Puppetmaster Graveyard and Organization

Puppetmaster Graveyard

 This is a long part, and will be the body of the Puppetmaster story. If you have the time, you can read the whole thing.

Annik had a very uneasy feeling about going into the graveyard. Ever since she sent Lang in there, she felt worried about what could’ve happened to her, and what might happen to all of them. There was something wrong about it that seemed to disturb her. She couldn’t quite place it, but there was just something about it, and it wasn’t just that it might belong to the Organization…

Nai broke her thoughts with a loud “Stop daydreaming and let’s get going!” Nai was always impatient to leave, especially if there was something important to do. “We need to go. NOW!”

Annik stuck her tongue at Nai and started after the rest of the group. Not one of them noticed the figure in black watching them enter the mist-filled graveyard.

The band of Puppets made their way through the maze of deteriorating headstones, constantly trying to avoid tripping over roots that seemed to grab at their shoes. Annik stopped to look at one interesting gravestone. The dirt covering the place where the coffin was buried was recently disturbed, as if something had dug in…. or out, she thought to herself, sending a quick shiver down her spine. She shook off that thought and straightened out. It was only when she looked around when she realized she was left behind.

“Hey, guys, wait up! You forgot me back here!” she yelled, looking around her. “Guys? This isn’t funny!” she exclaimed, trying to make herself heard. “Nai? Extreme? Liera? Sebastian?” she called out, but the only things that responded were the huge black crows sitting in the skeletal trees, cackling and crowing at the sight of a lost Puppet.

Suddenly, the crows went silent. The mist seemed to thicken all around Annik, until she was almost choking on it, barely able to take a breath. She tried to create a water light, but her hands were shaking so much that the light was extinguished. Her heart seemed it would leap out of her chest, and she felt frozen to the ground. ’What is happening?’ she thought to herself.

All she saw before she slipped into oblivion was a rotting face leering at her.

Nai turned around and faced the others. She noticed that everyone was there except for Annik. “Crap. Where’s Annik?” she asked, looking at everyone’s faces. Extreme looked clueless, along with his lion; Liera seemed worried, her bunny Yumi hopping around like crazy; Sebastian looked expressionless like always, with Tobi the raven perched on his shoulder. “Ok,” she angrily breathed. “Split up, and we’ll look for her.”

After watching everyone take a different direction, she walked off with her fox Kitsune trailing behind and muttered, “Damn you Annik, you just had to get lost!”

She wandered in between trees and thorn bushes until she came to a large black door that was connected to nothing. Nai circled around, trying to discern where the door led. Finally, patience worn out, she shrugged her shoulders and went through the doorway.

Annik woke up to the sound of voices. Her eyes were so heavy that she couldn’t lift them one bit, and had to rely on her hearing to know what was going on around her.

“I caught her, master, while she was sneaking around your graveyard,” said one voice. It sounded almost like it was difficult for the person to speak, like as if his or her tongue wasn’t working properly. “Will she be serviceable for your purpose, oh great one?”

“Yes. You have done well,” said another voice. This person’s voice sounded sinister, and Annik involuntarily gave a shiver. “You may go back to rest.”

“Thank you, master, thank you,” murmured the first person, and quickly left the room. A few seconds later, the second person left the place as well, but at a much more leisurely pace. ‘No wonder,’ thought Annik. ‘I’m guessing he rules this here, wherever here is.’

She opened her eyes slowly and took in the scene around her. She was in a dimly lit room, contained in some sort of magic-constructed cage. She has seen many cages in her life, but this one was a transparent bubble of some sort, and it was glowing and pulsing rhythmically. It was shining with a green light, and networks of power flowed through tiny veins. Annik, curious what it was made of, touched the wall closest to her.

Immediately, she was plagued with feelings of anger, hate, pain and sadness. Short flashes of faces and places flashed by her eyes. She screamed, the power of the feelings pounded against her mind, pushing her to the edge of insanity.

Annik ripped her hand away from the pulsing wall and collapsed on the floor, the feelings and pictures swimming in her mind. She heard a malevolent chuckle echo outside of the cage.

“How do you like my invention? I made it out of the feelings and memories of the victims that now serve me,” said the ruler of wherever she was. His face appeared outside of the cage’s wall. A black scarf covered his mouth and nose, and a hood covered his head. He was wearing black armor of some sort, with a cape that barely covered tattered wings. As Annik peered closer she had to stifle a scream. He was a skeleton.

He seemed to be amused by her fear. “You should be afraid,” he said, talking to himself more then Annik. He paused then, looking at her confused expression. “Do you even know who I am?” he asked, and even before Annik could shake her head he said, “I am the King of the Dead-the most powerful necromancer to ever live.”

Annik was struggling to keep calm, but she was roiling inside. ‘A necromancer! How could I not recognize that symbol, the one with the skull and crossbones? It was the traditional symbol, and usually only used by the most powerful ones. His ring with the big green stone must be one of the sources of his power…’ she thought, not wanting to think about the next thought that came to her. ‘And I’m at the mercy of the most powerful one.’

She placed her head down between her knees and tried to think. She could feel the King of the Dead’s gaze rest on her, studying her like she was some inanimate object. Finally, Annik couldn’t stand the stare of the King of the Dead anymore. “What are you going to do to me? What is your ‘purpose’ for me?” she asked, immediately regretting the words. The King of the Dead’s eyes instantly narrowed.

“What did you say?” he hissed, his face contorted by rage.

“Nothing, nothing at all…” she muttered, scrambling as far away from him as she could without touching the cage walls. She curled up in a ball, readying herself for whatever punishment the King of the Dead planned for her.

Green light swirled around his hand, building and building in intensity until it was almost blinding. He was ready to unleash it on her and the cage when the wall behind Annik exploded.

Nai looked around and found herself in a corridor dimly lit. She walked quickly straight ahead, not caring which way she turned. She passed rooms with strange devices, torture instruments and a griffin in a cage. Nai had to do a double take to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. The griffin was completely green, and it wasn’t very happy. It clicked its beak at her angrily, and wouldn’t shut up until Nai left the room.

“Good riddance!” she exclaimed, annoyed at how much noise the griffin had made. Then she froze. Shouting echoed off the granite walls, and wasn’t that Extreme’s voice?

“Let me go! I didn’t do anything wrong!” yelled Extreme, and Nai heard a muffled, “Oomph!” A roar from his lion Maximum was quickly silenced. ‘Damn! Don’t make trouble for yourself!’ she thought to herself, hoping Extreme had enough common sense to shut up. Someone was crying, whom she assumed, was Liera. ‘They got everyone but me!’ she thought and raced towards the voices.

A blur of black flew past Annik’s face, cracking the cage wall. The flow of power faltered and the cage shattered into pieces. The blur stopped on the other side of the room, facing the King of the Dead. Annik realized it was a woman in dark clothes, sallow skin and piercing eyes; they were so pale that they almost seemed white. The woman’s eyes were lit up, and her smile looked like she had all the mischief of the world planned out. Wind and air currents spun around her, and Annik realized she was a mistress of air.

“Syelina,” spat the King of the Dead, staring at the woman with fury brewing behind his eyes. He was gripping his sword so hard that Annik thought he would snap the hilt in half.

“Well hello, Jamie,” said Syelina in a syrupy voice, giving him a smirk. “So nice to see you here.”

‘Wait a second. The most powerful necromancer is named Jamie?!’ Annik thought incredulously. ‘No wonder he’s so furious!’

“What do you want? You can’t defeat me here by yourself! I have all my servants here and you have no one,” the King of the Dead hissed. As if to prove his point, a group of people dressed in black stepped out of the shadows behind him. Annik gagged as the stench of rotting bodies filled the room. Even Syelina seemed to grimace at the smell.

“Hmph. Zombies. Loyal, but idiotic,” remarked Syelina. “I prefer to rely on my own powers. Of course, you would think it foolish of me not to make allies with the other dark ones, but I favour working alone.”

Annik shrunk away. ‘Great! Now I owe my life to a dark one!’ she thought to herself, cursing her bad luck. She backed away to the furthest wall from the arguing necromancer and dark air mistress, and ended up tripping over the step of a staircase. She froze and the King of the Dead’s head swiftly turned towards her. Annik realized the danger she was in and started up the rest of the steps.

“Two of you, go after her! Don’t let that Puppet escape!” he yelled to his followers, and two of the zombies rapidly pursued the fleeing figure.

Nai sprinted as fast as she could towards the voices that she knew belonged to her friends. Dashing through the corridors, she turned a corner and nearly yelped with surprise. Four zombies were standing there, as if they were waiting for her. They quickly advanced on her with raised weapons, and she almost panicked. Nai impulsively called out for Kitsune.

“Hurry! To me!” she hollered watching for her fox to change.

Kitsune leapt as high as she could and turned into a fiery katana mid-air. Nai grabbed the glowing sword and swung at the closest zombie, power vibrating through her arm. She grit her teeth and concentrated on parrying the attacks pressing in from all sides, trying to ignore the stench of burning and rotting flesh. Sparks flew in all directions as metal crashed against metal, and Nai felt her hold on the sword weaken.

Then she remembered her friends in the room, Annik who was missing and her mission. She suddenly felt angry at being delayed by these dim-witted zombies, and she vigorously renewed her attack, rage lending her power.

Annik was running as quickly as she could away from her pursuers, her footsteps echoing off the walls. Her body was ready to give up, but she pushed on, knowing that if she got caught, she would have zero chances of escaping.

She could hear the zombies catching up with her, and the footsteps didn’t seem tired at all. Then Annik recollected something she had read about zombies when she was studying dark creatures; they never tire, since they are essentially re-animated corpses, so to escape them, you had to outwit them. ‘Sheesh! I had to waste all this energy trying to out-run them when I could’ve escaped them awhile ago!’ she thought to herself.

Annik ducked into the next room, pressed herself to the wall and watched the zombies lumber past. She let out a sigh and unexpectedly felt a hand on her shoulder.

She yelped and spun around, expecting to see one of the King’s minions, or worse, but saw Sebastian signaling her to shut up and not make so much noise. Annik sighed relief. Then he pointed behind him at a metal cage that was making a strange rustling sound. Annik quietly approached, working up the courage to face whatever was in there.

Instead of something horrid, she came face to face with her snake.

“Lang!” she exclaimed quietly. “I thought you were missing ever since I sent you out to scout the graveyard! I thought something awful happened to you,” she breathed.

Lang hissed in response, and nudged the bars of the cage.

“Right, sorry! I was just so happy to see you again,” Annik muttered, and asked Sebastian “Could you cover the light I might make?”

He nodded, and soon the room was pitch black except for the area where she was standing. She exhaled slowly and started her work.

She drew the water from all of the damp corners in the room, feeling with her mind, she found water in all sorts of strange rooms, and pulled it out from there. Annik felt the power of the water flow through her; she was practically glowing with the currents of energy. Turning her concentration to the cage, she then applied that moisture to the already rusty bars. The rust began to spread rapidly, and soon the bars were so brittle that all Lang had to do was push them to escape.

Annik pulled back, and felt all of the energy bleed away. She felt exhausted. ‘I need to take more time to practice controlling how much power I use up at a time,’ she thought, and took Lang up in her arms.

She looked over at Sebastian and said, “Let’s go now. We need to find the others,” and Sebastian nodded his agreement. Under the cloak of darkness, they retreated from their hiding place and started walking in the direction of the now constant noise, with Tobi and Lang following close behind.

 

After overpowering the zombies, Nai started once again to follow the echoes of her friends’ voices. She navigated through many twists, turns and dead ends (‘the architect of this place is a lunatic’ she thought), and when she was sure she was very near her friends, she stopped. She could smell something. It was the stench of rotting flesh. That could only mean one thing-zombies. She peered around the corner, and figured out she was quite right.

The first thing she noticed was all the zombies. There must’ve been at least 50 of them. Then she noticed the cage. Put on a wagon, the cage contained Extreme, Liera, Maximum and Yumi. They were lying down, obviously unconscious, and soon Nai realized they weren’t in any ordinary cage. That was a vortex, meant to drain the power of magical beings and animals.

“No!” breathed Nai to herself. “I’ve got to save them.”

So, with rescue in mind, she started working on a plan.

Sebastian and Annik were also making their way towards the sound. They stopped at a crossroads, echoes emitting from each path. Unable to choose, the two settled down and thought, until Sebastian had formed an idea. Since he didn’t want to speak, he pulled out a small wax tablet from his cloak, and motioned for Annik to look.

‘Let’s split up,’ he wrote, ‘and that way we can investigate both paths.’

Annik was about to tell him she didn’t think it was a very good idea, given the fact that they were not at all familiar with this place, but not having any better ideas in mind, she agreed.

‘Good’, replied Sebastian. ‘If you’re lost, just stay where you are, and avoid any zombies coming your way.’

Annik stood there, watching Sebastian disappear down the corridor, and then turned down the other corridor. She knew she must be cautious, and with Lang following closely behind, she ventured into the unknown.

Nai was puzzled. There didn’t seem to be any way to free her friends without attracting attention, and to have 50 zombies chasing you wouldn’t be very fun. If only she had a little help…

She felt a quick tap on her shoulder from someone behind her. She turned quickly, forming a spell in the back of her mind, when she realized it was Sebastian. Relieved, she quickly recounted everything that had happened, and now that she was no more alone, she told Sebastian about her plan to save Extreme and Liera. Content with their plan, the pair set to work.

Annik quickly regretted allowing Sebastian to let them split up. Before long, she was hopelessly lost. She heard no echoes now, save the sound of her own breath.

‘Damn, lost again’ whispered Annik to herself. She then remembered what Sebastian had said: “If you’re lost, just stay where you are, and avoid any zombies coming your way.” ‘Oh, what do you know?’ she thought to herself. ‘You’re the one who got me in this situation!’

So, she turned back around, running in the direction she had come from, not caring who heard her. She was almost certain she was going the right way, when she bumped into the one person she had hoped not to meet. The King of the Dead, Jamie, it didn’t matter what you wanted to call him. He was standing right there in front of her.

“Well, well, well,” exclaimed Jamie. “It seems you’re back in my hands.”

‘Uh-oh,’ thought Annik. ‘Annik, you’ve really done it this time.’

Nai crouched down and glanced over at Sebastian. She gave a small nod for him to start. Then she waited, hoping that this outrageous plan would work.

Sebastian threw a small ball of dark into the room and ducked back outside. When the ball hit the ground, it practically exploded, rapidly spreading the darkness into the room. The zombies were confused, bumping into each other and the wall. Nai had to smother laughter as she heard some of them trip and curse in various languages.

When she thought the time was right, she sent in a fireball that pierced the darkness. The zombies, stupid as they were, thought that it would lead them towards light and out of this strange darkness. As she watched several zombies lumber past the doorway, she pulled Sebastian in to find Liera and Extreme.

The King of the Dead grabbed Annik’s arm and dragged her off. His skeletal hand was as firm as iron, keeping her locked to him. She was too paralyzed with fear to fight back, and she kept on thinking about what would happen to her friends if she didn’t get back to them afterwards. ‘Second time I had to get captured by him!!! And I don’t think anyone is going to miraculously appear like Syelina did,’ Annik thought to herself.

He shoved her into the room they came to and briskly walked in, locking the door behind him. Annik stumbled and caught her balance. She looked around, her eyes trying to find any way to escape. Annik tried to sense if there was any sign of water or moisture nearby, but the area around her was totally void of any dampness, not even a drop. ‘He somehow knows my power, so he chose the driest spot he could find,’ she thought, her mind racing. She knew she was totally powerless without water. She slumped against the wall, trying to think of an escape plan. Then she thought of something that might gain her a bit of time.

Annik turned to the King of the Dead. She looked into his eyes and said, ”I have an offer.”

The King of the Dead looked surprised. He was used to striking fear into people and Puppets, but he quickly regained his composure. “What?” he asked her, slightly amused that a lowly Puppet was trying to gain the upper hand. His venomous green eyes searched her ocean-blue ones for any sign of trickery.

 Annik swallowed down her fear. She said in the most normal voice she could muster, “I can still fight back. I may not have power, but I’m not giving up without a fight. But if you tell me how you came to be the way you are, then I will give myself to you without a struggle. And you have to tell me everything”

The King of the Dead examined his ring for a moment, and then nodded his assent. “Very well,” he said. Wanting to get this over with and have his victory, he started his life story.

As Nai crept past the zombies who were following the fireball, she felt nervous. Any one of them could turn around and she and Sebastian would be done for. Then she realized Sebastian had already gotten to the cage before her. Nai rolled her eyes and hurried to his side.

As soon as Nai arrived she saw there was a problem. Sebastian’s eyebrows were furrowed, like he was trying to puzzle something out. He noticed her beside him and he took out his tablet. He wrote on his tablet ‘We’ve got to wake them up first! I think the only thing that can go through the mesh of this thing is air! Which means Liera is the only one out of all of us to undo this,’ he wrote, trying to cram everything on the small surface.

“But how are we going to wake them up?!” whispered Nai, trying hard to not attract any attention. She leaned against the wagon in sudden defeat. The wagon jolted, which woke up Yumi and Maximum. Noticing that Nai and Sebastian were there, they nudged Extreme and Liera awake.

They sat up slowly, looking totally disoriented. They stared at the cage wall, and Liera saw Nai examining them with a worried look in her eyes.

“Nai! You-“ she exclaimed and stopped as Nai shot her a warning look.

“Shut up! Do you want to attract the attention of those zombies there?!” Nai hissed, pointing at the fireball. None of the zombies seemed to have noticed the noise, since they were all staring at the fireball, creeping closer to it like moths to a flame.

Liera was about to speak again, but Extreme quickly clapped a hand to her mouth. Then he whispered to Nai, “What do we do to get out of here?”

“Liera has to break the cage, but as soon as you are free, you have to run like all of hell is at your heels,” she said. “You guys get going first, and find a room to hide in; Sebastian and I will fend these creatures off until you guys have a decent head-start.”

Both Liera and Extreme nodded and Liera set to work on the cage. Sebastian pulled Nai underneath the wagon to wait for the explosion to come.

“So here’s my story,” said the King of the Dead, leaning on the door. Annik listened carefully for any information that would lead to the Organization.

“I used to be a human, and my name was, as you probably know, Jamie. I was never satisfied as a human, and I always felt like there was something more to my life then being a normal person. I was teased as a child for reasons still unknown to me, and I grew to be sullen, and I learned not to get close to anybody. As I got older, I wanted power. I wasn’t content to own the land that my father had given me. No, I wanted power over the people, over the ones who tortured me when I was younger,” he said smiling at the memory. Annik shivered a little, but waited for the King of the Dead to continue.

“One day, in the town square, I met a woman about my age. She had shocking, pale eyes. I could feel her power radiating off her in the form wind and air currents. I married her soon after.”

Annik was shocked. “You don’t mean, Syelina….do you?”

He nodded his head. “Yes, I do.”

Time seemed to slow down for Nai. She was tense, waiting for the cage to shatter; for the right moment to spring out of her hiding place; for her chance to get out of this crazy place. ‘Everything’s about waiting,’ she thought to herself. ‘If I wasn’t so hasty in the first place, we wouldn’t have gotten into this whole mess.’

Nai was so lost in her thoughts that Sebastian had to punch her in the arm to grab her attention. He gave her a threatening look, warning her to stay focused or all of them would be captured. She ignored his look and watched for the telltale shards of green to fall around the wagon.

She heard cracking, as the cage started to give way, and then silence. All of a sudden, the cage exploded. All of the zombies turned around at once, but Extreme and Liera had already reached the door with their animals close behind. Nai and Sebastian stood in front of the door, blocking the only way to the escapees. Nai was literally on fire, while Sebastian was just a cloud of darkness. The zombies were confused, not knowing what to do. Without their master’s instructions, they were hopeless.

Once Sebastian thought they had given enough time for Extreme and Liera to find somewhere to hide, he covered Nai with a shadow and they ran out of the room.

 “So go on,” said Annik. “Why do you hate her now?”

The King of the Dead started pacing, obviously weighing in what to tell her and what not. Then he stopped and looked at her. He remembered what he had promised to the Puppet, and picked up where he left off.

“Syelina and I were the most formidable couple. There was no land we couldn’t conquer, no town we couldn’t control. I loved that feeling. I knew that she was probably the key to my hopes for control. But eventually, she got too ambitious. She started to see me as the only obstacle in the way of her plans. So one night, she murdered me. I don’t know what happened after that, but I woke up in a strange room, with a man dressed in robes with a skull and cross-bones hanging on his neck. He told me he had brought me back to life, but that I was no longer human. He held up a mirror and I saw I had turned into a living skeleton. I actually felt whole, complete, like this was the form I was meant to be in. He prepared me as his heir, his apprentice, and he trained me in the arts of necromancy. I renamed myself, and have vowed revenge on Syelina. She still creates trouble for me, but it does not bother me. I am just waiting for the perfect time.”

“Is that everything?” Annik asked, hoping she had more time.

He took a step closer to her. “I have told you everything. My part of the bargain is fulfilled, but you still need to hold your end,” and he grabbed Annik’s neck and pinned her against the wall, slowly suffocating her.

Nai and Sebastian found Liera and Extreme with their ears pressed to a door.

“What are you doing, you idiots?! We have to find Annik!” yelled Nai. But Extreme just shushed her and motioned for her to listen to the conversation on the other side of the door.

“-everything?” said a voice, and Nai’s jaw dropped. It was Annik!  She looked over at Extreme who rolled his eyes at her. He gestured for them to go to the neighbouring room where they could talk.

“We need to get Annik out of there!” exclaimed Liera, obviously worried. “She’s probably in serious trouble!”

“Shut up!” said Nai, walking back and forth, trying to come up with a plan. The walls were too thick to go through, and there were no windows. The only way in and out was the door…

“Wait, I think I’ve got it!” she said in delight. “Isn’t the door wooden?” she asked the others.

“Yeah. Why?” asked Extreme, totally lost.

“That means,” Nai said with a wicked grin, “We can still get through without an invitation.”

Annik was slowly losing consciousness. Everything was blurring around her, and she fought the instinct to kick out and fight back, because she knew it would only make things worst. She concentrated on taking as many breaths as she could, but kept on thinking about her friends. ‘At least I’m dying for them,’ she thought, slightly comforted that she was ending her life for all her friends.

Eventually, The King of the Dead’s grip became stronger and stronger, forcing out a bit of her life with every squeeze. He cut her breathing off completely, and Annik could feel herself drift off somewhere that she knew she couldn’t come back from.

All of a sudden, she was dropped to the floor, her airway free. She choked and gasped, trying to make sense why The King of the Dead had let her go.

She looked up and smiled a little. There were her friends, standing together in a group, with the door behind them totally ruined. They all looked tired, but Extreme grinned as he spotted that Annik was still alive.

She couldn’t see the King of the Dead’s face since his back was turned to her, but she could see his whole body was quaking with fury. Annik looked at her friends, trying to give them a warning. Thankfully, they seemed to recognize the danger they were in and got to work trying to reach her on the other side of the room.

Nai had her katana and Sebastian had his scythe, while Maximum turned into a very mean looking club. Fighting their way across the room, they had to avoid the projectiles that the King of the Dead threw in their way. Extreme and Liera got to Annik first, while Nai and Sebastian were trying to keep the King of the Dead at bay. Extreme lifted Annik onto his shoulders and ran, and grabbing the other’s shoulders, they turned around and followed. Liera created a bubble around them, deflecting anything that tried to hit them.

They dashed through the corridors until they found the entrance door that Nai had gone through. They flung it open, ran through, and escaped into the mist.

  

Annik, Extreme, Nai, Liera and Sebastian stepped into the cool, evening air of the graveyard and ran as fast as they could, not stopping until they reached the exit to the graveyard.

“Phew. That was a close one” breathed Annik.

After making sure that everyone was there, Nai turned to Annik.

“When waiting outside the room that creep had you trapped in, we heard you talking about how he had a ‘purpose’ for you. Do you know anything about that?”

“No, I was trying to get the purpose for me out of him too, but he didn’t let anything slip. I have a theory, though. I think he wants to destroy that dark mistress that saved me the first time, Syelina.”

“Why would a dark necromancer want to destroy a dark mistress?”

Annik considered answering, but thought the better. They didn’t need to know, she thought.

“I don’t know. It’s just a theory.”

“Well, let’s go,” Liera piped in. “This is still far too close to the graveyard for my liking.

So, the thoughts of their recent adventure, ventured off.

Jamie sat in his lair, wondering how on earth he had lost that water puppet, twice.

“She was my key to joining the Organization,” he muttered. “I have to get her back, or the Organization will never be mine to rule…” at this he looked up, “and Syelina will never suffer for what she did to me.

Suddenly, Jamie heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

“Oh no, it’s them,” Jamie whispered nervously. “And when they see me without the puppet, it’ll be over.

The two messengers from the Organization walked through the doorway to Jamie’s study, and stood there for a few seconds.

“Hello, Jamie” one of the messenger finally stated. “We are here to see if you have possession of the puppet Annik.”

Jamie gulped down a few excuses, and flatly said “No”.

“Well, you haven’t been living-or should I say, re-living-up to your potential, have you?” asked the second messenger. “Well, we’re just going to have to take you to the boss, and see what he has to say.”

Those punks think they can force me to go with them, thought Jamie to himself. Well they’ve got another thing coming, he said with a small chuckle.

And so, going for broke, hoping the messengers sent were ignorant, Jamie ripped off his hood, revealing his necromancer’s eye.

The messengers, seeing what he was doing, tried to look away, but it was too late, and their minds were sent into a whirling confusion.

Syelina was pacing back and forth in her own study, thinking about the events that had occurred earlier that day. She had been confused at the sight of the trapped puppet. What would Jamie do with a puppet? All puppets lose their powers upon becoming undead.

It seems as if he wanted the puppet not for his own use, she thought, but for maybe…

The Organization! That must be it! Jamie wants to join the Organization, and to be accepted, a deed had to be done. So, he tried to catch the puppet, give her to the Organization, thus allowing himself a spot in the Organization!

Then Syelina stopped. Jamie hadn’t caught the puppet. When she had burst into his lair, the puppet had escaped. That meant that it was still on the loose, and the Organization was always looking for puppets.

Another thought hit Syelina. Why would Jamie join the Organization? He had an estate of his own, and a countless amount of zombies. So why would he consider joining them?

The answer came to her only as she thought about the days when she and Jamie had been married. He had always been… hungry for power. It had been his demise in the end, as Syelina had taken over all the power he had gained. Now, after his reincarnation, he hated her. But however many zombies he had, he couldn’t defeat her. So to plan against her, he’d need the Organization…

So, he thought that building an alliance with the Organization would give him a better chance of defeating her? Well, he had another thing coming. She would join the Organization, and would kill him again, so he wouldn’t ever come back again. All she needed was that puppet.

Seating herself, and with the capture of the little water puppet in mind, she set to work on a plan.