”Any idea what’s up with them?” Iris asked after the party had been studying the undead animals for a while. “There’s not a trace of necromancy in them.”

Unable to even look into the direction of the mutilated moving corpses without almost throwing up, Anastacia wasn’t about to put much effort into analyzing the situation. She lazily waived her had towards them and all of a sudden, all three of the deer were pushed into the frozen ground with an incredible force, burying them several meters underground. In the process, as one would expect, they were violently torn apart and crushed by the stones their carcasses had to move aside from their paths.

Iris had all but forgotten about the absurdness of Anastacia’s powers, in fact, she had almost forgotten about her being a necromancer in the first place. The overpowering beacon of might that was Anastacia, had gone from an unbearable and daunting aura that felt like it was always about to crush the lesser necromancers around it, into an almost warm embrace that completely enveloped Iris’ own meager presence. The only comparable force she knew was that of Coquelicot’s, which always remained cold and unwelcoming, even to the ones she herself had chosen to accompany her. Though the scale for them was somewhat same, the two couldn’t have been more like night and day. Anastacia’s powers, after her initial hostility and suspicion had passed, was like an all-encompassing flame that wrapped itself around anything it could reach out of nothing but curiosity, yet it was as subdued as it possibly could be, like the adventurer was trying her absolute damnest to hold back. Meanwhile, the empress of Mournvalley appeared as a cage of icy cold thorns that was the embodiment of rigidity, at the same time making her impossible to approach from outside and clearly keeping something imprisoned within, especially as of late.

Still being able to sense the now buried deer mulch, both of the necromancers winced as the bits and pieces still continued to wiggle and writhe. “Why are they’re still moving?” Iris asked out loud.

“I don’t know, magic or whatever.” Anastacia shrugged. “Weird stuff’s usually magic.”

“So are you thinking these are natural undead? Wouldn’t those require like an abandoned cemetery or an old battlefield or something? They shouldn’t just show up randomly one day.” Iris wondered, knowing fairly little about non-necromancy related undead, besides the fact that they typically appeared in placed where there are a lot of dead bodies. She hadn’t actually seen one, as they were rare in general.

“Magic’s weird, did you know that?” The drunk adventurer struggled to stay on the subject. “I can like, throw fire and stuff, but that’s less magic than some other magic… Like, it makes sense, you know? There’s magic an’ then there’s magic. Now if there’s some fucker who can move dead animals, is that magic or more magic, …there a third magic? If there’s more magic than magic, an’ we have to… have to fight that... It’ll be BAD.”

Iris did her best to decipher the barely coherent ramblings. “Are you sure we shouldn’t just head back? The deer are dealt with and I don’t see anything that might be causing it.” She suggested once more.

“NNNO! I’ll figur… solve problem!” The intoxicated necromancer adamantly stated, but was clearly running out of steam before the alcohol would overtake her, as her speech became less and less clear. Her eyes were already closed as the world kept spinning faster and faster.

“Right. We’ll just continue walking and hope we’ll run into something? This really didn’t point us in any direction. Exactly how much of adventuring is just hoping something happens?” Iris doubted the plan they had, if one could even call it that. She looked around for any type of clues before noticing that her friend’s powers steadily toned down and lost much of their voracity. “Aaaand she’s out.”

King immediately stopped the inquisitor where she was and almost forcibly shoved the passed-out necromancer at her.

While the massive mechanical knight still made Iris uneasy whenever he was close, she had learned to somewhat deal with him over the days, as wherever Anastacia went, the two simulacra would follow, both obviously infatuated with her for whatever reason. “She’s fine, just pitifully lightweight.” Iris nervously chuckled and quickly inspected the state of her friend. “She threw up most of the tonic over there, so just keep her on her side or throw her over your shoulder and she’ll wake up sooner or later. I’ll notice if something happens, so don’t worry.”

As far as Iris could tell, the simulacra were relieved by her explanation, though especially King was impossible to read. “So… King, you’ve done adventuring before, what do we do in this situation? Do we abandon the mission or press on? You should know that I’m not going to be of much use if things get violent, and with Anna out, you two are going to have handle whatever we run into.”

Without need for consideration or negotiation, both King and Leggy decided that carrying on with the quest was the thing to do, whether or not that was because Anastacia had insisted on it was unclear. Leggy climbed back into the trees to keep watch over things and King pressed onwards in the snow, decidedly away from the village, leaving Iris no other choice than to follow them.

The noise they had made must have scared off whatever normal animals remained in the area, as the path they walked on became even more vacant from all life than it had been. On its own, slowly passing through a peaceful snowy forest would have been quite nice, but the company Iris had still made her uncomfortable. Though she was slightly more used to them than before, the inquisitor couldn’t find it in herself to trust any simulacra yet, and out of the countless quirks Anastacia had, it was the one that baffled her the most. Beings completely untouchable through necromancy, with questionable capacity for emotion and reason, as well as an unknown degree of automation still running through commands they had been given thousands of years ago, was the opposite of trustworthy – even if they appeared tamed for now. It didn’t help that the entire modus operandi of the inquisition relied heavily on getting rid of things well before they became a problem, and so ‘trust’ wasn’t something too often mentioned by its members. Yet, on the other hand, in the recent days Emilia had spent much of her time trying to dispel the inquisition’s way of thinking from Iris’ head, oftentimes urging her to try and speak to the simulacra, even if they didn’t react to it. By the priestess’ reckoning, they were more simple than aloof, and only trying to find purpose in life just as much as anyone else.

“Do you mind if I ask something?” She decided to make an attempt and rushed a few steps closer to King, who unsurprisingly didn’t react to the question. “Are you a person? I mean to a point where you alone are ultimately in control of your actions, or do you think you’re fulfilling some ancient task given to you by protecting Anna?”

Startling the inquisitor, King abruptly stopped. He stood still for a moment before looking down at the necromancer peacefully sleeping in his arms. He himself likely didn’t realize how long he lingered there, as several minutes passed in complete silence before he made any kind of a movement. Iris didn’t dare to move either, on the off chance her somewhat intrusive question had insulted the large stone warrior she could do very little against. When King finally lifted his gaze and turned to her, Iris was mere seconds from just bolting away and hoping she didn’t get chased, but something about the knight’s demeanor made her stay. While she was in no way fluent in reading the body language of the simulacra like Anastacia was, nor could she use her usual cues for reading people through necromancy, she could see the uncertainty in his glowing, light blue eyes. King clearly didn’t have an answer for her, and it bothered him greatly.

“That’s fine.” Iris smiled gently after seeing the first signs of personality in the simulacra. “The fact that you have to and can think about it is answer enough. “If anything, we’re in the same boat in this. Ever since Coquelicot approached me with the whole revolution business – must have been over three years ago now – I’m not sure how much of it has been nothing but me blindly following orders or interpreting them the best I could. I’ve certainly done things the chicken farmer me from some years ago would be ashamed of. Couple of times now, I’ve actually felt thankful for Anna breaking off my wings. This helpless position, lectures by Miss Emilia and just a break from my own life have given me some perspective on who I was and who I am. Had I any sense in me left, I’d just stay in Valor, but I have a duty elsewhere once I’m ready to leave – one that I hope I can do a bit better now. Based on my limited knowledge on your kind, my situation really isn’t that different from yours, though you had been on your old path for thousands of years instead of three, so maybe it just takes years or decades for Anna to shove you in the right direction, you know?” She gave her utterly honest thoughts to the knight, who had no ability to respond to her. Realizing the openness of her words, Iris took a look at the tonic bottle in her hand, shook it slightly and chuckled. “There’s so much booze in this…”

It was impossible to tell if King found any comfort in the inquisitor’s thoughts, but he continued pressing onwards nonetheless. As they walked, Iris glanced upwards and happened to spot the dark shadow of Leggy’s cloak against the sky for a brief moment. Despite her comparably considerable weight and size, the venator still managed to cover a lot of ground by moving from tree to tree in complete silence, the only hint of her movements being lumps of snow occasionally falling into the ground around the rest of the party. While out of the two, King was obviously the more imposing one to almost anyone unfamiliar with simulacra, the worries Leggy caused in Iris were a more complicated sort. King’s stoic indifference to most things around him was what one would expect of a machine, but Leggy’s behavior was more complicated. She would keenly follow conversations, greet people even when they didn’t greet her and show much more consideration to people aside from Anastacia than King ever would, fiddle with items left in front of her such as empty dishes and tools, as well as fidget as if she was bored. None of it exactly concerning, but definitely strange, and made stranger by the fact that she almost exclusively did it when Anastacia wasn’t present. By far the most confusing moment had been the morning two days ago, when Iris had caught Leggy pretending to drink from an empty coffee cup while Anastacia had been in the kitchen. It was hard to tell if Leggy actually was more lifelike than she let on, or if she aspired to be so.

The inquisitor’s pondering was brought to an abrupt end by Leggy suddenly yet gracefully crashing into the ground only a meter away. She helped the startled necromancer back on her feet and pointed in the direction they had come from.

“What? Is there something we missed?” Iris asked and peered into the distance. It only took a few moments for her to realize the issue. “King… King! We have a problem, several of them!”

Few hundred meters away, several creatures started to appear within Iris’ range. Starting as five, but multiplying by the second until there were dozens, they formed a line that cut the party off from escaping back towards the village – something which seemed very intentional and coordinated. Iris had no time to diagnose every single one, but she could quickly tell an eerie fact that connected all of them: every single one of the approaching creatures was already dead. The more she tried to pry into them to learn anything, the more of the undead would appear, now even from their sides, leaving only the path forward unobstructed. Thought their speed was somewhat slow, they crept ever closer without showing any intention to stop. So far, the undead creatures hadn’t been violent, but they also hadn’t shown much in the way of purpose either, so the best guess Iris could make was that whatever had raised them from the dead, had now noticed the party intruding on whatever they were doing.

“How do you feel about fighting about a hundred undead animals, a few humans and other stuff as well?” The inquisitor asked. “Or we could make a run for it. The way forward is still open, I think, but I don’t know how far I can make it in this snow to be honest. Simply walking has been a decent workout and the path doesn’t seem to get any easier.”

King and Leggy shared a clearly meaningful look at each other before nodding and turning to the inquisitor. The venator then spun Iris around and pointed slightly to the left of the direction they had been heading in while King gently placed Anastacia on Iris’ back.

“What? If we’re running, it’d be way easier if you carried her.” Iris said and grabbed onto her friend so she didn’t slip off her back.

Suddenly a thundering hum erupted from behind her as a wave of heat began to melt the snow. The scream of air escaping from somewhere in King’s mechanical body was almost deafening as the lightly glowing patterns on his armor began blazing in a way Iris had never seen before. The knight took the massive shield and spear attached to his back, grasping their handles and causing the patterns on them to light up in a similar manner.

The inquisitor took a few steps away. “Oh… That’s not for running.”

Leggy gave the necromancers a light push, pointed at them and then into the direction she had pointed before.

The meaning of the gestures was obvious. “You want me to take Anna there? Okay… I think I can do that. It’s not going to be quick, but he looks like he’ll slow them down. What about you?” Iris asked. “Catching stragglers or something?”

Leggy nodded and gave Iris another push before scrambling back up into the treetops to have a better view.

Lacking better ideas, the inquisitor started the laborious journey across the snow with Anastacia on her back. After only a few hurried steps it was very clear that it wouldn’t be a quick escape at all, despite the adventurer’s almost miraculously light weight, Iris still had to search for footing under the snow as well as keep her friend from falling. However, the glance at King she had gotten made her feel like she may have been told to get further away just to avoid the spray from the utter carnage the knight would unleash on the unlucky reanimated meat sacks.

“Now… would… be… a good time… to wake up, Anna…” She said as loud as she could between gasps for air, but Anastacia showed no signs of coming to quite yet. Even shaking her yielded little results.

As far as she could tell, King’s stunt had managed to pull the attention of the undead creatures – or whatever was controlling them, and their escape route remained clear. Life with very limited usage of necromancy was proving to be a massive hassle outside the safety of a large city, and had she been outfitted with wings, such an attack would have been a trivial hurdle – even with Anastacia out of the picture. Though it was hard to say how much trouble King and Leggy would have in turning the corpses into inoperable mulch either, their shambling and slow approach didn’t signal much in the way of combat prowess after all.

After a few hundred more meters of decreasingly hasty progress, even the meager weight of the passed-out necromancer started to mount up. Though Iris was fairly confident in her body, the snowbank felt like it was becoming thicker by the step, and she herself wasn’t that much bigger than Anastacia, so carrying her wasn’t all that easy in the end. As soon as they were far enough away to not be able to feel the undead King and Leggy seemed to have successfully delayed, Iris rested by leaning against a tree. The sounds of King utterly annihilating his opponents and likely accidentally felling nearby trees in the process still echoed from the distance.

“I thought this was supposed fun?” Iris snaked and pinched Anastacia’s cheek to see if she would react, but had no such luck. “Bit of a dick move to drag us all the way here and then spend the entire time knocked out.” She muttered before forcing herself to carry on, not that she knew how far she was supposed to go, but she figured that the simulacra would have no problems catching up once they were done – especially if she passed out from exhaustion after a few kilometers.

The further they traveled, the heavier Anastacia seemed to become and soon enough it started to feel like she somehow tried her best to be as difficult to hold on to as possible, but obviously both of these were simply the effects of the inquisitor’s quickly draining strength. Eventually she felt like she had put so much distance between them and the simulacra, that if the undead somehow passed them, she would have the time to rest and make a renewed attempt at escaping anyway. With very little remorse, she tossed Anastacia into the snow and laid down next to her to catch her breath and rest her weary body.

“This is ridiculous. Two necromancers running away from pesky undead! If anyone back home hears about this, I’ll die of embarrassment.” Iris aired out her frustrations and tossed some snow on her friend. “You know, you trust people a bit too easily. I could simply give you a quick poison jab right here, fuck off into the woods and be hailed as a hero back home. I’m not sure if there are promotions left for me to get, but I’d sure get one if there was…” She jokingly muttered and started to clean some of the snow off Anastacia’s face. “Either you’re absurdly stupid, or you’re better at reading people than I think and already know I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I did that. It used to be easy to fantasize about something like that when you were basically the inquisition’s version of a boogeyman, but I now see that we’ve allowed hate to poison our thoughts. You may have taken Alice from us months ago, but I don’t think you would have done that without the whole business with that bracelet – not a chance. I know it’s not an opinion the rest of us share, but I see now that we should have done better these last months. Before shutting herself into that castle, boss even told us to just leave you alone, but we’ve carried our petty ideas of revenge despite that. You’re no threat to us, never have been… I’m sorry.”

Half-expecting the adventurer to open her eyes and grin like a moron after hearing the apology, Iris readied a lump of snow to throw at her, but Anastacia remained peacefully out of it. Though she herself may have been slightly intoxicated after slowly sipping through her own bottle of tonic, Iris felt a lot lighter after apologizing out loud on behalf of the inquisition, and had the strength to stand back up to survey their surroundings. There were no signs of undead within her range, only the usual number of decaying bones under the soil one would find in any average forest, but one set of remains did pique her interest. An almost complete set of human bones inside a small hill about twenty meters away from where they had stopped to rest, and upon taking a better look at the hill itself, she could see a tight opening in its side.

“A cave?” The inquisitor guessed, but the purposeful look of the large stones by the opening made her reconsider the assessment. “No, a burial mound.”

Being a necromancer, any and all types of graves and other places people had decided to dump their dead in were fairly familiar to her, and she could easily date the style of the mound to an old group of tribes that once resided in much of the north only a few hundred years ago.

Out of interest, she inched a bit closer to take a look at the entrance, constantly keeping a vigilant eye on the direction they came from. “It’s not sealed… Must have been robbed quite some time ago.” Iris pondered out loud and crouched to look at a slab of stone that had once been used to cover the narrow path inside the mound. “No wonder though, it’s a pretty large one, so whoever’s in it must have been important.”

“Come hither, child…” A dry voice with an unmistakably magical echo to it whispered from the darkness within the tomb.

“Ohohohooo! Fuck no. None of this.” Iris immediately answered and backpedaled all the way to Anastacia, suddenly finding herself with plenty of energy to carry her friend for while more.

The decayed corpse deep within the mound rose up from whatever altar it had been placed on and beckoned the necromancer closer, almost as if it knew she could feel it despite being outside. “Do not run, hear my plea.” It continued to whisper it is unnatural voice.

Iris picked up Anastacia and was almost ready to hoof it as far as he physically could, but something kept her from doing it. A strange warmth from within her sparked a memory of one of the teachings Emilia had given her over the last few days. Requests for help were not to be ignored by those serving Sylvia – though insincere ones were to be punished twice as harshly.

She sighed deeply but didn’t place Anastacia back down yet. “I’ll listen to what you have to say, but only if you come out here to say it.” She demanded, not about cram herself into any kind of a closed space with a magical skeleton.

Confirming its arcane nature, the remains within the mound disappeared into nothingness in a blink of an eye. That is, until the untouched snow a few meters away from the necromancers suddenly began to crack open like something under it was trying to break free. Sickly pale teal light erupted from the cracks and shone through the snow, muffled screams and laughter rang out from somewhere deep below the ground and the smell of decay filled the air. Soon enough, the snow cover collapsed into a wide circular chasm that seemed to lead down without a bottom in sight. Out of this hole floated up the same set of skeletal remains that had been inside the mound mere seconds ago. Clad in tattered but opulent-looking black robes and various pieces of what had once been beautiful ceremonial armor, as well as a silk veil that hid the bare, jawless skull under it and a strange clay talisman with various runes inscribed on it, whoever this accursed being was, they had once been extremely esteemed and wealthy.

“A lich?! What does a lich want with us necromancers?” Iris asked in disbelief as the ground below the lightly glowing magical undead being reformed itself and covered the chasm.

Presence of such a being certainly explained the copious number of undead in the area, as when a lich rose from their rest, their mystical aura dug its claws into the souls of every living being in the area, effectively making them unable to escape their mortal bodies – no matter its condition. Requiring a person with the power and resources to go through the ritual to become one, liches were absurdly rare, and no living necromancer had come in contact with one as far as Iris knew. However, historically speaking, such meetings did not end well for anyone involved.

“Death.” The lich answered in a distorted and grating whisper that was both almost inaudible as well as deafening.