Immortal looked at a painting in the room that depicted many black towers. His thoughts wandered, and he began to speak, his eyes looking nostalgic...
To tell the girl's story, I must first confess some mistakes I made when I was younger...
It was a long time ago... Shortly after the emergence of the first Necromancers, I didn't yet know I had a special physique, and I only knew I had an affinity with souls thanks to an apprentice who crossed my path. Obsessed with magic, I abandoned my family, my name, a fiancée who loved me, and even the lands I would inherit, and came to the Shadowlands to pursue my dream...
At that time, having an affinity for magic, especially soul magic, was very rare... And I knew this, so I was a very arrogant young man... I thought I could conquer everything alone without any guidance, just as the Eternal King and the first Necromancers did...
I wanted to prove I was as good as them, or even better... And when I arrived in Asshai, I began to study. Necromancy on my own, learning things through trial and error...
However, as all apprentices already know, learning magic costs, and still does, a lot of money... And the solitary path I chose wasn't easy; every mistake I made in a magical experiment or ritual cost too much for a novice like me without support...
Instead of accepting my failures and joining any group that would make my path easier, I chose to continue alone and began accepting jobs as a lone mercenary, doing any kind of dirty and sinister work without any morals or guilt...
Assassination, assault, escort, robbery, protection... I wouldn't turn down anything as long as the pay was good. This brought me much infamy, but also made me rich enough to become increasingly powerful…
It wasn't long before I became confident enough to think I could set foot in Stygai and prosper there…
But Stygai was dangerous, and my inexperience and arrogance nearly cost me my life. It was also around this time that I met the Eternal King. He saved me from death and helped me establish myself in the corpse city… For the first time in my life, I bowed my head and had something approaching a mentor…
Getting to know the other Necromancers in the city, I realized they all had powerful servants and apprentices tending their towers and performing tasks that were beneath a true Master… So I thought it was time to take on my own students as well.
Back in Asshai, I recruited three young adults. I gave them the same amount of resources every month, dedicated my teaching time equally, and even gave all three of them the same Artifacts and Relics…
I was inexperienced, and I never thought that giving them everything they needed equally would become my failure as a teacher. Soon, some of them excelled in their fields of magic, even though they received the same amount of resources given equally to all others.
It wasn't long before they questioned me about why they should have the same resources and be treated equally if they were more talented than the other two…
But I didn't take their complaints seriously, and I didn't see a problem with it… I simply told them that they were all my students, and I didn't play favorites. And that everything had been done this way to maintain a good environment without competition between them…
It was only later that the worst happened. The conflict between the three apprentices worsened, and they ended up fighting each other in an attempt to prove their worth to me… The result was that they ended up killing each other, and there were no survivors.
At the time, this made me quite angry, and I didn't understand what I had done wrong, but I still felt I had failed as a tutor. So I gave up on taking on more students and had only servants and slaves after that.
It was only later, when I met Esmer, that I realized where I had gone wrong with my students. Unlike me, the Bloodmage was much more experienced in personal relationships. And with his help and encouragement, I recruited a few more students again. This time, there were more than a dozen, and among them was a family of three; Anita and her parents…
Unlike the first time, following Esmer's advice, I established my tower like the others in Asshai and Stygai. I allowed each student to earn some basic benefits each month, but if they wanted more resources, they would need to prove their worth. I also created specific rules about not harming each other, thus ensuring an environment where everyone could grow and achieve what they desired without being limited…
This method worked well, but it also increased the rate of students being injured and even killed while doing dangerous work, or doing work that was beyond their capabilities.
Not long after accepting the new apprentices, Esmer and I were invited to become Mages under the Valyrian rule. The offer was too tempting for both of us, and we ultimately accepted the contract.
Less than a day before my departure, unbeknownst to me, Anita's father, who was feeling pressured to obtain ever more resources for himself, his wife, and daughter, met disaster within the Dungeon of the Corrupted…
At that time, I made two other terrible mistakes with my new apprentices… The first was abandoning them to pursue my own goals, while the second was leaving Zha'Thik to lead and supervise them…
The Senior Lich was excellent at carrying out any task I gave him to this day, and he is also loyal, but he lacks any empathy or feelings for any living being in this world. And he left the apprentices to fend for themselves, unconcerned about whether they lived or died…
Anita's mother felt the full weight of her husband's death and fell into depression, blaming herself for his passing. Without support, without friends, without allies, and in such a dangerous city, with no one to help her, she committed suicide less than a month later…
Young Anita, desperate after losing both her parents in such a short period, became increasingly obsessed with necromancy and tried to find a way to reverse their deaths.
Without resources, she continued to accept increasingly dangerous tasks to finance her experiments. Among her obsessions was the Dungeon of the Corrupted, where her father had died…
Eight hundred years ago, this dungeon was very different from what it is today, and also much more perilous… And by following such a risky life, entering this place daily, it was only a matter of time before Anita, too, encountered disaster and ultimately perished…
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