Van got up from the bed and cleaned himself with a spell. Quietly and gently he untangled himself from his wives naked embrace. After their hug, they shared a kiss, followed by another and another continuing to its most obvious conclusion.

Getting up he changed and started to head out, but paused at the doorway as he didn’t want to leave his beloved all of a sudden either. The sex seemed to help her with the stress, and she did seem to have calmed down, but that didn’t mean he should just leave.

Then all of a sudden Anna came from the side, somewhat surprising him. “It’s okay master. Please be at ease and continue with your day. Lorenzo is patiently waiting for you downstairs.” she said.

Taking a pause and giving one last look at his wife. Van thanked Anna and went on his way. Moving downstairs to a waiting Lorenzo.

“Sorry about the wait,” Van said, a little embarrassed.

Lorenzo shrugged. “I could reschedule if I had to. Are you sure you're fine leaving Luna?”

“If I have to be honest… no, it seems that she is far more worried about leaving than I first thought. It seems Thea’s fears have wormed their way into Luna’s heart. And growing up mostly alone without friends probably didn’t help either.” Van paused. “Unless you count Leiah, who seemed to have at least been more than just an acquaintance when she was growing up.”

Lorenzo sadly nodded. “It is true that Luna has had it difficult, but she has also come a long way. She is stronger than she realizes, and she will find that out one day.”

“I hope she does too...” Van replied.

“Don’t you worry about her.” A third gentle voice answered. “Leave her to me and Sheri, we will help her get ready. This will be an important step for her growing up. I know for a fact that she can do it.” Van and Lorenzo looked in surprise to find Lillia walking towards them.

“And what about Thea?” Lorenzo asked.

“Don’t you worry about her either? It might be difficult, but she will have me and Alv to lean on. We will also do our best to help her become a little more like her old self.”

“Hopefully not too much like her old self, otherwise she will eat you out of your home and try to drag you headlong into danger.” Lorenzo tried to joke.

But It must have at least been understood for one as Lillia gave a gentle smile in return to that.

After a little more small talk, they said their goodbyes and went on their way.

Walking out of the gate and onto the streets, Van was guided down an unfamiliar part of the castle town. It was another hour until they reached a surprisingly large area tucked away against the walls that surrounded the city.

The area was cordoned off by a large iron spiked fence wrapping the entire place up as far as the eye can see. Through the strange fence was a mass of graves too numerous to count. The place gave off a strange feeling that pervaded the very air and made Van’s hair stand on end. A strange light mist seemed to cover the ground.

But for as unwelcoming as it appeared to be. The place seemed to be getting a lot of traffic as rows and rows of wagons, their goods concealed by tarps, lined up to be allowed in, as just as many wagons were being let out. Dozens of them.

It was so busy, that Van couldn’t believe that this was a graveyard, or that this was a hall for necromancers. As people went back and forth from destination to destination. In fact, now that he was paying attention, there were a lot more people up and about than he first realized.

Walking to the gate, Lorenzo whispered something to the guards and they were let through. Giving strict instructions not to leave the pathway.

Walking down said pathway, a large stone building with dark gothic design slowly came into view. Van thought that his castle and the Lovers guild establishment was impressive. But this thing was humongous and seemed like a mix between a cathedral, a mausoleum and a factory all rolled up into one. With great arches with stained glass and scary statues to complete the look.

As they moved up to the building, they were ushered in and led to the head necromancer of the place. Going up a few flights of stairs they entered what appeared to be the study and were given seating and asked if they would like something to drink while they waited.

Politely refusing, the two waited as an old withered Vamp walked in. His kind eyes were deep pools of wisdom and age. His hair grey, and his skin wrinkly. An amazing feat as most vamps tend to die like vampires, young-looking despite their age. Which would mean that this vamp was considerably old and must have used some means to extend his lifespan beyond the usual methods.

“Hello Lorenzo, so good to see you again. What can I do for you.” the old vamp kindly said.

“Good to see you too. I’m here because of that thing we talked about. Getting young Van here to learn a little about necromancy.” Lorenzo kindly replied back.

“Ah… so this is the young master.” the vamp said, turning his gaze onto Van. “I am glad you are finally here. Learning necromancy is the birthright of every Alcrayian and is the duty of all nobles of Alcray to properly judge, call and handle the spirites of the dead.”

“I’ll… try my best,” Van said nervously.

The old vamp gave a kind smile “How would you like a tour of our place?” he asked.

“We would like that very much.” Lorenzo answered, then turning to Van. “what they do here is very interesting and informative. You wouldn’t find a place like this outside the Vampire lands. This is the number one place to learn everything you will need to know about spirits and the undead.”

The old vamp chuckled. “I wouldn’t say that Alcray is the only place like ours. There are a few of our kind still doing the good work out in the wider world.” then slowly getting up and motioned for them to follow him. “Come, let me show you my pride and joy.”

Following the old vamp, Lore and Van walked down a series of stairs and down a hallway or two into what appeared to be a large building where all those wagons they saw before seemed to end up.

Staring in disgust, Van realized what was under the tarps of those wagons, bodies. These corpses were then dumped into a large conveyor belt and taken deeper into the building.

“As you can see, a facility such as ours deals obviously in things related to the dead, such as the corpses you see in front of you.” the old vamp began, “these corpses are taken deeper in and sorted, separated, and processed for both military, spiritual, and commercial use.”

Then following him deeper in, the line of corpses were slowly moved into a square-like machine where the corpses moved through it, a flash of light and a strange sound would follow, and out the other end, the flesh of the corpse would be separated from the bone.

“We used to have dozens of people with knives and tools to cut and separate the flesh from the bone the old fashion way. But now with more modern technology, we are able to quickly and efficiently separate the two. Once they go through that machine, the flesh goes onto one conveyer belt, and the bones go onto another.”

Van watched with a churned stomach as piles of bones and flesh were magically separated and pushed to two different destinations. Following the old vamp, they moved deeper in.

“This is the place where we cook the flesh, burning it a little. The glass is to make sure we don’t have to smell it. No one enjoys the smell. After it is burnt a little we then process it and turn it into fertilizer. We then mix the processed flesh with some dirt and other chemicals and let some worms eat through it for a few days. Afterward, we get some of our mages to complete the final step and turn these corpses into useful soil for farmers.” the old vamp said with some pride.

“Of course we don’t just deal with corpses from people, we also deal with adventurers. For a small price, adventurers, hunters, and more sell their useless extras to us. Not every part of an animal or beast is valuable. So this is a good way for them to get rid of the excess corpse and make some money.”

“Come, follow me, let me show you what we do with the bones.” he then led them around the place. Van seeing large vats of dead flesh being mixed with chemicals followed by another conveyor belt filled with dark material that looked like dirt being pushed ever onward for further processing.

Reaching their destination, Van saw what was on the other side, where they dealt with the bone.

“This place is called the grinding room.” the vamp said, pointing to the bones on a conveyor belt being sent into the maw of a large spiky machine. “We turn the bone into fine powder. The powder is then sifted down the line. The bad bone powder is sent to be mixed with the fertilizer. The good ones are sent deeper in for processing.”

Walking down the new section of the factory. Van, while still a little disgusted, was actually starting to show some interest, and form some questions. But decided to save them for later.

Moving into the next room, the finely powdered bones were sifted, separated, sorted, and moved away. And going even deeper in, the good bone powder seemed to be being mixed within large vats filled with chemicals and other materials.

“This is the place where we turn that bone powder into something useful. One of them being bone sludge which can be used and turned into many other things. I’ll just show you one of the many applications that good bone powder has for necromancers.”

Moving further. “This here is where we mix the bone sludge with some more calcium and a touch of biomass. The bone sludge is then treated and injected into those molds over there.” the vamp pointed at a series of molds. Each mold was in the shape of a skeleton. The bone sludge would be poured into the mold and runes once the mold would glow. After a few minutes, the mold would open and workers would peel the newly formed skeleton out.

“These skeletons are then moved to be worked on by professionals, to make sure they have no defects and then worked on to prepare them for necromancers to use. These are high-quality skeletons, very useful for necromancers who want stronger undead, rather than working to get such high-quality skeletons for themselves, they can buy it from us for a fair price.”

Of course, this isn’t all we do, but before we continue any further, do you have any questions?” the vamp asked.

Van hesitated but asked what was on his mind anyway. “Is… everyone's corpses dealt in such a way?”

The vamp chuckled kindly. “No, not at all. We also deal with proper funerals and everything else that goes with it. The reason why you saw the corpses of so many people, mixed in with beasts and animals. Was because some people are fine with selling their corpses to us. Of course, some of them could have been bandits or criminals, but for the most part, when a person dies, they usually have a will on how they want to be buried or how they want their corpse to be handled. Some just don’t care of course, but there are a few who write down they want their corpses sold upon their death and the money to go to their families.”

“This is mostly because we also do a spiritual service for those recently deceased. Making sure that their spirit moves on properly. So most don’t always care that their bodies are used in such a fashion.” The vamp finished.

“What kind of spiritual service?” Van asked.

The old vamp smiled. “Come, follow me.”

Van and Lore were then led outside the factory complex and into another strange gothic building where rows upon rows of seats were being filled with ghostly apparitions. The room was somewhat like a courtroom, and two ghostly forms were arguing with each other in the center. Being watched by the many onlookers in the stands and a bored-looking judge of some sort who also looked like a necromancer.

“This is just one of the places where we do our life's calling.” the vamp said quietly, looking in from the doorway.

“Not everyone dies upon death, and it's a spirit caller's duty to go out into the world and seek out the restless spirits of the dead. These spirits are then brought here to be judged. A formality I assure you, but for some reason, some spirites feel better when their plight is heard by some sort of judge.” he shrugged at that.

“Spirits with grievances to other spirits, or murdered spirits who point out their still living murderers come here to get justice. They go through the motions of court life and when they feel like the person who wronged them has got their just deserts, they leave satisfied. Of course, this is also the place some living people might have grievances with a recently deceased, such as some confusion in what was written in a will, if the spirit is still around.” The vamp then started to show them around other rooms and places.

“There are cases where two spirits have an issue of who owns which haunting grounds, or if a tragic event happens where two or more people die and they can’t seem to move on. There are many more rooms than just the courtroom. We have mediation rooms for spirites who just need to find themselves. Therapy rooms for spirits who need some help going over some issues they had in life. And for those spirits who feel they have things left undone in this world, a trained group of people will go out and get that item or do that task for them. We do a little bit of everything to help them find solace and some conciliation, just enough for them to move on with their life.”

“We also have a brute force approach for some, and we take care of dangerous or evil spirits that might rise up anywhere. The duties of a true necromancer are endless. And the calling of a spirit caller is not for everyone. But if you want to learn from us for a few months, that will already put you leagues ahead of anyone outside of Alcray in knowledge about the undead and spirits.”

“What do you say? Do you want to learn from us?” the vamp kindly asked.

Van looked to Lorenzo, then back at the old vamp. The factory put him a little off, but the more he said and the more he learned, the more his curiosity was piqued. He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, and he was sure his parents wouldn’t mind, especially because this was probably what Lore wanted. But before he made that decision, an extremely important question had to be asked first.

“Do I… have to stay here…” Van asked, thinking about all the corpses and dead spirits floating about.

The old vamp smiled even wider in amusement, already knowing why Van was asking. “N-no.” he tried not to chuckle. “You don’t have to stay here. So long as you come to classes on time, it should be fine if you stay at your house. Of course, we understand why you wouldn’t want to stay here, in fact, some of the buildings right outside the compound are for those who don’t want to be surrounded by dead things as they work here. Though I should remind you, this is not for the faint of heart. You will have much to learn and will have great responsibility put on you after you complete your training. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Van thought about it for a moment and nodded. He wasn’t entirely sure, but this would probably be the best place for him to learn how to raise undead, and he guessed, helped them pass on, which in his eyes was a good thing. “Yes, I do,” he said firmly.

“Will then, I welcome you with open arms.” the vamp said.