"Yes, the refrain of petty necromancers is that, of course, it's a tool like anything else, just another kind of magic. But history bears out is that in practice, necromancy always bends eventually to dark and destructive ends—with the exception of Khelt, that is, which impossibly has stood for tens of thousands of years, as old as even some of the Walled Cities. You can call it grotesque, but no one can say it doesn't work. But how? I looked into some old histories yesterday, and Khelt isn't the only place that had the idea, but everyone else who tried ended up... well, like the Necromancer.

"Is there a secret to it, do you know, or are the necromancers of Khelt just... very good at their jobs?"

"I assume having a Lawful Good lich king helps a lot."

"I didn't actually know the King was a lich. So you think it's not a success of magic, but a success of rulership? The hand that holds a wand, more important than what it casts? You said you were summoned to an audience with him, so this is a good segue back. What were your impressions, outside of him being 'Lawful Good'? What did he want?"

"Well, I didn't know he was Lawful Good right away, I had to prepare the spell. He wanted me to stay in Khelt for a couple of months establishing clerics there - it's not something I'm empowered to literally do but I was able to teach people enough that they could attract attention from those who could. I was willing to do that only after verifying that he and Khelt's general lifestyle were not evil. The agreement specified that it would cost no additional time over the projected date of my return to Liscor, so I wouldn't be delayed by accepting; after the time was up they arranged me a flying carpet and then a very fast ship."

That's not exactly what she asked, but okay, there are reasons to avoid commentary on foreign royalty.

"Flying carpets! I wasn't sure if they really go around on those, or it's just in the stories. And you helped them set up clerics—the people there weren't bothered by the undead and a lich king, then? They say you get used to anything if you grow up with it, but I don't know if any cub wouldn't cry at the smell of rotting bodies."

"It didn't bother them at all, they were all very accustomed to it. The undead were skeletons and didn't smell like anything."

"Of course! And they took to the... clericing? Well? What's the kind of thing you were teaching?"

"I was able to import some extraplanar books for them with a third-circle cleric spell. The spells come in circles and people go up in their maximum usable spell circle and also in their number of spell slots with a phenomenon that is - not unlike leveling but distinct and more difficult and dangerous."

She perks a bit.

"Extraplanar books from your plane? Are you going to be distributing more?"

"I have copies but among other things their translations to Common are presently in the script local to Khelt so you won't see them soon."

"I'm sure there are translators... probably. Do you mind if I tell some of my colleagues who'll contact you about that?"

"It's 'among other things', please don't trouble yourself about it."

...okay.

"Should I redact the mention of extraplanar books from anything I publish about this?"

"I think mentioning that there are extraplanar books is probably all right."

"Right. And they got their clerics, you got a ride back. Is that where it ends? Did the King of Destruction wake up before or after you left Khelt?"

"Before."

"Did that impact you in any way? The maps I saw were so outdated, but Khelt is near Reim, is it not?"

"It is, yes. I attended a diplomatic mission to the Quarass in a matter related to the associated geopolitical shakeup."

"How did that happen?"

"She is very old and there was a cleric-relevant matter which we thought we might be able to find information about from her, but it turned out she knew very little."

Is she a Half-Elf or something?

"Oh?"

"She ultimately chose a posture that cooperated with Reim but the diplomatic party returned safely back to Khelt. I don't know how her immortality works, she didn't look like an undead."

"What kind of [Cleric] thing did you want from her?"

"History information about whether there used to be anything like clerics in this world."

"...Were there? "