Sordid affairs apart, I regained my senses to soiled undergarments. So much for rejoicing at finding clean ones earlier… I sighed then got up. A squishy liquid brushed up against my groin and I felt shame nibbling at the tip of my ears. They were hot. I imagined my skin had turned crimson.

‘What’s wrong?’ Eva’s voice teased me. ‘You were enjoying it a minute ago.’

That’s because it was in the heat of the moment. Now that I opened my eyes and realized I was alone, I felt as though I had one of those early pubescent dreams and woke with a hard stick poking out of my trousers, swimming in shame. It didn’t help that what I felt was real. It usually does in this kind of dreams.

‘Well,’ Eva said, still teasing, ‘take it however you want, but you’ve got your synergy. Well, part of it anyway.’ She chuckled and her voice reminded me of the dream. Shame came rushing in again, overshadowing the synergy we’ve just achieved.

I sat back down. I didn’t need to go out just yet. I closed my eyes once more then regulated my breathing. My Essence had actually become denser. I felt slightly more powerful. The energy flowed more seamlessly throughout my Conduits, and Eva’s energy mingled with mine just fine. There was some friction here and there, but as long as our opinions didn’t differ, we weren’t going to have any problems.

I needed two or three more session with the empress to achieve complete synergy. The thought of it alone made my heart race. I quite enjoyed the dream, or whatever that was anyway, but I didn’t enjoy the aftermath as much. I needed to clean myself and see if Lemien had finished preparing his mice puppets.

I left the room and headed downstairs. The room that belonged to the prison warden was now bathed in incense. The smell made my nostrils flare and my eye water. It was rather too strong for my liking. I looked around for the necromancer who was nowhere in sight. It was the perfect chance to snoop around. I reminded myself not to touch any suspicious object though.

‘Try sensing them out,’ Eva suggested.

‘Why haven’t I thought of that?’

‘You were too hungry to think,’ she said. I didn’t like the emphasis she put on the word “hungry.” I had to suffer her jeers in silence though. I’d achieved my goal, partly anyway. There was no need to beat myself over it.

I extended my senses toward the skulls, scattered haphazardly around the room. Some of them exuded some kind of deadly aura. Looking at them made my hair stand on end. I couldn’t fathom what they’d do to whoever was foolish enough to meddle with them. I was more interested by the aura one of the books emitted. It was stacked in a bookcase near the stairs I’d just come from.

It didn’t emit a deadly aura per se, but it was quite foreboding. I approached it, careful not to touch anything yet, then tilted my head to the side to read the title: ‘Sebyan: A History,’ it read. That was a name I’ve never heard before. Something about the book intrigued me enough to chance a furtive touch.

‘Nothing would happen,’ I reassured myself. ‘I’d just nab it a bit. If I feel any resistance, I’d back away immediately.’

My hand reached for the book, and I felt it calling for me. It felt as though it was inviting me to pick it up, read it, fill my head with its content.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ Lemien’s voice wrenched me out of the dazed state I was in.

Unfortunately, I was feeling a little jumpy after all that’s happened earlier. My forefinger dabbed the book. I felt a slight tingling sensation then something got ahold of me. My muscles convulsed and a foreign presence spoke.

“Who dares awaken the –“ but the voice died out as soon as it spoke.

I opened my eye to find Lemien carefully stacking the book back in place. He was wearing leathery black gloves. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Humpf! Frighten me? I just didn’t hear him come in, that’s all. I voiced that. It sounded like a lame excuse but it was the best thing I could come up with under the circumstances. Lemien gave me an understanding smile which irritated, rather than comforted me.

“What was that anyway?” I asked.

“I don’t understand it either,” Lemien said. “I’ve spent days and countless sleepless nights trying to break through its defenses.”

“That was a defense mechanism?” I asked, “from a book?”

“Sebyan is the old name of the Children of the Forest,” Lemien explained. “Knowing their history would be like reading through them, uncovering their secrets. Whoever left that book here, left something behind to defend it. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve found a way to shut it down.”

“How?” I asked.

Lemien gave me a smile that meant: yeah, like I’d tell you that, then turned away. “Don’t try to sense these objects,” he told me. I could tell his advice was sincere. “Most of them draw you out then try to kill you. In the five years I’ve been here, I only managed to uncover a small portion of the Sebyan’s history. They’re a mysterious bunch, I’m telling you.”

“Any chance with the mice?” I asked.

He extended a gloved hand toward me. “Care to have a look?”

I refused the hand and stood by myself. I’ve suffered enough humiliation today. I won’t lower myself to accept his hand either. It was putting myself beneath him, I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. He didn’t seem to mind it either. He just shrugged and headed for the library at the other end of the room, where a secret door had been left open.

He disappeared inside then came back, carrying two metallic masks. Each had eye holes and a beak, like a crow’s.

“Put this on,” he said.

I arched an eyebrow at him.

“The smell of rot and decay down there is nauseating,” he explained. “This will also keep any airborne virus from reaching you.”

“Why the grim looking mask though?” I asked.

“It’s convenient,” Lemien said. “We store incense on the beaks, it keeps the smell downstairs from reaching you.”

I approached the necromancer then immediately understood the reason behind the strong incense in the room. A nauseating smell came rushing to my nostrils from downstairs. It smelled like rotten eggs. Only they had fallen on a rug then left to dry and spread its foul smell on every hair. Imagine that then put that carpet somewhere moist, leave it there for a while then come back and smell it. You’d faint if your stomach doesn’t churn and force you to curl in a ball and retch before that happened.

I winced and immediately went for the mask.

“How do you live with that smell?” I asked. My voice carried a tone of indignation I didn’t mean to express, but it came out all the way.

The necromancer shrugged. “You get used to it,” he said. He put the mask on as well and went downstairs.

I followed through dark, winding stairs. I made sure to test every step I took. It was especially dark in that tower we descended. The walls were crumbling. I’d put my hand on the wall at first then my hand wrenched a brick out. Lemien deemed it appropriate to warn me against the state of the place just then. I cursed internally.

We soon found ourselves in a square room, lit by blue candles on a crystal chandelier that had seen better days. The place reminded me of the room we sacrificed Agatha in. I wondered what became of Raiya and her demon.

Gramps had arrived when I just got into the tunnel. That was perhaps when my senses started developing. I sensed him following us in the tunnels but he gave up as soon as he started. I wondered what made him stop then. Perhaps he’d realized this was the Children’s territory. Perhaps he thought I was as good as dead here. It suited me anyway.

“Hey!” Lemien was waving his hand before my eye. “Where did you go?” he asked.

“Oh, I was lost in thought for a moment,” I said. “This room reminded me of a sacrificial altar one of the witches had in Aslanor.”

Lemien chuckled. “I should be honored, to be compared to such prodigies of the art.”

“But you’re not?” I caught on.

“Let’s say I have bad history with wizards,” Lemien said.

I shrugged. He had something to hide and I wasn’t one to pry, openly. “What do we have here?” I asked. I was looking at a long table on which different wooden boxes were aligned.

“I want you first to sense what’s inside each box,” Lemien said.

I looked at him questioningly but obliged nonetheless. He was either testing me or testing his prowess at hiding his link with the dead. Out of six boxes, I couldn’t sense the link in two. I pointed it out and the necromancer smiled. He put the four boxes away and opened the remaining two.

There were two dead rats in there. One of them looked eerily alive. Its chest heaved as though it was breathing. I tried to sense that one. I could only feel a tint of power seething from it. The other, however, had clear links to it.

“You’ve certainly outdid yourself with that one,” I said. I had a sinking feeling, watching the rat that looked almost alive. “But I can still sense your presence in it.”

“Where do you sense my link?” Lemien asked.

I made to pick up the dead rat when Lemien caught my arm. “Don’t touch them,” he said. “Most of them feed on the failed experiments. This one’s a fresh corpse, full from nibbling at others I’d experimented on earlier. You don’t want to know what it bears.”

I shuddered. “The link is somewhere in its tiny head,” I said. “It’s faint, but I can still feel it.”

“How about now?” Lemien asked then poked the rodent with a stick. The creature sprung up to life and started moving around the box frantically.

I concentrated on the dead animal but couldn’t feel a single link. How did you do that? I wanted to ask, but knew better.

“That’s a perfect subject for our infiltration.” I said.

Lemien puffed his chest proudly.

I observed the rat for a while longer. How did he achieve that? Most dead creatures walked awkwardly. I looked at the other one and confirmed my suspicions. It didn’t take me long to put one and one together.

“This one’s alive!” I said.

“Not for long,” Lemien replied.

“It’s dying,” I concluded. “You planted the seed of a link in this dying rat. Impressive!”

Lemien scratched his balding head with his gloved hands. “They fight death when asleep,” he explained. “The mark is more evident then. But once they’re up and about, the link disappears. They won’t suspect a thing.”

“How long do we have until it dies?” I asked.

“A day or two,” he said. “I can give it something to extend its life. But we’ll need to be ready in three days at the most.”

I nodded.

This man’s knowledge and cunning was beginning to scare me. If he managed to hide his link in this fashion, what else was he hiding from me? The seed of paranoia was already planted, but now it had just sprouted. I fought hard to conceal my apprehension from the necromancer. I was glad I was wearing a mask then.

“I think it’s time I taught you how to get rid of a banshee,” he said, his chest puffed out. His bald head, coupled with the creepy mask he wore, made him look like a villain for once.

“You should probably keep that mask on when you face your enemies,” I said.

“Why?” Lemien asked.

“Intimidation,” I said. “You look like the grim reaper, sent by death to collect the soul debt.”

“Isn’t that the case?” Lemien said then laughed.