Page 290 of Alchemised
“Yes! That is what he called them. Undying. Not living or dead.”
Crowther placed paper and pen down in front of Wagner, indicating that he sketch as much of the procedure and array as possible.
It was clear that Wagner was no alchemist, or artist, but he’d seen the process done at least a few times. He sketched a massive array unlike anything Helena had ever seen. Neither celestial nor elemental, it had nine source points, and in the centre a platform was suspended by which Morrough could access the body of the prisoner designated to survive.
The sacrificial victims were placed on the nine points. Morrough would open the chest cavity of the chosen recipient prisoner and place a piece of one of his own bones inside as the final component of the array. After somehow tethering their life force to that bone, he would activate the array.
The array created a pull so terrible that the sacrifices shrivelled into husks, stripped of life until it was drawn into the recipient, trapping their soul beneath the layers and layers of the others, like an insect trapped in a spiderweb.
Morrough would cut off a shard of the bone, coat it in lumithium, and leave it inside the prisoner’s body. Then he’d place the rest back inside his own.
The information fell in line with what they knew, but Helena’s mind refused to believe that such a thing could be possible.
Ilva’s story about the first Necromancer had been horrifying enough, manipulating and deceiving a multitude, but the scale made it impersonal. This process was so intimate and intentional. The repetition. The scope. Nine victims, over and over, tearing bone shard after bone shard each time. For power. For immortality.
This was how Kaine had been made.
“How did you survive so long, knowing all this?” Crowther asked Wagner.
Wagner smiled. “He was a selfish man. The lives of others were, to him, a resource. I am no fool. When it was a success, I ran. I knew he would try to find me someday. He would not share credit in his great discovery. I thought he had forgotten, until I woke up in Paladia. Now the world will know of me.”
He smiled craftily at Crowther, clearly anticipating being used by the Resistance to counter Morrough’s claims of power and scientific genius, but Helena couldn’t imagine anyone caring whose idea it was; Morrough was the one with the power and ability.
“How are all the Undying able to use necromancy?” she asked.
Hotten translated the question.
“Accident,” Wagner said with a barking laugh. “He never knew why.”
ONCE THE INTERVIEW WITH WAGNER was over, Helena was left at a loose end. Headquarters security was thrown into chaos after the guards failed to apprehend Ivy.
Any information Ivy knew was now considered compromised. Crowther immediately moved the prisoners under the Alchemy Tower to a different location, somewhere south of Headquarters, and a team of alchemists went down into the warren of tunnels, trying to seal them off to keep Ivy from sneaking back in.
But when Ilva and Althorne went with Crowther for a follow-up interrogation, Wagner was found dead, hacked to bits by the reanimated corpses of the two guards stationed outside his cell. The remains had been assembled to read: CROWTHER NEXT.
Luc was still in the hospital, under constant watch. Information about his condition was kept carefully controlled. According to the daily reports, he was recovering and only needed a few more days before he’d be transferred to his rooms.
Elain was the only healer allowed to go in to see him. She was tight-lipped for the first time in her life. She would hurry in and out, retrieving medicine from the supply room, talking to Pace in a hushed voice, and then hurrying back.
Helena covered Elain’s usual shifts. Among those patients was Penny, whose leg had been too damaged for healing and had been amputated at the knee. Alister was sitting at her bedside, keeping her company when Helena pushed back the curtains.
Helena was surprised at first that Penny had so few visitors, but then she remembered that, aside from Alister, Luc and Lila were the only ones left. All the rest were still being searched for beneath the rubble.
“I should go,” Alister said, standing up. “The tribunal has follow-up questions.”
Penny nodded wordlessly, her fingers clutching the blankets on her lap.
“What tribunal?” Helena asked, sitting down when Alister had gone. “You two aren’t being punished for saving Luc, are you?”
Penny shook her head, picking at a lump in the thread of the linen sheets. “No. We just got a reprimand. I’m even supposed to get two medals. The tribunal’s for Lila.”
Helena looked up sharply. “What do you mean?”
“They’re replacing Lila with Sebastian as paladin primary,” Penny said without looking up. “Lila’s probably going to be stripped of rank for compromising Luc’s safety.”
“You can’t be serious,” Helena said. “Lila has saved Luc’s life more times than—”
“I know,” Penny said sharply. “We all know, but they’re not going to do anything to Luc—he’s Principate. So Lila takes the fall. People have been complaining for a while—I mean, they always were, because she’s a girl and paladins are supposed to be boys—but Lila always outweighed the risk before, but after that last time with the chimaera, and now … the higher-ups see her as a liability for him. They think that if it hadn’t been for her, Luc wouldn’t have been captured.”
