Anastacia looked around at the result of her training. The ground was scorched and full of burnt shards of bone for a couple hundred meters around her in every direction.

“Being a natural at everything is so nice.” She smirked and started to head back to the city. “Shame there isn’t any living stuff here to properly test things with. Suppose I’ll run into some of those sooner or later.”

It was already way past midnight when Anastacia returned to the inn and the downstairs tavern was almost empty. Holly sat behind the counter, staring at the couple of mousefolk that were clearly bothered by it. The necromancer leaned on the counter to talk with the night waitress.

“I assume making coffee is a bit much for you. Mind if I go to the back to get some?” Anastacia asked.

“Who?” Holly replied after turning her unblinking gaze at Anastacia.

“It’s me, Anastacia. We talked like less than two days ago.” The necromancer explained. “Are you getting stupider by the day or something?”

“Anastacia is prey, but you hunt. Holly can see.” The owl said and stared at Anastacia blankly. “Not Anastacia.”

“Damn straight, birdie! I’m better now.” Anastacia declared and headed to the kitchen, where King was washing dishes.

She wasn’t actually thirsty or even tired, but felt like coffee would be nice right now. Anastacia was happy with the progress she had made during the day. As far as she knew, combining magic and necromancy hadn’t happened ever before, or at least for as long as the cult had been in power. Giving her the bracelet was the first smart move Coquelicot had made since the beginning of her little rebellion. Anastacia glanced at the trinket on her wrist, the small gem in it had turned red at some point.

“King, what do you think about expanding our kingdom a bit? I know of this little nation, ruled by assholes that have been trying to kidnap and murder me for a while now.” Anastacia laughed.

Suddenly she felt the presence of another necromancer close by; she really needed to learn how to stay alert.

“It’s been a day and you’ve already gone off the deep end that badly?” Alice said as she entered the kitchen. “I’m not letting you into Mournvalley before boss tells me to. Right now you are to wait here and train, until we figure out if Amaranth is coming here too.”

Anastacia poured herself a cup of coffee and laughed at Alice’s threats.

“Gil likes you, so I’ll give you a chance to skitter back to your boss.” Anastacia grinned. “The second I’m done with my training here, I will melt that rotting stain of a country off the map. That armless tart made it possible for me to get rid of my weaknesses, and that’s why you guys get to make a choice, either you acknowledge your place and stand behind me, or burn like the rest.”

Alice backed down and left the inn while Anastacia kept laughing at her. She had been observing Anastacia’s training from the beginning and made the necessary decisions before confronting the girl. Her skeletal horse was already on its way to Mournvalley, carrying a message that asks for immediate reinforcements and the removal of the bracelet. It also explained that Alice had decided to stay behind and slow down Anastacia if she turned on her friends.

When Gilbert came down to the tavern in the morning, Anastacia was still there, reading Alizarin’s book. Rosie grabbed him and dragged him to the kitchen before Anastacia noticed.

“There’s something seriously wrong with Anna. I know it’s the bracelet, but I think she’s literally turning evil.” Rosie explained worriedly. “She’s not eating or sleeping either…”

“Don’t worry about it, the necromancers will handle it. we just need to keep her occupied with training until then.” Gilbert calmed her. “I hope…”

Gilbert had similar worries, but he also had faith in Anastacia. There’s no way she’d just give into it without a fight, all they needed was to buy some time. She just needed to get rid of the last inquisitor and she would be free from her past. He left Rosie to her cooking and went to greet Anastacia.

“Good morning Anna. Ready for today’s training? Kabana should get here any time now.” The old adventurer said, trying to hide his worries.

“Good. I was getting tired of the wait. I more or less learned what I need about fire, so she’d better have something new for me today.” Anastacia said.

Like Gilbert had said, Kabana came to get them after a couple of minutes and they headed to the area where they trained. The mage was terrified when she saw Anastacia’s handiwork.

“You lack control, like this you’ll hit your allies too! The fire isn’t meant to burn everything, just what you’re aiming at.” Kabana explained.

“Then it’s their fault for being in the way.” Anastacia stated curtly. “Teach me something new.”

Kabana looked at Gilbert, who shrugged. She wasn’t completely sold on whether the necromancer should be taught magic at all, but perhaps she just didn’t know the whole story. So the mage tried to find a connection between some other type of magic and necromancy.

“How about lightning? I think it might be a bit like necromancy.” She asked. “The basic idea behind it is that almost everything in the world has an innate charge, you’re just using magic to affect its type. You necromancers directly control something in the bones to move them about, right?”

Coquelicot was going through her husband’s notes to find anything that might aid them in their war, when she noticed the bag Rosie had given to her after Alizarin’s death. The high inquisitor had gone through the papers in it multiple times, but decided that she’d check them again and sort them out into the collection of books and notes that was Alizarin’s study. Most of its contents were lengthy notes about how Carmine and Cerise had managed to trace him despite his efforts to lose them. Nothing really helpful. Coquelicot was about to throw the emptied bag into a corner when she noticed an extra pocket she hadn’t gone through before. Inside it was a hastily folded note:

“I have found the cause of the sudden mass killing of the paladins in the city of Crescent, and rather unexpectedly, it appears to be young Anastacia and her friends. The event itself is nothing we need to concern ourselves with, but following it, Anastacia has fallen under the effect of an enchanted ring. It appears that the girl has an uniquely adverse reaction to enchanted items. NOTE: Discontinue all research relating to Anastacia and enchanted items, such as the Spine Crown and Bracelet of Aptitude…”

“Bracelet of aptitude…“ Coquelicot repeated and realized what she had done.

Suddenly Cyan rushed into the room.

“Madam! Alice’s horse is back without her. We found this note on it. It says…” The apprentice started.

“Save it for the ride! We’re leaving for Valor right now!” Coquelicot interrupted and ran past Cyan. “Alert the whole new inquisition!”

The high inquisitor feared that she might have ruined her whole plan and possibly created a monster.