The Dead Shall Not Rise

The hard blackness of the Forbidden Depths of Isolabirre was softened only by the eerie purple light of an occasional luminescent crystal. Surrounded by the tombs of the ancient dead, Debena Mastrez Aelriat'Siltevelar focused on her Bharana and Omphalos, a serrated dagger that had been soaked in the blood of the dozens of slaves she had murdered. Their fear, rage, and hopelessness echoed through her mind, and she drew on them to arouse her own rage, driven by her hatred of the other Drow Elvirim noble Houses, the Houses that cast out her House Siltevelar, the only House that embraced the true darkness of the Drow. Thalatte would surely support and reward her! Kneeling with three sticks of Incense of the Dead burning next to her, before the tomb of an ancient Drow noble that was betrayed and murdered by her own daughter, Debena murmured the words of the spell she has spent months researching and refining, reaching out to the ancient's hatred and anger, calling her forth from her sepulchre. Debena felt the spectre of the ancient Drow return. Finally, success! The spectre was once a Tygowriat of an ancient House of necromancers, long forgotten but once powerful. She heard the spectre's words in her mind, "Why have you called me? Do you understand the price you will pay?"

Edan intruded abruptly into her mind, "Interface, there is a matter to which you must attend in the Forbidden Depths. Immediately. I have felt it, the energy of the Void raising a spectre from the dead. Why has this happened? It is forbidden. Deal with it. Now." Sazzok Tygowriat'Zaquarn felt a flash of anger from the Yfeljang. She knew that anything more than a flash would spell disaster. Cursing under her breath, she turned to her guards and said, "Get Shulvallriel Tygowriat'Siltevelar and meet me at the gate to the Forbidden Depths immediately. If she objects, beat her into submission. Go now." She left her compound, heading toward the stairwell down into the lower chambers of Isolabirre.

Debena said, "I am willing to pay any price to restore the glory of my House! We are also necromancers, as you were, Tygowriat. We plead for your help to raise an army to overthrow the cowardly Houses afraid of true darkness!" The ancient replied, "It shall not be. Your fate comes." The spectre faded from view. A moment later, purple crystalline light filled the chamber as Sazzok Tygowriat'Zaquarn of House Zaquarn entered through the gate to the Forbidden Dark. Sazzok's big Human guards were dragging Debena's own Tygowriat, Shulvallriel Tygowriat'Siltevelar with them. She was barely conscious. "Take her!" Sazzok yelled. The guards hauled Debena to her feet, breaking her grip on her dagger, wrenching her shoulder from its socket. "Do you see, Siltevelar wench? Do you see?" Sazzok screamed at the Tygowriat of House Siltevelar. "Your House has learned nothing! Nothing! She will pay, as will you. No one opposes the law of the Yfeljang! No one shall practice any form of necromancy but the Yfeljang himself!" You know his law, and yet you Siltevelar bitches still have the audacity to try it." Sazzok yelled at the guards. "Take them away. This one," waving at Debena, "take directly to the Hall of Judgement. Throw the Tygowriat in a cell in the Court of Denunciation until I decide what to do with her." Sazzok stormed toward the gate. She would not tolerate the stupidity of Siltevelar any longer. The idiot bitches of that House were going to get them all killed. She knew that if Edan got well and truly angry, she would be the first to have her life snuffed out. She wasn't going to let that happen.