Even as it phe assault as fhasts and its hammer weights to crafting magic resistant ons and armor from the bones and armor of long dead dwarves, it turs mind back toward more important tasks. When night fell, it soared halfway across its domain from Rahkin to the hub of activity that was stantium.

  The city was still devoid of life. Eves had withered and died because of the overwhelming amounts of unlife as well as the caustic embalming fluids and tanning liquids that spilled so frequently on the ground. Despite that, it was still a hub of activity.

  During the day, those activities were limited to the growing catabs that hummed beh the pce as well as the Grand Temple. However, by night, the streets would e alive in a parody of the life that would normally be present in such a rge city.

  There was no food, or merriment, though. There was no buying and selling, there were only drudges carrying bones from the beetle pits and fresh armor from the fes so that all the po parts could be assembled smoothly by the silent supervisor of its city factory.

  Even that dread giant had grown in both size and plexity to at for eiques and workflows, and each of the pilrs that held up the giant dome were lined with appendages, handing off structs in different stages of pletion. Truly, it was a work of beauty well beyond the mortal mind. If ah a pulse had ever seehing in a, they might have died on the spot from the dread gaze of its 300 eyes that lihe dome and monitored all the work as it was being performed.

  That was not why Tenebroum had returned here, though. There were no problems here, and if there were, they would not be the fault of its industrial strength fleshcrafters. They had no will. They existed only t to life the horrors of its mind, not to improvise or even objebsp;

  That was not why the Lich had returo this pce, though. With everything else going on, Tenebroum would have liked to delegate the tasks that would be necessary to experiment with its captured goddesses, in the end such important work ultimately could be done by it alohey were simply too valuable as spes. Even if it was uo turn them into something grahen it might yet learn a great deal simply by disseg them.

  Whatever it decided, though, it would o be done soon. Cut off from light and life in its lead and stone dungeons, they were wilting a little more every day. Gods of nature were not meant for stygian captivity, and though it might have simply ed their souls and gained more power. As a result, another servant with a new domain would be much more valuable to it.

  Oroza had taught it a tough lesson, though, and it would not let them escape. The first in doing that, of course, was to learrue names.

  For some Gods and Goddesses that might have been impossible, Even the hat they were worshiped by sometimes had little in on with their true names. Siddrim had several secret had learned, but it wasn’t until Tenebroum had ed the od that it had learhere were several more hat it hadn’t known.

  For nature goddesses, at least, though, that was easy enough. It simply spread its bckbirds far and wide and looked for forests and natural areas that seemed to be dying for no disible reason. O had identified those three pces, it was simply a matter of t the three bark-skinned women until it found out whiame beloo which forest goddess.

  It was a straightforrocess. Soon, Tenebroum figured out that the three small gods it had stolearieneian Vale, Verdant Gde, and Thornwood. Each of the women was slightly different, in both demeanor and appearance, in ways that suited the territories they called home.

  Only one of them, Tarieneian Vale appeared almost human. She had skin of bark of course, but otherwise she looked very much like a woman. The other two, though, were much less so. Verdant gde was more like the outline of a person made from foliage, and rarely spoke. Thornwood was the most alien. She was stantly shifti of brambles that appeared as an animal much more often than a person.

  Unfortunately, its every attempt to any of the three, failed repeatedly. No matter how it attempted to them with manacles of servitude, they would grow in such a way that the bonds would slip free within only a few days. Only the wards of the cell itself held them reliably, which was far form ideal.

  It was maddening. In the end, the Lich was forprovise, and made the dark garden itself it’s means of trol. This uaking was grander, but less plicated. It simply chose an unused pza in stantinal and after the runes were carved by night ione of the pce, its servants began to fill the whole thing with grave earth.

  The hardest part of the project, as it turned out, was choosing which pza would least impact everything else that was happening since stantinal had bee so busy. It khat if it gave them a single opening, they would escape the way that Oroza did. So, even before it installed them in that lifeless courtyard, it installed leaden rings inscribed with each of their o keep them from spreading their roots too widely.

  Ohat was do salted the earth in the rest of the pce so that not even a bde of grass would grow. It was only then, when all was in readihat it rephem and observed what came .

  To start with, all of the women became trees that grew quite quickly at first. They’d thought that with enough strength, they might pierce the stoh them e some kind of e to the rest of the vegetation outside the city and vanish, but that was not possible. All they had done in the process was take in a tremendous amount of taint from the grave earth instead.

  Tenebroum let them acclimatize to this, and grow new leaves and buds before it started to add to their water, feeding the three slerees a steady diet of poison and u dreams.

  After that, its drudges began to carven profane symbols into the bark of all of them on a regur basis. The former was to tio increase its grip on their f of wood, while the ter was merely to provoke a response from those that might be watg.

  Those markings would vanish in a few days, and the spirits within the wood barely even cried out in pain, but then, they weren’t the intended audienow that the Lich had shown its hand, it khat somewhere out there, the Moon and the rest of her friends were watg and waiting for their ce to rescue.

  Tenebroum had prepared for that, too, and had several creative termeasures prepared for just su eventuality. There were watchers and guardians every night. During the day, the whole operation was far more vulnerable, but its artisans were w on the pletion of a meical trap that would slide a rusted awning across the whole area and loyone foolish enough to attempt to free its prisoners ih them.

  There were a few false arms, but the flict it had hoped to bait never happened. So, when it became apparent that its enemies would be patient, it decided to test that patieh a bit of brutal theater.

  First, its drudges installed a sed, rger binding ring to aodate all three of them, and then, seeds from each were pnted and allowed to grow before the three trees were chopped down and buro ash.

  It was done on the night of a full moon to ehat the show reached its intended audience. Despite how terrible of a se it was, Lunaris tempted to intervehough. Instead, Tenebroum feasted on the agony of its prisoners alone and then proceeded to twihe trunks of the new bodies together while they were still flexible saplings.

  The trees resisted this, and it was forced to use steel s that had been profaned with terrible engravings to force them into an unnatural shape long enough that it started to bee perma. It was only when their forms began to blend that it started to work on their spirits.

  Tenebroum was a cruel God, but in many ways, this was the cruelest thing it had done si had given Kelvun his richly deserved reward. It had to be, though, both because of the assumed audience of this project, and because of the level of brutality that would be wo destroy three individual spirits, and turn them into one new monstrosity.

  At first, they ehis monstrosity silently. Eves servants began to feed its prisoners more poison and pruheir brao force terribly unnatural symmetries on it, they did nothing. It was only when it began to pruheir very souls that they began to beg once more.

  The Lich hoped that their silent screams would carry for many miles for those with the ears to hear them. It was only when those wounds were fresh that it began to stitch them together that it could see a glimmer of what they would bee when all this was done.

  The Lich was very familiar with the idea of sharing its soul with others. It had done so since almost its earliest days. Initially, the shade and the murderer had warred and feuded in its heart, but by the time the mage and pieces of its first dozen victims swirled there, too, it had bee normal.

  It would never be normal for these three godlings, though, and with a midnight thread spun from pieces of its own tattered soul, it began to turn three women into one. For now, it started with minor enough operations. After all, they hardly hree heads and thirty fingers betweehese rounds of psychic surgery were incredibly taxing for them, of course. They had to be. All of his subjects wao die.

  So, Tenebroum would have to give them frequent breaks and occasionally stop poisoning them for weeks at a time. Despite that, progress was made. Slowly, wounds healed closed, thoughts began to mix, and day by day, what had been three fae aiful women became a terrible chimera.

  Eveogether so tightly they would never escape, they still weren’t one by any stretch of the imagination, of course. They warred within their strange braided tree as they fought to preserve themselves at the expense of the other two Goddesses that now shared their soul.

  It was a losing battle, though, and in the end whatever this produced was uo look like any of them.