"Greetings," the Commander said, a single bit of pleasantry which she quickly dispensed with. "Have you ever come across tall thin, pale creatures that live underground and have no eyes or nose, They move very fast and are repulsed by the light." Oh, right he forgot about the stunted where the hand was. Hopefully they didn't come off too poorly in that exchange.

  "The Stunted," Banks said after a while. "Are you okay?"

  "One didn't make it," Jakk admitted. "Another's injuries are going to give him a couple weeks off and me an extra batch of paperwork. What are those things?"

  "Human relatives," Banks admitted. "From way further back then the Nevadie or Psideri, or Mjorkele, or any of the other couple dozen bloodlines you might think of."

  "Like the Oni or Orcs?" the Commander asked incisively causing him to wrinkle his forehead.

  "They're both related to each other, but not to humans," he admitted, biting off the faulty knowledge, but resisting the temptation to devolve into a long rant. "The Stunted, the Scaled, the Furred, the Winged and what we know as the ancestors of Humanity all came into existence at the same time, descended from a race of proto-humans known as the Habilites. The Stunted live underground, the Scaled in deepest ocean, the Winged far above the earth and the Furred in the coldest places on the planet. You would be extremely unlucky to meet them under most circumstances, because they are all extremely powerful compared to modern humans."

  "But sewers are dug, mines are excavated, all without running into them," the Commander said. "You would think there would be more sightings if they were just below."

  "They're normally not 'just below' Banks stated. "The depths at which they normally reside are depths that we don't have the technology to descend to, only those exiled from their groups will ever ascend this close to the sun. Besides if a person underground disappears now and again, your first thought isn't that they were eaten by an underground predator normally."

  "Fair, but then why are so many so close to the surface, now of all times?" Jakk asked. "Do you think it has something to do with the other crazy stuff going on?"

  "Maybe, but I've bowed out of asking questions and trying to figure out what's going on," Banks stated.

  "That's fine as long as you continue to answer ours," the Commander said. "Jakk arrange for some blankets and food. I'm going to have to speak with the others and confirm our worst fear has arisen." Oh, so they did find the hand. She didn't speak further, instead turning around and leaving the room. Half an hour later Banks got both food and warmth and that was the extent of both their caring and his.

  xxx

  "What do you know about zombies," Jakk said.

  "Good morning," Banks stated starting to rub his eyes before he realized he was only left with stumps. "I'm doing very well thank you. How are you?"

  "I'm doing good..." Jakk started before he shook his head. "Wait, no I'm not doing good. There's a zombie uprising in the East side of town and scattered pockets of the undead have been spotted all over. We've first got ghosts now zombies. What's next, banshees."

  "Firstly a banshee is a type of ghost," Banks said. "Secondly, it's expected. With all these ghosts around the levels of Death Mana in this city are no doubt elevated. It's no wonder that corpses are spontaneously springing back to life. Have you checked the levels of Death Mana in the city."

  "They're about a hundred times normal," Jakk admitted casually the horrifying fact.

  "That's the lowest they will be until long after this whole thing is passed," Banks said throwing cold water. "Death leads to more death. Find some good priests."

  "Unfortunately all the temples are on the East Side so we may have a problem in that case," Jakk retorted. "So zombies..."

  "Corpses arising from high levels of Death Mana," Banks said clinically. "Usually stronger, always stupider than the person that the corpse was formed from. Prolonged exposure to Death Mana has a tendency to make the corpse stronger. There are areas in uninhabited regions so soaked in Death Mana for so long that the corpses have turned into true undead monstrosities."

  "I saw one use some type of weird fish magic earlier?" Jakk asked. "Does that count as a monstrosity?"

  "No, they can do exactly what they can do in life they're just dumber," Banks said. "Likely they had magic revolving around or at least themed around fish in life and they were familiar enough that the magic followed them into death." Actually his sister probably has a magic that can do something similar. Actually it was almost certain that she could probably make all of her attacks fish themed.

  "So magic using zombies is not unusual?" Jakk asked. "Sorry it's not usually what you think of when you think zombies."

  "No more than Magicians in general are unusual," Banks retorted. "For the most part unless you're dealing with a real sicko, a necromancer is not going to personally go through the effort of giving a zombie a unique type of magic. They just focus on pumping in more Death Mana and then maybe enhancing the corpse using rituals or runes. Although I doubt one would complain too much if one developed one."

  "Do you think it could be a necromancer though?" Jakk asked.

  "With Death Mana levels this high I doubt a necromancer is needed," Banks said, before he frowned. "Could a necromancer be raising the levels of Death Mana artificially though." Actually, by now he was certain that the Undying Emperor was a necromancer. The name gave it away if nothing else. His parts being scattered around and used for some kind of ritual was no doubt raising the levels of Death Mana, if not as a goal of the ritual, as a byproduct of the ritual.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Could a zombie display a personality and magic identical to when it was alive," the Commander said as she stepped up to the bars and into his line of sight. "I don't mean, some twisted mockery or simplified perspective, but an attitude indistinguishable from it's previous person."

  "Not to my knowledge," Banks stated firmly. "As far as I'm aware the mind undergoes___" he paused thinking of the word, before realizing the age. "Retardation at the time of death. Even perfectly possessed corpses which are possessed by the ghost of the prior owner of the body undergo this mental degradation. Even if they gain some level of intelligence back due to time and exposure to Death Mana, it won't be the same type of intelligence."

  "Have you ever heard of Gustane the Butcher," the Commander said.

  "Before today, no," Banks stated back half-truthfully.

  "Really, he's quite a famous figure from the past?" the Commander asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "Locally famous," Jakk pointed out. "About a few hundred years ago there was a famine. You know one of those bad ones where people start killing off livestock, then stealing from those who have food and then eating grass and then the bark from the trees and then stones and sawdust and eventually each other."

  "I know of those types of famine," Banks said, deliberately not thinking about it.

  "Anyway even during the worst of the famine, the Gustane Butcher Shop still remained open," Jakk said.

  "Human meat?" Banks asked having heard similar stories.

  "No, every day the Butcher roamed the land, fighting monsters and beasts and bringing back tons of meat," Jakk said. "It's said that even as the number of hungry mouths rose that his prices never did and his stocks never depleted. There are even first hand accounts at that time of people who were saved by his meats directly."

  "Which is why it's so alarming to see a person calling himself Gustane the Butcher, going around killing people," the Commander stated. "Seeing a folk hero spring back to life and start murdering is... well I can't say it's comforting."

  "If that was truly the Gustane from hundreds of years ago then that's a whole different story," Banks admitted, feeling a chill at the scale, before he dismissed the thought. It wasn't his problem. "But I'm not a necromancer, I can't offer any expertise."

  "But as an archaeologist, have you seen any records of people returning from the dead?" the Commander asked.

  "There's always stories of resurrection in every culture," Banks stated firmly. "Usually followed by stories of why it was a bad idea. This is not in my wheelhouse. I'm not a magic mirror. I can't answer all your questions." A slightly awkward silence permeated through the prison room at his words before the Commander sighed.

  "Thank you," she said. "Come on Jakk. Let's hope there hasn't been any more outbreaks. I'm going to try set a trap for Gustane and see just how alive this supposed zombie is."

  xxx

  "Hey, hey," a familiar voice hit his ears and Banks stirred himself into awareness. He had fallen asleep again during his training. "You awake?" Jakk asked.

  "No," Banks said. "Hey it's night." It was the third hour of night to be precise. They didn't bring him any food for supper.

  "Yeah, it's been crazy today," Jakk stated. "There's been three separate zombie uprisings and we're getting really good at putting them down. Think they've started undiluting the coffee."

  "What do you want, Jakk?" Banks asked as he forced himself to sit up. "I'm trying to sleep here."

  "Yeah, sorry just a quick question," Jakk said. "There has been a lot of murders around where they find some random dead body torn to pieces with no identification."

  "Torn to pieces," Banks mused. "Like by an animal?"

  "Yeah, just happened in the past few days," Jakk said, causing Banks to perk up his ears at the timing. "Twelve of the same killing methods. Strange thing is that the body can be found in strange places. Two died inside somebody else's house. One inside a church. One in the middle of a restaurant. Seems to happen out of nowhere."

  "And nobody knows any of the victims?" Banks asked.

  "They've all claimed never to have seen them before," Jakk stated. "I'm perplexed and I know you said you're not a magic mirror, but I just thought you may have a unique perspective. It's not as important as the zombie uprising, but it's strange and you're strange so you might have a clue."

  "I haven't seen the body, nor have I spoken to the witness," Banks said. "I can make a few wild guesses and dream up a few things, but you've really given me nothing."

  "Come on give me your best guess," Jakk said. "I've got no clue either. Nothing seems to connect them. Some are children, some are men, some are women. There seems to be no connecting thread."

  "Some form of teleporting creature," Banks stated as he lay back down, pulling the blanket awkwardly over him using his stumps. "Maybe it's grabbing the body somewhere and leaving it when... Wait how much of the body was left?" He had a thought.

  "The bodies are badly mutilated, but still most of it is uneaten," Jakk stated.

  "That means it's not hunting for food," Banks mused. "Could it be protecting itself? Did any of the corpses have high residual mana, sacred bodies?"

  "Very low and none," Jakk stated. "They appeared to be ordinary people."

  "Could be doing it accidentally or just curio____" he paused, as an awful thought hit him. "Tell me did any of the people seem to be going about their day normally before they were torn to shreds. Like at the restaurant were they seated at the table."

  "They were, why?" Jakk asked.

  "Any single parent households," Banks asked his apprehension growing deeper.

  "There was one," Jakk said after a while wracking his brain. "One man who was a single parent. Is that important? Should I be questioning him about that."

  "No, but you can describe the corpse at that house," Banks stated.

  "Middle aged woman, cut into many pieces, dressed in fairly standard clothes. Nothing unusual," Jakk stated, causing Bank's heart to sink.

  "Fuck," he whispered as a sense of oppressive danger overcome him, and he resisted the urge to glare towards Jakk. There were some times that ignorance was truly an advantage. This was clearly one of those times. The proximity of Jakk and the knowledge of the beast combined to leave their mark upon him and Banks sighed as he realized that the thing had undoubtedly caught his smell.

  "What did you say?" Jakk asked.

  "I said that I don't know what it is," Banks stated firmly as he pulled the blanket over him. It would do the guard no good to know that a Shark had found it's way into this particular little eddy in the River of Time. "If you don't mind I would like to get some sleep." Before I am killed, he didn't say.

  "Alright," Jakk said, he clearly wasn't convinced, but he also didn't seem inclined to push it. "We'll talk more in the morning."

  "Maybe," Banks conceded as Jakk walked away. He might not make it to the morning. Already everything started to look like teeth and he felt the flow of the River water as something vast, bigger than could be contained in three dimensional space slowly circled him, a burning curiosity embodied by thousands of spikes, like a lepidopterist who skewered their specimen into a book. He shut his eyes, calming his breathing as he enjoyed the warmth, savoring the moment, despite his lost hands, hunger and the general poor quality of the cell.

  Then some time later he died.