“Many people consider crows and ravens as harbingers of death. Personally, I feel that it’s an undeserved reputation to consider them that way just because they’re carrion eaters that happened to have black feathers, but people are superstitious.” - Abaref Novlikoff, Philosopher from the First Elmaiya Empire.

Late in the night, a single raven flew over Abuda, the bird seemingly no different to others of its kind, at least from afar. Upon closer observation, however, it was evident that the bird was not alive, its corpse merely made to dance to the tune of a necromancer, and that night it served as a means of transportation for its mistress.

Not for the mistress herself, of course, but for a single spider-like necromantic construct the size of a thumbnail that rode upon its back.

The raven perched atop the highest tower in Abuda, the top of the Khan’s personal abode. None saw its arrival other than one sleepy guard who just happened to be in the right position to see the raven silhouetted against one of the moons on its descent, but said guard paid no heed to the matter. To his mind, it was just another bird, of no consequence.

Once the raven had landed on the top of the tower, the necromantic construct on its back skittered down onto the tower and started to climb down the wall towards where several others of its fellow constructs were present. As a necromancer, Eilonwy always had a general sense of the presence of the constructs she was linked to, so she could use them for guidance.

In this case she mostly kept a few of the smaller constructs near a window that led to the Khan’s room, from which the larger construct could gain access to the room. The Khan was paranoid enough to have the window mostly closed, but the gap between the wooden shutter and the wall of the tower was enough for the necromantic construct to squeeze through.

Silently, the necromantic construct skittered over the wall of the chamber until it reached the Khan’s bed, a massive thing made of mahogany wood with a mattress filled with eider down, large enough to easily accommodate five or six adults. The Khan himself was fast asleep on the bed, sprawled over the whole thing with his blanket thrown to the side.

Clearly a rowdy sleeper.

The construct maneuvered itself until it was directly above the Khan’s open mouth, on the roof of the bed. Once it was in position, its bulbous rear section rotated upon itself and revealed a small opening, from which the liquid contained within began to leak out. Once enough of the liquid had leaked outside its container, a drop of the liquid separated itself and fell down, directly into the Khan’s mouth and down into his throat.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Then the spider-like construct quietly left the room together with its many smaller cousins as they went up the tower and climbed onto the back of the undead Raven that had brought them there in the first place. Once its passengers were secure on its back, the undead bird took flight once more and soon disappeared into the night sky.

Not long after its departure, the effects of the drop ingested by the Khan began to show itself, as violent convulsions wracked the man’s body. The man’s eyes bulged out in agony yet he was unable to make even the slightest noise, as his jaws were pressed so hard against each other that some of his teeth began to crack under the pressure.

The man’s limbs twisted agonizingly as his entire body’s muscles fell into cramps simultaneously. It was a suffering that was difficult to fathom, as the Khan’s reflexive movements from the pain only caused more pain as a result and nothing he could do would alleviate the agony. Worse, the cramps intensified over time as the man’s body was broken by his own muscles.

Joints were twisted out of place by the force of the wildly contracting muscles. At other places, the man’s appendages intertwined with one another and started breaking up under the pressure. His fingers formed knots as one looped around another and shattered the finger bones, even while his body wildly gyrated on his bed.

Teeth shattered into pieces under the pressure of the man’s bite, and the broken parts further shredded the man’s own tongue which itself wildly convulsed and twisted upon itself. In his wild convulsions all his attempts to call for help came to naught, and all that was left to the Khan of Shisfa was what felt like an eternity of pain and agony.

The Khan’s paranoid habits meant that he loathed being disturbed in his personal chambers, and unless it was a dire emergency, any servant who dared intrude on his chamber while he was there would be executed. As a result, none of his guards noticed anything amiss when they caught muffled sounds of his struggles from the outside.

They too knew that the Khan was a rowdy sleeper and just thought that the man was having a particularly bad night and chose not to interfere.

As a result, the Khan of Shisfa perished in his bedroom that night, unknown to even the guards outside his room. The man’s last hour of life felt like an eternity to him, given the suffering he went through, and his twisted corpse looked almost as if some giant had mistaken him as a toy to play with. It was a truly ugly sight that lay sprawled upon the mess of urine, feces, and blood that soiled his bed.

Because of course the man lost control of his bladder and bowels when death eventually claimed him and his muscles stopped convulsing.

His death went entirely unnoticed until late the next afternoon, when a maidservant who was tasked with cleaning the Khan’s bedroom finally mustered the courage to check on the Khan. Her scream echoed throughout the tower and brought more people to the scene, all of whom were welcomed by the gruesome sight of their dead Khan.

As well as the implication his death left behind.