The next zombie Annel raised was a Halric, an older man who had been a farmer before moving to the village and becoming a jack of all trades. Rather than drag Halric all the way into the temple basement, Annel had simply unearthed his corpse to examine under the fading daylight.

The body was in sad shape, caked in dirt and exhibiting several patches eaten away by what lived in the soil. Annel frowned at it, then looked at his mother's pooled shadow.

"I thought you were killing the insects so that the bodies won't decompose as much?"

"Yes," came her whisper. "As much as I can. But there are too many bodies. I focus most of my time on our family and friends."

"Mm. Nepotism even in death," observed Annel.

"Isn't that the way of the world?"

He nodded, then sighed.

"I may have to do additional strengthening rituals on them before the raising ritual, if they become more decomposed than this."

"And what of the time they spend as undead? Will the flesh continue to rot and fall away?"

"No, they may even heal. But I need to channel mana to them. You are the only one that can self-sustain."

"Won't that mean your own mana will be drained, then?"

Annel shook his head.

"Eventually, yes. But my strength at working with dark mana is rapidly increasing. Before long, I should even be able to raise zombies without mana crystals. At which point I can begin considering greater forms of undead."

His mother hummed an acknowledgement, but said nothing more, so Annel began scraping the dirt around Halric to flatten it. In the distance, Tonnim could be seen clumsily sweeping ash out of the burned out shell of a brick home.

Annel had shed his usual robe to work, and was clad only in loose linen trousers and a sleeveless shirt. His body, once somewhat plump, had become thin and sinewy in the weeks after the village was destroyed, with several healing scars and burn marks visible on his arms. He looked more like a poorly treated slave than a privileged mage.

He showed no sign of his background in his attention to the manual work, either, working carefully on flattening the earth. He planned on using the same spot for future rituals, perhaps even creating a ritual circle made of stone to help define the space and focus the energies. For the present, hard packed dirt with a circle drawn in it would do.

As he worked, the remaining sunlight turned the thin clouds along the horizon a pale orange, then began deepening toward red. Devra's form detached from the ground and slowly drifted upward, her burning eyes watching the spectacle.

"It's still beautiful..." she whispered.

Her son ignored her, his shovel scraping against pebbles as he finished leveling the ritual area. After some time, he tossed aside the shovel, satisfied with the work, and began preparing the ritual.

The ritual went much as it had with Tonnim, without any need for Annel to refer to his tome. Devra floated back down to the ground to watch as Halric began to twitch and shift, moving as if he were waking up from a deep sleep.

As the new zombie got its bearings, Annel folded his hands in front of himself and closed his eyes, focusing inward. With the practice he'd gotten, it was now easy to locate the thread of energy connecting him to the created undead. He began to feed mana into the thread, building a subtle lattice of energy around it. At the end of the thread, he created multiple hooks of energy into the zombie's pneuma.

When Annel opened his eyes, he saw that Halric's eyes were also open, and the man's mouth was working as if he were trying to figure out how to speak or breathe.

"Rise, Halric." As he spoke, Annel exerted his will along the control thread.

The zombie's teeth clacked together, and it immediately scrabbled at the ground, awkwardly getting to its feet. Dirt tumbled from its shoulders and hair, but it made no move to brush itself off.

Annel could feel the zombie's dull confusion. The mental slowness, he'd figured out, was caused by the disordered energy swirling in its body. The process of raising a zombie was imperfect, and as a result its mana was an impure mix akin to mud, which weakened the zombie both phsyically and mentally.

Some of that would self-correct in time, but Annel was not patient enough to wait. Ignoring his rising exhaustion, he used his connection to the zombie to pulse dark mana into its head, clearing away some of the muddy energy.

"Halric, do you remember who you are?"

The zombie stared heavily at Annel. Finally, it opened its mouth. But it didn't make any sound.

"Try breathing in first," Devra whispered in its ear.

The zombie straightened, its chest shifting. Then it coughed several times. A worm emerged, falling to the ground. Halric stared at it, then looked up at Annel.

"Whaaas this?" Halric's voice was a horrible, rasping thing, the words joining together as they emerged.

"Do you remember me, Halric? I'm Annel. Devra's son. I've been gone to the Arcanum, these last eight years."

"Yesss." The zombie coughed again, clearing its throat of something. It chewed briefly.

Annel nodded, then gestured toward the village. "The village was destroyed by orcs. You were killed."

The zombie looked down at the ragged hole in its stomach. Annel had sewn it closed. Poorly.

"I've raised you from death. You're now a zombie."

The zombie continued to look itself over, clumsily using its fingers to pinch and pull at its ashen skin, as if expecting a response. Annel could tell that it wasn't able to feel much. Both physical sensation and emotions would be somewhat blunted in death, especially for a crude form like a zombie, according to his texts.

After thoroughly exploring his body, Halric looked up again. "Monsterrr." He grunted the word.

Annel shook his head. "You can remember your life, right? You still have a human shape, human thoughts. You're simply undead. Not a monster. And now that you're back, you can help rebuild the village."

Halric stared at Annel, one eyelid drooping. Slowly, he turned his head, looking at the burned out, destroyed village. Then he looked back at Annel.

Silence ensued.

Finally, Annel broke the staring contest by waving an arm toward the village. "Go to the village and begin examining the buildings to see which could be restored most easily. I've already raised Tonnim, but he's... not right. He's working over there. Just avoid him." As he spoke, Annel sent a pulse of command along the control thread.

Halric grunted, immediately turning and shambling off.

"He doesn't seem too happy to be back," observed Devra.

"He'll get used to it," said Annel. "People can get used to anything. I learned that at the Arcanum."

"Yes. Well, I'm getting used to my new form. I'll do what I can to help them. What will you do next?"

"I'll rest and renew my mana. In eight hours or so, I will raise another zombie. Two a day should be possible this week, and possibly more after."

"And you will raise only zombies?"

Annel shook his head.

"No. As I said, soon I'll be able to raise zombies without the use of mana crystals. Once I've accomplished that, I can use some of the remaining crystals to form a greater undead."

"Such as?"

"I still need to do more research to decide the type. Quite a few of them may be dangerous."

"Ah. Well, for my sake, be careful. It seems I can't do much to damage undead, as a spectre."

Annel nodded.

"Go hunt, mom. I'll be safe while I'm resting."

Without any more discussion, they went their separate ways.