Elara Voss's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

The skeleton army needed training. Elara positioned herself in the square and raised her bone staff. She commanded the first row to advance, then halt, then kneel. The movements were jerky and slow. Unacceptable. She channeled more green energy through the staff, tightening the binding on each skeleton. Their hollow eyes flared brighter. She ran the drill again. This time they moved faster, their bones clicking in unison. A rival necromancer would exploit any weakness in formation or response time. She worked them for hours, barking orders until every command produced instant results. By afternoon, her sixty soldiers could shift from defensive wall to attack formation in seconds. She watched them move with clinical satisfaction. This was progress. This was power that others would have to acknowledge. Dark green vines crept up the stone walls surrounding the square, their leaves black at the edges where her necromantic energy touched them. The plants had grown thick over the past days, spreading across the buildings like veins. The aura her staff produced seemed to feed them somehow. She noticed the effect but didn't waste time studying it—the vines added atmosphere to her training ground, nothing more. Her focus stayed on the army. She raised her staff again and commanded a charge formation. The skeletons rushed forward in perfect lines, their bones clicking like war drums. They stopped exactly where she ordered. Fear would come from this precision, this overwhelming display of controlled death. Other necromancers would see her army and understand what she had built. They would know her name, know her power, and know better than to challenge her.