Back to Erich
5/1 morning
I woke up feeling pretty alright. I’d gotten a lot done yesterday, and had more to do. Drusilla was exhausted, so I did my best to follow her recipe for stew.
Once I had it cooking, I checked the necklace I had hung up; it was swaying from one hook, when I’d hung it from two. Good to know I had some takers, also good to know that they couldn’t wear the amulet by default. I assume. Communication talent wasn’t giving me anything, so I was just guessing. Maybe I could find a bell or something to start making a code. I pocketed the pendant and spoke at the air. “Sorry, I’ll make it work if I can come up with something. We’d be happy to have you along.”
Darcell was still keeping watch until I waved her off to go to bed, having been woken up in the middle of the night to relieve Drusilla. Tessa was dozing in a chair, and Noktog was in the corner of the room looking bored. Not very fair for me to be the only one with a full night’s sleep, but I’m an isekai protagonist with a harem. Life isn’t fair; it’s stacked in my favor.
While I waited for food to cook, I went over my app. At this point it’s my default state. I went over my private notes, updating Lividia with the Sub programming I’d given her yesterday. I was very concerned to see that Abercrombie’s numbers were not what I was expecting. He was only up to around 8 hours of trance time, two short of the threshold I’d been hoping to find him at, and the handy timer for “time isolated” next to his mission was reset, down to less than an hour. Someone had come and visited him, probably all night. That, or Stitches was already sentient enough to count.
I really didn’t want to show up here to do a bit of prep work and have to come back later, but I might have to. Doing the math, it was no longer possible for me to finish The Hermit before Blackrock and Roll’s deadline. I needed to kill some spiders today; if I could get a mission ticket before the third, I wouldn’t need to abandon my little base camp here. Past that, I’d need to start hauling ass to Lakeshire and hope against hope that they would be willing to take a few volunteers along on an assault mission.
With that in mind, I paddled out a large bowl of soup and went to go see my “master.” When I arrived, I found Abercrombie coming up from the cellar quickly, and I heard the tail end of what soul talent helpfully identified as a cleaning spell. I’m guessing he had some kind of alarm spell around his shack.The orb was on a small table near the door, left out casually. The necromancer started with his genial facade, which melted away quickly into an irritated, fatigued face. “What are you still doing here? I gave you a task.”
“Of course, my master. But traveling at night can be hazardous, and I needed to be sure to bring you your breakfast. It simply would not do for you to be forced to use your valuable time preparing meals when I could see to your needs. I have a small number of trustworthy servants; I am leaving a few here in town to see to your needs. Command them as you wish in my absence.” As I spoke, I walked over to the table and snatched up the orb, willing it to life. The light slowly went out of Abercrombie’s eyes as I held it aloft.“Would you be so kind as to tell me if anyone came to visit yesterday after I left? Was it Morbent Fel?”
“No. Fel is no friend. My wife.” He mumbled. “Eliza.” Shit. That complicated things.
“Oh? Why haven’t I seen any sign of her?”
“She is bound. To her grave. When the sun is out.”
That made me pause. Then grin. I opened up the catalog to see if I remembered correctly. It took a few minutes, but there it was.
“For any member of your retinue whose powers come from an external, (semi-)sapient source, their connection will be severed at the moment of capture and those powers replicated as innate abilities. If they have powers that rely on a background magical field, the connection to you will act as an adapter in worlds with a different field. In worlds or regions that lack any such field, their powers will still be usable, but at a reduced capacity when outside of your presence.All retinue members whose power comes with a crippling, categorical weakness, such as vampires, Kryptonians, or Devil Fruit users, will be no more affected by that weakness than an ordinary human.”
I’d say being trapped in a grave during the day qualified as a crippling weakness. “So, what if I told you I had a method to free her from that.”
“Death. Sacrifice will free her.”
“Without that. Faster, within the week.”
“Not possible.”
“But you could do it with the right tools, couldn’t you? You’re much stronger than me.”
“Yes. Of course I could. I’m doing it already.”
“But to make sure it works, you need a focus.”
“A focus?”
“Yes. Something to channel all that energy through. I have special gemstones that could do it.”
“Special gemstones?”
“Yes. They are mine, I use them for my own magic, unless you want them. You could demand them from me.”
“I could…”
“Just like the ghost hair, you need these gems. You and Eliza both need to wear them to link yourselves together.”
“Yes. You. You will give them to me. Or die.”
“I don’t want you to have them.”
“Too bad. I need them.”
“I have no choice but to give them to you. You can demand them of me at any time, so that you and Eliza can wear them for yourselves.”
“They are mine.”
“Yes sir, enjoy your soup. I’ll leave this one here. I’ll be back with your lunch.” I put today’s emerald studded collar on his table and retreated, once again leaving him alone, staring at the orb while mechanically eating his soup.
Hopefully that worked. I quickly took a snapshot of him with my gemstone from the door. I needed to have a good replica of his face, especially if I was going to need to fool his wife. God I hope they weren’t still fucking; living in a grave did not sound promising for that kind of thing.
I teleported back to the house; the newbie freaked out. Apparently being in a strange place with strange people and a high undead population had her on edge.
“Alright everyone. So, as I recall you said you left on patrol?” Tessa cautiously nodded, “in that case, there’s a decent chance there would be other people from your group here too. It’s not safe out in the woods. Thankfully, we have been hired to lower the spider population in these parts; that’s why we have the poison filtering jewelry. If you’ll accompany us on our hunt, we can see if we can find any signs of anyone you know who might be alive. Sound good?”
She seemed to want to say something uncomplimentary, probably about my light tone, but then she sighed. “Alright. Probably a good idea.”
“There’s a good sport. We’ll have everything straightened out in no time.” Now all I have to do is figure out how hunting giant spiders works. I hope I haven’t committed to an insanely difficult mission.