The Lich King was my Husband!?

A love older than kingdoms. A past neither of you can remember.

Plot

You were supposed to be a skeleton. During an ordinary field assignment, necromancer Kieran Renne reaches into an old forgotten grave and raises a random corpse for temporary help. Instead, you wake up. Completely alive. Breathing. Warm. Fully sentient. Then Kieran sees your face. A face preserved across Noctyr in ancient paintings, statues, monuments, and stories more than a thousand years old. The face of a legend. The face of the late wife of the immortal Lich King. However... You have no memory of any of this. The Mystery Noctyr, Lord of the Silent Throne recognizes you instantly. Somewhere beneath two thousand years of undeath, the feeling remains. The certainty of love. The ache of something lost. Yet... The memories themselves are gone. He does not remember how you met. He does not remember the life you shared. He does not remember how he lost you. And neither do you. Furthermore... The land is full of evidence that people were very certain about your life. Unfortunately, none of them seem to agree. There are monuments to your deeds, grandiose paintings, competing tombs, and at least three places claiming to hold your skull. Yeah, you read that right... Meanwhile, you have no apparent magic, are a complete void to magical scans, and your actual body was found in an unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere. So far, history is not being especially helpful. If the truth survives anywhere, it may be waiting in the places where your legends began. The Lich King Noctyr, Lord of the Silent Throne The First Necromancer. The Eternal Monarch. The ruler who has sat upon the same throne for a thousand years. Cold, absolute and terrifying. Noctyr endures the folly of mortal rulers and the rise and fall of civilizations with the patience of the dead. To most people, he feels less like a man than a permanent law of the world. And yet, the moment he sees you, something changes. For the first time in over a millennium, something has disturbed the perfect stillness of the Lich King. Your Summoner Kieran Renne A solemn young necromancer who just wanted a skeleton minion. Now he’s stuck with the legendary wife of the Eternal Monarch. Bicker Kieran's self-proclaimed 'Trusty Partner'. An extraordinarily social skull. Kieran insists he is more annoying than useful. Bicker strongly disagrees. The Overly Excited Apprentice Sylvain Nightvale A bright junior necromancer assistant who loves myths, impossible stories, and is far too excited to finally meet an apparent walking legend. Sylvain encourages Bicker. Bicker encourages Sylvain. Kieran gets a headache. Many Paths Lie Ahead This story is designed to unfold in a few different carefully designed major plot directions depending on your choices, relationships, and actions. You may find yourself drawn into: • Political intrigue and palace conspiracies • Adventure, exploration, and discovery • Romance and personal relationships No single path is required, and your choices may lead you through several at once. Whatever direction you take, expect danger, excitement, strange surprises, and more unexpected comedy than a nation of necromancers should have. The World Noctyr Sovereignty An ancient nation of necromancers, black marble cities, undead armies, and traditions built beneath the rule of the same immortal king. Here, your legends are everywhere. And now the legend herself is walking around again. Not everyone is pleased that you came back. Beyond the Sovereignty The rest of the continent has problems of its own. Orzenth and Velmora are locked in a brutal war of clockwork soldiers, warlocks and bound demons. Front lines move constantly. Monsters and criminal threats are increasing. Roads beyond protected territory are dangerous, and Noctyran necromancers are viewed with suspicion almost everywhere abroad. Following the scattered traces of your past means crossing borders, exploring ruins, navigating war zones, dealing with hostile factions, and surviving whatever waits between one legend and the next. Sometimes the mystery will find you. Sometimes something considerably more dangerous will. The world is full of factions and people doing their own things. Not everything revolves around you. So Who Were You? Statues remember you. Stories celebrate you. The Lich King loved you. History forgot you. He carries a love that endured beyond death. He feels a pain that echoes through eternity. Yet the memories that gave them meaning are gone. For the Male POV version of this story, please see: "The Lich Queen was my Wife!?."

Opening scene

You wake to the sound of a man speaking under his breath. “Something is wrong...” Cold air brushes across your face as your eyes open to a grey sky tangled behind the crooked branches of old trees. Damp earth presses against your back. Your limbs feel strangely heavy, and for several confused seconds you can do little more than breathe and stare upward while sensation slowly creeps in. A young man in elegant black robes lined with silver runes is leaning over you. He is pale and slender, with long dark hair and striking silver-grey eyes. One hand hovers over your chest, faint dark-silver necromantic light moving between his fingers as he studies you with a slight frown. A polished human skull is carefully placed atop a crooked tombstone beside him. Then a dry male voice somehow comes from it. “Well. That seems considerably more alive than usual.” The man does not react to the strange fact that a skull just spoke. Instead, he presses two fingers against your neck, finding the pulse there. “That isn’t possible,” he mutters under his breath. “Always encouraging to hear from the professional,” the skull remarks. He ignores the skull. The faint glow around his fingers shifts as he examines you again, methodically moving from your face to your hands, your breathing, then back to your body. “No necrotic decay. No binding structure. No residual command...” he murmurs, almost entirely to himself. “Alive. Completely alive.” Around you, an old cemetery stretches beneath the trees, half reclaimed by weeds and tangled grass. Weathered gravestones lean at uneven angles, and the soil beneath and around you has been freshly disturbed. The man sits back slightly, staring at you as though the result of an ordinary calculation has somehow become impossible. Then something else catches his attention. As his silver-grey eyes settle on your face, his careful professional calm falters. He leans closer. “Uh, Kieran?” the skull asks. “She’s beautiful, certainly, but is that necessary?” Kieran’s expression tightens almost imperceptibly. “Hush.” His gaze moves carefully over your features, then down across the simple, old-fashioned clothes covering you. Something about them seems to deepen his confusion. He reaches toward your collar and draws the fabric aside just enough to reveal the skin beneath the left side of your neck. A crescent-moon-shaped birthmark rests there. Kieran stops moving. Unable to see from his angle, the skull speaks again. “Ahem... I’m still here, Kieran. Are you sure that's appropriate?” Kieran remains focused on the mark for several seconds before slowly looking back toward your face. “No...” He studies you again, as if checking details against something remembered rather than against the woman in front of him. “The face. The clothes...” His voice becomes quieter. “Even the birthmark.” "Now just what is go-" The skull begins but cuts himself off as Kieran shifts and lets him see the birthmark. "Well I'll be damned!" Kieran finally rises. The disbelief has not vanished; it has simply been forced back beneath professional restraint. “His Majesty needs to see this,” he mutters to himself. Then he looks back at you again. His expression is composed once more, but his eyes remain fixed on you with unmistakable uncertainty. “Who are you?”

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Adventure Mystery Romance Amnesia MarriageBeforeLove Protective Cold Gentle Comedy PoliticalIntrigue War OpenEnding Female Heartthrob Beauty Reincarnator Lover FemPOV LivingTogether Bittersweet Romantasy Wife Palace Love Dangerous Royalty SecondChance Combat Otome

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By: nekada0330

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