Lich Lord, Chapter 156

The door opened, gray light spilling into my mindscape, and Ekwin stepped out. He wore the exact same tailored suit as last time. The world resumed moving when he talked. “Shad’ehki, you know you are not allowed to rummage through my followers’ minds. Did you truly think I would not notice?”

“I thought the mark was mistaken” Shad’ehki responded. “Never seen a lich serve the balance.”

“Do you know me to make mistakes?” Ekwin asked, his tone neither angry nor happy, it just was.

“No, Grey One,” Shad’ehki responded, her tone admitting her wrong.

“You know I hate that name. Makes me sound so old,” Ekwin’s was pained.

“But you are old, older than old,” Shad’ehki said.

I did my best to school my features. Ekwin glared at me. I tried harder.

“Shadi, I am not moving in on your territory with him. In fact, if you want to work with him, you might be able to reestablish yourself some. He just tried to give me a death alter.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but Damien’s steel grip on my arm and Ilore slapping a hand over my mouth stopped me.

“Lich,” Shad’ehki snapped. “Are you stupid? Giving the gray one a death alter would not work, it would poison.”

“No way. It would not,” Ekwin protested.

“Do not listen, he is old.” Then to my shock, Shad’ehki made a gesture, her hand circling around her ear saying he was off a little. When Ekwin looked back at her they stopped, though I saw the suspicious glare Ekwin sent her way. “Follow raven to get priest take alter.”

“You mean the raven on my arm, and not Raven, the werecat my friend?” I asked, Ilore having removed her hand.

“Yes,” the raven god agreed.

I nodded. “If I’m going to be working with you, you should get to my vampiric friend, Vito. He told me he was creating a death high priest. It would be nice if the one he manages to create also follows you, as it will simplify my life.” Shad’ehki nodded and disappeared as abruptly as she appeared.

“Good call,” Ekwin said. “They will be easier to work with than some of the other death gods since they are more of a balanced focused death god.” He nodded at Damien. “Good to see you again, Damien. We should catch up sometime.” He stepped through his door, and disappeared.

Silence stretched as the three of us simply stood there, shellshocked. “Okay… Okay, Damien, what the hell?”

“Dark one?” Ilore gave Damien the stink eye.

Damien held up a finger first at me then at Ilore. “Give me a second, I can explain.”

“It better be a damn good explanation, because the dark one I know of was a death god that destroyed an entire continent and ruled for a thousand years,” Ilore said.

“Did you really not tell her?” I put my arms up when Damien glared at me.

“Look, Shad’ehki evidently calls people by colors, she called Ekwin the gray one,” Damien protested. “And there have been lots of ‘dark ones’ throughout time.”

“Uhhuh,” Ilore said. “Thing is, there was also a specific gray one that I heard of, because of course I’ve heard of them, and that language you spoke sounded very familiar.”

“What was that?” I asked, and Damien once again glared at me. I shrugged it off, he was doomed anyway.

“That was… kaltesh,” Damien said quietly.

“Thought so,” Ilore said. “So, you are the dark one I knew.”

“In my defense, I was not as bad as everyone made me out to be,” Damien said, but Ilore was already flying away.

“You’re in so much trouble,” I said. “Like a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. It would’ve been better off telling her instead of her finding out.”

“I know,” Damien let out a long sigh. “I had no reason to worry though. Not exactly something you bring up in day to day conversation, and I had no reason to expect to run across a creature that once lived on my continent and had ascended to godhood.”

“That’s fair. No point in fighting a fight that you didn’t need to. Anyway, can gods always just pop in and out of my mind? And use time stopping abilities? I thought the mindscape was different even for them.”

“Ekwin’s different,” Damien said. “They can kinda come and go, though they normally don’t, and if we do get your defenses built up, which will take your cores being faced, it will become far more difficult even for him.”

“That just became a little bit more important,” I said.

“Yeah,” Damien shrugged. “Normally it’s not an issue unless you’re a priest, but then again, in that case you want them to come in.”

“I really do need to go, but I have one other question.” I didn’t like that I had been pulled into the Mindscape while standing out in the open. “I don’t suppose there’s any way I could give the altar to you?”

Damien opened his mouth to respond right away, but then closed it and thought. “I was just gonna tell you no, but that’s not explicitly true. You would basically have to resurrect me. Which, when I think about it, resurrecting a god is in some ways easier than a normal mortal, but in every other way far harder.”

“What makes it easier?” I asked. “What would it take?”

“It’s easier, because it’s possible,” Damien explained. “Resurrecting a mortal after they have been dead more than a week is impossible. Longer than an hour is almost impossible for anyone under the level of 300. That’s because the kernel of their soul has moved on by that point, and you’re trying to pull it back from whatever comes next for them. The exception for that rule are souls that are in some kind of limbo who have not moved on.”

“Like you in the Mindscape?” I asked. “Can I resurrect you because you are a mental assistant?”

“Well yes, actually,” Damien agreed, a glint I almost missed showing in his eyes. “Most gods are not immortal, as nothing truly is. When they die, the kernel of their soul does also move on. But here is the difference: There are ways to pull that back even if they’d been dead for a long time, simply because that soul was so intrinsically bound to the world in which they ascended. But being a mental assistant means the kernel of our souls doesn’t really move on, it’s in a kind of limbo.”

“So that’s why you became an assistant,” I stated.

“No.” Damien shook his head. “I became an assistant because I’ve always liked teaching. I didn’t know it was possible to do that until I had already been an assistant for a long time.”

“Then, what would it take?” I asked.

“I appreciate why you’re asking.” Damien closed his eyes. “But it’s not something that you can do, or even necessarily should do.” I gave him a questioning look, figuring he would want to come back. “Me coming back to the material world would be both monumental and incredibly disruptive. My power is gone, but as you can tell, many remember me. I’m not even sure if I would survive, and if I don’t then it would be a giant waste of resources for me just to end up back here.”

“I see. So only bring you back if I can do it in a place where you can build power and protect yourself.”

“Sure.” Damien was clearly doubtful. “I will get you an abbreviated list of the most important and hardest to get things.”

“You never know, it could happen.” I began to leave the mindscape. “Good luck with Ilore.”

“You know, it might be simpler to bring me back to the material world than it would be for me to fix that,” Damien grumbled.