When Stathis woke up, she still felt like crap, not helped by it being sometime in the middle of the night. She felt a bit better, but her body was still sore and battered, the scratch on her hand stiff and swollen. Fortunately, the moon was full enough that she could see, Brina crashed out next to her, somehow sprawled across half the bed despite her small size. A scent hung in the air, a delicate perfume; had Janaxia come by while she slept? That was a slightly unnerving thought.

Movement outside caught her attention, a patch of darkness blacker than the surrounds, moonlight shining off metal. It moved closer, a roughly human-sized figure, something bright in their hands, approaching the wall. Stathis carefully woke Brina, putting a finger against her lips and whispering.

‘Someone’s getting close. Think it might be an attacker.’

Brina nodded, as they quickly dressed, Stathis grabbing one of her shortswords. The shape was getting closer, walking along the wall, looking for an entrance. It started to climb up, moving with eerie smoothness, simply sliding up the wall in a single action.

‘You keep an eye on it, I’ll go get ready to fight, and see if I can wake the others.’

She headed off down the corridor. A pale blue light shone out from beneath the door to the room Hakara had claimed. She quietly knocked, then pushed the door open – Hakara was studying, wisps of azure energy floating around the room as she quietly incanted to herself, renewing her spells. Half-formed runes and glyphs wavered into being before mingling and vanishing, a thin blue mist surrounding her. Stathis knocked again, louder this time, the energy snapping and vanishing.

‘I think we might be under attack, come with me.’

It took Hakara several moments to adjust, before rising to her feet, robes catching on the chair and dragging it for a moment with an ear-splitting screech. She stood, waiting in case there was any reaction, but nothing came. They moved to the entrance hall, Stathis carefully peering outside.

Hakara’s warding spells shed a pale reflection of moonlight, just enough to see the shape step onto them. One flashed, then another, bands of energy surrounding the figure – the robe they were wearing obscured their shape, beyond being roughly human-sized, with a knife or sword in hand. They struggled against the binding, twisting and writhing as they tried to break free.

‘Hakara, can you try and capture them? They don’t look friendly. I’m going to try and get closer. If it looks like anything is going wrong, then blast them.’

She nodded, starting to make mystical gestures, drawing power, preparing to cast a spell.

The door was not easy to open quietly or stealthily, it’s heavy weight dragging on the floor, until it was open enough for Stathis to slip out, glad for once she wasn’t wearing any armour that might have betrayed her presence in the light. The bands of energy around the person were slowly fading and blinking out as their magical power expired. As she crept closer, she could hear slight cracks and groans coming from it, as it twisted and moved, fighting against the holding spells. Glancing backwards, she could see a slight blue glow around the doorframe, as Hakara prepared to cast something – hopefully nothing too explosive or that would catch her!

She felt the gleam of light within her, and drew it forth, wrapping herself in it, an attempt at some form of protection, as she stepped in front of the creature. A wet hissing sound came from beneath a dark hood, strangely-jointed arms flailing and snapping against the bindings, as another confining ring faded away. She pointed her sword at them.

‘Who are you?’

A drawn out, hissing wheeze was the only answer she got, as the shape fought and wriggled, the last of the binding circles fading away. It stepped forward, arms coming up, one handing a sharpened sliver of something, moonlight showing a pitted and crudely shaped weapon, curled and curved. The other arm was far longer than it should be, with several joints, ending in a savagely clawed hand, sharpened claws looking viciously sharp.

It twisted towards Stathis, lurching forward, hunching low, the glinting shard leading the way. It sniffed and prowled, a mote of sunlight distracting it, as she slowly reached out and pulled its hood back. A scent of blood wafted out, a flayed and twisted face looking at her, features contorted into pain. A golden necklace was around its neck, shining bright against the tortured mess of its body. It reached forward with the knife, making it clear that the ‘weapon’ was a short twisting curve of oddly mottled metal, string wrapped around one end as a handle.

It hissed in pain as a sword was thrust into it, Brina striking from the shadows. It reacted fast, dodging backwards before counterattacking, sweeping out with claws, blood seeping out from Brina’s chest as she was slashed.

‘Stay back!’ Her shout drew the creature’s attention, body twisting unnaturally, one shoulder dropping fell beneath the other as it contorted to face her. It opened its mouth and hissed again, showing the severed stump of a tongue, unable to form proper words, if it could even speak. The cloak it was wrapped in was soaked dark and heavy, clinging oddly and shaping itself around the warped form beneath. It moved as if to swipe at Stathis, a blink of light suddenly flashing against its eyes as Stathis’ spell gave her a moment of sanctuary, giving Brina a moment to disengage and move back, out of range.

Then Stathis attacked again, the shortsword too small to get a decent attack in with, but still sharp enough to stab into it, reek of gore intensifying. A burst of sunlight burnt out along the blade, the stench of burning meat added to the vile smells as her blade bit into the thing’s shoulder, deep enough that any human would be incapacitated.

It didn’t seem to feel any pain, instead dropping low and stabbing out with the crude knife, marking Stathis along the ribs. The pain of the slash mingled with a seething, burning heat coming from the knife, as she felt her life being leeched away. Then Brina flanked it, giving Stathis another opening, more divine energy coursing around her blade. Bolts of mystical energy burst from behind her as Hakara opened up, darts of power striking home.

Under their combined assault, it didn’t last long, flailing and writhing and hissing to the end, even as its body collapsed out from beneath it, melting into a blood-stained mass, bones poking out from between ruined, stinking flesh, enough meat to form a body now in a reeking, melted heap. Bits of metal glimmered amongst the bones and meat, Stathis cautiously poking it with a sword.

Lodged in what had once been their throat was a small silver bowl, although darkened by blood. Stathis found a stick to hook it out, careful not to touch it in case of baleful magic, doing the same to carefully pick up the strange dagger, bringing it inside.

Hakara had already lit a torch, giving better light, although the flickering, shadowy torchlight did little to make the items look any better. Around the edge of the silver bowl were marks and dents, some that looked worryingly like teethmarks. And the weapon looked like ivory or bone rather than any metal, twisting into a vicious spike, and already stained with blood. Stathis sighed and carefully reached out to touch it with a finger, wincing in anticipation of pain.

She wasn’t disappointed, a snapping snarl of spiritual heat scorching a finger, skin reddening. She licked her finger, trying to cool it down despite the lack of physical heat. ‘Brina, you OK? Any idea what hell that thing was?’

Brina had one hand held over her side, blood sticking her shirt in place. ‘I’ve had worse, but if you wanna touch me with some glowy stuff, I ain’t gonna complain.’ She lifted her shirt enough to show her wound, peeling it away to reveal a trio of long scratches, still slowly oozing blood. ‘Those nails were like damn razors!’

Stathis carefully laid a hand on the wound, trying to be as gentle as possible. A warm glow washed out, the bleeding stopping, Brina’s wounds visibly healing.

‘Mmmm, that always make me feel tingly. Like wakin’ up after a nice sleep, y’know? Although I’d rather not be stabbed, I guess. That thing was fucked up, right, not just some normal weird mage-monster-thing?’

Hakara nodded. ‘It was not a natural creature, from what I could see. And this weapon has been shaped from living bone.’ She gestured at the knife without touching it. The shaping of flesh and bone in such a way is possible, but not something I’ve been taught. Such weapons drain life from those they strike.’

‘Yeah, I felt that. I’m guessing they have a controller or a master or something? Although it’s going to be those up in the tower, isn’t it?’ Stathis started to move her hand away from Brina, who held it in place, seeming to find the contact comforting.

‘It’s not simply necromancy though – zombies and skeletons are fairly simple constructs, if rather grotesque. But that creature was alive, I think, but bound like a zombie would be. That’s a strange mingling of magic, which I’ve not seen, although I’m aware of it being theoretically possible. You would need powerful and skilled wizards, or the aid of some artefact, and even then it would be the work of years to create a single such creature. Even draining the lifeforce of a person wouldn’t allow such direct control, they’d be fighting you and trying to break free. And to craft such a weapon would normally take someone as skilled as Miss Janaxia a year or more, so I would normally expect greater craft and care, and for it to be given to a more skilled servitor. This appears quire simply crafted, but is actually quite intricately made, in terms of what it does.’

A door banged open nearby, Janaxia walking in. She glared at them, clearly displeased. ‘Could you kindly try and be quiet, at such an hour!’ She looked at Stathis, her hand still on Brina’s waist. ‘And quite what is happening here? Hakara, just because Stathis and her… friend are staying up at all hours, you really should know better, you have your spells to prepare and suchlike.’

‘She was wounded, we’ve just been attacked.’

Janaxia approached, her elegant nightgown fluttering as Stathis removed her hand. She sniffed – yes, the scent was the same as from when she’d woken up earlier.

‘While I may not be the most skilled of healers, that scratch scarcely seems anything to be concerned about. I’m sure whatever petty scuffle this is can wait until morning. Unless there is anything else, kindly restrain your activities to ones that are quieter.’ She glared at them each in turn, lash burning with indignation. She hadn’t even got her usual cosmetics on, her hair mildly less sleek and tidy than usual, a few stray tufts poking out at odd angles, eyes looking strange when not rimmed with eyeshadow. ‘Hakara, as a mage you should be resting to preserve your arcane energies until needed, not wasting the night away.’

Without giving them a chance to respond, she spun and stalked off, closing her door with a solid slam, leaving only awkward silence until Brina spoke.

‘Heh, guess she needs her beauty sleep.’

‘Well, I’ll go dig a grave, you two rest up. Don’t suppose there’s enough stuff to burn it? Just in case it can get up again.’

Hakara shuddered. ‘I would hope not, although I do not know what the limits of its powers might be. What was that glow around your sword? It’s not an enchanted blade, is it? It appears quite mundane.’

‘It’s a skill I picked up. Useful against demons and undead and stuff. Anyway, I’ll go deal with the body. Brina, I guess the guard aren’t likely to care?’

‘Yeah, this place is pretty rough. Doubt the neighbours are going to come check.’ Brina checked her wound. ‘Thanks for the heal. Those claws were nasty. Want a hand?’

‘Thanks, but I think it mostly melted, shouldn’t need a big hole. I don’t want it around when the sun comes up, or any scavengers picking it over. I just hope there’s not too many more of those things, especially with whatever those creepy daggers are. Hakara, can you do something with it? At least put it somewhere safe?’

Stathis headed outside, back into the night, taking the torch with her. The thing hadn’t regenerated and was now a pile of wet bones soaked with blood, the dirt muddy where the blood had soaked down. It was already attracting flies, as Stathis began to dig.

A shouting came from the gate, torchlight warping through the bars. ‘Stop! What are you doing?’ Stathis looked up to see a group of guards on the other side of the gate, already pulling it open, swords at the ready. ‘Stop there!’

She stopped digging, slowly putting the shovel down. One of the guards came over towards her, torch spitting and flaring, the brightness making Stathis’ eyes hurt. They looked at the half-dug hole, still soaked with blood, carefully examining the bones. She could try and fly away, but there was the danger of getting dragged to the ground before she could escape. And “blazing wings of light” would stand out against the night sky, and draw more attention than she wanted.

‘Looks like she’s digging a hole for a body, sir.’ The one presumably in charge stepped forward and checked themselves. A full helmet covered their face, voice echoing oddly through the metal.

‘Take her in. And grab anyone else as well.’ Their eyes met, Stathis having a momentary sensation of fire and flames. She saw Brina poke her head around the door and then duck back out of sight. Stathis held her hands up, not wanting to start a fight. Another group were coming through the gate, weapons at the ready.

‘This was magically animated and attacked me, it was some kind of monster.’

The guard fished in the hole, pulling out a small golden necklace. ‘This matches what Lady Farnholt was wearing when she vanished.’

‘Looks pretty simple, then. The judge will decide your fate.’ The guards fanned out around Stathis, swords at the ready. She might be able to fight a few of them, but even getting away from this many would be hard, let alone fighting them off, especially without severely injuring them.

‘OK, OK, let’s not do anything hasty.’ She saw Brina still watching, sword in hand. Something like Janaxia’s mind-speech would be useful now. She tried to gesture at Brina to get inside, waving at her, hoping that she would wake the others and hide or escape. The odds of a fair trial seemed unlikely, but there was no way to fight free at the moment, at least that wouldn’t end badly for her. Brina ducked out of view, and shut the door, hopefully barring it shut and waking the others to get the hell out.

One of the guards prodded her with the flat of his sword, as she allowed herself to be walked to the gate. A black wagon was already waiting there, the door open and waiting for her, as she was pushed inside. Although it was too dark to see, from the sounds and smells, she wasn’t alone, as she knocked against someone, who gave a tired groan. She found a space on the floor, hoping she wasn’t sat in anything too gross. The wagon rumbled into motion, slowly moving away. Without any way to see, bumping around in the darkness was mildly nauseating, like being trapped beneath the decks of a ship. She tried to make herself as comfortable as possible, hoping there would be a chance to escape. Or that the others would be able to get out and find her.