Mori came to learn a lot about the nature of the soul as she raised more and more of the necromancers into liches. The first was the fact that lichdom mostly took two distinct forms for most people. Oloa, Natalia, and half of the other necromancers kept the skin and flesh on their bodies when the process was completed, while the other half were nothing but bones. Mori had a serious fright the first time one of her new undead suddenly lost all of her skin, flesh, blood, and organs as the process completed.
The woman, Bieve, was apparently dismissive of personal beauty and opted to cover herself most of the time. Being a skeleton with few notable features was a happy accident for her and she was content to forgo any other beauty rituals. Another man, Gelburt, was an insectoid. Mori did not really make the mental connection of his species until he was on her operating table, since she had stopped thinking about species entirely over the last months. He did not mind his state since almost every surface on his body was exoskeleton. Mori had to agree: he did not look too much different from before he was raised.
By the end of the day, she had sixteen liches, all sitting around their break room and talking animatedly about being raised. Once the last necromancer, a young orc woman with muscles larger than Mori’s skull, was turned into a lich, Mori knocked her knuckles on the metal table, “Alright, everyone gather ‘round!” she shouted, gesturing towards the table, “You too, you guys,” she added, turning to the hallway. Her silent observers gave shy smiles and walked in behind the liches, standing with them. “Now, you guys are part of this… family? Army? Collection of friendly magical beings? Who knows, either way, you’re all part of this now. With that in mind… I’m going to have to ask you guys to find a niche for yourselves.”
There was a bit of murmuring at that, more surprised that she was fine with them doing whatever was needed instead of following her orders. In the midst of the murmuring, Oloa raised a hand, “Mistress, does that include anything that needs to be done?” she asked, “Because some of us would like to learn from you.”
“Yes, I mean anything. If there’s a demand for it, do it. I’m planning on making my other death knights liches-- yes, we can talk about that, all of you,” she said to the zombie sisters, Crave, Jel in her slime-like form, Desire, and Pride, “If you want to learn from someone else, do it as long as everything is taken care of. I’m sure that there are plenty of artifacts that a group of liches could make in a short amount of time if they put their minds to it. Or you could fight physically. Or you could come to the core room and help with some of the many projects we do up there. It’s up to you. I’m just trusting that you are proactive and don’t settle for doing nothing all day. Got it?”
They all smiled, nodding. Mori was then treated to the spectacle of a dozen liches nearly stampeding over each other to leave the room, rushing out of the door. She then turned to the remaining occupants of the room, mainly her dragons, furies, and four liches. “Mistress,” Jel began, her voice somewhat garbled from being in her slime form. She seemed to notice that as well, as she collapsed in on herself and morphed into her human form a moment later, “Do you really mean it? You’re turning us into liches? Because I don’t know if all of us want to become liches…”
Mori pursed her lips and nodded, “I get that… How about this: I’ll turn whoever wants to be a lich into one while I figure some other solution out for whoever doesn’t. Deal?” Jel nodded, smiling. “Alright, who wants to be a lich?” There was a moment of the group watching each other before all of her death dragons and the three sisters raised their hands. Mori sighed, “Thank you for advocating for your siblings, Jel, but… actually, just keep being a good sister.” Jel beamed at Mori and nodded. “In that case, can you go get whoever wants to be a lich? I feel a bit tired, but I can take care of the rest of you guys, even if everyone wants to be a lich…” They all nodded and left the room, Eva and Mark following Desire, “Bring everyone to the staging bay!” Mori shouted as they left. They shouted back affirmations and Mori turned to the remaining liches, “Alright, now. Oloa, Natalia, Bieve, Gelburt. You four want to join the RnD team or something?” she joked.
Only Natalia laughed, while the other three stared at her with either confused eyes or flickering eye-flames. Natalia looked at the other three, “What? It’s funny…” she said weakly, “Fine, be like that…”
Oloa turned back to Mori, “Mistress, I don’t get it,” she said, the other two skeletal liches behind her nodding.
“It’s… forget about it. It’s a joke that probably doesn’t translate well around here.” Mori heard Natalia mutter something under her breath but did not try to listen, “Now, do you want to watch me make spells, watch VII and Fara make robot suits, or do you want to watch all of it?” she asked.
“Spells,” Oloa said, the other two skeletons nodding.
“I want to know where I learn to fight,” Natalia added, smiling, “I told you my goals, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did,” Mori replied, “In that case, it’s a good thing the other death knights are about to be turned into liches; both of you will get your wish.” She began to walk towards the door and the four followed her, “Fury’s the one you’ll want to talk to if you want pure offensive combat. If you want to be a guard or something similar, talk to Idle. Jel and Pride are both amazing mages, though Jel is versed in more mana types than Pride is. Pride is actually able to make more complex spells, compared to Jel, so they can teach you three if you don’t find what we’re doing up in the core room interesting,” Mori explained.
They all nodded as they reached the staging dock, where they had temporarily stashed the tank Fanrik made. There, sitting on the benches scattered around, were all of her death knights, including Pandora, though he lingered closer to the door than the others with Aerolat at his side. Once Mori entered, they walked up to her, “Mistress,” Aerolat said, “I know you asked for everyone who wanted to become a lich, but Pandora and I wanted to… be something different.”
Mori nodded slowly, “Alright… I think I can guess what. Aerolat, you want to be something like a secretary and butler.” Aerolat nodded, giving a smile to her, “And Pandora… You haven’t been around long enough for me to get a good read on how you think, but I’ll give it my best shot: you want to be kind of like a guard for me?” Pandora nodded, his static mask somehow showing far more emotion than it was really designed to. “In that case, I’ll come up with something soon. I just got three new assistants that I’m sure want to help me. Right?” she asked, turning to the former-necromancers. The three nodded enthusiastically.
Mori spoke with them a bit longer before turning to her other death knights, who all lined up without her noticing. She chuckled, “Alright, whose first?”
*=====*
Fara laid down, splayed out on the couch within the Kharon, and sighed, “Athy, I’m bored,” she complained, “We don’t have any other projects to work on until Mori’s done with the staging bay…”
“Do you need to be here instead of there?” Athy replied, “I doubt Mori would dislike having you around.”
“That’s the thing. Sure, I would be around, but I wouldn’t be helping. Athy, there’s a reason why neither of us aren’t too torn up when the other goes off and does something. You get that, right?”
“I do. If you are bored, then go talk to Mother; she is not busy and is reading ‘Heated Hatred’ again, so I doubt she would dislike the company.”
Fara sighed, “I could, but I feel antsy… we finished the necromech project yesterday. Yesterday! I haven’ been tinkering in a whole day, Athy! I can’t go on like this!” she said, sighing once more, “You know what? I still need to make some personal gifts for the death knights-”
“Dracoliches, soon,” Athy corrected, “And winged liches. And one death knight.”
“Let me guess… Aerolat.”
“Got it in one.”
“So, I’ve got to come up with gifts they would like…” she muttered, “Alright, I’ll go down the list, then. Pride, I think, would like a spell-boosting array. Jel would definitely like a good staff with some attuned materials on it.”
“I personally think those two should be flipped. Or you just make one for each of them,” Athy advised.
Fara nodded, “That could work. I don’t know enough about what mages want for things like that…” she said, touching the amulet around her neck. She had nearly forgotten about it, since she had not been in battle since she got it, but that was alright, “Okay, then I think a toolbox for Avar is in order. Idle could use a shield and Fury… a punching bag?”
Athy chuckled, “Perhaps a clockwork weapon for his humanoid form? He does not have many options when it comes to that.”
“Yeah, that’s good. Alright, next is Desire… I don’t know if an expandable bed is in order, or if she could use something else…” Athy laughed at that, “You know I’m right. You know it. Last but not least, Crave.” Fara paused to think of something for him, “How about a high-density book storage system?”
“Like a computer?” Athy laughed. She continued for a moment before stopping as Fara did not do the same, “Fara… you aren’t going to ask me to teach you the entirety of electronics, are you?” Fara simply smiled, nodding, “I… Fine, I’ll teach you. As long as you go find Mother. She can help you with that.”
Fara laughed, “Thanks Athy, just a minute!” she said, running out of the room. Athy, watching her go, deactivated her miniature core while thinking what kind of mess she had just created.
