After the attack, the nobility discussed a possible war with Ilestria. Investigators swarmed the school and the city, looking for more infiltrators. But I was not really involved in any of that. For me it was back to learning and homework.

  In addition to the extra classes I had, there was now a new project. A tier three undead. It took me two days until I found the time to actually take a look at the corpse. The academy stored it in a locked room, encased in ice.

  I took some time to inspect the late assassin. Her skin was blackened, it had been scorched. Interestingly, she still had her tail and a lot of her hair. I wondered what a newly created tier three would look like. What personality would it have?

  I looked at Nyx. She was with me, of course. And she jumped on the corpse and started sniffing it. Then she decided to curl up on top of it. What if my new undead could only meow as well?

  I snickered. No, Frank could talk. He was not intelligent but he could repeat words. Only my cats seemed to have a problem. I turned my attention back to the corpse and touched the ice. She had been my enemy and she would become my defender. I would show Ilestria, anyone, what it meant to be my enemy.

  A few days later, during dinner, Cassie was really excited. “I got the seeds and started working on the blood!”

  “Cool. And did you get blood as well?” I asked.

  “Skadi organised that. It’s animal blood from butchers. But with the seeds we can infuse some magic in it. It gets even better!” She said, enthusiastically.

  “What did you do?” Helena asked.

  “Don’t worry, nothing exploded.” Skadi said.

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  “We have come up with a great way to improve the corpse!” Cassie announced.

  Skadi nodded, looking proud.

  “With Skadi’s blood magic we had an idea. She can manipulate blood, so why would we simply have the body soak in it? We are going to have it circulate through the body.” Cassie explained.

  I scratched my head. “Will that do anything? And won’t you have to keep that spell powered, somehow?”

  “I can cast a spell that keeps going for a bit, then it has to be renewed. I simply have to visit the corpse a few times per day. It won’t flow all the time but it might help. We want to establish clear pathways for the undead when it rises.” Skadi said, then she added: “It will be good training for me.”

  “You are the expert on blood magic.” I conceded. I guess the body was damaged. Maybe this plan would ensure the tiny pipes inside the body, that carrier blood, worked properly. I had no idea if you could heal a corpse.

  Then an idea hit me: “Do you think the vampiric undead can help? They can control blood.”

  “Do you want to have the vampiric cat sit on the corpse and just help manipulate the blood all day?” Helena asked.

  “Why not? I still have Nyx, Chariot and Frank to protect me. And I doubt that Ilestria has another powerful agent close. It will be hard with the amount of investigators around. Hey, maybe both cats can help somehow. The draugr could infuse the ice with magic. I know a corpse can be improved by ambient magic although it is supposed to be rather slow.” I mused.

  “We are going all out on this. Might as well give it a try.” Skadi suggested.

  “It’s going to be awesome!” Cassie cheered.

  I did wonder if any of this was connected to their secret project. They were working on some joint magic for the exam. Hopefully Cassie was not too reckless. At least Skadi was more cautious.

  “You know, I could try to include the corpse in my training too. I want to be able to summon ice armour on other people.” Helena mused. “Once I am satisfied I will need a living test subject though.”

  “Sure. Is it a lot different than armouring yourself?” I asked.

  “In some way. The problem with armour is movement. On my own body I know how it fits. If I try it on someone else I might either leave places unprotected, or simply trap them in ice.” She explained.

  “Hey, if Helena traps you, it’s also training. Training to escape an ice prison.” Cassie said with a grin. “Tell me if you need a fire potion to melt something.” She teased.

  “Uh no, setting myself on fire seems like a bad idea.” I replied.

  “But it would work on enemies. Armour often protects reasonably well from explosions, but what if you heat up the metal? Or something.” Skadi suggested.

  “You mean, cover enemies in something that keeps burning? I think there are ways to do that. Hey, maybe we should load the Iron Beaks with other things, not just bombs.” Cassie mused.

  While we all had our plans and projects my mind was still on the new undead. I was really looking forward to it.