Chương 448: 448

Mark had imagined that the Necromancer Understanding Party would have been like that Bittercap Mausoleum; dark, massive, and full of undead. But this place was right down the road, and this was the Winter Ball, so the party place was more like a rec center gathering than anything else. This particular 'rec center' was one of many buildings around Domal'Takela that had once served as planning areas for dragon-feeding and dragon-sized get-togethers, for the human parts of the empire. So it was big.

But it had been refurbished for modern day human-only usage, so it was quite nice. Not undead-y at all. Or at least not as bad as Mark had expected. There were still undead here and there, but they were hidden, and Mark was rather certain that many of them were familiars, rather than real undead. Little bats hanging on sills, bright red eyes scanning the world. A ghostly woman, misting on the edge of the ground, peeking up from the grasses. A shadow filled with teeth, blending into a corner of the wall over there.

Small things. But the lights were bright, music was in the air, and… it was weird music. Mark watched as a bunny startled in the grasses and then raced away from the building, terrified of everything happening in that direction. Some sort of vector in the music brushed against him and then moved on, and Mark recognized the music as a 'stay away' ward.

Rekaro and the arcanaeum at the settlement had gotten extremely proficient at making those, and Mark got even better at spotting them— The front doors were open, and a pale, thin man stood beside them, bowing. He was not human. He wore a thin, diaphanous cloth that might have been mist or his own skin. He also had golden manacles on his wrists and feet, and low-slung batwings hanging off of his back, like black shadows. He had no vector.

Mark and Addavein walked past the bowing guy, who was absolutely some sort of summoned undead. When Mark glanced behind himself, the guy was gone. Overall, the inside of the main room was shaped like a symposium; a stage, chairs facing the stage, and tables around the edges. Some people were serving food, and other people were eating. Except for their positions in the grouping, it was hard to tell the necromancers from the rest.

They all wore all sorts of normal clothes, but a few of them wore black and grey robes like the ones Tombsigh had showed up wearing to the Green House, with his fellows, about 2 hours ago. Black and grey robes hung on hooks on the walls, but were also folded over chairs here and there. Overall, everyone here seemed joyous in small ways, but pretty much every single one was holding back, like a dam waiting to flood the world. Some of them wanted to talk about Big Things.

Others wanted to let loose in a way that Mark kinda felt was more like… letting out a fart? Maybe? It was a weird sensation to be Unionsensing—" No black and gold, hmm?" Addavein asked the air, looking ahead as he walked alongside Mark." Don't see any? So no archmages. Are there a few in the Empire?"" Of course." And then Tombsigh and some other guy were walking their way. The second guy had a whole row of quite nasty stitches trailing up and down his face, like someone had sewn his entire head back together.

One eye was blue and the other was red, which was strange as heck. Other than that, he looked like a normal guy, and he looked happy to see Mark. Addavein looked at the guy, and he knew him. The stitched-guy knew Addavein, as well. Mark couldn't tell how they felt about each other, though; maybe it was some sort of animosity? Or professionalism? Tombsigh happily said, "Greetings again, Mister Careed! We're all very excited to work on this project." And then he introduced the stitched-face guy.

"This is Stitcher." Codenames, then, Mark thought.

'Tombsigh' probably wasn't called 'Tombsigh' to his family, so of course there was a degree of distance between life and work. Mark was called 'Blackvein' in battle, after all, so it was understandable. Mark said, "Nice to meet you, Stitcher." Tombsigh said, "Stitcher is one of our best Necromancers and Skillers, so he came out of his usual hidey hole to visit us here tonight. He'll be leading the main discussion on turning people into books of life without actually harming them, or their soul, or anything else."

Mark's eyebrows went up—" It's all theory, for now," Sitcher said, voice deep and craggy.

"We can get 95% of the way there with current understandings, but actually doing what you're requesting us to do is something that is beyond us, because we've always been missing that last part— Or at least some of us are missing that part. If you would have gotten Capture then you'd have that part inside of you, even without the soulhouse. I am referring to the portion of your soul which will house the dormant other-person, of course. The personal demiplane.

The only real question is if you want to focus on that, or to develop a broader, deeper base, first, and how fast this Understanding can actually happen, and if it will stick around without the deeper, broader base to serve as a foundation." Mark nodded. Understanding magic was great in the moment, but unless you actually knew what you were doing then when the magic finished, you'd end up with some miracle magic or artifact in front of you with no idea how it worked at all.

Mark said, "I need to understand how it works, at its base, so we'll start in that way then proceed toward that goal of a book of life. If it takes a while it takes a while, though I hope it won't take too long. I expect it to take multiple Parties, and I also expect to be called away to war… soon." Tombsigh and Stitcher took that last part very seriously. Tombsigh said, "Then I'll make the first speech, and we'll go from there— Ah."

A small vector flickered in another room, and then Walaria opened a door into the main room. She was looking fine in a slick black witch's dress, with a pointed black hat over her bright red hair. Silver chains adorned her chest, shoulders, and waist, and each chain had a different holy symbol on it. Mark recognized the Witch's Star, the Eternal Ankh, the Cross, and the Candle, and of course all of the Pantheon's symbols, but a few of them escaped him. The holy symbols dangled, jingling as she walked toward Mark.

She even had one of Mark's diamond-like Extended Protect spheres hanging off of a silver-chain belt. That sphere was joined by a crystal skull, and a bright silver star. It was a uniform, for sure, and her belt seemed to hold most of the power of that uniform. Mark was on edge the instant he understood that. Everyone else in the room was on edge, too, but they bowed. Tombsigh and Stitcher bowed and backed away from Mark. Mark and Addavein did not bow at all. Addavein worried a little, and Mark did, too.

Why was she wearing what had to be some sort of witch's battle armor? A question spilled out of Mark before he could even think about it, asking, "Is something happening?" Walaria easily said, "This Understanding Party is happening, but I need to change something about it. I understand you gathered the full Transcendent Series of Skills. This is unexpected, and a boon. So I need you to do some Skiller learning and then I need you to put those Skills into one of our new potential archmages.

Perhaps he doesn't need to be an archmage if you can pull off such a Skilling, and that would be most beneficial to Aluatha." In addition, I need you to figure out how to rip out the Binding in a person without killing them, so you can put three other Bindings into them. You will start with an undead creation, first. Mindless. Go in and out a few times with your undead, ripping them apart and putting them back together, and when you're confident you can do it to a person, then we're going to do that, if you agree."

Walaria asked, "Do you agree?" Mark thought for a moment. There was probably a natural progression from Necromancy to soulwork to Skilling to making books of life. So he said, "Sounds like a natural progression of needs, to me, unless I am completely mistaken?" Walaria said, "Sort of a detour, but a necessary one. I imagine the Skills Necromancer and Curse Monger, together, would accomplish the leader's share of the lifting. Can you use both of them at the same time?"

Everyone in the room was very, very interested in everything happening right now." Not without… I mean. Yes. But also no." Walaria eyed Mark a little.

"No?" Mark definitively said, "I'm not rebuilding my house for temporary gains, and I think that's how I would have to do it… though I could try making another floor for the house… No. I don't think it works that way." Walaria wasn't convinced. Mark said, "System Call, Help: Can I make a second loadout with different Powers? Display answer." This is not possible. The only way to switch out abilities is to rebuild your house with those abilities at the core.

It is not possible to build 'another floor' to circumvent this limitation of reality. Temporary use of a single ability is allowed at the cost of shuttering the house. Stitcher gasped a little, whispering to Tombsigh, or maybe just to himself, "It does listen all the time."" Active listening!" some guy in back shouted, too excited to hold it in. Other people shushed him for him, and he rapidly, quietly, apologized. Mark said to Walaria, "There you have it.

I'm not switching out Union or Adamant Immortal, and I'm pretty sure that Union can do everything I need it to do, anyway, as I've been using that to grab Bindings already. Necromancer is just to shorten the distance to true understanding with Union." Walaria acknowledged that, and also Mark's non-answer of her big question, and then moved on, saying, "Please allow Tombsigh to ask a few questions of System Prime, if they're not too invasive."

Walaria had absolutely invited Tombsigh up here to give Mark a friendly face for a whole lot of interrogation and learning, and that was fine. Tombsigh, for his part, bowed deeply, saying nothing. He had known this was going to happen, if Mark allowed it. A few people in the audience did not, though, or maybe they just didn't believe it until that moment. Those other people were supremely jealous and curious." I can do that," Mark said. Walaria asked, "So Necromancer and Union at the same time is not possible?"

Mark absolutely did not want to straight-up lie, so he said, "I'm not changing anything before a possible war. I thought tonight was mostly normal lessons, anyway? Do you really want me to… switch out some stranger's Bindings?"" If it should agree with you." Walaria moved on, turning to the crowd of about 30 people, saying, "Then good luck, everyone. I know you all like to get into the weeds, but please treat this as a cram session for an Emperor." Everyone else bowed even lower.

And on that note, Walaria walked into the other room that she had come from and Mark briefly saw a doorway open up in the air and the Second Princess step through, before the room's door shut, and Walaria's thin vector vanished from the building.

Mark turned toward the Necromancers, Spiritualists, and otherwise, and began a Union of Understanding, linking with all of them— A few guys that had been 'holding it in' suddenly relaxed, outside of their will, and Death mana, like a shimmering purple light and darkness, flowed on Mark's Union. One of the guys instantly called out, "Sorry!" All of the guys near the Death mana started pulling at it in weird ways, turning it into reservoirs in themselves or channeling it into suddenly-apparent undead.

One guy had a ghost, like a black cloud, suck up all of the dangerous mana, even as he told one of the spilling-guys that it was bound to happen anyway. Mark, of course, got a direct thread of the stuff right into his body, and it felt kinda like a sickness. Not bad. Not great, though. The people who had been serving the food rapidly bowed and took their leave, quickly and securely, running out through the doors that Walaria had taken.

They escaped Death, and that was good for them, but some guy called out a disappointment over the serving staff leaving. That guy conjured up some undead minions that looked like the Unseen Servants Powers that Mark had stripped from a few near-liches back at Bittercap Mausoleum. Those Unseen Servants then started cleaning up small messes left by the wait staff. Addavein regarded Stitcher, asking, "How's the family? Secured for the difficult times ahead?"" They're doing great, Addavein!

Thanks for asking," Stitcher said.

"And yes. They're ready for deployment as soon as it becomes necessary."" Counter-necromancy? Or attack?" Addavein asked. Stitcher said, "The first, though if a few different key points fall then I'll be switching to attack, to try and force their back lines to rethink pressing forward."

Mark got the distinct impression that everyone here had been working with each other for a long time, and he knew that Necromancy was one of the sure-fire paths to immortality, so before Addavein and Stitcher got too deep into it and everyone started, Mark asked, "How long have you two… how long has everyone here known each other?" Stitcher had to think, and he looked at Addavein to think better. Tombsigh said, "About 25 years for me, though I don't believe I will be pursuing immortality unless I need to."

Stitcher told him, "You should consider it, Tombsigh." And then he told Mark, "About 140 years for me."" Huh," Mark said, glancing to Addavein, who nodded in an unsure sort of way. Mark continued, "So that means that Dominant actually respects you guys? Or you've had dealings?" The people close enough to hear that all kinda winced, or frowned.

Some of them were embarrassed, because yes, of course they had had dealings with the Godking tree that routinely turned people into dryads, or whatever that was, and then those dryads used necromantic constructs to kill people and cities. Like what they had done to the Main Outpost of Xerkona, and to the Fates. Some guys thought Mark was making an accusation.

Mark cleared up that misconception fast, as he asked his big question, "Since you all probably know the Godking the best: Is Necromancy or Soul Killer and Curse or Curse Monger and some other, third Power, a good way to kill him? Because I'll switch out my house to kill a god. I have no problem doing that." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Tensions relaxed. Some guy eagerly spoke up, "Necromancy and Union is good enough for that!"

Another guy instantly scoffed, saying, "He cannot go into war himself so he'll always hang back. There is no 'attacking Dominant' without killing all of Okuana first." Another guy said, "And think of all the knowledge we would lose! No. We can never kill him. We must sue for peace from an advantageous position." The Necromancers started bickering—" You have to corral them, Mark," Addavein softly said to Mark, as an aside. And then he raised his voice and said, "People! We're getting off track. Tombsigh.

Please take the stage and give your lesson." Tombsigh rapidly nodded, bowed, and then hurried on up to the stage, whereupon he tapped away at a tablet screen and images popped up on a clear wall, to the side. Tombsigh started drawing on that tablet as he spoke at length about Death Mana, Life Mana, and the interactions between the two.

Mark took the central chair in the audience as he Unioned with Understanding, listening to lectures on Necromancy that Addavein had already prompted Mark to understand, while everyone else around him was old hat at this sort of lecture. The Understanding flowed as thick as the Death Mana in the air— Mark coughed, waving away some of the death in the air, and others looked at him. He shook his head. He was fine. Just a bit of Death in the throat. The lessons were deep, but the surface was easy to understand.

Basically, all things, living and dead and otherwise, were composed of living reality on the surface, deeper parts like memory and the soul that existed inside of the 'the dream', and the crystallization between the two, which was mana. You could use any one of the three to influence the other two. Very deep, very interesting things hid beyond that small set of statements, but the necromancers didn't get into that.

They stayed on the surface, for now, and they talked about one specific connection between reality and unreality. Death mana. Necromancers specialized in Death mana, after all. Death mana was very good at replacing any or all parts of the reality/mana/dream triumvirate in any given creature, and the various Death mana Powers allowed for that in different ways.

Death Powers like Necromancer, when used in their most normal ways, could replace any or all three of these categories of reality, mana, or dream, with Death mana. The Power Spiritualist worked in the physical, despite mostly working with ghosts. Powers like Curse worked in the mana. The Power Weird worked in the dream directly. It was all very connected, though.

When you replaced the dream with Death mana, you created a thrall to your will, or, to say it more correctly, you created a thrall to whatever dream you put into the creature. Vampires, true zombies that self-propagate, undead horrors of all kinds that can spread on their own, all come about from replacing the dream with Death. Vampires, in particular, come from a lineage of older vampires 'hooking up' someone —in the computer to computer sense— to their own vampiric Death Dream.

When you replaced the mana with Death mana, you created things like liches and other necromancy-causing creatures. Your standard undead is undead because it has its mana replaced with Death mana, causing them to become Death-propagating creatures, and all that Death mana they generate and exude causes other undead things to manifest. When you replaced the physicality with Death mana, you created ghosts and other intangible dead.

Mark didn't know any of that, exactly, so he'd have to keep an eye out for that sort of division later, when he came across any more undead. Tombsigh further explained, "With regard to the undead that Godking Dominant uses, he specifically uses a Death Dream, hooking up corpses and the living to existing infrastructure he has already created in the dream. The best way to disrupt that sort of thing is to disrupt the dream with any number of attacks.

Of course, he also installs switches in all of his horrors, so if they go out of his control, or out of the control of those he leases unto others, they go berserk. This berserk nature dissuades most normal people who know about this from ever trying to attack his undead in this way, but you shouldn't really have to worry about that, Mister Careed. You should be quite resilient toward that sort of thing." Addavein told Mark, "We'll talk about that later." The lessons continued.

Eventually, after an hour, Tombsigh covered pretty much every normal topic of Necromancy. Mark didn't understand until Tombsigh was almost done, when he took a bow and was met with polite applause, that this was kind of an 'exhibition match' for him. There was no swordplay or stance dancing, but Tombsigh knew everyone here, and he was probably the youngest person here aside from Mark, which meant everyone else was his elder, and so he had to perform for his elders. They judged him to have performed admirably.

Some of them even had a few small mental breakthroughs, according to their vectors. Mark wasn't privy to those thoughts, but he certainly felt it when people experienced some Understandings that they had either forgotten, or that they hadn't really thought about in decades. Stitcher took the stage next, smiling with a lopsided grin and different-colored red and blue eyes, as he began, "Thank you, Tombsigh, for that wonderful refresher.

And now let's talk Skilling, as that is the next lesson Second Princess Walaria decreed. We embark upon this diversion in the hopes that Mister Careed can create a Transcendent being. I hope that Mister Careed can use this lesson to assist him, and I would like to be there for that, if such a thing would be allowed." Stitcher just looked at Mark, nodding a little, but not actually wanting an answer at that moment. Mark did not give him an answer, though people did look his way wondering if he would.

Stitcher continued, "Many of you are not Skillers by trade, or by action, but we're all familiar with the basics. We all work either to keep the Skills of our constructs intact as we turn them into servants, or into weapons. Or, we give them new Skills, built from the ground up, by creating the Bindings that exist in other beings." Oh shit, huh? Mark thought. And then he realized, Ahhh… yeah. Death Mana replaces the mana, and the Binding is in the mana, so… yes. That would all be Skiller stuff, wouldn't it…

Oh wow, look at that. While Mark had a minor revelation about the purpose of mana as a bridge between the dream and reality, and what that meant, other people in the audience were at careful, rapt attention. There was respect in the air, and everyone seemed to respect Stitcher, and he respected them in turn. Even Addavein respected the guy a little, though it was not like the respect from others. Mark got the distinct impression that Stitcher was a Big Deal, in a colleague-sort of way.

Stitcher continued, "I have the Skill, Stitch, and that is where I have taken my mage name from. I can stitch anything together with any other compatible thing, and that's where the rub gets you, because most things are not compatible with other things. It is not actually a Death mana Talent, but Death mana bridges so many, many gaps, so, long ago, I specialized in Death mana.

This allows for functionally-seamless integration of one thing into another" Stitcher grinned, adding, "But as you can see by my face, there are some seams here and there."

With polite laughter from the audience, Stitcher continued, "For all of you Skilling the hard way, I can still offer you a great many tips and tricks when it comes to souls, lives, Bindings, and more, because where other people need extreme skill to Skill, I have been able to screw up a lot and come back from a whole lot of brinks thanks to the help of many of the people here, to be able to repair everything with the help of others, and to continue crafting true masterpieces out of warriors, mages, and much more…"

The lesson stayed light in a few areas, mostly having to do with mana compatibility and Death mana, and how Stitcher used Death mana to craft Binding-parts all the time when the initial subject's mana-type was incompatible with the Binding they desired." You can give a Water mana person a Fire-type Binding, or Skill their existing Binding in that way, but you'll have to account for how they're using Water mana to handle physical fire, and that usually results more in steam than in flames. BUT!

You can use Death mana to give a person a Liquid Fire Skill without an issue. Instead of Flame Shaper, you will have crafted for them Napalm Shaper." Eventually the Death mana in the Binding burns out, replaced by the person's natural mana, and this is a good thing. This is what we want."

You must account for the secondary Skills involved in the primary Skill, though, and the user must be made aware that most of the initial defenses they had against water, such as pressure and drowning force, will take time and healing to adjust to the new defenses they are still growing, of heat resistance and ability to breath e fire.

You can shorten that healing time considerably through specific healings, and if they're a mage they can do most of that healing themselves, but you must make sure your clients know not to stress themselves too fast." Using Death mana as a bridge ensures that the healing to a proper Binding takes well, because while the body recognizes Death as a part of life, it still tries to replace it, and in that replacing we have growth and stability."

Most of the time, the process of Skilling drops a person's Power Level to 1, resetting everything about them, and the System will remark how they have an unstable Binding. This is normal. With a PL of 1, a person will mostly not be able to hurt themselves, but they must still be told of the dangers." Now back to mana types."

Mana types are among the most important things to get right, to ensure compatibility between physicality, mana, and the dream, because without compatibility the only expected result is catastrophic death…" The lesson continued for an hour, and Mark was absolutely sure that several people in the audience learned something new right alongside him. Addavein knew all of this, though. Soon, Stitcher finished. People clapped politely.

Another guy took the podium to talk and Addavein surprised Mark when he focused intently. He wasn't the only one, but Addavein's attention surprised Mark. This new guy had some red accents to his black robes, and his eyes were sharp, like the fangs in his mouth." I'm Sunder of House Araki, and I have the Skill Necromancer.

I will be the first of many to speak of the use of this specific, generalist Skill, but I hope we can get through at least a few of us tonight, for everyone here has a different specific way of using their Skill, and I am no different." I focus on mass-creation of mindless undead to swarm battlefields and turn charnel pits into functional things before the enemy can do the same.

I expect to be deployed in whatever war is happening, and I will be rushing to create solid dreams that I can tap into, in order to bind an undead horde together without having to individually instruct each one." Sunder looked at Mark, and said, "It has long been a dream of mine to be able to create an actual demiplane with which to solidify a dream so that I don't have to make the dream from scratch, every single time. I believe you have achieved this, with the use of your house."

He spoke to everyone, "But I can manage a demiplane in the dream in a war, and I expect to be able to do this many times in the near future…" Mark learned a lot. Most people did, actually. Addavein included. 3 other people spoke about Bindings, Skilling, undead creation and control, and then it was midnight and they entered the question and answer part of the evening.

Stitcher took the first round, speaking at length about moving around Bindings, all of them getting deep into the weeds— Walaria stepped to the side of the row of chairs, beside Mark, and Mark realized she was in the room with them, now. Death mana flowed around her, not touching her, and Mark's Understanding shattered as he realized he had included her in the discussion for the last 5 minutes, for she had been in the back of the room. And now she was up here. Everyone noticed her when Mark did.

Other people noticed that her hair was a little undone, and she had a wrap of loose black fabric over her right arm, covering a redness to her pale skin. It was sort of like a bandage but not like a bandage at all. Mark must have been running some Understanding, still, because other people recognized it as a wound, and so Mark did, too. Stitcher stopped mid-sentence, pivoting, asking, "Is that all the time we have?"

Walaria regarded everyone, saying, "I do hope that this has been a good evening for you all, but it is time to end it here. Mark? Did you get a chance to Necromancy with some Skills upon an experimental target?" Mark stood up and confidently said, "No. But I learned a lot, and I think I can do it with Union just fine. But give me an hour, and I can do the experiments first." Walaria nodded, and it was more of a command than an acknowledgment.

"I'll have the stage set in an hour for you to attempt re-Binding someone with the Transcendent series. Would you like some assistance from any of the fine people here?" Mark hadn't actually agreed to do it, but… Yeah. He had agreed, kinda. Mark still asked, "Depends on what you want out of Transcendent?"" To create a house without having a house book." It could not be understated just how much Addavein focused, though he wasn't far behind everyone else.

Suddenly, the night turned serious, even though it was already a big deal. Mark didn't have to think long to say, "Stitcher, Sunder, and Tombsigh— and Addavein, of course." Addavein thought that was a good choice, but he didn't say anything to that effect. The named parties were awash with joy and deeper, more important and hard-to-recognize emotions. Pride, mostly. Other people almost spoke out against the limitations, but Walaria's serious look allowed for no naysaying.

Walaria told everyone else, "Please excuse yourselves for the night and prepare for the Grand Winter Ball in 10 hours." The room rapidly emptied, with most everyone bowing to Walaria on the way out. Some people said small things to Sunder, wishing him well with his goals, while Stitcher and Tombsigh got almost-jealous and truly-jealous words offered to them and, in two cases, spat at them." You unbelievably lucky bastards."" Thank you." A few guys were pissed they had to leave, but they left all the same.

And then Walaria told Tombsigh, "Thank you for your assistance, Necromancer Tombsigh."" Oh… Uh." Tombsigh looked to Mark— Tombsigh rapidly bowed deeply to Walaria, and then took his leave, too, saying, "Thank you."