“Hey, mistress,” Oloa began, “What was going on with the Immortal? I could understand it, but he didn’t speak normal Common. Could you two understand him?” she asked the other two liches.
“I could,” Bieve said, her voice tempered and calm, with a nod, “It was odd.”
[I could as well. I also share sentiments with Ms. Bieve: it was odd,] Gelburt added.
Mori nodded slowly, thinking, “If you guys can understand what he was saying, then that means one of two things. Either, one, you guys or Pandora suddenly gained [Universal Soul Language] or whatever the non-Trait version of that is, or, two, you learned English… That could be… kinda troublesome if the latter’s true.”
“Why is that, mistress?” Oloa asked, tilting her head.
Mori turned a bit to look at her first lich and sighed, “It’s because, if you can suddenly learn English, I’m wondering what kind of other effects it could have on you. Like, could you suddenly receive the entirety of my knowledge from Earth? Could you suddenly stop remembering your own lives? What about-”
“Mistress,” Bieve cut in, her voice emotionless, “We all agreed to become liches, no matter what kind of effect it could have on our psyche. Even if we lose a few memories and gain a few others in return, we all went along with this. Judging by your own experience as a lich, memory loss was highly likely. Despite that, we took the chance.”
Mori wished she had lips to purse, “But why? Is becoming a lich such an honor that you would sacrifice your memories for it?” Mori asked.
“Yes,” Bieve remarked, “Absolutely.”
Mori turned a bit more and cast a questioning glance to them all, which Oloa noticed right away, “Mistress, becoming a lich is the dream of most, if not all, necromancers. The methods of becoming one, though, are so often destroyed by the Blue Robes that they are rare. The few that make themselves liches anyways mostly decide to destroy their notes and stop anyone else from becoming liches.”
“So not only is the supply of methods scarce, what is left is actively hunted down by those damn priests and whoever tries is targeted by other liches… Still though, aren’t your memories important? More important than being a lich, at least?”
The three shared looks between each other, [There is a reason why we needed to find a family with each other rather than be with our real ‘families,’] Gilburt replied, [We do not mind. I assure you.]
Mori gave each of them a long, hard look, then sighed, “Alright, I get it. I won’t bother you guys about it anymore. Just… try to take care of yourselves and each other. Alright?” They all nodded, giving her smiles. Or at least one of them did. Mori sighed once more, “Good. I have to remember… am I missing anything?” She thought about it for a moment before shaking her head, “No, I am not. Alright, I think it’s about time we start planning the invasion properly.”
The three liches nodded as they walked through ATHENA’s halls. They walked in silence until they reached the core room, where an enthusiastic voice was talking faster than Mori thought possible, “Wait, so you’re saying that through electricity and these switches, we can make a machine that thinks without having to use mana!?”
Mori turned the corner to see Fara standing over a large table with a Clocksteel rendition of a motherboard, zipping around and poking at everything, while ATHENA and VII looked on with both amusement and tiredness. “Yes, it’s possible, but the processing power required to do something like that is much more than what a computer with a motherboard like this could produce. You would need to either make a massive computer with dozens of these, or make one with highly advanced chips…” VII said, turning to the door, “Oh, hey Mori. Can you help us here? Athy was trying to help Fara feel less bored and got a bit more than she bargained for,” she chuckled.
Mori shook her head, “Sorry, VII, my knowledge from Earth is about a high school level education, with a bit more from what I think is a college course on mythology. And a bunch of other things, but that’s beside the point. Fara, why are you trying to make a computer chip?” Mori asked.
Fara turned to Mori, tilted her head, then shrugged, “Dunno. It could be useful. Once I have something to mull over, I can make the gifts for the dragons like I promised to way back when. Though, now that I think about it, your liches are a bit underequipped, don’t you think?” she asked with a smile, “I think they could do with a bit of equipment.”
Mori gave a smile and nodded, “They could use something like that. But if you’re going to do that, what about learning about computer chips? Will you have enough time?”
Fara hummed, screwing her eyes shut and pacing, “Okay, I can put off learning about the chips and that stuff. First, making sure everyone is equipped and ready. I’m going to find some spare parts to start tinkering.” Fara smiled at each of them, then left the room, asking one of the Talonecs that happened to be passing by to follow her.
“So… I don’t have anything important left to take care of,” Mori said to VII and ATHENA, “I think it’s time we start to plan a serious invasion. What do you two think?” VII nodded, but ATHENA showed a bit more hesitation, “ATHENA, we don’t mind if you aren’t. Just tell us what we can help you with.”
ATHENA’s core still shifted around in her holding arm, but she nodded, “I have been looking at the airships we’ve been able to get our hands on and I’ve been looking at the cannons on them… I don’t think I could survive too many shots from a cannon like that. So, I’ve wanted to armor myself up a bit more. And increase my size. And do a few internal overhauls. And… I just wanted to… look better… Right now, I look like a medieval fort made of mud bricks and spit. I wanted to… change this a bit.”
“I’m with her,” VII added, “I didn’t want to insult you, Athy, but you do look like a primitive fort rather than the resplendent bastion you are. I also agree with the armor issue. She does need it. And a shield wouldn’t be amiss.”
Mori nodded, but she was not in total agreement, “I agree, she does need more armor. And a shield. And we need more time to outfit all of the Talonecs with the tactics to go around the new thaumoreflective shields. And… yeah, a redesign wouldn’t go amiss with the number of undead around. But! We still need to get moving soon, guys,” she said, falling into her chair near the center of the room, “We can’t drag this out, or we’ll be dealing with things we can’t. Deal with, that is. So… ATHENA, how many Talonecs do we have? And Necromechs.”
“Six thousand, five hundred and forty seven Talonecs. Five hundred and seventy four Necromechs. They’re being stored in the spare space beneath the main body-- there happens to be a lot of wasted space down there.”
Mori nodded, thinking, then nodded again, “Alright, I think we have nearly enough Necromechs. Let’s keep the ‘mech total at six hundred and then you can switch the production costs of those to your upgrades. I think… VII, how does a week sound for a timeframe?”
VII stared at the ground in thought, “Barely enough, but we could do it. If we put our heads together and put everyone to work, we could get it done. Your liches will have to train the Talonecs on how to get around the shields, we’ll have to help Athy with her upgrade ourselves, and we might need to raid the mana-made steel that the mortals over there are no-doubt letting lie around, but we can do it. If we do all of that.”
Mori nodded, quickening until she stood, “Got it. Aerolat, did you hear all of that?”
“I did,” Aerolat replied, barely showing himself as he spoke, “I will spread the word now.”
Mori felt him disperse and nodded to herself, “Well, that’s done. So, where do you want to start, VII?” she asked.
*=====*
Caleb finally reached the massive structure standing tall in the sandy expanse and sighed. Within it, Mark, Eva, and, apparently, Natalia were doing… stuff. He had no idea what, but he had just rested for the previous days, doing odd jobs around the fortress and trying not to think about the decision he had apparently been left with. He could either stay with the majority of the Earthborn on Granulous, or he join his friends and go somewhere else. Where exactly was not something he knew, but he was alright with that. After a few days of deliberation, he made his choice.
He strode up to the large, closed hangar doors with confidence, then stopped. He sensed something off around him, but he did not know what it was. He looked around, but there was nothing there. He scowled, then turned around fully and waited a few moments. There was an audible sigh and, much to his surprise, Ursula rose from the shadowed sand, “Hey there, Caleb!” she said with a much more bombastic voice than he ever conceived of her having, “How’s it going?”
