Upon waking up in their normal inn deep within the city of Marketon, Tai seemed somewhat agitated to Charity for some reason that morning. The man obviously didn't need to sleep, and would often spend entire nights reading books as she slept, but this particular morning she didn't find him huddled over the desk. Instead, he had been sitting in the chair watching her as she rose, half disheveled in her customary traveling clothes that she wore to bed.

The skeleton had refused to answer her questions when she immediately asked what was wrong, merely waving her off and gesturing towards the downstairs common room. When they arrived, Charity ate her customary breakfast, slightly discounted due to their extended stay while Tai continued to refuse to answer her. She would have even said he was being obtuse if his hand hadn't been tapping away at his half forgotten book sitting on the table. Was he nervous about something?

By the time she was halfway finished with her breakfast, it seemed like whatever was occupying his mind had to be released, and he finally opened his book. He flipped through the pages fairly quickly then turned the book around towards her and pointed at some hand written text.

“Come with me. I'd like to show you something.” It read.

Charity looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, a piece of bacon held halfway up to her mouth. Had he really written something out in advance like that? That was strange for him, usually taking the time to write out his thoughts in person. Unless, it might be that he had chosen these words last night?

Charity pushed away her food, suddenly not hungry anymore as she tried to consider whatever ‘place’ Tai must have in mind.

“Did you find another cemetery? I thought we got them all already?”

He shook his head and took her by the hand, pulling her away from the table and heading for the door. Charity hastily pulled down her white mask over her face, not like she could wear it while she was eating, and once they reached the street Tai took somewhat of a more dignified approach as they walked through the city.

The man still took a more hurried approach than she typically saw from him, eagerly walking down the busy streets while random people recognized them and waved to the two. Charity returned their waves as she considered the fact that the two of them were starting to get somewhat well known in the town, if not well respected. She'd met nearly everyone here at some point in the last couple weeks, taking her typical door to door approach with recruitment, though they held the ceremonies in the local cemetery instead of the woods.

The way she figured it, they might be able to spend a couple more weeks here before their business was better done elsewhere, especially considering their new ties with the underground here. But they would eventually need to move on just the same.

When they finally did arrive at their destination, Charity nearly refused to go in. She stopped in the middle of the street as soon as Tai went up to the doorway, eyes drawn to the symbol of a spool and needle emblazoned on the sign. It was only once she noticed she was causing a traffic incident in the road that she got embarrassed enough to move and allowed him to open the door for her into the shop.

“Ah, you must be Lady Charity, correct?” An old woman asked her from across the counter as Charity entered the room.

“Yes, my lady.” Charity replied mostly out of stunned habit than anything else.

“Oh come now, i'm hardly a lady.” The woman chuckled as she got off her seat and shambled around the desk towards Chariry. “But yes, good. You've come just in time for your appointment.”

Charity's mouth opened dumbly at the words, then turned to Tai who had taken to studying the nearby window like there was something very interesting happening out on the street.

“What have you done?” She asked him, but like the rest of the morning received no response.

“Ohhh? Did he not tell you?” The older woman asked, then tsked with her tongue and grabbed Charity by the hand. “Men these days. All manners and no class. Come along dear, let's make the most of him.”

Charity allowed herself to be dragged into the back rooms as her glare at the back of Tai's head was finally disrupted by the wall. The older lady introduced herself as May, then asked Charity to raise her arms slightly as she took several measurements across her body.

“Its alright dear, you're hardly the first girl I've seen dragged into my shop without being told beforehand. You know those noblemen have expensive tastes, and they want their women to look the part. Regardless of where you used to be on the social ladder.” May told her, continuing her measurements across her hip area now.

“You-. You assume I'm not noble as well?” Charity asked.

May looked her up and down, clad in her customary black robe and mask.

“No.”

It was so matter of fact that Charity let the conversation drop, although she was fairly certain of what was about to happen by the time May started leading her around to several racks of clothing near the back of the store.

“So, your little lord over there asked us to make you a ball gown and three different daily-wear dresses, so we've got some work to do.”

Charity felt her anger swell as she heard those words, until the emotion suddenly sizzled out into a haze of emotionless gray. She'd been thinking about this herself after all, and it would likely be to their benefit to blend in a bit better together. It was just the fact he hadn't told her that he had set this up, that was all.

There was still enough of the old her left that she still made a promise at that moment.

‘I'm gonna get you back for this one day, when you least expect it.’

But her face still had a smile on it when May pulled out a dress from the rack and started holding it up to her body.

—

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Did you really think I wouldn't notice?” Abigail asked the room.

Both Charity and Tai sat across from her at the desk, and neither seemed particularly ready to answer this question.

“They're bloody skeletons Tai! You've got my market guarded by fucking skeletons!” She pointed at an assortment of two skeletal guards near the door of the room, and two rather human guards looking over at them with concerned eyes. “So how the fuck do you think this is gonna work out oh dark, noble, and dapper?"

“Have they somehow failed in their job?” Charity read Tai's words as he scribbled.

“Yeah? And how long can you keep that up? Can they even fight, or do they just stand their stock still like mannequins?” Abigail retorted.

Tai considered her for a moment then snapped his gloved fingers. No noise came out from the motion, but the skeletons behind him evidently got the message and slammed their gauntleted hands into the heads of the nearby guards. One fell unconscious immediately, while the other staggered for a second before a second unarmed blow knocked him out. Abigail leapt up from her chair and backed up a couple steps as surprise, fear, and anger flashed across her face all within a couple seconds.

“What the fuck?”

“Seems like they did a fine job to me.” Charity didn't wait to read Tai's own words, but he seemed to approve.

“Are you trying to threaten me?” Abigail asked, but didn't wait for them to respond. “You know what? Fuck you. Get the fuck out of here now, and take your little pets with you.”

Tai slowly rose from his seat, and Charity followed after him as they walked towards the exit before she stopped.

“What about this week's pay?” Charity asked.

Abigail glared at her, then opened the top drawer on her desk and pulled out a bag of coins that she tossed to the ground by Charity's feet.

Instead of reaching down for it, she commanded the nearby skeleton to grab it then follow after her as the deathly group left the room. Each room they passed, several more skeletal guards completely covered head to toe in armor started following them, until several dozen followed the pair as they entered the slave trade wing of the black market.

“Lord Tai, welcome back to the emporium! Now I'd be willing to sell all of these wares to you at seven silver a head, a special price just for you.” A man called out to the two from behind a deep cowled hood.

“You'll sell them all to us at 3 silver a head and count yourself lucky.” Charity read.

“Uh, but Lord Tai! I couldn't afford those rates!”

“We weren't asking.”

An unseen command had the nearby skeleton throw the bag of coins into the slave merchant's hands. The man started sweating profusely as he looked over the large group of close to forty armed guards standing behind Tai and Charity, waiting at their beck and call.

“A-as you wish, my Lord.” The man said.

—

“I've really done it now John. It's all over.” Connely walked up to the bar sullenly, then took her favorite seat next to John as she joined the man on the rickety high stools. The two had been drinking together somewhat commonly over the past couple weeks, more out of happenstance rather than any real attempts to plan their daily meetings. It just so happened that they both came down to the room nearly every day, no other reasons. Surely.

John's head was already resting upon his elbows on the top of the bar, eyes somewhat lagging as he stared over at her but not really seeing.

“Hey!” She punched him in the shoulder, but the man hardly moved. “You're not allowed to fall asleep until I'm done talking to you first.”

His eyes widened just enough for Connely to believe that he was still in there. At least for now. She waved over the bartender to get her a round of her favorite, the stiffest drink they had, and settled into her seat. Withdrawing an opened letter from inside of her jacket pocket Connely tossed it onto the table in front of John, sluggishly drawing his eyes over to the new token of interest.

“The Monarch is displeased, John, and I don't entirely know what that means for me. I-. I think he's going to-.” Her heart leapt up into her throat but she somehow couldn't find the words to finish the sentence.

As soon as the shot was placed before her she picked it up and downed it without a second thought, then called for another. She corrected herself a moment later, two, she wanted two more. Might as well not make him go back and forth. John's eyes continued to follow her from his bent over half-nap.

‘Sorry sack of a lad. Can't wait to join him.’ Connely thought to herself, eagerly awaiting the next round. She eyed the letter sitting on the table absentmindedly, thoughts dwelling on the damning words written within the paper folds. Then a hand reached out from behind her to grab the piece of paper, unfurling it before him to read immediately.

Connely turned around to reach out for the missive but stopped when she met eyes with Trevor Gant. Those beautiful emerald eyes that seemed to hold all the bounty of a forest canopy within his gaze, staring her down and willing her back into her seat. He whipped the paper to make the page a bit tighter than set his eyes on the page without even talking to Connely.

Two shots hit the barside behind her, distracting her enough to pull her gaze off Trevor while he read and she downed the shots with only the smallest of head shakes as the second one went down. She raised up two fingers at the bar-tended once again while Trevor finally began to speak behind her.

“Laura. Why have you been hiding this from us?” He asked.

“I haven't been hiding anything from you, that letter just came in.” She said.

“And your first response is to go show your drunk little friend and get wasted at the bar? Your soldiers deserve to know what's happening!” His words bounced off her shoulders as Connely studied the bartender working in front of her instead.

She shrugged, “What's happened has already happened. We can't change the past.”

Trevor slammed the paper onto the table, making John jump in his seat a little bit as he continued to merely exist by her side.

“Connely. This said our deadline was the solstice. How long did you know in advance?”

Connely didn't respond, eyes fixed on two small glasses of distilled nothingness that were coming her way.

“You knew for a while didn't you?” Trevor asked. “You knew and you shut down and quit instead of asking us for help.”

“You wouldn't have understood. I don’t. I don't even…” She stared down at the twin vials of clear liquid in front of her, thoughts fogging in her mind.

“You quit on us Connely, plain and simple. And now you're quitting on us again.” He waved between her, the drinks, and John, then let his arms slump to his sides with the letter still in his hand. He looked down at the letter for a moment before continuing as Connely took her newest shots, seemingly unphased by his barbs.

“Major Connely. Due to gross negligence in the command of your troops, I relieve you of your position by the authority of the Monarch until due process can be followed in the Golden Kingdom.”

She didn't respond, but held up two fingers above her as she allowed her head to collapse onto her elbows on the bar.

“I'm going to go tell the soldiers Connely. Try not to kill yourself.” He said quietly and left the room with two drunkards leaned over the bar like they hadn't a care in the world.

Connely looked over at John and met his barely focused eyes as he looked back at her. Two more shots of pure void were placed down beside her, an invitation to whatever cold dark place John was waiting for her in. A place where she wouldn't be able to tell that the magic had already left her soul long before that last letter was finally delivered to her.