Deus Necros

A different problem developed farther away in the Desert Kingdom. News reached Bastos through Imperial merchants before official correspondence confirmed it.

The King was dead

His death involved no grand assassination, invasion, or battlefield. He had simply died, which would have created political instability even under ordinary circumstances. The greater problem was his heir, who was only eight years old and far too young to rule.

Authority passed into the hands of the Queen as regent. Ludwig had met her before, and that made the situation infinitely worse.

The Queen was Lust, the Lustful Death and another Usurper.

Ludwig sat with his fingers pressed against his forehead while Celine read through the correspondence. ”Let me make sure I understand this correctly. She now controls the entire kingdom, including its armies, treasury, and nobility.”

”Effectively,” Celine said. ”Most of the nobles appear to have accepted her regency, and there are no serious challengers to her authority.”

”Great. I was hoping somebody else would become politically competent before this happened.”

Celine lowered the report. ”You always knew she might take control if the King died. Hoping the entire kingdom would organize itself around someone else was optimistic.”

”Vacation makes me stupid.”

For the moment, Lust had done nothing openly threatening. Her armies had not gathered near the borders, trade continued normally, and the Queen appeared to be behaving exactly as a grieving regent should.

Ludwig trusted that performance about as much as he trusted Kaiser when the lich claimed to dislike the shape of a certain relic and would dispose of it for the sake of its owner.

If Lust moved against the Empire, Ludwig’s vacation would end. He accepted that possibility, although only reluctantly.

Greed remained even quieter than Gluttony. The black dragon had made no move, caused no known destruction, and produced no rumors Ludwig considered reliable. For all anyone knew, Greed could have been sleeping beneath a mountain, sitting upon a mountain of gold, or waiting for the other Usurpers to finish killing one another.

Ludwig preferred that arrangement. One less active problem suited him perfectly.

The Council of Treacherous Apostles had not revealed itself either. Necros’s warning remained in the back of Ludwig’s mind, but nobody had located him, attacked Bastos, or sent anything unpleasant through one of his windows.

Eventually, impossibly, Ludwig experienced something he had almost forgotten existed.

A normal day.

He sat upon a sofa inside one of the larger sitting chambers of the restored manor. Sunlight entered through tall windows overlooking the gardens, and real curtains now framed the glass. Half the furniture had been rebuilt recently, leaving the room smelling faintly of treated wood and new fabric.

A small fire burned in the hearth despite Ludwig having no need for warmth. Thomas did. The little spirit had claimed the space before the fireplace and hovered close enough to the flames that Ludwig suspected he was technically sleeping inside them.

Ludwig wore a loose shirt and plain trousers. His armor remained stored, Nightbreaker was nowhere in sight, and Noctivex had not covered a single inch of his body all morning. He had not even bothered putting on boots.

He looked down at his bare feet before staring toward the ceiling. ”This entire situation feels strange.”

Celine sat opposite him with several documents spread across a low table. ”Which part? The restored manor, the bare feet, or the fact that you’ve managed to remain seated for more than ten minutes?”

”The part where nothing is happening. I keep expecting the walls to shake or something ancient to crawl out of the cellar.”

”There are three disputes over farmland waiting for tomorrow,” Celine said without looking up. ”Two merchant families also want permission to establish permanent warehouses, and the southern bridge needs reinforcement.”

Ludwig settled deeper into the sofa. ”The farmland can survive until tomorrow, and the merchants came here to bother you. As for the bridge, Kaiser could probably build one out of corpses.”

Celine finally raised her eyes from the papers. ”We are not constructing a corpse bridge anywhere in Bastos.”

”I was only suggesting an efficient use of available materials.” He smiled.

”You were suggesting necromancy because you find ordinary construction boring. The answer remains no.”

”It’s just convenient, blame Kaiser... and his cool looking Necropolis.”

Ludwig smiled and leaned farther into the cushions. Outside, somebody shouted, making him turn toward the window immediately.

The noise had come from construction workers, one of whom had apparently dropped something. Ludwig relaxed again and listened as a horse passed along the road. Children argued somewhere in the garden, birds landed upon the roof, and water moved through the restored fountain outside.

The estate remained peaceful. No desperate cries followed the shout, no system warning appeared, and the manor continued standing without anything exploding. Ludwig still waited several seconds before allowing himself to relax.

Celine noticed. ”You truly have no idea how to sit quietly, do you?”

”I am excellent at doing nothing.”

”You’ve checked the window six times since sitting down.”

”There could be something dangerous outside.”

”There are people outside, Ludwig. They are rebuilding your city, not preparing an ambush.”

”People are frequently dangerous. Most of my problems have involved them in some form or capacity.”

Celine returned to her papers, leaving Ludwig to look around the room.

He had lived in Ikos for years. During that time, he had died, returned, fought through wars, and walked through the land of the dead. He had killed beings whose names terrified civilizations, become a noble almost by accident, acquired enough magical weapons to inspire a small religion, and somehow ended up owning territory belonging to the woman sitting across from him.

Yet sitting quietly inside a house felt less familiar than any of those things.

Ludwig slowly stretched his legs across the sofa and waited for someone to object. Nobody did. He placed both hands behind his head and continued staring upward while Thomas crackled softly near the fireplace and Celine turned another page.

Wind moved through the garden outside. The manor remained peaceful, and the ceiling showed no sign of collapsing upon him.

A smile gradually appeared on Ludwig’s face.

Perhaps Necros had been right. Rest had nothing to do with surrender. Sometimes it simply meant reaching the end of a day without finding anything that needed to be killed.

For once, Ludwig was perfectly happy with that.