Anastacia followed the priestess through the market and rushed into the inn, where Gilbert and Rosie were arguing about something with three guards. As she entered, one of the guards noticed her and gestured the other two to accompany him to the necromancer. They were clearly still a bit unsure about how to deal with her.

“Miss necromancer?” The guard that had noticed her asked. “Could you lower your weapons?”

Anastacia looked down at the new daggers in her hands and quickly put them away. They were sheathed but it was generally frowned upon to be holding a weapon while talking to a guard. “Uh… yeah, sorry about that. Is there a problem?” She asked, fearing that the whole ordeal with the paladin wasn’t over after all.

The guard took out a rolled-up map and spread it on the table next to them. It depicted the northern side of Valor and the areas immediately around it. Multiple spots all over the fields right outside the gate had bee circled. “There have been some sightings of skeletons here. They started appearing yesterday and have since moved a bit closer. Every time we try to approach one, it dismantles itself before any contact is made. Since you are the only necromancer in the city, we hoped you might be behind it.”

Anastacia shook her head. “No… I don’t do that.” She muttered worriedly.

“Are you sure? It’s not against the law or anything, nor are they harming anyone.” The guard explained and gauged the necromancer’s reaction to make sure she wasn’t lying while the other two guards moved to block the door. Just in case she tried to flee for some reason. “Very well, then the guild would like to ask you for help in solving the matter. In all likelihood, you are the leading expert on the undead we have.”

“I… I’ll check it out. For now, you probably don’t want to keep the gate open too much.” Anastacia agreed and stared at the map. She didn’t like how the circled areas were all in the direction of Mournvalley.

“Thank you, miss necromancer. We apologize for the trouble, but please make sure to deal with the situation with haste.” The guard said, bowed slightly and hurried out with his colleagues, presumably to close the gate.

Anastacia kept staring at the map and racking her brains to figure out any alternative reason for the skeletons, besides her family.

Gilbert had already figured out what she was worried about and patted her on the back. “Think it’s your folks?” He asked.

Anastacia sighed. “Someone from Mournvalley for sure. The fields around here aren’t suitable for ‘natural’ undead to pop up. If I had to guess, it’s someone from the team they use to hunt down rogue necromancers and other troublesome people.” She explained and tried to remember who exactly it could be. The so-called ‘Red Inquisition’ consisted of seven members: Amaranth, Coquelicot, Alizarin, Carmine, Cerise, Crimson and Auburn. All of them had their own strengths and techniques, and all of them were easily competent enough to match Anastacia’s power with skill, if not straight up wipe the floor with her. As she was about to leave, Gilbert blocked her way out.

“You’re not going there alone.” He said and grabbed the necromancer by the shoulders.

“Yes, yes I am.” Anastacia sighed and pushed his hands away. “Some of the people it could be are capable of using living matter. You people are nothing but fodder if you come with me.”

The old adventurer grudgingly let her go and started to nervously look for his pipe. “Where’s that stupid plant girl when you need her...” He muttered, remembering his conversation with Anastacia about necromancy not working on spriggans.

Anastacia passed through the gate just as it was about to be shut. She told the guards to ready some bows and shoot at anyone suspicious looking and headed to the area where most of the undead had been sighted. The sun was already on its way down but thanks to the lack of wind, it was still a bit warm for her liking. Though compared to the high likelihood of getting caught or killed, it really didn’t bother Anastacia too much. She had left her daggers behind, but that wasn’t really a problem since the bone in them would have been just as useable for whoever was after her, and the mass grave under the fields would provide ample weaponry for any number of necromancers.

Just as the city gate disappeared into the distance, Anastacia could see a figure in red robes, sitting on a large rock by the road. She hesitantly walked over.

“Good evening, Anastacia.” The inquisitor greeted her and stood up.

Anastacia recognized him. “Fuck off, Auburn.”

Auburn was the inquisition’s newest member and luckily the least experienced among them as well. Three years older than Anastacia and of noble birth, he was a regular visitor in the castle Anastacia had been held in, and the two were somewhat aware of each other even before he joined the inquisition. Pale, blonde and somewhat skinny, Auburn was what one could consider to be an average looking necromancer. But what was not average about him was the reason he was allowed to wear the sanguine robes of the inquisition, while not too strong overall, given enough time, he could reanimate and control countless numbers of undead creatures. Unfortunately, under their feet was exactly that, countless skeletons.

“You know why I’m here. Either you come home willingly, or I’ll take you there in a bag.” The inquisitor stated coldly.

Anastacia squeezed her hands into fists. “I’m not going.” She snarled.

Hearing that, Auburn grinned. “Good, I’ve been waiting for a challenge!” He laughed and lifted his arms.

Suddenly the ground under them shook and dozens of skeletons dug themselves up from the soil. In seconds, that number increased to hundreds of undead soldiers that crawled, stumbled and limped towards Anastacia, wearing armors from countries that hadn’t existed for a good while. While it would have been possible for her to take control of a few, there was no way to match the inquisitor’s numbers. There was too much distance between the two for a direct attack as well, and Anastacia was forced to flee. Barely able to scatter the bones from a handful of skeletons and open up a path, she made a run for it.

While running away gave Anastacia some time to think, every skeleton she passed soon joined the growing army following her. Trying to match it with an army of her own was beyond pointless, as reviving things was far from being Anastacia’s forte, and the army quickly grew beyond the point where simply fighting it was possible. The only real solution was to find a way to directly attack Auburn himself, but the inquisitor was in the middle of his thralls, and any projectile thrown at him would be stopped before it even got close.

“Come on… Think of something, anything!” She agonized while dashing through the fields. Eventually the distance between the necromancers increased enough for her to be able to stop briefly to catch her breath.

“Evening, Anna. Having a bit of a jog?” She suddenly heard from behind her back. Xamiliere greeted her and smiled. The spriggan had been on a walk overnight and just happened to run into her on the way back to the city.

“Evil necromancer… Bagillions of skeletons…” Anastacia managed to say while gasping for air.

Xamiliere peered into the distance and was barely able to make out the incoming army of undead warriors. “Oh wow, that’s a lot of them. Need a hand?” She asked.

Anastacia wasn’t able to answer, so instead she just huffed at the spriggan angrily.

“Alright, I’ll give you some time to come up with something.” Xamiliere said and gave the necromancer a thumbs up before Anastacia ran off again.

The spriggan’s slight green hue became more intense and the small plants around her started to grow quickly as her roots dug into the ground and spread everywhere. New flowers popped up among the grass and a swarm of insects gathered around her. By the time Auburn finally reached her, she was ready, and the first few waves of skeletons immediately got pulled back underground by roots and torn apart.

After losing about a quarter of his army, Auburn halted the rest of them and walked up to meet his new opponent. “A nature spirit, huh? Why do you stand in my way to protect a necromancer? This is none of your business and will only end in your death.” He asked.

“Because she’s cute!” Xamiliere declared triumphantly and dragged some more skeletons back underground. She also managed to wrap the inquisitor’s feet in some roots before he noticed, but she was also at the limits of her ability to suddenly grow, and some of the undead still fought back, even after being mostly torn apart.

Auburn returned the favor by reanimating a couple of skeletons directly behind the spriggan. Unable to quickly respond to new threats anymore, she couldn’t do anything before the skeletons grasped her arm and tore it off. While Xamiliere screamed in agony, her severed arm exploded into a bundle of vines that wrapped around the skeletons and crushed them.

“I warned you, do not meddle in necromancer business, twig! I’ll tear you apart, branch at a time if I have to!” Auburn yelled and laughed when more and more skeletons kept popping up around Xamiliere. It didn’t take long for his army to get back up to the numbers it had before the spriggan’s interference.

The ground began to shake more and more, Xamiliere feared it was because even more undead undead soldiers were on their way to the surface, but the sudden terrified look on the inquisitor’s face suggested otherwise. Auburn began trying to free his legs from the vines in panic but wasn’t able to do so before a massive ball of tightly packed bones rumbled past the spriggan, over all of his skeletons and finally over the inquisitor himself. As the ball crumbled into a pile of bones a hundred or so meters past him, the rest of the skeletons slowly crumbled as well.

Anastacia had figured that even if she couldn’t match the numbers in Auburn’s disposal, she could easily match the raw mass, and did so with what was technically a single really big object. Xamiliere had given her just enough time to round up all the material she could and give it enough speed for the inquisitor to be unable to stop it.

Completely out of breath, Anastacia ran to her friend and tried to apologize for her arm but could only huff and puff apologizingly.

“It’s fine… Just go make sure that asshole is dead, and then maybe bring me a twig or a branch or something.” The spriggan grunted in pain as more sap leaked from the stump of her arm.

When Anastacia got to Auburn, he wasn’t quite dead yet but definitely too weak to attack her anymore.

“You bitch… Do you have any idea what you’ve caused?!” He yelled and coughed up some blood.

“I… freed myself.” Anastacia said and looked away from the dying inquisitor.

“No, you idiot! Others have begun to question our ways. There has already been some infighting and if you don’t go back, it’ll turn into a war…” He coughed with his last ounce of strength before going silent.

Anastacia could feel the inquisitor’s body become more susceptible to her powers as he finally died. She didn’t give a damn about the situation in Mournvalley, they could all die for all she cared, and if they killed each other it would at least be easier for her. But that meant that they would likely become more and more desperate in their attempts to get her back, and there weren’t many things more dangerous than a truly desperate necromancer.

“It’s fine! Take your time! I’ll just bleed to death over here!” Xamiliere reminded her about the grueling injury. Not that spriggan could actually die from it, but the necromancer didn’t know that.

Anastacia looked around until she finally spotted a small sapling and fetched it for the spriggan.

“Oak? A wonderful choice.” Xamiliere said and stabbed it into the stump. It began to take form immediately but would still take some time to grow into an arm. “Now’s your chance to taste some spriggan’s sap, it’s considered a delicacy.” She suggested and wiggled the stump.

After hesitating a bit, Anastacia stuck her finger into the slightly glowing clear syrup and eating it. It was quite possibly the sweetest thing she had eaten, despite having eaten multiple spoonfuls of plain sugar after her arrival to Valor. “Look, I’m sorry you got mixed into my problems, so if there’s anything I can-“

“My room is always open. I can think of plenty of things you could do.” The spriggan interrupted her and winked.

Anastacia groaned. “Didn’t even miss a beat! You are literally the worst!” She yelled and left back to the gate to tell the guards it was fine to open it again, leaving Xamiliere to regrow her arm alone