A crescent moon reflected faint moonlight through the soot clouds of Yourz. A moon mage dressed in a cloak covered in dull moon stones walked through his infested hospital. His enemy had been allowed to burn the city for four days in search of him. His indiscriminate burning of the city put ash into the air. Enough so that it would block out the sun after noon. Fortunately for Albie the cloud would start to disperse around 9'oclock. As the sun was down and the moon was out his experiments could begin.
Albie stood underneath the light focus on the second floor as giant rats and the unliving brought the materials for the first experiment of the night. An empty barrel was placed in front of him. a rope was made ready. The unliving brought two men to the top of the stairs. The mage checked the condition of the men brough before him. Both were missing limbs. One was breathing weekly the other was motionless.
The mage touched the motionless man only to feel skin cold as death. Albie quickly checked for a pulse. After a few moments, the mage let go and began inspecting the corpse. He wanted to know what killed the man in a ragged orange jacket. The mage was very certain he would live to today. It was not blood loss or shock. His mouth seemed a little bit redder than normal. The mage pried open the dead man's mouth. Dried blood caked the teeth his tongue was gone.
"Brave man your boy here," declared the mage to the living crippled solder. "Swallowed his own tongue. I don't think I can use him like this."
"Scab ensure that from now on none of the prisoners can swallow their own tongues," commanded Albie through his link with Scab. "Rip them out if you have to just remove that option."
"Yes father," responded the dead man.
Albie looked at the surviving man.
"Hang him by his leg lets go," ordered the mage.
On command a pair of large rats emerged from the shadows and tied the mans surviving leg up in a crude not and hoisted him from a rope upside down over the barrel.
"Good work," declared the mage. "You should bleed out in about two minutes. Its faster than you deserve."
The mage drew his knife and cut the man's throat open. Syrupy red blood poured down his face into the barrel. The mage cut his finger blead a little into the barrel as well and began harnessing the crescent noon to harden the blood. After a few minutes of the man crying he was finally empty. In the barrel below him was a murky blood stone the size of a man's forearm. It met the mages expectations as he moved on to the dead solder's other parts. His knife cut into the man's chest and pulled the man's heart up and held it in the moonlight. He channeled his magic into the heart as it shrunk and hardened. The red organ compressed into a small silver stone. It radiated moonlight in the mages hand.
"I do not need the rest of him," declared the mage through the mind link. "Scab, take what is useful to you give the rest to Bags brood. You may not take all of it."
"The living must eat I suppose," responded the wight.
"So do the dead," responded the mage. "They just eat something different. Ready the next experamint."