Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

Erik Hailstorm's perspective

Evening of the same day

I was reading a report on the vampiric nightshade situation when I heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

I looked up from the document and saw Gronir enter. "Have a seat, can I offer you a drink?"

"Ah, I will have some whisky, thanks." He replied, as he sat down.

I nodded and used my magic to open the liquor cabinet, which was underneath one of my bookshelves. A bottle and two glasses floated towards the table, then I poured us both a generous amount. "You have a report on Koyuki?" I asked.

He took a sip. "Yes, she seems to be doing fine, I can't detect anything problematic yet when it comes to her control of her tier threes."

I pondered that while having a sip myself. "Nothing? She has nine tier three undead now, nine! She might have the potential of an archmage but she isn't one yet."

"Have you tested her recently?" Gronir asked.

I shook my head. "No, I will before the year starts. I suspect that she has the core of a grand mage by now. Still, it's not just about the mana, you have told me how a tier three puts a strain on you, mentally."

"Mhm, yet she doesn't seem to care about such things." Gronir chuckled. "She even has taught me a thing or two with her experiments, she is such a delight to work with, when she isn't causing me a headache."

"I have warned her not to create more tier threes, especially unsupervised. And here she is, again…"

"Reminds you of someone?" Gronir asked.

"I am not a necromancer, there was never an undead horde which could have unleashed havoc if released. Just some property damage here and there, maybe a few scratches… Necromancy is much more dangerous in that regard, not to mention the reaction of Princess Olivia if her trump card is lost." I paused. "And I don't want Koyuki to overreach and get hurt."

Gronir took a sip of his drink. "You know, I am not sure what would actually happen if she ever lost control. I believe her tier threes are actually loyal and they might react violently against any perceived threat to her, even if they were unbound."

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"Really? I know that she has a good relationship with them but this is stretching it a bit, isn't it? Would your tier three have stood by you?" I asked.

He was quiet for a while. "You know, I never ordered him in the end. He died to save me but I didn't force it. I had always assumed it was from a standing order, or perhaps something I did subconsciously…" Gronir took another sip.

"I am sorry if I brought up a bad memory."

"No, it's been a long time and I might be ready to get another tier three myself. Koyuki does make me question some things I had been taught, that I believed, about necromancy. There is also Kitara, they certainly do things differently over there." Gronir stated.

I grimaced. "Our intelligence is lacking, it's a hard place to infiltrate, even with the new shipping routes opened. It will take time for us to find out more. Koyuki's past is still a mystery."

Gronir smiled. "You know, I got an idea. What if we invited someone from Kitara for a few guest lectures?"

"You think they would do that? Also, they would send a spy to get more information about the academy and our military. We might be trading with them but they aren't our allies." I said.

"Sure, but we can keep them in check. It might be our best bet to solve Koyuki's past and it might help to figure out how she controls her undead so easily. There is also something interesting about the personalities she creates, her undead seem a bit more capable than expected." Gronir said.

I pondered that. "What about Rose? She wasn't created by Koyuki. Will she be a problem? Is Hatsumi enough to keep her controlled?"

"Surprisingly that doesn't even seem necessary." Gronir stated.

I frowned. "We had talked about this, the fact that Hatsumi is a stronger vampire and that she would be important to keep the fledgling controlled. It was your strongest argument why you shouldn't control her yourself."

Gronir sighed. "I know, I know. I have no idea how much Hatsumi using her bite to help with the binding has affected Rose. I would have expected her to be a reluctant servant but vampires have strong instincts to obey their vampire master. Or at least that is what we think, vampires are hard to study. Honestly, Hatsumi has been really helpful in researching the vampiric bite and it might even lead to better protections against them. Anyway, Rose seems to have bonded with the group and she has become enthusiastic about necromancy. She has an undead horse now which craves blood."

I stared at Gronir. "Is this a joke?"

He chuckled. "No, it's just a tier two vampiric horse."

"A tier two has cravings?" I asked.

"They do have instincts and it doesn't disobey orders, or really act much outside of them. It doesn't attack any humans, or even most animals but it will bite a rat that comes too close. In some ways that horse has cat-like instincts. Two years ago I would have been fascinated by that, but now? Koyuki made a crawler that can spit spell-infused water. She is building artillery bugs! Her design is still experimental but my eyes almost popped out when she showed it to me earlier, after we had discussed her snake. Kyan, who might be a partial mummy. A mummy! They are still being actively studied and nobody, as far as I know, has successfully created a true one! Normally they are simply captured and controlled in old desert tombs."

"That snake didn't look like a mummy." I stated.

"You saw his ribbon?" Gronir asked.

"Koyuki dresses up her undead, what about it?" I asked.

"I think it's more the other way around, her undead like to dress themselves. This is different though, the ribbon is becoming a part of the snake. It's similar to the bandages of a true mummy, I am hoping to study it some more and then present it with Koyuki at the next conference." Gronir said.

"If you keep showing this much enthusiasm she will keep breaking the rules, those unsupervised tier three need to stop and we need to see if the strain on her mind doesn't become more than she can endure." I said.

"I would have less headaches if she were less reckless." Gronir agreed. "However, was it necessary to send her to the sewers for three weeks? She does have some nice corpses she could be working on, under my supervision. And it was an accident."

"She needs to earn a few coins to store her large amount of undead and maybe she will remember that it's possible to just stop when a spell goes wrong." I pointed out. "But maybe I have been a bit too harsh…"