Chapter 518 The Burial Catacomb
BAM! BAM! Mira swung her hammer down, nailing two wooden beams together at the house's foundation. "I need more nails!" She stood, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she stared at a shed in the distance.
"Did you hear me, Urdalin?"
The dwarven blacksmith Arad brought stared out of the shed, "I have a bucket ready. Send someone to pick it up."
"You heard her, kids!" Mira stared at the children playing around, "Bring that here,"
As the children rushed toward the shed, Mira looked back at the tens of houses getting built. Every capable man and woman were banding together to build houses as fast as possible.
CRACK! CRACK! Meryem walked out of the forest carrying a massive tree on her shoulder and a wood axe in the other, "Mira, where should I put this?" She asked.
"That one is a bit big. Put it behind my shop. Ask the mage we hired to dry it out before the other carpenters start chopping it up." Mira replied, pointing aside.
BZZZZ! Zephyr flew out of the forest. In her tiny hands, she lifted two massive buffalos. "Aella asked me to deliver those," She dropped them beside Arad's house.
It looked strange seeing that palm-sized fairy flying with two massive creatures. She sure could haul a heavy load.
Several men and women stopped working and headed toward Zephyr, "Thank you, we will get them cleaned and butchered."
Zephyr nodded, "We did get rations from Alina, and even workers and tools. But you better get used to living independently around here."
"We did get permission from Lord Arad to plant farms after we finish the houses. I can't even believe he exempted us from taxes for a few years."
"You don't even have a roof over your heads. Not even food to survive. What is there from him to tax?" Zephyr stared at him.
"I heard dragons take human sacrifice,"
"You heard right, but Arad doesn't do that." Zephyr flew away, "Do your best to build a functional town first."
Behind them, Tina started bringing knives and bowls from Arad's house for the people to start butchering the buffalos.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Isdis rushed into the village on horseback, stopping beside Arad's house and staring at Tina. "Where is Arad?"
"He's out with Eris. The burial isn't over yet." She replied, "Remember how many there were?"
"A few hundred thousand. As much as the victims of total war," Isdis sighed, "Well, the first segment of builders and architects from the capital have arrived. They are ready to start mapping the mountain for the castle."
"Did he say you could handle them when they arrive?"
"I mean, what if he didn't like my designs? As the castle's master, I want him to get involved." She looked around, "Won't you say so?"
"You should have enough time. Remember, he wanted you to focus on defenses first? Start by building the walls." Tina stared at her as she walked toward the buffalos.
"You're right," Isdis smiled, "I will build the best defensive wall the kingdom ever saw," She rushed back out on her horse.
On the other side of the mountain foot, Arad stood with Eris and some villagers. He finally found a spot suitable for burial. But burying on the surface can cause some trouble. Monsters could desecrate the graves.
"Loci, you said we can use this place," Arad said, looking around as a flower rose from the ground.
"I did," She replied. With one of her leaves, she pointed at a massive boulder, "That fell a few years ago from the mountain peak. It blocked a cave entrance."
"We can create a catacomb inside?" One of the villagers said, staring at the massive boulder. "But how are we gound to move that?"
"Of course, that's me," Arad took a step forward, his eyes glowing with a purple light as his body expanded.
He transformed into his draconic form and grabbed the boulder, dragging it away from the cave's entrance.
The villagers stared down, "It's dark," One of them looked at Arad, "There is no risk of them becoming undead?"
"That risk is always a thing," Eris stared at them, "For that reason, I want you to build me a funeral house above the entrance. I can either cremate them to put an end to the undead problem or bury them whole, but you have to pay extra for the maintenance."
Burial is the easier of the two, and the way most people want to bury their families and loved ones, but that risks them turning into undead later. Funeral houses can prevent that in two ways. The first is constantly splashing the graves with holy water. Once a month should be enough.
Sometimes the deceased family are the ones to do it by planting flowers over the grave and watering them with holy water every now and then.
Such a procedure must be maintained until the body fully decomposes, which can be a pain when dealing with fighters' corpses, which can take decades.
Clerics, paladins corpses don't seem to birth undead, so they don't require much attention. But, they end up the ones with the most holy water spilled on them since clerics and paladins visit their comrades a lot.
The second solution is cremation. If there is no corpse to turn into an undead, there is no need to worry. This is what Eris preferred, and made the cheapest option.
"But," Eris scratched her head, "For now, let's start burying them. Payment doesn't matter now, does it?" She smiled, ^I'm sure building a whole funeral house covers my costs for the most, and I can see it as an investment.^
Arad shifted back to his humanoid form and walked toward them, looking inside the cave. "Loci, some people just entered the forest,"
"They are clerics from Alina. The Lord has sent them to help with the burial," Loci replied, "Should I lead them here?"
"We need all the hands we can have, bring them." He replied as he walked into the cave with everyone else.
Inside, he dug ten rooms and created four stone beds inside each of them. It's where Eris can cremate and prepare the corpses for burial.
As Eris worked on that, Arad started working with Loci to expand the cave into the vague shape of a catacomb. They can always redesign it later and make it look better, but for now, this will do.
The villagers helped clean and dig the graves, cleaning the outside of the cave and creating the plaques with the names.
The work started going faster when the clerics arrived to help, and they could start burying people at night. It wasn't just the villagers, even people from Alina came to see their relatives from Riverside before Arad could know it, hundreds of people were lined in the forest, wishing to bury their relatives.
Arad sat at the mountainside, watching as the people buzzed around the village and catacomb. "I hope no more troubles happen,"
At that moment, he could sense it. Two dragons enter his domain, and they are fighting.
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