The coal elemental punched its black arm forward at the man in front of him. Jack caught the blow with his opened palm and clamped down on the appendage to hold it in place as his feet — set shoulder-width apart, sank further into the coal-black dust-covered ground. Bernard raised his staff, and a pillar of hard-packed stone pillar jutted out from the ground and smashed into the elemental: cracking its black torso. Still, it stood.

Jack punched forward and slammed the head of his mace into the side of the creature where the cracking had begun. From his position, however, he couldn’t move how he wanted. The elemental punched forward with his other hand and slammed it into the side of Jack’s face.

He didn’t know where it came from, but lately — after advancing to C- rank, and coming back from near death from the fight with the Royal Guards, a strange anger started to overtake him sometimes when he was pushed too far in a fight. He dropped his mace and grabbed hold of the creature’s other arm, and with a guttural roar, he twisted the stone appendage clean off and tossed it to the ground. The coal elemental punched forward again, but the rage didn’t allow him to feel pain. He grabbed hold of the elemental’s arm and pulled it forward. Simultaneously, he grabbed hold of the creature’s head and planted his heavy boot on one of the creature’s legs.

He pushed forward, while at the same time pulling at the arm, and as the arm broke off, the elemental fell to the ground with enough force underneath his foot, to also shatter its upper thigh. Jack raised the arm above his head and slammed it down onto the elemental with as much force as he could muster until it was dead. The anima that had been animating it flowed into Jack’s body. Apparently, this was what it was like for all elementals, and all creatures born from non-natural means such as golems, undead, and familiars.

In the week since he and Lyle came back from the Scrapyard last, and Lyle went on his bender, Jack had been here: in the coal pit, steadily advancing his way down its cavernous depths. The Coal Elementals were the most numerous enemies here. As their name suggested they were living figures of pure coal.

“Cor, you scare me sometimes, Jack,” Clara said through her mask as she approached the now calm man.

Her fingers brushed against the open wound on his head beneath his soot-stained mask. He winced as his wounds began to seal themselves.

“That’s the last one for the day, right?” Jack asked.

“It is,” Clara answered. “Did you want to continue?”

The red lashes surrounding her bright green eyes fluttered as she smiled.

“No.” Jack answered, “I really don’t like wearing this thing.” He tugged at his mask.

“Well, pick it up, and let’s get out of here!” Bernard said as he followed the rail line back up to the mouth of the cave.

Jack grabbed hold of all the pieces of the coal elemental that he could and set them in the mine cart waiting on the track. He clicked the ‘job complete,’ button on his PID, and the cart began to hiss to life and head back toward the engineering warehouse along the wall around New Eden. Jack bent down and picked up his mace.

As they walked up the rails together, Clara’s fingers brushed against his, and soon both of their hands were joined together. She looked over toward him and smiled, and he did the same. From the moment he saw her, he had thought she was the most beautiful thing to ever exist in the world, and she thought the same as him. It was as if they were made for one another. No one in the platoon knew about their relationship, nor how quickly it formed, but during times like this, when it was just the two of them, they liked to indulge in small pleasures like this.

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As they neared the mouth of the cave, Bernard was nowhere to be seen, so they quickly slipped off their masks and shared a quick kiss before the old, crotchety man could see them. Their lips parted just in time, as Bernard strode out of the bushes on the side of the road, zipping up his pants. Jack felt his cheeks blossom, and he tried to look away to avoid looking guilty. Clara did much the same: both wearing the same dumb smile.

“What did I miss?” Bernard asked as he took his place at the head of the group.

They walked back to New Eden together: their masks hanging around their necks, and the blush tinging both of their cheeks, as Bernard talked about the good old days while they followed the train tracks out of the woods that surrounded the Coal Pit. Like this, they made it to the Cat and the Fiddle just a little after where they met up with Liam.

“Done for the day, Jake?”

“Jack.” Clara corrected.

His gray eyes darted to the woman, and he gave a knowing, ‘ahhhh,’ and a soft chuckle.

“Yes, we’re done,” Jack answered as he sat down.

Oscar’s brother had seen him come in and brought his favorite menu item: tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, out from the kitchen.

They sat and talked as the night progressed.

“So what kind of blood were you given, Liam?” Jack asked.

“Cockatrice.” He answered without any hesitation.

“Cockatrice? What’s that?”

“A giant chicken,” Aurora said as she approached the group from behind.

When they were all gathered, Liam held up a cup.

“What’s this for?”

“Drawing lots to see who goes out to Lyle first.” Liam said, “Set out in four days.”

“I’ll go.” Jack said, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Do you know how to drive a jeep?”

“Ah...no.”

“I’ll go.” Clara said, “I know how to drive it.”

Aurora glanced between the two of them and mouthed a silent, ‘ahhh,’ as Liam removed the cup from the table.

“Well alright. You should probably ask him beforehand if he needs anything.”

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Jack asked.

“He should be.” Aurora said, “As I said I spent some time there.”

“How was it?” Clara asked.

“Right, you weren’t with us then, huh? Well...it was terrifying.”

Liam chuckled.

“This piece of shit put me up in a farmhouse in Ever-after Valley.”

“Ever-after valley?”

“Cursed land.” Liam said, “But only if you’re greedy. It’s something that the Mad Cardinal likes to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Mad Cardinal likes to lay traps that tempt the baser instincts of man: the Seven Deadly Sins. If one were to fall into his trap, they’d be punished in some way. For Ever-after, the curse is that the dead of the valley will come after you.”

“So what’s the ‘temptation,’ for Ever-After?”

At this question, Aurora spoke up.

“You’re allowed to take almost anything you want from the land,” she said, “But there are a pair of rings that the Mad Cardinal cursed when he invaded the land, and appear on the hands of any of the corpses randomly. If you remove both of those rings then the whole valley comes back to life.”

Liam chuckled.

“What are the chances of him finding the rings, though? Like one in…” Jack asked.

“One in 20,000.” Liam said, “He’d be extremely unlucky if he came across them.”

“It’s probably a higher chance than that,” Bernard said.

“What do you mean?”

“The rings only find the bodies of couples near one another.” He said.

“So did you take the rings when you were there, Aurora?”

“Hell yeah, they were beautiful. As soon as the bodies started moving, though, I tossed them into the grass, and all the bodies shambled back to their places before the curse activated.”

“What if he did find them?” Jack asked.

“Well that’d be interesting, wouldn’t it?” Liam chuckled as he brought a shot of whiskey up to his lips, “Really interesting.”

"...if he dies with the rings, wouldn't those 40,000 or so undead come marching here?"

Liam shook his head.

"There are wards all over the place to specifically combat that possibility."

"Then couldn't he just take the rings and leave the area?"

"He could, but others have tried the same, and it always ends the same: they're torn to pieces by some creature after weeks of not being able to sleep."

“If the curse only activates when you take the rings, why not leave the rings alone, bury the dead, and reclaim the land that way?” Clara asked as she leaned forward with her chin resting on her knuckles.

“I can answer,” Aurora said, “Every Double New Moon, all the dead will rise and purge anything living out of the valley. I had to high tail it out when it happened when I was there"

“Where did you stay?”

“The same place Lyle is now. In fact, my time in the farmhouse probably is what caused Liam here to put Lyle up in there instead of the farmhouse.”

Liam could only shrug at the suggestion.