The Temple of Sunset

The sky grew dark. A waning moon appeared in the sky. The sounds of horsemen riding the streets died down. The night belonged to Albie, but he could sense many intruders. The glow of torches from nearby streets marked patrols of foot solders hunting him. They were getting to close. He needed a distraction. Life force was an energy he couldn't spend but the liquid unlife in his lungs and stomach was plentiful. He had been disappointed to learn that most of the black liquid he coughed up had gone inert. Only the goo sealed in the enchanted vials still had any potency.

He stepped into the night. Breathed in the cool air and began his trip to get his servant Bags in the sun temple. He left the hospital with his ten killer bees and a sack of food he could not eat. The lurker disappeared into the night. Its whereabouts were unknown. If it followed him or sot out a patrols blood he couldn't tell.

Albie slipped by the patrols with ease. The moon blessing his remaining eye with better vision at night than during the day. He avoided the parties of men carrying torches and lanterns fleeing the light like a shadow. The young man dodged through dark streets to the temple.

The temple was a large polished marble building. Or was before someone had smashed the stone for the inlays. The stone over the door had a discoloration in the shape of a sun were something seemed to have been ripped out of the wall. The steppes up to the temple entrance were clear of bodies but covered in dried blood. The crusty brown coat of blood crunched under his boots. Albie reached the top of the stairs to find were the blood had come from. A congregation of dead lay on the floor three bodies deep. Rats and flies feasted. The bodies not to chewed apart by the vermin all had one great slash wound on the body or had been decapitated.

The knight's large sword came to mind. As he stepped over the pile of bodies, he sapped the life from the flies and any of the rats that felt brave enough to his at him as he passed. A circle of absolute death centered around him moved through the large temple. It was impossible for him to avoid stepping on the dead.

The young mages concern was more focused on not tripping than being respectful. He signaled to his bees to eat their fill and they began eating the corpses and rats by the entrance.

Albie reached a smashed alter. Bags sat on the shoulder of a decapitated priest. He saw his own approach from bags point of view. The small creature's viewpoint made the piles of bodies seem larger to him. He placed his hand palm up in front of the rat who quickly climbed to his shoulder. Albie stroked Bags head with a finger before offering her a piece of cheese he took from the pantry.

"Good work bags," said Albie.

"Food!" was bags response. The rat took the cheese and began to nibble at her prize from his shoulder.

Albie looked at the dead breast lying over top of a broken alter. The body was a week rotten and wouldn't serve his purpose without a head. He looked around and saw a more intact priest. his eyes were open, but one had been stolen. A single stab wound in his gut was his injury. His yellow robes were stained black with his own blood. The mans face reflected the horror of bleeding out and watching his following be slaughtered.

This one would do. Albie put the sack of food on the floor and summoned his bees to guard it. He pulled the headless priest off the alter before putting the more intact body on it. He pulled the book of Abomination Warfare out and flipped to Flesh Wight. He began by pulling his jarred eyeball out of his cloak. He removed the eye from the fluid and healed it to a fresher state before cutting it in half and healing it again. He placed one complete eyeball back into the jar. The one half an eyeball he placed into the empty socket before cutting himself to bleed into the socket. The eye socket was filled with blood and eyeball. He channeled the moon and willed the blood and eyeball into a blood stone. The crystal solidified. Albie pulled a syringe enchanted by moon magic and filled with a black fluid. He stabbed the corpse in its heart and filled it with liquid unlife.

The body twitched and its veins filled with the black liquid. The body twitched to life. Albie stepped back and shielded Bags. The wight sat up. Albie saw the new point of view from the eye of the dead man. He saw himself in the corpses eye. A frost seemed to grow in Albies mind as something touched his mind. It was starved, frozen, and injured past death. It sought control over the young mage who quickly hardened his will to maintain his mastery of himself.