“Over fifteen thousand wights?!” Her face blanched at the shock of the announcement. “This is madness. No, insane doesn’t even start to cover the stupidity of what that youngster is doing.”

“The life lord ordered him protected at all cost. From the information we have gathered, his rule is very pragmatic. He does use violence, but not as much as his predecessors, and his domain is safer than ever… It might be no exaggeration to say that crime and corruption are almost nonexistent.” Explained the steward. He didn’t understand why the life lord had be so afraid of the youth, going as far as to rush their plans by decades at the cost of numerous lives.

The newly reborn death lord on the other hand, understood very well. The ban on wights was doubtlessly the right decision, but it had brought a loss of knowledge about their functions and dangers.

She herself never used more than a few dozens during her lifetime… although, considering each of them was a mage of the highest order, worth an army by itself, the importance of their number was disputable.

“Listen children,” Said gravely the youthful lord to the men and women whose bodies were much older than her own. “wights many peculiarities are what make them dangerous. The zombies, also known as the possessed, are merely flesh animated by the will of an evil spirit. It is beholden to the same bounds and restriction as its physical and spiritual component.”

In life, she had been a teacher foremost, and a leader second. Her only reason for joining the war was to answer the woes of the dead and the pleas of her friend the life lord. “Animated corpse, used by necromancers are also moved by a spirit, but the familiar is but a medium bound to the will of its master.”

This information was not superfluous, not all present were death mages, there were normal people as well as mages from all attributes. “Wights only share a tenuous link with their master, they are bound to the body they inhabit first and foremost. This body is protected and maintained by the spirit, almost immune to age and capable of greater regeneration than the living. They are weapons; without wielder nor intelligence and this is by far their most terrifying trait!”

The people across the room stirred, but they had yet to fully understand the horror of this tool called wight. “They will do their utmost to accomplish their order, no matter the cost to themselves and others, even long after the death of their master. As long as there is someone to direct them, this lack of intelligence can be make-up for by the master. After their death however, an innocuous order like protect this room from intruder will continue to be carried out long after said room falls to ruin.”

The order to protect the young king made a lot more sense to them now. “Now, imagine what’d happen if you were to order one to destroy the enemy’s army. It’d be fine as long as said army exist, but what would happen afterward?”

“The wight kings war?!” Proposed someone incredulously.

“It wasn’t a war at all! It was mindless orchestrated by weapons who had lost their masters. My own bodyguards identified me as their master enemy and destroyed my body while the ritual was still ongoing. My soul was left trapped in this realm unable to pass on, while my creations fought against the world and each-others.” She showed a bitter smile. “Had they truly been sentient like my dear old friend, victory would have been nigh impossible, but the damage might not have been so great.”

Fear gripped them; the necromancer king’s army wasn’t as threatening as the ancient elemental lords, but their sheer number and the speed at which it grew were frightening enough. “What should we do?”

“I’d like to believe talk will be enough, but I doubt it’ll be enough: this young man’s actions derive from insanity and single-mindedness.” She shook her head. “We cannot do anything with our numbers; first we’ll have to seek new allies.”