From a distance, someone who must be their leader appears.

The creature is more Black Mist than anything else, clawed hands and a floating skull attached to a body that is not obviously physical. It's riding a skeletal horse similarly animated by Black Mist, and does two circles around Avedra.

"You're new," it—he—says as he slows his trot to a canter and then to a full stop. His is voice made up of several different voices speaking at the same time, not exactly echoing, but rather reverberating. "Not from here. Not corrupted yet. Curious."

“I’m not,” she agrees. “And you’re very lucid, aren’t you. What’s your name? I’m Avedra.”

"Thresh," he says, and at no visible command of his the other undead pull on the net in a way that magically transforms it into a circle of rope that twists itself around her waist, wrists, and feet, such that her wrists can't move too far from the waist and her feet can't move too far from each other. "You'll be a good test subject."

“Testing what, exactly?” she wonders, eyeing her new bindings thoughtfully. Alarming that they can do this, but actually this is a major improvement over the net for escape attempts.

"How outsiders hold up under our rule."

He turns around, then, and starts riding off. The other undead follow, not as fast as him but fast enough that Avedra will need to walk fairly quickly to be able to stand upright rather than be dragged around.

Oooookay. You know what, sure, she’ll go along with this. Away to wherever, with her charming undead posse.

“Are you guys as conversational?” she wonders, lightly.

"Yes," replies one of them, in an echoy voice similar to regular zombies' and not like Thresh's. "We band together, so we can remind ourselves of who we are. I am Janilla."

“Oh I see, that’s useful. Is that how it works for everyone here? Need to help each other pick up the pieces?”

"Far as we can tell," says another one. "—Perrak. My name."

“Nice to meet you both. So, what’s my life looking like, under your rule?”

"...'s pretty nice, actually," says Perrak.

    "Our leader Thresh wants to bring the prosperity and glory of the Blessed Isles to the world, that all be able to enjoy the same luxuries and comforts we do," says a third one, unintroduced.

“Cool. Uh. You know things here are super broken though, right? The place I just came from was strictly speaking much nicer, even if it’s not as nice as the Blessed Isles were.”

"What are you talking about? We have the best universities in the world, and food, and art, and music, and architecture, and philosophy, and study of magic..."

“You did,“ she corrects. “But it’s very different now. Have you visited any universities lately? Because I couldn’t find the one I went to when I studied here.”

"You're surely mistaken. I went to the College of Enchantment just yesterday."

“Can you take me there and show me? Because if it’s anything like the rest of this place…” she’s lacking anything broken to point to at this very moment, but she waves illustratively. With both hands, since they’re tied together. “Actually, better question, can you remember the entire period of time from yesterday until now.”

"Yes and... I mean I can't remember literally every minute of it? I don't know what I ate for supper yesterday—"

    "Breaded chicken, lentils, and mashed potatoes," offers Janilla.

"—okay I guess I remember it now."

Uh huh. Right.

“Do you keep a calendar? Notes, maybe? Is it all just you reminding each other?”

"Well it's both, you can't just keep stuff in your head or you'll forget everything."

“Can you show me them, please?”

"When we get there, sure."

“Okay,” she agrees.

And until then, she’ll just keep on being a prisoner going where they want her to go. Is it at least capital wards? A little?

Nope! It's actually entirely orthogonal to that direction, going away from the main "populated" areas.

That’s strange, but. Okay.

“Why don’t you make your base closer to civilization?” she wonders, after a while.

"...politics," says the fourth and last one, who has been silent until now. "Helia wants to hoard all of our wealth to itself and not share with the world."

    "That's a bit uncharitable," says Perrak.

"I call it like I see it," they shrug.