Chapter Thirty-Five: Adjusting Normalcy
So, this last week has somehow managed to be both interesting and kinda boring at the same time. I dont mind some boring after all the excitement with Neverrest, but still!
My new scions have been adjusting and growing into their new niches. Honey has started slowly working on organizing the library, and I do mean slowly. It takes a ton of bees to move a book, and it takes her a while to read it to know where it should go. Im not sure if I should be surprised that she can read or not.
I gave her what vagueness I could remember of the dewey decimal system, and shes been working on it. Aranya sometimes goes in there just to watch her work, too, when shes not busy.
Thing has picked up at least the rudiments of enchantment, and it looks like most of the application for me is in trapmaking. No wonder Neverrest had so many traps. I had been avoiding the things a lot since all I had access to were either so minor that the mana gain didnt make much difference, or potentially lethal.
Magical traps seem to be a lot more versatile. The first trap hes managed to make is a slowing trap, which is very helpful around the entrances in the tunnels. He takes a crystal, a bit of honeycomb, a ball of web, wiggles his fingers around, and I have a little slowness trap. I can get behind traps like this. Jello loves them, too. Shes taken to wandering from entrance to entrance to catch whatevers been slowed. I hope Thing figures out an entangling trap, or something similar. Thatd be even better for Jello.
Shes also mentioned that most of the quests shes been getting have been from various mages and clerics in the city, wanting to study her. Its apparently been a bit awkward, but she wants information as much as they do.
She seems to be almost stuck in the state she died in, which makes her a pretty intact corpse. From Things studying, it seems Lifedrinking basically just sucks the hp out of someone. Since Aelara and the ants healed her as well as they could, shes in as good a condition as shes ever been.
Shes also not breaking down like most undead do, which is weird. I think its because of the upkeep I pay in mana. The experts say shes been suffused with different energy than what powers other undead. They even did a little test with a pinprick and healing spells.
That would have hurt a normal undead, but she said it felt a lot like getting healed before she ever became undead. There was a lot of technical talk that she didnt understand, but she was at least able to get them to stop nerding out long enough to tell her that shes in no danger of becoming a rotting walking corpse.
Her mind also seems to be unaffected, which makes both of us relieved. She doesnt want to lose herself, and I dont want to have done something like that to her. Its still something to keep quiet, though. Nobody wants to learn theres an intelligent undead walking around. Thats the kind of thing that draws crowds with torches and pitchforks.Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.
