It's only after I'm completely certain, more than completely certain, in fact, that that evil in the shape of a human isn't going to rebuild itself and come back to... well, not 'life', I suppose, but whatever cruel mockery of it that this and all the poor souls in this place represent that I finally take the time to heal both my allies and myself.

"What..." Carrie asks, still looking frazzled and exhausted, shivering all over. While her actual injuries have been tended to, the unnatural cold that was a result of direct contact with the not-man is clearly taking much longer fade from her body, "What on earth was that?"

"A lich." Vile answers in a plain tone, as though that one word somehow explained things.

Clearly the term means more to Carrie-Anne than it does to me, based on her reaction, "I thought that only sorcerers could become liches?"

"That's a common misconception." The rat says from her place atop Slave, who still wears a sorrowful expression. "The process does involve sorcery, and not a trivial level of it, either, and is most commonly used by them, but it can technically be done to any willing participant."

"That was a paladin..." I say, unable to pay much attention to the current line of discussion.

"Emphasis on 'was'." the crow replies, looking at the empty armor and dark sword lying by its side. It's surely still filled with dust, but anything not contained within the metal is being steadily carried away by the gentle blowing breeze.

"Why?" I ask, looking over at Vile. I still don't really understand what that entity was, it being given a name doing little to help with that. A single part of the rat's explanation stood out to me, however, namely the idea that it must be willing, "Why would someone do that to themselves?"

As for Vile, she simply shrugs. Instead, it's the crow that answers, "I guess that even high-and-mighty paladins can be afraid of dying."

I frown, and lower my head. That answer doesn't please me in the slightest, but I know that it's the closest thing to a satisfying explanation that I'm going to get. I look over at the now abandoned suit of armor, and think back to what that creature once was. No, not that terrifying antithesis to all that is good and pure, but what he must have been before that. A human. Not just any human, either, but one of the best ones. How long ago was that, I wonder. The armor looks awfully old. Is this really the fate that he chose? Did he really want to become a monster? I feel no guilt over his destruction, of course. As far as I'm concerned, I put him out of his misery. Still, I can't take my eyes off of that empty armor, the hollow remnant of what that evil presence once was. I slowly pad back over to it, and begin to dig at the nearby dirt with my paws, kicking it overtop the metal suit.

"Squire..." Carrie the crow calls to me. I look up, expecting her to admonish me for wasting my time burying a defeated foe. "Bury the sword, too. That thing is bad news."

I blink, rather surprised, and look to the discarded blade. The sinister black flames might be extinguished, but the metal is still charred and the very sight of it makes my fur stand on end. I take her word for it, not that it's necessary. It might be a powerful weapon, but I don't even want to touch it. As I do, Vile furrows her brow and hops over to the empty armor, reaching into the hole of the neck, retrieving a metal pendant which she carefully studies. In the meantime, I resume my work. There's no headstone, and the dirt mound will have to do. The closest thing to a monument to the man that that accursed figure once was.

"Is that a holy symbol?" The crow asks her, flying over to examine it as well.

"No." the rat answers, "It sort of looks like one, even if the design is a bit simplistic, but it doesn't represent any of the deities."

I look over as well. It's a simple golden (or at least gold colored) ring set on a chain, with a plain, oval glass lens set in the center, but has no other adornment. The glass is clear, almost to the point of being invisible, but I can't help thinking that it looks like an eye. Not a human or mammalian one, but similar to the slit pupils of the trinity serpent that I had faced what feels like an eternity ago.

"Well, it's just a symbol." Slave says, "It's not like they have any real power or anything. People can make them to represent whatever they want."

"Right... now, as for you..." Vile says to her pet, "I don't know what I'm going to do with you. I get it, if your defense wasn't working, you might as well just focus on attack, but you know better than to use that power without my permission."

"I... I know." Slave says in a soft voice, having not raised her head since the battle ended. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it... it just... sort of happened."

The rat frowns, remaining silent for an uncomfortably long time. "I see." the finally says. She doesn't follow up the words with anything, simply ending that little discussion right there, wearing an expression of uncharacteristic concern.

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"Was that... whatever you called it." I say, breaking the silence, "Was that responsible for all of the undead in this place?"

Vile gives the matter a little thought before finally shaking her tiny head. "I doubt it. More likely he was just utilizing the energies of this place. His presence sure wasn't helping, though, and might explain why this place never ran out of undead, despite the knights and paladins occasionally purging the denizens."

I nod. A part of me had hoped that with the destruction of the not-man that all of the undead here would all simply crumble to dust. That the curse of this place would be broken. Oh well. As Carrie had said earlier, the dead soldiers don't seem too unhappy. We've done some good here, and that's more than enough.

"Oh, and Squire?" The black bird says to me. I look back to her, tilting my head a bit, "Please put away your sword this time."

I'm a little confused, but look about to see plenty more of those wandering corpses in the distance. I nod and remove it, offering it to Vile without hesitation. I've had more than enough of swinging a sword around for one day, anyways.

From there, we continue on. We encounter plenty more of the fallen warriors, even another full-on chaotic battleground, but none of them pay us any mind, instead focused on their endless and futile conflict. We begin to lose light while still within this cursed place, but that's alright. All of us are very much in need of rest. We likely could have safely slept anywhere, but found a small hollow underneath some large stones. Even if the undead weren't going to attack us, we wouldn't want to end up stepped on by them throughout the night.

That's when I inadvertently deceived my allies. I didn't intend to, of course. I simply curled up to go to sleep and closed my eyes. Despite my exhaustion, however, sleep just wouldn't come to me. I didn't open my eyes or get up, however, figuring that it would come to me with time if I just quietly rested. The others had no reason to believe that I wasn't fast asleep.

"Just to make sure we're all on the same page here..." Carrie says in a soft voice. I'm about to open my eyes when she continues, "That 'master' of princess here... we all know that he's dead, right?"

I should have revealed that I was awake right there, but it felt so awkward to. I suspected that it wouldn't get any easier as the conversation continued, however. I didn't want to mislead anyone, but I wanted to embarrass them even less. And so, I lied, pretending to be asleep, even as I took in every word. I didn't want to, but I have very good ears. Even with my eyes shut, I could sense Slave squirm a little at those words.

"Well, we don't know that for sure..." she says.

"Oh, come on! He disappears, and then right after, she becomes a paladin. That means that one of the nine must have died soon before she gained her powers. He seems to be the most obvious candidate." the crow scoffs, "You, Rat... look, you might smell like a six week old corpse that was left in an open sewer..."

"Thank you!" Vile says.

"Um, that wasn't a compliment... anyways, my point is that you might be disgusting on many different levels, but you're not stupid. You agree with me, right?"

I wince a little at the subject of the discussion, wishing for it to end, but knowing that it's far too late to reveal that I'm awake.

As for Vile, she pauses for a few moments, seemingly in deep thought, "I'm not really sure. Your point isn't invalid, but there's still too many unanswered questions for me to make a judgement one way or the other."

"Oh, really? Like what?" Carrie scoffs once again.

"Well, like the fact that Squire became a paladin in the first place." The rat says, "That's... not normal. At all."

"Maybe it was an answer to her wishes?" Slave says, "The powers were given to her in order to help her find her master, because she wanted it so badly?"

"That's not how it works." Vile answers back, "And even if it were, there are thousands of potential paladin candidates, and I'm sure that no shortage of them also want things. That said, I don't think that you're completely wrong, either. I don't think that it's a coincidence that she had a goal that she needed to accomplish, and the tools to help her do so just happened to fall into her lap. It all fits together a bit too neatly, but I think there's more to it. We're missing a piece of the puzzle here, and it's a big one. I'm sure of it."

"Okay, I'll admit it, it is kind of strange that Princess here became a paladin." Carrie sighs, "Kind of... really strange. That doesn't change the facts, though. That master of hers? All signs point to the fact that she's never going to see him again. You know that as well as I do."

"Well... it doesn't hurt to let her hope, does it?" the black cat replies in an uncertain voice.

"Sure it does! What's the point in keeping that from her? What, do you assume that it will be easier for her to accept later than it is now? I get it, you're her friends and you don't want her to get hurt, but you're not doing her any favors by sheltering her. You should just rip off the bandage right away. The sooner that she accepts that that human or hers is never coming back, the sooner she can get over it."

"It's easy for you to say that.." Vile replies, sounding a little annoyed, "...but what if she can't simply 'get over it'?"

The conversation dies out at that point, much to my relief. For once, Carrie doesn't have an answer, and clearly the others were as exhausted as I was. As for me? Well, I'm not completely stupid. It isn't as though I'd never considered the idea that my owner might be gone for good. I know that bad things sometimes happen to people, no matter how good, strong and loved they are. That's always a possibility... except that it isn't. I just know that he's out there, somewhere. I don't know how I know it, I just know, and if I'm wrong, if something did happen to him? If he's dead somewhere? Well, if so, I'll just... I'll just... look, it doesn't matter, right? Because he's not.

I wish I could claim that sleep comes easily after that bit of self acceptance. It doesn't.

---

Vile: "Next time on 'An Adventurer's Best Friend', me, Slave and Carrie embark on a thrilling, dungeon crawling adventure!"

Squire: "What about me?"

Vile: "You also do some stuff. Sort of."

Squire: "Huh."

The Inspiration Arc - The above description isn't entirely inaccurate.