Chapter Thirty Four

“Get behind me,” Cinna ordered. Although she said that, Cinna herself placed herself between Lilia and the door, so Lilia didn’t end up having to do much of anything. She just peeked out from behind Cinna’s shoulder to get a good look at the doors.

Lilia knew what was coming before the doors even opened. She hadn’t noticed them approaching earlier because she’d been distracted by Count Keller and then Bjorn, but the moment she remembered to check the area for undead Lilia spotted them coming. One lich surrounded by a large number of draugr. The draugr, dressed in a mishmash of different styles of armor, formed a wall in front of the lich even before the doors had opened all the way. Only the lich’s head could be seen past the barricade of walking dead in front of it.

Blackened bone with empty eye sockets. A bit of burned hair still clung to what remained of its scalp. Although Lilia had seen it and its escort coming, the lich still managed to be take her by surprise when it spoke.

“You…survivor…” it hissed through its lipless mouth. Barely comprehensible. Enough of its tongue seemed to be intact, though, for the lich to make itself understood. But its next words didn’t come from its mouth. They came from the mouths of every draugr surrounding it. “Necromancer.”

“…creepy, though at least they’re not attacking. Does it wish to speak to you?” Cinna wondered. “Maybe you can convince it to allow us through.”

“I can…try?” Lilia replied, far from certain she could do any such thing. Strike up a discussion about necromancy, yes. Convince it to do much of anything? Well, Lilia considered herself good at talking, but not particularly good at conversation. “Hi! I’m Lilia. What’s your name?”

“My name was Javert. Once,” the lich responded through dozens of mouths.

“That’s not a Selkarcian name. He must have come over the Geirarjötnas with the rest of the undead army,” Cinna observed.

“Nice to meet you, Javert. Um, so I know we just met and all, but could you maybe possibly let us go? Please?” Lilia asked. Cinna sighed audibly, though Lilia didn’t really understand why.

“You…perhaps. Not her,” Javert answered without hesitation, the words seeming to echo as the army of draugr spoke slightly out of synch.

“Well, that’s kind of a problem, see, because we’re travelling together. She said she can help me find my parents. And she’s been very helpful! Also, I saved her from an undead troll, so I’d feel bad if I just went and left her behind now…”

“You never mentioned that part.”

“I forgot. Oh, and...” A memory came to Lilia’s mind unbidden and caused her to stop, blushing. “Actually, that one’s not important.”

“What foolishness is this?” the lich questioned, its tone unreadable from so many mouths at once. “The living exist on a timer. You, of all people, should have realized this by now. Saving them is pointless—more than that, it is counterproductive.”

“Uh…what?” Lilia asked, feeling quite lost. “I’d just prefer it if my friend doesn’t die. I can always bring her back, but…”

“Precisely. What use is living when it is so easily ended, and what is the point in fearing death when it is so easily reversed? Before, death was the end. Mortos prevented permanent resurrection and ensured the dead stayed that way, allowing only for temporary interruptions. The world cannot continue as it did before. Mortos is gone. This is a world of the dead, now,” Javert explained. He lost Lilia about halfway through. And not because the innumerable voices speaking at once made it hard to understand what he was saying. It played a part, though.

“Isn’t that just because you’re killing everyone? Is this for revenge? Cinna told me all the other necromancers were killed, but…it’s not like everyone alive at the time teamed up to get rid of all of the necromancers. Just…some of them. I understand being mad at the people that hurt you, but why not just get revenge on them specifically?”

It wasn’t really a matter of morality in Lilia’s mind. She didn’t quite grasp the concept of actions being inherently good or evil. It’s just that if someone did something to make her mad, she’d want to take it out on them in particular. If other people weren’t involved, why bother hurting them at all? Wasn’t that…a waste of effort?

“That’s not what he’s saying, Lilia,” Cinna corrected. “Javert, this isn’t necessary. Don’t you see? She’s the key. A living necromancer. If she can just teach more, resurrect the art itself, we won’t need Mortos anymore. Necromancers can fill in and ensure the dead stay dead. Ennos can still be saved!”

Javert laughed. So uproarious was his laughter that it spilled out into undead that weren’t even nearby. Hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of draugr were laughing in unison. Lilia could hear the distant ring of laughing echoing throughout the castle, shaking the very walls of the building with its sheer volume.

“It’s far too late for that now,” the voices concluded once the laughter finally ceased. “The lynch mobs saw to that. How long do you think it will take to train new necromancers capable of severing souls? A year? Five? A decade? I tell you now, it will depend on the pupil. And all you have left to teach them is a child too young to have seen more than a year or two of instruction herself. By the time enough of us walk Ennos once more, there will be nothing left but people. But people alone cannot sustain this world. It will wither and die without the other forms of life.”

“I promise you, I am well aware of the difficulties. It will be challenging, I know! Already Selkarc is hard at work separating the living animals from the dead and preserving them. The crown has given instructions to keep a careful watch and prevent the dead livestock from slaughtering the living—”

“It goes far beyond livestock, knight. Insects. Fish. Prey, predators. Even monsters. Every living thing serves a purpose, and already the forests have gone silent as the dead rise again and mindlessly seek out the living to add to their numbers,” Javert interrupted in an overwhelming chorus, not so much cutting Cinna off as drowning her out.

“Then help us!” Cinna pleaded. “We have a chance, but not while simultaneously fighting off your armies!”

“They are not my armies,” Javert replied. “I give these around me direction, but they would exist without me. I am but a tool. My role is to ensure this world dies as quickly as possible, so that myself and others like me may begin our work in creating the next. We will restore the minds of the dead and create a world without death. One where we will not need a functioning environment to survive.”

“And who will rule in this new world? You?”

“I have no interest in rule. Once my work is done, I will step aside,” Javert claimed.

“You, specifically. But what of the other liches? You must realize the power you would hold in a world where you and other necromancers alone hold the power of death in your hands. Could anyone truly tell you no? Wouldn’t everyone know, in the backs of their minds, that you could end them on a whim?” Cinna posed.

“And how is that different from a world in which royalty rules?” Javert challenged in turn.

At this point Lilia felt thoroughly lost. Cinna had asked her to convince Javert to let them leave, but at some point she’d taken over the conversation herself. Somehow she was left listening to a princess debate a hundred draugr all talking at the same time as if it were entirely normal. Lilia had never even considered making undead speak for her before, but she supposed in hindsight that there hadn’t been anything stopping her.

Actually, thinking back, it explained the purpose of the undead raven by Master’s front door.

“How come you’re talking through all of them instead of just one?” Lilia cut in. Cinna turned to face her, blinking rapidly. The lich fell silent for a moment, his train of thought lost.

“Pardon me. I suppose I hadn’t even considered that I was doing it,” Javert apologized. This time only a single voice emerged from the crowd. “It’s been so long since I had a real conversation that I merely puppeteered these undead all at once as I have for everything else.”

“So…can we leave? I don’t really get what you two were talking about, but it sounds like you just want the best for everyone too, right? Can’t we give Cinna’s plan a shot?” Lilia requested.

“…no. No, I don’t believe I will allow that,” Javert answered. From a different draugr this time. He had to have done that on purpose, but Lilia couldn’t quite figure out why.

“Um…please?”

“It’s no use. We’ll have to fight our way out. Lilia, I’ll need you to immobilize the draugr while I—”

The wall far to Lilia’s left exploded. Cinna whirled around and swung her hammer. A stone the size of Lilia’s torso shattered, its fragments mostly pinging off Cinna’s armor harmlessly.

“While you what?” Lilia asked when the noise finally died down.

“While I deal with this lich, apparently,” Cinna answered with a sigh. Then she pointed her hammer at Javert. “I’ll be with you shortly. Don’t think for a second this novice will be enough to stop me.”

“I’m not so polite as to let you duel it out!” Javert shouted in a deafening chorus. In the same instant his wall of draugr stepped into the room.

“Stop!” Lilia yelled, her word accompanying a wave of mana that carried her will with it. After having taken only a single step the draugr halted.

“What!? How did you…? These draugr are bound to me! This shouldn’t be possible!” Javert screamed.

“Oh, I just had to—”

“Lilia, don’t tell him a damn thing! He’s just going to use the information against you!” Cinna interrupted even as she sidestepped a pillar of stone that shot from the ground in her path, then smashed another to pieces.

“Good point. Sorry, it’s a secret!” Javert tried to order his draugr to attack again, but Lilia saw the instant the command passed between him and his familiars. She sent out a second pulse cancelling out his order.

Unlike the patrolling undead she’d run into on the road, these draugr were acting only based on the order Javert actively sent them. They weren’t carrying out preset instructions written into their souls. Every time Lilia interrupted their orders Javert had to send them again. That went both ways, though, so if Lilia tried to order them to attack Javert, he’d be able to stop them immediately as well.

They were at an impasse. One that could only be broken by Cinna…or another lich.