Sorrow of Betrayal

It was a windy evening in the middle of the winter. Linda was preparing the zomb-zino for the opening once more. She is an inventor and a necromancer. In this world magic is a rarity but those with magic talents are looked upon and respected. Linda was one such case, and her idea one day came to fruition, to open up a casino staffed by the undead. It proved to be a popular attraction, especially the ‘beat the dealer’ activity, allowing any visitor to beat the dealer to their heart’s content, the dead don’t care.

The casino was to open in 2 hours as Linda was making her rounds assuring the risen were in their correct spots, wearing uniforms, and were animated and capable of performing their tasks. Behind her Balbina strolled, taking notes. Balbina, unlike Linda, was not gifted with the gift of magicks so she was envious of her but enjoyed her comfortable spot next to her childhood friend. As they approached the blackjack table Linda noticed the undead was sluggish to respond to their approach. As she examined the undead she noticed the magicks reaching this undead was weakened and thus she went to check a strange metallic rod under the table. As she placed her hand on the rod her mind filled with a vision of a network, her network, a network of the mana flow she has created.

At the center of the network was her office from which she fueled the undead and commanded them. Through intricate alchemy and melding she has managed to create a device and ‘mana rods’ as she calls them which allowed her to channel her mana over a greater range. Each rod could connect to the other as far as 10 meters away, ultimately allowing her to have a massive area coverage. 

This invention, its creation, and the methods used to create the mana rods she kept a secret from everyone. Only Balbina knew how Linda managed to operate and control so many undead over such a vast area, to others it was naught but a mystery, many assumed she was just that powerful of a sorcerer, but in truth, her area of control merely covered 10 meters around her, so running a casino with over 100 tables would be impossible for her without this device.

Balbina spoke softly – “What is it Linda?” Linda mumbled – “The network is unstable… strange… this has never happened before” She opened her eyes and pulled the metal rod out of the floor, examining it. To her surprise, the rod felt… different, as if a different alloy. She handed the rod to Balbina – “take this to the alchemists, have them examine its properties and compare it to 1 of the rods from my office, Oh and… order 10 more rods, I’ll explain later” 

Balbina took the rod and looked nervous for a split second which caught Linda’s attention. Balbina took the notes and headed down into the casino’s basement where Linda’s personal alchemy shop was where the rods were manufactured. To no one’s surprise, the shop was run by corpses of the alchemists that Linda reanimated. Balbina headed into Linda’s office to grab 1 of her newly prepared rods to give in for the analysis. She grabbed 2 rods however and placed the odd rod on the shelf instead. 

About 15 minutes later, Balbina emerged from the stairs and walked over to the blackjack table, Linda was nowhere to be found. She replaced 1 of Linda’s new rods in the opening under the table and the undead behind the blackjack table jerked back to life, twitched, and jumped up, growling at Balbina who just nodded – ‘that’s all handled’ she thought to herself as she quickly glanced over the floor A to assure that all was prepared and cleaned. The staff was prepared and animated, onto Floor B she went. 

As Balbina made it to floor B, 2nd largest part of the casino, mostly filled with slot machines and entertainment such as mini-games, bowling, dining areas and bars, as well as 2 fighting cages, she spotted Linda examining the fighters in the cages. She approached her and Linda, without looking back said – “all’s well, did you replace the rod at the blackjack table?” Balbina nodded – “yes miss”.  “Excellent, tonight will be great! Check the VIP area on the 2nd floor”.

Linda mumbled to herself – “I need to assure the guards are at the ready too”. Balbina nodded – “yes miss”. A short while later the preparations were complete and Linda was at her office, strengthening the mana network of her device and stabilizing it. After replacing the rod everything seemed fine and Linda suspected the rod’s alloy must have degraded, which was strange since in the year of operation, not a single mana rod degraded before, but she had no time to be concerned with that for now. 

As the casino’s doors opened up and the guests started coming in, a drunk man stumbled through the gates and shouted- “LAND AHOY MATEYS! LET’S WIN SOME MONEY!” One of the patrons at the poker table waved him over- “Cadmus the unforgiving, come!” The man approached the table and looked at the undead dealer who tilted his head at him – “naaahhh! That guy’s rotten jaw is kinda suspicious, I’ll head to the VIP area.” 

Cadmus headed up the stairs, drunkenly stumbling, occasionally falling and crawling up, when 1 of the undead guards stopped him and grunted. Cadmus stood up, leaning on the guard’s shoulder as he dusted off – “yeah yeah mate! Here’s the deal!” and in that moment he heard a crack as the guard’s shoulder bones crumbled under his weight and the guard collapsed to the floor- “OOOPS! Shit!” Cadmus said in panic as he looked around hastily – “uuhh….”  “Wasn’t me” Exclaimed Cadmus as 1 of the janitor undead approached him with a bag, but to his surprise he was ignored – “i uh… i’ll just head.. on … up then” he said nervously as he snuck past the janitor, but 2 more undead guards blocked his passage  – “Fine fine i get it fellas… here’s the pass” he held out a golden jack card which was the VIP ticket. The guards nodded and stepped aside. As Cadmus walked past them he tripped over 1 of the guard’s boots and fell, bringing the guard down with him. 

As he fell he brought 1 of the undead guards down to the ground with him, and while hastily trying to get back up he pulled on the undead’s arms, ripping it out of its socket and then dropping it – “ooops… remind me not to give you a… hand next time… yikes!” he said as he stumbled onwards to the VIP area. Perhaps the main reason people wished to go to the VIP area in the zomb-zino is because of real, living people’s interaction, also a spectacular view from the above the VIPs could look down onto the fighting cages where undead would go at it in a fighting match with no rules. Anything and everything was a weapon. The audience’s demands were written on paper, shuffled, and randomly drawn. Sometimes there would be a strong undead vs 10 undead bears! Sometimes undead gladiator battles, or flame throwers! It was quite the show. But what mattered the most is living people.  

Among the staff were several living servants, bartenders, half the tables were manned by living dealers, the other half by the undead, and Balbina was to be present in VIP area to gather patron’s feedback for further improvements and expansions, as well as provide PR and connection of management with their guests. Balbina liked her job, but she hated always living in Linda’s shadow, and Cadmus knew.

Cadmus sat at the bar and Balbina sat beside him – “Cadmus! Good evening, how do you fare tonight?” Cadmus shook his head – “Ain’t working here yet” that was a popular joke among the residents of the wind city, that only dead work at the casino, and so they started saying ‘i’m not working there yet’ instead of ‘not dead yet’. Balbina chuckled slightly as the bartender served them 2 drinks, after chugging her drink she leaned in and whispered -’come with me to the management office, I have news’.

Cadmus chugged his drink and slammed the glass on the table- “oh? Got something to tell ya myself!” he smirked as Balbina stood up, smiled at him, and headed to the management office, Cadmus followed silently. Once inside and the door was closed, Balbina pulled out a magic scroll and placed it on the table – “Scroll of silence activate” and as she said those words, the parchment lit up in flame and burned up in an instant. Cadmus nodded – “so, the rod?” 

Balbina nodded – “Yes! Destabilized her network as we had planned”. Cadmus nodded – “Great! The alchemists at the port said they can enhance its power and make it basically burn her mana trying to keep it stable, with just a few rods sabotaged she’ll be drained completely and left powerless”. Balbina smiled evilly – “And then she will be no more than a frail girl”. Cadmus nodded – “But… we need to know how the device operates before we take it to sell it… 

Cadmus sighed – “have you gotten information on how its central core is structured? Or the alloy for the rods?” She shook her head – “No! have the alchemists failed to decompose the rod?” Cadmus nodded quietly. Balbina pondered – “I guess I could sneak you to her office, I suspect the core is hidden there, but no clue where.” she bit her fingertip, thinking hard. Cadmus shrugged – “take me there”

Balbina knew they needed a diversion, which Cadmus’s crew had planned ahead of time. After heading back to the stairs Cadmus gave a hand sign which his crew knew meant to start the distraction. As a result of which, 1 of them pulled out an axe and started slaughtering the undead staff, and 2 pretended to try and stop him. The commotion worked wonderfully which led to staff and guards gathering in that area, leaving the passage to Linda’s office open and accessible. 

Her office was just down the hall from the VIP area. Cadmus, accompanied by Balbina quickly headed down the hall and into the storage room which was a few doors from Linda’s office, waiting for her to leave her office to personally deal with the commotion downstairs due to the fact that no matter how incredible her mana network device was it could only transfer about 60% of the sorcerer’s magic power to the creature, meaning or her undead to be at full strength she had to be within 10 meters of them.

A few minutes later they heard the door slam and 3 sets of footsteps walking down the hallway. Balbina whispered – ‘Linda and her personal guards… I must be at the scene too, go to her office and look for the core’. Cadmus nodded. As Linda passed, they left the storage room and split up. 

Cadmus made it to Linda’s office and searched seemingly everywhere leaving no trace of his presence and found nothing. But just as he was about to leave, something caught his attention as he looked up at the ceiling and sighed. The chandelier had a strange shape to it, it was less like a chandelier and more like a spiky hemisphere, and the ceiling had traces on it, barely visible but traces nonetheless. 

Cadmus smiled excitedly – ‘That’s the core’ he whispered when suddenly he heard footprints approaching. Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide he bashed out of the door acting drunk and leaned on the door frame – “MAAHAAAANNN WHERE ARE THE RESTROOMS???” he exclaimed, as before him, Linda escorted by 2 armored zombies stood with her head tilted to the side and expression of angry, sarcastic smile distorted her face – “Oh I’ll show you where” 

One of the armored guards grabbed him by the arm and pulled him strong enough to send him tumbling to the floor. Linda angrily glared at him – “this kinda guy will escort you, good sir, enjoy the rest of your night” And so the zombie did, dragged Cadmus by the collar to the restroom and threw him in there before returning to his post by his mistress.

The next morning, Balbina and Cadmus met at a cafe in the wind city where Cadmus shared his discovery. Coming to the conclusion that the chandelier has got to be the core to the mana network system, the only remaining secret was the allow composition of the rods which allowed mana passage of such efficiency and range. Cadmus’s hired alchemists were working on the decomposition of the rods but the alloy was proving to be beyond their capabilities.

Balbina had only one last idea remaining, to bring 1 of the alchemist undead out of the casino to a necromancer who would reanimate him and thus force the corpse to spill the secret of the alloy, but this task would prove to be nearly impossible to carry out due to the connection Linda has to all her servants, she will know instantly if one of her undead were to suddenly disappear. Thus they agreed on a plan B – to burn Linda out with the sabotaged rods and 

bring in a necromancer to reanimate the undead in the alchemy shop and thus force them to reveal the secret. This meant that they were planning to attack and steal the device from Linda in the upcoming days, as soon as the rods would be prepared. A few days passed and Balbina got 3 sabotaged rods, which she snuck into various locations throughout the casino and awaited for Linda to wake up and begin the process of reanimation. 

Linda awoke that fateful afternoon and after morning chores she went into her office, as per usual, this is the time she would activate the network and animate the casino’s staff. Balbina waited outside the door, and a moment later she heard a thump and a sound of something falling and crashing. She opened the door to see Linda passed out on the floor. Excitedly she smiled – “Got you now you stuck up bitch!” 

She noticed no guards were animated and assumed her plan to have succeeded. Heading downstairs she once again reassured herself that all the casino’s staff were not animated. She opened the door and welcomed Cadmus and his crew of 4 men and a necromancer inside – “Welcome to MY Casino” She said with a wide smirk. Cadmus laughed and went inside – “alright crew, I’ll grab the core, you collect the rods, Balbina take the necromancer to the alchemy shop.”

At first, all was going well, the crew was collecting the rods and Cadmus was in Linda’s office trying to figure out how to remove the core from the ceiling, but the moment the necromancer seemingly animated 1 of the alchemists’ corpses, the whole casino’s staff came to life in the same instant, including Linda’s personal guards. Cadmus didn’t notice them coming to life. Before the necromancer could say a word of warning to Balbina, he was knocked out with a bottle smashed over his head by the very undead he seemingly animated.

Cadmus grunted – “Come on stupid thing! Get off the ceiling” as he pulled on the core device, and at that time laughter echoed through the room -”ha..hahaha… imbecile, think you fooled me?” A bone-chilling giggle followed the words. As he swallowed hard and looked over his shoulder, Linda stood there, her face twisted into a spine-shivering crooked smile, beside her 2 heavily armored undead guards who quickly jumped at Cadmus and subdued him. 

Before Cadmus could say a single word, the sword pierces through his spine, killing him almost instantly as Linda burst out laughing – “hahahahaa! These fools thought they could kill me so easily? Have they no brains? Bring Balbina to me, I desire to hear her pitiful excuse before I turn her and all of her accomplices into my servants!” She sat down in her chair, smirking cruelly as she reanimated Cadmus’s corpse but left him laying on the ground.  As Balbina was thrown into the room, she was quick to drop to her knees – “Ah! Linda… Linda, they forced me! They thr…” but before she could say another word, 1 of the guards pointed his sword at her throat, silencing her. Wicked Linda smiled at her – “I’ll tell you your mistake you fool… Your mistake was your reaction when I told you to bring the sabotaged rod to examination at the alchemy shop.”

Linda continued in a heart-stopping, calm, monotone voice – “Did you think I didn’t notice your momentary concern? Or that you didn’t bring the rod to the shop? I personally went to check it again, but the 2 rods that were there were my original. Such an idiot! Not you, I am! For trusting you, for trusting ANY LIVING BEING! How idiotic of me, fear not dear friend, I won’t be making that mistake again” she said with a twisted smile as a tear rolled down her cheek, her smile, slowly twisting into sad expression as the guard slit Balbina’s throat. 

“Betrayal I will never forgive,” she said as she watched her childhood friend bleed out. 

The rest of the Cadmus’s crew were slaughtered and reanimated, and only Balbina was buried behind the casino, she couldn’t bring herself to do it, but as of that day, Linda fired all the living staff and the casino was operated purely by the undead since then. 

It is said that since that day, Linda never trusted or talked with another living person. Her only friends were her loyal servants. Her influence grew until eventually, she spread over several locations, her network grew vast, and reached the point that the entire country’s army stood no chance against her army of undead, but she did no harm with it.

Keeping to herself and running her businesses until the day she passed on from this life, leaving her legacy to no one, for she knew, no one single person shall ever possess such power, influence and reach.