Taking the levitating book in his grip and reading the inscription on the front, he gave a genuine smile. “I thought all copies of this had been destroyed by the Inquisition… most excellent.” 

Scalpel gave a curt nod to Amaretto’s other comments, raising an eyebrow at the last statement before busying himself in the pages of the book. Most of it seemed to be awful gibberish, but there was enough here that he could work from to make the theories a reality with some adjustment. He signalled a nearby Sphere and the little orb quickly flew over with paper and a pencil for Amaretto to use, bobbing back and forth lightly before it was taken.

The giant seemed to hunch over the paper, scribbling quickly a list of names and locations before levitating it back wordlessly for Scalpel to take. He did so with a slight twist of magic, settling it on his table and glancing at it silently. The location listed was part of the outskirts of Canterlot main; he remembered the area from his long residence there during his childhood. It was not exactly High class, but high enough to keep them in within boundaries of the city, near the outskirts dominated by the lesser landowning nobility.

He looked up from the list and nodded again, straight face and businesslike, “You’ve fulfilled the first part of your bargain, so I shall fulfil my part. I will send out messages to the appropriate contacts and have them dig up and bring their bodies to this location. This may take a couple of days however, and to properly work them into useable forms it may take any longer, depending how far I can push post-mortem rejuvenation spells before actual resurrection, by my account it may take a week in total to finish all my work on them. I’ll call you back to the house in order for you to identify the corpses in a couple of days from now, and then once again when the process has been completed and they have been resurrected.”

Placing the book down on the side table next to him he took another draught of whisky, before continuing once more in his dialogue. “You must take note that from what you have told me these bodies have been dead and decaying for some considerable time. I must inform you that I am uncertain how far I can restore the original tissue to the way it was by magic alone, doubtless the process of decay may have gone too far for most of the body to be properly retained. Most of the resurrected I have worked with have been the recently dead and deceased, so I can make no promises regarding their stability or even good condition. Much will have to be removed and replaced in order for your loved ones to have functional host bodies, so I doubt they’ll be entirely the same when they come back, at least physically. The discrepancies should disappear in time however, much like the scars…”

He turned to face Amaretto once more, with a face a mask of professionalism and sharpness “Regardless, I assume you have local lodgings which you can retire to? The inn down in Woodswatch provides an excellent service if I recall correctly, and for a cheap price too, although if you are short on cash I can provide some room here, under observation of course. I can’t have you wandering off and touching things you’re not supposed to, or snooping where you aren’t supposed to be.”

“Now I really must see to other business, but before I leave, do you have any questions which you want answered? Within reason of course, I can’t tell you everything, even if I wanted to.” He levitated the book off the table once again and began trotting past the pony, pausing at the living room doorway, a dour stare meeting Amaretto’s intense one, “Otherwise, Tsan here will see you out.”