Roska pushed on the decrepit, weather-beaten wooden door. The hinges disintegrated and the door tipped forwards, breaking against the floor, causing splinters to scatter everywhere.

“I guess that means no one’s been here for a while,” I said.

Roska stepped inside and took a cursory glance around the room. “Yeah, it’s all clear,” she announced.

The rest of us filed in behind her.

“I didn’t cough think there’d be this much crap in the cough air,” I grumbled.

A thick layer of dust coated every surface, though the door had kicked up a lot of it around where it fell. I rummaged through the pouches on my belt until I found what I had been looking for: a kerchief, which I immediately wore as a mask to protect my lungs from the dust.

With that done, I could finally focus on the investigation. Pushed up against the far wall was a long worktable that had scraps of metal and unfamiliar tools scattered across it’s surface. In one corner of the room was a doorway that led into a hallway.

Roska and Lloyd started investigating the tools laid out on the worktable, while Hartwin and I decided to head further in after checking with Roska that it was safe to do so. Considering the excessive amount of dust, the fact that the sole entrance hadn’t been used anytime recently, and the signs that the facility was research-oriented, the likelihood of there being traps was very low, and even if they were, it was even less likely that they’d function after so long without maintenance.

With Hartwin in the lead, we began investigating the rest of the facility, checking each room we came across. As expected, nothing of value had been left behind.

“Only two more rooms left, finally,” I huffed. Who knew it’d be this exhausting to do some light ransacking?

Hartwin opened the door cautiously, gripping the handle tightly as a precaution incase the hinges broke. We learned that the hard way. Shattered chunks of wood and clouds of dust in a small, enclosed space made for a hellish search.

This time, however, something different happened. Hartwin stood on the threshold of the room, unmoving.

“Hart?”

He shook his head, “Sorry, just got caught off guard is all,” he said, stepping forward.

By what?

Hartwin stepped to the side, giving me a clear view of the subject in question.

“Oh, yeah. That’s a first for me,” I muttered.

A pile of bones, humanoid by the looks of it, lay on the floor opposite the doorway. Other than the coating of dust, they were fully intact. Approaching cautiously, I reached out a hand to pick up the skull that resided at the top of the mound. The moment my fingers made contact with the bone-

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“Huh!?” I cried out, pulling my hand back and retreating a few steps.

Two green flames flared to life, one for each eye socket. The bones it sat atop began shaking violently.

“What is it!?” Hartwin shouted, concerned. He turned in my direction. “The hell?”

The bones began joining together, shifting and shimmying within the now-writhing mass to move into the correct position. Soon, a complete skeleton stood before us, held together by some invisible force.

Hartwin moved in front of me, shield held at the ready. “Call the others.”

I nodded, stepping out into the hallway, and shouting, “GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE, WE’VE GOT A SKELETON THAT JUST CAME TO LIFE.”

That done, I stepped back into the room, peeking over Hartwin’s shoulder. The skeleton hadn’t moved during the few seconds I was gone.

“Have you seen something like this before?” I asked Hartwin.

“No,” he said, not taking his eyes off of it. “Not sure if I’ve heard about reanimating the dead either, at least not like this. Though, I’m not the-”

Hartwin shut his mouth to focus on the sudden change in the skeleton’s state. The flames in its eye sockets, which were no more than faint embers, now blinked brightly before flaring to life.

“W-who are you?” a voice said.

It took me a moment to realize where it had come from. “A talking skeleton?!” I cried out.

“What!? Where!?” the skeleton threw its hands up in the air and frantically looked around as if in a panic.

What.

Neither Hartwin nor I had the capacity to deal with this level of nonsense. All we could do was stand there and stare silently.

After a few moments, the skeleton looked down and saw the state of its body. “Oh. Well, this is awkward. How did this even happen?” it said, sounding about as concerned as if it had stepped in something unpleasant.

???

My stupefaction was broken by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps.

“Where is it?” Roska asked.

I stepped aside. “It talks, by the way. I think it’s stupid,” I commented.

The skeleton put its hands on its hips and said, “Hey, that’s rude, you know. And I’m not ‘it’, my name is Roland Kaufmann, a respected researcher in the field of infusion.” The orbs in his eyes moved left to right, scanning the small crowd gathered before him. “Um, by the way, what year is it? I don’t recognize that style of clothing, and what with all the dust, I’m assuming it’s been a while…” he said, a hint of sadness in his voice. In fact, it almost looked as if his shoulder-bones slumped a bit.

After a brief exchange, we learned a few surprising things from Roland. Like Roska had theorized, this was a research facility created at Cadius’s order during the previous Mithos war. Roland had been researching infusion techniques when the lab was attacked by assailants of unknown affiliation. At first, we were excited to hear that there would be a way to reclaim that lost knowledge of infusion, but unfortunately, most of Roland’s memories had become hazy at best, most likely due to his time spent being dead.

I turned to Roska.

Guessing what it was I was going to ask, she responded preemptively, “I don’t know how, I’ve never even heard of a soul residing within an inanimate object, let alone being able to talk like this,” she shook her head.

“Anyways,” Roland started, “Is Cadius still around? Because I’ve got a bone to pick with him!” he shouted, raising a clenched fist. “That bastard, why didn’t he send someone to check on this place? He didn’t even leave us any guard!”

“…” The room fell deathly silent.

Sensing something was wrong, Roland spoke up, “What?”

Let’s just leave this wasp’s nest alone. “… Nothing,” I said, dismissively.

He shrugged. “So uh, can I hitch a ride with you guys? I’d rather not be stranded out here in the middle of nowhere…”

Oh hell no.

“…We’ve got business outside of the country, so no, we can’t take you along,” Lloyd replied.

“But!”

“However, assuming you stay put, we can pick you up on our way back. I’m guessing that you don’t need to eat, so you’ll be able to stay right here for weeks on end. Right?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Then good. We’ll be back in a few weeks, so don’t leave the building until then, alright?”

Roland nodded.