“So, this has happened before?” Legeis asked as they huddled on the ledge around Heather's unconscious body. The battle in the water ended when Breanne carried Legeis out of the water to drop bombs on the fighting monsters. The goblin was much lighter, so she had no trouble keeping him aloft. It took a few hits, but both monsters finally stopped moving and floated motionless on the lake.
Heather passed out just after Frank woke up, collapsing at his side. He carried her up the steps and set her along the tunnel wall inside the lamplight. Now she lay still, breathing shallowly as the others nervously talked.
“Once before,” Frank said. “It was a nillac battle. She had already used a lot of power in an earlier fight, and needed to cast grave blight a bunch of times.”
“She took on a nillac herd?” Legeis laughed. “She isn't brave; she's crazy.”
“That alligator stunt proved that,” Breanne said in agreement.
“She wanted to try and rot it like she did the hydra,” Quinny said. “But I don't think she could get her scythe buried in its hide.”
“Of course not, the two were thrashing about like wild animals,” Breanne scolded.
“How long was she out last time?” Legeis asked.
“Over a full day,” Frank replied. “We were very worried about her.”
“I hate to be the one to bring bad news, but we can't sit here a full day. We have made so much noise that the wizard is sure to know we're here. Sitting still is only going to give him a chance to deal with us. We need to keep moving.”
“The ghoul knight will still fight for her,” Quinny suggested.
“Yes, it will, but nobody will be able to command her skeletons,” Brenne pointed out.
“Be a shame to leave those beauties behind. That’s a lot of firepower,” Legeis said.
“Maybe we should take her back to the goblin village,” Quinny suggested.
“Those wolves might respawn while we wait,” Frank said.
“A whole day, maybe more? You can guarantee they will be back,” Legeis added.
“We can’t just sit here and wait to be discovered,” Breanne said. “She will be safer in the village.”
“Too bad none of us can heal her,” Quinny said. “She needs a way to heal faster.”
Frank looked over Heather's gaunt face with colorless skin and sunken eyes as her guise of undeath made her look more like Quinny. “She's an undead now,” he muttered and looked up in alarm as he had an idea.
“So?” Quinny asked.
“She will heal faster in a graveyard like we do,” He suggested.
Quinny looked to Breanne, who let out a soft hmmm. “It's worth a try. The lake monster is dead, so it should be safe to linger there for a little while.”
Frank picked Heather up and carried her back to the lower ledge, laying her gently on the ground with her backpack as a pillow. Webster curled into a ball at her side, tapping at her with one limb trying to wake her. They sat and waited to see if her undead magic was the same as being an actual undead. Hours passed as they nervously talked about how they would cross the bridge. Frank and Legeis still believed it was the best option, but Breanne had enough of fishing him out of the water.
“This isn’t working,” Breanne insisted. “We have been here for hours.”
Frank sat on his heels, looking over Heather as Webster made sad little noises. “I am not sure what happened to her is even an injury,” he said. “I don't know of anybody who glows blue when they run out of magic.”
“I have never heard of it,” Legeis added. “Maybe it’s a chosen thing.”
“Maybe,” Frank agreed. “But we shouldn’t let her push herself so far.”
“Your legs were gone, and half your side was missing. She was worried you were dead for real,” Quinny interjected.
“I tried to stop her,” Breanne said with a shake of her head. “But she was in a panic.”
Frank looked down at the spider that was still making squeaks and sighed. “Webster, can you hear her?” The spider stood up and turned side to side, indicating no.
“We should go to the village,” Breanne said in a defeated tone. “We can always fight our way back in.”
Just as Frank was about to agree, Heather bolted upright with a start. She looked around wildly, her eyes finally settling on Frank.
“Oh, thank goodness you're alive!” she yelled and threw her arms around him. “I was sure you were dead!”
Frank looked around awkwardly with Heather hanging from his neck as Quinny started to snicker. “Aww, it’s just like beauty and the beast,” Quinny teased.
Breanne had to cover a smile as Heather let him go and looked around again. “Are we still on the lower ledge?”
“The monster is dead,” Frank said. “Legeis and Breanne helped your alligator kill it. Your alligator didn't survive, though.”
Heather nodded and looked down as Webster tapped at her legs. “Oh, why were you worried?” she asked and picked up the spider. “I can't die, for real anyway.” She went silent as she listened to the spider and then hugged him. “You're right. I was just as worried about Frank.”
“She is awfully touchy-feely,” Legeis remarked, earning him a swat from Breanne. He rubbed the back of his head and Glanced at Breanne as Quinny leaned over.
“That means your part of the family now,” Quinny teased. “Be careful not to upset grandmother, though.”
“You call me grandmother again, and I will push you over that bridge,” Breanne remarked.
Quinny stuck her tongue out as Heather stood up and brushed off her yellow dress.
“We want to try crossing the bridge again,” Frank said as Heather looked up in shock.
“What, why?” she asked.
“We reason that the right path would be the most trapped,” Frank suggested. “Besides, the monster is dead. If it dumps us into the water again, all we will do is get wet.”
“How do you plan to get across?” Heather asked, looking up at the long expanse.
“We're going to run across,” Legeis said. “The trap didn't go off until the zombies were on the far side. I think it's designed that way, so you have the longest swim back, and the lake monster can kill you. If you run, by the time the bridge starts to rotate, you should be safe on the other side.”
“Hmm, we could all fly across,” Heather said as they all looked at her funny. She smiled and took the bird statute out. “I can change shape and fly over then summon the statue to change back. Breanne can then fly over and carry the statue back so one of you can use it.”
“How will your undead get over?” Frank asked.
“Right,” Heather sighed. “They can’t speak the command word. I will have to order them the run over and take the chance.” She looked to the bridge again and took a few unsteady steps.
“Are you sure you’re well?” Breanne asked. “And how long is that guise of undeath going to last? You don’t look right with it on.”
“I forgot it was on,” Heather replied and pulled up her panel. She pulled up the spell and squinted at the description. “Umm, it says it lasts one hour per level of the spell caster, so a few more?”
“Can you release it beforehand?” Frank asked.
“I can, but I was enjoying the bonuses. It gives me the undead sight, and I can see life aura's properly now. I also don't feel cold or need to breathe. The only downside is a weakness to holy and radiance spells.”
“We're not likely to run into a paladin or lifecasting class here,” Frank said. “You should just keep it on for now.”
Heather agreed and carefully made her way up the stairs as Breanne floated beside them.
“Are you not going to ask what happened to you?” she pressed.
Heather got to the top and paused to think about it. “I assume I passed out.”
“You started to glow again,” Breanne insisted. “That’s twice you expended your power and somehow pushed passed it, but suffered some sort of repercussion.”
“How long was I out?”
Breanne looked to the others, but nobody could answer. “We don't know, without the sun, to track the time it's hard to say. Several hours at the very least.”
“I would guess seven or eight,” Frank said. “We think because you are currently undead, the graveyard helped you recover.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“It did?” Heather asked, looking at her own hands to see black nails and colorless skin. She could only assume he was right and looked to the graveyard below. “Well, since it's here.” She called out for undead casting her summon skeletons, bringing nearly twenty from the ground to shuffle up and join the group.
“Is that more than usual?” Frank asked.
“I have a higher version of it now,” Heather said. “I can upgrade them to be archers or spell casters soon.”
“That would be better for you. Use them for range and let the Ghoul Knight do the tanking, they will survive longer that way,” Legeis agreed.
“Next level I get a spell that should make them better, it allows me to contaminate an area with undeath. Any undead inside it will heal with a slow pulse and are a little stronger. I can upgrade it to make them stronger, or heal faster but not both.”
“Go for heals, strength won’t matter if they’re dead,” Legeis replied.
Heather walked the end of the bridge and looked across the expanse. If Frank and Legeis were right, then the trap didn't trigger until near the end. If somebody ran across, they could reach the other side before it rotated over. If they were wrong, they would have to swim again, but this time there would be no monster lurking in the water. She took her scythe from the ghoul knight and then turned her skeletons.
“You, you, and you,” she said, pointing to them one at a time. “Run across that bridge as fast as you can.” The skeletons rushed forward, running with a clicking of their feet. They waited in anticipation as the skeletons clattered across heading over the midpoint. Half a minute later, they neared the far end, and the bridge began to turn five meters from the far side. The skeletons stumbled, but because they were already running, made it to the other side safely.
“It works,” Frank said as the bridge rotated over.
“The timing is close,” Legeis said. “It looks like we can walk to the middle, but have to sprint the rest of the way and cross together.”
“We could go across in smaller groups,” Heather suggested. “Or I can send the skeletons across, and the rest of you can fly with the bird statue.”
“I would rather run,” Legeis replied.
“So would I,” Frank added.
Heather looked at them and tapped a foot. “It's perfectly safe. I have done it several times.” She could see it wasn't going to change their minds, so she turned to the skeletons and sent a pack of five across. The bridge turned at the same point, and she waited for it to reset before sending five more. She repeated the process until they were all across and then ordered her Ghoul knight to run across carrying Webster. One he was done, she made the offer one more time to let them use the bird. Quinny agreed, so Heather flew across and summoned the statue to herself. Breanne then flew it back to Quinny, who transformed and flew to Heather. She had trouble saying the command word but eventually got it and changed back. All that was left were the two boys who walked cautiously to the middle of the bridge.
They paused at the halfway point and nodded to one another before breaking into a mad dash. Heather never noticed how Frank ran before, using his hands like a gorilla to carry his bulk forward. The two hurried to the last few meters as the bridge began to move, and dived for the ledge arriving on the other side safely as the bridge rolled over.
“See, just needed to run,” Legeis panted.
Frank watched the bridge roll over and reset before turning to the ledge they now stood on. It was roughly twenty meters from the bridge to the far wall. The wall itself was stone brick with a stout wooden door right in the center. It had a metal frame and no apparent lock. On either side of the door, just over three meters from the ground, was a window of iron bars. Breanne floated up to one to peer inside and tell them what she saw.
“Its a very strange room,” she replied as she leaned into the wall, passing through it to get a better look. When she popped back out, she looked confused. “I don't see any guards or monsters. There is a stairwell in the center that goes up. Half the room is a ramp to a channel on the right wall that goes into a round tunnel.
“What would that be for?” Heather asked.
“I have no idea, but there is a door on the far side that looks identical to this one,” Breanne added.
“That stairwell must be the way up into his lair,” Legeis said with a rub of his chin.
“But it isn’t guarded?” Frank asked. “Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
“It was guarded by a rotating bridge and sea monster,” Legeis put forward.
Heather wasn't sure that made sense, and Frank obviously didn't agree either. He tested the door, and it wasn't barred or locked, opening into the room to reveal exactly what Breanne said. The room was ten meters wide with a stone staircase that started in the center of the room and went straight up into the ceiling leading into a dark passage. The right half of the room was a ramp that went down four meters to a sort of smooth tunnel that went under the floor in the direction they came from. Frank reasoned it must open into the other room someplace below the ledge. On the far side was another door that looked identical to the one they came in. Just to be thorough, Frank opened that door and looked down a long narrow tunnel that slowly curved to the right until they couldn't see any further.
“I am not comfortable about this room,” Heather said as she walked to the stairs to notice a tiny trickle of water ran down them. It flowed down the ramp to the lower tunnel and out under the floor.
Frank scratched at his head as he looked up the long flight of stairs. “It must be leaking in from the waterfall.”
Heather looked around and shrugged, it was as good an explanation as any, but an unguarded room still seemed silly. If these stairs went to the wizard's lair, surely they would be protected somehow. Before anyone was allowed to step on the stairs, she told five skeletons to climb them and waited. A minute went by, and they patiently waited as the skeletons passed beyond the range they could see.
“So far so good,” Heather said as she squinted to look up the tunnel.
“I will bet my life it’s trapped someplace,” Legeis said.
“Isn’t there something we can do about traps?” Heather asked as she gave up watching.
Legeis lifted his goggles to rub his yes and nod. “Sure, if you have the right skills or equipment. If the trap is triggered by a string or pressure plate, you can step over it. Some traps have magical triggers, and the arcane rogue types can see them and disarm them. I can disarm mechanical ones if I know where they are and have the time to do it. If you want, I can check for traps ahead of us, but it will slow us down.”
“Sending the undead to find them is easier,” Frank said.
Heather sighed. “I suppose it is, but I feel like I am abusing them.”
“They are just mindless skeletons,” Frank offered.
Heather looked at the ghoul knight as he looked back and somehow couldn't agree. Maybe the skeletons and zombies were mindless, but the ghoul knight often acted on his own to protect her. He even moved when she told him not to, and sometimes responded with nods and gestures. He gave her the distinct impression there was more to undead than simple slaves, but what? As she sat there pondering it, there was a strange distant rumble echoing from the tunnel.
“Do you hear that?” Quinny asked.
“Is it coming from the stairs?” Heather replied as she dared to climb a few steps. They looked down the tunnel, not sure what to expect as the rumble got louder. “I think I see something,” she said.
“I see it too,” Frank replied a shifting image came racing down the steps.
“What is that?” Heather asked as she backed down nervously and picked up Webster.
Legeis adjusted the lens of his goggles and then stumbled back in alarm. “Run!” he said as the dark mass came rolling down the tunnel, the bones of skeletons frothing a the surface.
They turned to run for the doors as a tidal wave of water washed out of the stairwell and flooded the room. They were thrown into the far wall and then washed down the ramp pouring out of a chute into the lake below.
Heather felt her world turn into a swirling mess, and her vision was swept around. She hit her shoulder on a wall and was battered in the chute. The fall to the lake was short, but skeletons fell on her, wounding her more. By the time she broke the surface spitting water, her shoulder ached, and her head was bruised. She cried out for Webster looking about frantically, but he was nowhere to be found. Breanne floated over the lake and grabbed her hand to tow her to the shore.
“No! I have to find Webster!” Heather cried as she splashed about.
“I will come back and look for him,” Breanne argued as she pulled Heather away. Frank came to the surface with Quinny, and Legeis was already swimming for the far shore as Heather continued to call for Webster.
Breanne dragged her close enough that Heather could crawl the rest of the way and then hurried off to help the others. In a minute, Frank, Quinny, and Legeis were crawling ashore with her as the ghoul knight swam awkwardly behind. Breanne flew out over the water, looking around frantically for the missing spider as Heather cried from the shore.
“You have to find him!” Heather cried.
“I am looking!” Breanne shouted back in frustration.
“Heather?” Frank asked as he leaned over her. “You’re bleeding.”
She looked up with tears in her eyes. “I lost Webster! I couldn’t hold on to him!”
“Breanne will find him,” Frank encouraged and put a hand to her shoulder. “You need to heal yourself.”
She wiped her eyes with a nod and cast her pulsing heal only to find it wouldn't work. When she looked up in alarm, Frank pointed out she was still undead and would have to use mend the dead. She understood and used the other spell, the injuries mending away as she watched Breanne with a heavy heart. The banshee looked back and shook her head to indicate she didn’t see him as Heather started to cry.
“I am sure he is alright,” Frank said.
“He drowned because I couldn’t hold on to him!” Heather sobbed.
“Nobody could have held on to him,” Frank assured. “That water washed us all out of that room like a tidal wave.”
“Two traps to dump you into the lake,” Legeis said. “Thank goodness we killed that thing in the water.”
“I want my Webster back,” Heather cried.
“Have you tried using your telepathy?” Quinny suggested.
Heather looked up and felt embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that. She concentrated and focused on the spider as she spoke her thoughts. “Webster, are you there?” She cried again and smiled. “Where are you?” She nodded a few times and then stood up to shout to Breanne. “He’s on the ceiling inside the room. He is afraid to come down.”
Breanne looked up and flew back to them. “How do you know?”
“I can hear him in my thoughts,” Heather said. “Here, I know you don't like touching him, so take my backpack, and he will get inside.”
Breanne nodded and flew away, vanishing through the door to emerge a minute later with a bulging pack. Heather whisked it from her arms and cradled the spider to her chest. “Don't ever scare me like that again. I thought I got you drowned.”
“She almost got us drowned,” Legeis commented.
“Not us,” Frank said. “None of us need to breathe. Only you and Webster can drown.”
“That’s great,” Legeis commented and shook out his cloak. “Half my gear isn’t going to work until it dries.”
“What about the skeletons?” Quinny asked.
Frank looked out over the lake, and as he scratched his head. “I don't think they can swim. They are probably sitting on the bottom, waiting for orders.”
Heather set Webster down and wiped an eye as she turned to the others. “Is anybody else hurt?”
“Just a few bumps,” Frank said. “Our natural healing rate will restore that in a few minutes because we're in a graveyard.”
Heather nodded as the bone knight walked up and held out her scythe.
“Oh, thank you,” she said as she took it from him. He nodded his head and turned back to the bridge as if waiting to be told to cross again. “I have no desire to go that way again,” Heather grumbled.
“But that has to be the right way,” Legeis argued. “The stairs go up and are heavily trapped.”
“There must be a safer way up,” Heather countered. “One that isn’t going to kill my friends or my spider.”
Frank looked to Quinny, who was wringing out her white dress. “We could always try that other tunnel?” she suggested.
Frank turned to Heather and then pointed to the lake. “Call for your skeletons. They should come even if they can’t hear you well.”
Heather nodded and went to the water's edge. “Come here!” she shouted as loud as she could. Two minutes later, a scene from a horror movie played out as skulls started to rise from the water. Red eyes glared out of black sockets as the skeletons marched out of the water to join them on the lower ledge. The ones from the stairs were gone, and a few of the ones that came out had missing arms. Heather mended the ones she could, but Breanne insisted she stop pushing herself.
“You need a good night's rest,” Breanne insisted.
“I was out for eight hours, doesn’t that count?” Heather asked.
“We’re not sure how long you were unconscious, and if that counts as rest,” Breanne countered.
“Check your panel,” Frank suggested. “It should show you how much magical power you can draw on still.”
Heather rubbed at her tattoo and brought the orange light display up. She tapped the tab for the character sheet and looked down the listing. There was a list of active effects, showing she was currently under the guise of undeath spell. Below that was a red bar for health, showing that she was full. Below it was a blue bar for mana that showed she was at about half. Below this was a purple bar labeled essence, and she noted it was very low.
“What is essence for?” she asked.
“What?” Frank and Breanne asked in unison.
“Essence,” she replied and held up her display so they could see it. “I am very low on it.”
Frank scratched at his head as he stared at the display. “I have never heard of essence.”
“Nor have I,” Breanne replied. “Has that always been there?”
Heather could only shrug. She had looked a the character sheet dozens of times but honestly wasn't sure what half the information meant. She tried to think back to remember if she'd noticed it before but couldn't say she had.
“She has a stat nobody else has,” Breanne said, looking away from the panel.
“What does that mean?” Quinny asked from the side.
“It means she is drawing a power none of us can draw on,” Breanne replied. “But what is it used for?”
“Maybe for her magical girl powers,” Quinny offered.
“I don’t have magical girl powers,” Heather sighed.
“You have something,” Legeis chimed in. “Nobody else glows blue and keeps casting when they hit empty.”
Heather looked at Frank feeling very frustrated, but he didn't have any answers. “Can we just move on?” she asked as she looked away from the panel. “I already don't like not knowing why I am chosen. I don't need to know that I am not a normal chosen.”
“For all, we know that is normal,” Frank said. “We don't have any idea what Chosen are capable of. What came out in the news was obviously only scratching the surface.”
Heather looked into his dull yellow eyes as he stepped forward to put a hand on her shoulder.
“Don't be upset about this,” he said. “This just means your options are even cooler than any of us realized. If anything, you should be excited to find out what that is used for.”
She smiled and let out a sigh. “I am upset that I thought I lost Webster, and nearly got the rest of you killed. I also don't like constantly finding out I still don't know even simple things about this world. I hate being so clueless and having to rely on you to explain everything to me. I appreciate it, but I like to stand on my own feet and do things myself.”
He nodded and reminded her that it was his and Legeis's idea to cross the bridge. That made her feel a little better, and Webster tapping at her leg reminded her that nothing had been lost but a little time.
She spent another moment staring at the stat and then felt stupid again. “I really need to take some time to relax and clear my head,” she said and lifted her arm. “What is essence for?”
[DING!] The panel chimed. [Essence: Your essence pool is used to tap into the powers of your true form, and borrow health, mana, and skills. Essence can be spent when one of your pools is empty to replenish it rapidly, costing two essence per point refreshed.]
“What?” Heather grumbled as the others listened to the reply.
“Her true form?” Quinny asked as Heather looked up in a panic. She caught Breanne’s gaze as the banshee took on a sour face and floated closer.
“Maybe there is more to this Hathlisora business than we suspect,” Breanne said with a sad tone.
Heather felt her world closing in as she struggled to understand what she just heard. The point of this mission was to learn about Hathlisora, and prove she wasn’t her. Now she questioned it herself until Frank put a hand on her shoulder.
“Maybe this was triggered by using the bird statue, or even by putting on that crown. You changed into another form in both cases,” he offered.
A sense of relief washed over her, and for the moment, she allowed herself to believe that was it. Deep inside, a voice cried out and told her he was wrong, but she fought that voice away, desperate to hold on to a sense of self and the memory of her life before coming here. She wasn't Hathlisora, and she was going to prove it, one way or another.