A mostly intact structure peeks out from the undergrowth, completely covered in ivy. A heavy stone slab covers where the door of the building should be, sealing the entrance.

Reud gestures at the rock. “Inside there is where I have been operating out of. How about you open it up, test out your strength. Just move the slab to there.” He points at a patch of dirt with a deep indentation.

Lilia smiles, flicking her hair back in a familiar gesture. Closing her eyes, she draws in a deep breath, holding perfectly still for a moment. Then her eyes snap open, blazing with purple light. A brilliant white glow covers her skin, flowing over the curvature of her muscles.

Squatting, she wraps her arms around the rock, then with a grunt lifts the huge rock straight into the air. Lilia staggers a few paces to the side then drops it, the rock slamming down into the groove.

Reud smiles widely. “It seems your strength is coming back. How does the body feel? How does your magic feel?”

Lilia frowns down at her hands, flexing her fingers. “My body feels irritatingly weak, this woman really neglected her training. But despite that, my magic is stronger than before. It feels strange too, like it wants to cast something different.”

Reud taps his chin. “That is interesting. The seeker did attack me with some ice based magics, maybe an echo of that remained? Does that mean magic affinity is inherent to the body and not the soul…?”

“Oy, Reud, snap out of it. I’m starving.” Lilia says, snapping her fingers in his face.

Reud looks up and smiles ruefully. “Of course, it’s this way.” He leads her on into the building.

Faint light from small holes in the roof of the building illuminates the bare stone interior. To one side of the entrance sits a travel pack. Opening it, Reud rifles through for a moment before pulling out a bundle wrapped in cloth.

“Finally!” Lilia exclaims, bounding forward and snatching the bundle from him. Quickly unwrapping it she reveals some sort of sausage and a selection of dried fruits. Ravenously she begins to tear into the food.

“Thish ish sho good.” She mumbles around a mouthful of food. Suddenly, she stops. Smiling sheepishly she offers the remaining morsel of sausage to Reud. “Did you want some?”

“That’s okay. As a result of all this.” Reud gestures to his pale skin and bone white hair. “I don’t need to eat. You finish that off.”

Shrugging Lilia turns back to the food and tucks in.

Reud sits in silence and watches her polish off the rest of the package's contents.

“Wow, that was so much better than the brown sludge we’ve been eating for the last few years.” She frowns briefly, “A few centuries ago that is. That sounds so weird to say.”

She walks over to the pack and stuffs the cloth into its open top. “So what now?” She asks.

Reud looks up. “Honestly? I don’t know. I didn’t think at all about what would happen after I brought you back... What do you want to do?”

Lilia looks thoughtful for a few moments.

“Well, first I think we need to get you back to civilization. If nothing else, some new clothes would do you wonders.”

She points to Reud’s threadbare robe, its pattern long lost to the ravages of time.

“Then, who knows. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Sounds good to me.” Reud says. “But you should know that the world isn’t the same as it was before you… passed. The economy is in shambles, the new rulers of Rudase set taxes sky-high, sending out glorified thugs to collect the exorbitant taxes. Only nobles are left to practise magic, and it is rare for any of them to have an interest in helping the commonfolk. As a result, adventurers are all but extinct, and magical beasts run rampant, destroying what they please.”

Lilia smiles. “If the adventurers are all but extinct, that means a lot of work for us then, doesn’t it. Just like old times.”

Reud nods, the corners of his mouth pulling into a faint grin. “You are right there my love, as always.”

Slapping his legs, he stands.

“If we are going to go as adventurers, then I need to finish preparing something. Come this way and let me show you some of what I’ve discovered.”

***

Reud heads to the next room, Lilia trailing behind. The floor here has collapsed, the rubble leading down to an old tunnel. Reud lights two lanterns, handing one to Lilia, before leading her into the tunnel. Soon the light from the opening has vanished and only the flickering lantern light pushes back the darkness.

“What is this place?” Lilia whispers, pressing closer to Reud.

“This used to be the old sewers.” Reud responds, taking her hand in his own. “Ever since the waterworks collapsed a few centuries ago it’s been dry. I’ve found all sorts of rooms down here to experiment in.”

They pass a number of doors set into the stone wall before Reud pushes one open and steps in. The room is unfurnished bar a single large chest, no decorations or carvings marking its smooth grey walls. The contents of the room is far more curious though. Ten skeletons stand upright against the far wall in two rows of five. Their component bones float unsupported in the air, in roughly the place they had been when the original owner had been alive. Laid to the side of the door is another skeleton. This one, however, is covered in tiny runes, carved into the bones.

Reud gestures at the skeletons. “This is one of the things I discovered. A persons’ bones hold far more power than most realize. With a little magical encouragement the bones can be made to forget that the flesh that used to support them no longer exists. Much better than zombies. Smell better too.”

Lilia eyes the motionless crowd of bones to one side of the room.

“Aren’t they sort of… frail?”

“You’d be surprised.” Reud responds. “The bones are surprisingly durable, given that they can float back and forth to absorb blows.”

Lilia raises an eyebrow at that. “What if I grab it and crush it?”

“In that case, the two parts of the bone will be pulled back into place, and the skeleton will continue. You need to physically separate the bones, or break the enchantment, to stop them.”

“Very impressive.” Lilia says, standing and walking over to the closest skeleton. It stays perfectly motionless as she reaches out and pokes its floating skull, sending the bone rocking back and forth.

“So do they only do what you say or can I boss them around?” She asks, amusing herself with pushing random bones and watching them float back into place.

“They will take your verbal orders, assuming the orders are possible, and don’t contradict any of mine.”

Happily Lilia claps her hands. “Alright you boney lot, stand on one leg!”

Chaos breaks out. Some of the skeletons dutifully raise one leg off the ground, balancing on their other one. Some more of the group try the same but haven’t yet mastered balancing and fall to one side, knocking over others. A few more of the group take the opportunity to stand on the fallen femur of one of their comrades. The clattering and screeching of bone on bone echoes throughout the hall.

“Stop! Stop!” Lilia shouts, waving her hands frantically. She looks over at Reud with a pleading look in her eyes.

“They take orders very literally.” Reud says, chuckling. “They don’t have souls, instead just having minds I have constructed for them. They will try to interpret and carry out orders as best they can, so make sure you are explicit in what you tell them to do. So maybe ‘Raise one of your legs off the ground’ would have been a more suitable order.” Mentally, he tells the rattling crowd to return to their ready positions and the racket slowly dies down as the skeletons reform.

Lilia backs away from the skeletons, turning towards the runed skeleton. “What’s that one?”

“That is the reason we are down here. It’s a project I’ve been working on for a while, a skeleton that can channel the body’s original magic. This is what I’d call a greater undead, a skeleton containing a bound soul. Until now, I haven’t had the mana spare to finish it.”

Lilia peers at the runes curiously. “Who was he? Or is it a she?”

“He, and I have no idea. However, when I found these remains in the crypts it had a… resonance. An echo of power. I think this was someone special, but there's no way for me to find out more.”

Reud walks over to the skeleton and sits down. “Give me a little while, and I will finish it up.”

Lilia pouts. “So I’m just going to wait here whilst you do your necromancy stuff?” She wiggles her fingers in what Reud can only assume is supposed to be a magical fashion.

“Don’t sulk, it won’t take long.” He responds, chuckling softly.

Lilia tosses her hair back from her face. “Fine, do your necromancy things, I’m just going to take a little rest over here, this body is… unbalanced.”

Reud sits down and focuses on the task at hand. With practised ease he inscribes a spell circle on the stone floor with a stick of chalk from one of the many compartments in his robe. The familiar action of spellcasting is comforting, soothing his racing pulse. Helping him calm his nerves. I can’t believe it all worked. After all this time. She’s finally back.

The circle finished, Reud begins transferring the bones to it, stacking them in a random pile in the centre before taking a seat beside it. It is only through sheer force of will that he stops himself constantly glimpsing at Lilia, squashing the foolish feeling that if he looked away she’d disappear from his life again.

Raising his hands into the air Reud begins to chant, the arcane language calling and binding magic to his will. As the magic flows into the world and touches the circle it is absorbed, and the circle begins to glow.

His chant slowly changes in tone, from the energetic call that draws the magic to him, to the deep guttural growl that invokes necromantic forces. With careful experience he weaves the magic into the bones before him, his will feeling out each individual piece and imprinting it with the spell. As each bone is marked it lifts from the pile to hover in the air.

By the time the final bone lifts into the air sweat is beading on his brow, the strain of holding each piece in his mind taxing him. Quickly, he completes the spell, imprinting the magical energies into the bones floating before him. The bones reshuffle, organizing themselves into the correct configuration for a human. With a clatter the skeleton lands on the ground, stumbling slightly but quickly righting itself. Silently, it stands perfectly still, waiting for instructions.

Reud lets out a long breath, standing slowly as his sore legs ache in protest. He looks around to find Lilia sitting with her back against the opposite wall, knees pulled up, resting her chin on her hands as she watches him.

“All done?”

Reud nods.

Lilia pushes herself up to standing too. “I assume this means Boney over there is coming with us?”

“Sure is.” Reud says, walking to the large chest and begins rooting around within. “What kind of necromancer is complete without a minion or two?”

Lilia strides over to the skeleton. “Well, seeing as we are going to be travelling together we’d best get to know each other. I’m Lilia. May I call you Boney? How about Bo? Bo, I like that. You are Bo from now on.”

Reud stops his digging, and turns around to see Lilia shaking the skeleton's arm up and down in a one-sided handshake.

“Seriously, Lilia... I literally just made him. He’s not ready to hold a conversation.”

Lilia grins back at him. “It’s alright, I think he likes his name. You like being Bo. Yes you do.” She rubs the skeleton’s skull in an affectionate way.

Reud shakes his head and smiles, before turning back to the chest. He pulls out a set of mail armour and a bastard sword.

“Here, these should fit.” He says, laying them to one side.

Lilia pulls on the mail with practised ease. Reaching down she grabs the sword, hefting the heavy chunk of metal into the air. She gives the blade a few practise swings before grunting in agreement and buckling it onto her waist. “This will do for now. Not as good as my old equipment but I guess that is long gone.”

“Sadly yes.” Reud responds, pulling out more equipment. “I only just had enough time to capture your soul in a gem. Your body, I’m afraid I had to leave.”

He stands back and orders the new skeleton, Bo, to get equipped. It shambles over and clumsily hitches a cloak over its body, and picks up the offered longsword.

Finally, Reud pulls out a purse, clinking with coins. “Here, you might as well hold onto this, you’ve always been better with money. The denominations are about the same as you remember, just the faces stamped are different.”

Lilia takes the purse and ties it onto her belt.

“If you are ready, shall we head out?” Reud asks Lilia. “There’s a village called Littlestream a good few hours walk south of here.”

“Let’s go.” She responds with a fierce smile.