I very quickly learned what the silenced condition meant when I was unable to access my magic. Getting dragged into the basement of the tavern by the two large men was not my idea of a good time. Cleo dragged Tiss who wasn't manacled and didn't bother to put up a fight either.

 

It didn't take a genius to realize that I had royally fucked up. I hadn't overheard rebels in the sewers, I had heard Cleo’s lies. They were bandits, hell, Cleo had told me herself she was a thief. I just pictured her stealing gems and gold rather than being part of the slave trade.

 

The basement of the tavern seemed to be some kind of meeting room with a few people sitting at tables. We were dragged further back into a hallway lined with cells with iron bars. I didn’t bother to fight, I wasn’t strong enough to escape and without my magic, I couldn’t fight.

 

Tiss and I were tossed in a cell and my shoulder cracked painfully against the ground. I rolled over as the cell door slid closed and was locked.

 

Cleo waved the two men away and looked down at me through the bars. “Nothing personal. You know I asked around and no one had heard of a returned before. So that got me thinking of how much you would be worth. Then I started to panic because I had told you to get out of town but lo and behold you show back up with a friend. So thank you, you’ve just made me a lot of money.”

 

“Cleo, when I get out of here I am going to cut off your fingers one by one and force them down your throat. Then I’m going to cut open your stomach and do it all over again,” I said calmly. 

 

Cleo seemed genuinely stunned and opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water for a moment before turning and walking away. I smiled despite my situation, people always found who I was deep down terrifying.

 

Tiss was sitting against the wall wrapped in a ball, that same vacant look in her eyes. The sight of her quelled my anger and made me feel guilty. I had been naive and had dragged her into the middle of all this. 

 

Betrayal stung and the more I thought about it the more foolish I realized I was. “You seem like a good enough person,” Cleo had said, now I realized that’s why she hadn’t accepted my offer. I had been her enemy all along.

 

They had taken my weapon and bag and I was still wearing the manacles which silenced me. I tried using [Channel Death] but it was like there was no magic to pull from. I crossed my fingers that Franklyn was all right.

 

“They got you too, huh?” A voice said from the cell beside ours.

 

“Hey Jackal,” I sighed when I noticed the man. I pushed myself to my feet and sat down on the wall near Tiss. I didn’t dare apologize, it would be meaningless. I had promised to keep her safe and had failed spectacularly. I had to get us out. “Jackal, do they check on us often?”

 

“Um… I think so. There’s no way to tell time but they sometimes bring food or just look around,” he replied.

 

I knew Jackal had only been here overnight so he probably didn’t know much more than me.

 

“Do they have you in magical manacles too?” I asked him.

 

“No, they know there’s nothing I can do to escape,” he replied after a beat.

 

“You sure?” I asked.

 

“I can spin and walk on web because I’m a weaver but I don’t have a class,” he replied. “I'm only 17.”

 

Fuck, he was just a kid. So was Tiss and I wasn't much older. God this place was despicable.

 

“I haven't metamorphosed yet because then they would just kill me,” he added wearily.

 

That got my interest. It seemed like weavers were spider-like which matched his appearance somewhat. “I’m sorry I don’t know anything about weavers. What do you mean?” I asked, forcing myself to be polite.

 

“We get our class when we take our adult form but they only keep weavers that don’t metamorphize.”

 

Lovely, so they only kept the children as slaves, bastards. Unfortunately, it meant that he wasn't going to be any help with getting out of here. I slide over to Tiss’ side, still leaving space between us. “Do you have a way of getting us out of here?” I asked quietly.

 

She shook her head.

 

“Do you have a class?”

 

She nodded, “Illusionist,” she mumbled.

 

That was a pleasant surprise, then again she had seemed like Humphry’s prized slave. “Are you sure you don't have anything that could help?” I coaxed.

 

“I’m only level two, all I can do is throw my voice,” she sighed, sounding close to tears.

 

“Ok, ok, that's alright,” I replied quickly. “I’ll figure something out, I know it may not seem like it but I do everything I can to keep my promises.”

 

I leaned back against the wall and summoned the Book of the Dead hoping it would have some answers. Unfortunately, it was still almost entirely blank and offered nothing new or useful. I couldn't break out of the cell without [Channel Death] and even with magic, I had little hope I could fight my way out. Hold on… I had just summoned the Book of the Dead, I couldn't use magic but I could still use my skills. Maybe this wasn't hopeless after all.

“Hey! Heeeeey!” I yelled as the man walked away after tossing two pieces of bread in the cell. “Heeeeeeeey! I have certain dietary restrictions you should really be aware of! Cleoooooooo!”

 

Screaming at the top of my lungs was far easier when my body didn't get tired, I could literally do this all day and eventually, Cleo would show up.

 

“Cleoooooooo! I’m getting hungry Cleo! You won't like me when I'm hungry Cleoooooo!”

 

“Shut up,” Cleo growled, marching down the hall.

 

“Cleo, I’m a zombie, I eat people, not bread. Do you know what happens when I get hungry? I go ravenous.”

 

“Nice try Necromancer, I’m not giving you a corpse,” she scoffed, crossing her arms.

 

“You do realize the only reason I’m valuable to you is because I’m a smart zombie, if I don’t eat I’ll just revert back into one of the mindless undead. Not to mention, hellooo, magic bracelets that stop me from using skills!”

 

I slammed my head into the bars for dramatic effect, “I need food,” I growled. “Or I'm going to start tearing into whatever is available.”

 

Cleo shifted uneasily.

 

“You can pre-decapitate the body or hell just give me a limb but I need to eat, it’s been too long,” I groaned, making my voice waver.

 

“Fine,” Cleo sighed and left quickly.

 

I glanced back to see Tiss looking at me nervously. I winked in reassurance. Where Cleo was going to get a body from was quickly answered as she returned with the two men dragging a third who I was pretty sure I had seen in the meeting area. Damn, they were brutal.

 

Following Cleo’s orders, I backed up against the wall as they opened the cell and tossed the corpse in. I lunged with a hiss for dramatic effect causing them to scurry out and lock the door. I dropped to my knees beside the warm body and subtly collected the soul embers, waste not want not and all that. If I could collect soul embers then I could use them to animate a body even while silenced.

 

“Eat up zombie girl,” Cleo said leaning against the wall with no intention of leaving.

 

“You sure you wanna watch this?” I snorted. My performance was quickly shattering as I realized she was going to stay here to make sure I wasn't up to any funny business but worse that meant I actually had to chow down. Oh fuck. As if things couldn't get worse I realized that I had been relying on the assumption that the man’s soul embers would give me enough to animate him as a zombie, it didn't and a skeleton would be too obvious.

 

I looked down at the dead man realizing what I was going to have to do and trying to come up with a way not to vomit immediately.

 

“I’ll manage,” Cleo sighed, not sounding too pleased about having to witness this.

 

I grabbed the corpse’s still-warm arm. As far as my violent fantasies went, cannibalism wasn't one of them.

 

“Iechyd Da,” I said, holding the man’s hand up in a makeshift toast before biting into a finger. The taste of iron flooded my mouth as I bit down and I tried not to gag as I chewed at the bone. ‘Just pretend it's steak’ I chanted over and over in my mind even though the texture was entirely different. I finally managed to tear the end of his finger away and swallow it and the urge to gag. Don’t fail me now body. Taking a moment to compose myself I glanced up at Cleo who was looking a little green as I smiled.

 

“Enjoy your meal,” she said weakly and turned to walk away.

 

I let out a slow breath trying to calm my nerves and get the taste out of my mouth. This was by far the worst thing I had done. Yet just as quickly as this feeling of disgust filled it it suddenly vanished.

 

[You have unlocked a new title, Flesh Eater]

 

Suddenly the blood in my mouth tasted unnervingly good. I winced at the sharp pain in my jaw, the first real pain I had felt since waking in that basement. The feeling spread over my face, down to my hands and down to my legs. Then it was gone leaving me lightheaded and a little dizzy. What the fuck had just happened?

 

[Flesh Eater]

You have cannibalized a humanoid and become irreparably closer to your undead brethren. You now have a taste for the living and while you do not need to partake in these twisted urges to survive, consuming a fresh corpse that was once alive replenishes your magic reserves, grants bonus experience and repairs to your body equal to the amount consumed. Additionally, your body mutates to allow you to hunt prey effectively. Your teeth become sharp, you grow talons and you become far stronger and faster than you should be.

 

I looked down at my hands in shock to see the claws that sprouted there. Checking my character sheet I saw that both my strength and agility had gone up a rank. I let out a nervous laugh. This didn't feel very lich-like, this felt more ghoulish than anything. Worst of all was that the thought of eating the rest of the corpse was no longer revolting. It was like my morals had been rewritten. This was horrible… but I could heal now at least. I glanced at the gash on my thigh to see that nothing had changed before looking back at the body. I grabbed his hand and bit off another finger, my now sharp teeth slicing through effortlessly. I ignored the thrill as I tore in, I was just doing this to heal.

 

By the time I had finished his hand, my leg was somehow mostly healed. It was strange to watch my body heal. It seemed to revert to how it was rather than the way living bodies healed, not to mention I could see it happening. A minute later I was good as new, it was better than I could have imagined… at the cost of eating people.

 

I was really trying to be horrified at what I had done and was failing miserably. Still, eating people seemed like a line I shouldn’t be crossing. Granted I was fine with murder and was it really cannibalism if I was undead? This was fucked up.

 

“That's disgusting,” Jackal commented.

 

“Oh hush, you'll thank me later… maybe,” I sighed.

 

I wiped my face clean and licked my lips. Tiss was staring at me and was somehow deathly pale despite her yellow skin and green scales. My plan very much wasn't ideal as she didn't know I was undead until now and I had definitely crossed a line. I glanced back at my thigh to see unblemished perfect skin, I could heal better than the living, maybe I had a way to get these manacles off after all.

 

I placed my thumb against the bars and with a steadying breath pushed hard until my thumb cracked and popped loose, now dangling from my hand. Breathing deeply from the pain I wiggled my wrist trying to free myself but it was still too tight.

 

I stood giving myself a moment to think. I couldn't help but notice my muscles were more defined and I felt stronger. Who would have thought cannibalism would give me abs?

 

Crossing my fingers I searched the man’s corpse and luckily found a small knife hidden in its boot. Noticing that we were a similar size I also took the boots, they were far better than the shoes I had until this point. They also allowed me to break my hand against the bars with a swift kick. I held back a yelp as my hand dangled grotesquely but I could now slip it free from the manacles.

 

Quickly I hobbled back to the corpse and using my claws I sliced off a chunk of skin and muscle maybe a little too enthusiastically before swallowing it down. I watched with wonder as my hand began to click and bend and warp back into shape. The joints moved as bones cracked and then I had one hand free from the manacles.

 

Repeating the process with my dominant hand was embarrassingly much harder due to a lack of coordination. Eventually after a lot of pain and a few more cuts of human flesh, I was free with two working hands. I crouched beside the body and funneled soul embers into it, raising it as a skeleton.

 

“Don't move, attack the person who tries to drag you out of the cell, grab them, don't let go and keep stabbing them until they stop moving, ” I ordered and the skeleton froze, still mostly covered by its skin though some began to slip away. I placed the small knife in its hand and glanced back at Tiss whose expression was now one of even further shock. “I promised to take care of you and I keep my promises,” I told her. Just as everything was as ready as it could get I heard footsteps coming back down the hall.