After talking for a while, Arthas became less resistant and gained some understanding of Deren. In particular, their speculation about the Stratholme incident brought the two closer together.
Deren stopped putting on airs and said sincerely, "Prince Arthas, let's not talk about meaningless things. For Jaina's sake, I need your help with some technical matters."
Arthas glanced at the silent Jaina. She nodded gently.
That left him with nothing to say. "All right. Ask me whatever you need."
Deren extended a finger and lightly tapped it against the stone table. "I need to create a High Elf Undead, but I have some special requirements for her."
"An elf Undead?" Arthas found Deren's strange request incomprehensible and shocking. Finally, he said, "If there is an elf's corpse, I can still raise her as Undead."
Deren's fingers continued tapping on the table, revealing the turmoil in his heart. After considering it for a moment, he made another request. "I also need to make some modifications to this elf Undead. For example, replace one of her pairs of hands."
Arthas was utterly confused, but he still said, "Replacing a pair of hands isn't difficult either. Corpse-stitching techniques are no challenge for us."
"What about the soul? When an elf corpse is raised as Undead, what happens to her soul?" Deren asked.
Arthas explained, "A corpse that has been dead for a long time has no soul. Once raised as Undead, it is merely an empty shell, a walking corpse controlled by higher Undead."
"Can a soul be infused into this empty-shell walking corpse?" Deren asked urgently.
Arthas found it even stranger. He had no idea what this adviser intended to do. He had never encountered such a situation before, so he did not know how to answer for the moment.
"This matter is