Chapter 7

  “M’lord,” a raspy yet slightly feminine voice called out as one of Drew’s new Necromancer volunteers came trotting up beside him on her own undead horse. All undead had a distinctive sound to their voices, but this specific individual sounded like she had spent her life in the casinos and smoking a carton a day until she died.

  “Warden is fine,” Drew said as he acknowledged her with a nod of his head, “You’re… Slyna, right?”

  “Yes, Warden,” she answered without outward emotion.

  Drew waited for several moments and when it became apparent that the Necromancer was waiting to be addressed again, he inwardly groaned. He had really been hoping that Rex would have decided to join him and lead the subcommanders, but he also understood that Rex was acting as the leader of his people, especially after Steve, his co-leader, had happily rejoined Drew.

  “What can I do for you, Slyna?”

  “The other Awoken have elected me to be our collective representative.”

  Drew’s brows furrowed, “Awoken?”

  “That’s the name our people have chosen to refer to themselves as since you granted our freedom.”

  Interesting… At least it isn’t a name that will fill me with constant guilt.

  “Congratulations, I guess?” Drew didn’t know how the Awoken’s new society viewed leadership. It had been thrust upon Drew over time and while he had originally hated it a great deal he had recently come to feel ‘reluctant acceptance’ towards the role. Shit needed to get done, and he had the power and drive to do it.

  Really though, Robert is the main guy doing all the heavy lifting. I’m more of a guiding voice than anything else. I don’t know enough about politics to know what type of society that makes us and I get the feeling that if I went out of my way to learn, I probably wouldn’t like the answer.

  “Thank you, Warden. The others have been asking questions regarding our position and charge.”

  Drew tilted his head slightly before it clicked, “Ah. The idea was to have you and your peers, the uh… Awoken, to act as commanders in a new army, one where no further of your kind would be created to fill the roles. I’m sure you’ve heard that much prior to volunteering though.”

  “That is correct, Warden. We’d like to know more details, a timeline, what will be expected of us.”

  Good, at least she can be somewhat blunt and I don’t have to pull teeth to get to the gist of what she wants to say… mostly.

  The mission to Houston was well underway, and the party had just left the outskirts of what was once Dallas. They were a little less than halfway to their destination, and had already come across a few small settlements of human survivors. Dallas specifically had a moderate sized settlement with actual walls, much like the Resistance near Fort Worth had. But like Fort Worth, the Dallas settlement was lacking a [Pillar of Civilization], so life was much more difficult to the people living there without the assistance and recognition of The System.

  Sanctuary had tried, over and over, to convince people to immigrate. A Pillar offered relative safety, a new economy, and the opportunity to grow with aid. Unfortunately, some people were both stubborn and determined to make a life for themselves where they were now. Sometimes such decisions were based on logical reasoning, like the area being mostly clear from immediate threats, or disliking the idea of the undead that Drew used. That knowledge had slowly spread and had deterred several groups of people from considering Sanctuary as a potential new home.

  “I’d like to create a mental tether between your people and myself, much like we once had, but without The System forcing anything upon you. It would solely act as a form of communication between us, and then I could move the threads of my future army to your control. I would issue orders do y’all directly, and then y’all would relay them to the best of your ability to the minions,” Drew explained.

  “I see. The others thought that might be the case.”

  Drew frowned at the words, “Is that a problem?”

  “We wish to offer a compromise. The proposed mental thread will connect you and myself only, and then I create separate threads to my fellow Awoken.”

  Ah… they’re still not one hundred percent sure of whether to trust me or not. Oof… so they elected Slyna as the proverbial guinea pig. If I were to take control somehow, only she would be affected and they would remain free. Hmm… and it also means I cannot issue orders to the other Awoken commanders directly unless its verbal commands, something that The System doesn’t enforce.

  And there’s a risk to me as well. The commanders could just fuck off and take my army with them and I’d have to manually kill the fleeing minions to free up my cap. So, they’re basically using my minion cap and future minions as potential hostages should I have nefarious plans. That’s smart. Really smart. Of course, it wouldn’t prevent me from slaughtering everything due to the power of my Baleful Warden profession, but any other Necromancer would be in a quiet the pickle.

  Well, if we’re going to build trust between us then this is really a small price to pay considering I have my profession to mitigate my risk and outside of becoming a Lich myself there really isn’t another option. I need these Awoken more than they need me.

  “That’s an acceptable proposal. I wish to build trust between our people over time and this would help facilitate that. You are aware that you’ll be dealing with handing out orders in much the same way that Rex was? That’s not easy.”

  Slyna remained quiet for a long moment, “I understand.”

  Whether she was communicating with her peers, which was likely, or lost in her own thoughts, Drew couldn’t be sure. There was a chance that the other Awoken had been prepared to bolt at the first sign of trouble and she was relaying his response to them.

  “As for the complexity of the position… well, it won’t be easy. Probably easier for y’all than it is for me, given that you’re undead. The minions I seek to raise won’t be sapient, they’ll be more animalistic like Shadow here,” Drew said as he patted the side of the Nightmare’s armored neck.

  This time, Drew turned to regard Slyna more personally. She was of the ‘less’ undead type, more pale skin and muscle than just bones. Still gaunt, and with blue glowing eyes, but not unattractive for a being without a heartbeat. Black shoulder length hair complemented her otherwise armored figure. As for the armor itself, it appeared to be steel or something similar, but darkened. Not as dark as Drew’s own edgelord armor, but still.

  As for her reaction, there wasn’t any. At least not outwardly. Like Maud, she seemed to take in the information, process it, and then reflect on it without any facial movement or cues at all. Cold would be the wrong word to describe it, she was just… undead. Only a few undead had proven themselves eccentric enough to have bigger outward personalities.

  Like Steve, and Rex… I guess Chaz too. I wonder if he’s still around.

  “I understand, Warden. Is there a proposed timeline?”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Drew mulled it over. Creating an army on the road wouldn’t be too difficult, especially given his seated position on Shadow, but it would be better to start work when they stopped for the night. The human scouts and diplomats still needed a fair amount of rest as they were low to mid D-Grade at best.

  “We can begin tonight when we make camp.”

  ***

  “So what’s the plan, dude?” Mark asked.

  Drew smiled to his friend as Amber, Freya, and Spock joined them around the clearing. The rest of the party was settling in for the night, hitching tents and erecting temporary bone walls courtesy for the twenty or so Boneweavers that had joined him for the trip. Taking all the Boneweavers with them would have slowed down their progress, and right now getting to Mark’s brother was more important than outfitting an entire army quickly.

  That was, of course important, but a small trip to Houston to retrieve Mark’s brother took precedence. After all, Mark was his best friend and Drew owed him many times over. Delaying the full army creation for a week or so was an acceptable trade. Besides, it wasn’t like he was not going to be doing anything.

  The Awoken needed to get used to the animalistic minions first, hopefully while they were out and about and could run into trouble. If there were any kinks that needed hammering out, it would be better to do it now than against something like a dangerous sapient Incursion.

  “The plan is, once Slyna gets here I’ll create a mental thread to her so we can communicate telepathically. Once that’s in place, anything I raise can be handed over to her, and then she can pass them to her fellow Awoken.”

  “We are here in case the situation turns out poorly then, Drew Wright?”

  Drew gave Spock a thumbs up, “Yup. It shouldn’t come to that, but these are new undead I’ll be summoning and then handing over to people that I have no direct control over.”

  “If we’re concerned about these Awoken, then why are they over in their own encampment meditating? Shouldn’t they be closer if shit turns sour?” Amber asked.

  “BOOF!”

  “It’s a show of trust,” Drew said before pausing, “Remember, they were enslaved, by me no less, I have to allow them some distance and relative safety so we can build that trust. They know I never intended to have real people forced to live and die under my whim, but I can imagine that it’s a traumatic experience that will take a while to heal from. Undead or not.”

  It was around this time that Slyna came walking up towards the group from the Awoken’s encampment and she strode forth with purpose. There was no way to know for sure what she was thinking, but Drew could imagine that some part of her assumed that she was willfully walking towards future enslavement. And the sad part? Her comrades would never know for sure, because even if she told them she was okay, that Drew hadn’t done anything awful, how could they believe her?

  She had just gained her freedom mere months ago, and now she was going to turn into a pariah. Her words would never be fully trusted by her peers, for how could they know if the words she spoke were truly hers or if they were Drew’s? It made Drew’s stomach churn, but he knew there was no way around this. It was either this, or turning undead himself, and he very much wanted the opportunity to have children. He wanted that option.

  Was he selfish for allowing a single woman to ostracize herself so he could have that chance? Maybe. Would it end up building the trust that he hoped it would with the Awoken? He had no idea. But what choice did he truly have? Every choice was a bad choice, but he didn’t think that choosing his potential future family over the reputation of another person made him evil. Maybe a dick, yes. But not evil. Those are the words he told himself, yet they rang hollow.

  “Are you ready?” Drew asked.

  “I am.”

  “And you’re sure you want to do this?” He didn’t need to explain the situation to her, for she surely understood it far better than he could imagine.

  “Yes, I was elected fairly for this role and it’s my duty to fulfill it, Warden.”

  So the other Awoken might never have to… Drew inwardly sighed.

  With no other words, and only an internal acknowledgement of the bravery of the woman in front of him, Drew nodded his head and began his work. Using [Mana Manipulation] and his Aura, Drew began to forge a new mental thread between him and Slyna.

  Such a thing was impossible for him to create with Amber, Mark, or Spock, for they were still living. The only reason he could manage to create such a thing in the first place was because Slyna was undead. And his class specialized in the undead. It was the same reason Slyna could create threads to her peers, although in this case Drew was far more adept at its creation due to his skills and experience in using them.

  Doing such a deed would normally require a ritual spellwork, but Drew was able to bypass that. His skills weren’t a get out of jail for free card however. Anyone with the same experience and skills he had would be able to do the same, and there were limits to what one might achieve. The System, as Drew had so painfully learned, did not like being fucked with. There were unspoken and esoteric rules. He could work within the confines of said rules, but if he broke them…

  PING!

  Mental Thread connection established.

  Sapient Undead detected…

  Acquire Control?

  Yes/No

  No, I do not want to control her.

  Selection Confirmed.

  Assign role?

  Yes/No

  “Hey, sorry to bother you, but I’m establishing a mental thread connection with one of the sapient undead and The System is asking me if I wish to assign a role. What’s that mean?” Drew sent off to Hades.

  He would normally ask The Lady this kind of stuff, but Hades had become a friendly face recently and he felt more okay bothering him than asking the almighty Primordial about something likely to be mundane in nature. That, and as much as he ignored it, the gut feeling that The Lady had her own designs had never fully left him, despite the rather casual relationship he was afforded.

  “Whoa, Kid, twice now? I’m proud that you’re learning to ask questions, but you may want to check in with the boss Lady once in a while too,” Hades replied.

  “She’s a Primordial, and you’re here on Earth, I don’t want to incur long distance charges.”

  A chuckle came through the connection, “Funny, but you know as well as I that you can speak with her at any time. Also, for the record, this is merely an Avatar. I currently have several on Earth, but my main body is back at The Halls of Reflection.”

  “Okay… so about this role thing?”

  “Right. The System is basically asking what you want the connection for, it only does this if you choose to establish a thread with a sapient undead that you decline control of. Just send your thought to The System that you want her to act as a commander of your army and it’ll do the rest. And don’t muck about by saying anything else.”

  “Got it. Commander for my army. Nothing else.”

  “Yup, good chat, Kid. Take care!”

  Drew returned to the hovering text in his vision and in his mind.

  Assign Role?

  Yes/No

  I want her to be the commander of my army.

  Selection confirmed.

  Commander Role assigned.

  The text faded from view, and Drew was left standing in the middle of the clearing like someone with his head in the clouds.

  “It’s done. Go ahead and test the connection.”

  Drew felt some light, almost cautious probing of the mental thread between him and Slyna, almost as if she was lightly touching it with a single finger while standing as far away as possible. After several moments he began to feel vibrations on the connection, like she was strumming a guitar string.

  “Hello, Warden?”

  “Yup, I’m here. You getting the hang of it?”

  “I do not understand… I remain still unshackled.”

  “Duh. I told Rex and everyone else that I didn’t want Sapient beings under lock and key.”

  “But… the others believed there was a credible risk…”

  “Look, think about it this way. Why would I go to all the trouble of enslaving people that I already freed? If I wanted a sapient army, I’d just create a new one. I was stuck, my minion cap is very high, but I’m alive and my brain cannot handle all the mental threads of that many minions without me bleeding out my eyes and ears and then dying. At least not when issuing commands.”

  “You wish for the Awoken to ease your burden?”

  “I thought that was obvious. It was either that, or I become a Lich and that’s not an option I wished to pursue. Are your people that distrustful of me?”

  “We are divided and have reached no general consensus in regards to your… intentions. Regardless of our current freedom, many still remember being forced by The System to follow your orders, even if they went against our own wishes. A great many are wary and cautious of you, despite our rather favorable view of the mortals under your care.”

  “Ouch. That’s not entirely unexpected though, I think most people would feel similar if they had been in the Awoken’s position. On the bright side, at least your people don’t lump the innocent people of Sanctuary in with my personal mistake.”

  “Some believe it was an honest mistake and think highly of you for freeing us as promptly as you did, even seeking divine aid from Lord Hades in freeing us.”

  “Drew Wright, is everything okay?” Spock asked.

  Oops… forgot I was talking to her in my head.

  “Yeah, everything is golden so far. The connection is in place, it’s working, and now we can move on.”

  “That’s great news, dude.” Mark smiled.

  “Indeed,” Spock joined in by smiling as well.

  “So, what about the critters you’re going to summon?” Amber asked.

  Right… the army.

  Drew glanced between his friends and sharpened his eyes. Mark nodded lightly in understanding and corralled Spock, Amber, and Freya as they walked away to give Drew some space to work. If anything shifty was going to happen, they’d be able to respond to it immediately.

  “It’s time.”