The Necromancer's Apprentice

Twilight, Grogar, and Katrina continued further into the ruined hamlet, though there hadn't been much left to see by the time Ash had appeared. Twilight, having asked so many questions, had gained a general understanding of how Tartarus worked more or less, though it was clear to Grogar that Katrina herself hadn't known all there was to know.

She—like Twilight and Grogar—was not a native of this infernal pit, and that showed well enough in that she lacked an explanation for the finer details. She'd mentioned that there were yet lower levels of Tartarus and that they were far more dangerous, but that was the extent of her knowledge on the subject. Any information about exactly what lay beneath this level was beyond her.

Still, she had traveled the upper levels extensively and knew a good bit about the strange flora and monstrous fauna. Where demons themselves were concerned, Tirek knew far more, but Katrina knew enough to sate the undead filly's curiosity for the moment. Twilight figured she could ask the wrinkled centaur to fill in the missing gaps at some point in the future but Katrina chuckled in response.

"Tirek is very knowledgeable yes, but hardly an authority when it comes to inner workings of Tartarus," she'd replied at the filly's suggestion, "if the knowledge of Tartarus and its many secrets are what you truly seek, my dear, then there is another here in the village who is far more qualified to answer your burning questions."

"Really?" Twilight asked, eyes wide with foal-like wonder, "where are they? Can we meet them?"

"In time, yes," Katrina purred with a small hint of amusement, "it was my intention for you to meet two other prominent figures here in this abysmal hovel and he was one of them, but before I introduce you, I believe a minor detour is in order."

"A detour?" Twilight asked with a curious frown.

"Just a small one," Katrina assured before addressing the ram trailing slightly behind, "my humble abode sits just around the corner. You don't mind if we stop by for a few moments, do you?"

Grogar raised a bushy white brow.

"You have some prior business to attend to?" he asked.

"Well, yes there's that," Katrina admitted before turning back to the filly, "but I'm also curious about this 'lich's hunger'. About whether or not I can do anything to at least mitigate the situation somewhat if not outright cure the dear of it altogether."

"Oh?" Grogar raised both eyebrows now, "and you believe you have some way to so? You have the means to grant that which even I have not been able to provide?"

"Well I can certainly try to provide that means," Katrina replied somewhat cryptically as she led her guests off the beaten cobbled stone road and headed left to where a large and somewhat dilapidated but still fully intact stone hut stood, "we'll say that I arrived here in Tartarus a little more prepared than most and leave it at that for now."

The run-down hut didn't seem like much on the outside but as they approached, Twilight and Grogar could make out some kind of smoke rising from a small, circular chimney jutting awkwardly out of the roof. The smoke itself was a lighter grey, looking more like a gentle hazy mist than the black or dark grey clouds from an industrial facility or smoke one would see from a busy forge.

"I'm aware it's not much to look at," Katrina continued as they all reached the simple wooden door to the hut, "but sometimes it's not about what's on the outside, but rather..." she turned to give both Twilight and Grogar a small smirk before grabbing the brass door handle and pushing the door open, "...what lies within."

The first thing to assault Twilight's senses was the smell. It was a pungent but not unpleasant smell that reminded her a bit of the homemade potpourri her mother used to put out to make their house smell good. It was a strange, if oddly nostalgic, scent—certainly a far cry from the fetid breath of that masked demon they'd met earlier.

"Well don't just stand there gaping like an undead fish, dear, come in," Katrina teased, encouraging the filly to step inside with a flick of her tail and a flourished wave of a paw, "before we continue our tour, there are a few things I'd like to discuss with you and your..." she cast an uncertain glance in Grogar's direction, "...erm, father regarding your 'cravings'. Given my rather busy schedule, I may not get another opportunity until much later."

Unsure of what to make of the witch's offer, Twilight turned to Grogar. With both Katrina and Twilight's eyes on him, the wizened necromancer finally spoke, his tone and expression somewhat dubious as he addressed the feline directly.

"You stated before that you may have some sort of solution to our plight beyond what Tirek can offer," he said, "my knowledge of witchcraft is admittedly somewhat lacking so I will concede that there may be avenues yet unexplored where it is concerned, but I find myself curious as to how you would know enough of necromancy and the structure of a lich to propose said solution."

There was a flash of something in Katrina's expression—some darker emotion that Grogar managed to catch before it vanished an instant later. She chuckled and gave the ram a wan smile after a moment.

"I suppose you could say my desire to be more than what I am has led me down some very strange and unexpected paths in the past," she answered cryptically, "somewhere along the way I managed to pick up some useful knowledge."

Grogar eyed Katrina for a few seconds, a thoughtful grimace crossing his face. She hadn't given him the answer he wanted, but the ram could infer much from what she'd chosen not to say. Deciding that was enough for now, he nodded to Twilight.

"Very well then," he exclaimed, "I see no harm in hearing what she has to say. Vexing as it is that I've not been able to find a resolution of my own to this ageless dilemma, I'd be a fool to turn down a possible solution where none was thought to exist."

"Then by all means," Katrina replied with a satisfied smile, "allow me to elucidate and we'll see if we can't work something out, hmm?"

With that, she gestured for her two guests to enter once more. This time Twilight and Grogar took her up on the offer, the former all too eager to see just what a witch's lair looked like. As she stepped through the entrance and into Katrina's abode, Twilight honestly couldn't decide whether her expectations had been met or not. Much of the interior was rather dark, most of the lighting coming from several scented candles dotted throughout the hut.

A small circular stone table and a few simple wooden chairs sat at one end of the room. There was a surprisingly stylish and comfy looking low profile bed in one corner and the rest of the hut seemed to be taken up by all the things Twilight would've expected of a well-read scientist. There were small, compact bookshelves filled to the brim with who knows what types of tomes.

The filly spotted various beakers and vials and other bottles upon wall mounted shelves—some filled with unknown liquid substances and some completely empty. Another more traditional shelf held all manner of small wood and glass and metal containers, no doubt housing ingredients needed for potions and the like.

There was also a small unlit kiln situated near one of the bookshelves. The two objects that caught Twilight and even Grogar's eyes the most, however, were the large cast-iron cauldron resting slightly raised atop a makeshift firepit near the wall opposite the stone table, and a positively massive wooden chest sitting up against another wall.

The actual appearance of the chest, save for its rather unorthodox size, wasn't anything special—just a simple wooden chest one would find tucked away in any household. There weren't any unique designs or patterns adorning it—just a seemingly simple chest held shut with a seemingly simple silver lock. That said, its simple design along with its size somehow made it stand out all the more to the two newcomers.

Turning her attention to the cauldron, Twilight could see a bright flame burning beneath and she could hear something bubbling within, but couldn't see what it was from where she was standing. She frowned in bemusement at the sight, something strange niggling at the back of her mind about what she saw. Evidently, Grogar felt the same, as he wasted no time in making his way over to where the cauldron sat.

Katrina, rather than say anything against the act, merely closed the door behind the two and turned to watch with mild amusement as the ram peered inside the cauldron. He frowned in much the same way as Twilight and leaned in a bit to take a whiff. As the filly moved to stand next to him he backed away a step and gave a curious hum.

"Nearly odorless and without color, yet this is no mere pot of water," he deduced before turning to Katrina with a questioning raise of his brow, "what manner of brew is this?"

"Oh, just a little something I'm whipping up at the behest of our mutual centaur friend," Katrina replied, moving over to where the other two stood. She cast an appraising glance into the cauldron and gave a small sniff of her own, "it isn't quite ready just yet, but the end result should make a fine gift for our warmongering neighbor."

Twilight scrunch up her face in thought.

"Warmongering... you mean that demon father and Tirek were talking about? What was his name? Mo... Mol—"

"Moloch," Grogar finished, his tone and expression thoroughly intrigued, "he is a pressing problem that needs taking care of from what I can gather. I take it this 'gift' is meant to provide some solution?"

"You could say that," Katrina absently replied as she moved from the boiling brew and plucked a small cylinder metal container from the large shelf of ingredients, "in fact, if all goes well, then that major problem will doubtless become a major asset."

"How?" Twilight asked, turning a curious eye back to the bubbling mixture, "what's the potion supposed to do?"

Rather than answer right away, the witch unscrewed the cap on the container and gave a quiet purr of satisfaction as she peered inside. With a contented twitch of her tail, she moved back to where the inquisitive filly was standing next to the cauldron. Standing over the cauldron, she carefully pulled the dried root of some dark grey plant from the container and crushed it in her palm.

The resulting fragrance released made Twilight flinch and shuffle back a bit. Unlike the nostalgic scent of the many candles around the hut, the smell coming from the crushed root was terribly acrid. Katrina didn't seem to mind it, though the witch was no doubt used to all kinds of strange and unpleasant smells given the many ingredients she probably worked with.

"Hrm... I know of this scent," Grogar muttered, much to the filly's surprise. She looked over to see that Grogar's expression had grown distant—almost wistful, "imperium... a plant whose roots, when dried and powdered, act as a powerful and rather grisly neurotoxin."

"A what?!" Twilight squeaked before whipping around to give Katrina a horrified look, "you're gonna poison Moloch?"

"Oh heavens, no!" Katrina laughed, letting the crushed remains of the plant fall into the cauldron. She picked up a long mixing paddle resting on the wall next to the cauldron and began slowly stirring the contents in the large pot, "Tirek believes Moloch could be far more useful to us alive and I'm inclined to agree... although..."

She paused and cast a thoughtful glance in Grogar's direction, "perhaps... if a certain powerful and experienced necromancer could lend us a hoof..."

Grogar snorted and fixed the feline with an unamused scowl.

"While it is true that Twilight and I came to this infernal place seeking powerful souls," he began, "and while I am glad to see that my old comrade is alive and well, I will not be roped into his schemes, at least not without knowing what it is he intends of me."

"Hmm... well, that's a shame but it's no business of mine, I suppose," Katrina replied as she continued her methodical stirring, "but to answer the filly's question, no, I'm going to poison Moloch... not in the way you're thinking of at least."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, "what are you going to do with something like that then?"

"Grogar is spot on in that imperium root is a deadly neurotoxin when used by itself... in the right quantities," Katrina explained, "however, in smaller doses and when mixed with the right ingredients, it can become a potent compound one can use to control the thoughts and actions of the one who ingests it."

Twilight's brows furrowed in thought for a moment, her mind attempting to parse Katrina's words.

"So... it becomes a drug?" she finally surmised.

Katrina frowned.

"Yes, you could call it a drug if you prefer," she conceded with a hint of irritation, "really, imperium root has all kinds of unique and interesting uses, many of which have yet to be uncovered," she threw the necromancer another intrigued side glance, "that said, I'm surprised someone such as yourself is already aware of it. It's not exactly easy to come by and not many know of its darker properties."

"Believe it or not, there was a time, several lifetimes ago, when I ruled a nation as its king, witch," Grogar replied with a wry grin, "in the latter years of my reign there were many an enemy that would've happily seen my head mounted upon a spike for perceived atrocities committed by my hoof," his grin grew dark, "imperium root just so happened to be a favorite poison of would-be assassins."

"Well... imagine that," Katrina muttered, rather taken aback and moderately disturbed by Grogar's response. She cleared her throat and turned her attention back to her brew, "in any case, my nefarious concoction is crucial to Tirek's plans—or so he claims," she pulled the mixing paddle from the brew and fully turned to face the other two with a secretive smile, "I think, however, that this particular plant may be useful in mitigating your dilemma if not outright resolving it."

"Wait, what?!" Twilight cried, taking another horrified step back from the smiling feline, "you don't mean you're gonna make me eat that, are you?"

"Hold a moment, child," Grogar interjected, shooting Katrina a look that was equal parts wary and contemplative, "I want to say that your suggestion is a foolhardy one—and it is, certainly—but I admit I am rather curious as to how you intend to turn such a thing into a cure for the lich's hunger."

The response only seemed to make Katrina's smile grow all the more confident.

"I may be a mere witch, but I am very good at what I do, sir," Katrina replied with no small amount of self-assurance, "I already have a plan in mind, and if you'll indulge me a small, if selfish request, I can guarantee that you'll be more than satisfied with the outcome."