Vey and Sera held a semi-successful conversation on the habits of mortals, what races and subraces Sera is familiar with, and what genitalia are and why they are typically sources of embarrassment and are thusly hidden. This prompted Vey to ask what precisely the necromancer had done to her yesterday, since he seemed to be forcing her not to hide hers, and any hope of continuing the conversation died on the spot.
Vey noted Sera’s discomfort, and remarked that they could always “talk more later”, before wandering off to the living chamber to pick up its notebook, stationary, and everything else Vey plans to move into the corpse-room. With Sera’s stated privacy preferences and the coordination of the dungeon’s defense considered, the corpse-room is probably a better place for Vey to spend the most of its time as opposed to the more hidden-away living chambers Sera was using.
Sera is beginning to wonder if Vey is intentionally trying to twist the knife in regards to what happened, as she feels like every time she manages to stop thinking about it, that damn skeleton does something to remind her of it. She reminded herself that as a decidedly and apparently confidently evil undead, Vey very well might be doing just that, and the only recourse she has is to do her best to stay calm and try to do whatever it takes to not die. She finishes washing her shirt, and hangs it on the wooden pole with all the metal branches, trying not to notice the dried blood in the cracks on the wood as she does so.
She still won’t have a top until it dries, but at least neither she nor her clothes are still covered in bile. Her strategy of just trying to ignore her embarrassment of being looked at while topless hadn’t worked, so Sera realizes she needs another way to maintain her dignity despite only having one pair of proper clothes and zero pairs of non-torn undergarments. She shakes her head at the thought, but manages to stay focused.
Sera figures that since Vey doesn’t have any clothes, but whatever person was… formerly Vey… Probably did, which means there should be some clothes in the dungeon somewhere, even if she isn’t brave enough to go looking for them with all the undead she saw on the way in. Unbeknownst to Sera, Vey has given all the undead specific instructions not to kill ‘Women with Blightmarks’ as a stopgap until it finds a better way of specifying that if anyone will kill Sera, Vey will be the one to do it. All this means for Sera is that it would be perfectly safe to go wandering around or even out of the dungeon, but she does not do so.
Similarly unbeknownst to Vey, the reason Vey’s notebook was closed on the table instead of open to it notes on magic how it’d left it was not because it closed in unconsciously after casting its first spell, but rather because an overly curious young elf had decided to take a peek. Vey might’ve had its first experience with the ‘embarrassment’ Sera had spoken of it had realized. Vey also began to contemplate further on the concept of ‘genders’ Sera had stressed the importance of. Vey understands objectively that it is the animated skeleton of a male human, but is confused on why the male part of that only seems to be relevant to mortals-or at least Sera-when they are alive.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
As Vey picks up the wooden chest filled with all of the things it is taking with it, it wonders if it should perhaps ‘pick’ one of these ‘genders’, if for no other reason than to make talking to Sera and other mortals easier. Vey ultimately decides that it will just ask Sera at some point, since it still needs more explanation on why exactly the distinction matters beyond reproductive capabilities.
Sera crosses her arms in front of her chest as she watches Vey carry the wooden chest from the living chamber past her, before setting it down in front of the door to the hallway, pushing it open, and blocking the sturdy iron door open with a loose stone brick from the wallway, turning around, and picking up the chest. She had been peeking in on Vey as it packed up the papers and notebook, as well as some books and other things from the room. Initially she was concerned that Vey was just going to kick her out to the undead after her outburst at the end of their conversation. However, she quickly realized that Vey was packing up its stuff, not any of the things she had used or that it had no use for.
“Vey… I know this might sound strange to you, but did… he… keep any of the clothes from all the people that died in here?” Sera asks the skeleton, tentatively trying to drum up the same tone she had used during their discussion earlier. Vey’s response is thoughtful, and it motions to follow it using its left hand.
Sera does as instructed, and freezes in place at the sight of skeletons, zombies, and the two undead dogs in the hallway, and her fear drains all of the color from her face for a moment. That is, until she realizes that aside from the idle archer and crossbow skeletons, all of the undead are practicing with their weapons and paying zero attention to her. The ranged skeletons quickly turn back to face the two entry-points at the other end of the hall with a quick wave of Vey’s hand.
“Your information earlier has proven your temporary value to me, Sera, I’m not going to let them kill you unless you try to run.” Vey’s voice comes from in front of her, muffled and deadpan, and she turns to the skeleton’s back and nods her head downwards, even knowing the skeleton won’t see it.
“O-Ok…” Sera nearly whispers as she tightens her self-hug and moves to walk even closer behind Vey as well as closer to the wall. She spots the entryway to the corpse-room, and even if she doesn’t know what’s in it yet, the smell of corpserot is stronger from the aperture than it is from any of the actual walking corpses to her right, and makes an educated guess.
“Wait in the mouth of the chamber. I will get some skeletons to come and deal with the rats.” Vey commands her, and steps aside, before motioning at two of the smaller skeletons with spears. Sera does as commanded, and rounds the corner.
The first thing she sees once she manages to stop cringing from the smell is the pile of rotting corpses at the far end of the room. The second thing is the three rats visibly gnawing on bits of the rotting pile. The contents of her stomach would’ve ended up on the floor once more, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was empty. The third thing she notices is the table a good ten feet in front of the corpse pile, half covered in weapons in various states of disrepair, damaged and bloodied armors, and the part that Vey had likely brought her in here for, bloodsoaked, moldy, tattered, or otherwise filth-encrusted clothes in a pile on the ground to the right of the stone table.
“Is there… Any clothes that would even fit me in that pile? Assuming I could even get them clean enough to wear?” Sera asks honestly, and without a shred of concern for her current half-slave half-pet status, the thought of having to wear such disgusting clothing erasing her hesitance entirely.
“I believe there are a few garments which were of a similar size to your current clothes. I do not know how thoroughly you desire clean clothing, but I suspect it would be difficult to accomplish.” Vey’s voice sounds concerned to Sera’s ears for the first time, which isn’t something she knows how to react to just yet. It quickly returns back to Vey’s usual, blunt tone as it speaks again. “Now move so the skeletons can kill the rats.”