While I thought it preferable to have help with the quest, who could I turn to? I had my doubts about the whole situation with Charles and the Guards. The behavior of all of them was more than a bit suspicious, leaving me no one I really felt comfortable relying on, which was familiar territory to be honest.

Even so, I felt strangely betrayed. Surely I had not started trusting Charles, had I?

I crossed the street and moved in the direction of the gate and the horse I had ridden here. No matter if I was on my own or not, I thought it wiser to leave, if only to consider my options in greater safety.

I had not yet gotten all the way to the horse when something struck me as odd; the horse stood stiffly and its flanks were not moving with the steady breath of earlier. I slowed my pace, as I furrowed my brow in thought. I did not know all that much about horses, but this seemed strange.

My suspicions were proven to have merit as the horse turned its head. It had a gray metal spike, which shone with a dim purple light, sticking out of its left eye. Something that surely should have killed it.

I was not sure which was more unsettling, that someone had done such a thing to the dumb beast, or that I had not noticed. I started moving backward as I saw that the animal was not only undead now, but also apparently untethered as well.

This had to have been the work of the Guards; the fact that the monstrous rabbit showed up just as they left was suspicious, but now with the undead horse, their involvement was all but a certainty.

One question that really made my gut clench was, just how involved was Charles? He knew where I lived, knew the woman who owned the house, and probably knew more about me and what I could do than anyone else at this point. But the idea that Charles was one of the corrupt Guards did not sit well with me, I had to be missing something.

Why would anyone bother though? While I did not think the slim amount of information I had gathered here meant much, I could be mistaken. But the situation I now found myself in might not have anything to do with this village in particular. Had Charles told anyone what I could do, and this was an attempt to get me out of the way before I caused problems for anyone? It seemed as if whatever was going on was adversarial to the Order, was that Archive entity involved in this? It felt unnatural that I was at the point where I probably trusted the Order the most.

The horse gave off a disgusting sound as it turned gracelessly around to face me. The creature was very large, standing quite a bit taller than I, something I had found mildly terrifying when it had been alive and mostly docile. Now, it was decidedly unpleasant.

I hurriedly withdrew several Copper beads of Ice Lance, threw, and activated them.

The sharp shards of ice sunk deep into the chest and neck of the horse. The damage did not seem to faze it nearly as much as it had the rabbit, which had died from a single one.

Despite having several ice lances sticking out of it, the undead creature moved towards me with a lumbering gait, accompanied by wet squelching noises from its wounds.

I kept backing up as I withdrew more beads of Ice Lance; I threw and activated the five I had palmed. Three of them sunk into the neck and torso, one hit its muzzle, and the final one made a loud cracking sound as it impacted the horse's skull and sank in by half its length.

The undead horse stumbled to a stop, and slowly tipped over.

You have been victorious! You have slain an enemy! You gain 0 Experience!

You have defeated an Undead: Horse, you have been awarded 606 Experience!

The horse was dead, more dead? Deader? I now had to leave on foot, which would be quite a bit slower. I did not know how many of the undead creatures there were in the area, and I had used up close to a third of my Ice Lance enchants, leaving quickly would have been preferable.

In order to have some protection, I activated a Minor Shield bead in each hand and put them into the pockets on my pants, one on each side. I presumed that should be far enough apart for the enchantment to stay active and stable, which seemed to be true.

I was quite upset with myself for not settling my Traits and Abilities when I had peace and quiet. I vowed to myself never to leave such choices unmade, when I was safe and had the opportunity to make them. I wanted every advantage I could get, and hoped I was not making a mistake by dealing with it now.

I focused on bringing up my options of Traits and Abilities, to no apparent effect.

I had time to truly start to worry before the Order finally responded. Why had there been a delay? That had never happened before.

Acolyte of the Order

You have chosen to work with the Order, though for personal gain rather than any sense of loyalty.

Effect: +10 Constitution, Sense Domain

Breaker of Bonds

You make your own path and will not follow in the footsteps of others.

Effect: +6 Perfection

Faced the Emptiness

Effect: +6 Willpower

Inspect, rank 1

You can perceive the properties of items that are not of your own making.

Cost: 10 Mana

Cast Time: Instant, Intentional

Range: Touch

Upkeep: N/A

I wondered if I had not been mistaken when I first thought about what Traits and Abilities meant. I was now starting to suspect that they were more of an opportunity than a cynical commentary on my recent past; as if I stood at the cusp of something and could choose to embrace it or leave it behind. Which also made me wonder, did my choices of Traits affect me beyond the obvious?

The Traits I had on offer this time were all very good, but Acolyte of the Order stood out, clearly offering much more than either of the other Traits. It felt quite a lot like a bribe, which I had no problems with.

Inspect seemed like it could be very useful, but compared to the sheer survivability of ten Constitution, branching, and getting whatever Sense Domain was, the choice was rather obvious. Even the description seemed to suit me very well.

If I was being played, it was very well done, though not exactly subtle. I was not that sure I cared though, as long as I could get something useful out of it. It was a lot like my relationship with Stravos to be honest. Though the motivations of the Guard seemed to be less clear and focused than those of the Order, despite me not knowing much of what the Order wanted, other than presumably getting rid of the Undead and maybe the Archive. Were they connected somehow?

I chose Acolyte of the Order.

Congratulations! You have reached a branch in Constitution! Choose your path!

Hardy

Your tenacity is exceptional, pushing the boundaries of what your body can survive.

Effect: Constitution increases your Health by another 60%.

Regeneration

You survived and learned that nothing is more important than recovery.

Effect: Regain three Health every hour, your Stamina recovers 20% faster.

While regaining Health might be very useful, I could do that using spells or enchantments; the pure and massive survivability that Hardy offered was simply too good to pass up. I assumed the choice might have been more difficult if I was a Warrior or a Rogue.

This single Trait I just got, represented quite a significant increase in power, which made me wonder: just how powerful was someone like Stravos? Or even Charles for that matter?

Sense Domain

You are attuned to the differences of the Worlds.

Effect: You can perceive the limits of a Domain.

While more than a bit ambiguous, I supposed it might be useful.

My traits settled, I should now leave this place. I was not very far from the unimpressive gate to the village, but moving toward it, I was distracted by a purple line that ran along the street on my right. The line curved somewhat, and a moment of study showed that it circled one of the buildings. At least now I had a guess as to why I received such a good Trait, had that been the cause of the delay even? Just how did this fit into the rules the Order seemed to follow?

I looked at the open door and the dark interior beyond; it seemed rather obvious that this was where the source of the undead could be found. And I would not be going in there. I rubbed my eyes, the stress and my lack of sleep was getting to me, but even so, I grinned slightly.

Seventeen stones of Fire Burst later, and the house was a quite merry bonfire. No doubt it had been overkill to use so many, but I was not about to err on the side of restraint when setting out on my path as an arsonist.

This did feel way too easy though, the amount of experience and the Ability improvement were quite significant. I could not help feeling that the other shoe had yet to drop. But as of yet, there was nothing to be seen; no rabbits, no horses, no spirits, and no undead abominations.

I jumped backward with a start as the purple line on the ground moved with a lurch. My heart raced and I had to forcibly keep myself from hyperventilating. I looked around and could see that the whole circle around the building was moving, not just stretching itself towards me. Which was both comforting and frightening, quite a dichotomy.

I had thought there would be something inside the building to destroy, but if it was moving, did that mean it was a someone?

It only took moments for a silhouette to show in the door to the burning building; a man came shambling out and he was horribly burned. I put a hand over my mouth as if that would make his visage less horrifying. Most of his skin looked like it had melted, and parts of him were sizzling and popping like a piece of meat over the fire. The only thing on him not totally ravaged by flames, was the tabard he wore. It seemed to resist the fire, as it was not even singed.

The burnt man wore the tabard of the Champions of Truth.

As he fully came out of the fiery inferno the man turned his face to me, showing empty eye sockets and a cracked and split forehead from which came a black and creeping light. The light moved as if alive in the air, rather than shine as light was wont to do.

Obey me!

I stumbled backwards as a voice tore through my mind. I grabbed beads of both Ice Lance and Acid Splash. I threw and activated them just as the burnt man waved a hand at me, in a clumsy motion. A wave of dark light sped quickly to strike my chest, setting off a flash of blue light, throwing me quite some distance backwards to land hard against the ground.

It felt as if many eyes rested on me, scrutinizing me while I gasped futilely for air. Both the blow to my chest and back made it impossible to draw breath as my torso cramped. I could not hear anything other than my own heartbeat, increasing my panic as I could not tell what was going on around me.

I needed to get up, now!

I rolled over and scrambled to my feet, despite not yet having been able to draw breath. Tears ran down my face as I looked for the burnt man.

One of the ice shards had missed him, and now stuck into the wall of the building, but the remaining three had struck his chest and neck. Acid Splash had covered a fair amount of his upper torso and head. Strangely colored smoke rose off his body as I finally managed to draw a ragged and sobbing breath.

Health.

Health: 29/320

The amount of Health I had lost was staggering, while I had not been anywhere near full Health before the attack, I was now frightfully close to death. One more such attack would kill me outright.

I half ran, half scrambled along the street and out the gate into the forest.

I fled, gasping for air while making small whimpering noises as the pain in my chest made itself known with every breath. I kept scrambling through the underbrush for some time, staying away from the road and out of the open.

**

I sat panting against a tree some considerable distance from the village, as I emptied my pockets of the dust that was all that remained of the beads of Minor Shield. I decided that unless something else happened, I was not moving from this spot until I had healed myself fully.

I spent a very long time, casting Minor Heal, resting to get Mana back, and casting again. The light of the day gave way to evening and then night, morning came and the sun rose as I stubbornly healed and waited for more Mana. My head slumped more and more as time went on.

**

I woke with a start, to a moonlit night, and groaned. I was hungry, my mouth was dry enough that my tongue stuck to the inside of it; at some point I would wise up and start bringing provisions with me when I left home, no matter how short an excursion I was planning.

I had been stupid. Setting the house on fire had been clever, doing it while low on Health had not been. Standing in the middle of the street like a buffoon, watching the thing burn was beyond idiotic. Not preparing for a possible attack was also stupid. I could blame some on tiredness, some on inexperience with actual combat; but all in all, this had not even been a real fight, it had been a farce I could only count myself lucky to have survived.

I rubbed my head as I thought on what I knew. There had been what appeared to be an undead Champion of Truth in the village. They belonged to the Temple. Since the Order did not seem too fond of the undead, I would have assumed the Champions of Truth would have been opponents of whatever was going on here. As I had a hard time seeing why anyone would be willing to become undead, it stood to reason that it was not a voluntary thing. Which did raise the question: what did the Guards get out of leaving me as they had. Coin?

A more frightful thought came to me, the swamp had been all but depopulated of life, from what I had seen when I passed through it. The Unraveling Spirit and the undead abomination indicated that there were undead in that area; just how many undead creatures were there in the swamp, and what were they planning? Did undead plan? The strange intelligence I had seen in the rabbits eyes and the voice that assaulted me near the burnt man made me suspect there was someone directing the undead.

Perhaps now was the time to travel and see the world, in particular the parts far from Logate.