How Death Lived

by Crimson Wisp


Chapter 5. A job well done/Sun goddess

//////////////Twilight Sparkle///////////////

It was incredibly interesting to talk to Azazel's skeleton, Mia. We were waiting outside Azazel's room so he and Applejack could talk by themselves while we sat just outside. We were all scared at first, but Mia assured us that Applejack would be safe. Rainbow Dash, being who she is, decided she was going in with Applejack to make sure she was safe. Mia had relented and told her that if she was to do so, to not do anything rash, though I had a feeling she would do just that. Just after Pinki Pie came out without Anvari on her back, Mia told us stories of things she did in life and what it was like being undead. She had been a rogue thief along side her husband, the green skeleton with the brown jaw, that tried to kill Azazel's father the first time Azazel ever went out of their secluded home. I learned much of Azazel's world through her. Apparently, the undead retain some of their own core traits from when they were alive, yet they all had some trait inherited from the caster. In her case, Azazel. She is a personification of his more curious and compassionate side combined with her own rambunctiousness added to the mix. Her "husband" was the son of a noble that was destitute from his family and became a bounty hunter just like Mia when she fell in love with him. Unsurprisingly, Rarity had woken up from her unconscious stupor and was asking her questions for her latest romantic novel.

"Hold on just one second! You mean to tell me you two aren't married!? But you've been calling him your husband for over an hour!"

Rarity gasped in shock. Mia turned to her before answering.

"We will be! He just... doesn't know that yet is all..."

She trailed off, looking to the side. I didn't think it was possible for something without a face to look flustered, but somehow, Mia pulled that off. It was mostly her eyes. It seemed their default color is the same as Azazel's magic, a deep crimson hue. However, different emotional cues would trigger the flames to change color. During her telling of her past life, her more fond memories were accentuated by her eyes turning into a leafy green. The sadder, more tragic events being shown by her eyes turning a light blue and the flame of her eyes dying down a bit. Whenever she spoke of Trephor, her eyes would change to a light pink and then return to red once she stopped. For the hour that she spoke, I had been taking notes, and everypony had been listening intently. That is of course until Princess Luna raised a question of her own that cut Mia off before she could say another word.

"Wait a moment. There's something that doesn't quite make sense with all that you've told us."

She stated, raising a hoof to get Mia's attention. To this, she cocked her head to the side in what seemed to be mild confusion.

"And what's that Princess?"

She asked.

"Azazel told us earlier today that the souls of you and your companions were being tortured. However, you don't seem like you are under any form of torment. What did he mean by that?"

Luna asked. At the mention of souls being tortured, all of us went wide eyed; our gazed going from Mia to Luna, then back at Mia.

"Oh, well the answer to that is quite simple.-"

She stated with a tinge of glee that felt... off. Regardless of our shock, she continued.

"I am not the same being that owned this body while she was alive, and neither are my husband or the rest of us. The soul of the Elf that tried to rob Azazel and his father while on a supply run, was consumed by Azazel years ago. The aspects of my former self that still clung to me manifest as parts of my modern personality when Azazel gave me sentience and over time formed me into the person I am now."

She finished. At this point, I chastised myself for not writing it down on the spot, so I got to compensating for it by writing it from what I picked up. Before the conversation could go on, I heard yelling followed by the unmistakeable sound of a door being forcefully slammed. Me and the girls leaned to look behind Mia to find Rainbow Dash shivering on the ground in a fetal position. She looked to be on the verge of tears, and her face showed the unmistakeable traces of a pony that had just stared death in the face and promptly soiled themselves. I hadn't even noticed that my jaw was hanging open in shock until a very amused looking Mia gently shut my mouth by pushing my jaw up with her skeletal finger.

"Rainbow Dash! What happened?!"

Rarity asked with worry in her voice.

"It looks like Rainbow butt over here pissed off my master."

Mia deadpanned. To this, Luna and Celestia rose from their haunches and looked ready to charge into Azazel's room. As a response, Mia rose with them and raised her arms and hands as if to stop them from reacting violently.

"Princesses, Applejack and Rainbow Dash have not been harmed! Please calm down."

She said, trying to difuse the situation. Begrudgingly, they sat back down again. Luna doing so with more ease than Celestia. They didn't look angry, they were worried.

"I promise you that Applejack is unharmed."

Mia spoke, kneeling back down to her original position.

"How can you be so certain!?"

Rarity shouted next to my ear in a mixture of horror, anger, and mistrust.

"Because if she wasn't, Azazel wouldn't have spared Rainbow Dash."

Mia replied indignantly, pointing at Rainbow Dash, who had been holding onto Fluttershy for dear life. She had her back turned to us and wasn't making a sound, but we could tell she was crying. Meanwhile, Fluttershy had been trying to calm her down to no avail.

"Spared!? Rainbow is shaking like a leaf because of him! For all we know she could be suffering from something permanent!"

Celestia exclaimed, unable to keep her thoughts to herself anymore. Rolled her eyes before speaking.

"Azazel isn't one to do something without reason. If this happened, she must've done something stupid enough to make him angry. He most likely used a fear aura spell to get whatever point it was that he wanted to get across. And even then-"

Mia's retort was cut off by the sound of Azazel's door opening. We all shifted our attention to the door, and a wave of relief washed over me as I saw Applejack walk out in one piece. The thing that really caught me off guard was her smile. She seemed to be lost in thought as she trotted towards us with a warm smile that I only barely noticed after she stopped looking down at her hooves.

"Like I said. unharmed."

Mia deadpanned as moved out of Applejack's way. Applejack's smile vanished when she looked up at us.

"Uh... What did ah miss?"

She asked, looking confused over our own bewilderment. There was a brief silence that was invaded by Pinkie's sudden appearance from Celestia knows where.

"Well, You really didn't miss much. What happened was that after you went in with Rainbow Dash and I dropped off little Vari with Azazel, Mia began telling stories about her past life and hersuperdupercoolninjatheifjobthatshehadbeforeshemetAzazel'sdadandAzazelsowhatendeduphapoeningwasthat..."

Pinkie Pie, lost in the euphoria of retelling everything that had just happened sped up her speech so much that it became an indistinguishable babbling that only made sense to her. We were all looking at her dumbfounded for what felt like an eternity. After I was able to tune out Pinkie, I noticed Mia had lost interest halfway through Pinkie Pie's overly long, overly cheerful and overly fast explanation and joined the other two bipedal skeletons that had just walked out of the room and were standing guard outside the door. They seemed to be talking discreetly to themselves. I can't say that I wasn't curious as to what it was. So I used a focused hearing amplification spell to... discreetly join into the conversation as a passive participant. Totally not eavesdropping. Slowly, but surely, their voices became audible.

"...you're not kidding are you?"

Mia asked, to which the two skeleton shook their heads.

"I'm not gonna lie, it caught me off guard. especially when miss Applejack got all lovey dovey with masGAH!"

Trephor's remark was cut off by the tall black skeleton slapping the back of Trephor's skull. Avalon, I think is his name. Or at least I know it's a he by his burly voice.

"Can you please take this seriously? We need to be focused on the task at hand."

He stated before returning to his silent vigilance.

"Party pooper, no cake for you."

Trephor shot back while rubbing the back of his skull and pretending to pout. I had to keep myself from laughing at the exchange. To this, Mia simply sighed and shook her head.

"Can one of you two just tell me what Azazel wants us to do for now? I've been answering questions for what feels like forever and my jaw hurts from talking so much."

She stated, rubbing at her jaw bone.

Avalon looked at Mia with a steely gaze that rivaled even that of Shining Armor's best soldiers.

"He wants to be left undisturbed while he reads. Me and Trephor are to keep watch here while you entertain the Princesses and their subjects."

He stated. This made her groan in annoyance.

"Honestly, Azazel shouldn't isolate himself like this! Yes, Astoshan and Lilith are gone, but there's nothing he can do about it! There are-"

Mia's rather loud rant was cut off by a glare from Avalon and a hand from a worried looking Trephor.

"Mia. Don't. Not now."

Trephor said with a stern tone I didn't think he could pull off. He took his hand off of her and looked straight at me. I immediately cut off the spell and looked away. It was only then that I noticed that everypony was now looking at the skeletons with curiosity more than anything. I also noticed that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were missing. Mia chuckled nervously before speaking.

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

We all glanced at each other for a few awkward moments before Starlight broke the silence.

"Hey... Where's Rainbow Dash? And where's Fluttershy for that matter?"

She asked, scanning the hallway we were all in.

"Oh. Fluttershy took Rainbow Dash to her room while Pinkie Pie was giving Applejack a summary of what she missed. That's right around the time these two came out."

Mia explained pointing behind her at the two skeletons.

"Oh Yes, yes, that's all very fascinating but can we please go back to the juicy romance between you and tre-MPH!!!"

Rarity's comment was harshly silenced by Mia wrapping her hand around her muzzle and giving a nervous yelp. I didn't think it was possible, but she was actually BLUSHING! Her cheek bones were bathed in a pink light as the pinprick sized orbs of fire that were her eyes shined with a pinkish hue. This made Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and the rest of us to burst into laughter as the two skeletons behind her cocked their heads to the side in confusion. It took us a bit to see it, but our cutie marks had begun to pulse with magic, letting us know that our friendship mission was complete.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

A convoy carrying precious cargo was escorted by knights that marched through the city of Tamriel in silver armor, covering them from head to toe. The city's inhabitants cheered as their heroes and protectors triumphantly marched to the alabastor castle of their ruler after their most recent success. The leader of the knights, who's armor was only slightly different from that of his men, headed inside with four soldiers holding a cylindrical container about three feet long and one foot in diameter. The "ends" of the cylinder were round and it had a golden ring with glowing blue runes going around the middle of it's length. The object was filled with a semi transparent white fluid with a rainbow of color refracting from it. The container was suspended by four rods with hooks connected to the ring that were held at a distance from the nervous knights in shining armor. Their boots hit the floor in unison as the servants and guards of the beautiful palace made way for the entourage of armor clad soldiers. They walked through the halls, leading to large twin doors, one bearing an intricate tapestry of the night sky with glimmering stars shaped from diamonds, while the other branded an elegant sun who's flaming rays illuminated a city formed from a mosaic of many precious stones. The leader ordered the rest to wait outside for a moment. The doors were opened to reveal a large throne room with a celestial being on it's throne. The room had a very high ceiling with marble pillars that held up the dome shaped roof. The relatively modest throne was elevated on a set of stairs that raised it a small distance from the rest of the room at it's furthest wall. The goddess of the sun, the youngest practitioner of astral magics and the current queen of the Solarian empire, Queen Elizabeth Solaris the first, sat on her mighty throne. She was a tall creature, even by the aasimar's standards and easily towered over her subjects. She wore a white, sleeveless dress accentuated with a menagerie of rings and bracelets of gold that accentuated her heavenly body showing off her form without showing too much skin. Her large bird like wings were white with several shimering golden feathers. She was receiving news from a dignitary of her land on how things were going on the remodeling of the royal archives with a bored expression on her face when the captain of her Astral Guard came into the room. She waved off the noble rambling off over whether to use dark oak or spruce wood for the archive's shelving. The noble promptly shut up, and with a dejected huff, they left the room. Leaving the Sun Goddess alone with her guard.

"Your Radiance."

The armored leader acknowledged his monarch while he prostrated himself. She smiled at her captain before speaking.

"Deus Vult, you may rise."

Her ethereal voice commanded. Deus obeyed the command, rose to his feet and took off his helmet, revealing the face of a human. His sculpted features were well pronounced and a small, vertical scar grazed the right side of his lips. His ebony skin color was only accentuated by his black hair that was perfectly groomed and the few white strands that littered his head of hair showed his advancing age. She approached him and planted a soft kiss on his forehead. He smiles before speaking.

"My queen. I am pleased to say that our mission was a success. The necromancer was hiding exactly where you predicted his hideout would be, and I defeated him myself. He was no match for the gift you bestowed upon me."

As he says this, he squeezes the hilt of the blade sheathed on his belt. Queen Solaris walks away and heads back to her throne. She sits down and crosses her legs, taking a relaxed position. Deus' cocky tone faded into a solemn one when he remembered the events of a few nights ago.

"Though I do wish to commemorate twelve of my men that fell in the scuffle."

To this report, the gentle smile she had slowly turned into a scowl of disappointment and mild anger.

"How in the blue blazes did your men perish? You said yourself that Astoshan shouldn't have stood a chance against the Axelion!"

She questioned now sitting at the edge of her throne, her golden wings flared as a response to her fury.

"He didn't your majesty."

Deus stated with a facade of focus that hid the memories being summoned from the hole he'd buried them in at the back of his mind. He knew well that he had to be careful not to anger his Queen. It had been nine months since she had inherited the throne after her elder sister, the late Queen Morgana Solaris laid down her life for her empire. Morgana had fought by Deus' side in many battles, and she had been a good ruler to her people. He still remembered the day that the report arrived when she died in the battle of the southern orcs. She had recruited Astoshan, a powerful necromancer, along with a group of adventurers to aid her drive off a near endless horde of orc marauders off to the south. He and Elizabeth had warned her not to deal with a necromancer, much less a lich. The one time she didn't heed their advice, the price for her mistake was paid with her blood. The decisive battle was one and the war was ended, but only Astoshan returned alive. If one could call his undeath life, that is. He had brought her to the city along with all the fallen soldiers that she brought with her, as undead mind you. He said that he did so so they could be properly buried. Suffice to say that Deus didn't believe him, and to spare Elizabeth the pain of seeing her sister like that, he kept the report to himself. Unfortunately, that would not be enough. Elizabeth was fifteen when she saw the company of armored soldiers being led by what she thought was her sister back into the city. The scream of horror she let out still reverberated throughout Deus' head and shook him to his core. She had changed that day, something inside her that shouldn't have been there was planted. The seeds of hatred...

"THEN HOW DID ASTOSHAN MANAGE TO KILL TWELVE MEN IF YOU DESTROYED HIM!? YOU TOLD ME THAT NO ONE WOULD BE HARMED BY HIM!!!"

She screamed with unadulterated wrath, breaking Deus from his thoughts as she walked towards him. He hadn't even registered her moving back over to him. She was crying as she spoke, and Deus couldn't blame her even if he wanted to. He had assured her that death would not fall on her soldiers. She had gotten to know those men several days before he and his men were tasked with capturing the necromancer and destroying anything he had created. Research, undead, living creatures taken hostage, it didn't matter. They were all to be destroyed, and Astoshan was to be taken prisoner.

"YOU TOLD ME THAT YOUR PLAN WOULD NOT FAIL! WHAT AM I SUPPOSE TO SAY TO THEIR WIVES!? WHAT AM I GOING TO SAY TO THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS!?I'M NOT MY SISTER! I CAN'T DO THIS DEUS! I'M not... I... I don't know what I am supposed to do..."

She finished weakly as she fell to her knees, crying. She had been holding his shoulders as she yelled at him. Despite her size and adult appearance, Solaris was only sixteen years old. And Deus knew that the pressure of becoming a ruler in so little time and the blood of the men he'd taken to go capture Astoshan we're taking a serious toll on her. Deus could only stand there in shock, watching the young queen vent her pain to him. After a lot of mental debate, he looked down at her and wiped a tear from her perfectly smooth cheeks. She looked up at him with pleading eyes, only now being able to calm down enough to stop sobbing. Deus gave her a look of reassurance, got her to her feet and proceeded to take her hand. The two walked over to her throne and he sat her down. Giving her hand a gentle squeeze, he looked to the door.

"ASTRAL GUARD! COME BEFORE YOUR QUEEN!"

He ordered loud enough to be heard outside the throne room. Shortly after his men came in with their precious cargo, Elizabeth's sadness was slowly washed away by curiousity as she eyed the pill shaped container. The soldiers stopped at a distance from the elevated throne.

"My queen..."

Deus began as he walked over to the container.

"Before heading out for my mission, I had the scribes of the royal archives do some research on everything that we have on Astoshan. And on previous sorcerers that became undead, as he is. Mainly to find a weakness we could exploit."

To the visible shock of his soldiers, he unhooked the container from the poles the guards were using. He held the container with both hands. To Solaris' further bewilderment, it seemed rather light despite it's size.

"According to the official records, Astoshan, like many others before him became a Lich. He performed a ritual that bonded his soul to an object known as a phylactery. It would allow him to come back from death if his body died as an undead. Or to create a new one if his old body was completely destroyed."

He explained, looking at the flowing white liquid and the diamond shaped silouhette in the center. He turned around and slowly walked back to his ruler as he continued, now with an even more serious tone.

"Astoshan did not kill the brave men that staked their lives for our empire. When I tried to arrest him, a large, humanoid demon burst out of the abandoned outpost he had refitted as a makeshift home. The demon killed my men before I could step in and try to kill it with the Axelion."

He stood before her and gave the rest of his story, while the queen stared in both horror and awe at the tale she was hearing. However, her face contorted into one of confusion at his last sentence.

"Tried?"

She asked. To this, Deus nodded before giving her the rest of the story.

"Just as I was about to incinerate it straight to hell, Astoshan and an elf that was with him protected the creature and died in it's place for the demon to escape using some sort of portal."

He finished looking away from his queen and down at the container in his hands. Elizabeth was still trying to make sense of why the necromancer would risk his life and freedom for a monster.

"...why would he do that?"

She asked, searching Deus' face as if the answer was written somewhere on it. He extended the container so she could hold it, and as she took it, she suddenly felt cold. There was something powerful in the container, and the object was being held in check only barely as it's dark magic would leak out in small traces that would send a strange cold sensation through Elizabeth's hands and up to her elbows.

"I think he could give you a better answer than I ever could."

As realization slammed into Solaris like a runaway cockatrice, she looked down at the container and noticed the four-sided diamond silouhette looking back at her through the viscous, murk of white fluid in the cylinder.

"Astoshan..."

She whispered to herself in shock, and as if on cue, the silouhette pulsed like a beating heart with a sickly green light. At the center of the light, she saw an emblem she knew far too well. A right hand print with a small heart in it's palm, the small heart having small demon horns. The sight of it made Elizabeth's mind to go into overdrive as her subconscious began to pelt her with flashes of her memory. First, the emblem on a book she had read long ago from her old teacher. The second, an image of human skeletons carrying the flag through the city of Tamriel that brandished the same emblem. The third, the emblem painted on the side of an ancient mural with more emblems by it's side. And lastly, her sister's corpse, walking in front of a battalion of soldiers that she had met and knew that fought besides Morgana as her undead body carried a piece of cloth in her bloodied hand bearing the same symbol. The world itself seemed to hold still as the only things she could focus on, was the object in her hands and the beating of her heart. The pulsing of her heart synced up with that of the pulsing green gem inside the cylinder, and that is when she knew exactly what she needed to do. Her shoulders sagged down as she sighed in contentment, and a small smile that freaked Deus out, sprawled across her face.

"...perfect..."