The necromancer's ploy-

"Wait just a minute! Before I walk straight into some kind of necromancer's ploy here, I've got a couple more questions for the surprisingly helpful help," the knight captain digressed, stopping with her hand holding the handles of the necromancer's chamber doors. At this point, he had to hear her outside, unless the room was soundproofed in some fashion, but no one seemed to stir within. "Tell me a little more about the necromancer first. How does he do that voodoo that he do?"

The girl's chipper attitude in the face of such an intimidating adversary did nothing but aggravate Brynda further, but she managed to lean against a wall and look aloof anyway. "He's one of the demon lord's necromancers, I guess from a time after you left the army. You know how regular necromancers work, right? They're not that different from, uuuugh, channelers," the muscle-bound zombie grumbled. "With the proper focus and incantations, they animate the dead. Most of them can't maintain it quite so permenantly as he does."

"Ain't that the truth! There's got to be more to it than that, right? I mean, he'd surrounded himself by maid zombies flashing their gams, parading all over his mansion... not to mention that hottie vampire! How focused can he possibly be with all that ass around? I know it gets to me, sometimes, when I tour the barracks! Merridan is just full of sexy dudes and hot-ass ladies," Dyna whistled, sounding proud of her stomping grounds.

"Uuuuuugh, I'd love to see that, after you break me free from eternal servitude to this jackass," Brynda joked, although Dyna was having a hard time imagining the sour loudy joining her in scoping out the prospects. "He's achieved a meditative state like I've never seen in the demon army or among any of the kingdom's magicians either. It involves fetishes-"

"Pffft!"

"... Not like that kind of fetish. I mean in the sense of an object or relic fashioned for worship, housing mystical power. He guards it inside a little shrine inside his room and all of us are forbidden-- by master's command-- from approaching it. Destroying that thing could be the key to taking away his power."

"And you were going to let me go in there without telling me that?" Dyna questioned, smirking and raising one eyebrow beneath the curtain of her purple bangs.

The other woman leered from behind her wild black hair and scowled. "I'm still weighing whose ass I want to see get kicked worse," Brynda admitted.

"Never bet against my ass!" Dyna guffawed, finally returning her clutches onto the door. "I've got to be careful, though... The last thing I want is for all of the hotties in my knight corp to end up as this guy's dolls."

"It's not a great life... uuuuugh," Brynda agreed. "If you die to this guy and I have to work alongside you forever, I'm going to spend every day killing you all over again." The maid surprised her with a quick handshake, perhaps revealing a hidden sense of comraderie.

The inside of the necromancer's chamber was not at all what Dyna was picturing. In some ways, it seemed to fit perfectly with the recent state of Merridan, as though the man himself was taking part in the festivities. In particular, it was covered with dolls and mannequins, all dressed up in a style that seemed almost to match what the noble ladies of Merridan wore... or perhaps their daughters.The guy had untold numbers of extra maid outfits ready to go, in all styles, colors, lengths, and degrees of decency.

"Is he a necromancer, or a tailor? For that matter, where the fuck is he?" Dyna wondered out loud, crossing her arms. She reflected, further, that it was amazing that his pet vampire got to masquerade as a dandy instead of serving as one of his maids. A mystery for another time...

A voice suddenly creeped out from what had looked like a pile of loose fabric. "Dyna Montague... Welcome. I've been watching you for a while now. The reanimated dead populating my abode also serve as my eyes and ears. Nothing you-- nor the turncoat, Palas Darkeye-- have done since you entered has been hidden from me! I quite enjoyed watching you get that big butt of yours stuck in a doggy door. If you only knew what Palas has been up to... You two are the best entertainment I've had for quite some time! I suppose it makes sense that you'd all be a little more tuned to the spirit of fun and frolic than the sour lot I've made my maids-"

"Woooah, buddy! Can I get a word in? Where the hell even are you?" Dyna interrupted, fixing her eyes on the pile of blankets that the voice seemed to be coming from.

A head rose from inside the pile, looking a bit like a doll's. Voluminous, bright blue hair framed the head of the figure she now assumed to be the necromancer, styled in a bob down to the shoulder's that looked like a very pretty girl's. In fact, his face looked like a very pretty girl's too, despite the cocksure smile on the lips. "Don't deny me my comforts, Dyna. Soon, I shall be the master of this entire town, and you'll wish you were on my good side." Even the voice coming from the lips seemed to be a girl's...

"Damn. The vampire's a lady that looks like a male dandy and the necromancer's a dude that looks like a female doll! I mean, I guess whatever works for you two. But why are you sitting under that pile of covers?"

"Did I not just tell you? For my own comfort. It's the same reason I do anything," the necromancer scoffed. "I have not yet introduced myself... Bow to your new master: Lord Lynus, the Puppetmaster!" The grinning necromancer looked like he wanted to bow, but he wouldn't move from his comfy blankets to do so.

"Such a cute little lord," Dyna giggled, biting one finger with her fangs. "So you no longer serve the demon lord, only yourself, Lynus?"

The girl-like boy's eye seemed to twitch for a moment, but he continued grinning. "Ha ha ha! Isn't that the way of demons? The old way is so... antique! A demon ought to have ambition. It's not that I'm not thankful to whoever they are, but I've no more interest in him or her than you do in Geod. In the end, we live for ourselves," the necromancer explained, rolling one hand. "As for me, I like what you and the church have done with Merridan, so much so that I'm going to bring it all into my collection. When you bring so many travellers in, it's like I'm getting imports!"

"Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about your fetish."

"... M-My fetish?" the necromancer asked, seeming to retreat into the covers somewhat. "Well... if you must know, I like to see women wear the cute dresses I make-"

"No, genius," Dyna snorted, then rolled her eyes. "Your mystical fetish. The one you keep in a shrine near the back of the room. Ring any bells?"

"... Who told you that? Brynda? It is not a fetish and it's none of your business, either," Lynus growled, his large, red eyes glowering out from the darkness of his blankets. "Ah, but you won't have business for much longer. I've already caught you in my trap."

"I've got some news for you: I'm not dead! How are you supposed to control me?" The demon approached closer, her heavy bosom bouncing and her white fangs gleaming in the low candlelight of the doll room. With a single swipe of her claw, she could bring the whole room down around the two of them. In the blink of an eye, she could retreat to safety. "Whatever trap you're planning to catch me in, I can destroy you, your creepy shrine, and all of your pretty doll dresses before you can take your eyes off my tits."

The necromancer raised his eyes from her tits, with some effort, and grinned broadly. "Then do it."

Dyna returned his smirk and flexed her fingers... or tried to. To her surprise, they wouldn't flex. The hand remained still at her side. "What?"

"That handshake from Brynda earlier. The animated dead inside my house aren't just my eyes and ears... those lovely dolls are also my hands. All I needed was that brief contact to turn you into my puppet."

"Ooooh. You know, you've got a lot of powers that I would not strictly attribute to a necromancer. Have you considered rebranding?" Dyna joked, seeming remarkably calm despite the circumstances.

"We'll see if you can keep that attitude up while you're dancing on my strings... Hm hm hm... Ha ha ha ha ha!" the necromancer cackled, allowing his head to pop out of the covers again and then collapsing into a cute giggle as he clasped his fists to his cheeks.