The living Mage looked at on the dead mage on the table. He opened Abomination Warfare and flipped to the pail lurker. The Pail lurker was described as a murderous assassin. A lanky strangler able to slip though any crack and kill a man before anyone would notice. The process to make one was strait desecration. The mage had already killed a man and attempted to warp his corpse into a savage life consuming monster. The man had been in service to lord brand. He was an enemy. Killing everyone in the guard house was his goal. He did not regret it.
This sun mage had never done him any wrong. He died fighting lord brands men. Defending a hospital filled with more injured than a moon mage could heal. He was not an enemy and had done Albie no wrong. However, the moon mage needed to build an army if he was to take his revenge. There were thousands of bodies in the streets and buildings of Yourz. He had already desecrated cat and that Captain Lock fellow. He would desecrate more. He was destined to die in two months and if he did not recover Cats half of the moon necklace soon it would be gone forever. Time was not on his side. The traveler said that for the rest of his life he would be without meeting a friendly human. If he was to be believed it did not mater what he did in the eyes of others he would always be an enemy. The mage thought about the wax notebook. The mage believed his mentor. A future had been stolen. The queen had doomed everyone who lived in Yourz. He had set out to get his revenge and he would have it. If mutilating a corpse was what it took to do that. He remembered his village and the collection of moonstones on his cloak. He had already butchered many dead people. Why be worried about a few more.
The moon mage sent a thought for a hammer or a large rock to the bees. Step one was to make his skull visible. The mage who could barely stand without magic pulled the dead body to the floor. He crawled to the man's head and got ready for the first step. Exposing the skull. His body laying over the corpse the moon mage drew his knife from under his cloak and gently stabbed the knife into the dead man's forehead. He traced the face to his cheek then to his chin and back up to were he first cut the forehead. He peeled the muscle from the bone with the help of his knife uncovering bone and the dull unblinking eyes of a dead man.
The sight of the rotting eyes looking into him wile the flesh around them had been scraped off unsettled Albie. He felt his stomach churn and the liquid unlife shiver in his lungs. He coughed to the side as to avoid infecting the body with its taint to soon. The black flehm withered and sunk into the nearby wood floor as small black tree branches twisted and reached for him from the wood. The sight was more unnerving than removing a heart. The mage pressed on getting the entire face off. He would have liked to use the bee's acid, but the book had said that this must be done carefully less the eyes be damaged and the unliving horror be brought into its horrid existence blind. An unacceptable result if the body was to be used this way. Besides he only had the three blood stones and he did not want to waist any of them. The moon mage carried on cutting off the rest of the skin surrounding the skull. The peeled flesh and hair made a pile just out of arms reach. Until at last the skull was completely exposed. He would have to carve some runes for moon enchanting. The next step after that was to break the bones. The chunks of scalp had no further purpose for making a pail lurker.
Soon one of the large bees arrived with a loose brick. It placed the brick within arm's reach. The bee Albie called June leaked thoughts of hunger to its master. Albie thought about the unused skin and continued to carefully chip away at the forehead with an unpracticed hand. Albie thought to June to drop the book to the floor. The bee did as the stream of thoughts commanded and nocked the book to the floor. It then flew out of the room in search of more food. The mage found the page in the book again and continued to carve the runes.
After hour of meticulously chipping away at the skull and a full moonstones worth of energy to keep his hands steady brought about a decent carving in the skull. The mage did not think it perfect but believed it would do. He did not want to waste time letting the rune soak up moonlight in the normal way, so he used five more of his moon stones to finish the enchantment quickly. The skull radiated a silver light when he finished the enchantment. The mage then grabbed the brick in his hands and slid to one side of the body. The brick was raised into the air and slammed into the corpse's chest. Again, and again until the he heard the ribs crack and the chest collapsed but even then, he did not stop. He pulverized the corps until the bones were shattered and the body black from abuse. Then the arms, legs, and back were smashed and blackened.
The mage rolled to one side exhausted from his efforts and pulled out one of the chalky blood stones. He cut his finger and whet the stone with his own blood. He placed it were the mages heart would be and pushed it into the pulped body. His chest burning from the phantom wounds. The mage coughed and held the black flehm in his mouth. He let the black liquid squirm on his tongue as he bent to kiss the shattered chest.
As he did the black liquid escaped his lips and spread thought he corpse. The broken remains jolted and the pulped body congealed into an almost solid form. The skulls dead eyes held a new baleful light as the creature animated. Albie watched it siting with his back to a cabinet. The boneless creatures' legs slithered back over its head the rest of its body following in the same serpent like fashion until it stood hunched. Its flesh crawled. The creature swayed from side to side as its flesh shifted. The skull looked to Albie and a sharp hiss escaped its open jaw.
"What is your command?"