Standing atop the stone walls, Silus observed the forest below. A cool breeze blew by, causing his silver hair to flutter in the wind. The sun was warm where he was standing, but he could see dark rain clouds far out over the horizon. Sounds of hammering and sawing was coming from behind him, men and women with iron collars around their necks were toiling away inside the courtyard.
Silus had managed to find a mid-sized town about three days travel by wagon from where he was. After contracting a blacksmith to produce the tools he would need, he went around looking for manpower. Slavery wasn't as popular as it had been in the past, but there were still places that sold them if you knew where to look.
Once everything was settled, he packed away all the tools inside his storage ring then proceeded to march his fifty slaves back to the hidden fortification. He made doubly sure that no one was following him, casting concealing magic on himself and the slaves. It took a little more than five days to return, but other than that, things went smoothly.
The slaves were putting on the finishing touches to the structure. What little maintenance needed to be done on the stone walls and foundations were completed first. The roofs of the existing stone buildings were replaced, and new wooden buildings were quickly built. Silus was incredibly pleased at just how quickly the slaves worked.
A small bell rang out in the courtyard, indicating that it was time for lunch. The slaves all stopped what they were doing and filtered into a large building that was off to the side. This is where the slaves would eat and sleep. It was just a simple building filled with one kitchen, a washroom, and fifty straw beds. A latrine had been dug out on the other end of the courtyard, the farther it was from where they slept the better.
Silus made his way into the main keep of the structure. It was a large three-story building with over a dozen rooms along with a large great room in the center. The great room was just a wide-open space for now, not even a single decoration was put into place. What was in the room was a massive magical array.
The magical array took up most of the floor space, some one-hundred feet in diameter. Several pentagrams were spread out within the array along with differing runes and geometric shapes. This was the fate of the slaves once they had fulfilled their purpose. They would be used as sacrifices to bring forth a fighting force worthy of being by his side.
Silus had dug deep into the lexicon of black magic to find a summoning spell that would fulfill his needs. He needed to expand his forces, but it was hard to find beings that he could trust. That was why he decided to summon his first batch of followers, that way they would never be able to betray him and would carry out his orders without hesitation.
It was nearly time; in a few days he would begin the summoning ritual. Then he would welcome his new servants into this world. Silus brought out the ancient book that the summoning circle had been recorded in. After he had painstakingly translated it, he discovered that with enough sacrifices the array could summon low level demons that would act as a servant for the summoner. The number of sacrifices would determine the level of demon along with the number summoned.
It was a gamble, but one he was willing to make. He had no use for the slaves once they were finished rebuilding the fortification anyways, so even if the summoning failed, he wouldn't be out anything. He could always turn some of them into noble vampires but felt it would be a waste to do so with slaves.
He had done some research on what it meant to be a progenitor over the last few weeks. There wasn't much left in the records that he had, but it was enough to give him a rough idea of what to expect. A progenitor was able to turn humans, elves, or dwarves into vampires called nobles. These noble vampires would have much of his original strength and also be able to turn humanoids into vampires as well.
A noble vampire would be slightly weaker to sunlight, but still be able to go out in it in short intervals without too much trouble. The beings that the nobles would turn would be even weaker to sunlight, being burnt by it almost immediately, much like a bad sunburn. The weakness to sunlight would only get worse further down the lineage you went, eventually making it so that a thrall would only be able to move around in the dead of night.
As far as Silus could tell, sunlight was the only major weakness that a vampire had. They did not age, only needed to feed on the blood of their victims and could heal almost instantly. Of course, there could be other items that were not listed in the records, if there were he would have to discover them on his own.
He had already decided on who he would turn first.
…..
Deep in the recesses of the Royal Palace, in a secure room with magic arrays stacked one atop the other, King Alexander was being briefed on the happenings of the night before. One of the 'King's Shadows' were knelt down in front of him, a cloth mask covering his face. The covert organization was extremely secretive, the members did not know each other's names or faces; not even the King himself was privy to the information. This was all done under the assumption that should one of their members be captured and tortured, no amount of questioning would bear fruit.
"A necromancer? Are you certain?" King Alexander asked the man knelt down before him.
Nodding his head, the man answered. "Yes, my liege. He had used the Shadow Bolt spell, only those in the possession of the Necronomicon and have an affinity with the death side of spirit magic could use such a spell."
A grim look befell Alexander's face, his frown deepening. He wasn't worried about the boy; he was still young, and his power would not be that great. He was worried about who he had been learning from. They had been keeping a remarkably close eye on Professor Kal trying to gauge what exactly he was doing and what it was he may be after. A mage of his caliber wouldn't just be happy being a mere Professor in an Academy, there had to be more to it.
If Professor Kal were a necromancer himself then the entire capital could be in danger. He had never seen a necromancer himself but understood that they were embodiments of evil and would use innocent people as sacrifices in their taboo magic. Although there hadn't been any reports of people going missing, there had been some unusual deaths that had occurred.
There had been reports of women being found strangled to death and their bodies dumped in alleyways. There always seemed to be one body part missing from their bodies. These reports outdated the amount of time Professor Kal had been in the city, at least officially. It was hard to tell when exactly he walked through the city gates due to the poor record keeping.
Another odd case was the group of adventurers found scattered in yet another alleyway. King Alexander thought that maybe if he blocked off all the alleyways in the city, crime rates would drop. This group was found with their lungs full of pond water. It was truly a mystery, there were witnesses who had seen them enter the alleyway, but they had not seen anyone else with them. That particular group of adventurers had another registered member, but his body was never found.
Hearing everything that the man had to report, King Alexander dismissed him. Once the man had left, Alexander let out a tired sigh. Rubbing his temples, he plopped down into a cushioned chair. Court Mage Reginald thought it best to basically bribe the man to do things for the Crown, but could they really trust a necromancer? That fact changes everything.
He had to put his subjects first. If Professor Kal were really the one behind those mysterious deaths, then how could he look his people in the eye while ignoring such a thing? And what just was that creature the boy summoned? From the description the 'King's Shadow' had told him it seemed much too powerful for a novice mage to summon.
There was still so much that he didn't know. Did Mage Kalcifer have any accomplices in the city? Did he originate from a rival country? Or was he on his own? What enable his student to summon such a creature? His head hurt from the stress. He had to do something, but what?
…..
"This is fantastic! I just knew there was something he was hiding." Duke Hutchens was elated.
The hooded woman had just told him what had happened the previous night. She spoke of the boy that used a spell almost exclusively performed by necromancers. If the boy was tied to necromancy, there was an extremely high likelihood that Professor Kal was as well.
With this information, if it turned out to be true, he not only could get him fired, but he would also most likely be executed as well. His family name had been tarnished since his son had been caught cheating. There was no way to remove that stain, but this would go a long way to make him feel better about it.
The hooded woman was propped up against the wall, tossing a dagger, spinning it in the air and catching it by the handle. She was waiting for her employer to settle down from his excitement. After a few more minutes of listening to the Duke mumble to himself about his plans, the hooded woman finally decided to speak up. "So, are we done here? Or is there anything else you want my people to do?"
Forcefully dragged out of his little world, Duke Hutchens responded. "Yes, keep an eye on him and inform me immediately of any strange happenings. I need more proof if I'm going to get rid of him for good."