In the early hours of the day, on a snowy road a few hours west from northern Valor, a sleigh slowly trudged along towards its destination, an unassuming village a couple more hours away. Pulled along by a pair of two large and strong goat-like beasts of burden, native to areas far in the north, the journey was in no danger of coming to a halt despite the considerable layer of snow under their hooves. Their driver, an old man by the name of Lucian, tanner by trade and a resident of Valor, was on his way to purchase animal pelts from the villagers. Thickened by the cold winter, the pelts were at their prime and the journey well worth it despite the conditions, not to mention that it had become a yearly tradition for him to visit and the villagers somewhat relied on the coin he brought with him. Along with him, Lucian always took an adventurer to make sure the trip went smoothly, but this time he had heard there was some type of trouble brewing in the wintery forests around the village as well. Not wishing for ill to come for the people he bought much of his materials from, he had taken to himself to set up a quest for a larger number of people to take care of the problem while he conducted business and exchanged news with his friends.

His retinue consisted of four members, who had accepted his offer within a day of it being listed. Though only one of them claimed to be an adventurer and all of them seemed strange, they were no doubt capable based on the few rumors he had heard about some of them. In the snow behind the sleigh, two mechanical people walked on their own, as not to burden the goat-creatures with their massively heavy bodies of metal and stone. One, clearly the muscle of the group, was in no way hindered by the ever-growing snowbank, and the other, smaller and nimbler, skillfully followed the sleigh by stepping only on spots already cleared by either the animals or the sleigh itself. Riding in the back of the sleigh were a pair of young girls, huddled together under a massive blanket to retain what heat they could. Neither of them appeared terribly imposing to the old tanner, but supposedly at least one of them was a powerful necromancer.

“When are you going to tell me where are we going and why am I here?” Iris whispered to Anastacia, even though Lucian’s hearing wasn’t what it used to be and the thick fur cap made him effectively deaf, and thus there being no need for secrecy.

Anastacia had kept her fellow necromancer in the dark about the purpose of the trip because she figured Iris would still claim to be nothing but a burden and would never come along on a quest. However, it had been hours since they left and it was unlikely that the inquisitor would be willing to walk back to Valor. “I’m taking you on a quest.” She admitted smugly.

“Whyyyyyy….” Iris wailed. “I can’t even do anything.”

“We’ve been doing nothing but sitting on our asses in the inn while waiting for your wings. I needed to get outside and I figured this would be more fun with you.” Anastacia explained. “Besides, it’s just going to be like wolves or whatever. We’ll spend a couple of hours fucking about in the woods to scare them off while this guy does whatever he’s going there to do. Trust me, it’ll be fun!”

Iris sighed. She had yet to see or hear anything about the threat she had been warned about, but was fairly sure leaving Valor wasn’t a good idea at all.

“We’ll be back home by midnight, easily.” The adventurer estimated. “You need to stop being such a drag with all your might and let things be fun for you as well.”

“Yay. Forced fun, my favorite.” Iris said as monotonously and unenthusiastically as she could. “But I suppose it could be worse. The view is nice and the food Miss Rosie gave us is great – especially the fried potato things.”

The inquisitor rummaged around under their collective blanket until she managed to open the parcel her snacks were in. Immediately, she could tell it had been tampered with since the last time she herself had opened it. Anastacia’s sudden silence was rather telling as well. After a quick inspection, it was revealed that a few choice pieces Iris was saving for later were now nowhere to be found. Condemning Anastacia’s actions with a stern look, she figured she would take revenge by stealing something from the thief’s lunch in return.

A little more rummaging and poking around later, Iris turned back to Anastacia with a disturbed look on her face. “Is… is it all just meatballs?” She asked while hesitantly inspecting what she had found. “There’s not even a single carrot or anything!”

“Shut up. I can eat what I want.” The adventurer hissed and snatched her lunch back.

“Seriously, I have carrots in mine, you should take some or you will die before you turn forty.” Iris said, genuinely worried for her fellow necromancer’s health. She now knew exactly what Anastacia’s diet was like and had to fight her urges to not intervene every time she ordered something stupid back at the inn.

What started as a heartfelt suggestion and an attempt to help, was met with complete refusal and ridiculing. The situation slowly heated over the next two hours and after finally boiling over, ended up with Iris managing to forcibly feed a small piece of carrot to Anastacia after a considerable scuffle. Anastacia didn’t even mind carrots or other vegetables and was simply resisting out of principle and spite when things started to get out of hand.

“You two sure get along fine, reminds me of my older brother and I back in the day.” Lucian commented after witnessing the millionth spat between the two necromancers. “We used to tussle over the damnest of things too. We grew up on this small farm up north, nothing too fancy but enough land to get by. A bit of forest and a creek as well – a great spot for fishing…”

As the old man prattled on about his homestead and life there, the necromancers couldn’t help but to tune out completely. The story went on and on, never reaching any kind of an ending or even an interesting event, simply taking a sidetrack after a sidetrack after a sidetrack for what felt like hours.

“…So anyway, that’s how I named my first horse Martin.” He finally concluded a story, not the one he had started with, but one of the later ventures into the surprisingly deep lore of his early life. “Oh, looks like we’re here. Should only take a moment for me to sort out the business side of things, but I’m happy to burn a few hours with the folks here. Would be a decent idea to get going before dark though, so try to get back by then.”

The sleigh came to a halt in front of the largest building in the small cluster of houses, built roughly in the shape of a ring around a well. Few of them had some life in them, mostly animals, but almost all of the people of the village had gathered inside the single large building. This was perfectly normal, as there simply wasn’t much to do in such a place in the middle of winter, so folks tended to just enjoy each other’s company while mending tools and doing whatever else they could without leaving the warmth of a fireplace. Nothing in the surroundings struck Anastacia as particularly weird either, so her assessment of this being an easy job seemed more likely by the minute.

“What’s wrong with this place then?” The adventurer asked as they hopped off their ride.

“Ask him.” Lucian said and nodded towards the door of the building.

Like on cue, the door swung open and out waltzed a portly man with a wide smile and even wider mustache. “Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, what weird folks have you dragged to our nook of the world this time?” He chortled delightedly and took a step into the snow. Seeing the two simulacra made him pause for a moment but ultimately didn’t even dent his warm smile. “That city of yours sure has all sorts, doesn’t it?”

The old tanner moved to give some treats to his animals while introducing the unannounced quests. “Heard you were having some proper weird tidings this way, so I took it on myself to bring along some adventurers to scour your lands right quick. Fear not the costs, my friend, they’re on my payroll.”

Anastacia, Iris, King and Leggy formed a little group by their host and greeted the man. Realizing that she was the only one with experience and the ability to speak, Anastacia stepped forth to ask some questions. “It’s like he said, we’re here to check out the area and get rid of whatever we find that might be causing the problems. Care to tell us what sort of thing we’re looking for?”

“Very small for an adventurer, aren’t you? Bet you’re one of them fancy mages city folk talk about.” The man laughed, seemingly not meaning any harm with his comment.

Humoring the guy, Anastacia tossed a ball of fire into the air. “Yup.”

Delighted by the show, the man clapped his hands. “Fantastic! The name’s Hans, I own much of the steadings here. I’ve heard you mages are supposed to be right uptight and all high and mighty. Good to see there’s some scruffy ones out there as well.”

“Right, Right. Can you tell us about the problems though?” The adventurer insisted.

“Oh, some proper weird stuff is afoot alright!” Hans nodded and peered into the forest through a gap between two nearby buildings. “There’s been a lot less animals about for a few weeks now, and some of the ones we see are acting off. They’re not afraid of people like they used to be, and the look in their eyes is downright dead. We’ve also seen a deer take a dozen arrows without even flinching and then just hopping away like nothing’s happened. My boys say they’ve even seen some weird people stumble around in the dark during the night, but I’ve seen none of that myself. We figured they’re sick or something, so we’ve stopped hunting entirely.”

Anastacia nodded ponderingly. “That’s probably smart. Can’t say I know immediately what might be going on, but we’ll check it out. No one has been attacked by anything, right?”

“No, no. It’s more like they don’t care that we’re around. Mostly just eerie.” Hans assured the adventurer.

Quick plans regarding their schedule were made with Lucian. The ‘adventurers’ were simply going to take a stroll into the woods and engage with whatever animals they found for clues. If there were clues to follow, they would do so, but if the animals simply appeared diseased, it would fall on them to dispose of them in a way that whatever malady they carried wouldn’t spread.

Before their parting, the old tanner handed Anastacia and Iris each a dark green glass bottle with some kind of liquid inside. The adventurer immediately popped off the cork and smelled the drink, finding the mix of cinnamon, spices and butter wafting from it a rather pleasing combination. “A family recipe. A swig of it will stave off cold for a good while. If you can, find a way to heat it up a bit and it’ll taste even better.” He explained.

“Thanks. I’m sure it’ll help.” Anastacia nodded and gestured for her group to depart.

As soon as they had to step out of the already cleared paths in the snow, King grabbed Anastacia and placed her on his shoulders without having to be asked to do so. Confident in her strength, likely overly so, Leggy put her arms out and offered to carry Iris in a similar fashion, but the comparably fragile-looking build of the smaller simulacra didn’t convince the necromancer, nor did her pointy legs that would have no doubt been a nightmare to balance on. The layer of snow would be a lot thinner in the cover of the trees anyway, and she would only have to make it through a hundred or so meters before things would ease up.

On one side, the village was bordered by vast fields of untouched snow. No doubt used for farming during the rest of the year, but at the time there was no reason for anyone to wander into it, including the party. Anastacia did quickly check the horizon from atop her perch, but couldn’t see or feel anything in its direction, aside from a mill by a frozen stream at the other end of the field. In the other direction, the village was surrounded by a forest. Some logging had been done by its edge some time ago, and the area nearest to the buildings appeared well-kempt for a forest. Smaller saplings had been cleared away and some visible hunting trails had been kept open from undergrowth. Deciding to focus their search there rather than walk all the way across the field, the group entered the forest.

“I’m seeing a few tracks from up here, mostly hares. Nothing unusual about them.” The adventurer reported.

“Are you actually any good at tracking or are you just guessing?” Iris doubted the accuracy of the estimation.

“Why must you doubt me? I can tell apart the more common animals and creatures – usually anyway, and get some stuff out of people’s tracks as well.” Anastacia frowned and pointed at the snow behind Iris. “For example, I can tell that those were freshly left by a common domestic twat. A bit below average in height, spindly, clearly an idiot. You can see a light trail by its shoeprints, that’s how you know it has successfully dragged the mood down and now pulls it around on the ground.”

The inquisitor sighed. “Just so you know, I’m not above pulling you down from there.”

The two continued their everlasting bickering while circling most of the way around the village, just far enough into the woods to barely keep the buildings in sight. Nothing seemed too out of place, but the necromancers could tell that there were indeed a lot fewer small animals around than one would expect for a rural forest. Already slightly bored of the uneventful tour, Anastacia had started to dig into the bottle she had been handed. Whatever the tonic contained, the taste was a pleasant combination of cinnamon, lemon, honey and a whole bunch of sugar, which was much to the adventurer’s childish taste. By the time their initial search was done and they sat down on some stumps for a break, she had already drunk most of the bottle. Just like Lucius had said, it did bring a nice warmth to one’s chest as well.

Iris had yet to touch hers, but uncorked it during their break. Her initial thoughts were the same as Anastacia’s, and she was a bit ashamed to admit her tastes were anywhere near the adventurer’s. Such a drink would have never existed in Mournvalley, so she decided to take her time and savor each sip, which let her notice a familiar burn once the overly sweet flavor subsided. “Hey… So, this has like a ton of booze in it. There’s about as much sugar that hides it too, so this will absolutely sneak up on you. Are you sure you should be-“ She was about to ask, but when she turned to Anastacia, the adventurer was already laying on her face in the snow. “Yeah, that seems about right.”

Asking King to pick up the small adventurer so she didn’t freeze, Iris performed a quick check up on her employer. By all indications, nothing seemed to be all too wrong, as Anastacia was still very much awake but simply didn’t want to put effort into moving. It was always a coin toss whether a drunk necromancer was harmless or extremely dangerous, which made Iris consider knocking her out for the time being, but the tranquilizer she carried wasn’t exactly safe when mixed with alcohol, especially on someone so small.

“I think it might be for the best if we take you inside to rest.” The inquisitor suggested.

Anastacia opened her bright turquoise eyes with immense determination burning in them. “No, nooo… I will save the village!” She fiercely declared and tried to flop back into the snow but was firmly held still by King. This appeared to deeply puzzle the necromancer as she only now realized she was being held by King in the first place. “Oh… Oh! But Em says we can’t in the public.”

Not wishing to annoy Anastacia too much, Iris accepted the fact that she would have to wander the forest with a drunk version of an already viciously annoying person. Though she had to admit she was somewhat intrigued what would happen. So, the party continued their patrol, this time a bit further away from the village. While Iris and King made sure to stick with Anastacia, who demanded to walk for a few meters every now and then before getting tired of it and falling down, Leggy swiftly climbed into the trees and surveyed the area from higher up.

As expected, the adventurer kept prattling on and on about things that made even less sense than her usual musings. “If you ever have to… have to fight a big snake, you should just explode it. Worked for me.” She handed out her sage advice.

“I’ll keep that in mind if I ever run into one. What about spiders, have you ever fought those?” Iris asked to keep her occupied.

“Hug ‘em! Hug the spiders.” The drunk necromancer answered immediately in a surprisingly somber tone. “I miss my spider friend…”

“You have a spider friend? Was this a normal spider or like a huge one, or something else?” Iris inquired.

“I like friends, I have so many now. Used to just be the wall.” Anastacia moved on without even attempting to answer the question. Instead, she started to count her friends with her fingers. “There’s at least like… twelve? You! You’re my friend now too! Sooo… fifteen?”

The shock of learning that Anastacia would ever consider another necromancer her friend, even while drunk, was enough to stop Iris in her tracks. “We’re friends?”

“Yeeeesss! You’re fun, and don’t try to kill me at all.” Anastacia listed the fairly low qualifications for the title. “I know! You should become an… an adventurer! We could adventure!”

For a brief moment, a second or two, perhaps ten, Iris found herself actually considering the idea. To indefinitely continue her little vacation with people who had accepted her and taken her in at her lowest, helped her build back her confidence and wings as well as forgiven whatever grudges there may have been before was tempting to say the least. Simply forgetting her worries and embracing the freedom Anastacia had managed to gain by leaving Mournvalley behind was hard to pass up on – but she still had her duty to her country, to Coquelicot, and most importantly, to her friends and fellow inquisitors.

Finally shaking the temptation to accept the invitation, Iris smiled. “Sorry, but I can’t just abandon the folks back home.”

“Oh, that’s alright. Coqe… Coquli… Fuck, her name is dumb. The angry bone-arm lady, must have known, you’re the only decent person in that garbageville. You need to go back an’ keep the nutty ones in check, make them be better.” Anastacia agreed and made a sloppy attempt at patting her friend’s back but only managed to smear her hand on the inquisitor’s shoulder.

“I’m not sure I can do that, but I suppose I have to try.” The inquisitor sighed.

“Sure you can! You made me eat a carrot, and I can kick all their asses! Just have consifense… in you!” The adventurer kept cheering her on. “If they don’t listen to you, tell ‘em that I’ll come and whoop ‘em.”

Before Iris had the chance to reply, Leggy suddenly dropped down from a nearby treetop and almost soundlessly landed in front of the group. The venator stopped them and pointed deeper into the forest, urging them to look into something she had spotted. Even without looking, Iris could feel what the cause of Leggy’s alarm was. Roughly three hundred meters away from them, out of drunken Anastacia’s range but not quite out of hers, were three creatures.

“We’ve got deer over there.” Iris reported to the leader of the group but wasn’t quite sure how to word the rest of what she had found. “They’re dead.”

“So? Deer mostly die in forests, and a lot of things can kill deer.” Anastacia scoffed at the worry on her friend’s face.

Without further elaborating, Iris darted into the direction of the animals, not trying to abandon the group but knowing they would easily keep up with her. She simply had to see what was going on with her own eyes. Almost directly by the deer, the party came to an edge of a small clearing, mostly filled with lichen-covered stones that hadn’t been hidden by the snow, and in the middle of it were the three animals that had puzzled the inquisitor so.

“I know it’s pretty rich coming from the likes of us, but I don’t think they’re supposed to do that.” Iris said and scratched her head, trying her best to figure out what was going on.

The deer, though without a doubt at least a couple of weeks into their deaths, clumsily stumbled around almost as if they were trying their best to mimic living animals. Their skin was torn in spots, some predators had clearly gotten to two of them and completely disemboweled them, but having to drag their now external internal organs on the ground didn’t seem to slow the deer down too much. A few broken legs limply flopped around as they moved and a couple of arrows stuck out of the neck of the one which looked the least gruesome. No trace of necromancy was to be found anywhere in the area, nor in the creatures themselves, which complicated things quite a bit.

“It might be throw up time…” Anastacia admitted and started to wiggle out of King’s arms.