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4/30 Evening
Abercrombie was looking at me with far more seriousness now. The good natured, slow moving old man was gone; mask discarded as unnecessary. “So. You wish to learn the arts of the shadow? Be aware that this is a dark and dangerous path. A moment’s hesitation or a single slip of the tongue could have you killed, by the mindless beasts you command, the small minded who fear your power, or those who think to hold this power in reserve for themselves. You will stand apart, even from those cretins that call themselves the damned. You will be alone and hated; do not expect to find a friend in me, only a teacher. Are you certain?”
His voice was gentle, even paternal, but I could sense the dagger embedded in that statement even without communication talent. If I said no I wouldn’t be leaving the building, as far as he was concerned. “Of course. I knew the risks when I sought you out. I was hoping to find someone wise enough to truly understand this power.” From his statement, I guessed that he wasn’t actually part of the Cult of the Damned. I was not expecting a completely indy necromancer, but that just made this easier.
“Excellent, but you must earn my wisdom. I am creating a masterpiece, and you will assist me in its manufacture. There is much work to be done, and I must not be distracted.”
“Of course my master. My servants and I will ensure that none will disturb you. We will see to your needs and fetch whatever you desire. It would be an honor. Might I gift you something that will allow me to contact you? Only at your discretion of course.”
“And have you ensorcel me? I think not. No one who would seek me out will give gifts that can be trusted.” I mean. He wasn’t wrong. “You will come to me yourself, and fulfill the tasks that I set out for you. With each task, I will give you a single lesson.”
“Command me, and I shall obey.” Until I can turn the tables anyway.
“You will go to Darkshire and obtain a spool of ghost hair thread for me. Madame Eva usually keeps some in stock. You’ll need to get it yourself; consider the coin part of your payment.” I nodded and presented the orb to him again. As his face slackened I pulled out today's necklace, a rather fetching obsidian pendant in silver. He started tensing up as I moved towards him with it; clearly he didn’t want to be touched. Oh well. I’d bring him around.
••••••••••
I didn’t bother walking all the way back to the house; I was going to get my money's worth out of apportation if it killed me. Darcell was drawing the moth-eaten curtains across the windows while Drusilla read in the corner by the dim light of her necklace. Both reacted with only modest surprise to my appearance.
“Well ladies, I’m afraid that if we want to get to work on a few last things before we go to bed, I’ll need to start now.”
“Ah yes. Wouldn’t want to be making noise while the legions of the dead roamed the streets.” Drusilla drawled. “I'd be much more critical of you if we didn’t have a selection of possible destinations for retreat right now.” Oh shit. I probably had a few more people captured than I’d thought; Tony at least, maybe Lividia. The last few days just flew by. Regardless, I had work to do.
On the off chance it would work, I spoke into the air. “If any of you want it and you can, put this on? I would be able to talk to you more easily if you do.” I hung the obsidian necklace from a pair of pegs on the wall. I don’t know if the jewels had any properties that would let a ghost put them on, or if any of the spirits here would have any interest in putting it on. If they did on both counts however, I want a silently invisible spirit in my retinue.
Wearing Otto’s face, I then went into my inventory and selected one of the guards, a woman by the name of Tessa Spaulding. If I remember correctly, she was the one who had fought Garrick Padfoot. I carefully removed her armor and weapons from my inventory, piling them up in the corner of the room. Finally, I brought Darcell and Drusilla over with the sapphire necklace and about a quarter of the bottle of Lethe water measured out into a small ceramic cup.
We went over the plan one last time, and I placed Tessa onto the small bed in the corner of the building. She was semicomatose, having been suffocated into a mild catatonic state, and in no state to fight as a necklace was thrown over her neck and dirty looking water was poured into her mouth while her nose was held. She spluttered and swallowed, and I cast renew upon her while she regained consciousness; she was still bleeding fairly badly.
“Huh? What… where am I?” Not very original first words upon being woken up, but the classics are the best for a reason.
I whispered, “shh. Please, stay quiet. You’re in a bed in Raven Hill. Me and my companions found you unconscious, damn near dead, in the woods near the river. What the hell were you doing in Duskwood?”
“What do you mean? I was stationed in Northshire!” She looked slightly panicked. Poor soul, yet to be graced with Stress Resistance. Someone might take advantage of her panic.
“Damn. The spiders’ venom can cause catatonia and memory loss. What’s the last thing you can remember? Were you alone?”
“I don’t know. I was leaving the abbey for afternoon patrol.”
“Date?”
“It was April 26th, I think.” Alright. Setting aside the strange fact that this world uses the Gregorian calendar, she forgot everything back to around lunch. Working theory; each line was enough water to erase one hour of memories.
“Damn. You’ve got days of missing time and we only just now managed to wake you up. I know you’re probably not tired, but we have to keep quiet during the night. We aren’t in a safe place. I’ll heal you as much as I can, but then can you just keep watch with Drew? We can talk in the morning. Oh. And make sure you don’t take off the necklace. It’s filtering the poison out of your system.”
Tessa nodded grudgingly, and after laying the strongest heal I could manage on her, I took a picture with my necklace and reviewed it so I wouldn’t look too creepy eyeing her up and down. I was not disappointed. She was pale, with angular features. Her eyes were a light grey, and very focused during the whole interaction. Her hair was an extremely light blonde, held back in two practical braids. I couldn’t tell much about her build; the padding she wore under her plate armor was not exactly flattering, especially with the blood staining it, but by face alone she had a very appealing aristocratic look. I was pretty sure she’d look damn good as my personal knight once she was properly convinced of my sovereignty.
I laid down with Darcell in the center of the room on a thick blanket. There was another bed, but its mattress was absolutely rotted. I closed my eyes, but you know me. I’d waited far too long since my last review.
Tessa was unsurprisingly pretty far from subdued at 138 hours. Hopefully I’d be able to get that down faster with the right conditioning. Thinking of my knight idea, I put in “disrespecting a member of the retinue” paired with deep shame. I’m not sure if it will work, but if I’m lucky she will interpret the other girls deference to mean that anything else would be disrespectful. At minimum, I’ll be able to use social convention to keep her from getting aggressive.
Abercrombie was listed as 7/depth 1. I was pretty sure that meant he had completed 7 hours of exposure and was at the first tier of entrancement. I could push him into activities that weren’t out of character for him, but he was still a paranoid psychopath. If I got him up to tier two, which required ten hours of exposure and for me to get him to do something a bit out of character, I should be able to get the necklace on him easily. Then I’m in the clear.
Lividia was still 31 hours out. I didn’t know anything much about her, so I didn’t feel like playing around with her too much. I figured that a nice safe option for a black dragon would be Euphoria associated with “obedience to Erich Bismark.” There is virtually no situation I could imagine where that command would result in a bad time for me, and dragons require careful management.
I was genuinely shocked to see that Tony and Keryn were both captured. I’d lost track of the days. I’m not really sure what to do with them. Keryn was mine now, but she was also off in fuck knows where doing fuck knows what. I’d have to tell Anetta and Auffrey to keep an eye out for her, unless the stamp worked like instant mission capture and she felt an urge to seek me out.
Tony was a big beating stick, but he was also my man inside the Defias. I had no idea what I would do with the first retinue member I had that fell under “familiar” instead of “companion.” Worst case scenario I could always kidnap him and have him stand between me and the baddies, but hopefully a fully kitted out Tessa would be taking that role by the end of the week. I’d prefer to start handing him necklaces and have him give them as gifts to other members of the Brotherhood, but I had other uses for my jewels in the short term.
I wanted Annetta to give someone in Northshire one before she left, preferably someone with authority. If any promising recruits showed up, I could poach them. I needed to get someone in Stormwind capturing business owners, too. If I can add one innkeeper to my retinue, I can siphon off food and money as needed. Same goes for smiths, tailors, leatherworkers, enchanters, and alchemists.
Finally, I’d like to get some people traveling around Azeroth seeding necklaces. As things stand, one of the biggest reasons I have to ignore missions is that the company keeps giving me things to do that are a hundred miles away or more. If I have a person wearing jewelry in every town, I’d be able to get just about anywhere within a day. Right now, basically nothing would ever convince me to do a mission in Kalimdor because a ship or zeppelin could take weeks or months to get me there. Probably. Honestly, I have no idea how long a sea voyage takes in this world.
My mind wandered as I lay entwined with a pretty girl, contemplating world conquest. My plans became grandiose and probably pretty stupid as I drifted off to sleep. I’d figure out my next step tomorrow. Tonight I intended to ignore the zombies roaming the streets outside and pretend that I had everything figured out.