Sitting at a table in a corner of a bookstore, a skeleton was engrossed in reading a book.

A few days have passed after becoming the town's saviour, and since it didn't need to sleep or eat to survive, the undead spent the last three days and nights reading. At first it furiously studied anything that looked like a textbook in order to acquire as much knowledge as possible, after all, the quicker it learned, the better. But after a few chats with Gherman, who disliked its attitude toward anything other than schoolbooks, the skeleton was introduced to novels. It wasn't all that excited about the idea but the old man had been selling books for a long time now and he knew what to sell or recommend to his customers.

And so it began with an autobiography of a certain "Nicholai Kelas", one of the greatest sorcerers of Arkan and apparently a relative of the writer of "The Arcana" trilogy. Because of the correlation to its favorite books, the undead decided to give it a try.

The first impression wasn't that great: reading something from the point of view of a human was weird, with all the strange choices and actions made for no apparent reason, and the unknown emotions like grief, sadness or love, but advancing through the biography, the skeleton found itself more and more drawn in as it began to relate with the author. While it didn't know how sadness or love felt, it did understand the feeling of elation from discovering something new or finally managing to accomplish a feat. So every time Nicholai succesfully casted a spell or spoke of his discoveries, a smile appeared on its non-existent expression.

After the autobiography, came the novels: starting from an action novel that it greatly enjoyed as it itself fought like the protagonists of the stories, it then followed with romance novels that it still didn't understand but somehow found satisfying as the couples described in them found their happy endings, and then it kept going with horror, tragedies and others. Through these and Gherman, the skeleton learnt the pleasures of slowly savouring a book, giving each word and sentence its rhythm and fully enjoying them rather than just reading the texts for what they are.

With a satisfied sigh, the undead closed the mystery novel it was reading.

What an unexpected twist, I was sure the butler did it. The grandfather had such a good alibi and really didn't sound like that sort of person... Humans can be quite scary.

Taking its gaze off the book, the skeleton saw daylight shining through the windows. Judging by the position of the sun, it concluded that only two or three hours passed since sunrise, so it would still be a bit of time before Gherman's arrival. Because of that, the undead put the novel back in its place and looked around for a textbook to learn from. Even though the stories were nice, that wasn't the reason it wanted access to the bookstore. Having found something that met its criteria, it began studying, awaiting the old man.

A few hours into the book, the sound of a door unlocking could be heard. An old man entered the room: he had grey almost totally white hair and a fine beard that extended to just a few centimeters below his neck, compared to the other villagers he was the tallest and even though he was already almost ninety years old, you could still see a certain amount of muscles on his body.

This was Gherman: Laria's village chief and owner of the bookstore.

"Hello there, good morning." [Gherman]

"Good morning to you as well, Gherman."

"So, how did you find the book?" [Gherman]

"Fascinating, it really did surprise me at the end."

"Ha ha ha, glad to hear that. Shall I suggest another one? There's this book that likes to play with the thoughts of the reader, I believe it'll be to your liking" [Gherman]

"Mm... perhaps later, I have indulged myself enough during the last days, now it's time to actually learn something"

"Fair enough, can I help you in some way with that?" [Gherman]

"...maybe, do you have any books about alteration magic?"

"Alteration magic?" [Gherman]

"Oh, sorry, I believe you know of it as dark magic."

"Oh, yes, I actually do. Should I bring them right now?" [Gherman]

"It would be appreciated."

"Then I'll go fetch them. By the way, I don't want to sound nosy, but may I know the reason of your... interest toward such magic?" [Gherman]

"Don't sound so concerned, I'm just trying to find a reason for how can someone survive a death spell. The happenings of the last fight were unexpected and I want to be prepared in case it happened again."

"Oh, I understand, I can answer that if you want. I have also survived a death spell, scary experience I tell you, but one that can change you forever." [Gherman]

The skeleton froze.

"Pardon? You did what?"

"Hmm? I survived a death spell." [Gherman]

"..."

"Do you not believe me?" [Gherman]

"No, that's not it, but... Is living through a death spell that easy?"

"Oh, no, haha, no no no. The opposite, it's quite rare, but after you do it once it becomes easier to survive it again." [Gherman]

"Rare? Counting you I encountered a total of eight people who managed to defy the purpose of the magic. And you make up quite a large portion of the humans I encountered since my awakening."

"That's a different matter, the gang you fought was made of survivors from many battles across many years. Their group had been reduced over and over again, the ones who survived definitely faced at least one death spell before." [Gherman]

"That still doesn't prove their rarity... Can I try it on you?"

"No." [Gherman]

"Why? You said it's easier to live through it after getting hit once."

"That doesn't mean someone would be willing to go through such a nightmare again. If anything one would be more careful to avoid the magic." [Gherman]

"Why? What happens when you get hit."

"...haaa... I don't want to remember, but I did say I could answer that for you. Ahem.

When the darkness covers your sight you get thrown into a void where nothing exists except for a star in the distance. At first it's calm, almost soothing, but that changes as you approach the star. As you get close to it, it becomes apparent that whatever that is, it is not a star. And the moment you realize that, you get filled by... uncomfortable feelings, and the knowledge that nothing you do will save you from it." [Gherman]

"What is it?"

"I don't know and I don't want to know." [Gherman]

"Can you describe it."

"No, or at least not in a way that can get the image across. That thing's impossible to describe with words, anything I say would be an understatement. The closest way to describe it would be a scream of pure terror, one that comes from your soul, not your mouth." [Gherman]

"...how did you escape it?"

"By pure force of will. Even though you instinctively know it's useless to even try, if you suppress the feeling and... swim or fly or whatever you do using all your strenght, you will eventually come out of the mist. And during that moment you may catch a glimpse of... something, it changes between people. I, during my escape, caught a glimpse of... the body? I guess, basically when I came out, I somehow learned how to read the actions of others by watching the movements of their muscles. And I can also instantly know the biology of any creature by just looking at them. Well, fleshy creature that is." [Gherman]

"Fashinating."

Some time during their talk, the skeleton brought out its diary and began writing down all the information the old man provided. Gherman smiled at this scene and, excusing himself, he went to fetch the books and start his work.

Some time after noon, another person entered the store: she was a small child between the age of seven and eight, long blonde hair with a petite face and delicate features. This was the first human the skeleton encountered after leaving the battlefield, Sara.

The little girl looked around for a bit before finding and skipping toward the undead.

"Mister skeleton!" [Sara]

"...you came pretty early today, did you not have anything to do?"

Sara visited it everyday during the afternoon ever since it became part of the village. At first it was as a sorry for condemning the skeleton because she thought it killed a villager, but then the reason changed into becoming its "friend".

"It's because school was closed today, so I only had to help my sister." [Sara]

"School? Is that not a place of learning? You had one here?"

"Yes!" [Sara]

"Why did you not tell me about it sooner, I would like to join it."

"You can't." [Sara]

"Why's that?"

"Because you're too big!" [Sara]

"I believe the building is more than large enough to fit me."

"No, not that big, i mean the other big." [Sara]

"...explain."

"Mmm... Do you know how to read?" [Sara]

"Yes."

"Do you know how to write?" [Sara]

"Yes."

"Do you know how to count?" [Sara]

"Yes, but I would like it if you answered my question."

"Then you can't!" [Sara]

"..."

"Because you already know everything." [Sara]

"I... don't... that's why I'm studying, why can't I enter your school?"

"Because you already know everything! Everything we're learning!" [Sara]

"So what you're trying to say is that schools only teach the basics."

"...yes?" [Sara]

"Well, that's disappointing."

Disappointed by the discovery, the skeleton lowered its head back onto the book. After a few minutes it was forced to close it, unable to concentrate due to an intense stare coming from the child.

"So, what do you want today?"

"What's your name?" [Sara]

"I don't have one."

"Then what can I call you? Mr. skeleton is too long..." [Sara]

"Call me whatever you want."

"Skelly!" [Sara]

"Rejected."

"Boney!" [Sara]

"Rejected"

"But you said I could choose." [Sara]

"I never said that."

"Then you choose a name!" [Sara]

The skeleton sighed deeply.

"If I find myself a name will you stop bothering me?"

"I'm not bothering you." [Sara]

"Yes or no."

"Yes." [Sara]

"Very well."

The undead and the little girl began searching for names that fitted the skeleton. After combining all the possible names and titles they found, nothing that both of them liked came out.

"Just go with Skelly or Deathspell the immortal, they're really good." [Sara]

"For the last time no, I'm not going to be called like a pet nor like a second rate villain."

"Wait, I know." [Sara]

"What other stupid name did you come up with?"

"No, not a name, if we can't find a name in altrian then why not try another language." [Sara]

"I do not know of other langua... Mm..."

"?" [Sara]

"Well, I know magic language, but I wonder if it's possible..."

"Ooooh, that sounds cool! What's the name?" [Sara]

"There are no proper nouns in magic language."

"Proper nouns?" [Sara]

"Names."

"Then use a word, some elves call themselves... uuh... [Fah'lai] that means blowing leaf!" [Sara]

"Elves? And how do you know that?"

"It was written in an adventure book! And elves are the people of Elvengarden."

"The faerian."

"Elf sounds cuter" [Sara]

"How."

"It just does." [Sara]

Sighing once again, the skeleton began searching for words that portrayed it. Unfortunately after another long time of thinking, it could not find the translation for the word it was searching and a verb alone didn't really excite it. Before giving up, something came to the undead. A phrase that appeared in the mystery novel it read before: "I'm searching for the truth."

"Truth seeker."

"? Darr itt Ksh kk?"

The skeleton looked at the child.

"Wrong, but close. The correct pronunciation in altrian should be [ Dar'ith Kisct ]"

"Dar'ith Kishk, Kiskk, Kiksh... I give up, I'll just call you Dar." [Sara]

"Haa... I kind of expected this response, but does this mean you're satisfied?"

"Yes, nice to meet you Dar, I'm Sara." [Sara]

"Sure, nice to meet you too, now go."

"Ok, goodbye!" [Sara]

With that, the girl ran outside, merrily laughing. And with one last sigh, Dar'ith sank in its chair.

"...exhausting, how did she even manage to drag me through that."

"The girl's enthusiasm is contagious, you'll grow to like her, believe me." [Gherman]

"Haa... whatever, I'll go back to studying."

"Hahaha... by the way, congratulation on your new name, Dar'ith Kisct." [Gherman]

"Thanks, I quite like it myself."

And with that, another day passed for the undead. The day its journey would resume was still far, but it didn't bother it, Dar'ith quite enjoyed these peaceful days and wanted to savour these moments for they might end when the time to depart again would come once more.