Chapter 941: Master of Puppets

Ludwig watched him for a moment. Tibari was inaccessible, the Shrike was missing, and they lacked the one artifact that might help them find either. None of that appeared to diminish Kaiser’s enjoyment.

"You’re remarkably pleased about this."

Kaiser looked up. "Of course I am. Do you understand what we’re holding?"

"You’ve said condensed Authority several times. Repeating it hasn’t made the explanation more useful."

"This is why you need to finish your magical education."

"I killed Sloth without finishing my magical education."

"And imagine how competent you might become if you understood the things you encountered instead of merely surviving them."

Van Dijk nodded. "He does have a point."

Ludwig pushed away from the table. "I should have stayed at the training grounds."

Kaiser laughed and raised the marble.

"We have Authority in a stable physical form. If Gluttony’s power can exist like this, why couldn’t something else?"

Ludwig paused.

"Wrath," he said.

"Exactly. Perhaps Pride as well, though I would prefer to begin with something less troublesome."

"Or Dominion."

Kaiser’s smile widened so quickly that Ludwig regretted the suggestion.

"Dominion," the lich repeated.

Van Dijk’s gaze sharpened.

Kaiser began pacing beside the table, still holding the marble up as though the answer might become visible if he examined it from enough angles.

"Would it produce a passive field? Could it be implanted, carried, or placed within a formation? Imagine soldiers operating under a single imposed command without requiring a vampire to remain close enough to maintain it."

"Or you could bring a vampire," Ludwig said. "That seems considerably easier."

"What if there is no vampire available?"

"Then you make a plan that doesn’t require Dominion."

Kaiser stopped pacing and gave him an offended look. Van Dijk, unfortunately, remained thoughtful.

Ludwig pointed at him.

"Don’t make that face, Master. I recognize it."

"I have said nothing."

"You’re considering whether something morally questionable could be militarily useful."

Kaiser gestured toward Van Dijk. "You cannot deny that he knows you."

"Condensed Dominion could have legitimate applications," Van Dijk said, refusing to acknowledge either accusation. "Battlefield coordination, emergency evacuation, preventing panic during a disaster..."

"All of which involve controlling people’s minds," Ludwig interrupted. "You’re discussing putting obedience marbles into soldiers. Making puppets."

"We don’t know whether they would need to swallow them," Kaiser observed. "There may be other ways to apply the effect."

"That did not improve the idea."

"It did broaden the possibilities."

Ludwig looked toward Van Dijk, who returned to his notes with an expression suggesting he would prefer not to have heard that.

"Dominion is only one avenue," Kaiser continued. "Consider Wrath instead."

"I have considered Wrath. That is why I’m worried."

"Imagine being able to give a soldier a controlled fragment of it before battle. A small, stable amount that could be removed afterward."

"You’re speaking about it as though it were a strengthening spell. Wrath nearly transformed an entire region."

"Full Wrath did that. We don’t know how a controlled fragment would behave."

"You don’t know whether you can control it at all."

"Which is why we would research it before placing it inside a living subject," Kaiser replied. "That would be reckless."

Ludwig regarded him suspiciously. Kaiser allowed the silence to last just long enough before smiling again.

"An undead subject, however, would present different possibilities."

Ludwig closed his eyes briefly.

"Resistance to hunger or exhaustion does not mean something can safely contain Authority."

"I agree. It does mean the response might be different, and that is worth investigating."

Kaiser pointed toward the jars.

"This creature remained altered after the source was removed. If we exposed an undead construct to condensed Wrath and then withdrew it, we could examine what remained. Does it affect the soul pattern? Does it change the magical structure permanently?"

"You’ve gone from examining a dead pig to trying to manufacture something worse than it."

"One of my larger constructs would be suitable. No living subject, no Imperial soldier, and no mind to damage. I would know exactly how the body was built because I built it myself."

Ludwig folded his arms.

"You made giant black nightmares based on Sloth’s attendants. Now you want to put Wrath inside one."

"They work beautifully. Their design makes them particularly useful for this kind of research."

"You are describing how to create an abomination."

"That word assumes an unfavorable result before the experiment has begun."

"It assumes I’ve met you."

Van Dijk set down his pen.

"If you pursue any of this, you will do it nowhere near the Empire."

Ludwig slowly turned toward him. "Master, that sounds very much like approval with geographic restrictions."

"I am not approving anything. I am saying that if Kaiser decides to conduct dangerous research regardless of my advice, he will do it somewhere outside Imperial jurisdiction."

"My citadel," Kaiser said immediately.

"Your?" Ludwig said.

"I mean our citadel," he smimed.

"I deliberately did not suggest a location." Van Dijk interrupted.

"You didn’t need to. It is isolated, the Empire has no authority there, and the laboratories are already prepared."

Ludwig looked between them. "You’re both mad."

"Probably," Kaiser agreed. "Besides, if something did escape, there would be an entire Dark Continent around it."

"That is not reassuring."

"It reassures me."

Van Dijk picked up his pen again. "I am going to pretend I heard none of the last thirty seconds."

Kaiser finally lowered the marble into a small glass container. Ludwig watched until the lid was secure, though he doubted ordinary glass would settle any of the concerns raised by their conversation.

Van Dijk finished a note, then turned back toward the lich.

"There is a more immediate question. How do you intend to reproduce this?"

Kaiser’s hand paused on the container.

"You found a specimen," Van Dijk continued. "You did not create it. We do not know whether Gluttony produced it deliberately, whether someone extracted his Authority, or whether we are looking at an artificial imitation."

"Not yet," Kaiser said.

"Then your Dominion soldiers and Wrath constructs depend on solving a problem you have barely begun to study."

Ludwig smiled at his teacher.

"Thank you. I was beginning to think nobody intended to interrupt him."

"I have every intention of solving it," Kaiser said. "We have a sample, equipment, and the White Citadel."

"You keep including an entire building as though it were another instrument on the table."

"When enough of the building contains laboratory space, the distinction becomes less useful."

Ludwig had no immediate answer to that.

Kaiser lifted the container again, his attention settling on the marble.

"I will begin with its internal structure. I want to measure the magical density and determine how the Authority is distributed. Something is maintaining its stability. We also need to establish whether the physical shell was created by the Authority or merely contains it."

Van Dijk nodded. "That would be a sensible place to begin."

Kaiser’s eyes moved toward Ludwig.

His smile changed.

"Whatever that expression means, I dislike it already," Ludwig said.

"I need your help."

"You were getting along quite well before I arrived."

"You possess pieces of Authority. Envy, and what remains from Sloth, would give us something to compare against the Gluttony sample."

Ludwig’s expression flattened.

"You want my Authorities."

"Temporarily. If we compare this specimen to manifestations of your fragments, we may be able to identify what changes when Authority takes a stable physical form."

"How do you intend to remove anything from me?"

"I don’t. Not at first."

Ludwig stared at him until Kaiser laughed.

"I want controlled manifestations. You use the abilities, and I measure the output. We compare the signatures, then attempt to stabilize trace amounts outside your body. I am not proposing that we begin by taking you apart."

"Encouraging that you feel the need to specify where we begin."

"Would you prefer an incomplete explanation?"

Ludwig considered the proposal.

Using his abilities while Kaiser measured the results was considerably less alarming than implanting Wrath inside one of the lich’s larger creations. It also sounded like the sort of reasonable first step Kaiser might use to reach something completely unreasonable.

"And if something goes wrong?"

"We stop," Kaiser said.

Ludwig continued looking at him.

Van Dijk coughed and found something on his worktable that required his attention.

"You are both terrible liars," Ludwig said.

Kaiser picked up the container and moved toward the door.

"Come back to the citadel with me. I have what I need here."

Van Dijk looked up sharply. "Everything?"

"Everything I am allowed to take."

"That is a more acceptable answer."

Kaiser reached the doorway, but Ludwig remained beside the table.

He could return to Bastos. Celine was there, along with a life he had only recently begun learning how to enjoy. He had spent enough time moving from one disaster to another without volunteering to help Kaiser invent new ones.

Then he looked at the dissected pig.

Someone had placed that marble inside it and buried it beneath his fields. Whoever had done so understood something they did not. Refusing to learn how it worked would do very little to protect his land if it happened again.

He sighed.

"All right. I’ll come with you and see what we can learn."

Kaiser turned back, looking almost surprised by the lack of another objection.

Ludwig started toward him. "We might as well see where this goes."

"Those words have preceded several disasters," Van Dijk said.

Ludwig stopped at the doorway and glanced at Kaiser. The lich offered him a smile that did nothing to weaken the accusation.

"That is fair," Ludwig admitted.

He stepped into the corridor, with Kaiser following close behind.

"Still, surely we can get through a little research without creating another abomination powerful enough for Necros to send an Apostle after it."

"Probably," Kaiser replied.

Ludwig stopped again. "You could have made that sound more convincing."

"I would rather not make promises I cannot keep."

For several seconds, Ludwig considered returning to the training grounds. Then he sighed and continued toward the stairs.

As he glanced back, Van Dijk was closing the laboratory door. His expression suggested he was already regretting letting them leave together.