Stella taught me that zombies are people who are alive and well but have had their minds overthrown by magic incantation. The look like they’re dead sometimes because it’s real bad for your health. What most people call “zombies” are merely animated corpses.
I asked KBD if T8 had been brought back to life like Stella’s mom wants to do for her. KBD reiterated that the girl is dead. Dead dead. As in not alive. What we’re dealing with here is something else.
“This is some very advanced shit” was her additional diagnosis.
Some really flashy necromancers can work their magic on a recently deceased body and turn them into a creature that is not alive but is animate and remembers some of its former life. Based on what the professor told me about “ghosts” I’, thinking that they take that “shadow” and bind it back into the body. Instead of animating dead like a puppet that you have to control it’s more like a drone with a simple AI.
KBD says that these creatures lack the drive to do more than maintain their existence. They carry out the tasks their master assigns to them and do little else. She said that’s why T8 has been doing weird stuff, her memories are all fucked up. She may remember food but she can’t really remember what it is so she’s been eating batteries and dead leaves.
KBD said that they technically still experience emotions and desires, just way way toned down. They might treat the love of their former life dying like you would treat dropping a twenty-dollar bill. “Oh, that sucks.”
She said that that the knowledge to do this is rare, and someone with the power to pull it off is even more rare. She said that if she and her sisters worked together they might be able to do it but she wouldn’t guarantee it.
When I told her that this seemed like a lot of trouble to go through for drug smuggling she shrugged.
“I don’t know, heroin is worth a lot of money I think.”