“Alright, can I assume we all know why we’re here?” Mori asked, looking around to the assorted living, undead, and artificial people gathered around. Everyone was there, including every one of Mori’s death knights, Eva, Fara, VII, ATHENA, and the dwarven mechanic Jran. The death dragons reverted to their human or human-like forms for the meeting, partly to give everyone enough space in ATHENA’s dynamo room and partly to make use of the long table and chairs VII literally grew from the wall.

“We do, Mori,” Fara said, “We’re here to finally make a real battle plan with everyone around. I do have a question, though.” They all turned their attention to Fara, “No offense, Jran, but I don’t think you should be here.”

The dwarf man sighed, “I understand your point, but you do realize that this is likely to be a historic moment, yes? This is a meeting that could go down in history. Why would I miss it?”

“Because we’re going to be talking about things that I’m pretty sure the gods don’t want normal mortals knowing?” Mori replied, “I mean, I don’t want to be rude, but we can’t really take anyone else on for this, Jran. Besides, I barely even know you.”

Jran worked his jaw before sighing again, “Is there no way for me to be here for this?” he asked.

Mori had no answer to that question, and turned to Fara. She, as expected, shook her head. Mori then turned to VII. She thought for a moment, then nodded, “I have something that could work, but it’s kind of… out there.”

“Out there for us?” Mori asked, pointing to herself and Fara-- but mainly herself-- with a flat expression.

“Yes,” VII sighed, “Out there for all of us. This is the sort of thing that the gods and their angels or ‘minions’ prefer not to do, but it can solve our problem quite handily.”

“We’re listening,” Fara replied, Mori nodding along.

VII sighed and took a deep breath, “We can enforce a god-backed contract on him,” she began, “A contract is basically a set of rules that the recipient cannot remove, disobey, or alter. At all. Unless someone changes them, but they have a lot of ‘stick’ to them. We can, for example, enforce a contract that makes it so that he cannot talk about anything that goes against the gods’ decrees.”

Fara looked around while thinking, rubbing her chin. Before she could reply, Jran stood, “I’ll do it,” he said. Fara’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to speak, closing it when Jran shook his head at her, “Young miss, I can make my own decisions. You don’t have to advocate for me. I’ll do it.” He walked over to VII, his height barely passing her stomach, and looked into her eyes, “Do it.”

VII obliged, putting a hand out in front of her and gathered mana into her palm. Mori’s unique state of being let her feel the mana, its intensity and its absolute adherence, but she could never venture a guess as to the method behind the magic. VII spoke, but her voice was distant, distorted, and as powerful as a god’s, “In the name of the fifty second daughter of the Great Goddess of Certain Probability, I enforce this contract. You are never to speak of souls or of existence beyond those who control Granulous for as long as you live. The contract will be broken if you either die, or are freed by the Great God of the Death Tides or the Great Goddess of the Growing Beasts.” VII stumbled back as her final words were said, “And the contract is complete. Now then, we can actually start this meeting.”

Jran nodded, steps unsteady, and walked over to his seat, sitting down. Seeing everyone settled, Mori began, “Alright, so we’re here to figure out how to deal with the Hive. We have a general plan, but we haven’t incorporated VII yet, Fara,” she said, turning to VII, “So, with your help, I think we need to make a new battle plan. What we had before was not really a plan and more of a guideline. So, with that said, we need to understand what we can do at this very moment. I’ll go first.

“I’ve already got the reanimation spell working and I’ve started playing with a few additional abilities I can give my undead. I also have some other ideas, but we can go into those later. I took a count of every corpse in the catacombs and, at most, I can make about four thousand undead from them all if I cut the bodies into four pieces. That’s only if, however, they can control a suit if they are just balls of flesh and bone. VII, would that work?” Mori asked.

VII shrugged, “How am I supposed to know? I’m only good at making things to kill undead. Present company excluded. I think Fara could predict something like that, though.”

Fara hummed for a moment before shutting her eyes and concentrating on something. A moment later, a smile blossomed on her face and she faced Mori, “You can! If we do that, I can make the design do so much more without having the legs and arms and head in the way… This is going to be good…”

“Speaking of design,” Mori continued, “I can guess you haven’t been able to work on it, then?”

“No, not really,” Fara replied, “But I have figured out how the dwarven mana beam guns work. I even made one that won’t break with a single solid hit on the gun. It can slam and scorch at the same time, so it has some versatility-”

“Not the same amount you would have if you left the lenses in,” Jran murmured.

Fara rolled her eyes, “We’re not going over this again. Anyway, I have a weapon design, I can borrow their mana crystals to make them, and I have a good idea for the… okay, what are we calling the warcasket copies? At this point, we need a serious name for them. Anyone have any ideas?”

Jel was the first to raise their hands, “Necromechs,” she said seriously, “It’s on brand.”

“Or ferronecros,” Fury added.

“Fury, that’s a stupid name,” Desire replied, shaking her head.

He glared at her, “I’d like to see you do better,” he growled, turning away with a huff.

“I don’t need to. It’s that bad, Fury,” Desire replied.

Fury seethed and turned away, Idle chuckling at him, “I have to agree with Desire here. That was bad. I think necromech is a good name.”

“Actually, Mori,” VII said, “You’re good at names. Can you remember any tales of a metal man from Earth? You could go with that and it would be on brand just as much as necromech.”

Mori thought for a moment, then it clicked, “Well, there’s Talos, but I’m trying to think of a way to incorporate Talos and the dead… Talonecs?”

They all thought about it for a few more moments, “A good name as any other,” Fara replied, “So, anyway, I have a plan for the talonecs. Mori, we already talked about the movement-life synergy, but with the organic components of the talonec being reduced by something like a fourth-- the space being reduced even more than that-- I can make it sturdier, stronger, or even have some other equipment. What would be a good fit for the soul? Oh, VII, can you give your opinion too? You’re going to be a part of this fight too, so your opinion would be appreciated.”

Mori thought as VII spoke, “If you want my opinion, then we need to incorporate your guys’ talonecs and my clockworks. ATHENA,” she said, “If you were to be able to tap into an undead-mechanical hybrid, what could you do with them?”

The orb turned to VII, “It is difficult to predict, mother. But, in the event that I am given command, I could increase their effectiveness by a significant margin. That is only if there are no pieces of equipment I could assist in the use of. If there were utility units beside the ‘talonecs,’ I could assist them through that.”

“Oh, didn’t I propose something like that, Fara?” Mori asked, “A little drone that could help the talonec in combat and other stuff?”

“Technically, I said we should make a drone that ‘healed’ them first, but you decided it needed to do stuff. So yeah, you did,” Fara replied, “So, is that it? Can I start work on it now?”

“After the meeting, Fara,” Mori replied, “We still have to go over everyone’s capabilities. VII, what can you and ATHENA do?”

VII went to respond, but ATHENA beat her to the punch, “The creation of new clockwork units through the use of mana. Time is also required to reduce mana costs, but if mother helps my control, I can accelerate production to just sub-hive levels.”

“I get what she’s getting at, and I can do that. The only problem, I think, is my imagination. Specifically the abundance of it. I haven’t been able to cut loose for a while and being able to have free reign will be a welcome change of pace. But that also comes with the fact that I can get… distracted.”

Mori nodded, “I can’t blame you. Making undead is fun for me. ATHENA, can you keep your mother focused while you guys work?”

“Hey!”

“I will do my best,” ATHENA replied.

“Not you too! I’m your mom, though,” VII muttered.

“And a good child always helps their mother focus,” VII’s child replied.

The death knights snickered, “We should take her advice,” Jel said to Mori, “But is it my turn now?”

Mori nodded, “Alright, you guys go over anything you can do to help out the making of an army.”

Jel thought for a moment, “Runes and enchantments. Also, if you make them death knights, then I can teach them magic with Pride.”

“That,” Mori said, holding a hand up, “Is a topic for later. Now then, Pride. Can you do the same?” Pride nodded, “Good. Desire, I know you aren’t the best at building stuff, so can you just make sure everyone’s alright?”

“I can, mistress,” Desire replied.

“Thanks. Fury, you keep training. In fact, VII, can we make ATHENA a sort of body to spar with Fury with? It can help her get used to combat?” Mori asked.

“Some puppet-like units won’t be that hard,” VII replied.

“Thanks, VII, ATHENA. Now then, Crave, you keep gathering knowledge and compiling it. Maybe you could begin putting it down on some physical copies so you can do what you want while we learn whatever you find.”

Crave nodded his whole body, “I don’t mind,” he said in a normal voice, despite his body’s abnormality.

“Thanks again. Idle, you join Fury. Or meditate. Either is good. Avar… do you mind helping Fara?” she asked.

Avar smiled, “I would love to. This project is really interesting,” he said simply.

“Thanks, Avar, Idle. Okay, Aerolat. What do you want to do? You’ve been cooped up in the skiff for the last few days and I don’t know what your upgrades are.”

Aerolat nodded, “I can assist wherever needed, mistress. if you would let me have such a freedom of direction?”

“That’s fine, Aerolat. You do what you need to do.” The blood-made orc nodded, disappearing soon after, “Now, Mae, Ally, and Tisi, you three are coming with me for a few minutes. VII found something interesting and I want to give it to you. Speaking of which, Fara, where are you going?”

Fara snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Mori, “Oh, I was going to stay here to see if ATHENA and VII could help with my design procedure. Why?”

Mori shook her head, “It’s nothing. I’ll be back in a while. Alright, let’s go, you three,” she said, standing up and leaving the room. As they continued on to the cavern, Mori turned to them, “Hey, sorry for not spending so much time with you three,” she said, “I have been busy, and I’m very sorry for that. Are you three alright?”

The three sisters shared looks, then nodded, “We are, mistress. Thank you for your concern, but we’ve only been here for a few days, a week at the absolute most. We can handle not being at the center of things. But…” they shared another look, all nodding, “Mistress… this may be a bit presumptuous-”

“Don’t start on that,” Mori cut in, “You can ask anything you want from me. If I can or will give it to you is pretty variable, but I will try my best as long as it isn’t something really bad. So go on and ask.”

“Oh… thank you, mistress,” Mae replied, “Then… can you please give us an upgrade?” she blurted out. By then, they had reached the docking bay and Mori could not help but turn in surprise. “Please? We… feel like we’re being left behind. After we finished cleaning with Aerolat and he went to take his nap, we didn’t know what to do. We just played cards and helped Eva with her chores while keeping the skiff clean. It felt…”

“Frustrating?” Mori offered.

“Exactly!” Mae replied, “We’re all sick of not being up to scratch with everyone else. So… please. Help us?”

Mori slowed her walking to think. Her mind was not filled with questions of whether or not to upgrade them-- she did almost destroy her undead’s soul to prevent it from being irrelevant to her future plans-- but with questions of what to do with them. “I have a few ideas, but come along with me. I still have to give you each a present.” She led them into the cavern, them flying down while she landed onto the ground below-- her new body was very strong-- and she brought them to the side of the watchtower.

There, she brought out the gun, sword, and staff and gave them to Mae, Ally, and Tisi respectively, “Here you are,” Mori said, “VII found those beneath the catacombs and I thought you three would be the perfect match for them. I’m still planning out your upgrades, so you three should get used to those weapons.” She picked up the amulet and held it in her hand, “This is for Fara, so I’m going to go give it to her. Do you three need or want anything else?” Mori asked.

Mae and Tisi shook their heads, but Ally rushed forward and wrapped Mori up in a bear hug, “I want a hug,” she said.

“A bit too late to ask, but I don’t mind. Come on you two,” Mori said, beckoning Tisi and Mae over. They came in for the hug and Mori silently promised to try and be better parents to her pseudo-children. She was always busy, but she could make time, even if she had to do something drastic like cut down on her sigil-writing time.