“Easy there, village boy.” Violet lightly pushed him off of her. “What did you do? I died…Didn’t I?”

“It was the ring. A bright white light came out of it and shot into your body and… here we are.”

“It can revive the dead?! That’s insane. This is insane…”

“This must be why the military, and those masked freaks really want their hands on it.”

“The rich and powerful would do anything to stay alive forever. Ugh…I can still feel that blade in my neck…”

“Is the wound closed?”

“Yes, but I can still remember what it felt like. It’s horrifying.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay…Thank you for saving my life.”

“Well, you came back for me and brought me back, so we’ll call it even. Actually…why did you come back?”

“I thought they might try to use you as a scapegoat for the break in, and I wanted to give you a proper burial.”

“Using me as a scapegoat? That does make sense. Not really much of a scapegoat though because we did break in.”

“I guess so. We didn’t take anything though. We’re not going to need that description stone anymore so we should just get to Atlas and get out of this hellhole.”

“Well…maybe we should take some stuff.”

“You’re thinking of looting not even a minute after being brought back to life?”

“Think about it! We have no money and there’re literally magic stones all over the ground. We need funds to make this mission possible. If we starve, it wouldn’t be that exciting of an ending.”

“Once again, I’m not really here for ‘excitement’ but I understand what you’re saying. Let’s just take what we can quickly and get out of here.”

Violet and Kenrich went through the rubble and picked up every gem that they saw. They weren’t sure how many would actually be useful, but they couldn’t afford to be picky. Violet then used her dagger to break open the cash box under the pay counter. After they finished their plundering, they snuck back out the front door.

“I guess we can call that mission a success, huh?” Violet said with gems and gez inflating her pockets.

“I honestly don’t think it could’ve gone worse, but we’re both alive so let’s just take what we can get and head towards Aquarium,” Kenrich said.

“I also think it’s safe to say that we’ve been found out by those masked freaks. We’re being hunted by a lot of different people now.”

“I don’t want to think about that. On the bright side though, with this ring, we can just keep bringing each other back! That’s a little comforting.”

“I’d prefer to not make this a habit.”

They made their way back to Atlas, and, under the cover of night, made their way to the back gate of the city. Kenrich told the guards that there was a break in at the gem shop and that was enough to make the guards leave their posts for long enough that Violet could pull the lever without any resistance. They left the city. As they galloped down the road, Kenrich wondered where they were going to stop next. Aquarium was weeks away even by horseback so there was no doubt that they would need to make several stops before arriving at their destination. After around half an hour of running, they made their way to a forest where they finally decided to set up camp for the night.

“It feels like I haven’t slept for weeks…” Kenrich sighed.

“There’s been no time for it,” Violet said. “Get used to it because we’re not going to be able to stop like this often.”

Kenrich and Violet set up a tent using a tarp they had purchased in Lampeer along with some sticks found in the forest around their campsite. Violet started a fire using the flame stone and they sat down around the campfire. Violet observed Kenrich start picking some glass shards out of his knees and decided to help out.

“We should have a healing stone among these ones we’ve taken. It should close your wounds,” she said, rummaging through her pockets.

She took out one stone, gripped it, and put her hands close to Kenrich. It shot out a huge puff of glitter directly into his wounds.

“Ow! Ow! That stings! What the hell?!”

“My bad,” Violet said, giggling. “Let me try this one…”

She gripped another stone and out of it came some light bongo music.

“...They do say music is healing.”

“You’re not funny! There’s glitter coursing through my veins, Violet! I know that you know which stone is the right one!”

“Okay, okay. Here-” She tossed him a white stone from the pile.

Kenrich took the stone, and a green light surrounded him, closing his wounds. He gave a sigh of relief while leaning back.

“You’re a sadist…”

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“I’m not a pervert!”

“I didn’t call you that! Now, what stones do you actually have?”

“I just grabbed whatever I could find. I’ve got two healing stones, three music stones, one glitter stone, one stamina stone, and two water breathing stones. So, those along with the flame stone and jump stone I already had, and I have quite the arsenal. What stones did you grab?”

“Umm…I’ve got this white one, and two of these purple ones. And that jump stone you gave me.”

“One healing stone, and two glitter stones then. Not as impressive as mine.”

“We’re sharing them anyway!”

“I guess we should. Here-” Violet gave Kenrich one of the water breathing stones and one music stone.

“You’re stingy.”

“I already gave you a jump stone and a fireball stone…which you gave to the enemy!”

“You know that I had to!”

“Uh huh. Anyway, are you ready?”

“For what?”

“Your training! We’re starting it now.”

“Okay, I’m ready. I want to be stronger.”

“That’s what I wanna hear.”

Violet and Kenrich finally began their training to make him a competent warrior. Violet started with a lecture on how important your fighting stance is to your balance and ability to defend yourself. After a bit of practice, Violet was satisfied with Kenrich’s understanding. They grabbed two sticks from the woods to start their first sparring match since Kenrich was without a sword of his own. Violet did not hold back, and Kenrich was covered in bruises by the end of it while she had not been hit a single time.

“You can’t like…ease me into it a bit? My hand is purple and twice the size!” Kenrich said.

“Looks like a gorilla’s…” Violet said inspecting his swollen hand. “If I hold back, how are you gonna get any better? We don’t have enough time to be babying you.”

“Okay…I understand.”

They continued sparring and Kenrich still struggled immensely with staying on his feet with Violet’s continuous onslaught.

“If you can’t fend me off, then there’s no way you’ll survive against those masked freaks!” She said, swinging her stick gracefully and precisely at Kenrich’s arms and legs.

Kenrich was slowly improving and was able to take more hits if nothing else. He still could not land any blows though. This training continued for several days as they traveled down the road towards Aquarium. Kenrich was now able to block some of Violet’s attacks as he began to recognize her fighting patterns. He realized that even if he did not have the combat skills yet, he was starting to unlock a combat awareness that seemed to be in him already. Every time he did block one of Violet’s attacks though, she would improvise immediately after and almost always knocked him to the ground. The healing stone that Kenrich possessed began receiving daily use at the end of every training session.

A few more days passed, and the supplies they had were starting to run low. They decided they would finally make a stop and chose to resupply at the nearby city of Forge. Forge was a city that was aptly named for its production of metalwork that included armor, swords, and statues. Forge was in a strange place politically though in that it was not a large enough producer of weapons to have the complete protection of the Admian government. The lack of a gemstone mine did not help either. That is all to say that Forge was both isolated and uncared for.

“I’ve never heard of this place,” Kenrich said. “Are you sure we can get a quality sword here?”

“It’s literally called ‘Forge’,” Violet said, rolling her eyes. “I traveled through here a few years ago and they forged this dagger I carry. They do fine work. The ol’ blacksmith Breld may be a bit rough around the edges, but he is very serious about crafting a proper blade. Now that your training has come this far, we need to start sparring with real weapons or else you won’t be able to fight anything.”

“Those healing stones won’t reattach my arms!”

“I’ll use the ring on you if anything goes wrong. Don’t you worry.”

“That’s not funny.”

“You’ve blocked my attacks before. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

They made their way to the front gate of Forge and saw that there were no guards manning the area. The gate was wide open.

“That’s a little strange, but that means not having to deal with any more gate guards which is fine by me,” Violet said.

They made their way into the gate and Violet’s eyes were drawn to a man and a woman who seemed to be frozen in a very awkward position.

“What’s up with them?” Kenrich said.

“Hmmm…” Violet thought before getting off of Atlas and walking over to them.

She went right up to them and inspected their faces which housed blank expressions. They didn’t appear to be breathing.

“What the hell…?” Violet said. “They’re not moving…or breathing.”

“Let’s keep looking around,” Kenrich said.

They made their way through the streets of Forge and saw even more people stuck in the same state. They saw that all the businesses, including the weapon’s shop, seemed to be closed without any sign of life around them.

“What could cause something like this?” Kenrich asked.

“Could be some sort of magic stone but it’s not one I’m familiar with,” Violet said. “It’s hard to say what this trance is actually doing to them. I can’t tell if these people are alive or dead.”

“Let me try using the ring on one of them…” Kenrich got off of Atlas and touched one of the unmoving villagers while gripping the ring in his pocket. It had no effect.

“I guess that means that they’re probably alive,” Violet said.

“Maybe we should head over to the guild and see if anyone there is still able to move.”

They made their way to the guild and did not see any signs that it was closed so inside they went. There did not seem to be any life within the building but after the door clicked shut, a head shot up from behind the front desk. It was a frail and scrawny man. He looked sick and afraid.

“A-adventurers?! Oh! Please help us!” he said. “We’ll pay you anything!”

“What the hell is going on here?” Violet asked.

“It’s a necromancer! They’ve frozen everyone with some strange spell!”

“How are you still unfrozen?” Violet asked.

“I am one of the few that escaped the spell so far. The rest who evaded it have already left the city. I stayed behind hoping that an adventurer would come in the guild and help free the people. Please! You can have any reward we are capable of giving!”

“Do you know how they activated the spell?” Kenrich asked.

“The necromancer comes out in a cloak and runs through the village touching people! Anyone who is touched gets frozen in time. They bring a small army of zombies and they take as many of the frozen people they can carry and bring them to the cave outside the city! Oh please! I know they’ll be back to pick up the scraps, so please! You’ll help us won’t you?”

“Any reward we want?” Violet asked.

“Yes! Anything your heart desires! Just please end this terror!”

“We’ll do it,” Violet said.