A Bored Lich

Doevm let out a sudden burst of laughter as he repeated the words: "That's it!" He kept laughing as he sat on the floor, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes. "I just need a minute to fix myself, or at least, some of the damage I've done." Elero did not respond, too stunned by the sudden change to say anything.

'How could I have forgotten the basic rule of magic, to clear your mind? It's so simple, yet it was a problem that I never had to deal with as an emotionless Undead. I had forgotten how complex humans were, and what their mages have to go through just to focus their minds. They typically picture nothing, an empty field, meditate, or do an activity to clear their minds of emotion.'

'In my desperation, I tried to focus by actively pushing emotion away. I fooled myself into thinking I was still an Undead. I might have combined my two selves, but that doesn't change the fact that I am now a human, carrying all the consequences of this species, emotions included. Those emotions, if not handled correctly, affect my mana.'

He opened his mind and he was not in the room any longer, but inside his mind. He could see it, his mass of mana. Usually, it was an orb with a smooth surface. Now it was a tangled mess of knots. Pieces stretched out like a plant's roots, clinging to his body and mind and draining them.

'If not calm of mind, one's mana goes wild. It twists and turns, acting in strange ways. It can even inflict self-harm, such as this mess. This is why my mind and body deteriorated, why I can't sleep at night, and why I am so weak. I did this to myself.'

He took a deep breath and looked down at the mess, the hole filled with everything he had stored away. 'Sometimes, a single emotion can cause one to focus, to enter a fight or flight reaction. In those moments, when the mind is focused on one of those two, everything clears away. Fear and anger might be temporary solutions, but they have harmed me in the long run.'

As he stood there, looking down into the pit, he recognized everything which filled it, the memories which he had shoved down there. The biggest piece, which made up the majority of the pit, was Hopi's burnt body. Everything originated from it, surrounding it like a protective barrier.

Doevm took a breath and pulled the pit up with a thought. Each memory transformed from scattered random memories to books on bookshelves, covered in filth and grime.

He waved his hands and he was in his library. A simple cloth appeared in his hands. He stepped in front of the many shelves, the thousands of books. 'A calm state of mind huh?' he thought. 'I know what that feels like, when everything just washes away, and all that matters is cleaning. It's so simple, it doesn't require any thought. If I had to chose something other than magic or fighting, I would do this for eternity.'

He could feel his own mana tightening around him and sucking his strength away. They were mainly condensed around his stitches, where much had exited. The pain in his chest wasn't just emotional anymore, but also a physical one. He took a book off the shelf, wiped it down, and put it back.

The tangled mess of mana shrunk back down. He took another book off the shelf and repeated the action. The roots shrunk again. 'It's funny,' Doevm thought as he continued down the line of books. 'I never noticed this because I've never had such a little amount of mana. Previously, I would have felt even a single ripple in my orb of mana. It made up my entire body after all. Now I am flesh. I wanted to be something in between, a Lich inside of a human, but it seems that two opposites cannot be one so easily.

He looked up at the other bookshelves with a faint smile on his face. 'I can picture it so vividly because I have done this so much. I could just stay here all day and clean, even if this is all in my head. However, I am on a time limit. I might have lost in our first encounter, but that doesn't mean it's all over.'

Bit by bit, book by book, the fog around his mind lessened and his strength returned. He knew he couldn't clean all of these books yet, not with the Resistance heading straight towards the tenth floor. If they succeeded, it wouldn't matter, even if he managed to clean everything. He wouldn't last under the new power.

With everything cleared up, a plan came together. It wasn't something he thought of then. In fact, it was more like the pieces just fell into place, like he had freed them by untangling a portion of the chaotic mana. Plenty of books still required cleaning, especially the ginormous one, which required its own shelf. It was like a mountain, a test. 'I'll come back for you,' Doevm thought before opening his eyes in Elero's room.

He stood up. Elero had long since come out of shock. She was sitting at the desk with her braces back on her legs, reading over Doevm's book on advanced healing magic. She looked over: "Oh, you're finally out of whatever trance you were in. So if it's all good, can you leave now? You're just acting stranger by the minute, and it's freaking me out. You've been sat there for nearly an hour now."

Doevm smiled: "No, I'm not going to leave quite yet. First, I need to prepare for something."

"And you can't prepare anywhere away from my room?" Elero asked, her patience running thinner by the second.

"Nope," Doevm said. "Because I need your help."

"Ok," Elero stood up, her gears clicking against one another. "So far, I have brought you back from near death, put myself in severe pain for you to heal me - which you haven't even started by the way -, and wasted nearly an hour of my time by meditating. I need to get some sleep, and you can just come back another day. So tell me, why would I help you when I don't even know if you're sane or not?"

Doevm pointed to her legs: "Because I can heal you. It won't be now, but proof of concept should be enough to convince you."

Elero sighed. "And what would I have to help you with?"

"A distraction," Doevm said. "After I finish my spell, mages are going to appear and be looking for me. You are going to lead them on a wild goose chase across the Capital while I save this city."

"I don't know what you are going to do," Elero said. "But if it is anything bad, my scream will alert all the servants and nobles around this place, who will come running at any sign of danger."

"Don't worry," Doevm said. "I'm only going to tear a hole in the capital with that." He walked over to the window, parted the curtains, and pointed out of it.

Elero glared at him before shambling over and glancing at what he was pointing at, the ginormous skeletal arm at the center of the city. "Yup," she said. "Why the hell didn't I see it. You're definitely crazy. You better have a damned good proof of concept that you can heal my legs or else I'm calling the guards." She pulled out her rapier and pointed it at him.

Doevm reacted by holding out a hand with a magic circle at his palm. Slowly but surely, a white mass appeared, expanding into a hard ball. He let it drop to the carpeted floor with a sharp thud. It didn't bounce at all. "Healing magic is able to repair, but since your bones are turned into powder, and some are missing, that can't happen. The solution is simple, to make more bones."

He picked up the ball and tossed it to her. "You were seeking out the wrong type of magic. Healing magic is often thought to be the only form of healing because of its confusing name. Humans rarely stop to think of other types of magic like the one that created that ball of bones, dark magic."

Elero dropped the ball and backed away. "Y-you're a dark mage? Why the hell would the Black Market hire one of you heretics!?"

"Heretic or not, you need to trust me if you ever want to be healed," Doevm said. "Because only the so-called "dark magic" can help you. If you let this chance go, you will never find another chance to heal your legs. What is your decision?"

Elero's blade wavered as her face went through various expressions before finally putting the rapier back in her spatial ring. "Fine," she said, her gaze lowering to her braces and her deformed legs. "I'll do what you want as long as you heal me."