A Bored Lich

"Let's go," Frey said.

"Wait, take this with you," Doevm said before reaching under the bed to pull out the plain-looking bag which Kilot had given him. He reached into it and pulled out a list of materials, which he passed over to Frey.

Frey scanned the materials. "Anything else?" he asked.

Doevm looked into the bag. "Anything else?" he asked, as if the bag could speak.

To everyone's surprise, the bag replied in a familiar voice, "Nah. I managed to salvage the other materials I needed. Make sure to distribute the artifacts I make every day so you guys can get used to the new weaponry. Oh, and toss in some food now and again as well. I'm craving a sandwich."

Thomas blinked twice, sniffed the air, then hesitantly asked, "I-is that Kilot?"

"Heya Thomas," Kilot/bag replied. "For unexplained reasons I've decided to live as a bag."

Thomas sniffed the air again, and his furrowed brows softened. "You moved yourself and your workshop into the bag through some kind of magic, didn't you?" He saw Doevm's expression twitch and smiled, likely happy that, for once, he wasn't the most ignorant in the room.

However Doevm had twitched because, despite the intense, smoky stench emanating from the bag, Thomas's sense of smell could distinguish it from the bag's exterior - the burlap's subtle, earthy scent.

Kilot laughed. "Not quite kiddo, but you're learning, I'll give you that."

Thomas clicked his tongue. "So what are we looking at then?"

Kilot explained: "What you're looking at is a bag that connects my forge to the outside world; one of a few backdoors I have. I'd run out of air otherwise. I'd come over to say hi but I can't leave through it."

Doevm set the bag aside. "Moving aside, we aren't going to fight an army." Before everyone could sigh in relief, he added, "not directly." 𝘧r𝑒𝘦𝒘𝘦𝙗ｎovel.𝐜o𝒎

"Do you have a plan?" Olpi asked.

Doevm nodded: "Of course."

Elero looked like she was ready to smack him. "Why didn't you tell us that sooner, like you did with Frey?" she snapped. She turned towards Frey, or rather where he had been when she last saw him - in the now-empty doorway. Elero scrunched her lips.

"Neither of you asked about a plan," Doevm corrected her misconception.

Elero thought for a moment. "You mean to say that Frey left without knowing if you had a plan or not? In that state? Is he stupid?"

"He is pretty stupid," Doevm emphasized.

"I don't get it," Elero said. "Since when did he start trusting you so much?"

"Probably because his nephew was kidnapped, remember?" Thomas asked.

Olpi turned towards Elero and asked, "I think he's right. It could be that he's motivated to find his nephew, but since when did Frey not trust Doevm?"

Doevm slowly realized the depth of Olpi's gap in knowledge, but nonetheless Elero filled her in, explaining, "Before Doevm told us why he could do the things he could do, Frey outwardly trusted him, but to a certain point. Thomas, isn't that right?"

Thomas frowned as he was met with all the attention. He glanced at Doevm guiltily: "A-actually it was more complicated than that, but I think I understand what happened. Everyone in my estate knew that Doevm was strange, but he did his job well. I-if Doevm ever got out of line…" He took a shaky breath. "...we had faith that Jameson could take him down."

"Understandable," Doevm said without giving it another thought.

Thomas sighed in relief. "Sorry. I still should have mentioned it earlier, even if it didn't matter anymore."

"So what?" Elero asked. "Frey didn't trust Doevm for similar reasons, right?"

Thomas shook his head. "We only trusted Doevm to a point, but Frey fought alongside Doevm. In fact, Frey didn't seem to distrust him until we got to the swamp."

"So what happened?" Olpi blurted out, then quickly covered her mouth. "Sorry, gossip is how Demis pass the time in the academy."

Everyone looked towards Doevm, who shrugged and said, "I helped Frey realize that his family did not see him as such. That is the last anyone will hear or speak of this matter without him in the room." He stole a glance at Olpi.

"Sorry," Olpi bowed her head. She had already suffered enough by naively digging into Frey's life.

Doevm set Kilot's bag to the side. "Anyway, the plan to deal with the army is to divide and conquer. I'll think up the details later. For now all you should only worry about continuing to train yourself with the new weaponry. Stop by once a day to pick up whatever Kilot makes, and never, under any circumstance, take off the escape amulets."

Olpi raised her hand. "What are escape amulets?"

"I'll explain once I have them…" Doevm glanced at the bag.

"Tomorrow," Kilot finished his sentence.

Elero slapped her thighs: "Alright, if it's good enough for Frey, it's good enough for me." Not wanting to fall behind Frey, she slowly propped herself with shaking legs. Doevm couldn't tell whether or not she had gotten used to her new legs as she shuffled towards the door, but he knew what he saw. A week ago, her pants could suit any noble in training. Now they were a patchwork of stitches and loose fabric, much like the lumps of scar tissue on her legs. The door shut behind her, and then there were three.

"Any more questions," Doevm asked, knowing that the training regimen for either Thomas or Olpi wouldn't be as straightforward as with Frey or Elero.

"What should I do?" Thomas blurted out. He seemed to have been waiting patiently the entire time with that one question on his mind. "I literally can't eat anymore, but I don't feel full."

"How do you lose mass?" Doevm asked.

Thomas threw him a look of disgust. "You mean…"

Doevm saw through his thoughts and sighed. "Not like that. When you get hurt, you lose the energy you store up, right? The fat?"

Thomas nodded, and then his eyes went wide. "Oh. So I should get you to punch me until I'm skinny again, and my Undead form will be more powerful with everything I ate. That's so smart!"

Doevm resisted the urge to sigh.