Beautiful Oasis

 Meskhenet adjusted the black hood covering his head as another gust of desert wind blew in his face. “Three thousand years” he muttered “ Three thousand years this wind keeps blowing in my face and yet in all that time it failed to erode my skull.” Which wasn't strictly true,  most of those thousands of years  Meskhenet passed in his temple researching the art of Returning, helping the ones who came to seek help and  enjoying the life, not striding across the Suna desert on top of a giant beast made of bones and dead tissues. He was one of the first necromancers to discover the ritual of Returning, the ritual that now is available to every citizen of Aekh. Yes, the ones living now no longer fear the death, a ritual the requires great skill but no great sacrifice could Return one from the arms of death wholly, without affecting the mind or the personality. The Returned consumed ambient magic to sustain themselves, making nearly no impact on the land. Aekh turned into a paradise, the value of human life rose compared to the old times, now that one could live forever the greatest crime was ending ones eternal life. The little wars that remained were fought by proxies, undead build of animals and bodies too damaged to properly Return. Art flourished and people found countless ways of pleasure to consume the unlimited time they had before them. Some committed suicide in their 20s to Return in a body with better condition.

Meskhenet opened a book to read the details of the city he had before his eyes. It was a book he himself wrote a century ago while visiting this city, for the human mind was finite. It was made to contain and analyse information from a hundred year lifetime not thousands. Meskhenet had to commit his memories to paper to be able to access them again. Unfortunately he discovered this problem too late, long after he forgot the names and faces of his wife and child. Yet he remembered the times when immortality was still rare, he made sure to remember those memories once a month to make sure he didn't forgot. It was a time of great suffering and pain, but human faced the adversities, they progressed, they build new things to fight the incoming dangers. Now they were lazy and fat, few things could arose their interest and having grown accustomed to their way of life they fought against every change. It was a paradise but it was an unchanging paradise frozen in times, it was a dead end for the human race. With no great fear came no drive.

As the silent army following him halted its march Meskhenet thought of the vision he have seen. Visions of another possible futures, when people never learned about the immortality but instead learned to fly like birds, higher then birds. They walked among the stars spreading their children, making sure their existence would not depend on whims of the climate of one planet. Maybe he was mad and those visions were only a product of his madness, but he saw no future in the current state of affairs. He saw only an immortal dragon sleeping on his horde, not wanting to share it or to exit from his cave. He had to do something. But had he got the right to meddle with the life of so many intelligent beings? Maybe not but they couldn't make  the decision themselves, no sane person would choose death over immortality for some sweet words about eventual future progress of his sons. No he will have to make the choice for them.

The undead of his army, none of whom was Returned, awaited his command. Meskhenet took the big newly forged scythe from the saddle and pointed towards the city of Kremdhar: “Breach the walls! Search the city. Kill the Returned. Spare the ones still living! Today we bring death only to the dead!”