For a second time during the same night, Emilia woke up screaming for her life.
“She’s alive! Yay!” Anastacia celebrated. She and Gilbert had already woken up a bit earlier and were now making breakfast.
Emilia looked around, trying to figure out what had happened. She remembered something grabbing her legs but nothing after that. After making sure she was still in one piece, she turned to her friends. “What happened?”
Gilbert placed their coffee pot over the flames. “A fisher got you. We beat it, but you were in the water for a bit longer than what’s good for you. Are you feeling okay? Any headache or anything?” He asked.
“A fisher, huh?...” The priestess repeated before turning away to vomit profusely.
“Aaaand it’s a concussion. We’re not going anywhere today.” Gilbert announced and got up to soak a towel in the lake. He handed it Emilia and helped her move into a vomit-free spot of the camp. “Just lay down and take a rest.”
“Quick! How many fingers am I holding up?” Anastacia asked and pointed her hand at Emilia.
“Two.” The priestess answered, she was clearly still out of it and had to think for a second before saying anything.
“Oh no! She has brain damage!” Anastacia gasped despite the answer being correct, just to mess with her confused friend. After a stern look from the party’s leader, she explained the joke to Emilia and apologized.
The sun was just about to rise above the horizon and by the looks of it, the day was going to be another hot one. Which was fine with Anastacia, as they still had the access to the lake and hopefully it was monster free now. Gilbert had said that fishers don’t enjoy each other’s company, and it was extremely unlikely that there’d be two in a single lake; but they still kept an eye on the surface to be sure.
“So… I kind of burned my only useable weapon last night…” Anastacia pointed out. She hadn’t taken the daggers with her to avoid having to carry anything extra and with her skills, the bow was more dangerous to the things she wasn’t aiming at than the actual target. “Does anyone have a spare I could use?”
“Not really. If it becomes a problem, you could use the cooking utensils, but those aren’t really meant for fighting and will break. So I think you’re stuck with necromancy and fire magic for now.” Gilbert said and shrugged.
Anastacia moaned and whined about her lack of weaponry over the course of the meal. She didn’t actually mind it that much but there was nothing else to do so annoying Gilbert was the first thing on the list. After multiple threats of being thrown into the lake, she had finally gotten bored of it and figured that she might as well take a look at the area around the lake, just in case there was any other troublesome beasts lurking around. Getting attacked by things during the night was starting to get old very quickly. Even though the pixie episode wasn’t exactly an attack. She got the permission to wander in the area as long as King went with her. Gilbert also needed a break from her and he even suspected that being around bored Anastacia would make Emilia’s concussion worse somehow.
As Anastacia and King were about to leave, Gilbert stopped them for some last-minute advice. “Don’t eat anything you find, don’t drink anything you find, don’t start fires and…” He stopped to rephrase his advice. “King, don’t let her eat or drink anything you find, or start fires, or do anything I wouldn’t do. Okay?”
The simulacrum stared at him as usual.
And so began what Anastacia called her ‘expedition into the unknown though somehow still mapped area of the woods’. Immediately she noticed that the forest wasn’t to her liking at all: the trees were all fairly young and not too tall, so they barely shaded the ground, and the undergrowth was more grassy than mossy too - not at all like the ones she had visited before. At one point she discovered some berries and picked up a few. King immediately slapped them from her hand and received a caning for his actions, which did absolutely nothing to him but at least made Anastacia feel slightly better.
About two hours into the walk, Anastacia noticed something odd in the distance: a small cabin. It had no road to it, no yard or anything else. It felt really out of place for some reason.
“Think it’s abandoned? It looks abandoned.” Anastacia asked and sneaked closer. “What if it’s bandits?”
They hid behind a tree and kept watch on the cottage from afar. It was a simple timber hut with a shingle roof and a window next to the door. Nothing happened for ten minutes and Anastacia started to wonder whether they should knock on the door or not. Suddenly the hut’s door opened and a smartly dressed male birdfolk stepped out. With his head full of neatly trimmed pitch-black feathers that continued down his neck and under his brown vest. The sleeves on his white shirt were shaped to accommodate the longer feathers on his arms and a fan of tail feathers poked out from under its hem. The young man reminded Anastacia of a raven.
“You two can come out now!” He shouted and looked directly at their hiding spot.
Anastacia stepped out from behind the three and waved.
The birdfolk waved back. “The child of no house arrives with the ancient creation.” He muttered as Anastacia ran over.
“Hey! We were just looking around and found your house.” The necromancer greeted him. “What are you doing in the middle of a forest?”
“I’m a trader, don’t you see? Trader of stories. Trader of knowledge.” He explained and bowed politely. “Noir is what the world has chosen to call me.”
Surprised by the amount of flair in Noir’s speech, Anastacia stopped in her tracks. “Oh… You’re not insane, are you? You live in the middle of a forest and sound… like that.” She asked, just to be sure.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Noir smiled, “Insane? Lacking in sanity is not what I am known for. Were that the case, I stand no chance in this company.” He reassured the girl and gestured towards the hut’s door. “I implore and plead, join me around a table and tell me a story from the land of those that toy with the dead.”
Anastacia shrugged, the birdfolk was right about him probably not being a threat to them, and it seemed interesting enough. She at least wanted to know why Noir knew that she was a necromancer. So they entered the hut without too much worry about their safety.
Inside was a table with two chairs around it, a bookcase filled with books that had notes stuffed between the pages, a bed that had been seized by more books and papers, a large cabinet and a fireplace. It was reasonably cozy and clean aside from the papers thrown around the floor. Anastacia took great care not to step on them, but King had no such worries. The lighting was provided by the window and a small lantern on the table was just enough to not be called dim, and was probably fairly comfortable to read in.
“The mess is of my own doing, please ignore it if you have any heart. Sometimes the writing takes over and I forget to archive stories already told.” Noir explained, grabbed a few papers from the floor and placed them neatly on top of the cabinet. “A drop in the ocean, but a million more and the job is done.” He laughed and gestured towards one of the chairs, so Anastacia could sit down.
“How did you know that I’m a necromancer?” She asked bluntly.
“I know many things, most of them, I hope. But I know of you, the creation of those long gone as well as the bear and lamb you travel with. Of you I knew by the time you abandoned your kind, your house. Since then I’ve waited for this. Of the company you keep I knew precious little about. One of them seasoned by battle and glory alike, yet he hungers for more. The other, rekindler of faith, with both a shepherd and a predator by her. Both of them interesting but not for my tastes. But you! You walk with the weight of a nation on your shoulders, one you refuse to call anything but a stain on a map! You I’d like to hear!” Noir explained enthusiastically.
“Oooookay… So you just know a lot of stuff? What I want to know is HOW you know about me?” The necromancer tried again.
“Many people have happened upon my dwelling. I have spoken with the one who enjoys her life as a spider, a girl obsessed with meat, the one who still hunts you and many others. You don’t need to worry, all secrets are safe with me, none of them written down. Now how about you share?” The birdfolk said and took out a quill, most likely made from one his own feathers.
“What? I don’t know anything important…” Anastacia shrugged.
Noir shook his head. “Important things are for kings and leaders to know, not for our simple lives.” He glanced at King. “Then again, I am among royalty, am I not? Just tell me your thoughts on people, on things, on future, on past and then some. There are no judges here, feel free to share your darkest secrets, or someone else’s! Or tell me something that isn’t true at all, the best stories are all lies!”
Anastacia scratched her head. The freedom of choice made deciding even harder. Noir probably knew more about world events than Anastacia would ever even care to know, and the same goes for locations and creatures. Should she tell him about necromancy? Though he probably knew a lot about it already. Being interviewed would have been a lot easier, but Noir refused to ask any specific questions to help Anastacia out.
“Well there was this one time I met a weirdo in a forest, he kept buggering me to tell him something. It was really creepy, now that I think about it.” She joked awkwardly.
Noir sighed. “Thinly veiled insults and jokes are your language. Perhaps our meeting happened too soon? Someone such as you can easily lack ‘self’ until something pushes you to a point of no return. Where decisions must be made. Both good and bad people are born this way, which one will you be? If you were to meet your future self now, would you be disgusted or proud? Perhaps indifferent? Would it change your future?” He spouted what seemed like nonsense to Anastacia.
Anastacia squinted and stared at their host in confusion. “Are you some kind of magical time traveling crazy person? Because you’re starting to sound like one. But can you really bring my future self here? I want to see how I look. Please tell me I’ll get at least a bit taller!” She said half-jokingly, but secretly hoped that Noir could indeed do that, since it sounded cool.
Noir browsed his bookcase until he found what he was looking for, a black leather book with no title on it. He sat back down and opened it from the middle. “My notes tell of a bitter woman. Her hands charred by her deeds, her eyes as cold as steel and her mind darkened by the past. Alone she sits on her throne, comforted by nothing but an everlasting presence by her side. She walks in the ashes of a world she burned for how it wronged her, abandoned by the ones who considered her a friend and unchallenged by those who consider her an enemy. A grim sounding tale indeed, but on the margin I have it written down that she is happy with what she has done. So at least there is that!” He said as he went through the pages. Then he turned the book upside down and began going through the same pages in reversed order and the wrong way around. “But then again, this one describes a well-liked and dignified lady, who lives surrounded by people who respect and adore her. She spends her days tending to her garden and wandering around the world, helping people. Yet, every night when she lays down next to the one she loves, she is filled by regret and self-doubt; she could have done so much more for everyone.”
“Wait, is this about me? Can I opt for the second one right now? The one where I don’t kill thousands of people or something.” Anastacia asked and tried to grab the book to see more details, but the birdfolk closed the book on her fingers and pulled it away from her reach.
Still smiling, Noir placed the book back to its place and turned to Anastacia. “Both of those stories are a single decision away from one another, fate is a fickle trollop like that. Not unlike you. Two of infinite different possibilities that may have already happened or may be the future. Consider them as a repayment for the stories you will tell me the next time we meet. But now you must hurry, getting lost here is a real problem and if you leave now, the gentle giant will have your lunch ready by the time you make it back.” He said and opened the hut’s door for them.
Anastacia tried to ask more questions, but the raven pushed her and king outside.
“Oh! And one more thing to help you along! Colors are a treacherous sort, but violet, you can trust.” Noir said and closed the door before Anastacia had the chance to say anything.
“We’ll that was weird. But I like his style. Now I kind of want to be a crazy forest hermit too…” Anastacia joked and looked around. “Any idea where the camp is?”
King shook his head.
They decided to just walk straight past the tree they had hid behind earlier and hoped that they’d at least get back to the lake. After that they could just go around it and find the camp. While walking, they realized that it had only felt like they had been with Noir only a few minutes, but it was already noon, and the temperature had gotten back up to what it had been for the last two days. Their plan of walking in a straight line failed as soon as Anastacia stopped to take a look at something, but after a while of wandering, the surroundings started to look familiar and they could see the lake from between the trees. Unfortunately, the camp was on the opposite side of the lake.
“Do you know how to swim?” Anastacia asked and made some swimming motions in the air.
King nodded and waked into the lake. Of course, the simulacrum didn’t float in the slightest and just walked along the bottom until he suddenly popped up on the other side, horribly startling the two adventurers there.