Chapter 246
He stood before us, drew in a deep breath, then raised both arms like an actor on a stage.
"A whole corpse is preferable, but a mangled one works just as well. Making something from something is fun, and creating something from nothing is just as fun."
The Lich muttered the words while pulling back part of his robe.
A few people swallowed hard at the sight of his skull — nothing but bone now, part of it shattered — and he let out a hollow, rattling laugh.
Each time he laughed, blue light rippled in the eye sockets where his pupils should have been.
"First, the corpse is washed clean. We wipe it down with chemicals along the way, and depending on its intended use, we decide whether to add embalming. Blood and brain matter are drained and stored separately. Same with the organs. The heart most of all — it has to be handled with the greatest care. The source of life, the beginning, the everything, the end."
He snapped his fingers, and countless undead began to stir, turning their heads toward us.
"Skeletons, ghouls, zombies, wights… but corpses with real value get their bodies reshaped and refined to match the lives they lived, their histories, their abilities. Because this too is art — the cycle of life and death, the order of nature."
As he spoke, his skeletal finger pointed at one of the walls.