“Once they start being a common part of life, we made arrangements for all the paperwork needed to accommodate their case, as simple as that.” – Karst Battenberg, City Scribe for the Free City of Levain, circa 110 FP.
Ever since the Unliving came to be – around six or so centuries ago, according to the more knowledgeable sorts, though when each nation accepted their existence varied – they had inevitably ended up as a factor to consider in all sorts of things. Be it in terms of bookkeeping like personal registries and the like or laws and regulations, provisions had to be made for those who rose into unlife.
It must have been quite the pain to have to set up provisions for such cases, Reinhardt thought, even if he understood the logic behind it. Unliving folk were rare yet not. It was estimated that every thousand deaths or so would see one risen, though fortunately they did not seem to always stick around for the long run, as otherwise things would get crowded.
Naturally, warfare was particularly affected, especially in larger-scale battles where it was practically guaranteed that an unliving or ten would rise up from amongst the dead. When the fighting was in relatively civil phases, it was far from uncommon for the winning side to help take care of the losing side’s “survivors” who survived this way.
In battles where the opposing sides had gotten a lot less civil with one another, like in Theodinaz, the reception given to enemies who were freshly risen as unliving were a lot less pleasant.
Since it took anywhere from hours to a week for a dead body to rise into unlife, Reinhardt knew that he never dealt with all of the ones that resulted from the battles back in Theodinaz two decades ago. He very clearly remembered at least half a dozen of the early risers, though. The ones who rose back up while their corpses were being stripped for loot and salvage.
Neither the mercenaries nor the dwarves back then had any goodwill to spare and those unfortunate enough to have risen early were unceremoniously tossed straight into the burning pyre until they turned to ashes like the rest. Supposedly it took a couple weeks for an unliving to “recover” from having their bodies fully destroyed like that, so if they returned to life, it was likely after the army had moved on from there.
Either way it was not his problem to deal with, back then.
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For all its intensity, the current fighting between the Coalition and the Imperials were still at a relatively civil stage, all considered. The coalition had buried their dead, sure, but it was in shallow graves, and while there were many bodies in each, they were lined up neatly next to each other instead of being crudely stacked over each other.
Both of those were measures taken to watch out for people who might have risen from amongst the dead. That way they could break out from their grave easily, to be helped by someone on guard. It was already a bad enough experience for someone to awaken buried in dirt, much less when there were several bodies above them on top of a thick layer of soil.
Other than the few members who left ahead of time to bring the bad news to the next of kin amongst the company, the Free Lances also stationed a few members behind just in case one of their dead ended up rising into unlife after they had left. The Coalition army did similar, leaving a small detachment to handle such issues since with tens of thousands of dead bodies after the battles that took place, the chances of some of them rising was practically a certainty.
That morning, Reinhardt and Elfriede stayed up late in the tent Salicia and Grünhildr usually shared, having stayed the night there to help comfort the latter over the former’s loss. The women were still asleep when Reinhardt went out to get some hot breakfast for the three of them, taking care not to accidentally wake them on his way out.
Which was a lot harder than most expected, given how Elfriede hugged his tail like it was a body pillow while she slept, but he managed, after some careful maneuvering.
By the time he returned bowls of still-steaming stew and warm bread fresh from the ovens, both women were already in the process of waking up and stretching their muscles. Neither rejected the hot breakfast he brought over, which was a good sign on Grün’s side given how Elfriede had to practically cajole her into eating previously.
They had decided to keep their old friend company for as long as they could afford to, although the Company would need to move out later that day. As it was, Grünhildr had her own large storage artifact, so even after they left it would be easy for her to just pack everything – including Salicia’s body – into her storage and leave on her own.
Reinhardt and Elfriede made some small chat about the weather and minor tidbits about the campaign while they accompanied Grünhildr with her breakfast. The burly woman still showed little of her usual appetite, at times just absent-mindedly stirring her stew with a piece of bread. She was clearly not yet over Salicia’s death, even if she had improved since the first day when she found out about it.
It was while they were eating and chatting with each other that Reinhardt noticed it. He thought that he saw the slightest movement on Salicia’s hand, and rubbed his eyes with the back of his paw to make sure he was not hallucinating or anything like that. When he saw no more movements, he wondered if he was too tired or had too much to drink the previous night.
While he was the only one who sat facing Salicia’s body, though, not everyone needed to be looking in a direction to notice what happened over there.
“You noticed it too?” Elfriede asked him a moment after Reinhardt rubbed his eyes. She naturally had no need to be looking at the body to perceive anything happening with it, given the short distance. Her words made Grün look questioningly between the two of them and Salicia’s body as well.
Before he could reply, Reinhardt noticed another unmistakable twitch of Salicia’s fingers, followed by the dead woman’s one good eye opening wide, then rapidly closing again as if blinded by the sudden brightness. This time all three of them noticed it, and as one, they rushed towards where their old friend laid.