11/20 A Spontaneous Seminar

Maertock would click his serrated rows of teeth together with ambient cheer as he progressively led his trio of students into the depths of the Reef's dark cavern network. The scent of iron was thick in the air, almost pungent. A steady reminder that this place wasn't for romantic escapades; it was a realm of sacrifice.

As Maertock approached the nearby pond, the Captain of the Deep Company would turn towards his assembled pupils before he'd extend his arms, several black tendrils and tentacles of flowing, inky shadows expanding forth from his form and dredging into the depths of the water behind him, dragging something bloated, ungainly, and horribly unpleasant from the murky depths.

A kitsune's corpse, hair matted and filthy, once pretty features and shapely figure bloated and deformed by the water. The scent of rot was surprisingly muted upon her; simple enough reminder that the cadaver had likely been preemptively prepared by Maertock for the lesson at hand.

An operating table of darkness would rise from the shadow master's feet, setting before the four as the bloated corpse was set with a wet thump upon the flat expanse.

"I assume you all know what this is. Cause of death, drowning. This is the golden egg of cadavers, my students. When a body lacks damage, it has far more potential for animation. This is due to five key parts; key organs and structures, that stimulate life, and so stimulate its inverse, unlife."

The Captain would nod firmly, turning his serrated smile to Enlil.

"Enlil, my dear apprentice, tell the class what those five things are, and why they're important."
(Maertock Reave)
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 Following along the pirate like a lost duckling, the dark cave and freshly prepared body didn't seem to alarm Enlil in the slightest. Even if she couldn't see an inch beyond their fragile torchlight, even if the cave echoed with crawling things and dripping water, she felt rather at home.

In the presence of an author of death, and in the domain that lay so closely to his heart. She glanced over at the bloated corpse, nose wrinkling. Enlil didn't know enough about biology to really understand why corpses bloated in the first place, but even she had an idea thanks to the massive stink.

"Oh, me..?" The girl looked surprised, despite literally being brought down for a necromancy lesson. She glanced down at her splayed hand, counting off the five elements of revival off her five digits. What were they again?

"The brain, to control the body. The heart to stir the mana. The spine to spread mana. The stomach to... to also put mana. And the mana circuits, from which all mana originates."

A lousy explanation, but it made sense in her mind.
(Enlil)
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 Maude's just along for the ride. It's a pretty nice change of pace for her, really. Seems like the girl has been the centerpiece quite a lot lately. The performer in the limelight! And boy was it exhausting.

Of course, that doesn't mean she's not paying attention. It'd be quite a feat if she was actually able to pull that off in these circumstances. Not every day tendrils of pure blackness flail about right in front of her, nor bloated corpses presented in such an ominous manner.

Maertock had always been an intimidating figure to the swabbie, mainly because of his status as the head honcho, his towering height, and those sharklike features. There was plenty to be scared of already. Now there's another bulletpoint on that list.

There's a glance given towards Enlil who seems to be rather unfazed by all this. To be expected, from what the young girl's displayed so far. She's certainly a purveyor of the macabre. The way she takes to the subject so effortlessly still impresses Maude, however, who's currently chattering in the corner.

The gearhead will get over it eventually.
(Maude)
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 If knew the cavern well. This was the place, just a little further in, where they'd realized the depth of their connection. Where they awakened a truer strength in darkness.

Was it bad they were still afraid then? Perhaps that's why they'd stagnated now. Slowing down. Resting. All these things ran through their mind as a quiet dialogue with themself as their gaze landed upon the murky waters of the pond. That, and the corpse that was dragged to the surface.

Things to consider, surely. But things that would only interfere with their retaining information here. The alchemist blinked, once, and focused on the lesson rather than the things that clung to the back of their mind.

They tilted their head to one side as Maertock spoke. Then their gaze trailed to Enlil afterward.

The heard, the brain, the spine, the stomach, and the circuitry. Important things! Apparently. For the purposes of resurrecting bodies. They made a mental note of the necessary things.
(If Reave)
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 Maertock would nod steadily as he flashed a smile to his star pupil Enlil, clicking his rows of serrated teeth together with ambient cheer as he scanned over the bundle of youths. The dread pirate was nothing if not one for theater and dark sorcery interweaved; it was apparent then with certainty that this was something he lived by.

"Exactly right my dear. The brain to control the body, not unlike the wheel of a ship. Consider the flowing winds that drive sails forth on adventure to be the pulsation of mana, the pulsation of life within your body!"

Maertock would nod firmly.

"That mana flows through the circuitry of the body in perpetuity, this is what we call life. The breathe of motion and animation within the body. Mana circuitry controls one's output of mana, but it also controls someone elses INPUT of mana into a frame. Overstimulate or fry these etheric links, you've wasted a perfectly good corpse."

The captain would nod once more.

"The stomach can store a reserve of mana to aid in the animation process, but it is the spine that is linked to the stomach lining that serves as a pathway of interlinked nerves and circuitry directly to the brain! This is what brings it all together; the cycle of animation through which your mana flows into a cadaver to simulate the flow of life within your average living person."

Maertock would tap his chin.

"Any questions?"
(Maertock Reave)
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 It was said that the purveyor of necromancy, Azrael himself, could restore a life so immaculately as to be superior to their living state, both physically and mentally. The necromancy that humans fiddled with was a pathetic imitation of such an art- yet it was the same concept.

Maertock's explanations made sense, regarding reanimation and moving puppets. But there was something missing, something vital to the order of operations. That with which one could hardly separate true necromancy from elaborate puppetry.

"I understand all of that, Lord Pirate. The mimicking of human functions... and using mana to tie all lose ends. But I haven't heard you talk about the most important thing yet, hey? Where is it, Lord Pirate?"

Her eyes were wide in the darkness, the torchlight flickering across her curious expression. Words that left her mouth were as light as feathers yet weighed by the context, impossible desires for a girl so young.

"Where is the soul?"
(Enlil)
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 The horror show seems to have taken an aside for an actual lecture, which gives Maude enough time to stop the clacking of her teeth and the incessent, instinctual trembling. Well, to a degree. Her hand is still trembling as the girl pulls out her notebook.

Necromancy isn't exactly a subject she intends to pursue. She's not even that interested in anatomy! But the lesson on mana circuitry would certainly be useful at... Some point. There's definitely some demented future project bouncing around in her head that would benefit from such knowledge.

Too bad she can't hold her finger still enough to properly jot any of it down. That handwriting is even worse than usual. She clearly doesn't have the sort of aptitude for things like this like Enlil does.
(Maude)
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 The alchemist, again, took all this information in. They actually drew out several sheets of parchment from their bags. Not with their hands, however. With gravity magic several sheets hovered in the air around them.

They wrote down every little thing in rather concise notes. Inky black magic stained the paper easily, perfect scrawling words written out. They also made a few sketches for their own sake, not quite being specific enough to make it obvious for others to read.

That last bit was a very good question. Something that they paid close attention to. Souls were the thing they were most interested in, and the main reason they came along to this lesson.
(If Reave)
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 Maertock would nod lightly as he turned his attention to his chief apprentice Enlil, her curiosity providing certain amusement and cheer to the black hearted reaver in truth. He was here to teach them something important, it was only natural he finally effectively answered such things.

"I wondered the same, Enlil. In my lessons with Nidaz, he explained to me he made a dark pact with the son of Azrael to see the soul in exchange for eternal service upon the battlefields of Helheim. It is from this he inferred to me, at least in theory, that the soul and the primary source of mana in your body are one and the same."

The captain would nod firmly as he began to pace around the table of darkness he made manifest, glancing over the bloated corpse before removing his cutlass from its leather scabbard to his side.

"The soul is in the heart, at least on the metaphysical level. It is there it remains until the last beat; upon which it remains until compelled by death to depart to the stars. That is, unless motivated by outside sources to be claimed. Say, to the depths of the abyss as is the case with servants of the dead god, or a cursed mirror in the case of my older brother Murtock."

Maertock would take a brief moment to take a long drag from his cigar, sighing lightly as mitny smoke rose from his dry, reddened gills as he slit the woman's torso open with the blade, spreading apart the flaps of waterlogged skin and old blood as his shadowy claws began to tear out the corpse's intensines, unnecessary organs, and other needless wastes of space only living people required until a pile of stinking corpse meat lay behind him.

On the table? The woman's bloating had decreased by a third with her organs removed.

"Now, say you are a novice necromancer who just removed all the excess organs and bloated flesh from a cadaver? What step would you take next?"
(Maertock Reave)
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 It wasn't as satisfying an answer as she expected. Enlil yearned not for where the soul rest now, but for how it could be dragged back for the purpose of necromancy. Perhaps it would all be explained soon. Hearing about the son of Azrael and some binding to Helheim...

... made her expression curl in distaste.

As Maertock went about cleaning the body, she'd fold her arms and look away. Macabre as her interest was she still decided to avoid disgusting interactions when she could.

Yet even the cleaning of the body different from her expectations. It became increasingly apparant that what Maertock knew was strange, ritualised. As if it had been taught to provide him only a single avenue.

"I suppose I could, reignite the mana circuit with my own mana to puppet the body..." It was how she went about controlling little things such as frogs and snakes, but the process sounded inefficient for a human. There had to be a better way.
(Enlil)
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Something about the corpse disembowlment really made Maude's state take a turn for the worse. It could have been the awful squelching sound of all those guts being torn out, the terrible smell that had started hitting her nose shortly afterwards, or just the sheer sudden violence of it.

Either way, the girl's now even further away from the whole on-going lesson, having quickly jogged off to a corner of the shadowy cave to expel what little contents were in her stomach.

She much prefers metal and gears and valves, and this is just reinforcing that preference.
(Maude)
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 Enlil says, "Lord Pirate, you're making my only friend queasy..."
 Maude waves a hand behind her, in some sort attempt to say she's fine. She doesn't stop heaving, though.
(Maude)
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That was an interesting little tidbit. If didn't know fuck all about angels, though they had been learning their language of late from Vesper. If what he said about runework was true.

Of course, they didn't know that connection either. But it didn't matter really.

The alchemist quietly hovered a bit closer as the body was shifted onto the table. They took note of the care he took in moving organs, though they suffered the stench of the body itself from their position. It really wasn't a pleasant thing, the smell of death.

It was one they were getting more and more used to with time. So they didn't recoil. They made their little notes, and kept track of all that Maertock said. Then, finally, lifted their voice a bit for their own few questions.

"So.. Slightly unrelated t'actually bringin' dead back t'a more livin state.. Th'soul, it can, obviously, be prompted elsewhere by outside forces, somewhere besides th'stars. Do ya know how t'do that directly?" Perhaps a not so smart question, but If was curious.

Because the second question was; "If so, how?"
(If Reave)
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After firmly disemboweling all of the needless organs in the body, the Captain of the Deep Company would raise his fingers as the shadows curled up his arm like serpents, a needle rising from the depths as from the murky shadows of Maertock's own being, a spool of twine was made manifest in his palm.

So began the gruesome, ugly work of stitching the stomach close, and then progressively resealing the bloated corpse's diminished form as he puffed steadily from his cigar. The minty smoke that rose from his dry, reddened gills appeared to be present with clarity considering the stench of rot and decay.

"This is why I'm a smoker Enlil. Take notes. If it dulls the scent, it's just like doctor's work. But in a way, far easier, because these cadavers do not complain when you steal their organs to sell."

The sharkman would bark out in jolly cheer at that, turning to Enlil with a flash of a smile as he shook his head lightly with cheer.

"I am no master of death that I can manipulate souls boy. Not yet. That's a matter of time on the black surf I take forth, but for now I'm enjoying the end of my twenties."

The captain would turn his question once more to Enlil.

"You're half right, but not quite my dear. Let me demonstrate."

The captain of the Deep Company's inky shadow would stretch forth as the stitched up corpse was laid bare on the surgeon's table, entering through her esophagus with precision that implied a degree of practice after trial and error.

Steadily, the stomach cavity would appear to visibly darknen as it was filled with the black mana of Maertock.

"First, you find an easy way to the stomach. From there, you must pool your mana until it is filled to the brim with a firm reservoir of your own demesne."

The captain would take a moment to drag his cigar.
(Maertock Reave)
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 Perhaps, she'd been hasty.

Those thoughts curled up in her head like boas, venomous in their intentions before Enlil brushed them aside. It was pointless to consider anything beyond what she was learning now.

A brief glance was given to the wayward question, looking back to what the captain had to say. She was indeed taking notes, all of it being trailed down mentally at least. While Enlil wasn't the most academic of students she did manage to maintain the general gist of what she was taught.

Eyes remained attached to the shifting of power, the expulsion of mana into the stomach via tendril. A very direct method of achieving rebirth. "Mmm.."
(Enlil)
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 Maertock would click his rows of teeth steadily together as the stomach was filled to an optimal level with is shadowy mana. A sickening crunch was heard as a black tendril pierced the stomach lining into the spine; the captain's occultic sorcery entering before with a sudden raising gesture of his hand, it would rise up through the spine until it reached the center of the bosom.

"Once your mana has adequately pooled, you can steadily dredged it forth through the old neural network and pathways of circuitry alike progressively, slowly, reaching up towards the heart before that too must be concentrated with your mana. This, however, must be done far more delicately than the stomach. The heart is robust, but damaging it can cause unpleasant leakage of mana and fluids alike."

The captain would nod firmly at that, the shadowy presence of his mana appearing with clarity over the pale, semi-bloated cadaver's heart as he made a clear gesture to Enlil to note.

"When the heart has been filled to the proper amount to stimulate animation without exploding, you can begin softing pumping your mana through the bodies natural cavities as it continues its slow rise."
(Maertock Reave)
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The convenience of Maertock having such a vividly coloured mana made it easy to visualise what was going on. Enlil watched the process with some fascination. It was, perhaps, identical to what she did with frogs and insects... but on a much grander scale. One had to be very careful with their mana when using so much of it, to make sure it was appropriately dispersed.

The emphasis again on the heart, then the rising of the body. Enlil stepped back slightly as she expected it to come to its feet, eyes narrowed for a moment.

"Fantastic, Lord Pirate..."
(Enlil)
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 Not much news on the Maude front. The girl's already expelled everything from her stomach she possibly can and is just propped with a hand against a boulder, panting and sweating heavily. She considers trying to put on a brave face and properly returning to the lesson like nothing happened, but the disgusting crunch of vertebrae reaching her ears makes the girl rethink this.
(Maude)
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 Maertock would smile to his apprentice with genial cheer as a tentacle emerged from the inky darkness of his cloak to pat young Enlil upon the head softly. A reminder that the pirate was different from his father. There were those he considered valuable enough to keep alive rather than dead.

"Once the heart is properly palpitating, and the beating has begun its light pap papping, you must usher your mana forth upwards softly into the brain. It is from here the most delicate work of all must be done, for it must be filled to the very brim with your own domain if it is to be risen under your thrall."

The black mana would lurch up visibly through the neck into the skull cavity, and from there not unlike the slow brewing of coffee, the Captain of the Deep Company's mana would progressively fill the brain cavities fibers as the drowned, gutted like a fish girl was slowly, steadily dredged by the final reserve.

"Stomach, heart, brain. Three cavities with three different levels of fibrous complexity. The stomach is the most flexible, the easiest to fill. The heart is more forgiving to failure, but should not be overfilled lest you cause damage. But the brain? The delicacy and spongy nature of the gray matter requires utmost delicacy and precision to not damage the natural neural pathways that allowed most precise and pristine control of a corpse."

With a steady puff of his cigar, the captain's hand would weave forth in a visible swirl as his mana began to flow through the corpse's circuitry actively, not unlike Enlik had first suggested in truth. But now, the cadaver was ready for animation.

"The final and most crucial step assuming you've not blown up the cadaver or damaged the key organs is to run your mana through the cycle of life; the discordic circuitry you've knitted shut and let free to flow forth in an endless cycle through the circuits; a simulcrae of life in unlife."

The body would twitch.
(Maertock Reave)
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 It was all quite overwhelming even to a girl with as keen an interest as herself. The stench and the sight made it doubly hard to concentrate, and that Maude was having a miserable time double again. She looked over her shoulder with a small frown.

"You should go wait outside," she'd say quickly, turning her attention back to Maertock's actions. She watched the black mana fill the corpse like some sort of gacha energy meter, wondering if a prize might show up when it was full.

So it was the brain that required the most precise control, something she accepted rather easily. It appeared that focusing on mastering her precise use of mana was what she'd need.

Dreams, hopes, idolatry of Lord Death... they were all separate to actually learning this darkest of arts. A dreamer without focus could achieve nothing. She studied what she saw.

She waited, with bated breath, to see what the Lord Pirate could conjure- himself still growing inpower by the day.

(Enlil)
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 The teen was sticking around primarily due to the misguided belief that she had to support Enlil, the irony of course being that the squeamish tinkerer was the one who needed help dealing with the gruesome circumstances. The moment the promising young necromancer gives the go ahead, Maude turns to her with tired, unfocused eyes. A weak smile is flashed, along with a wobbly thumbs-up.

"Y-you got it, En. Gooooooood luuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!"

Maude had already started sprinting off before she even finished her sentence, apparently craving fresh air and a reprieve from all the occultic energies.
(Maude)
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 A slow, baited breathe. Then another. A few minutes of silence. Then another twitch, followed by another. Then, a yellowed eye with a milky, collapsed sclera would open with a wet, splotching sound. The other followed. They stared at nothing, the mind empty its former thoughts.

Arms then would creak with the sound of joints long unmoved moving forth. A stiff back a thousand times over on account of rigor mortis. As the lord captain's shadowy mana pumped the heart and flowed with progressive ambience through the circuitry, the body would appear to struggle even to move from how stiff the muscles were.

After minutes of struggling, the plump, bloated pair of water logged legs would slap to the ground with a meaty thunk, empty eyes slouching forth as the feet stumbled to the ground. The body appeared to move unnaturally, not anything like a living person. More like a puppet's strings with ungainly, alien motions.

"Now now, you're disturbing our guests. This is why you don't commit suicide on my beach. Shame on you."

A hand would usher coldly forth.

"Sink."

The animated cadaver would stumble sluggishly towards the pool of water, before appearing to step by step submerge itself entirely into the bottom of the pool. Only then did it become apparent that it was not alone in the water.

Crimson red eyes and a massive, black amalgamation of blackened shadows and obsidian teeth. A titanic great white shark that would lurk with the corpses shadow before lunging forth for a morbid feast.

The water quickly became ready, and then all became black. It was gone.

"Apologies for the scent, that is the end of the practical demonstration. Any other questions?"

Maertock didn't mention his water spirit's cannibalism in the slightest.
(Maertock Reave)
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 It was a grisly show, and not simply the finale. Enlil watched as the corpse slowly, finally rose to her feet. Instantly she knew that this was wrong. The works of Lord Death were far beyond this in scope- his servants more elegant with their hands than the barbaric art that had been taught in Esshar.

Lord Pirate had barely begun to dabble in it- and yet he, just like Trik- had created results. These strange workarounds, this evolution at a sidewards angle, reinventing the wheel...

They were all she had to learn. Enlil blinked, closing her eyes in the instant before the corpse was snatched and stepping back to avoid getting splashed with any viscera.

Her mild, olive eyes flickered to Maertock. She didn't know what that creature was, but it was undoubtedly the Lord Pirate's pet, yes?

"Do you think... this power is enough to bring back your brother? There isn't any sentience in the body..."
(Enlil)
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 Maertock would shake his head steadily as Enlil asked the exact question that was perfect to end the lecture upon. It was the most important one of all at the end of the day. He'd pat Enlil's head fondly as he puffed away at his minty cigar; smoke rising in rivulets from his dry, reddened gills.

"No, I don't Enlil. You see, I'm learning as I'm teaching you too. My first attempt, I accidentally blew up the rat in Councillor Nidaz' lab. It was very messy. No, this power won't be enough. Not with my level of mastery, not yet."

The captain would nod firmly at that.

"But this is the base; the immutable, simplistic foundation from which all evolution and proficiency can be achieved. With animation achieved, so too can experimentation into the depths of such. But being your teacher has allowed me to further my own grasp of the knowledge I reaved in academia. In teaching you, I have learned."

Maertock would nod sagely.

"This won't be enough to bring back Maertock. I must grow stronger, sharper, and more precise in my application of the art. This is my solemn oath, my dear, I will become death."
(Maertock Reave)
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 If Reave says, "-"
 If Reave says, "I passed out floatin."
If Reave asks, "But did ya just say ya ain't able t'bring yaself back?"
 It was as she had expected. Perhaps, a tinge of disappointment during the proceedings... but those feelings were washed over now. So long as Maertock was devoting himself to improving, then his faith was strong and his powers would grow. Even the greatest of necromancers have more to learn.

"The base... understood. I've learned a lot today. It sounds like we've both benefitted, huh? Hey, isn't that a little weird?"

A small smile graced her lips even as she said it. There was that saying once again. That will to become death.

There was already a Lord Death, of course. But how high could the siren soar? Or, er, how deep could he swim?


(Enlil)
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 Maertock would nod steadily as he departed from the caverns, patting Enlil with cheer once more upon their clever head as the captain continued to ambiently smoke in the daylight. In truth, he wasn't even a full necromancer yet. His efforts were child's play at best. Brutish. Inefficient. But it was a good start, and he'd acquire all the money and power he needed to make his dreams a reality.

"That's not that surprising to me Enlil. The wisest scholars of the sea like my sagely sea turtle mentor Raul have oft said that the smartest people know there is no such thing as perfection. Only the pursuit of it in any craft. To grow content is to grow weak. Never lose sight of your goals."

The captain would nod firmly at that. This land had made them soft, and that had gotten Murtock killed. The Captain's sequence killings through intrigue appeared to be an almost spiritual rebirth of violence, baptized in the blood of those that questioned his authority.

"I'm glad I have a pupil as bright as you. It means even if I fail, or make mistakes, as long as you are learning beside me and growing your craft, we will both improve for the better! Who knows, you might even be more clever than me girl, I do drink a lot."
(Maertock Reave)
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 Enlil asks, "Ehh... you have a sea turtle mentor?"
 Maertock Reave says, "Oh."
 Maertock Reave says, "Yes."
 Maertock Reave says, "Yes I did...."
 Maertock Reave says, "Long story."
 Maertock Reave says, "For another day probably."