The Laboratory [Necrarch Soulblight]

[The Brotherhood of Necros]

“Do you know what it’s like to have a secret and not be able to tell anyone?

"I see it every night, in my brothers’ eyes, in the catacombs where we sleep, in the long silences that fill the Tower, suffocating. If only! You see, I am two people. One part of me would raze the realms to live again. I would drown in this silence for one more breath, to remember what it is to fill my lungs even as the air is choked away from me. But I cannot. Why?

"Because the other part of me is ravenous. For knowledge, for Dhar, for the blood of the living and their secrets. That person would hold my head beneath the water, just to watch me flail. So you see, I have a secret, and for all I would scream it from the parapets, I am held ransom by it, forced instead to crawl through the Tower and the surrounding foothills, a dead thing given life, trapped in this halfway place, a puppet made to sing.

"Sing with me, won’t you? And when our song is ended, show me your last breath. Share that release with me, as we have shared it a thousand times before. Breathe for me, while your lungs still hold, before the rot sets in. I can smell it already. Look at us, sharing secrets! You will promise not to tell anyone, won’t you?”

[The Brotherhood of Necros]

“They emerge with the shadows from beneath the pale branches, unable to resist my summons. They travel fast, silent but for the knocking of hooves and the rattle of old bones and a sigh, as empty as their heads. My, how prolific my sons have been. They scurry onwards, their steeds bearing down on the Bloodbound horde, and though their gift is weak and their thoughts base, their hunger is my own. When was the last time I let them feed? Even before they crash headlong into my foes, I realise I am smiling. How bats flock to the smell of blood. Is there anything a starving rat won’t eat?”