Albie had heard that scouts had been dispatched at the front of the scourge. War mind had reported only minor injuries and the death of all scouts. Another larger force was also reported. It was estimated that they would be encountered some time tomorrow. A meeting had been called to discuss a strategy for the coming battle, but the mage had decided to wait a few minutes before joining. He was spending the day breaking the minds of former orange coats. The new best method of persuasion was to leave the mind in the jar for two days without any stimulus. The deprivation of all feelings noise and control horrified most of them more than experiencing deaths. Two days left the minds half and willing to do anything to have any kind of outlet. Anything they could control, see, or feel was salvation from being trap with just their minds in the void.
The mage wondered how well he would do as just his mind in the void. How would deal with stand being alone with just himself. He immediately thought of his children and how he had not been truly alone since the night Scab war born. Since then, there had always been another mind nearby to talk to. A child that looked up to him eager to ask him questions and earn his approval. He thought about the book Sculpting Life and its author, Abigale Miller. The Authors of the other books were himself and a creature who called itself Twenty-Eight. He had never written The Book of Blood Stones. Twenty-Eight was also only beginning to learn to talk but it called him the Pail Scourge just like the author of Abomination Warfare called its former master. Almost Every unliving nightmare in the book had crawled off its page into reality. Some of the sketches in the book seeming to be of creatures that marched outside the hospital. The walking hospital itself was drawn in the book almost exactly as it was now.
If the former raven was going to write Abomination Warfare and he was going to write The Book of Bloodstone than would it be possible that Abigale Miller was a daughter, he would have had if Milltown had been left in piece. The thought came with a range of emotions from sorrow to doubt and ending with anger. The though that he and Cat would have had a daughter might have brought a tear to his eye if his body wasn't more dead than alive. Despite his heart not beating the unlife in his veins was still spreading. It wasn't moving quickly but Albie could see every day the black tendrils under his skin stretched farther and farther across his body. Every day he needed a little more life force to stay standing than he had needed the day before. He had all he needed for now but was afraid of what would happen to him if he ran out. Would he simply collapse. No that's not how this stuff worked. This unnatural liquid is what kept the unliving moving. If it had its way no living thing would be safe from his grasp. Everything around him would be devoured as he walked the earth until something managed to kill him or he starved. The same fate might await Twenty-Eight if he didn't help the creature.
He would not survive alone with his thoughts. He needed to begin a new project. Stabilize a bee the size of a cow or maybe do something with earth worms. Anything to get his focus off himself. The mage was about to reach out for Milled when he heard a Tapping on the lab door.
The mage opened it to see a rat presenting him a severed human head. The creature seemed pleased and its tail flicked behind it in excitement. The mage took the head from the large black furred rat. He pat the creature on its head twice in appreciation before it scampered off. The stolen saber on its hip clattering against the floor.
The mage put the head on the counter. It had likely been separated from the body for to long to use the mind, but this event was a good omen to the young mage. He pulled out the wax notebook and found a new page had escaped the wax.
"This is the last page. I see too much after tomorrow to know what exactly will happen. I also can't predict what the void mage might change. All I can say is that if you win tomorrow you will take the capital. Anyway, your War mind will likely find it helpful to know that the Army you face is 10,000 men strong. They have brought with them 12 cannons, one sun mage, 200 heavy lancers lead by Duke Rolling and a small terrier dog named Poof Poof. If Poof Poof escapes the battle than Milled will die in the capital. I personally find the little ankle biting shit a horrible mockery of dogs and would like it out of the gene pool. None of its descendants amount to anything more than managing to avoid every possible vehicle accident that might end the bloodline. Kill it or else no matter what happens Milled will die. On a more Somber note, you have been thinking about Abigale. Yes, she would have been your first-born daughter. It saddens me I will not get to meet her in person. She would have done so much, made both her parents so proud. The children you have made in her place also have the potential to do things you never thought possible. You won't survive to see it but believe me when I tell you they will be worthy of you and Cats legacy. Make sure you tell them about their mother about what Cat meant to you and how grateful you are to have met them. This is the last note Little Moon. I hope you sleep well in your bed of ashes."
Albie had struggled to finish reading the note. He didn't know what the old traveler wanted from him. His chest burned with sorrow and hatred. He felt the tendrils of unlife squirm in his chest as his dehydrated body tried to release tears he didn't have. Only know did he realize his one human eye was so dry it was almost blind. He had just become used to borrowing the site of one of his experiments to notice. The young man sat curled up against the counter wheezing.
Eventually he regained his composure. He remembered the mind burning hate and began to link together the minds of his first born.