"Well done." Blake praised us. "Let's see what this man has to say."

The man stared blankly ahead.

"Um… he can't talk, his mouth is also paralysed." Hatsumi admitted. "It will wear off in a minute or so. Shall I hold him? Bite again if he tries something?"

"Ah. Yes, keep him secured." Blake replied.

So we all gathered around the necromancer and waited until he could talk again. The first thing the man did was look at me.

"Stop serving those fools! Join us! Embrace your power! You are meant to rule!" He shouted.

"Oh. Is he one of those Brotherhood idiots?" I wondered.

"Idiots? You bend the knee when you have the power to rule! Necromancy is the highest form of magic!" He shouted.

"Why did you have an illusionist with you? He was no necromancer." Blake asked.

The man sneered. "Mages are above the common folk. We do not hate other affinities. Even light mages are welcome! The world should be ruled by magic. Death magic just happens to be the strongest form of magic."

"Aren't all nobles mages anyway?" I asked.

"Nobles take great care in selecting their marriage partners to ensure strong bloodlines." Helena confirmed.

"But technically magic is not necessary to be a noble." Cassie added. "In reality any noble child without the potential to become a mage will be disinherited though. They could never be an heir."

"It's not the strong who rule! Necromancy is still suppressed! We are denied our true place!" The man said.

"I don't feel very suppressed." I objected.

"Really? How many regulations do you have to follow? Are you allowed to raise an undead horde? How many watchers do you have, to keep you in line?" He asked.

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"So you ambush travellers because the kingdom does not allow you an undead horde?" I asked.

He smiled. "Join me and I shall reveal our plans. Together we can take them."

I looked at Helena. "Does he really think that works?"

She shrugged. "He does not seem very stable, mentally."

"Enough about that. Let's start with your name." Blake said.

The man smiled. Then he opened his mouth…

Hatsumi bit his neck. The man froze, his mouth open. Hatsumi lifted her head again, her fangs were covered in blood. She licked them with her tongue. "Apologies but he was preparing a spell. I felt the necrotic mana build inside his body."

"A necrotic breath attack maybe? That would have been bad." I said. Hatsumi's timing could have been seen as suspicious. But I trusted her. If she said there was a spell coming, there was a spell coming.

Blake nodded. "Yes, interrogating mages can be problematic. Especially in the field. We do not have a way to restrict his casting. Ideally we would incapacitate him and bring him back but we still have to find their camp and deal with those nightshades."

"They arrived pretty quickly. Their camp must be near and I don't think they took the time to hide their tracks." Skadi pointed out.

"That is true." Blake agreed. "Ok, completely incapacitate the necromancer, then tie him up. We are going to search those bodies and look for the camp. We will continue the interrogation later."

While we started searching the dead, Nyx started eating the dead. Well, she ate all the fallen undead. Our enemy had animated some of his comrades and there were quite a few destroyed skeletons. All three cats feasted while we worked.

Not much remained of the illusionist Nyx had killed. All I found was torn clothes and a ring, which I handed to Blake. The enemy soldiers did not have anything on them that pointed to a noble house or a mercenary group.

Once we finished, we left the guards to secure the area and followed the trail. Frank stayed behind as well to defend them, if necessary. We brought the unconscious necromancer along. Hatsumi was keeping an eye on him.

We found the camp in a small clearing. It reminded me a bit of the camp we had found during our hunting trip near Lupos. Maybe because of the cages. But they were empty this time. We did find a few skeletons guarding the place but they were easily taken care of.

The camp itself consisted of regular tents similar to what the military used. Only two were bigger and a bit fancy. Strangely we did not find any horses or mules. I wondered how they transported supplies.

Cassie immediately started searching their loot. "They don't have anything from my family." She said, sounding relieved.

"I am sure your mother is fine." Skadi reassured her.

It looked like the bandits did not target nobility, at least based on their belongings. They went for normal travellers and a few merchants.

"One of their last hits was a mistake." Blake stated, looking at what he had found. He pointed at the symbol on a chest. "They hit a well connected merchant. That got them attention."

"They had the nightshade seeds for money. They just wanted people as food for them. And the necromancer wanted the corpses…" Skadi said.

It was disgusting. They had killed people who could not defend themselves. For what? A few bodies? I could see why necromancers had a bad reputation.

"Does this mean the Brotherhood is behind the vampiric nightshades?" I wondered.

"Not necessarily. Remember that Ilestria used the seeds for bombs." Cassie pointed out.

"Ilestria could have taken advantage of an increased supply of seeds. Maybe the Brotherhood started the nightshades to finance their operations and get bodies on the side. Maybe this necromancer joined independently. Hopefully we can get more information out of him." Blake said.

We finished our preliminary search of the camp, then returned to the nightshades. Blake sent one soldier to request reinforcements. The scene would be secured until a royal investigator could take a look at it. Sadly all the corpses would be taken by them as well, for now. At least we would get some nightshade seeds.

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