After consuming a healing potion of his own, Tabian pulled off his helm and dropped it in the sand. We were both breathing heavily, the sweat pouring off of us, soaking our clothes and dripping steadily into the sand.

I realised my body was incredibly itchy, and most of all I just wanted to take a bath, but first I needed answers.

“Do you know who… what, he was?” I asked. I wasn’t sure you could call this a ‘person’ anymore. Simply judging from the state of decay his body was in, it seemed likely he hadn’t even been alive during our fight, but instead just an undead puppet controlled by strings unseen.

“I don’t know his name, but anyone in these lands knows his armour. It belongs to the Royal Guard. They were supposed to have died along with the King over fifty years ago, but occasionally one of these Forlorn appear in our cities, and usually don’t leave until most of the population is dead. This is the first time it has happened in Gothershall, but many of the other cities to the west have been completely wiped out because of it. The army has been trying to deal with them, but their losses are very high.” This finally explained what the army was for, as it was clear that mere bandits didn’t warrant that much attention.

“So, what are these ‘Forlorn’?”

“The Forlorn are those supposed to be dead, but who still walk the earth. They’re driven by an unknown purpose to kill all living beings, and they possess unnatural control over the darkness. I’ve heard that they cannot die but will always rise again after being defeated.”

I felt certain then that we’d done the right thing when we’d dumped the dismembered Knight’s corpse into Silt Lake the day before.

“What should we do with his body?”

“Burn it. Bury it. I don’t know. But we have to get it out of the city. Don’t worry though, I’ll deal with it. You have to seek out Father Adam at the Old Church outside the Forgotten Village. Tell him I said to go ahead with his reckless plan.”

If I hadn’t already sought out Father Adam, I wondered if this would’ve been my first introduction to him. I was fairly sure I was following an alternate path through the Main Quest and the bet I’d won by defeating the Tower Guard was likely part of it.

“What plan is this?” I asked, although I didn’t really expect an honest answer, considering how secretive the old Father was about it.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“He can tell you that himself, but just know that should it succeed, all who still remain in this Kingdom would be eternally grateful to you.” I knew it… no answers, just more questions.

I didn’t reply, but when I was about to leave the Captain turned to me and said, “You should take this,” and handed me the halberd.

I looked at the tooltip that popped up as he held it there before me.

----------------------------------------

‘Forlorn Halberd’

-Melee Weapon-

Polearm > Halberd

“The Royal Guard once longed for peace in the warring Kingdom, but as the Shadow fell across the hills their longing waned until naught but hunger remained.”

Trait(s):

‘Defiled’

‘Stalwart’

Equip

Discard

Weight: 3.9 kilos

----------------------------------------

Its item art was as plain as the weapon looked right now, having none of the shadowy effects on it that it’d had in the hands of the Intruder. The descriptions of the traits were: “The wielder has significantly reduced mobility” and “The wielder cannot be knocked down”. I wondered if it would also have a special ‘Familiarity Level’ to unlock a unique ability similar to what the Forlorn Intruder had used. As I read through the flavour text, I pondered the reference to the Shadow for a moment. It likely had some significance to what had turned these former knights ‘Forlorn’.

“Do you want it?” Tabian asked, breaking my train of thought. I wondered how long he’d been holding it there while I stared at the tooltip.

“No thanks. You can keep it,” I replied.

“It will be buried alongside his body then.”

I wanted to reply that it was probably a bad idea to leave the weapon with the body if these Forlorn supposedly came back to life, but I very much doubted a headless man would return to life, so I didn’t say anything and just left.

As I walked back across the sand towards the entrance of the arena, a white-robed blonde woman was waiting for me. She looked similar to the one who had handed me the healing drink, but she was slightly taller, though identical in appearance otherwise.

“Lord Iberius would like to talk to you.”

I almost declined, thinking it was some random side quest, but then two guards in full-plate armour standing a head taller than me came up from behind her.

“Follow me,” she told me. I didn’t have to ask to know that I didn’t have a choice.

We came to a halt outside of a large red tent just a short walk from the arena. The attendant left, but the two guards remained.

“Enter,” a voice called from within.

As I pushed aside the tent flap, I was greeted with the intoxicating and overpowering smell of hashish, or something akin to it. The source of the smoke that wafted about the room was a pipe in the hand of the handsome man I’d seen in the stands just before my fight with the Forlorn Intruder.

“Hello, Aiko. I’m Iberius, this World’s Architect.”