animate dead

The symbols of life and death burned Freydis' palm. She hovered it above the corpse that had been stabbed from multiple directions, that had bled out on the virgin snow beneath. A dark red stained the sharp white that stabbed the eyes during bright sunshine and obscured the view in the night. A red glow lighter than the blood and with a golden highlight running along it in different directions enveloped Freydis' palm as she began chanting.

Their chants were not learned poetry, did not emerge from old texts or spoken tradition, but Freydis let the string of words needed come from their instinct. From the same place where the Lord had stored his power for Freydis to use, she picked up the words she knew she needed to use. Lord Freyr if any god knew the power of the visceral reaction, although most often it was lust, and from lust often came poetry and art. And thus he has taught Freydis an invaluable lesson - the value of gut instinct.

The red glow descended from her palm, through the metal of the gauntlet towards the corpse. And while it looked like power was being drained from Freydis, in truth with every second she felt invigorated.  The same power she had known when speaking to dead before, she felt in her very bones. It was like her very marrow became richer, her mind clearer, her heart fuller.

No spirit would enter this corpse, but the body had a memory of its own. Still holding his greataxe, the warrior stood up without the power of its own muscles, towered over his conjurer, and stared with bloodshot eyes through Freydis. The golden and red glow filled the creature's limbs and arteries with a crude mimicry of life, only the energy needed to perform basic movement and to hear the one he was supposed to obey.

She remembered holding her firstborn in her arms and feeling exhilarated by the thought of having created life. Then, however, she had needed the contribution of another person. Now, the power was at their own fingertips and their own fingertips only.

"Go from whence you came," Freydis said, "and do not stop until you have arrived."