembered how that had felt. One needed money to be closer to the gods.

The foxgirl ran a hand down his arm, rubbing the skin as if she wanted to comfort him.

“Remember, everything in this world will belong to you, my future king,” she said quietly. “I was just reminding you to stay grounded, humble - but not too humble, all right? This place is beneath you. It will be dust under your feet, or a temple to Lord Mudo, or a house for all your mistresses, whatever you want it to be.”

He smiled and took her hand.

“All right, I guess we’ll see what my mighty will arranges,” he said.

Their eyes were drawn to a specific room. A dusky-skinned woman had just moved through the space in front of a large, open window. She was barely clothed in thin bed silks, but she walked with an air of authority. A large canopy bed could be seen in the background, but the woman herself drew all Tybalt’s attention.

Beautiful. That was the first word that came to mind. Then came the obvious association. She looked much like Samara, but a few years older, an inch or so shorter, and she moved differently. Whereas Samara seemed a bit insecure, the High Priestess of Astara - for so she must have been - walked with assurance and a bit of swagger.

She turned to face the window from a frontal angle, and suddenly, he recognized her.

“She was in my dreams,” he murmured.

Vidalia nodded. “The ones where she tries to torture you, yes. I remember. I’m surprised you took so long to notice.” Her voice took on a teasing edge. “Did you get distracted?”

“Whatever.” He reached a hand down and squeezed his fiancee’s ass. “Behave yourself.”

“As you wish, my future king. I won’t comment on my love ogling other women. You look wherever you want.”

He quietly laughed.

The woman they were watching was very appealing - easily one of the most beautiful he’d ever seen, with an hourglass figure, a flat stomach, intense eyes, full lips - a lot of traits that were pleasant to look at. But he was surrounded by beauties all the time now. He really wasn’t getting distracted.

“I don’t think she’s my type,” the necromancer said after a moment, recalling the High Priestess castrating him in a dream. “Too violent.”

“You could fix her, though,” Vidalia said, smirking. “Break her. Like Samara. I’ll help. It’ll be a fun weekend project.”

He moved his grip from the ass he’d been fondling and clasped hands with Vidalia.

“How do you make debauchery sound so wholesome?”

“I learned it from you.” She shook her head with an expression of faux dismay. “You have thoroughly corrupted me.”

“Or been corrupted by you.”

She raised an eyebrow at that.

“I was literally an innocent, untouched, unkissed virgin when you met me. Now you have me planning all sorts of strange escapades… all to keep my future husband’s attention.”

“You do it because you like it,” he replied instantly, unmoved.

“I love it, but I do it because I know you like it.”

Their attention jumped to the room again as the High Priestess walked to the door of her chamber. She banged loudly on the wood.

“I will have audience with Duke Giovanni!” she called, her voice almost a roar.

The door opened, and Tybalt saw that two guards stood there. From their uniforms, they were the Royal Army.

Not temple servants? What’s going on? Aren’t the Army forbidden to set foot inside the Temple unless they’re invited?

But she certainly didn’t seem happy to see them.

“The Grand Duke will have you, when and how and if he wants you,” one of the guards said, looking the priestess up and down with a leer. He gave a mocking bow. “If that is convenient for Your Holiness.”

“It is emphatically not- ” the High Priestess began.

The door slammed shut in her face, making her stumble back.

“I could destroy this whole piece of shit city with a flick of my wrist!” she shouted, priestly decorum abandoned. “You are going to draw the wrath of the Goddess!”

But there was no further reaction from the other side of the door.

After a few seconds of standing there fuming impotently, she went to her bed and laid down.

“That’s interesting,” Tybalt said.

“Seems like some conflict in the enemy faction,” Vidalia observed.

“Yeah, and hopefully it lasts. While we’re here, let’s scope out the Temple’s interior…”

He floated closer and pressed forward, moving through the open window. Then he felt a wall of resistance. His head began to pound, and it grew worse until he moved backward again.

“Another place that’s warded against our entry,” Vidalia said, looking annoyed.

“No big deal,” Tybalt said quietly. “Take us to the next place, then.”

The foxgirl nodded.

The world faded to black.

Then a scene formed, of an army fording a river.

Their armor and spear points glistened as they moved in lockstep. Thousands of men of various ethnicities in iron.

Tybalt’s eyes widened. He immediately knew what he was seeing. The troops were unmistakable, since their skins were all different shades, the Empire having been forged by one people conquering all the different groups around them.

The Walian Empire had advanced beyond their fortress at Kraznot. They were crossing the river that had once formed the barrier between Niet and Walia - except that the land around that river had been seized by Niet decades ago, so in practice, they were already inside Nietian territory.

“With those numbers, this isn’t a minor border incursion,” Tybalt muttered.

“Significant threats, you requested,” Vidalia said into his ear. “Significant threat, I have delivered.”

“Not to me, but to the Kingdom,” the necromancer said. “Hmm. Um, right?”

The foxgirl shrugged. “It depends on how we play the situation, I imagine.”

Tybalt grunted and focused on the image below. He could see the command structure now, indirectly, based on who ran where and who seemed to be carrying messages.

There was a central position that appeared to be the main hub of activity, where a group of the Walians dressed in slightly fancier looking armor were gathered. Tybalt never would have been able to observe it if not for his present aerial view.

As he continued, to observe, it gradually became clear there was one central figure all the orders were coming from. The leader, like the others, wore armor, but appeared to be of smaller stature. Still, the orders were conveyed - and seemingly followed - with the utmost sense of urgency. Tybalt floated down a little closer to hear the voice.

“Tell the foraging parties to take a surveyor with them,” said the individual, speaking in a quiet, fierce voice. “I want to know where we would ideally build a fortress outpost to secure what we’re taking. We will do more than take captives this time. We must rectify the failings of past leaders and take back our lost land… and more.”

A woman? She was trying to make her voice gruffer than it naturally was, and she spoke quietly, so it was hard to tell at first, but as he looked, he could tell that it was a woman leading them. Possibly even pretty, under the helmet.

Carlos had mentioned that the late Emperor had a daughter who was pressing her claim to the throne. What better way to prove you were the most qualified to lead the Empire than by expanding it?

Those war-like people don’t understand anything but violence, so invading the Kingdom is actually a pretty good play. It makes her look strong and quiets the people who think she can’t be a competent leader because she’s a woman. Interesting…

It didn’t seem like anything was going to happen by continuing to watch this for now. Time dilation wasn’t on his and Vidalia’s side, since these events were occurring in real time, so they were just watching people slowly march. So he turned to the foxgirl.

“Is this everything?”

“No, there was one more.” She spoke hesitantly for some reason.

“Show me, then,” Tybalt said.

The world dissolved and reformed again.

Another night scene appeared.

Vidalia and Tybalt found themselves on a mountainside.

There was a silver-haired woman dressed in metal armor, sharpening the pointy end of a polearm on a whetstone. She sat on a cliffside, and Tybalt could see the desert in the background.

“Wait, is this…?”

Vidalia nodded.

The leader of the surviving bandits? They’re following a woman, huh?

“Her armor looks expensive,” Tybalt noted.

“Only the best for the bandits’ leaders, right?”

A male figure dressed in more typical bandit attire - sand-colored wool clothing - stepped into view.

The bandit leader didn’t turn to face him as he approached. When he stood close enough for her to kill him with the polearm, she finally opened her mouth.

“Report,” she said brusquely.

“None of the others came back. We… I don’t think they are coming back, Esmerelda.”

“Of course not. They finally ran into something they didn’t plan for. The town was probably ready for them. Otherwise they wouldn’t have refused the demand. This whole business of protection money was misguided in the first place.” She rose to her feet. “We shouldn’t have been trying to get people to pay us willingly and foregoing attack if they offered tribute.” She finally faced the other bandit with a cool smile. “We’re bandits, after all. We take what we want.”

“That’s interesting,” Tybalt muttered as the bandit leader and her subordinate walked off.

“What is?” Vidalia asked. “I wasn’t even sure you’d agree with me that she’s legitimately a threat. But, physically, she is the closest to our location.”

“I’m not sure if I do consider her a threat. She’s still just a human being, not the Hero, not even in control of a real army. I just noticed she had kind of a noble sort of bearing to her.”

The foxgirl looked at him quizzically.

“Maybe it was her style of speaking,” he said. “Like she was sophisticated, but dumbing it down slightly for him. It was just a feeling. The armor was expensive, too, and polearms are a noble thing, good for chopping down lots of peasants, not really practical unless she has a horse somewhere, which is harder to keep alive in a desert than the camels the other bandits were riding. If I’m right, though, what is someone like that doing in a place like this? Is she a noble bastard, like me? How’d she end up as a bandit?”

Vidalia gave him a knowing look. “I see. Do you want to fuck- ”

“Not everything’s about that.”

The bandit woman wasn’t ugly. She was good-looking enough. But the necromancer was mainly curious about her story.

“I guess I’ll find out who she is when Baldwin and Sir Damek bring her back, either dead or alive,” Tybalt said. “It’s not like I can’t question a corpse.”