Beneath the Silver Tree, fishfolk corpses covered the mountainside, their blood trickling downhill in streams. The three packhorses lowered their heads to graze on the fresh grass, occasionally snorting softly.
Mia gazed up at the candle flame in the canopy. Its light was reflected in her dull, cold eyes.
She raised a finger and tapped the center of her forehead, attempting to imitate Skyl and draw out the lights inside the skull. However, the fragmented soul of a low-level undead could not produce complete inspiration, nor did she understand how to extract the lights inside the skull. Her actions were nothing more than futile imitation.
Even so, she repeated the gesture again and again. She pressed her index finger, middle finger, and thumb together like a bird's beak, tapped her forehead, then extended her hand toward the Silver Tree as though offering it a candle.
One of the grazing packhorses raised its head and glanced at Mia before shifting its hooves and wandering off in search of fresher grass.
The fishfolk corpses scattered across the ground gradually lost their remaining luster as their souls emerged from their bodies one by one.
Those spirits should have passed through the Ethereal Plane and the Astral Plane, drifted toward the Elemental Plane of Water, and eventually reached Blibdoolpoolp's secret realm.
However, the Sea Mother's summons had vanished. Blibdoolpoolp had problems of her own and had withdrawn her influence across the board. Kuo-toa communities throughout the subterranean regions of Faerûn discovered that their connection to the Sea Mother had become faint and intermittent, almost as though it had been severed entirely.
The fishfolk spirits were drawn toward the Silver Tree's radiance and circled its trunk, but the Silver Tree accepted only refined lights inside the skull and refused entry to the dead.
Mia could see the wandering spirits. If they could not follow the unseen summons that should guide them away from the Material Plane, they would remain trapped in the world of the living and gradually become wraiths. Of course, it was even more likely that exposure to sunlight would slowly break them apart until they dissolved into the thought-strings permeating the universe.
"Undead... druid..."
Mia muttered under her breath.
Her body had become remarkably lifelike after being infused with elemental power. Not only did necromantic blood flow through her veins, but some of her brain functions had also recovered, allowing her to remember everything she had witnessed during their journey with perfect clarity.
The lengthy explanation Skyl had once given about his concept of an undead druid remained Mia's clearest memory.
"Negative energy... blood..."
Mia raised her left hand. Following the loose end of the thread, she pulled the wormlike stitches hidden beneath her skin, reopening a wound that had already healed.
Drops of pitch-black necromantic blood seeped out.
Mia shuffled toward the corpse of a kuo-toa warrior and held the wound above it. Black blood pattered onto the corpse and immediately soaked into its flesh.
The warrior's soul reacted like a cat catching the scent of raw meat and plunged back into its broken body.
Under the relentless corruption of negative energy, its soul fell into darkness and its corpse returned to life. The fishfolk warrior sat up while holding its severed head, then jammed it back onto its thick neck. Unfortunately, it attached the head in the wrong direction, leaving its mouth facing upward and its eyes staring down.
Even so, it had successfully transformed into an undead creature.
Mia was delighted by the strange-looking companion. She patted it on the head, or more accurately, on the underside of its chin.
The newly risen kuo-toa undead retained the religious fanaticism that had been branded into its soul. It prostrated itself respectfully before Mia, interlaced its ten fingers, and began praying with absolute devotion.
Mia did not understand what it was doing. She simply continued using her blood to contaminate the other fishfolk corpses.
One battered corpse after another rose to its feet. The first thing every revived kuo-toa did was kneel before Mia and offer fervent prayers.
Archpriest Wakunka slowly returned to life as well. Half its body and most of its internal organs had been smashed into fish paste, but undead creatures cared little about mere damage to their flesh. As long as the corrupted soul within them remained intact, they could return from death again and again.
A lich achieved immortality through the same principle, hiding its soul inside a phylactery so it could not truly be destroyed.
Wakunka looked around and saw its fellow fishfolk worshiping an unfamiliar human. The residual memories preserved within its corpse filled it with rage, and it began cursing in heavily accented, broken Undercommon.
The undead fishfolk with the upside-down head walked over and knocked Wakunka to the ground with a single punch. Several powerful undead warriors seized Wakunka's limbs and head, then pulled them in different directions, intending to subject it to a blasphemous form of execution.
For an undead creature, however, the punishment amounted to little more than a mild inconvenience.
Mia returned and sternly stopped her companions.
"Do not... fight. You are all... my spirits..."
Wakunka had already lost one arm. It lay on the ground and stared up at Mia.
The undead woman appeared solemn and tranquil, and her body radiated an almost "vibrant" aura of nature. Wakunka sniffed the air and caught the dry, corrupted scent emanating from its own body. It interpreted the transformation as a divine revelation and began praying to Mia as well.
As drop after drop of necromantic blood left her body, Mia's lifelike flesh gradually withered and decayed. Her brain lost moisture, and her thoughts slowly slipped back toward oblivion.
"Skyl... lights inside the skull... Silver Tree..."
Mia slowly shuffled back to the Silver Tree and collapsed beside it. Her shriveled head drooped, while her black hair resembled a mass of dry weeds.
Dozens of resurrected fishfolk gathered around her.
They chanted, praised, and prayed with fanatical devotion, using their shattered minds to serve their new goddess.
Such were the kuo-toa. Madness was the inescapable foundation of their race, and not even death could erase it.
As the undead fishfolk prayed, a gray flame slowly appeared within Mia's dried eyes.
Skyl, Stan, and Doric returned to the mountaintop carrying the fishfolk eggs and newborn hatchlings, only to discover an entire congregation of undead worshipers.
Mad skeletons knelt before a withered idol, while the solemn silver candle-tree poured down the radiance of ancient insight. Clouds obscured the sun, leaving only scattered pillars of light slanting across the ocean surrounding the archipelago. The atmosphere was as still as a curtain hanging over the stage of fate.
"Spirits of nature, preserve us. I can no longer imagine anything more blasphemous than this."
Doric's face was pale, and she held her arms across her chest like a gravely ill patient who barely had the strength to stand. Even so, the scene before her forced a miserable groan from her lips.
One of the fishfolk hatchlings in Skyl's arms slapped his cheek. He trapped the little bastard beneath his chin and smiled.
"It appears Mia has still managed to follow her own unique path through nature. Undead beneath a divine tree remind me of Those Who Live in Death from the Lands Between."
Under the Erdtree's system, lives blessed by Grace were not supposed to truly die.
Queen Marika of the Lands Between removed the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring, abolishing the abstract concept of death itself. As a result, there was no true undead race.
That changed when a group of assassins stole a fragment of the Rune of Death, forged its power into the Black Knives, and murdered Marika's eldest son, Godwyn the Golden, making him the first demigod to die.
Because the Golden Order was incompatible with death, the Erdtree continuously poured vitality into Godwyn's corpse. However, a body that had lost its soul could not return to life.
The Golden Order encountered a contradiction, essentially developing a bug in its system. Godwyn's corpse continued to swell and grow, while the vitality of the Erdtree was transformed into a curse. Corpses infected by that curse became undead creatures.
That was the origin of Those Who Live in Death.
The framework of the Silver Tree's system had not even been completed yet. Its divine rank, the [Tower Elden Ring], had yet to coalesce. Its divine essence, the [High Tower King], had only just been born, while its divine portfolio, the [Silver Law], remained vague and undefined.
Skyl was considering whether undead creatures should be incorporated into the Silver Law.
It would be a challenging decision. Allowing the living and the dead to inhabit the same land would inevitably lead to disaster. Almost nothing could grow in territories dominated by undead creatures, while concentrations of negative energy would harm living beings.
If Skyl decided to accept the undead, he would need to separate them from the living.
Simply allowing nature to take its course was not an option. Civilization had never developed through neglect and inaction. As a god of Law, Skyl had a responsibility to establish boundaries and accept the consequences of his decisions.
"Please stop them," Doric said softly. "I can hear the nature spirits crying."
Skyl placed the fishfolk hatchling on the ground, walked through the crowd of undead, and approached Mia.
The undead fishfolk produced threatening clicking noises. They slowly rose and raised their fishing spears.
Mia sensed Skyl's approach and gradually lifted her bowed head.
Only faint traces of her youthful beauty remained upon her horrifying, withered face.
She released a low snarl, and the surrounding undead fishfolk stopped moving.
Skyl shook his head slightly.
"Let this end here, Mia. I promised your parents that I would repair you. If you continue down this path, even I cannot predict what you'll eventually become."
Mia looked up at him. Her cold, withered face showed no emotion.
She merely raised one hand, gently tapped the center of her forehead, and drew out a small gray candle flame.
Then she held it out to Skyl as though presenting him with her most precious treasure.
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