What Isa saw a confusion of bodies when she stepped to the doorway. Lund seemed to be fighting a giant shadow. Alice pointed a finger at a mummy and shouted something. From the corner of her eye, Isa saw a second mummy swing at Dulrak and knock him into the wall. The dwarf staggered but kept his feet and came back at the mummy with his flaming blade in hand.

Whatever Alice had said, it didn’t stop the mummy from swinging at her, and Isa knew what she needed to do. Of all the people in the room, her girlfriend needed her the most. She took three steps into the room and jabbed her blade in the gap between Alice and the mummy and felt her blade sink into the creature’s midsection.

To her left she heard a grunt, then a cry, then a crash. She looked over to see Lund on the ground. The mummy king’s arm was beside him, and a tall man in black and silver armor stood over Lund. Before he could raise his greatsword for a killing blow, Mery swept past him, piercing the spot behind the man’s knee where two pieces of armor came together.

“Cover me,” Alice said as she reached into her bag.

“Wait, what?” Isa took her eye off the mummy as Alice rushed to Lund. She stepped into the spot Alice had just vacated and parried a blow from the mummy. As Isa’s light blade met the mummy’s arm, the two locked eyes. Isa wanted to look away, afraid of what might happen if she stared directly into the mummy’s eyes, but she knew that if she yielded, the mummy would lunge after Alice.

Her insides felt numb, but she forced herself to say, “I am not afraid of you.” And as the words left her mouth, Isa had the strength to push the mummy back. With a little space, Isa took in the battle. Dulrak had squared off against the other mummy. Lund was back on his feet with the mummy king’s arm in his hands. He bought it down on the tall man’s head, and Mery followed with another jab at his leg joint.

As the tall warrior reacted to Mery’s attack, Lund tackled him in a bearhug. While the man was pinned, Alice swung her dagger at him but missed. The warrior bellowed and smashed his head against Lund’s.

Lund clapped his hands over one eye and staggered backward. A rotten smell blew Isa’s hair back, and she remembered her own fight. The mummy was rocking side to side as it came toward Isa, so its swings were wide.

Flames flashed close to Isa’s head, and she heard Dulrak say, “I’ll bring you the fire.” He brought his weapon around and slammed the flaming blade into the other mummy’s chest and held it there until the creature burst into flames.

Over the sound of the burning mummy’s screeching Isa heard Alice call to her. She turned to see Alice bent over a convulsing Lund. Alice tried to hold down one of Lund’s arms with her elbow while opening her little jar. With one spasm Lund knocked Alice off him and sent the ointment jar rolling into the corner.

Isa holstered her blade and dove to the floor near Lund. She came up with a handful of his hair. “Spare the dying,” she gasped. “Ysel, damn it. Hear me. Spare him. Spare Lund.”

In that moment Lund began to breathe with deep, even motion, as if asleep. Before Isa could move, the tall warrior hacked at her, catching her leg with the tip of his greatsword. A line of fire seemed to race up Isa’s leg, and she had time to wonder if the blade had been coated in poison. And then a shadow crossed Isa’s vision as the tall warrior kicked her in the face, and the world went dark.

Isa awoke to the taste of ginger, and Alice sitting beside her. The room was quiet. She reached out a hand and felt Lund beside her. His chest rose and fell.

“He’s alive,” said Alice. “Thanks to you, my brave fighter.” Isa tried to sit up, but Alice laid a hand on her chest. “We’re safe. For now, so just rest. Dulrak’s tending to the others.”

“The others? What happened? We’re safe? The warrior, he’s….”

“Yeah, he’s dead.” Alice wiped the sweat from her face, and Isa saw a long, jagged wound on Alice’s forearm. Blood still dripped from it.

Isa scrambled into a sitting position, grabbed the end of her cloak, and wrapped it around Alice’s arm. “You’re hurt! Jesus!”

Alice laughed. “Oh wow. I kinda remember that. He caught me with the back edge of his sword.”

“And Alice paid him back in full,” Dulrak said over her shoulder.

Alice shifted to face the dwarf. “Only because you were holding agro.”

A puzzled look came over Dulrak’s face. “I don’t—”

“She means that you kept the warrior’s attention,” said Isa.

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“Couldn’t take my eye off him! He’d have had my head if I’d given an inch. Nearly did that to Lund! And it was a close thing, still. But Alice and her daggers..... Best stay on her good side, lass.” He grinned which made his scarred face seem almost friendly.

Then he knelt beside Lund and laid a hand on his shoulder. As the half-orc roused, Dulrak leaned in. “Nothing I can do about your eye, lad, not for a long while, but mayhap in your travels you’ll meet a Class 7 cleric or druid who can regenerate it for you.” He patted Lund’s shoulder. “What matters is you’re alive.”

“His eye? What—”

“It’s nothing, Isa.” Lund sat up. “I’ve seen worse wounds and seen them fixed in due time.” As he turned toward her, Isa saw that his left eye was closed over: swollen, red, bloody.

“Are you sure it’s not just like, the world’s worst shiner?” she said.

“I’m sure,” he said. “I felt the spike from his gauntlet—”

“Oooow!” Mery waved her hand. “That’s enough of that. I know just the priest. He’ll set you right. I’ll even pay for it if you promise to never, ever, talk to me about it.”

“All you need,” said Dulrak, “is a prayer wheel and some blessed water. So there’s really not any fee.”

Mery glared at the dwarf. “The point is, a spell like that takes time. Takes time, takes effort, and focus. A class 7 priest isn’t going to be sitting bored in his house waiting to regenerate someone’s eyeball!”

Alice reached into her bag and pulled out a square of cloth. “We can at least get you cleaned up and covered.” She tied off the cloth and settled it over Lund’s ruined eye. “Too tight?”

He touched the cloth gingerly. “Nah, feels good. Thank you.”

Isa waved her hand at Dulrak’s bloody clothes. “You healed everyone. What about you? You look as bad as I feel,” Isa told him.

“It was a hard fight, no lie, what with you, Mery, and Lund, all laid out by the tomb’s champion fighter.” Dulrak looked down at his clothes. “But most of this blood? It’s not mine.”

Lund bent and picked up the mummy king’s arm, and Mery said, “You are not keeping that filthy thing.”

“It took the shine off that pretty armor,” said Lund as he kicked the warrior’s body.

“That doesn’t make it less disgusting.” Mery had started looking in the pots, jars, and urns stacked in the room, but she glanced at Lund when she spoke.

“I’d handle with care, my friend,” Dulrak said to Lund. “Heard of mummy rot?”

Isa pushed herself up. The room was filled with shelves and rows of crockery. “Why are there so many fucking urns in here?”

“Probably the same reason why there were two mummys and a giant warrior here,” said Alice. “The mummy king’s heart, it’s here.”

“Less talking and more searching,” said Mery.

Lund placed the mummy king’s arm on the ground beside the warrior and picked up the warrior’s greatsword. He held it to the light, turning the blade on edge.

“Less looting,” said Mery. “More searching.”

“Someone’s got to keep watch,” Lund replied. “What if those priests show up again?” No one answered, and after a moment Lund laid the sword up against the wall and helped with the search.

Quiet descended on the room broken only by the periodic scrape of lids being lifted off jars and urns. Finally Alice said, “Found it!” She gently lifted a small urn from its place behind several large pots. Mery sent her dancing lights to circle around Alice like fireflies.

As they watched, Alice tilted the urn on its side and shook out the contents. A small bundle about the size of a grapefruit tumbled into her hand. It was wrapped in white cloth, compact and unassuming.

“Are you sure?” asked Lund.

“Who’s got a flint?” asked Alice. “We need to destroy this with fire.”

“I’ll go you one better.” Isa held out her palm where a small flame danced. “Magical fire.”

Alice placed the wrapped heart on the ground, and Isa touched the flame to the white wrapping. With a puff, the flame went out.

Mery sniggered. “Need an old-fashioned flame for this, eh?” She pulled a piece of metal and a stone from her pocket and knelt beside Isa. “Want heat, ask a bard. I always say.” She teased a piece of the wrapping free and laid it out. Next she took a tiny bit of fluff and shavings and set it on the freed wrapping. But her efforts to start a fire also failed. The spark would land on the fluff, flare, and die.

“What we need,” said Lund, “is—”

“Mount Doom,” Alice said.

“—a big fire.” Lund finished. “A good, strong, roaring fire. Then we toss in the heart.”

“We don’t have any wood,” said Mery.

“Shelving.” Dulrak patted a support beam.

“You can’t be serious....”

Her friends’ voices faded as an idea crept into Isa’s mind. It might work, she told herself, and if it didn’t what’s the harm? She pulled her sword hilt from her belt and watched the flaming blade shimmer into existence. Before anyone even noticed, she brought the blade straight down into the middle of the mummified heart.

Spoiler: Current Hit Points

HP Tally

Alice = 6 HP

Dulrak = 24 HP

Isa = 11 HP

Lund = 14 HP

Mery = 10 HP