The Raven Man - True Identity

"So I'm here, and I'm asleep, which I know you like, since I'm less likely to stab you when I'm unconscious," she said. "What do you want from me?"

"I wanted you to find me, and it seems you have. You've grown into what I knew you could become. You're almost ready for me."

"Ready for what, Lim-Dûl?" She stressed his name as hard as she could, watching for his reaction.

To her disappointment, he simply laughed. "It's been some time since I've heard that name spoken, in or out of dreams."

***

"Great necromancer. Tyrant. Defeated and disgraced, bound into a magical object that was then lost."

"Then you know I do not rest, nor ever shall. Even you, Lili, couldn't lay me down if you tried. The chain of which I am a single link is too long and too powerful." He sighed. "We thought to add you."

"You mean you thought to have me for your own," she snapped. "You were molding me into your perfect vessel. Did you ever ask if the Liliana Vess you were crafting was the one I desired to be?"

***

Saw the first Dominarian mage to tap into the power of death itself, the first man to hold the strength of the grave in his hands and make it dance to his whims. Saw his spirit, his power, pass down into his own student, possessing her, and then a new vessel not long after, over and over again, all the way to Lim-Dûl. Saw his ring change hands until it fell into those of her ancestor, who buried it here to hide it from those who would abuse it—but that wasn't the end. She saw the Raven Man, a piece of the ancient necromancer's fractured soul, stirring in a vessel she knew all too well, called to him from across the planes by a young woman's necromantic dabbling. She saw the same woman finally sever the link when she freed herself from the Veil, the chain stopped cold by an absence of hands to hold it, and saw what had been meant for her.

***

HOMECOMING