”Do not try to move. I have merely stopped your bones from moving, but not the more fleshy parts. A magnificent specimen such as you could easily injure themselves.” The man explained.

He was a tall, slender man with long white hair, not that much unlike Anastacia’s. The robe he was wearing was indeed that of an inquisitor, though his had some patterns drawn here and there.

“My wife tells me you’re in close relations with the so-called anchor? She also mentioned something about chicken… Anyhow, I’ll be commandeering that blade before releasing you.” He said as he pried Rosie’s fingers open.

Once she had given up the dagger, Rosie could feel her bones starting to move again. She immediately slammed the necromancer against a wall.

“Where’s Anna?!” She growled at the man while pushing him harder against the wall.

“Quite fierce, aren’t you? I see I have made a mistake in not mentioning that the girl is fine before releasing you. She is at a rooftop near here. I was trying to find us some breakfast before getting interrupted by you.” he explained calmly.

Rosie freed him and grabbed the dagger back from him.

“Lead the way.” She commanded and pushed the necromancer.

They walked past a couple of houses and turned to an alley. At the end, there was a ladder leading to the roofs. Rosie was prepared to throw the dagger for the entire way there, hoping it’d be able to reach the necromancer in time if needed.

“Now, having learned from the mistake earlier, I should probably explain to you that the girl is suffering from an existential conundrum caused by a strongly enchanted item, and believes that she might be dead. It’s quite fascinating. She also seems somewhat sleep deprived.” The inquisitor revealed as he started to climb up the ladders.

Anastacia was lying on her back, looking at the sunrise when Rosie got to the roof. The tigress rushed over to make sure the girl was okay.

“Oh. Morning, Rosie! Glad you’re here, If I had to listen to Alizarin even for a minute more, I’d throw myself off this roof.” Anastacia greeted them.

“Here, put this on. I can’t believe you just left us like that! We’ve been over this, you don’t go out alone! This asshole here says you’re having some kind of trouble, but you seem fine to me.” Rosie said as she gave the dress she had taken to Anastacia.

“Just give it a second.” Alizarin remarked.

Anastacia looked at the dress for a while and tossed it aside.

“I don’t feel like wearing a dress. This shirt and these shorts are fine. Not that it really matters since this isn’t probably real. The emerald ring made me realize that it’s just way too unlikely that I actually got revived by Sylvia. Oh, and Rosie, can I touch your tail? I’ve always wanted to, but just haven’t gotten the chance. Now that this all is about to end, I might as well just ask, you know?” Anastacia babbled and grabbed the tail anyway.

Rosie looked at the inquisitor, hoping to find an explanation for her friend’s madness. She knew about the ring but the rest made no sense to her.

“There is no change in her pulse or any other indication that she is lying. She either really believes that she might be dead or it actually is true. Ever since I found her, I have been monitoring her state, while trying my best to answer any questions she had. Apparently thinking that you are dead makes you really curious.” Alizarin said and sat down to make notes on something.

Rosie looked at her friend more thoroughly and still didn’t find anything wrong with her, no bumps in the head or the like. Clearly the girl was alive and physically well. Maybe the stress had gotten to her?

Rosie tasked Alizarin to go and find Emilia. Maybe she knew something they didn’t, as Anastacia had specifically said that Sylvia had a hand in this. While they waited for the priestess, Anastacia continued to ask questions she normally wouldn’t have dared to ask. About half of them because of their simplicity and the fear of looking stupid, and half because they were mildly dirty.

It didn’t take Alizarin long to find the priestess, as she had been following his trail. Upon noticing the red robe, she attacked the necromancer, just like Rosie had earlier, and was stopped in a similar manner.

“While I appreciate that you go this far to protect one of our more important assets, I would prefer a simpler greeting. The girl and tigress are fine and together on that building’s roof. I am one of the two inquisitors that doesn’t want to drag miss Anastacia back to Mournvalley. Now, please go meet them while I search for some sustenance.” Alizarin explained.

Having correctly guessed what the priestess would have asked, he walked away before releasing her.

Knowing the city’s layout, Emilia already knew how to get on to the roofs. She was relieved hearing Rosie talk from the bottom of the ladders.

“That’s not how any of this works, I’m not a housecat and I don’t have six… I think someone’s coming up the ladders.” The tigress said before being interrupted by Emilia climbing the ladders.

After getting to the roof, Emilia asked for an explanation while readjusting her armor. Rosie told her about the ring and what had happened because of it.

The priestess felt terribly guilty over trying to keep Anastacia’s death a secret, it was downright idiotic to think that Anastacia shouldn’t talk about it with someone.

“She did actually die… Alex shot her in the throat with a crossbow, but Lady Sylvia revived her so it’s fine now…” Emilia said in a slightly hushed voice, like she was hoping Rosie wouldn’t hear the whole sentence.

“FINE?! You think it’s fucking fine to get a child killed because some bitch of a goddess brought her back?! And you didn’t think to mention this before because what, you thought I’d get angry?! OF COURSE I’D GET ANGRY! What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Rosie yelled furiously.

“Look, I’m so sorry, but do you have any idea how absurdly powerful she is? I guess sometimes I just forget that she’s a kid.” Emilia defended her decision, fully knowing that she was in the wrong and anything she said wouldn’t matter.

Rosie continued to scold her for a while, and promised that it would continue once Anastacia wasn’t there to hear it.

Alizarin came back with some croissants for everyone, and after hearing the full story from Emilia, he sat down to write the whole thing down.

“I came to this city after feeling hundreds of deaths in a short amount of time, expecting to find a bandit raid or something. But instead I get a god rampaging through the streets and a necromancer that thinks she is dead. You people are just full of surprises.” He marveled while writing.

Rosie, who had sat down as far away from Emilia as she could, while still being within arm’s reach of Anastacia, still had a somewhat limited understanding of necromancy. Alizarin “feeling” deaths weirded her out a bit, so she asked what he meant by that.

“There are two limiting factors to necromancy, one is the amount of power you’re born with and the other your skill in harnessing it. While I have to admit that my powers are not much to look at compared to the other inquisitors, in terms of skill, I have no equal. The effective range of one’s powers has more to do with the latter one, thus my range for something as simple as detecting materials is measured in hundreds of kilometers.” He divulged while tapping his temple. “For now at least. The whole reason I joined my wife’s ambitious revolution was because I didn’t want to see all the power miss Anastacia has go to waste, just to uphold some silly old tradition. Instead I wish to train her and see what she could achieve.”

Rosie mentally categorized him as barely a good guy.

Alizarin continued to observe Anastacia as she pestered her friends with seemingly endless idiotic questions. Coming up with a solution that would return the girl to her normal state proved to be a difficult task. He considered using the ring again and reasoning with the girl, but there was no telling whether the ring would just cause further damage to her mental state. He could also apply his research on controlling brains to wipe out memories, but that was far too risky as there was no telling what kind of side effects it would have.

Realizing that he had lost his focus while writing notes, he concentrated on the area surrounding the city.

“Ladies, I regret to inform you that we will be leaving this city immediately. About an hour off, there are two Inquisitors travelling this way. They have been tracking me for a couple of days but I thought that I had managed to get rid of them.” Alizarin calmly explained as he started packing his notes.