The Fallen World

The Endless Plains - Part 2

     There was another strange thing, Malefactos realised.

     All six of the undead creatures were human, which was very strange considering that humans were very much in the minority in the Shadowarmies as a whole. Come to that, almost all the undead creatures he’d ever heard of had been human. He’d heard of a couple of shayen ghosts once, and he’d once met a nomish wight, but apart from that the only kinds of undead creatures that nonhumans ever seemed to become were zombies, skeletons and vampires. Was that a general rule? Was there some fundamental difference between humans and the other races that meant that they were much more likely to become undead? Or was it simply because he’d spent most of his life in human communities where of course all the undead would be humans? The fact that human undead were so prevalent in the Shadowarmies, a multi-racial army, seemed to argue in favour of the first hypothesis, but the reason for it was beyond him. It was one more thing he’d have to look into when his spying mission was over and his time was his own once more.

     While he’d been thinking these thoughts he’d stopped paying attention to the scene in the room, and now as he focused his attention back on the six undead he received a shock as he saw that the ghost was looking directly at him. The ghost knew he was there, without a doubt, and Malefactos checked his runes of concealment to make sure they were still working properly. They were. He should have been completely undetectable except to the very most powerful magics, and yet the ghost was still looking at him and now spoke to the room’s other occupants. “My friends, we have a visitor.”

     Five other pairs of undead eyes turned to the window, but none of the others could see him. “A visitor, honoured one?” asked one of the Fu Nangian spectres. “I see no-one.”

     “He’s invisible,” said the ghost. “You can’t really blame him for being cautious in a place like this. Come, my friend, show yourself to us. You have nothing to fear, we are all friends here.”

     Why not? thought Malefactos. I’ve got to make contact with them sooner or later. He allowed his concealment spells to fade, theredore, allowing his shrunken, mummified body to become visible. The effect on the spirits was dramatic. At their first sight of the rak all five of the insubstantial beings cowered back in terror, even the ghost. He held his hands in front of his face as he backed fearfully away, and eventually dropped to his knees, groveling pitifully, when he could retreat no further. “My Lord, forgive me!” he begged. “I meant no disrespect! I thought...”

     “You thought I was just a spirit, like yourself,” said Malefactos, allowing the cold, blazing pinpoints of light that served him as eyes to burn into the ghost. “You thought I was some pitiful wretch who owed his current condition to the circumstances of his death. Well, as you can see, that is not the case. Unlike you, I became undead of my own free will, and also unlike you I can end my present condition any time I choose and embrace the true death. I can do the same for any of you as well, should you wish it.”

     One of the wraiths, the one whose appearance had briefly given the suggestion of a young girl, began to drift forward, but the other held it back. The ghost ignored them both and carried on blubbering in terror on the bare floorboards while the two spectres tried to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible on the other side of the room. Only the cropazombie seemed unafraid of the rak, probably for the very good reason that nothing he could do to it could possibly be worse that it was already suffering. It simply stood there, seeming to radiate amusement at the predicament of its masters.

     Malefactos quickly grew tired of the ghost’s groveling and sharply ordered him back to his feet. “Who are you?” he demanded.

     “My name is Sharmos Attwin,” said the ghost, who’d somehow materialised a ghostly three pointed hat out of somewhere and was nervously wringing it between his fingers. “and I’m in charge of this town. We were just planning our trip eastwards, to reinforce the siege of Jong-Hai.”