The progress was slow. Alishra had become used to the pace but it was still bothersome. She had already scoured through her spellbooks twice already but maybe it was time to look for a third time. There were countless wonders she could accomplish with her magic but something as mundane as moving a pile of dirt wasn't one of them. All she wanted to do was plunder the treasures from the crypt and be done with it. It seemed like such a trivial task but it wasn't the sort of work that her magic was made for. Potions, charms, and illusions, yes, manual labor no.
It had been a simple thing for the witch to enchant this part of the graveyard and to keep the people from the town from coming near while the word was done. It had been just as easy for her to link a pocket dimension back to her cottage so she could keep her home nearby. When it came to moving dirt though the only thing that would do was manual labor. Not hers, of course, Alishra couldn't even recall the last time she had resorted to doing something so menial herself. Perhaps when she had been an apprentice all those years ago?
No, she was above such things now. But the work still had to be done. She could have bewitched some men from the town to help her but there were easier ways to handle things. Charms would have raised more questions and she would have had to charm anyone who noticed as well. It was better to just make use of a couple of dozen husks.
Alishra had used them a few times before and the ritual was simple enough. Once she had brewed the potion it had just been a matter of enthralling the graveyard caretaker. Unlike everyone else in the town, he lived near the graveyard and no one would notice him missing, but he would notice the work being done. She usually preferred not to make thralls of people, yanking a person's soul out was such messy business, but it was either that or dig the hole herself. The choice was clear.
The enthralled caretaker had begun acting on her will immediately upon consuming the potion and began digging up the most recent graves. He was hardly different from the husks she was going to make; a mindless, soulless creature that would be driven by its most base desires if it wasn't for her magic keeping it focused.
Once the caretaker had pulled the bodies out of their graves, Alishra began to work. For a witch as talented as her it was a simple matter of using the concoction to reanimate the body and revitalize it and then to use her magic to bind it to her. There was a limit, of course, once the bodies were skeleton they didn't serve any purpose for her, her magic could only do so much. In a few hours, she had a score of husks working for her and digging out the hidden crypt underneath the mausoleum.
The desiccated grey-skinned husks weren't the quickest of workers, but they didn't complain and they worked tirelessly. That left Alishra to relax in her cottage and wait for them to uncover the crypt. After nearly a week they had and she had ventured down into it for the first time. Unfortunately, portions of the building had collapsed, so more work needed to be done. Fortunately, there were more bodies here and they had been preserved, so after a bit more magic her workforce had doubled.
There had been some interesting discoveries. The crypt was older than she had suspected, which only made her more impatient to discover what relics might lie within. After a staircase had been cleared out by her husks she had ventured down deep enough to see a pool of green liquid. Something stirred within it, but whatever the creature was it could sense her power and it kept to itself, leaving her and her husks alone.
Still, the excavation was taking longer than Alishra had expected. She had hoped to have this all done in days and now it had been going on for over a week. Between maintaining the glamor around the graveyard and binding all of the husks she had been finding herself more and more exhausted. This all better be worth it.
Alishra had taken to checking on the progress once a day. A few passages had been blocked and they should have been cleared out at this point. A thin silver line appeared in her cottage and it opened into a circle for just long enough for her to step through it and then it winked out of existence. She was in the graveyard now and passed by the grey bodies of her husks and down into the crypt.
They walked past her, carrying stones and sacks of dirt they had been removing. Their shambling movements didn't lend themselves to speed but at least they were working around the clock. The white-haired witch stopped at the bottom of the pool and watched as something moved through the green liquid. She didn't let her thoughts linger on what it could be. It wasn't worth killing whatever it was, it would only drain more of her energy and it seemed harmless as of yet.
She peered down the corridor the husks were currently working on. It wasn't cleared out yet, but it was close. Alishra resigned herself to remaining here the score of minutes it would take her minions to finish it. It wasn't in her nature to wait for anything and Alishra found herself pacing around the pool.
Alishra had often been accused of being vain, and while she never admitted it, it was undeniable. The only creatures who had laid eyes on her in over a week were mindless husks and she still didn't leave her cottage without looking just perfect. The witch was draped in long back robes, she wasn't above playing to type. The robes didn't hang and obscure her body though. She had made sure they were well-fitting and highlighted her form. It wasn't worth being nearly ageless if you didn't show off a bit, was it? The soft black fabric was held around her waist by a cloth belt and the front of her robes hung open.
Regardless if the eyes were undead or not, Alishra had to look her best. With the front of her robes spilling open the tops of her busty pale breasts were revealed. She had the robe open in such a way that it clearly showed what she had on underneath. Her breasts were barely held back in a tight-fitting if revealing bra that was attached to a collar around her neck. The sides of the robes were slit up along to her hips, revealing the black thigh-high boots she had on that attached to a garter belt around her waist. The slit climbed up so high that it even flashed the bands of her panties as she impatiently paced around the crypt.
Finally, a husk went by carrying the last part of the collapsed ceiling and Alishra was able to walk past her husks and into the chamber. As soon as she was inside the chamber she put her hands on her hips and shook her head in disappointment. All there was in the room was a single sarcophagus, hardly the relics she was hoping for. Still, there were other chambers to clear and this was at least one more husk to work for her. She gestured to the stone lid and two of her husks walked up to pull it off.