“What?”

The rotund man got even redder in his face, grabbed Marrow by his coat, and screamed: “Are you a moron? An imbecile?”

Marrow curiously looked on at the actions of the fat man. Was this some type of hug, like Catlyn and Ikarius had done before? And why was the man spitting all those drops of liquid against his mask? Was that also part of the ritual?

He did not really care about the liquid one way or another, but he did wish that the man would not scream quite as loudly, as his hearing was rather sensitive. For that matter, the smell of the man was not particularly pleasant either, as he just had realized. It stank of… well, not something he had ever consciously smelled, so he had no comparison… but it was not good.

So what to do?

Hugging back might prolong the interaction, so that was out of the question. Hitting the man was a possibility, but since the man had just done that to two other people he had talked to previously, it seemed as if that was also part of the ritual and therefore something that perhaps should be avoided as well.

Out of ideas, Marrow decided to just answer the question. “I am a [Lich].”

The face of the man flushed even more if that was possible.

“This is not the time for bad jokes, you clown!” He screamed lividly. “Are you making fun of me? Listen, you little jokester, I recognize your voice! I am sure I know you… And I will get back to you once I have found out who has killed my familiar.”

As then he raised the volume of his shouting even further while shaking Marrow from left to right.

“Who. Is. The. Killer?”

And Marrow actually knew the answer to that. Perhaps if he told him the man would finally stop shouting?

Marrow stretched out his bony arm and pointed toward the staircase. “That is a [Killer]!”

Suddenly the whole room quieted down, everyone waiting curiously to hear the words that would decide who was to face the wrath of the big man next. For most people, the conflict was just another type of entertainment, and a free one at that, but they had been mildly uncomfortable at the willingness of the enraged man to engage in violence just against anyone, including, potentially, them… so the relief of everyone not at the staircase was palpable.

Of course, those that were in any way close to the staircase slowly moved away so as not to be implicated by association, or Koronan forbid, be accused themselves.

And Catlyn, positioned right on the staircase, suddenly had a sinking feeling that she knew where this was going. Frantically, she waived at Marrow trying to prevent him from saying what she was sure was going to come next.

With beady eyes, that promised a violent death to anyone responsible for the demise of his familiar, the overweight man glared at the staircase.

“Who? Tell me!” He commanded while shaking Marrow violently again, without even looking at him.

“Ikarius,” Marrow offered helpfully.

“Who is Ikarius?” The man hollered, dropping Marrow to the ground.

Immediately, all but four of the people at the staircase looked obviously relieved. And of those four, three involuntarily looked at the last person, Ikarius, dressed as he was, inconspicuously, in his long coat.

Like a freight train, the fat man plowed his way through the crowd, trampling everyone not getting out of his way.

“I am going to KILL YOU, you cretin!”

Naturally, Ikarius was not waiting for his untimely demise, but turned around and rushed up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Borgar, massive as he was, stepped in front of the staircase, effectively blocking it. Raising his hands placatingly, he said: “Now, calm down, my fr-“

At which point he was hit in the legs by the belly of the massively overweight man and crumbled to the floor. But even someone as heavy as the fat man could not bulldoze his way through Borgar without some ill-effect. And Gamul capitalized on that.

When the corpulent man stumbled, Gamul stepped up and fired a massive uppercut into his jaw, dislocating a couple of teeth and causing him to fall over backward.

Right into Elise, who, with a shriek, fell down, dropping the full tankards she was carrying and spilling the precious liquid contained within all over the patrons around her and the floor.

And people took umbrage – not so much for being spilled on, a common enough occurrence in a tavern such as this one, but for the prized alcohol being wasted.

Some jumped at Gamul, whereas others piled onto the fat man. And yet others used the opportunity to settle old grievances. And in no time a massive brawl was underway.

Marrow looked at what was going on with intense curiosity. It was all very strange to him. Should he participate?

Before he could make up his mind, a raspy voice whispered into his ear, or at least the side of his head, because Marrow only had holes instead of ears. “I don’t like snitches, my friend. See you on the other side.”

And then Marrow felt something slide across the front of his robe, cutting it open.

Marrow stood still, waiting for something else to happen. But nothing did. Was he supposed to move now? Or say something?

“Yes!?”

“Shit, I hate magic users. Always some sneaky amulet or ring of protection,” the voice grumbled angrily behind him. “But a good blade of steel will deal with ya just the same!”

With a grunt, the man slammed something into Marrow’s back, and he felt a blade slide along one of his ribs. “Take that, you filthy little maggot.”

Marrow considered what had happened for a moment, weighing Catlyn’s warning to not cause trouble, kill anyone, or create mayhem in any way, against the need to defend himself against an attack. And then he slammed his elbow behind him, hitting the man in the side before turning around. With a clatter, a dagger fell to the floor, and a rail-thin man displaying a rather beautiful pallor on his face stared up at Marrow with wide-open eyes.

“What… who… how are you alive?”

Marrow tilted his head slightly to consider the question. For once, he had understood all the words, and it was apparent to him that the man had operated under the wrong premise. Not that it changed anything, at least not for Marrow.

He leaned in closer and whispered: “I am not alive. Or perhaps I am. What is an undead? A dead that is alive? Or perhaps a dead that is still dead but animated? Does animation make it alive? What even is life?”

“W..what?”

Marrow was disappointed. He had thought hard for a very long time to find all the words to express what he wanted to say and put them in the correct sequence. And all he had received was another question.

“Tell me, are you alive?”

“Y.. y.. yes.”

The man seemed to have trouble saying words.

“How do you know?”

“I… I can.. I mean, I don’t know. I…”

“Warm body?”

“Warm, what? What do you mean?”

Marrow considered for a moment. He thought he had said the right words, but perhaps he needed more fill-words…

“Are you alive because your body is warm?”

“I… what?”

Marrow was getting a bit frustrated by the lack of response from the man.

“Or perhaps because you are breathing?

“Breathing?”

“Yes.”

“.”

Instead of responding the man just stared at him, his eyes glued to the new gap in the robe right underneath his head.

“Why… b.. bones!”

Marrow considered the response but could not make head or tail of it. Now quite annoyed, Marrow gave up on having a philosophical conversation and simply slammed his fist into the side of the head of the skinny man with a sickening crunch. Immediately, the reedy fellow collapsed to the floor like a stone and stopped moving.

Looking around, Marrow considered his further options. Somehow, no one had seemed to pay any attention to his altercation with the thin human, which…

Marrow looked down at the human.

Surreptitiously, he glanced around once more, and then quickly bent down. He raised his mask and opened his mouth impossibly wide – ever since he had tried to crack Borgar’s skull, he had been curious if eating a human’s brain was any different from other brains.

It turned out, that ‘no, it was no different.’

“Do you want to try to absorb [Rogue] brain? Chance of success: 10 percent.”

“Yes.”

“Instead of growing in experience, you choose to increase your potential for future growth by absorbing a skill from a [Rogue]. Attempt: Success!”

“You have gained the new skill [Sneak Attack] from absorbing the brain of a [Rogue]”

Quite delighted about having heard the voice again, Marrow put the mask back in place and stood up. He had no idea what a sneak attack was or how he could use it, but that was secondary.

What now? All around him, people were fighting furiously, clobbering each other as if their life depended on it. Which, possibly, it did. More than one person was laying on the floor, unmoving, or screaming in pain, and Marrow could make out multiple weapons that had been drawn.

And there was Catlyn, screaming furiously at a huge man that was bashing Gamul on the top of his head with a tankard. For a moment, Marrow considered helping Catlyn and Gamul – not because he felt obligated or any particular bonds of friendship… but the fact was that he somewhat knew them and they knew about him, and despite their various failings they had been useful – which perhaps was a good enough reason to assist them.

But then he noticed the little green creature laying flaccidly next to the wall. Marrow had already deduced that this was the familiar the fat man had been talking about, he just still was not sure what exactly a familiar was.

Apparently, it was a good thing to have such a familiar, judging by how upset the man had become when the creature had died. Which made Marrow wonder if it had been a good decision to eat the rat back in the dungeon. But perhaps…

Marrow looked at the prone body of the creature on the floor and hesitantly stretched out his arm. A thin tendril of inky energy shot out of his hand and through the glove into the smushed green creature. Immediately, Marrow felt a pressure developing in his skull that was somehow related to the dead kobolds he was controlling in the dungeon, and he instinctively understood that he needed to release one of the zombies if he wanted to animate the little familiar.

Without a second thought, Marrow proceeded, and the dark energy suffused the small green body. Slowly, the creature’s legs started to twitch, until, eventually, the beast turned upright and hopped toward Marrow. To a neutral observer, it was a grisly sight – the creature’s entrails were hanging out of its burst abdomen, drawing a wet line across the floor, and the eye that had popped out of its socket, was barely hanging on, precariously supported by a thin string of muscle and nerve tissue.

Marrow scooped up the creature and put it on his shoulder, just like he had seen the corpulent man do before. And then he waited for something to happen.

--------------------------------------------------

“Oh no, you won’t,” Catlyn screamed at the mountain of a man right in front of her. “Get off my friend!”

“You are going to be next, catgirl!” The man hollered while pounding on the head of Gamul. “You are kind of cute though, so maybe I will let you go.”

Which was the wrong thing to say.

The hair on Catlyn’s body stood up straight, and with a snarl, she tossed herself on the back of the massive man. Forgetting about her magic, her staff, and all the other more effective options she had available, she began to claw at the man’s face, while howling like a banshee.

“Get off me, you little minx.”

“Minx?” Catlyn screamed even more enraged if that was possible. “I am going to show you what this minx will do to you!”

“Please do,” the man smiled saucily, despite the blood running down his face. “Just give me a moment.”

“This is not how you talk to a beautiful lady,” Borgar’s deep voice suddenly said from behind the giant of a man.

Immediately, Catlyn’s hair smoothed out a bit as she smiled, pleased at the offhanded compliment she had received. At least, until Borgar continued. “And neither do you talk to my hairy friend like that.”

Borgar smirked at Catlyn while delivering a savage uppercut to the kidney of the massive man.

“What?” Catlyn shrieked in indignation. “Borgar, you are such an ass!”

As the huge man staggered from Borgar’s powerful hit, Gamul finally managed to find his bearing for long enough to get back into the fight.

“By Gallamutra’s fists, I am going to bust your head for pounding on me like that!” He yelled at the stunned man before bull-rushing his legs.

And while the man was about twice the size of Gamul, this actually worked to the advantage of Gamul now as he managed to further unbalance the giant and cause him to crash down to the floor.

“Gotcha!” he shouted, before pummeling the downed man with both of his fists. With Borgar’s and Catlyn’s help, the three of them quickly subdued the massive man and moved their back to the staircase to catch their breath.

“What the heck happened? Why did Marrow say that Ikarius killed the familiar?” Gamul asked while huffing and puffing for air.

“I knew we could not trust him,” Borgar whined.

“I think I know what happened,” Catlyn said. “And it is partially my own fault.”

Quickly she recounted to the others what had happened back in the dungeon, which finally explained how they had ended up without weapons in the middle of Gyssal.

“So that fear must have come from Marrow,” a voice suddenly said from right behind them.

Borgar yelped and jumped away from the stairs, while Catlyn and Gamul whipped around with fists up, ready to defend themselves.

And there, melting with the shadows, was Ikarius, finally dressed in regular clothes.

“Don’t sneak up on us like that,” Catlyn hissed. “You almost gave Borgar a heart attack!”

“Hey,” Borgar shouted indignantly from a couple of yards away. “I was not afraid, I simply moved to… to get some space.”

Gamul, Ikarius, and Catlyn looked at Borgar.

“What?” He asked with a frown.

“Right,” Ikarius finally said. “So, Marrow is gaining skills and becoming dangerous… what should we do about it?”

“I think we should just move to a different tavern and leave him behind. Things will sort themselves out, and maybe we won’t be implicated like that,” Borgar proposed.

“No way,” Catlyn immediately protested. “It is Marrow we are talking about!”

“.”

Now it was the others’ turn to look at Catlyn.

“Don’t you feel connected at all?” Catlyn asked pleadingly after a short moment.

“Catlyn, who was freaked out about Marrow being a [Lich] just a short while ago?” Gamul asked. “Do I have to remind you about the Spike Boar piglets again?”

“I get that,” Catlyn acquiesced. “And I have to admit that I was scared of the whole [Lich] business. But by now, I have realized that I had been stupid. It is still Marrow, after all. And he has saved us many times by now. That has to count for something, right?”

“Lass, it does, but you have to admit that his behavior does bring trouble as well. Look, this massive brawl around us,” Gamul paused for a moment to shove a stout woman back into the fray. “Without Marrow, this might not have happened.”

“Do you know who killed that familiar?” Ikarius asked Catlyn. “It was Marrow. I saw it.”

“No way,” Catlyn protested. “Why would he do that?”

“Why does Marrow do anything he does?” Ikarius mused philosophically. “Look at him right now, he is standing right at the edge of the fighting, staring at the wall… there must be something that has caught his interest.”

“What is it?” Catlyn asked curiously. “Borgar, you are tall, can you see something?”

“Glad to hear that I am useful for something,” Borgar grumbled but craned his neck to try and spot what Marrow was looking at. “There is something there, a shape. Oh no… he is not…”

“What is it? Catlyn asked with unbridled curiosity.

“You won’t believe it,” Borgar said hesitantly.

Ikarius and Gamul looked at Borgar expectantly.

“Come on, spill it! What is he doing now?”

“I, well, how should I say it…”

“Borgar, please!”

“It is… sorry guys, I actually cannot see a thing. Too many people moving around in front.”

Gamul, Ikarius, and Catlyn stared at Borgar with an incredulous look.

Borgar burst out laughing. “You should see your faces!”

“You are such an idiot, Borgar,” Catlyn complained. “What if he is doing something terrible? You know that we might get involved simply by association, right?”

“Well, how bad can it be if he is just staring at the wall?” Borgar said dismissively.