It had been only a few days since Alexis’ meeting with the current Leader of the Greater Teutonian Union State and now she was back in the original and current seat of power for the Greater Darksol Empire, the city of Necrograd. She looked out over the mostly-vacant throne room within the citadel that stood at the center of everything and cast her gaze down upon someone who she, despite being a mortal, held some manner of respect and comradery for in her eyes. Before her stood the Arch Necromancer extraordinaire, one of the two people who stood by Kain and led the conquest of Francus, Alistaira Crowley.

“I would like to know what exactly you called me here for, Alexis.” Alistaira said with more than a hint of annoyance. She had been summoned to appear here and had not been told why, which had irritated her greatly as she had been in the process of delving deeper into the capabilities of being a living mage. It was a task she had purposefully set herself upon, as she knew for a fact that becoming a lich would greatly boost her magical prowess, but that seemed to her like a kind of cheat. She wanted to keep her ascension to Lichdom as a last resort at worst and a kind of ‘limit break’ at best, and every second that she was not pushing her mortal shell’s power beyond what it used to be was a second that could have been spent making sure her eventual Lichdom that much more powerful.

“You dare speak to the Empress like that?!”

A vampire growled in a hateful tone towards the one he considered his lesser. His was not an uncommon feeling either, as despite Alistaira having proven herself time and again the members of the Midnight Aristocracy tended to be just as arrogant and dismissive of those not a part of their little club, if not more so, than regular mortal nobles were. Never mind that Alistaira could reduce a decent chunk of those here in the room to bloody stains on the floor, she was a mortal, and that made her less than them. Such prideful beings would of course take offense to a mortal acting so nonchalant, to say nothing of the anger they felt at said being treating their very origin and the undeniable proof of their rightful supremacy with such a lack of respect.

“Be silent. You are not the one who was called to speak to me, so do not interrupt.”

Alexis’ words brought an uncomfortable silence to the irritated bloodsuckers, which allowed the two ‘old’ companions to continue.

“As for why I forced you to abandon your desired task, Alis, I have a job that needs doing and I can’t expect almost anyone else to do it with as much efficiency as you can. Your obsessive desire to get back to work pushing your limits farther and farther is why I need you to do the task I need doing.”

“Enough beating around the bush.” Alistaira replied. “What is it that I need to destroy?”

“Not destroy. I need you to gather as much information about our newest neighbor as possible. Find out all you can regarding this ‘Arbiana Sultanate’ and, if you wish, set up an information network of our own.”

Alistaira sighed.

“Are we getting into another war already?”

Alexis shook her head.

“No, not if I can help it. These neighbors have sent their own into our domain at least twice in order to spy and potentially make mischief. I merely wish to pay them back in kind. A bit of the ‘Golden Rule’, so to speak. I would not want my beloved to wake up and find us embroiled with another large-scale war, and so I wish to be as ‘gentle’ as possible.”

Alistaira met those words with a small laugh.

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of the Crimson Empress wanting to be ‘gentle’ with a potential enemy!”

“Yes, yes. I know it is very uncharacteristic of me, but will you do what I ask of you?”

The Arch Necromancer shrugged as she nodded.

“I will need others to make this work, though. If I can count on a few people here and there, I can almost certainly give you the result you want. But I have a condition in exchange.”

This last sentence caused the vampires and vampiresses that had gathered to begin whispering among themselves. Who was this mortal skank to demand anything from their Primogenitor?! How dare she refuse to follow the Goddess’ orders unconditionally?! What kind of fate would the current ruler of almost the entire Europan Continent mete out upon this little bitch for daring to request something in return for services rendered?

“What do you desire, Alis?”

“I just want that tin can down in the bottom of the Dungeon to give me a potion that turns back my biological clock by however long it takes me to complete this task. Every moment that I’m not pushing my boundaries is-.”

“A bit of power your eventual undead body won’t have. I know; you’ve said that multiple times already.” Alexis grumbled, finishing Alistaira’s sentence.

“So, do we have a deal?”

The Vampire Empress nodded once and with that the Arch Necromancer turned to leave, much to the shock of the other humanoid parasites that made up a decent portion of the people in the throne room.

“By the way,” Alistaira said as she walked out of the room. “I’ll be using the living for the most part, so despite some of your kin being quite good at diplomacy and espionage, I won’t be calling on them unless they are needed. Is that alright with you, Lexi?”

Alexis cracked a smile as she replied.

“It is fine. My people don’t much care for the sun and the sand and the heat very much.”

“I thought you didn’t know much about the Sultanate.” Alistaira countered.

“I don’t. I do know that they have sun, sand, and heat, though. Make sure you stay covered, Alis. I don’t want you becoming some kind of dried up mummy of a lich during this whole thing.”

Both mortal and immortal shared a laugh at this before the doors slammed shut and Alexis was left to try and keep the vampires and vampiresses from devolving into anger and rage. As she surveyed the mass of angry bloodsuckers, Alexis almost wondered if she had given Alistaira the easier job by accident.