Theli chose to simply walk in the city surrounding the royal castle, it wasn't the actual capital of Gloire but it looked more like one, even after the brutal events of the revolution, ropes that used to have corpses hanging from them were still swinging in the air, the stench of death was still fairly strong, the blend of various emotions could be felt, it truly had been chaos, a shame he hadn't been here while it had all gone down.
Despite choosing to walk, he still walked at an unusual speed, at least to other people, he always moved around like that.
However, he suddenly halted, stopping all movements as if he had been turned to stone, he turned around to look at the person that had just walked past him before turning back.
'J'en mettrais ma main à couper!' he thought as he quickly caught up to her and spoke up.
"Is that a goedendag?" he said, wearing a charming smile with his sharp teeth.
The woman suddenly stopped, her mouth agape as if she was utterly shocked.
"You know what that is?" she asked, very serious.
"Of course, an old weapon from a remote region of Heilig which name can be roughly translated to good morning, in reference to what the guards wielding it would say to people to try and fish out potential spies among other things" he explained with fluidity, causing the goedendag user to look at him as if he was a pile of gold.
Noticing that she was too absorbed by whatever she was thinking about, Ithelisemou decided to continue the conversation, ignoring the people gazing at the two of them.
"I am Ithelisemou, a polymath in training, you must be heading toward the castle right?" he said while turning his gaze toward the towering construction that was the royal residence.
"Huh? Yeah, how did you know?" she responded, raising an eyebrow.
"I guessed right then, no need to waste your time, the king is not receiving anyone right now, he needs to organise things right now" he told her.
"What did you want to speak of with him? I am a bit of a royal official if I dare say so myself" he continued, casually putting his hand on her back and leading her in the opposite direction.
"Are you?" she wondered out loud.
"Of course, why would I lie about that? There is nothing for me to gain by lying to you" he responded and suddenly, he appeared very convincing.
"I guess not, I was going to do a report about the presence of undeads, they don't seem to be naturally formed and it doesn't seem to be the work of a necromancer either, so I suspect it is a group that came from somwhere else or that had been hiding for a long while" she told him, scratching the back her head with the spike of the goedendag.
"Do you have a particular area in mind?" he then asked further.
"I think they are in the large uninhabited part of the Bazar region" she said, it was a large approximation, Bazar was enormous, easily the largest of the region and larger than the surroundings countries by itself but it was mostly left untouched due to the extremely perilous areas beyond the very empty forests, Bazar had a natural defense due to that, the country that was directly next to it could only realistically get here by going through a small entrance to the empty forest but the sheer abundance and density of the trees prevented the passage of any kind of army.
Not to mention the empty forest wasn't so empty these days.
However, Theli could already cross a few areas from these enormous area, the undeads in question were most likely the ones that had betrayed the lich, she hadn't told him any of that but Narik was quite talkative, it wasn't likely an undocumented group of undead would show at the same time.
Taking into account the strength he had assessed from the lich herself and the intel the horned necromancer had given him, he could cross out anything that wasn't the empty forest, the lich was incredibly powerful and he had been told the leader of the undeads that had left was a lesser lich, he knew that Narik didn't use his own method of ranking but that said enough.
Theli smiled at the goedendag wielder and tapped her shoulders.
"I see, very well then, just go station to Sht'ole, you'll find someone to take you there for sure, I'll come find you once I have found them" he said before walking off at the same speed as before, slaloming between the passersby.
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A few days passed, then a few weeks as she waited in that strange city, Ilmna was starting to think this guy had just been messing with her at his point but he did show up after a while, looking exactly the same as when she had met him in the royal city.
"I didn't ask your name last time we met" was the first thing he said upon finally appearing.
"It's Ilmna" she said back.
"Great name, anyways, here's a map with the details, be careful, they are quite numerous" he warned her, before running off again, ignoring her as she called out to him.
Giving up on trying to figure out what was his deal exactly, she took a look at the map and was surprised at how detailed it was, this was way ahead any other map she had ever held in her hands, on the back of it, instructions on how to actually access the hideout were written.
'How did he get that information?' she wondered, she pondered the idea that it was all a ruse but it was so painfully obvious that it was difficult to believe that it was.
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The lesser lich was staring down at the pit, the large hex in its center was spewing out a strange substance that appeared to be rotten flesh, it seemed to move as if it was an actual being of its own, were it capable of it, it would have been smiling from ear to ear but it had none of the components needed for that for he was nothing but bare bone wearing a crude robe.
Fom being the lich, stepping out of the shadows in utter silence, a man covered with a white cloak emerged, the cloak extended into a mask that surrounded his head completely as if it was bag, it was thightly clung to his face by pieces of iron that seemed to be stabbed through both the fabric and his flesh, a portion of the bag was torned off, revealing one of the man's eyes, bearing no emotion, unnaturally large and deformed.
The cloak extended to the ground, beneath it all, he wore a neat looking dark uniform that was also secured to his body by pieces of metal stabbed through his body.
He let his presence known to the lich without making a noise, the lich seemed unaffected by his dreadful appearance as well as the heavy pressure he emmitted, the lich only had disdain for the living thing in front of itself, it didn't like having to use the help of that human but he knew better than to refute useful help, even death itself wouldn't refuse that if it meant that it could cause more deaths at a faster and more efficient rate, he knew that much.
"What is it?" spoke the lich in a hoarse voice.
"Be prepared" simply said the man in a voice that couldn't truly be made out, the lich turned to him for explanation but he only stood there motionless, he wasn't going to elaborate on anything.
The lich still chose to listen and spoke orders to the other undeads, telling them to assume a defensive formation and to tightly pack themselves into the narrow tunnels leading to this room.
'What a bad timing, it will soon arise' thought the lich, slightly bitter about something regarding the primeval rot.
He expected that whatever that living had warned him about wouldn't arrive quickly but he was wrong, mere minutes after giving out his orders, he was able to hear the sound of battle echoing back to him.
Getting worried that the primeval rot wouldn't be completed, he poured his own mana into the complex system that the human had improved, he had to admit, for a short lived living, he knew much more than the undying lich himself.
He started chanting something in death tongue, only a single word was clearly understandable as it wasn't a word but a name.
He spoke the name of death in hope to receive its support.