The Lich King Reincarnates as a Baby

Book 4 Chapter 33: Arrangements

++The paradox of hiding mana is that magicians are naturally attuned to the background levels of mana that exist naturally in the world. Sealing that off leaves an obvious absence, much like frigid cold is left by an attempt to remove heat. One can try to artificially leak natural-seeming amounts of mana, but this leaves the disguise susceptible to any natural fluctuations around it that differ from the output. This is, in many opinions, rather a good thing. People would be far more nervous around magicians if we had some way to hide our powers seamlessly, believe me.++

- Excerpt from a lecture on meta-magic theory at the Winzorth Institute.

Liches are creatures of intellect, power, knowledge and, above all, earth-shattering egotism. We are precisely as arrogant as is required to defy death itself.

As a result of this, one never quite knows how we will react to an offer of alliance.

I must admit to being especially hostile to such things, even relative to the rest of my kind. Such is the consequence of living so many millennia with essentially no rivals at all. If there was one benefit to my encountering the Gods, it is that I learned prudence.

The lich before me was an unknown quantity however. I certainly did not know every lich that existed before my Great Setback, and the millennia since then had given rise to many more that I knew nothing about. That meant I was dealing with an unknown quantity, and would have to be cautious.

“Mutually beneficial arrangements are difficult to come to for our kind,” the lich said at last. “We tend to want world domination. Two people cannot cooperate to achieve that goal, can they?”

She had a point there of course. “We can in this case, however,” I noted. “Since we both share the same obstacle for that goal, however we decide to handle one another.”

Her face crumpled up with disgust as I mentioned the enemy.

“The Gods of Garamon. Loathsome creatures,” she sighed.

“What is your name?” I asked her. “I would like to know if we are to be cooperating.”

“I have not agreed that I will be cooperating just yet,” she frowned.

“Do you not see the benefits of doing so?” I was getting irritated now, if she thought she was going to bluff me into a better deal by pretending not to want this one then she was sorely miscalculating. Such a move would only tell me that she was stupid enough to be of dubious worth as an ally.

But she was fortunately not that stupid. After a few more moments she sighed, then nodded.

“I give you my word that, until we have swept away the pests of Garamon, I will raise no hand against you. Your enemies will be my enemies for as long as my enemies remain yours. I will violate this compact only should my life be endangered by keeping to it, and even then only if the danger comes from within rather than without.”

It was nicely said. I did not spot any glaring loopholes in the agreement, and I noted both of us growing far less tense now that the words had been spoken.

“And I swear I will do likewise,” I replied. “I will hold to the letter and spirit of your agreement and give you no cause to break it.”

There is always a level of theatre when liches do anything. We need some way to pass the centuries, after all.

“I am Shuo Meg,” the lich said at last. I searched my memory for mention of her.

She was on the older side, perhaps five or six thousand years depending on which historic accounts one believed. Not as old as Sakhent or Sascithius, but still ancient. That our spheres of influence were so many thousands of miles apart made it harder for me to dredge up any specifics.

In that regard, with Garamon being as globally prominent as it was, she held an advantage over me.

“Isabel Vornholt,” she said after a moment. “I have heard about one Isabel Vornholt. A magical prodigy of impossible—literally impossible—talent. She has black hair, green eyes, she’s tall. She should be about your age. You are her, I take it? No wonder her talent has made such waves, I shudder to imagine how far Lord Dread’s own abilities go when honed from birth, as mine were in this new life.”

It was not especially surprising for her to work that out, at least. Given the information available to her I had assumed she would manage to do so.

Still, I do not like being figured out. Not even in small and obvious ways. I did my best to hide the irritation that inspired and tried to get back to more important business.

“There is a wider alliance of supernaturals I am putting together to wage war upon the Gods of Garamon,”I said. “I would like your strength to be added to it.”

“Tell me about this alliance,” she said after a moment.

This story originates from NovelPhoenix. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I gave her the information. I spoke of the fae and the necromancer cult, of the mysterious harbinger, and of Sakhent. The only thing I left out was the servants of Zameka—I did not wish to let her deduce the true significance of the mask fragment until I had already laid claim to it.

She soaked all of this data up with the swift efficiency only a lich could muster, and took practically no time at all to digest it.

“I will need time to decide,” she told me.

“How much time?” I asked.

“I do not know, but I do not believe in making hasty decisions. Not when it comes to deals with my fellow immortals at least.”

That much was familiar to me, few liches were ever in a hurry to pledge ourselves to arrangements that may go on for centuries or more.

“In the meantime,” Shuo Meg added, “there was another reason for you to be here. I know it. You were surprised to find a fellow lich in this place, or at least a fellow lich reincarnated into mortal flesh. So what is the treasure you had it in your mind to obtain before my existence came to your attention?”

Well, I should not have been surprised to find she was quick-witted. Practically all of us were, after all.

“There is a relic here that I wish to obtain. A mask fragment. It is of historic value, but more importantly I believe it holds hints that may give me useful information on one or more of the Gods.”

All of this was true of course, I was simply neglecting to mention its other, more primary use in potentially resurrecting Zameka.

Shuo Meg was instantly suspicious, though that did not say much in particular. Liches learn to be instantly suspicious when one of our own kind so much as glances in our direction. It is a generally good instinct to have.

“Describe this mask to me,” she commanded. I decided to brush aside the insult for now and did so, going off what I had seen of the other half in Garamon. She listened attentively, clearly committing every detail to memory.

“I have never heard of this artifact, nor seen it,” she said once I was finally done. “But that does not mean I can’t help you obtain it. These are my lands after all.”

That was an interesting turn of phrase. “You once ruled here, as a king?” I asked.

She frowned at me. “What do you mean king?”

Now it was my turn to frown in confusion. “You were originally a man, yes?”

“I was born female in both my lives,” Shuo Meg told me. “Were you not?”

“It does not matter,” I sighed. “You did rule, correct?”

“Also incorrect,” she told me. “I educated. I shared my knowledge with the people of this forest, and the surrounding kingdoms sprawling out across the plains. We learned so much together. And then the bastard Gods of Garamon came.”

It seemed like a lot of the stories I had heard lately ended with ‘and then the bastard Gods of Garamon came’. I was not complaining of course, it meant more recruits for me.

“They tend to do that,” I noted.

“Indeed,” Shuo Meg scowled icily. “How long do you intend to stay here?”

“I was not planning on remaining at this temple any longer than I needed to find the artifact,” I admitted.

“Stay a while longer,” she told me. “I must make up my mind about joining this…alliance of yours. Non-aggression and mutual aid with you is one thing, but you expect me to place myself into a structured chain of command. With another at the top.”

“Lord Dread at the top,” I told her evenly. “There has never been a more suited individual for the role, nor can there ever be.”

She did not respond to that one way or another, simply turned and headed back deeper into her temple.

“Where are you going now?” I called after her.

“I am going to begin making preparations to find that artifact of yours,” she told me. “If nothing else, so that I can ransom it to you for some ridiculous price or concession.”

She was being honest because she knew I had no way of actually interfering with this. With our agreement, I could not take direct action against her for anything less than the provocation of violence or the threat of violence. But this arrangement did not stop her from playing hardball in negotiations with something I wanted.

I decided to let this slide. It was not as if I had a lack of resources to pay with, after all.

“You can make yourself comfortable while you wait on my decision,” Shuo Meg told me as she faded into the depths of the temple. “Though, obviously, not too comfortable. This is still my domain, Lord Dread. And I expect the father of liches to abide by it as would any other creature.”

I did not give her an answer, neither positive nor negative. Partly this was to avoid rising to what was obvious bait, but it was also because I had not yet completely decided how I would be handling this lich. I needed time, myself, to properly study her, after all. To uncover all the variables I would need to account for.

So it suited me as much as it did her that she was heading off for the moment.

I moved through the temple, taking a half-hour to memorise every turn and corner I stumbled across to map out as much of the interior as I could without making it too obvious that I was doing so. One never knew when a sudden flight might be necessary, and I did not recognise the stone this place’s interior was made from. For all I knew it was strong enough to turn away my magic.

There were secrets here that I would need to make my own. The ability to seamlessly cut off all ambient mana from one place to another, for one thing. Doing that normally, with any method I knew, produced a terribly noticeable ‘blank spot’ in the landscape that any magician could sense by its absence, but there was no trace of that effect here.

If I learned to replicate this effect—when I learned to replicate this effect—I would be able to scale it up. I may learn how to cover my whole refinery, even the surrounding area. I may even have learned how to engulf entire regions of the world in magical isolation zones that allowed even an ancient lich to call on all their power at once without catching the attention of the Gods.

One way or another, I had to maintain contact with Shuo Meg. I would rather it be peaceful, for convenience. But I was ready for it to be…less so.

I stepped back outside to find my siblings, bodyguard and guide waiting for me, all looking my way with eyes left wide with uncertainty.

“We will be staying for a while,” I told them. “Make yourselves comfortable.”

Blakely’s eye twitched.