Vidir looked almost satisfied with Alice’s answer, interest gleaming in his eyes. “Is that so? Well, you have me, what will you have me do? March over and explain I am innocent to that fox?” the Dragon snickered out.

Kazius rose a brow at the question, “We both know that would only make me seem suspicious. I walk in, offer to help… Then I just so happen to befriend you and explain you’re innocent? The Lady of Blossom does come off as too trusting to me, but even she will raise a brow at that… No… That wouldn’t help us expose who is behind everything either… There is a much better way of going about this… And that is by setting a trap.” He explained.

Vidir would try and act like he wasn’t interested by the proposal, but Kazius could tell he was more than inrigued. These were the sort of games Green Dragons enjoyed most. “Oh? And how do you plan on doing that?”

Kazius smirked a little, “By helping the enemy of course. Behind the scenes… We take the situation the Lady of Blossom is in… And make it worse… Only when chaos in Blossom is worse and it is burning down and going up in smoke… Will she be desperate enough to hand us the keys to Blossom… And she will do so with gratitude… To the point she will do what we want without coercion and accept your innocense… That is why your task… Is to do exactly as what you are being accused of… Use that devious brain of yours to stir up so much but not too much as to out yourself to the culprit… Think you can do it?”

Vidir rose a brow, “When you showed up here and threatened me…” he began, unable to contain his face from finally revealing a grin, “The last thing I expected was for you to propose something so fun… If you lead by this, I would have agreed to help you. So, I need to bring chaos to the settlement… And then when things are worse… You swoop in and play the hero… And I join you, therby clearing my name once the real perpetrator shows up to claim the prize we will rip away? I am not sure you need me, maliciousness isn’t something you are lacking in.”

“Perhaps you would have… And I may have an abundance of it… But I want capable people who are loyal to me… And you have more knowledge than I myself do. We can have quite the cooperation that benefits you… A friendship… You can have a lot of fun with what I plan to do… And more books than you can even count… But the price of it is loyalty… Remember that.” Kazius stated firmly.

“This is too interesting of an idea for me not to see it through… But I will keep that in mind.” Vidir stated with a small laugh.

“I will get you some… Let’s call them tools… I will send them your way when I finish making them… Anyway, we are done here. Until next time…” Kazius stated with a warm smile as if he had not discussed quite the backstabbing plan.

Perhaps in the past Kazius would have had apprehensions over such a plan. Actually, he knew in the back of his mind he would have. Kazius was originally raised to be a righteous knight. Even if the foundation of his beliefs were lies, he had adhered to his principles the best he could. Yet Kazius felt he was simply incapable of caring. His new friendships were nothing but alliances that he saw as useful. He had 3 friends and a lover that he actually cared about. Everyone else was nothing to him… And this reflected in his plan. After all, he was aware Damon had a crush on the Lady. He would help him in that endeavor with this as well. Since were it not for that, he would have made quite the different simpler plan. To take over the rebellion and kill The Lady… But that was off the table.

“What are those tools you want to make?” Alice asked once they walked away.

“I want to try my hand at Necromancy again. Low rank undead won’t do it though. I need puppets capable of speech… Ones that can continue their roles in Blossom seamlessly and be convincing enough as alive… It will take a little experimentation… But I believe I can do it…” Kazius explained to her as they walked.

Alice nodded in understanding, “But that means that you will need to capture people that you could do that with… And kill them.” She stated, putting on a brave face, but her eyes gave away a hint of mixed emotions.

“Already did.” Kazius admitted, “They should be tied up and waiting. We aren’t going back to town just yet… But if you wish to go back, I won’t hold it against you if you are not ready to do such things.” He admitted.

“When did you…” Alice began, looking shocked.

“I slept much less than all of you… Sometimes I get up in the night without any of you noticing.” Kazius replied simply.

“So, you knew things would go this way…” Alice trailed off again, shaking her head, “I will help… I promised I would get my hands dirty too. I meant it… Everyone is working hard… I will too…” She confirmed yet again, sounding determined.

“Then let’s go.” Kazius agreed with a warm smile, kissing her briefly in quite the tender manner. She returned the kiss, the manner she did so almost seeming a bit desperate. Kazius could tell she was trying to reassure herself despite the resolve she showed earlier… Still, she was determined, and he was proud of her for it.

Once the kiss stopped, the two would walk towards the captives Kazius had selected. The group were a total of 7. They ranged in different types of inhabitants that could be found in Blossom. They were tied up with role, a cloth over their mouths. Their eyes though were uncovered.

“They need to be killed in a clean way and then I can get started… Hopefully I will succeed on my first try… But there is room for failure… 5 of them should be enough… Vidir seems intelligent… If he really is a an ancient Green Dragon, that number of toys should be plenty.” Kazius mused, “of course… This goes without saying, my love… This plan of mine… It will be our little secret, alright?” Kazius mused.

Alice seemed to be deep in thought before her expression grew dark, The lump of metal she carried finally transforming into a knife. She would reach out and grip it tightly, nodding, “Of course…” She stated, not faltering despite the making eye contact with the victims… One by one, Alice dispatched them cleanly herself. She only stopped once she was done. Her expression was cold, but she did mutter something under her breath that sounded almost like an apology.

“Thank you, Alice.” Kazius told her tenderly. Indeed, it seemed she truly did mean her words about getting her hands dirty. She was now an accomplice too.

Kazius understood the gesture.

With that in his mind, he got to work. Of course, he struggled with necromancy before, but the reason was quite simple. Until recently, he wasn’t aware of his mother’s lineage. Now that he knew, he understood what part of himself to reach out to. So despite all his previous failures, it had not been Remus’ teachings that had been a problem.

“Get up.” Kazius demanded, the shadows in his left hand intensifying as he rose it. His hand would release more, little whisps of shadow traveling down and caressing the bodies before going inside the mouths of the corpses. The corpses twitched a bit at first, but they remained laying down.

“I said get up.” Kazius growled out, his tone growing agitated.

“Do not test my patience any further.” He added with a sneer.

Indeed, as if whether out of fear or sheer will alone, slowly the first corpse would get up, then another, then eventually all 7 stood up.

Kazius let out a satisfied hum to himself, “Good… I had to expend a bit more mana than I would have liked… But oh well… They look pretty good… They should be able to stay looking alive… Something like this is pretty easy since they weren’t flesh beings of much strength… Remus was quite the good teacher.” He confirmed in a pleased manner.

“Once this is all over, what will you do with them?” Alice questioned, not disturbed by the undead due to her time with Remus it seemed.

“Well… I can’t really have anyone recognizing it… Once everything is over… But I had a vision that gave me a good idea… On what to dress up an undead army as… People won’t ask many questions if I dress all my undead like that…” Kazius trailed off in thought.

“Like what?” Alice questioned in confusion, not understanding what he was referring to.

“I will put masks on them… Faceless ones that don’t show their features… But that will be later… Right now I need them to help Vidir…” Kazius stated before turning to look at the group, “Go to Vidir. Make yourselves useful, won’t you?” He stated dismissively.

“As… You wish…” The group would reply in perfect unison before walking away. Indeed, they walked and spoke fairly well for Kazius’ first attempt at making a slight higher rank undead. This was… Promising.

“I suppose that settles that… We had a productive day… Now… I suppose there is little to do but wait. What a pleasant day today has been.” Kazius mused in delight, offering her his hand.

Alice seemed to study him, looking at him with love, but also a hint of sadness in her eyes. “Yes… let’s go.” She stated. Taking his hand, the two heading back.