That afternoon, I organized the cleanup from the beastwave. My elementals in the moat had already done a decent job of moving the pieces and parts into the feed pit behind my tower. The full bodies were collected in a floating pile. I had my three guards pull the condor bodies to the bridge and set them to plucking the beasts. The feathers they could use for arrows, and I wanted to see if Chelsea could cook the things. Maybe a jerky, considering the number. I had no intention of keeping or doing anything with the harpy corpses. I doubted the adventurers’ guild or the necromancer would want the bodies. They appeared too close to human. I directed the elementals to place those in the feed pit as well. It left several dozen stone beetle corpses inside the tower, which I froze en masse. When Walker and Kine returned, they can work with the guards to place them in the cellar. That settled, I made my way out and around to the reflection lake. The floating bodies and body parts further disrupted the look that my trapping pits already marred. Further, the feed pit was almost full. I bit back a sigh and set my mud elementals to sorting the parts from the whole while I made a second feed pit. My eyes kept glancing towards the trapped ice foxes, but I committed myself to the tasks at hand. Experimenting could wait a few hours. While I was constructing the second feed pit, my fourth-tier water elemental approached me. It circled around my legs and projected its thoughts. Joy in battle. Challenge. Victory. A vision of the struggle against the bear. The desire for more combat. It annoyed me while I was working, as it kept sending the same message again. When I finished the pit, I directed the mud elementals to fill it with the parts and turned to the water elemental. It swam in long winding loops around me and itself with an eagerness. It was then I considered the matter further. The thing wanted to fight more. Should I return it and summon another? A calmer one? I rather liked that it was eager to defend my tower, and it wouldn’t seek out a fight without my permission. But it might keep asking. Summoning a new elemental would be another chore that would keep me from my new experimental subjects. I hoped this was a phase, and after it fought enough it would calm some. I could test that. Picturing in my mind the disgusting image of the lampreys, I sent a new command to my elemental. Hunt. Only this enemy. The water elemental paused in its endless looping and then darted off into the waters of the bog. I felt as if I had given a child their first sweet. Turning back to the task at hand, I found the second feed pit already half full. But my lake was almost clear of bodies. The full corpses piled beside the entrance to my makeshift cellar, the one that led under the bog. I would need to expand it to fit all the new corpses, and I set out to do just that. It was evening when I finished and directed the mud elementals to take the new additions from the lake inside. I rubbed my hands together in barely contained glee as I started walking towards the pits that contained the ice foxes. I wasn’t sure yet what type of experiment I wanted to run on the beasts, but I wanted to get my eyes on them first. I had a number of designs that this type of creature would fit well in. There were four pits in all. These built wider than the last, so as to catch and hold more. In the pit below me, ten feet down, I saw a moving carpet of white fur. Mud clung to much of it, but still, I was surprised. The foxes were a beautiful animal, almost regal in a way. That wouldn’t stop me from experimenting, of course. I would need to ensure that my experiments didn’t alter their fur coats. Perhaps, I should hire a personal tanner? Between the wolves and boars and now the foxes, I would have an abundance of beast fur soon. I started a rough count. Two of the pits only held five and six. The other two were harder to count, with the foxes moving about. And they screamed, like a woman in trouble. It was quite an annoying sound. I started to prepare a spell to silence it when I heard a shout. “Hold there, fiend!” The deep voice called from across the waters. I looked up, eyes taking in the new arrivals. A host of about twenty men led by a bare-chested brute with green eyes and a plain face. Scars marked his chest and arms. In his hands, he held a longsword aloft. The other men looked to be guards of some sort, wielding short swords and round shields. The only other person besides them was standing in the man’s shadow. The necromancer. That makes the brute Baron Llal. I raised my hand and waved hello. I’m not sure what he took the gesture to mean, as I wasn’t sure how someone could confuse a greeting, but his response was to yell, “Charge!” At which point the guards and he all rushed into the muddy waters of my lake, many slipping and falling as they did. My mud elementals did what they were ordered to do, rising from the waters in a counter-attack. Muddy arms snatched at men’s legs, pulling them underwater. Baron Llal stabbed and slashed his sword at one, but the attacks amounted to little. “Hold!” I called out, my elementals stopping in place. The men that were being drowned, sputtered and spat water, but also ceased their charge. Not that charging through three feet of water and mud was an ideal endeavor to begin with. Baron Llal was the only fighter to keep fighting after I called out. His sword stabbed and slashed at an elemental that reformed after each attack. It was an awkward few moments we spent watching him until he exhausted himself enough to realize it wasn’t fighting back. “That! Is a terrifying monster!” He finally announced between deep breaths. “Baron Llal, to what do I owe the pleasure?” I asked as I approached. He stood tall and puffed his chest out, “We come following the trail of a mighty beast! A fourth-tier bear that stands taller than two men. It can slay five men with a single swipe of its claw.” I pointed towards the corpse of the bear, lying dead near the cellar. It was out because I would need to widen the entrance to fit it through. Moving the other corpses was more important at the time, “That one?” Rather than answer immediately, he trudged across half the lake to get a better look, “Aye, that’s the beast there! I made this wound here myself.” His guards had followed him and were making the appropriate sounds of approval. For my part, after he answered, I returned to the trap pits to consider what experiments I wanted to conduct. Pyl, the necromancer, followed, “Master Fargus, I owe you a great apology. I was out of sorts when I arrived at your tower and did not recognize you for the mighty wizard you are. This was unseemly, and I—” The man’s creepy fawning was interrupted as the guards and the Baron broke into a loud cheer. When the cheer was over, I waved his words aside, “Think nothing of it. If you wish to make it up to me, you’ll take some of these corpses from my lands. Most are over in the cellar.” I pointed to where the mud elementals had returned to their duties and were carrying the whole corpses of beasts from the pile into the cellar. When he walked away towards the cellar, I cast the enchantments needed to silence the foxes. A simple one that would only last a day or two, but I didn’t need anything complicated at the moment. The beasts would need to be moved to the side of my tower soon enough, and I would recast a better enchantment there. Before I could go further, I was once again interrupted by the Baron and his men, “So that’s what was screaming. I thought it was odd that a wizard would be keeping maidens in a pit. Trap pits, I hadn’t considered using those.” I bit back several scathing retorts concerning his intelligence as I turned to answer him, “If you found it odd, why did you order a charge?” He chuckled, “I’m used to being the one following that order. I still have a few things to learn.” “Evidently,” I answered dryly. “So, my apologies wizard. I am Baron Llal. How should I greet you?” He asked. I assumed he was trying to get back to some respectable position in the conversation. His men were nearby listening, after all. “I am Nemon Fargus,” I declared. The man had already interrupted my work twice. I wanted nothing more than to return to my work. Both my assistants were gone for several days. My guards had enough work to occupy them as well. Lilly was busy with illustrations and tutoring Rolf. I was positioned perfectly to begin a new experiment. “Ah! Al’s old teacher. I sent you a letter,” He said with a broad smile. “Yes, you did,” I said and gazed at him evenly. “Your mud men seem stalwart foes,” he kept talking, ignoring my look. “Mud elementals, yes. They should be within Baron Froom’s capabilities to summon,” I answer him, though I felt my eyebrow twitch. “I was wondering, if… can I have one?” he asked, giving me a look that I thought would be more appropriate on a child than a forty-year-old man. “No.” “Can I come back to fight—” “No.” “What if I paid you?” “Baron Llal. While I appreciate the offer, I suspect your lands and people would be better fit to benefit from your wealth than I. Now, I have several important experiments to conduct, and I believe that Mage Pyl has gathered the ingredients he requires to serve you.” Baron Llal followed my gaze to take in the necromancer. The man was surrounded by hundreds of animated corpses and cackling loudly as he raised the body of the bear. “Yes, well, um, it was a pleasure to meet you, Wizard Fargus,” he said awkwardly. “Quite so,” I answered, and turned away from the man. I continued to ignore them all as I looked forlornly into the pits. In the time that conversation took place, I lost a great deal of experimental subjects. The ice foxes, for all that foxes are known for cunning, were stupid. In two pits, they had burrowed into the mud walls only to unleash a rising current of swamp water. Swamp water that drowned the entire group. I cast a sleep spell on the foxes in the other pits to prevent further losses. Then I turned my gaze to the uninvited guests, with a rising desire to fling lightning bolts. Luckily for them, they had already crossed the lake. The necromancer rode on an undead bear, the others keeping their distance from his horde. That they seemed in high spirits was like rubbing salt into a wound. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. It wasn’t like me not to be calm. Perhaps it was the lack of a full night’s sleep. Or the decreased tea. Or skipping dinner. When I opened my eyes a moment later, though, I was calm again. Ready to prepare stone pits for ice foxes.