Working Things Out

5/23 noon

"This could be going better." Mistress Abby spoke with Lillibeth's voice. She didn't know as much about the strategy part, but Lillibeth definitely agreed. The old complex was crawling with undead, most of whom were far beyond Lillibeth's own ability to control. Not that it was a very high bar, yet. The apprentice only half listened while Abby, Melisara, and Eliza planned their next steps.

At the moment the most common training Lillibeth was getting for herself was being made to reanimate a rat, which exhausted her so much that it became easier for Mistress Abby to fully dominate the body. Since necromancy was channeled through the soul, it didn't negatively impact the mistress at all. A win win for Mistress Abby; good practice for her apprentice and a more pliable body to pilot. The resulting skeletal rats weren't useful for much, but they were Lillibeth's first accomplishment in the field of magic, and each one she raised was easier than the last. She was able to watch while the more important work was being done, see how the magic was channeled, but was only starting to understand the edges of it.

Dominating a mindless undead should be easy once she had the mental strength built up to do it; it was so very much like possession. The process was so intuitive to her; she secretly felt that her Mistress's technique was quite sloppy, but all the technique in the world wouldn't do Lillibeth any good if she didn't have the strength to employ it. She craved the power she had lost; she'd suffered for that power. Damn it all, she deserved it. She would have it all back, and more. But for now, she had to pay for it again by serving as a willing puppet in her own body. The rats made her feel better; the first time she could dominate a zombie or a skeleton would be euphoric.

The two senior necromancers could pluck almost any two undead out of a group, and Melisara and Sha'ni could possess two more. At that point the druid spirits could destroy most other resistance so long as they hadn't picked a fight with a group of twenty in an open field or other such foolishness. The problem came from the fact that their real targets were deep within this Scourge stronghold. The six of them had been there for a day, and so far all they had to show for it in terms of profits was a pile of corpses, six undead rats, two farm hands that had maintained enough shreds of awareness to be captured by directing a confession to Talaada, a few undead dregs that had survived their own domination, and a few handfuls of coin from the pockets of their victims.

Melisara was perfectly happy killing a few dozen Scourge a day, systematically culling their numbers and reducing the threat they posed. The ones they were currently fighting were simple brutes, but there were nearly a thousand of them, relatively densely packed in a handful of farms in the mountains north of Brill. Lillibeth agreed that removing them was a worthy use of their time, especially if they could add a few of them to the network. It reminded her pleasantly of her work when she was a ghost. Unfortunately, they were not here for zombies and ghouls. They were here to acquire ghostly undead from the crypts, who could do as Lillibeth and Mary had. To… replace them.

Ulyana, one of the farm hands, had told them that Nissa Agamand, the lady of the house, and her sisters Yulia and Marina were the only spirits that didn't spend most of their time torpid in the crypts. Naturally, that meant they were top priority for capture. It would be difficult, due to the sheer number of undead gathered between the team and their targets, but they needed to make some headway on their actual objectives and start on the Scarlet Crusade soon. Erich liked prompt results, and a few farmhands wouldn't satisfy him for long.

••••••••••

"In summary, the effects of the enchantment are quite incredible in their delicacy. Rather than overwhelming the mind with an irresistible emotion, such as fatalistic resignation with the Scourge or adoration with your own charm spell, it alters what the soul itself perceives to be correct. It's incredibly resistant to any form of deprogramming; the Crown of Will had a negligible effect on Ms. Dedmar. In summary, the corruptive influence of these necklaces surpasses anything we have ever encountered."

Aelthalyste's report was not particularly surprising from what they had already seen, but Sylvanas still felt an equal measure of trepidation and excitement. It wasn't worth the trouble in most cases, but almost any undead among the Lich King's forces lucid enough to speak could become one of the Forsaken with sufficient effort. Her champion, Nathanos Marris- no, he called himself Blightcaller these days, had been a mindless beast when she'd tracked him down to his ranch. Luckily he had remembered her, and what they had once had together. It had been enough to bring him back to himself.

Despite Bismark's refusal to give them a necklace for testing, he had not taken Gretchen away from them. Aelthalyste could pick through the woman's brain and study the effects. Ms. Dedmar, by all accounts, had been a dedicated member of the Forsaken. Had she the slightest talent in any martially applicable field, she was the kind of person Sylvanas would have happily placed in a position of authority. She was unflinchingly loyal to the last, and her loss of self had been staved off primarily by her devotion to the cause. That she had been so utterly subverted that the idea of enslaving her own beloved queen could be perceived as a moral good was a disturbing level of control.

The finest jewelers and enchanters had been brought in to study the amulet hanging around Gretchen's neck. What they were learning was a paltry shadow of what they might have managed from watching the process unfold in real time, taking notes at every step, but the end results and the structure of the amulet when not active should give them something to work with. Thus far, it had been fruitless, but she'd read enough of the glowing praise for the amulet's great and terrible intricacies to be certain that even the very palest imitation of any aspect of its functions would be a tremendous boon. Turning enemy agents to their cause, staving off witlessness, even the far more prosaic physical enhancements; she would empty the Undercity's treasury to get a reliable source for any of the three.

She was going to need to kill or subvert Mr. Erich Bismark at some point, of course. Despite anything he said, he was an unknown quantity who had the power to return her to the darkest point in her unlife. When she was raised as a banshee by Arthas, he had taken pleasure in using her for his own satisfaction. After all, she had given him quite a bit of trouble while he invaded her home, and Sylvannas had been sufficiently beautiful that she had hardly changed in appearance when she had become undead. At the time, twisted as she was by the Lich King, being able to lose herself in pleasure and look away from the horrible things that filled the rest of her day had been one of the high points of her unlife. Looking back, it was enough to turn her off of sex entirely. She was relieved that Nathanos had no capacity for such things anymore; she would have had to turn him down and likely watched him take another lover. Much better that both of them had fully put such things behind them.

She had some of her finest banshee moving to investigate Darkshire already. They were to observe, not engage. Of course, if they happened to arrange for the death of one of his agents and a subsequent field test, observing from a distance with plausible deniability? Well, tragedies happen sometimes.

••••••••••

I scarfed down some lunch, noting that the stores were starting to get a bit low again and sending Irma orders to arrange for more food. I teleported to where Kam was staying, and found Valeera crashed on a couch, taking a quick power nap.

I wondered if I could charm her enough to get a love confession out of her. More importantly, I wondered if I could do so without burning all of my mana or becoming unhealthily obsessed with her for a while. She'd hardly be the worst person to bind myself to with chains of infatuation and devotion, and I knew that it would only last until the next time I slept, but I had a schedule to keep. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure I'd only get a sense for how much a charm will cost by trying it out a lot on different people in different head spaces, and I really didn't want to risk passing out while I still had a to do list. In all likelihood I'd end up putting Ursula on R&D for that.

The fact that Valeera was napping gave me a convenient excuse to sneak out. I made my way down to the prison in Dark Iron Dwarf form, disguised, stealthed, faded, and walking fairly normally. It was nearly impossible to notice me, and those who did see me tended to dismiss me anyway.

I was not as lucky as I might have hoped; the human interrogator that I had noticed ate lunch together with her subordinate guards, apparently on perfectly cordial terms with them. I'd been hoping she would eat alone in her office or something.

Oh well. Plan B, then. Apparently there had been very little luck capturing ghosts at the Agamand Mills on day one. At least Lillibeth was getting some good training out of it; her character sheet listed her as tier 4 now. One down; now I just needed to figure out what to do with Mary. Probably train her as a higher tier unit once my base progressed a bit.

I bring this up because I needed to summon Melisara in order to get through the wall. I didn't want to raise too many suspicions, so until I could capture the warden and get Windsor alone I had no intention of revealing myself to the team of sweaty convicts he was imprisoned with. I couldn't swap them all out at once, even if I particularly wanted to, and if I opened a portal to trade out just the Marshal it would draw attention from the rest of the prisoners who naturally wanted out.

Instead, I snuck over to Windsor and pulled out the reversing mirror while I was still in stealth. I'd considered a dream mushroom, but it just seemed like such a massive waste to lose the potential value of capturing this guy. Marshal wasn't his name, it was his rank; Reginald Windsor was one of the highest ranked soldiers in the Stormwind military, and in this world that probably meant that he could kill the average Tauren warrior with his bare hands. Worth keeping around.

When I pointed the mirror at him a handful of options sprang to mind; it seemed I could only reverse traits that were fairly well defined and important to him.

Believes Katrana Prestor to be a dragon infiltrating the court of Stormwind.

Would gladly risk anything in service of his king and country.

Highly trustworthy and dedicated.

Well given those options, the solution was obvious. I got in close to him, and whispered in his ear while still functionally invisible. "Hey. Hey Windsor. Don't worry; we are going to get you out of here. Look at this real quick." He only halfheartedly glanced at the mirror, but that was all I needed. The words that I could see so visibly in my mind shifted around.

Believes Katrana Prestor to be the most trustworthy, honorable, and benevolent noble in Stormwind.

"Did Lady Katrana send you?"

"Yeah; we can't get you out just yet, but help is on the way. A confused man who believes he is Varian Wrynn is going to bust in here to get you out if we can't work out something a bit more subtle before he gets here. I just wanted to let you know that help is on the way, be ready for it."