“I have to admit I did not expect you to have quite so many… members, in your party.”

I glanced up at Theen, then back at the two dozen fighter types that had eventually ended up being accepted as part of my group, part of me wanted to laugh at just how ridiculous it was. I had just wanted to diffuse the situation back in the tavern and mostly played the whole thing by the seat of my pants.

Still, it made me smile to see that so many people were willing to repay my good faith with some of their own, even after we had weeded out a few of them who didn't like all the provisions in the contract Mary and I wrote up.

While it seemed like it would be trouble to manage, Karsten was doing surprisingly well at getting them organized into two squads as well. I could tell he was enjoying it a bit, even if he grumbled at me for putting it onto his shoulders. He had even talked to the man who ran the trading post and gotten us a selection of baskets to use for collecting the zombie plants in the city, presuming we paid him back with the profits anyhow.

I for one had left the walls with Mary to go find the elf, though she had doubted my explanation of meeting him in a dream initially. It hadn't taken her long to accept it after we met him though. He was… odd.

Theen was tall, blond and thin, all things you would expect from an elf out of Tolkien, but the similarities stopped there. His eyes were unnerving large and rounded like an owl’s, and his teeth were sharper than a human’s. He also walked with a loping gait that made it look like he would be more comfortable on all fours. There was little of the etheric beauty normally attributed to his kind in fiction, and he seemed more a wendigo than some graceful immortal lord. The long beard and matted body hair aided in that impression, though he didn't smell as far as I could tell.

From the moment we met him Mary had been trying to avoid meeting his eyes, and I could sympathize, he was unnerving in a way even monstrous creatures were not, and despite the calm aura of nature around him he seemed to share habits with so many creatures that his movement appeared altogether unnatural.

“I must ask you church-child, are you making a mercenary band or a party of adventurers?”

I had honestly been asking myself the same questions, so I decided to respond frankly. “I don't know. I don't want to turn them away if I can help it.” Many of them had had really quite severe injuries some of which had never been properly seen to when I surveyed them this morning. The idea of letting them get that bad again wasn't something I could accept while keeping my morals. “But I certainly don't want to go joining wars for money. Maybe something more like a traveling group of monster hunters.”

“A battle against a monster is a battle nonetheless. You will be a mercenary then. Not a career I would have thought suitable for one of your disposition.” the elf said sagely, or I'm sure he thought of it as being sagely.

I just kept my temper in line by remembering that he was still probably trying to help me. “I think that's a little different than participating in wars between nations over territory.”

“What is a nation but a large herd of humans?”

I wanted to kick him in the shins, but I restrained myself.

Thankfully Mary bailed me out before the elf could drive me nuts. “Karsten says they're ready to go Abbot.”

“Then let's get moving,” I said, before firing off a “flurm” to get people's attention. “Hey people, form into your groups, we're going in.”

The people in the courtyard broke up into the two squads we had made in the morning. Karsten and I, after consulting with some of the men who had been here longest, had decided to break into the two units of twelve men for practical reasons, one would be responsible for holding back the undead and keeping them away, while the other would mostly keep track of scavenging for valuables, and harvesting the plants that were used for Grimash. It apparently didn't matter what type of plant it was, only that it had absorbed enough of the energy of this place to be considered a magical herb. Theen claimed to be an expert on identifying worthwhile plants to that end so I left him in the second group with Mary while Karsten and I worked with the front.

The gate into the city was a large steel construction with a heavy portcullis, which retracted back into the gatehouse accompanied by a clanking like the hoofbeats of an iron-bull on the charge.

The gate proper was then opened before us, the guards taking careful vigil. It opened onto a broken stone street devoid of life despite the bright colors that had once coated the bricks. While it was still clearly discernible, the red and yellow inside the city proper was faded with the years, especially compared to the similar buildings inside the fortress.

I moved out into the street with the first party, Strong, now more used to his renewed depth perception, brought up the rear of the vanguard behind me.

“You newbies remember to stay on guard now, that goes for you as well Father. The undead out here on the edge of the city may be stupid, but that doesn't mean they can't get the drop on you if you don't pay attention.”

“Right.”

I nodded, checking the buildings for movement as we pushed on down the road and the second group entered, and Theen moved up next to me.

“Ah, from what I saw yesterday there is a relatively overgrown area about three miles southeast of the gate that we should be able to harvest a fair amount from, would you like me to guide us there?”

I looked at the elf and back at the group, then back to the elf, he was technically part of the harvesting group, but I didn't really have any problems with him leading us that way. “alright, lead on, but be careful.”

The elf laughed and his body contorted strangely as he did so. “I think I know the way church-child.”

As he went off ahead and we continued down the street about 30 feet behind him, strong shuddered behind me. “Scary that one.”

I thought of agreeing with the big man, but a memory hit me and I decided against it.“He can still probably hear you, you know.”

‘Elves are scary.’

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The area Theen led them to was an old stone villa overgrown with obviously corrupted vines, the harvesting team entered the courtyard proper while the defense team blocked the doors and cleared the undead out of the rooms of the house. Mary could see the occasional blasts of light from the Flurm’s that Abbot shot out. The group had gotten used to them on the march here as the small priest incinerated many of the undead that approached them with rays of holy light. Unfortunately, not even that would stop them coming back in the nighttime.

Mary grimaced as she cut back at the vines that tried to reach out towards her, knocking them back, though the severed section continued to wriggle on the ground.

“Ok, I can see why we needed half of our group to be harvesters now. This is more resistance than I expected from plants.”

“Indeed. In many ways, this job is more difficult than our compatriots, especially with young church-boy amongst them to weaken the undead.”

“Gah!” Mary must have jumped nearly a foot off the ground as the creepy elf guy snuck up behind her for the fourth time. He claimed it wasn't on purpose she didn't believe that. It took an effort to sneak up on her, at least when she wasn't daydreaming. “would you stop doing that?”

“Doing what? If my footsteps are too quiet for you should work to improve your senses.” He spoke in that infuriating smug tone of his.

She turned to give him a piece of her mind, but he was already off to the next person and she had a stupid undead plant to kill.

“Stupid goddamn…” vine after vine detached itself from the wall as she continued cutting off chunks. Once they were small enough she would grab them and throw them into the tightly woven baskets that were used to carry the material.

It took her about twenty minutes of cutting at the thing before her basket was full. She shivered a little as it continued to wiggle on her back, and she supposed that was why they burned it and crushed it before they shipped it off to Brindon or wherever.

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Still, it was a good haul based on how much this stuff tended to sell for, and she moved to assist one of the less-veteran members of their little organization (and wasn't that it's own sack of worms. She was going to have a long talk with Abbot tonight.) He had gotten himself tangled up in a half dozen vines who were trying to drag him back into the building, but a quick cut severed the things hold on him. The ones that had already gotten inside his clothes had him jumping about like a monkey as they wriggled around, but he would be fine.

She turned, it seemed that the harvesters who weren't complete greenhorns had long since filled their baskets, and we're mostly hanging around keeping an eye on things, she wandered over to the group, which was led by an elderly man with a wicked looking cutlass hanging from his hip. If she remembered right Abbot had set a Bone in his leg in the morning.

“Oh, the little lass finished ahead of the rest of them.” the old man chuckled. “I told you there was a reason she was traveling with the little priest, now didn't I. And it's not just because she be sleeping with his friend.”

She fought to keep a blush off her face as one of the other veterans spoke up.

“Ah pipe down Hengest you're full of shit anyhow.” the man chuckled, turning to face her. “I'm Sam, the scraggly fellow is Jimbo, and the old man is Hengest. Do you have experience with precision work before this? A thief or a ranger maybe.”

“Something like that.”

“So a thief then? I'll keep my eyes on my purse.” the man laughed good-naturedly and she smiled along with him. It made people feel at ease knowing that you were a thief for sure in a sort of paradoxical way, at least for adventurers.

She wouldn't need to snatch any purses regardless with the cut she'd be getting of this. Karsten and Abbot had both offered her their portions of the payoff as long as she wasn't stingy with it when they needed something. Abbot because he didn't feel like he needed it or earned it properly, and Karsten because he was head over heels for her. She would make sure to repay their trust a dozen fold if she had the opportunity.

‘and maybe a bit more for Karsten…’

She was snapped from her Reverie however by the sight of a beam of light shooting up from the front gate. The signal that they were leaving.

Immediately Hengest flipped from his position as an old man into a voice she had heard before from her instructor. “Alright, everybody shut and tie off your baskets. You have one minute, then we're leaving.”

As she scrambled to get ready to go along with the rest of the group Mary smiled.

Things may have been simpler back on the farm, but she was certain it would be boring compared to this.

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“I don't like this.” Karsten said warily as we continued at pace back towards the gates, our boots on the cobblestone the only other sound besides.“We haven't seen a skeleton for ten minutes.”

I glanced down the road ahead of us, clear of the undead, at least up until a pile of rubble about a quarter mile away. “You aren't wrong. Theen, do you know anything about what might be causing this?”

Rather than the two loose groups, we had entered the city in, our return trip was a much more coordinated affair. The vanguard group now took up positions surrounding the harvesters, who would obviously be hampered in combat by their baskets full of plants. We formed a sort of ring as a result and had to keep an eye out in every direction.

“It's possible someone else has drawn them away.” The elf shuddered strangely but didn't seem to grimace. “We are hardly the only people in the city. There are probably four or five groups out here.”

I glanced back at the group. Then down the road. I didn't really want to just abandon somebody else in the city to the undead, but it would be unreasonable too…

I was stopped in my thoughts as Karsten put a hand down on my shoulder. I looked up at him to be met with a knowing smile and a nod. Turning to the rest of the group he shouted. “Right, everybody. We're picking up the pace, move those feet.”

I was stunned for a moment, and I struggled to keep up with the rest of the party as they started marching hard down the street my tiny legs making it necessary to jog. I tried to keep up with Karsten. “Why..?”

“You want to go save whoever it is right? Well, we can't leave the baskets behind, so let's get them through the gate then we can double back. Sound good?”

I almost protested for a second, thinking about how they might be dead before we could get back, but after a moment's hesitation, I nodded. Our own group would be in danger if we split half the vanguard off of it. “Alright, Karsten. Thanks.”

The teen smiled and nodded, jabbing a thumb to his chest. “You can count on me Father, that's what I'm here for.”

I nodded, and kept up with the rest, jogging along with the group for about ten minutes until the gate was in sight. We didn't spot a single undead along the way. As they passed the barricades and we signaled the guards to let us in I stopped by the door and glanced over the assembled group. “Hey Strong?”

“Yeah?”

“Pick me up so I can see everybody.”

If the mercenary had any issues with being used as a makeshift podium he didn't voice them. Instead, he took to lifting me up onto his broad shoulder with nary a word.

I raised the glowing light on top of daughter-bark up into the air, catching everyone's attention even as the gate began to grind open beside us.

“Everyone, good job today. From what Strong and Theen tell me this is a better haul than most groups could expect, even proportional to our size. Especially on our first day together.” That got a bit of cheering and a couple confused looks as to why I was saying this outside of the gates, rather than within them as would be more appropriate. “ I want nothing more than to go in and celebrate out hall with you, but I can't let somebody else in the city get swarmed by the undead and still sleep tonight.” I glanced over the group, some of them looked uncomfortable with that, others seemed to nod acceptingly. “I'm not going to tell you that you have to come with me on a rescue mission you may well not see profit from, I asked you to be kind to others in your contracts, not altruistic, but I ask you nonetheless to come if you are willing and help me, if you feel you can.”

I was expecting three or four of them to come with me, alongside Karsten and Mary maybe.

Instead, it ended up being literally the whole group, so much that we had to convince a couple of the first time adventurers, Bertheld and Kenneth, I believe, to stay back and guard the plants instead. Honestly, I felt a bit bad about it, several of them were clearly coming more to avoid social ostracization than because they actually felt comfortable doing it, or out of any loyalty to me for that matter.

It would be down to me to make sure that they did not suffer for their fears.

For a moment I thought back to the awful bloody splatter in the room that Henrietta hadn't wanted me to see back at the cathedral. It wasn't the gore that bothered me, I was a healer, but rather the fact that those animals had died because of me. I could hardly let the same happen to people that had signed on to follow me.

Then again, if I left someone else to die, I would be causing death the same way. So at the head of my large party, I made my way back into the accursed city in the red light of the setting sun.

I would keep them safe from the dangers within.

I had to.

______________________________________

*Clang*

The rusted blade broke off as he rammed his shield into the skeleton that had climbed up towards them over the ruined structure, and he brought the Metal Disk’s sharpened edge down on the creature's arm for good measure, shattering its hand and letting it fall down to the street below silently save for the clatter of its bones against the pavement. A veritable sea of the undead filling the surrounding block and trying to scramble up at them like wolves upon a fallen deer. The whole lot of them only making noise when they moved.

Harald grimaced. His eyes straying back to the party, who scrambled behind him on the tiled roof of the building. If his boss could just get a move on with that fucking ritual already.

“Any progress Am Johnathan?”

“These aren't exactly ideal conditions to be working under Harald. It's a bit hard to draw a circle on an uneven surface.”

“Could you at least let me use my guns. There are too many of these bastards for me to hold back forever.” While he was as canny with a mace as any Dwarven man worth his birthgold, he wasn't exactly going to beat a thousand to one odds with them, especially as the undead seemed to be growing more active with the setting sun. “Hell, I don't think I'll be able to hold them back another hour at this rate.”

“Just do what you were paid for, I'll get us out of here soon enough.”

Harald grit his teeth as he pushed another of the damnable abominations back down to the street below, though the sounds of its bones shattering made him smile, If only for a moment.

‘This is the last time I'm contracting with a wizard.’ he near swore to himself under his breath, sure they were helpful for his projects, but still. ‘It's gonna be hard to make progress on my research when I'm dead.’

He flinched slightly as a crackling sound came from behind him, turning to see bolts of green lightning begin to crackle back and forth across the edge of the circle. “There.” his boss said gleefully. “Now in just a mom-”

He didn't hear what the wizard said next as a rusted blade stuck through the human’s chest. Blood sprayed out over the tiled rooftop in thick spurts for barely a moment, before the wizard collapsed to the ground, clutching at the sword with his hands, even as his murderer stood up where he once had. A skeleton had climbed the opposite side of the roof and struck to devastating effect.

Harald grimaced at the gruesome sight, before letting out a battle cry as he charged the skeleton, bodily shoving the thing back down to the street. He moved to check his downed employer, but he hardly had time before the circle was broken and tainted by its creator's blood, green lightning going cascading across the roof.

‘Well, this has all gone to-’

He didn't even get to finish his thought as the floor shattered upwards from beneath him, sending fragments into his leg and shoving him back into the wall of the raised section by his side.

The skeletons for their part seemed repulsed by the blast as much as he was, and for a moment he faintly hoped that they might cease their attack.

Then they surged forward again and he sighed, pulling a handgun from the brace on his chest and taking aim at one of their stupid ancient skulls.

‘Not like I’m gonna attract any more of em’ than that already did.’

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