Dear my beloved Lizette,

I hope you are doing well, and that your studies are proving fruitful. I understand you are learning quite a bit of languages, Dalmonian surprises me the most! With all those characters to memorize, I don’t even think my father could learn them all! And he’s the smartest man I know. I know how you feel about my father, and I feel the same. He just lacks that sense of sympathy for others. I know he wants what’s best for this nation, but he expresses that quite poorly. I just hope that he comes around and really sets his eyes on the people. It weighs on me to constantly watch over him so that he does not make blunders fueled by emotions. He’s a smart man conceptually, but not very so when it comes to emotional intelligence. That’s why I hope whatever he may say that you do not take any offense to it.

I want to come visit you in Curuni so badly just to see your face. However, you unfortunately have to wait just a bit longer. Unexpected things came up in Galligar that I once again need to clean up. Once all of this blows over, I guarantee I will come to visit you so we can officially be united as one. Please, just wait for me, but I have no doubt that you will. I just pray you stay safe, especially these days as events grow wilder by the moment! Once I do come, maybe you could teach me some nice Dalmonian words, huh? I’ll look forward to hearing back from you, as I’m sure I will. You’ve always been a faster writer than me.

Yours Forever,

Arcite Sorto

Arcite, the Prince of Kori Soaro, dropped his quill pen in the little jar of ink that sat on his desk and sank into the depths of his chair. Everytime he wrote to his beloved girlfriend—Lizette Beaufoy, the Princess of Curuni—he always felt a deep pain in his heart. Long distances hurt the heart so much, and no one understood that around him. His own father would blabber about his agenda, saying things like “Your little meeting with the Princess can wait, I want you here now.” It always frustrated him because he was no king just yet, but he basically did all the work of one.

Arcite never particularly had a good relationship with his father. King Arveragus was one not to think but act on impulse, which left Arcite to clean up after the messes he made. A big one was his firing of the entire Royal Knights after their protests. He was only thirteen at the time, yet was already being burdened with the duties of a king. Because of the fiasco, he had to go out and deploy representatives to town to find new replacement soldiers to build back up the Royal Knights again. It was a hassle to do, yet was necessary considering his father’s unpopularity. If he didn’t start as soon as possible, then enraged citizens would be bound to try their hand at assassinating him. Sometimes he wished they would just do it and he’d turn a blind eye to their actions.

No matter the struggle or the mess King Arveragus made, Arcite resolved it diligently, which earned him the respect of the nation. He already had a better reputation than the current king himself, everyone was just wanting for him to take the throne.

Arcite got up from his desk chair and stretched. This morning was a time of rest, something he rarely had. It was nice to finally have the luxury of lying on one’s bed and letting the cushions slowly pull in the body, beckoning it to a soft wonderland. That was what he wanted to do, but he refrained for just a minute. He wanted to look at something once more.

The Prince pulled open a drawer in his desk and grabbed a sheet of paper. He laid it out on his desk and glared. After scanning through it, he slammed an index finger right on a word that caught his interest.

“Blood.” He kept tapping his finger on that word vigorously. “I see now.”

Another issue had arisen, one that wasn’t caused by the king nor did Arcite know how to clean it up. It stumped him, and had him pondering on and on about it for days on end. That piece of paper he had on his desk was an official report given to him by the Military Knights, stamped in a red seal to emphasize its importance.

The issue at hand could prove to be catastrophic for Kori Soaro, which had him stressing about it. What was the issue? Oh, nothing more than a rejection of nature, a protest against the very science they’d come to know and trust.

People have been found all over Kori Soaro, in the dungeons and even out in the street, to be dead yet still up and about. Adventurers who were thought to be dead ambled out of dungeons looking perfectly fine, until they got wounded. Only then did the people realize they weren’t alive. They didn’t bleed, nor did they have a heartbeat. Yet they still moved and talked as if they were alive.

Arcite studied the undead extensively since their excursion to the Dungeon of the Dead years ago, but he didn’t know what was happening to these people. He didn’t know how these dead citizens were able to walk among the living as if nothing happened.

Still, actions need to be taken in order to avoid a possible revolt of the undead. He wasn’t aware of the possibility of hostility these undead beings held, but he didn’t want to take the chance. There had been at least one murder by the hands of these new undeads, and he didn’t want more. Before the king could even catch wind of the severity of the issue, Arcite hastily deployed a detachment of Military Knights to guard the entrances to every single dungeon. They would check the pulses of every person to walk in and out of the dungeons.

In the meantime, it was up to him to really crack the case and figure out how these people stay mobile without any blood nor a heartbeat, and try to solve it.

“It has to be magic,” he whispered to himself. This phenomenon rejected the rules of science and how the human body functions, so it had to be within the realm of magic, according to his thought process. Magic does have a nature of ignoring scientific rules, as it is obvious that humans are not capable of doing things like shooting fire out of their hands.

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“Let’s see.” Arcite stooped down to the drawer at the very bottom of his desk and pulled out another piece of paper. This one, however, was littered with barely legible scribbles that only Arcite could read. He never cared to write very pretty if it wasn’t a letter to Lizette. Of course, he always made sure to put the extra effort for letters to her.

On the paper were observations in the format of bullet points:

Undead Sampling: Articulate Experimentation

* Body of an undead found in the Dungeon of the Dead decays much slower than that of the scientific standard of normal human decay. Once slain, the body of an undead will not restart its decaying process until weeks afterwards, while that of a recently deceased human begins the decomposition process minutes after they pass.

* Blood of a slain undead quickly evaporates as soon as its decomposition restarts, leaving only skin and bones behind.

* Undead behavior is sporadic, it seems. No thought is taken into their actions other than the motivation to consume human flesh. Cannot communicate verbally, only through grunts and groans.

* It is still unknown if they retain the memories of their lives pre reanimation, but it is speculated that they do not due to studies done on undead coming face-to-face with relatives or loved ones they had during their life. Cannot be confirmed for sure yet.

Picking up the quill pen once more, Arcite underlined two points of interest: “Blood of a slain undead quickly evaporates…” and “Cannot communicate verbally.” These two points caught his interest, considering that those people found out to be undead communicated perfectly with others, and had no blood in their system. One was a common trait in slain undead, but one was not. There were clearly aspects that drew these beings away from the identity of an undead, but Arcite was sure these were clues to figuring out how these types of undead were just as human as everyone else.

This predicament proved much more than he could handle. Such an anomaly in human biology was way beyond his understand, yet he didn’t give up. He still ran his fingers along the page and tried to find more clues to solve this mystery. He was brought to reality when there was a knock on his door.

“Your Highness, do you have a moment?”

Arcite threw his pen back into the ink jar. “Sure, you may enter.”

What came through the door was Dallon, the commander over the entirety of the Military Knights. He donned his gold chesplate and bracers, while having a large broadsword at his belt. It swayed as he took large strides into the room.

“Sir, I hope you are doing well.”

“Could be better, but I’m sure you have something urgent, huh?”

“Yes, you are correct. Sorry for the interruptions during your break time. The king wouldn’t hear us out during his break, and I thought it was important enough to let atleast one of you know as soon as possible.

“What is it?” Arcite plopped down on his chair, then pointed to a guest chair sitting right by the door. The two of them sat parallel to one another.

“Unfortunately, it’s bad news. According to the archive department, they’ve noted that casualty rates inside the various dungeons have been skyrocketing as of recently. It’s not just a small increase, but a massive spike.”

“What? Since when?”

“Since last week. And it’s only rising.”

Arcite bit his bottom lip and made a frustrated groan. That timeline matched with the sudden realization and increase of undead individuals that looked and acted alive. Perhaps there was a correlation?

“Continue to monitor the dungeons, and kill any undead on sight. If they were dead, they must stay dead.”

“Yes sir, but will this solve the issue at hand?” He gave Arcite a speculative side glare as he turned to crack his back.

“No it won’t. Honestly, I don’t know how to resolve this issue.”

All Dallon was able to do was form a fist and press it against his heart. He had a smile on his face, even with all the horrible new circulating recently. “You are my prince, I believe in you. You’ve never failed us yet.”

Arcite was speechless, staring aghast at the giant fist before him. “I’ll try my best, but no promises.”

“I guess I’ll settle for that response, but I hope you’ll realize that you don’t have to do it alone. The whole kingdom is yours to utilize.”

That was it, that was an answer Arcite longed to feel. Since he was a young teen, he did everything himself. His father never pulled his own weight, so Arcite had to pull it for him. He was essentially running the country while his father ate and hosted lavish parties. This was the first time someone inserted the idea of help, of relying on others. Everyone relied on him, making him feel as if he had to do it himself. But that was not true. A good leader thrives in the presence of their counselors, he just had to embrace them.

“Thank you, Sir Dallon. It means a lot to me.”

“It is my pleasure to serve my prince. Now that is out of the way, is there anything else you shall ask of us in order to get this issue under control?”

“Yes.” Arcite got to his feet and stood tall, like a leader is supposed to. “Close off the Dungeon of the Dead, increase security in the other dungeons, and send word to the king and the top scholars of the Academia for an emergency meeting. We’ll finally get to the bottom of this.”

Dallon put a hand over his heart and bowed. The strength emanating from his prince made him smile brighter than ever before. “Yes sir. It will be done.”