That awareness Perk gave me ridiculous hearing powers. It overwhelmed me sometimes but I learned how to tune it off. I had a whole library to read. Servants went back and forth and I could tell the zombies from the ghouls from the vampires by the sound they made when walking. Zombies shuffled, ghouls stalked, vampires strutted.

The library doors opened and something entered. I heard no footsteps but the rustling of fabric and the tinkling of… crystals? Gems? Chimes?

"Greetings, my Lady," a voice spoke from the lower floor. Its tone was very courteous and well-modulated, like someone who makes a living with one's voice.

I didn't even close the book, skulking all the way and clenching my teeth and butthole in fear of getting caught. So courageous, I was not.

"I mean you no harm. I know you are here, so why don't you come out so we can have a friendly conversation?" The voice said softly.

> > Contested Charisma test lost.

That sounded reasonable. I slowly shut the book and went to the second-floor railing. I flinched and called me all synonyms of stupid when I saw the floating gem-studded skeleton. Worse, I {Appraised} him by instinct.

> > Level 94 undead lich [Grand Archmage].

My heart would've stopped if it wasn't beating just for fun. I hyperventilated even though I didn't need to breathe. What happened that made me think it was safe to come out? Spoiler alert, one doesn't normally see the failed social interaction messages. I only put the message above when I failed the Charisma contest for context. But at the time, panicking in the library, I had no idea that was the reason.

"Please go away?" I whimpered.

I swear I heard the lich cackling for a fraction of a second. It might be my imagination. I was imagining some really terrible things he would do to me. And searching for a way out.

"Miss, I swear by the Matriarch's blood I mean you no harm."

"Bullshit, you don't worship her," I replied. We weren't making visual contact, by the way.

"What can I do to make you trust me?"

"Sorry, can't think of anything."

"Isn't the fact I'm wasting my time here trying to convince you instead of just yanking you out of your hiding place underneath "Applied Mycelium Crossbreeding Biocompatibility, A Comprehensive Guide" proof enough?

I looked up. The spine of the book right above me read exactly that. I felt trapped. Afraid.

"I'm Kel'Caldor, the Lich. Does the name ring any bells?" He asked in the same courteous and well-modulated voice as before.

It didn't. "At a risk of offending you, my Lord, I must be honest and say it doesn't."

"No offense taken. Now, would you come down so we can talk face-to-face?" He asked softly.

> > Contested Charisma test lost. (I also didn't see this one at the time).

"O-okay," I replied as I moved to the stairs.

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All the contraptions died when Nenandil claimed the Dungeon Core. The Lady's Labyrinth was officially dead, the final page in the history of a once-proud kingdom that lasted for a thousand years, the jewel of civilization in the barbarian plains dead for good.

Just like the quest to revive the unicorns and pegasi species, Nenandil remarked. The Old Soul put that particular quest out of her mind and never talked about it. Maybe the experience with the pink-haired Star Elves and the Season Queens scared her away from motherhood.

The ruins weren't uninhabited, though. She could see that the centaurs took over the place, they just didn't bother maintaining the urban landscape.

The fairy glanced to the east. Far away, more than a third of the world's circumference in a straight line lay Windemere. She was afraid Doris was right. Dragons did destroy the place. Marlowe was gone and Kazuyran too. In a world where power reigned absolute, the weak have no place. Kings weren't overthrown when they had the fighting power of thousands of soldiers. If they were free to do as they pleased, imagine something as powerful as a dragon.

She had an ocean to cross but she was an Elder Water Fairy. The denizens of the depths beware. Nenandil was in a terrible mood.

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The floating skeleton wearing fancy robes pointed at a tea table that wasn't there last time I checked. Fearing inciting his wrath, I sat.

"Thank you for coming, my Lady. Revenants are nigh-immune to poison, so please enjoy the pastries and the tea," he graciously waved a hand and then floated to "sit" on his chair. I heard bones clattering against the wood, so he might have legs underneath that robe. Who knew?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I nibbled on a cookie and sipped the tea. They weren't poisoned but I wasn't hungry.

"We might start a new conversation. I am Kel'Caldor and I'm pleased to meet you," he lowered his head slightly but the two dots of light in his emerald-eyes (actual gemstones, not the color of his irises) stayed glued on me.

I honestly forgot the name King Talbain called me. "I'm sorry, I don't know my name."

"Understandable. Lord Vlad Junior wishes to apologize to you. Is it okay if I bring him here?"

In for a copper, in for a gold coin. "Sure."

Kel'Caldor snapped his finger and the [Vampire Lord] walked into the library. The delay between both events was nonexistent, which told me he was waiting outside.

"Your Highness Raina, the last [Princess] of the Empire, I'm sorry for locking you in the Dungeon. Please ignore all I said to you then. You are an honored guest of this castle and will be treated as Royalty deserves," He declared rather mechanically as he bowed a full sixty degrees.

Both men stared at me. I didn't know what to say. It would be polite, graceful, and magnanimous to just pay lip service and forgive him, then plot vengeance when I became stronger than him. Or just put this stressful situation behind me. I wish I could go away and live my life. Or unlife. But where would I go? And what would happen if I went crazy with vengeance again? I might be a danger to society!

So I just did the doe in the headlights routine where I stared at him wordlessly with a scared expression. The awkward silence went for a while, then Vlad turned around and left, wordlessly too.

I took another sip of tea to calm my nerves.

"Did you know we were once enemies and fought to the death?" Kel'Caldor said. "You killed me."

On a reflex, I sputtered tea on him. Then I jumped and dashed for the door. He didn't stop me. I slammed into the far wall, with a chill in my spine. I spun around to run down the corridor and tripped on the hem of my dress. My catastrophic fall became a tumble and I rolled on my feet as I ran down the corridor. I had no shoes. I hit a closed door at the end of the corridor and slammed on the wood, scratched the frame, completely forgetting there was a handle to open it.

Then I blasted it open with magic. I don't remember which Element I used but it didn't burn. I ran around the castle with my mind in high alert, everything a blur, without a hint as to where the exit was. I couldn't recognize anything, I just needed to get as far away from that floating skeleton as possible. He was going to end me. I imagined what wicked things he could do to me with his experience and expertise in magic. Even if I could be reborn like the theology books said, assuming I was the Matriarch's reincarnation, he could probably trap my soul in a rock and drop it in the bottom of the ocean. Bang, no more me.

I wanted to have the guts to kill myself right there. End this torment. I found I couldn't. I reached another closed door, the same as before, or not, and collapsed on the floor crying. I would like to say I wept tears of blood but they weren't even made of water, just raw despair.

"Pathetic," I muttered to myself as I rocked back and forth.

Kel'Caldor was being polite, I could even guess he was wary of me. But I was no epic hero, just a faint echo of one. I was a vengeful undead without a vendetta to fulfill, an avenger who avenged nothing. A failure through and through.

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"I really mean you no harm," I heard the lich's voice from the other end of the corridor. "You won't get any weaker than what you are right now. If I were to do something to you, I would act now that you are unable to fight back. Though I may be immortal, I put great value on my time. Which tells you how much I am willing to invest in your friendship.

"Allow me to explain. I know for a fact your soul is too powerful to seal away. You are attuned to Fate magic and the very fabric of this world. No matter what prison you are put in, you will escape eventually. Then you'll find me and kill me. I destroy you now, you reincarnate somewhere else, get out of your current predicament somehow, and then you come after me."

His emerald eyes shone like malachite, casting green hues across the whole corridor. The light was so strong my hair appeared green. "Yes, I can see. So many strands of red thread connecting you through the Realms. Even your mortal enemy, the Broodmother, you gave her a second chance. Unwittingly, you gave her a whole new Realm to claim as her own. The Universe forgets not about such a debt."

The light vanished and the two points of light in the smoky emeralds he had in his skull's eye sockets returned. "I cannot defeat you. Not permanently, and I want to exist forever. That is the absolute truth. The Universe loves you more than it does me."

"It took you thousands of years but you killed every single deity that gave you grief. I may be powerful, but I am no God. You know who's a God? You are. You ascended from a mere mortal to Godhood. That's no small feat. And yet the fact remains that we are enemies. Were enemies. I am not the original Kel'Caldor, I am one of the clones who retained a sliver of individuality.

"Around nineteen hundred years ago, we fought. Or Kel'Caldor and your previous incarnation, the [Unicorn Queen], fought. We were hundreds, thousands even. Masters of Magic we called ourselves at the height of our hubris. You messed with one of our safehouses and Kel'Caldor decided to eliminate you. We almost succeeded in killing you but all our might combined couldn't seal the deed. In the end, you killed all of us. Including me. I was lucky enough to rejuvenate before you shattered my phylactery, but this skeletal visage you see is my true vessel now. Should I be destroyed, it will be the end for me.

"I want something from you. Forgiveness. True forgiveness. I hoped that by helping you now that you require a friend, you would not come after me when you regain your power."

He cleared his throat and said, putting all his spirit behind his words, "It is in my best rational interest not to antagonize you."

Maybe that's why Vlad was so… no. That asshole wanted something from me. Once he found out he couldn't get it, he threw me away.

The lich continued, "See how much power you already recovered in these few months since you were recovered from the Maelstrom Ocean. I bet that in less than three thousand years, you will be back to your former glory. I hope you may find it in your heart to spare this poor undead from your Holy Judgment."

Welcome to the uncanny valley. Population, two undead. "Modesty and humility don't fit your job description, milord," I said.

"I know. But I'm telling the truth nonetheless. Come with me. Become my apprentice. Look, I see you fancied Junior's library. Here, I collected it in a storage ring for you," He said as he took one of his fancy rings from his hand.

"Junior?"

The lich let his lower jaw drop, the equivalent of laughing for him, "Lord Vladimir Kolaczenko Junior. A thousand years ago, you killed his father."

Oh, great. Fucking great. "It seems I killed a great many important people."

Kel'Caldor chuckled, "You have no idea. You were once called the [Death Princess], the deadliest murderer this world has ever seen. Kings had nightmares about you. I reckon you were an avid collector of Crowns. Many Kings just threw them at your feet as they begged for their lives."

It surprised me. "Was that me? The wicked heartless [Assassin]?"

Kel'Caldor took a book from the ring. "Here. 'The Chronicles of Death Princess and the First Hero', By Hazel Ackerton. Your niece in a past life. It is the most truthful retelling of the story. I suggest you read it."

I decided to accept his offer. He was willing to offer me help and much-needed succor in exchange for a possible future benefit. It felt fine to me. And he was right, he could probably get rid of me easier now rather than later when I grew in strength.

"What about Lord Vlad's library?"

"We can have [Scriveners] copy the books and he can rebuild it. It might give him something to keep himself occupied and keep his mind away from forgotten treasures he doesn't deserve."

I felt a story behind that last statement but it was wiser to not ask.

"You win, Kel'Caldor. I will go with you and maybe I can grant you mercy later on. I need no servants, though. Do we have a truce?" I offered my hand.

"On my word, Your Highness. We do." He reached out with his bony limb.

I shook the skeleton's hand. Mortal enemies once, allies of the occasion now. Maybe it was a trick, maybe it was a trap. Only time would tell.