Norman was pretty sure karma had it out for him.
The transition progress was moving along rather quickly and everything was going smoothly. That was until the people that had fled the city started filtering back in. Once the returning people heard what was going on they all wanted their voices heard. That caused everything to ground to a halt as arguments flared between those that stayed and those that didn’t.
The ones that stayed thought they should have more say, but the ones that fled outnumbered them three to one. There was even a group who demanded the Brotherhood be reinstated, not quite realizing that the Brotherhood was dead and Norman would never allow that to happen even if they weren’t.
Norman tasked Eugene with keeping an eye on that third group of morons and if need be dispose of them quietly. Anyone that was stupid enough to want the Brotherhood back was not someone Norman wanted in power. He didn’t care if that made him a hypocrite.
While the people of Beskara figured out their future, Norman had his people ransack the temple’s riches and search for his grimoire. From everything Norman had learned after the battle, the Brotherhood was a bunch of thieves. With what the Brotherhood stole and destroyed in Ashvale, he wasn’t surprised to learn that. Norman decided the temple’s treasures would be a partial repayment for the damage and death they had caused.
Some of the budding political interests were upset by this theft, but Norman put his foot down. Norman was being generous enough already by not demanding far more in reparations. And the only reason he wasn’t was because of the civilian deaths that had occurred during the fighting. Those people would not be getting revived because they had joined in during the fighting against Norman’s forces. The only people Norman would be reviving were the families harmed after the fighting ended.
During their stay in the city, Norman’s men found the remaining ooraki males. Nobody had expected to find them in the Preistess’ private chambers. But there they were, locked in like prisoners. He hadn’t realized Noorani was such a sexual deviant. After what she had done to the greykin, maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise. It seems locking them in wasn’t all she had done to them. The ooraki males were not happy to discover the priestess was dead The death knights were forced to kill them when the males went into a homicidal rage at this news.
From what the death knights told him, the ooraki males were little more than slaves for the Priestess’ carnal desires. It seemed the ooraki formed much different relationships than humans did. It was a bit surprising. Norman hadn’t witnessed this behavior when he revived them as greykin. This seemed to be only something that happened after Noorani restored them to life.
He was curious if there was a mental component involved in ooraki relationships. It would explain why he hadn’t seen this type of behavior when they were undead, since undead were immune to most if not all mind-altering effects. At least this is what Norman’s hypothesis was. He really wished he had some other ooraki to question about this.
This also begged the question. Did this also mean Noorani choose to betray him so she could form her own harem? If so, she was stupid. If she would have asked, Norman would have restored her to life without a problem. Norman wouldn’t fault a species if they had some primal urge that could only be filled when alive. He didn’t care if people wanted to be undead or alive, he just figured most people were rather happy with the bonuses they received while being a greykin.
As for the ooraki males, Norman was tempted to resurrect them to see if the mind-altering component remained after or not, but he quickly dismissed that idea. As far as Norman was concerned, these ooraki were traitors just like Noorani. So they would remain dead unless he had a pressing need to resurrect them. And learning about their mating habits was not a pressing issue.
Noorani’s betrayal had soured Norman on turning or resurrecting ooraki in general. Would he do it in the future? Maybe. But if he did, there would be blood oaths involved. In fact, Norman might start implementing that as a standard, if just to stop people from betraying Normenia. He would have to sit down and think about it though. Doing something like that just seemed kind of scummy to him.
But that was a problem for later. Norman refocused and looked at the journal that one of the death knights had found. It wasn’t in a language Norman understood, but Grobert had translated some of the pages and when he realized what it was, immediately brought it to Norman’s attention.
The journal was Noorani’s and documented what she had done with his grimoire. It made Norman sick to know that some asshole was out there spreading his hard-earned knowledge without his consent.
There were unfortunately no names associated with the people this agent sold copies of his grimoire to, but Norman did have a crude map of the man’s path. Norman called for Eugene.
Eugene entered the throne room, with his helmet removed and a head of damp hair. Greykin didn’t sweat, it was just from the condensation buildup of wearing the helmets. “You rang, Boss?”
“I have a mission for four of the fastest death knights, but they need to keep a low profile.”
“Oh, what sort of mission?”
Norman spread the crude map out on a table off to the side of the room.
Eugene glanced at the map and frowned. “Is that California?”
“I believe so.” Norman hadn’t been entirely sure at first either, but some of the town names seemed familiar. It seemed Eugene recognized some of the city names as well.
“Noorani made copies of my grimoire and distributed it like a fucking pamphlet on how to do necromancy. I doubt we will be able to locate the people her person sold the books to, but we might be able to locate him.”
“Why did she do that?” Eugene asked, clearly confused by Noorani’s action.
Norman shook his head. “I don’t know. But I suspect she got something out of the deal. That whole de-aging spell was probably one of the perks she received.”
“So you want the death knights to recover this man, I assume dead is fine?” Norman nodded. “What about any books he might have in his possession? Another concern I have is, what if they encounter one of these necromancers?”
“Tell them to avoid them at all costs. We don’t know what sorts of spells or abilities these people might have come up with in the last eight years. Just grab the man and burn the books. Then return to Ashvale so I can question his ghost.”
“Ok, I’ll pick the men and supply them with spell anchors. What about the orbs?”
Norman cursed internally, he forgot about the phylacteries. He didn’t want them to fall into the wrong hands, but he certainly couldn’t ask these men to partake in this dangerous mission without some safety net. He thought about it for a bit more before he decided.
“Have them take them with, but I want one of them guarding those at all times. Two would be preferable, but I will leave that up to them to decide. If they fear the items being captured, they need to destroy them.”
Eugene nodded. “Alright, I will notify the team.”
Norman handed Eugene the map and nodded to the man before he left. If Norman wasn’t stuck being a leader, he would have tracked down his missing grimoire himself and all of these damn necromancers. Lazy bastards couldn’t even make their own spells, they had to steal from others. Although, he was curious as to what types of spells they may have come up with over the years, it wasn’t enough for him to drop all of his responsibilities to go himself.
Another week passed while the citizens of Beskara continued to argue amongst themselves. A few fights had broken out but Norman’s forces had put a stop to it quickly. When people realized Norman’s army was not taking any shit and just killing people that got too rowdy, the rowdiness came to a swift end. Norman would resurrect those people before he left. Assuming this nonsense didn’t drag out much longer, and Norman’s annoyance didn’t reach a breaking point.
He patted his breast pocket and the four small vials of blood stored there. There was one for each of the death knights that had left three days ago to track down Noorani’s agent. This way if they were lost during the mission and the phylacteries were destroyed, Norman could still recover them… as soon as he figured out how to modify his spell to create a body from just the soul image. It was on the top of his ever-expanding to-do list when he got back home.
Instead of sitting around feeling useless during this time, Norman had spent it resurrecting the nomads. By the time he was complete, there wasn’t a single zitha left in the city. Norman counted that as another win since he hated the stupid beasts.
As he had feared, the children did not brave the conversion very well. Still, the parents thanked him for resurrecting them and took the traumatized children away to someplace safe. The results only solidified Norman’s rule about not resurrecting or converting those that weren’t adults.
The sight of hundreds of nomads exiting the temple all at once seemed to finally galvanize the people of the city to set aside their differences and finally decide how they wanted to run their new government.
It still took them two more days to iron out the details though. Eventually, a group of merchants appeared in front of Norman. He would have preferred they just deal with Grobert, but they had been adamant about meeting with him.
“We have decided. The city will be run by a merchant alliance.”
Not that Norman cared what these people chose, but he decided to play nice. “I am glad you have decided on a course for your future. I assume you are here for another reason?”
“You mentioned trade in your speech…”
“I did. Was there something specific you wished to discuss?”
“… There are rumors that you can bring people back from the dead? We would like that as one of the trades.” All of the other merchants with him nodded their heads.
Like a bunch of fucking bobbleheads, Norman sighed internally. He wasn’t surprised by this request. But he was going to have to pop their balloon. “No. While that is within my capability, I will not be offering that to anyone.”
“But you revived all those filthy nomads!” One of the men in the back shouted.
Norman glared at the man who couldn’t control his outburst. “That was a deal made after the Brotherhood slaughtered all of their men, women, and children in cold blood.”
The man took a step back, probably not expecting the vehemence in Norman’s words.
“But,” Norman said, softening his tone. “I can offer you a new sort of life after you pass on. You would simply have to live in my zone after that.”
Norman had done a lot of thinking over the past few days. He decided he wanted to start separating Normenia from the politics of the living as much as possible. He hoped this step would make Normenia seem like a neutral country, instead of a hostile one as he had been with the Brotherhood. He would invite the living into the country for trade and commerce, but they wouldn’t be allowed to take up residence or own stuff. He hoped this would reduce the jealousy and hate people were bound to have when seeing a country of the undead. Norman knew it wouldn’t be a perfect solution, but nothing ever was.
The men huddled together and began rapidly speaking amongst themselves. It took a few minutes for them to come to some sort of consensus. “You would offer this for any of us?”
“Any that sign a contract and chose this option willingly. I will not force it upon anyone. I will also not accept any criminals or troublemakers.” The men nodded, seeming to agree.
“Very well. That is an acceptable alternative. Now, we can discuss other trade.”
After a few hours of back and forth, where Norman had to get Grobert involved, the two groups hammered out a rather lucrative trade agreement between the two countries. Norman had decided to start calling them countries now, since calling them zones sounded weird.
The Alacala Merchant Alliance was formed that day. They got food in the trade as their major import from Normenia, and Normenia got precious metals and gems as well as fish.
Norman was glad a decision was finally in place. He had his people set up the first house of rebirth and assigned six willing greykin to man the building and store the dead for later revival back in Ashvale.
It was honestly surprising how accommodating the Alacala people were. Norman wasn’t sure he could have accepted this deal if he were on the other side. But apparently, the Alacala people were no strangers to changes in leadership. They had an empire that ruled over them at the national level before the collapse, but since then, local leadership and ideals seemed to change like the seasons for them. Norman sure hoped that wasn’t the case with the Merchant Alliance, but he was too tired to care, he just wanted to go home, rest, relax, and work on his magic.
The next day, Norman and his forces marched out of the repaired front gates of Beskara and headed back north.
Norman was pretty sure karma had it out for him.
The transition progress was moving along rather quickly and everything was going smoothly. That was until the people that had fled the city started filtering back in. Once the returning people heard what was going on they all wanted their voices heard. That caused everything to ground to a halt as arguments flared between those that stayed and those that didn’t.
The ones that stayed thought they should have more say, but the ones that fled outnumbered them three to one. There was even a group who demanded the Brotherhood be reinstated, not quite realizing that the Brotherhood was dead and Norman would never allow that to happen even if they weren’t.
Norman tasked Eugene with keeping an eye on that third group of morons and if need be dispose of them quietly. Anyone that was stupid enough to want the Brotherhood back was not someone Norman wanted in power. He didn’t care if that made him a hypocrite.
While the people of Beskara figured out their future, Norman had his people ransack the temple’s riches and search for his grimoire. From everything Norman had learned after the battle, the Brotherhood was a bunch of thieves. With what the Brotherhood stole and destroyed in Ashvale, he wasn’t surprised to learn that. Norman decided the temple’s treasures would be a partial repayment for the damage and death they had caused.
Some of the budding political interests were upset by this theft, but Norman put his foot down. Norman was being generous enough already by not demanding far more in reparations. And the only reason he wasn’t was because of the civilian deaths that had occurred during the fighting. Those people would not be getting revived because they had joined in during the fighting against Norman’s forces. The only people Norman would be reviving were the families harmed after the fighting ended.
During their stay in the city, Norman’s men found the remaining ooraki males. Nobody had expected to find them in the Preistess’ private chambers. But there they were, locked in like prisoners. He hadn’t realized Noorani was such a sexual deviant. After what she had done to the greykin, maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise. It seems locking them in wasn’t all she had done to them. The ooraki males were not happy to discover the priestess was dead The death knights were forced to kill them when the males went into a homicidal rage at this news.
From what the death knights told him, the ooraki males were little more than slaves for the Priestess’ carnal desires. It seemed the ooraki formed much different relationships than humans did. It was a bit surprising. Norman hadn’t witnessed this behavior when he revived them as greykin. This seemed to be only something that happened after Noorani restored them to life.
He was curious if there was a mental component involved in ooraki relationships. It would explain why he hadn’t seen this type of behavior when they were undead, since undead were immune to most if not all mind-altering effects. At least this is what Norman’s hypothesis was. He really wished he had some other ooraki to question about this.
This also begged the question. Did this also mean Noorani choose to betray him so she could form her own harem? If so, she was stupid. If she would have asked, Norman would have restored her to life without a problem. Norman wouldn’t fault a species if they had some primal urge that could only be filled when alive. He didn’t care if people wanted to be undead or alive, he just figured most people were rather happy with the bonuses they received while being a greykin.
As for the ooraki males, Norman was tempted to resurrect them to see if the mind-altering component remained after or not, but he quickly dismissed that idea. As far as Norman was concerned, these ooraki were traitors just like Noorani. So they would remain dead unless he had a pressing need to resurrect them. And learning about their mating habits was not a pressing issue.
Noorani’s betrayal had soured Norman on turning or resurrecting ooraki in general. Would he do it in the future? Maybe. But if he did, there would be blood oaths involved. In fact, Norman might start implementing that as a standard, if just to stop people from betraying Normenia. He would have to sit down and think about it though. Doing something like that just seemed kind of scummy to him.
But that was a problem for later. Norman refocused and looked at the journal that one of the death knights had found. It wasn’t in a language Norman understood, but Grobert had translated some of the pages and when he realized what it was, immediately brought it to Norman’s attention.
The journal was Noorani’s and documented what she had done with his grimoire. It made Norman sick to know that some asshole was out there spreading his hard-earned knowledge without his consent.
There were unfortunately no names associated with the people this agent sold copies of his grimoire to, but Norman did have a crude map of the man’s path. Norman called for Eugene.
Eugene entered the throne room, with his helmet removed and a head of damp hair. Greykin didn’t sweat, it was just from the condensation buildup of wearing the helmets. “You rang, Boss?”
“I have a mission for four of the fastest death knights, but they need to keep a low profile.”
“Oh, what sort of mission?”
Norman spread the crude map out on a table off to the side of the room.
Eugene glanced at the map and frowned. “Is that California?”
“I believe so.” Norman hadn’t been entirely sure at first either, but some of the town names seemed familiar. It seemed Eugene recognized some of the city names as well.
“Noorani made copies of my grimoire and distributed it like a fucking pamphlet on how to do necromancy. I doubt we will be able to locate the people her person sold the books to, but we might be able to locate him.”
“Why did she do that?” Eugene asked, clearly confused by Noorani’s action.
Norman shook his head. “I don’t know. But I suspect she got something out of the deal. That whole de-aging spell was probably one of the perks she received.”
“So you want the death knights to recover this man, I assume dead is fine?” Norman nodded. “What about any books he might have in his possession? Another concern I have is, what if they encounter one of these necromancers?”
“Tell them to avoid them at all costs. We don’t know what sorts of spells or abilities these people might have come up with in the last eight years. Just grab the man and burn the books. Then return to Ashvale so I can question his ghost.”
“Ok, I’ll pick the men and supply them with spell anchors. What about the orbs?”
Norman cursed internally, he forgot about the phylacteries. He didn’t want them to fall into the wrong hands, but he certainly couldn’t ask these men to partake in this dangerous mission without some safety net. He thought about it for a bit more before he decided.
“Have them take them with, but I want one of them guarding those at all times. Two would be preferable, but I will leave that up to them to decide. If they fear the items being captured, they need to destroy them.”
Eugene nodded. “Alright, I will notify the team.”
Norman handed Eugene the map and nodded to the man before he left. If Norman wasn’t stuck being a leader, he would have tracked down his missing grimoire himself and all of these damn necromancers. Lazy bastards couldn’t even make their own spells, they had to steal from others. Although, he was curious as to what types of spells they may have come up with over the years, it wasn’t enough for him to drop all of his responsibilities to go himself.
Another week passed while the citizens of Beskara continued to argue amongst themselves. A few fights had broken out but Norman’s forces had put a stop to it quickly. When people realized Norman’s army was not taking any shit and just killing people that got too rowdy, the rowdiness came to a swift end. Norman would resurrect those people before he left. Assuming this nonsense didn’t drag out much longer, and Norman’s annoyance didn’t reach a breaking point.
He patted his breast pocket and the four small vials of blood stored there. There was one for each of the death knights that had left three days ago to track down Noorani’s agent. This way if they were lost during the mission and the phylacteries were destroyed, Norman could still recover them… as soon as he figured out how to modify his spell to create a body from just the soul image. It was on the top of his ever-expanding to-do list when he got back home.
Instead of sitting around feeling useless during this time, Norman had spent it resurrecting the nomads. By the time he was complete, there wasn’t a single zitha left in the city. Norman counted that as another win since he hated the stupid beasts.
As he had feared, the children did not brave the conversion very well. Still, the parents thanked him for resurrecting them and took the traumatized children away to someplace safe. The results only solidified Norman’s rule about not resurrecting or converting those that weren’t adults.
The sight of hundreds of nomads exiting the temple all at once seemed to finally galvanize the people of the city to set aside their differences and finally decide how they wanted to run their new government.
It still took them two more days to iron out the details though. Eventually, a group of merchants appeared in front of Norman. He would have preferred they just deal with Grobert, but they had been adamant about meeting with him.
“We have decided. The city will be run by a merchant alliance.”
Not that Norman cared what these people chose, but he decided to play nice. “I am glad you have decided on a course for your future. I assume you are here for another reason?”
“You mentioned trade in your speech…”
“I did. Was there something specific you wished to discuss?”
“… There are rumors that you can bring people back from the dead? We would like that as one of the trades.” All of the other merchants with him nodded their heads.
Like a bunch of fucking bobbleheads, Norman sighed internally. He wasn’t surprised by this request. But he was going to have to pop their balloon. “No. While that is within my capability, I will not be offering that to anyone.”
“But you revived all those filthy nomads!” One of the men in the back shouted.
Norman glared at the man who couldn’t control his outburst. “That was a deal made after the Brotherhood slaughtered all of their men, women, and children in cold blood.”
The man took a step back, probably not expecting the vehemence in Norman’s words.
“But,” Norman said, softening his tone. “I can offer you a new sort of life after you pass on. You would simply have to live in my zone after that.”
Norman had done a lot of thinking over the past few days. He decided he wanted to start separating Normenia from the politics of the living as much as possible. He hoped this step would make Normenia seem like a neutral country, instead of a hostile one as he had been with the Brotherhood. He would invite the living into the country for trade and commerce, but they wouldn’t be allowed to take up residence or own stuff. He hoped this would reduce the jealousy and hate people were bound to have when seeing a country of the undead. Norman knew it wouldn’t be a perfect solution, but nothing ever was.
The men huddled together and began rapidly speaking amongst themselves. It took a few minutes for them to come to some sort of consensus. “You would offer this for any of us?”
“Any that sign a contract and chose this option willingly. I will not force it upon anyone. I will also not accept any criminals or troublemakers.” The men nodded, seeming to agree.
“Very well. That is an acceptable alternative. Now, we can discuss other trade.”
After a few hours of back and forth, where Norman had to get Grobert involved, the two groups hammered out a rather lucrative trade agreement between the two countries. Norman had decided to start calling them countries now, since calling them zones sounded weird.
The Alacala Merchant Alliance was formed that day. They got food in the trade as their major import from Normenia, and Normenia got precious metals and gems as well as fish.
Norman was glad a decision was finally in place. He had his people set up the first house of rebirth and assigned six willing greykin to man the building and store the dead for later revival back in Ashvale.
It was honestly surprising how accommodating the Alacala people were. Norman wasn’t sure he could have accepted this deal if he were on the other side. But apparently, the Alacala people were no strangers to changes in leadership. They had an empire that ruled over them at the national level before the collapse, but since then, local leadership and ideals seemed to change like the seasons for them. Norman sure hoped that wasn’t the case with the Merchant Alliance, but he was too tired to care, he just wanted to go home, rest, relax, and work on his magic.
The next day, Norman and his forces marched out of the repaired front gates of Beskara and headed back north.
