Over the course of their meal, Coquelicot shared her opinion on the matter of Alice’s death. She hadn’t expected for Anastacia’s friends to turn on her over it or anything, but their unwavering loyalty impressed her. With the case settled on their side, it was time for her to go and confront her apprentices about it.

She got up from her seat and thanked everyone for the meal. “It’s about time for us to part ways. Unlike you, I have important matters to attend to.” She said and turned to Anastacia. “You continue your life as you see fit, but if Amaranth doesn’t come find you first, you’ll answer my call and come help me when I choose to finish this, right?”

Anastacia nodded with her mouth full of boar meat.

“Good girl.” The high inquisitor said and seemed genuinely happy for the first time in a good while.

“Are you just going to walk back to Mournvalley? Do you need any supplies for the trip? We have some spares.” Gilbert asked as Coquelicot was leaving the campsite.

“Oh, only until I find an animal that can carry me. I’ll just kill it and have it take me back home, so I’ll be there by morning.” The necromancer explained and waved her hand.

Gilbert thought that an undead mount seemed extremely handy, as they probably didn’t need any rest or upkeep. But knowing how disgusted of reviving things Anastacia was, he chose to not bring it up. After all, plenty of adventuring had gotten done without the aid of undead pack animals. The vast majority of it, in fact.

“How about we stay here overnight and do some target practice?” Gilbert suggested. “I’m not really comfortable with you trying to use your bow for anything before I see you actually hitting what you’re aiming at.”

Anastacia took out her bow and followed Gilbert away from the camp.

“Okay. Let’s see you actually using it first…” The old adventurer said and turned to Anastacia. He noticed something missing and looked over her shoulder. “Anna… Where are your arrows?”

The necromancer stared at her teacher blankly for a second. “Oh shit! I didn’t buy any! Didn’t even get the arrow holding thingy.”

“It’s called a quiver…” Gilbert grumbled and left to get some of his own arrows. When he got back, he handed Anastacia his quiver with 12 arrows in it. “These might be a bit long for your bow, but they’ll work for now. We can make some in the evening, but you really want to buy some that were made by someone who knows what they’re doing.”

Gilbert showed her the right stance and the way to grip the bow. Before giving her the permission to try and shoot, he backed away and grabbed his shield tightly. Anastacia pulled back the arrow with all her might and only barely managed to get it far enough for the shot to have some power behind it. She took aim and released the arrow. The bowstring snapped on her cheek, chest and arm, and the arrow hit the ground only a few meters away. She fell on her knees and took turns screaming in agony and cursing.

Emilia ran over when she heard the screams and found Anastacia hitting the ground with her fist while Gilbert was doing his best not to burst into laughter. “What happened?!” She asked and rushed to see if the girl was okay.

“Anastacia learned one of the most important things about archery: Don’t put anything too close to the bowstring.” Gilbert chuckled.

“Fuck you! You old shit, come here and I’ll slap you on the tits with it! See if you’ll keep laughing then!” Anastacia screamed and shook her fist at Gilbert.

After about an hour, Anastacia was ready to try again. This time she was wearing her mail and a wrapped cloth around the arm that was hit. The second attempt was considerably more successful, even though the bowstring still hit the mail. By the sixth arrow, she had fixed her pose and the string no longer hit anything. After a full dozen, the distance had improved considerably too.

“I’m out of arrows. What now?” Anastacia asked and showed the empty quiver to Gilbert.

“Well if this was a real combat situation, you’d check if you could salvage any of the arrows fired at you. If not, you move on to other things. Usually it’s not possible to get your own arrows back before the fight is over.” Gilbert explained and looked around. “Now go pick them up while I build you a target.”

As the lesson continued, Anastacia became able to reliably hit any target that didn’t move and was about as big as a horse-drawn wagon. They decided that it was enough progress for the day and returned back to the camp. The sun had just begun to set and they spread out their bedrolls and instructed King to keep the fire up and stay on lookout.

“I’ll stay up with him for a bit.” Anastacia said and sat down next to the simulacrum. “Not feeling sleepy quite yet.”

Gilbert lied down and closed his eyes. “Alright, just make sure you get enough sleep. We’re leaving early in the morning.”

Both Emilia and Gilbert fell asleep quickly, leaving Anastacia alone with her thoughts. King was there, but he wasn’t exactly the talkative kind. She leaned against King’s shoulder and peered into the darkness around the camp. Birds had gone silent for the night, so all she could hear was the crackling of the fire and the occasional hoot of an owl.

Anastacia sighed. “You know, sometimes I miss the forest. We have to go back there for a couple of days at some point. Maybe after your friend is fixed and Amarant dealt with?”

Suddenly a small light appeared in the edge of the field. It moved around a bit and was joined by five other lights. Together they spun around for a bit and then began moving slowly to the side.

“What is that?” Anastacia asked and got up. “Fireflies?”

The lights changed colors every now and then, which was something fireflies didn’t do. When Anastacia held her breath, she could hear silent chanting from the direction of the lights. She took a few steps towards them but was stopped by King, who grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

“I’ll just check them out quickly. Whatever they are, they’ve obviously seen our campfire and haven’t attacked, so I doubt they mean us harm.” Anastacia said and tried to pull her hand free. “You stay here and look over the fire. I’ll be back in like a couple of minutes.”

The simulacrum hesitantly let go and Anastacia wandered into the dark. Once she got out of the campfire’s light, her eyes began to get used to the dark. The moon and stars were just bright enough for her to see where she was stepping. The closer she got to the lights, the louder the chanting got.

“Please don’t be ghosts. Please don’t be ghosts…” Anastacia hoped and got even closer.