The breach opened in a similarly small pocket of universe, this one slightly larger than its currently expanded home. About the size of a baseball field and a half. Nothing alive or sentient was residing in this place and it quickly reached some of its influence through the breach, the hole was too small to accommodate its main body but it could fit plenty of sensory matter through the breach to operate inside the other universe. It feared for widening the hole, that could lead to the end of both bubbles of reality.

The energy in this place was abundant, freshly spawned and still hot with power. It greedily extended its scintillating light and energy to wrestle control of the foreign matter and assimilate it into its control. As it gained more power it grew stronger and began to devour quicker. The energy and potential of the space was sucked out back to its home, the space shrunk and weakened until there was nothing left and the universe collapsed back into itself, it was safely on the other side of the hole as the remnants of the hole closed, there was nowhere for the hole to lead anymore.

It had feasted for days taking energy into itself and was now much stronger, its own home expanded to match the energy of itself and the meal it had eaten. But it wanted more, over the next two years it feasted on similarly sized meals always satiating its hunger, but never truly satisfying it.

It was after more than a decade when it discovered a much larger reality, far different from its own. No longer would its meals be helpless.

Velona sat on the driver's seat and watched their newly hired escort, she could guess what the master had in mind for them. They would be the beginnings of his empire, a small gathering of humans to follow his command and fill menial roles, like cleaning and running errands. These had to be filled by the living as lower class undead attracted too much attention.

They had not encountered any monsters on the road, and this was as she had suspected. The undead left a very cold streak behind them. Especially ones as powerful as herself and the master. The humans may have just thought it a chilled wind then a persistent nip in the weather, but animals had a more instinctual reaction to the aura and tended to wisely avoid it.

Turning her meandering thoughts back to the task nearing at hand, Velona looked up at the city in the distance. Houses had sprawled beyond the high walls and created a protected inner city and an outer city. By now people had been getting suspicious of what happened to an entire city. Not all of the merchants and trade would be wiped out by the undead infesting city and she predicted the news would take root like a wildfire in the next few days.

Velona spurred on the horses and they trundled on towards the city, the bandit escort keeping up a brisk walk without complaint.

As they approached the checkpoint to enter the city with tiled houses packed closely together on either side of the road a heavily clad soldier signalled them to stop. Captain Blackhand and two of his men came to stand just behind her as she walked to meet the guard.

“State your business, cargo and length of stay please” he spoke in a polite but business like tone, just doing his job.

Velona had been instructed by Lord Christopher to tell no lies except about where they came from, who they really were and a few other small details, so basically lie through her teeth.

“Greetings, my Lord has come from the south with mostly precious metals and coin to purchase goods. We will be staying for an undetermined amount of time to prepare a caravan for trade.” Velona only spoke a few outright lies and brushed around the subject of where they had come from. It would not do to be too closely associated with the fallen city just yet.

“Alright everything seems in order, for one wagon coming to export goods that will be a silver in tax.” He said after a seconds pause for consideration.

“Thank you.” Velona said as she handed him three silvers. He slipped the extra two into his pouch. “So could you tell me, what’s the best inn in the city and closest to the high society industry, we are known to the city and could use some guidance.”

“Well the best inn would be The Horse and Four, it is located in the centre ring north quadrant on Piccadilly lane. You will have access to all the regular meeting spots of the gentry, have a nice day.” He spoke and pointed them in the rough direction before moving off and calling for the next wagon that had come up.

The bandits' turned guards took up their positions a little closer to the wagon and Velona steered the wagon towards the inn.

Mage Lord Albus Dan-Agaza Kingspell stood in the most secret of rooms under the palace of the capital. He was gazing at the most powerful mana gem the kingdom had ever made, Rubrum Solem. He had laid eyes on it only once before, when he had become a mage lord. The gem was still intact and he knew the Prince thought him silly for doubting its safety, for the orb could not be touched. It was within the range of effect of the spell if only slightly, the air was hard as granite on the edges of the spell and would remain so until the power ran dry from the gem.

The power in the gem may have been able to hold a farmer for a mortal eternity, for millennia, hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of years, for a foe such as the one it contained currently. Maybe a few hundred years at best. Without being able to touch the orb they had no way of knowing how fast the power was depleting or how much longer it would hold.

Albus had wanted to come here one last time while he could make the excuse, just to see the magnificence of the spell. True living evidence of a 11th tier spell. He had tried to learn from this example, to recreate the spell. But he had never even been able to come close. The best he had achieved so far was a 6th tier spell that would bind a person so strongly they would not be able to draw breath, this could ignore most mages defence but was nowhere near the potency of this spell, or the subject that it contained.

What he would give to have such power, no one could stop him. His utopian society would be forged by him with an iron fist and hot magic. But he knew he would never achieve it as he was now. He had to improve himself.

As Mage Lord Albus Dan-Agaza Kingspell stood within the room he felt the inklings of a plan unfold, if he could not create his dreams then he would follow another.