A Bored Lich

Author's note: For four chapters you might notice that they aren't cut off at the right point. For example a chapter might bleed into another. This is because I decided to revamp the chapters due to reader feedback with focus on pacing, information about the Resistance, demi-humans, and transitioning. This "chapter-bleeding" is because Webnovel restricts editing more than 200 words of chapters already published (to ensure you don't have to buy chapters again or spend more/less money than someone who bought a chapter previously). If you read this author's note, ignore the one four chapters later as you likely weren't caught up as of the date of publishing to experience the issue. (first of October).

"They let Molly live because of her position," a hushed voice caught Doevm's attention. He glanced over his shoulder to find two men in a far corner; one dressed in fine robes who wasn't nearly as discrete as he thought he was when he slid a hefty coinsack across a table to the other, who accepted it after some hesitance.

'I'm a bit curious myself,' Doevm thought, focusing on their voices with a bit of life essence. He regretted it as whispers elevated to screams. Anxious, awaiting nobles shifted on their seats like thunder hammering his eardrums. He dispersed the copper life essence, then cursed under his breath. 'This copper life essence is going to take some getting used to.' He tried again with half the amount and, after some fine-tuned adjustments, the merchants' whispers reached him.

The man, who Doevm assumed to be an information broker, sported a simple purple vest over a silky white shirt that crumpled as he twitched, which was often. A tug on his pant leg, a glance at the guards, or a turn of his glassless monocle, nothing on his body was away from his poorly-manicured hands for more than a minute. "Poor Molly," he continued speaking to the merchant. "It must have been infuriating, being let go so you can continue to be a puppet princess. Then again, she aligned herself with a cult leader who moaned about a deity he termed: "Maker"."

The merchant nodded as his quill filled pages of his notebook. "Interesting. What sort of cult was it? Who was Maker?" Doevm leaned forward and added more life essence into his ears, just in case.

"Doevm, what's up with you?" Frey asked. Doevm shushed him.

"Maker?" The information broker shook his head. "Just a cult thing I guess. Never heard of it."

Doevm clicked his tongue. 'Figures.'

The merchant frowned and flipped to a blank page. "That bothers me."

"It bothers a lot of people," the informant said, patting his new coin pouch. "But I can only provide what I know, which comes from my many connections to dangerous folks. With the Underground destroyed, it'll be hard to research anything that...delicate."

"That's enough," the merchant said as he closed his book. "You've been helpful."

The informant's focus drifted to the notebook's cover, where a symbol of the goddess caught his keen eyes. His mouth opened and closed. "If you or your "acquaintances" need to find me, I'll be here."

"My "acquaintances"?" the merchant asked, following the informant's line of sight. He chuckled: "It'd have to be something drastic to bring them over here." He nodded then as he went to leave, bumped into a boy wearing a strange, white mask. "Watch it," the merchant said, rubbing his shoulder.

"Sorry," Thomas said. He sat next to the informant, then took a sack of coins out of his spatial ring. "Will this suffice?"

Doevm glanced over to the spot Thomas had been sitting moments ago, finding it to be empty. 'I didn't notice… What's he doing?'

The informant examined Thomas in silent contemplation but coins were coins and a customer was a customer. He snatched the sack up. "You haven't done this before, have you? Are you trying to get me thrown out of here?"

"What makes you say that?" Thomas asked.

"The mask, your cautious approach, and your three friends eavesdropping on my private conversation." He glanced up, without moving his head, to see Doevm's, Elero's, and Frey's heads duck behind the backs of seats. He sighed. "I'll need double the payment. I'm charging you for the previous information as well."

"Does this suffice?" Thomas asked as he placed a vial of blue liquid on the table.

The informant's face held still. He didn't ask where such a rare commodity such as the Virility poison came from, and took it. Payment was payment. A customer was a customer, no matter how...naive he seemed. "It's good enough. I'll throw in a bonus piece of advice: tell your friends that, if they want to be discreet around folks like me, don't show their life essence in public." He slid his finger around the rim of the bottle then looked around with only his eyes, which never seemed to sit still for too long. "What is it you wanna know? I don't have all day?"

"What of the assassin, from the Resistance?"

The informant smiled. "I heard from a relative of mine who just so happens to be a guard; Dag's cell was empty by morning."

"You have a relative in the guard?" Thomas asked. "No wonder you know things."

The informant blinked: "Yeah...something like that." Doevm could practically see the man's paranoia drain away, thinking that no kingdom guard could possibly pretend to be so innocent. "Anything else you wanna know kid?"

"Any idea where Dag went?" The informant shook his head. "How about what happened to Eugene?"

The informant smiled. "Asking about the heads of the organization, it almost sounds like you knew more than I do about them, kid." He turned the vial of poison over and over again in his palm. "I heard there might be more rebelling nobles behind the scenes." He paused and examined Thomas's stiffened expression. He smiled. "I see. Eugene would have been freed, if he had been imprisoned. He was captured like the rest, but his ability to make artifacts made him invaluable in the council's eyes. My theory is that they're going to put him to work for the rest of his life making artifacts as recompense. That might change in time, depending on if his old family demands him back."

"They disowned him," Thomas said. "He would never go back to them."

"Ah but you see kid, profit draws nobles past moral boundaries," the informant explained. "And next, I assume you'll ask about where Jackal is?"

"Is he dead?"

The informant's confident smile sunk into a plain, emotionless mask after Thomas's tone shifted. "Y-you want to know if he's dead?" The informant glanced at the exits, his paranoia reigniting with a jolt. Thomas's remark of death, when paired with an Undead's innately off putting apathy, could set any human on edge.

"Is he dead?" Thomas repeated the question.

The informant shoved his payment in his spatial ring and stood up: "How did you find me? Did someone tell you about me or did you really "just happen" to listen to my earlier conversation?"

Thomas shrugged, and Doevm shook his head. 'You fool. That'll be the last answer you get out of him.'

The informant scrunched his lips: "Alright, I'll tell you but don't ever come back here. Jackal died. It wasn't even a fight. If you saw the aftermath of Alexander's attack you'd know that no one could have survived. It was brutal, more like an execution than anything. One second the knight's academy was fine and the next it was obliterated. The only reason Jackal's friends survived was because they were outside the radius. General Finlish is a monster, and no one can beat him."

"Wait, did they find a body?" Thomas asked.

"No," the informant said. "No one wants to go near that place's remains. Good day." He left in a hurry.