“Ok, what is the first keyword you would like to run through?” The librarian looked annoyed to have Hadrian here. Hadrian just smiled at him and began to think.

Aleric Stormcrow was a necromancer. One that didn’t take the precautions to become a Lich. But, what did he have to do with someone in a coma? For, surely, the two cases were linked.

“The undead?” Hadrian was sure that there would be at least a thousand results, but he still needed to try. The librarian wrote the keyword in the decoder and whistled.

“That is practically a keyword in here. There are six thousand results,” what did condense mana had to do with the dead, or undead? Edwin had never used the stuff. Granted, buying it was strictly prohibited for personal use without a permit.

“Ok, try coma then,” This time there was just one result.

“The undead are mentioned here too. The word coma is in the chapter. Would you like a copy to read at your leisure?” Hadrian nodded and was given ten sheets of paper moments later.

“Can you leave the mana book here too? I might need it in case the previous chapters are mentioned in the one you gave me,” the librarian closed the decoder book and picked it up.

“Most certainly. But, since this is a limited-edition tome, you don’t get to take it out,” Hadrian wanted to groan, but decided against it. Furthermore, he also decided not to steal the book. That would get the librarian fired, and Hadrian didn’t want that. He was a kleptomaniac, but not heartless.

Sitting down, Hadrian began to skim the chapter. It was a dry read, and apart from the title, he was yet to find the word coma anywhere. But then, just as he was about to set aside the pages, he saw a note in the bottom of the paper.

For more information on raising the dead, see chapter 55: Lost rituals and how to recreate them.

Hadrian opened the mana book and went straight to the index. Moments later, he was at the chapter he needed. The first thing he saw was the symbol of Harika. Three circles, one in the other.

He knew that the outermost one represented life, the middle death and the innermost, rebirth. But there was a triangle inside the innermost circle. He looked down in the description of the symbol and read about the three circles. He had gotten it right.

Then he read about the triangle. As it turns out, it was the symbol of life everlasting. Now, that was impossible. Even vampires died. Not from old age, but still, they died when their time came.

He decided to read the chapter more carefully than the one with the coma mention.

The misconception that Harika does not want us to live forever is false. The goddess does not care if we bring about our destruction with famine and war, sure results of our idle minds in the case of immortality.

So, then, what stops us? Morals, and the law. Necromancy is well-spread in the world. One in every ten mages is a necromancer…

Wait, what? Really? That was insane. So, why were there so few Boliarins in the world? Hadrian couldn’t wrap his mind around it. He had not met many necromancers in his long life. Were they hiding from him? He decided to read on.

…but not all live pass their fifth birthday. Our mana is poisonous and to the weak, it is too much to handle. Even still, a necromancer could take precautions to save their lives from their mana.

But not as a child. Children are weak willed. Stubborn to a fault, but most don’t have the stomach to do what is needed. Every necromancer who has lived pass their fifth birthday has killed a human…

Hadrian attempted to imagine five-year-old Eddy killing someone and decided it must have been an accident. Edwin helped at the clinic, did he not? Did the people dying around him count too?

Or seen someone die without helping them.

Hadrian could do a happy dance, if he wasn’t in the library. Eddy had not been an evil child. He had just been lucky that his mother had a clinic, and people died there when she couldn’t help them. He read on.

That is why, usually, it is the children of healers who survive. Or children who were drafted as pages to a particularly bloodthirsty lord. The rest die, which, if their souls are left to pass on, is a wasted potential.

A shiver went down Hadrian’s spine. Did Stormcrow speak of using the souls of children for experiments. He was beginning to get an idea how the lady ended up in a coma, provided she had been dead beforehand.

A necromancer’s soul can make a semi-Lich out of anyone. And that is the beauty of the act. You need to collect the soul while the doomed child is still alive. Older necromancers are too powerful to get their souls harvested…

Hadrian was beginning to be sick. Stormcrow had not even waited for a child to die before stealing their soul. He hoped Karl Lambert made the dwarf suffer.

…and the body of the person who will be brought back must be fresh. I suggest deep freeze, although that will damage cells. The deceased person will come back to life, but will end up in a coma.

Everyone can do the revival, but the most successful practitioners are mages with a similar mana type to the deceased. Then, the person who has revived the deceased must help with the waking up of the now reborn person. The procedure is delicate, and a healer must assist with it.

If the healer is also a necromancer, which is almost unheard of, then you wouldn’t need the person who has done the rebirth ritual. Just one hundred kilograms of condensed mana and the healer.

Depending on how skilled the healer is, there will be slight changes to the mental state of the person who was brought back from the dead. The best healers can do so that that person can only crave raw meat. It is purely a mental condition.

But, because the ritual goes against the natural laws, there will be repercussions. A sickness will spread around the now Lich and keep spreading until the one who woke it up from the coma and the one who gave it a second chance in life lay it to rest.

At the end of the day, necromancy is an equal exchange. And Harika never losses a soul.

Aleric Stormcrow had given the means for the coughing sickness, but it was Thorold Hafnon and Edwin who were responsible for the spread. Hadrian couldn’t just sit by and do nothing. He had a letter to write.