After getting a hold of Jiji the nun and taking her for safekeeping to the fortress, Alkayne accompanied by a group of his elite soldiers once again sent out to explore the area and hopefully find a proper way to reach the frozen lake tribes, as otherwise, he and his men would have to try their hands at some rock climbing and considering the rumbling caused by avalanches and often powerful winds blasting through the mountains, it simply sounded like a way to turn his loyal warriors into flat versions of themselves as they hit the ground at incredibly speeds.
The weather was so awful that quite a fair bit of his troops had to stay as reserves outside the realm, Alkayne had focused on flexibility, forming what could be compared to a miniature vanguard with some of his men having very precise capabilities, he had also brought beasts along but few of them could go through the snow without severe impairments, the birds that were supposed to be capable of surveying areas from above couldn't handle the bursts of winds, they would always be thrown severely out of balance.
So by foot they would explore and map the realm, it might not sound very important, but documenting the terrain and places would be crucial in the future as Alkayne would need to make the proper preparations, it would be up to him to properly convert the living populations to undeath, to cull any negator and the likes, considering that there was a faith to account for, he would also be required to properly integrate the local belief system in the worship of death, meaning that Dame-Sommer would become a member of death's pantheon, even if unofficially as that would only truly happen when this divinity was made into an undead.
Though the minor lord had reservations on whether or not Dame-Sommer was an actual goddess, he could not deny that she was prayed to.
In any case, although he wasn't forgetting to prepare for the future, Alkayne did not delude himself into thinking that this would all be done in little time, nor was he planning on going fast for the sake of it, he wasn't Herlbe, he was no fan of rushing into things head first and solving all arising problems with brute force.
If anything, Alkayne would rather play it slow and nice, if he could ensure the loyalty of the kalt-people whilst they were still alive, then the process of conversion would only be so much smoother.
And he did definitely see a way to earn their admiration and respect, considering the sheer amount of accursed wandering around the mountains, the curse was making ravages amongst their people.
Of course, finding the source of the curse and stopping it might be very heroic and work, but Alkayne viewed this curse as a potential weapon to add to the empire's repertoire, no, he was instead planning on moving all of those accursed toward their villages and swooping in to save the day.
To do this properly however, he needed to better understand the nature of the accursed, their bodies were tough, they were capable of easily enduring the unforgiving cold and presented obvious signs of mutation, to make proper tests, Alkayne and his soldiers sent out to capture many of them.
The congress carried both black torches casting darkness and brilliant one casting light, the former to make themselves appear as a nondescript mass of dark, the later to force the caught accursed into submission as while they might not be completely fearful of fire, the flames carried upon these torches was not so simple and they were wholly unwilling to get close.
Fire born from the queen's sun was indeed frightening.
The soldiers were easily subduing stray accursed, making to catch hold of both mutated and unmutated ones, meanwhile, Alkayne focused to see if the unknown creature would appear this time or not, although he often heard its cries echoing from far away, he didn't trust it enough to put his guard down.
Simultaneously however, he was trying to find a solution to another issue his plan would inevitably face, it would be pretty weird for the kalt to be very trusting of unknown soldiers that were all clearly corpses, decayed and putrefied, the livings, even if they did not know of undeads, would ask themselves questions about that.
Since a group of masked, unknown soldiers wasn't that much better to build up trust, at least he, as the leader, would have to demonstrate something to the kalt, something that has to do with their culture and was respected… Something that would prove to them that he most certainly doesn't hold, what they would deem, nefarious purposes against them.
'Dammit… Surely, this isn't a challenge General Loimos predicted that I would have to go through…'
The only thing he knew, for now, that should place himself as a reliable figure in the eyes of the people was to receive a blessing from Dame-Sommer, by getting that Heissbloom and doing what that definitely somewhat insane nun clearly wanted him to do.
'O death, I swear it's for work, to accomplish my mission efficiently!' as an ancient undead like himself, the thought of getting intimate with a living was somewhat aggravating, it was quite literally like getting in bed with the enemy.
'The others will definitely make fun of me for that'
The expedition was called a success as they managed to bring twenty accursed with them, locking them up in the underground area for examination and further experimentations, aiming to discover additional weakness, the process of how they undergo mutation, as well as how to have them do what Alkayne would require of them in the near future.
Returning to the top room of the castle, in his own private quarters, Alkayne found Jiji in the same spot where he had left her, meaning inside of a rather spacious and comfortable cage.
'And I am keeping her locked up too… This is a terrible look' he commented to himself, though the nun seemed awfully happy to see him back.
"Where can that Schneebiest be found?" he asked, poised and stoic in tone and delivery, but reluctant nonetheless.
"I'll lead the way! I know the path by heart from the church!"
"I do hope that this wasn't all made up in an attempt to escape" he said, somewhat hoping that this was the real reason, but Jiji was so awfully ridiculous about it all that the story and her personality just had to be true.
"Of course not! My dream is to be amongst the nuns who serve as conduit for the delivery of a blessing of Dame-Sommer, The Mother Of Green Fields and Warmth shall bless you mister undead!" she paused suddenly, her gaze shifting down.
"Though, since you are a corpse or whatever… Can it even do the job?"
"Don't worry about that and just focus on taking me to the right place"
"Lord Alkayne, the first report was delivered, your successful settlement within the realm has been made known" having just popped into the room through a blast of feathers, Cecili immediately spoke up.
"Perfect timing, Cecili, I'll be requiring your assistance"
The nightbird tilted her head.
"How may I be of help?"