Path of the Necromancer - FACTION WARS

Chapter 7.1 - Kristin

"In this episode, we look back at ancient civilisations! We start at a civilisation, pre-dating the Empires of Persia and Alexander the Great. Even before the great pyramids of Giza! Today we look into the rise and fall of the Ancient Sumerians!"

'This guy needs to cut back on the prozak,' Kristin thought from her lounging position on the couch.

Even half listening, the over exuberance of the cheery male narrator's inflection was piercing. She contemplated turning it off, switching it to that musical channel she'd come across, but quickly discarded it. For one, she had listened to those same songs to tedium in the day's she had spent cooped up in her suite. She wasn't sure she could resist humming along with the infectious lyrics.

The other, far greater reason, she decided not to reach for the remote was down to the majority of her attention being directed to modifying the instructions of her many minions. The days of inactivity and lack of success had crafted a strange sort of energy within her. She was thus spending that attentiveness into honing the abilities of her searchers. At first she had been content to lay on her feather pillowed bed, leaving them to do as they would as they searched. After a day of this however, she realised this would not do. The level of magical interference had resulted in her mental map of the city she found herself within, retaining large gaps. Though the efforts were crude, weak and in some spaces, barely more than a mesh - she refused to have her efforts squandered by inferior casters.

So, she had modified them. Empowering those that required it. Slipping through the many cracks of their magical defences and, in the two or three places she found true resistance, simply conjured a new minion within their dominion. It was rather fun to toy with them. Feeling them jump or feeding their fear back into the spirits to malform the construct into a Poltergeist. Her elegantly pinked lips smoothened into a smile at the mischief she'd wrought. The nasal pleading of a balding oaf to his potential date that 'it wasn't him that dropped his beer all over her.'

'She was too good for him anyway,' She sniggered as the woman slopped away.

The intro credits spooled to an end and the narrator got back to his job. It was the best she could do. Most of the daytime shows were terrible. Dull programmes given an over-excited narrator attempting to keep the elderly company as they slowly turned to dust in their armchairs. Now that the music channel was exhausted, the only tolerable programmes were the history and documentary channels. They at least had something that could be construed as interesting... in some cases, but not often.

Twice through the morning she'd let herself get distracted, observing the city as it came to life around her. It was times like this that she was glad her summoning abilities were greatest amongst her peers. Kristin reached out her hand languidly above her, spooling her power about her fingers, weaving her instructions within the Runes and sending it out to the next minion.

Her hand drew down the length of the gossamer curtain before her wrists overlapped above her head, eyes staring sightlessly up at the ceiling. A face flashed through her mind. She shook it away violently but the moment was stuck and her mood soured. The warm tones and easy colours of her hotel room lost their lustre as an apathetic feeling of melancholy descended.

The chattering of the perky presenter continued to enthuse unaware that Kristin didn't need the lesson, having learnt long ago about the birthplace of her people. What really caught her attention was how close the non-magical community had come in figuring out her ancestors. Being of Noble bearing afforded each family access to an extensive archive, tracing their lineage and achievements across the millennia. Her family in particular, had ties to some of the original kings of the original cities of civilization. Greece, Anatolia, Egypt and, of course, the cradle of civilisation itself.