Necromancer's Descent

85 - Armel, Dion and Horace

Sir Armel's Point of View

A day earlier

When Azzo gave the order to deal with the torai, I had no hesitation.

I might have had some regrets.

Regrets that I wouldn't get to meet our lord again. At least not alive.

Our understanding of what happens to the souls after death, is fairly accurate. It has to be, with necromancers as our enemy. But on the other hand, the reason for why things are as they are, is more vague. After death, souls usually stay near their body. At least for a month or so. After that, they often seem to disappear, or are within a certain radius of it. This is why you try to call and lure their souls with their five treasures. The priests say, that when you get buried, the soul gets to go to sleep with those five treasures in their arms and in eternal sleep.

On the other hand, for ancient beings and for areas where necromancers have been near, souls seem to scatter.

A few sources discuss that it's a possibility that the necromancers devour the souls of the dead to become stronger, but there has been no proof to confirm it, and so far the church denies it very firmly. It's said when a general suggested it in Eostra's temple once, that a divine vine grew from the ground in the temple in an instant,  and bashed the general so hard, that he blasted through the temple doors out onto the street, and the temple doors closed behind him.

Eostra refused to communicate for months afterwards. Only appeased after a particularly lavish festival in her name.

"Armel?"

I glance to Dion, who looks at me as he returns on his horse, like his heart is about to break.

"He's really dead?"

Dion nods, and Horace crosses his ghostly arms bitterly.

"He died towards the end, trying to protect the remaining commanders. They say he put himself in the way of an attack on purpose to save one of them..." Dion reports, while trying to keep himself together, as the consequences of his words begin to form in our heads.

"You're sure he was completely dead?"

Dion nods, but then looks uncomfortable.

"Did miss Rosalin raise him as a zombie?"

The words come from my lips bitterly.

A necromancer.

A damn necromancer.

I clench my spectral hands, knowing that like this there's nothing I can do against a necromancer, to free Theodore from servitude.

Dion hesitates.

"Miss Rosalin awakened as a saintess there."

I freeze.

Seriously?

"You mean the soul was switched there?"

Dion nods.

"The real Rosalin got sucked out of the body, and replaced with the saintess' soul, which got blessed by Morset, right on the battlefield, almost right next to Theodore."

"But then how in the world did she raise him? All the saintesses start with only a single skill- right, they have the magic illusion picture that shows them-"

Dion interrupts me- not with words, but by shaking his head.

"She woke up, and vomited at the sight. Before she could do anything else a torai appeared and she panicked, fell and almost got eaten before raising Theodore. Apparently she looked like she was about to die when she saw parts of his chest missing after he killed the Torai."