A blog dedicated to fictional short stories and role-playing across a spectrum of video-games and fantasy worlds.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Beckyann Short Number 2


Beckyann paused, looking at the two death knights before her to ensure that they were paying attention. She'd been at it for over an hour now, trying to teach them a bit of the more advanced necromantic techniques she employed. It was always wise to increase the power of the Knights after all; it kept them all safer, although she always saved the most powerful tidbits for herself.

As she opened her mouth to begin the next portion of her lecture, she spied a geist walking towards her, a large sack slung over its shoulder. Her face remained impassive as the creature approached, but inside she felt a thrill of excitement. She quickly sputtered out some excuse about needing to attend to some business and dismissed the two initiates, who wandered off, glad to be away from the strange dead woman.

Beckyann gestured towards the geist, quickly striding away with the creature falling in behind her, heading towards her personal quarters within the Hold. A few minutes later they'd arrived at her door, and she carefully unlocked it and removed the deadly magical wards she liked to keep on the wooden barrier to avoid unwelcome guests. She pushed the door open and stepped inside, the geist following her.

The room beyond the simple door would have fit right in with a middle-class family of Stormwind who had a teenage daughter, provided of course that the daughter was a murderous undead creature. The small chamber had clothing, armor, armor straps, and weapons strewn all over the place. Chairs had been used as a place to hang garments or lean runeblades against. The one closet in the room hung open, more clothing partially spilling out and a few pairs of shoes sitting before it. Necromantic texts were piled in the corners of the room or strewn across the simple writing desk half-opened. Ink and quills were stacked in disorderly cubbyholes or hanging out of the drawer of the desk.

All in all, a simple glance would show that the dead woman still regularly changed and laundered her clothes, even if there was likely no reason for her to do so, and that she had the 'living' habits of the twenty-something young woman that she once had been in life, even in her undeath.

Beckyann closed and bolted the door behind the geist, gesturing to the bed in one corner of the room. Although she had no reason to sleep, Beckyann often used the bed to lay down on while her necromancy was regenerating her flesh. It was also a convenient place to sit and think, or another surface for her to spread her things out on. As soon as the geist had placed the sack on the bed, she shooed it away and upended the bag, dumping its contents out.

An unnatural giggle escaped the dead thing as she surveyed what was now laying on her bed. A number of dresses as well as a few pair of shoes had tumbled out into a pile. She quickly started rooting through it, holding things up in admiration. Finding a dress she particularly liked, she took it up and quickly moved across the room, pushing aside an Ebon Blade war banner that was hanging on the wall to reveal a floor length mirror. With a smile, she held the deep purple dress up to her neck, imagining how she would look in it.

She had sent the geist out to the ruins of Stratholme. Although the city was mostly burned down and filled with undead and Argents doing battle, there were still a few treasures to be unearthed there. Judging by the objects on the bed, the geist had found a clothing shop that still had merchandise in it. The dresses were slightly out of date with the latest fashion, and likely smelled of cinders and dust, although Beckyann could not smell very well anymore so it was irrelevant to her. There was one sense she still possessed that worked quite well though; her sight, and she was quite pleased with what the creature had brought back.

With a sigh of satisfaction she placed the dress on the bed with the others. In life, she had always dreamed of going to the city of Stratholme and shopping there. They had always been too poor though, and she had never been given the chance before her death. Now she could have the ruins looted to her heart's content, even if the other undead that shared the hold with her would not understand her enjoyment of such finery. It didn't matter, it kept her mostly sane and she liked to collect the riches and trappings of a life she could now never have.

She turned, looking at the geist critically. Of course, the others would never understand that she had used one of the Hold's creatures for such a purpose, and someone might question it or use magic to discern where it had been. With a swift motion she drew her runeblade, the weapon removing the creature's head from its body. A few more strokes removed its limbs as she playfully hacked it to pieces. After she was done, she set the blade aside and reached down, using magic to banish any trace of the creature's spirit.

She turned, carefully folding the dresses and placing them in a trunk under her bed, enjoying every moment of handling her new treasures. For a moment, she almost felt alive again as she tucked them all away out of sight. She then picked up the sack, smiling to herself.

A few minutes later a ghoul wandered through the halls of the Ebon Hold, taking a sack of geist parts to the fleshworkers so that they could use them as needed to craft new creations. As for the blonde-haired death knight, she had a self-satisfied smirk on her face for the rest of the day.

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