When Thesa awoke from death, her mouth was dry. Her eyes were open but her senses were fuzzy and her vision was partially blocked by her hair. Merijest seemed to be looking through Thesa’s [equipment]. That was weird and usually only possible with a corpse.

“What are you doing?” Thesa tried to say, but her dry throat muted the sounds into something more like a cough.

Merijest selected something and produced Thesa’s waterskin. “A [Half-Life Revival] takes a toll. Not to mention losing all your [Paladin] abilities. You’ll be wanting this, I presume.” She placed the open waterskin at Thesa’s mouth. “Not too much at once, however. That’s enough for now.”

Merijest pushed the hair out of Thesa's vision.

“Losing…my…” Thesa spoke with great effort but stopped as she realized how much was missing. Her magic, her skills. Something about her celestial armor felt heavier than it had.

It all came flooding back. She had chosen wrong. She had misunderstood the trial and she had betrayed Beautuk. This was not good. When a [Paladin] betrays their god, they lose everything. Even the spells she had stocked before would have dissipated upon dying.

“You–you tricked me.” Thesa said. “Now you’ve turned me into another undead minion. I have to tell Beautuk that–”

Merijest rolled her eyes. “He just killed you, didn’t he?”

“Well…yes, but I disobeyed. If I had remained under your spell, I might have become a danger to the whole realm,” Thesa said as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. “If I can get back to the Knights, I can seek forgiveness and they can–”

Merijest cut her off, pressing a clawed finger into Thesa’s chest armor. “They can what? Kill you? Deliver you to that holy torture?” the demoness said.

“You can’t fool me again,” Thesa said. “I won’t fall under your spell.”

Merijest shook her head. “Even if I did charm you, you have no way to resist.”

Thesa swallowed. It was true. She couldn’t exactly activate her [Paladin] powers anymore. She was an apostate, a heretic. Not only that, she was undead. Thesa tried to notice any obvious differences in her undead body but it was difficult to say what was a consequence of revival, what was a consequence of death, and what was a consequence of holy abandonment.

“Anyways,” Merijest said, leaning back. “It's no use arguing in this state. You should rest.”

Thesa did not want to agree, but she felt a tide of exhaustion swell up at the thought followed by intense nausea. Laying back down, she passed out.

***

As Thesa’s body waxed and waned between deep sleep and fitful states of grainy consciousness, she found she had been moved from the cold [Dungeon] floor to a soft bed with a blanket and even a pillow beneath her head. At some point, it became obvious that her armor and weapons had been removed. She was down to a gray tank top and shorts. This scared her but through half-opened eyes she saw the equipment had been placed at her bedside.

Later, she was conscious of someone sitting beside her who gave her brief sips of water. Probably Merijest.

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She felt a strange comfort but still everything felt wrong. Wasn’t this exactly what she had been warned about? Demons connive and seduce and deceive. Was she just falling for the tricks of the most powerful demon in the realm? She thought back to her preparation.

In truth, she had not been warned about this. She had never heard of Beautuk hurting one of his Knights like this or rejecting the values of truth and mercy.

Part of her still wondered if this was all some grand ploy by the demoness. Perhaps a powerful hallucinatory spell. But the idea did little to quell the disquiet in her heart.

Her dreams were chaotic and fuzzy. Nothing she could pick out or remember except a humanoid rib bone in her hand.

***

Eventually, Thesa lay awake, unable to fall back asleep. She still felt winded, but she might as well sit up and get a better look around. As she shuffled into a seated position, Thesa took in the tight chamber she had been resting in.

The bed, her armor and equipment on the floor beside her, her waterskin on a short table, a wooden stool, a curtained doorway. Thesa realized something: usually in darkness, her half-elf [Infravision] would activate but she had been seeing plainly this whole time despite the lack of an obvious lightsource. It seemed that the walls, floor, and ceiling of this tiny room were glowing with an ambient, turquoise light.

In the smudged surface of her celestial armor, she saw her reflection. Her reflection was sickly with a tangle of bedhead hair. Despite the minor changes, that was her. Still her dark freckles and hazel eyes.

Mouth still dry, Thesa took the waterskin, realizing it had been refilled, and drank. She heard something outside the room and then Merijest opened the curtain and came in. Thesa noticed that the [High Devil]’s formerly huge wings had become much smaller on her back. Small enough to move through doorways at least.

“Awake then?” Merijest asked. “That will make feeding you a lot easier.”

“How long have I been out?” Thesa asked.

“Only a few weeks,” Merijest shrugged.

“Weeks?!”

“Only kidding.” Merijest cracked a sly smile. “It has been two days, however, and you are going to need to eat soon.”

“Why are you helping me?”

“Depends on what you mean by help. I am helping you through the early stages of your [Half-Life Revival] for the same reason I did it in the first place. I need your assistance. As for whether the revival itself counts as helping, I don’t agree.”

Thesa was confused. “Then why have you built up such a large army of undead beasts? And why have you interfered with the deliverance of the dead into Beautuk’s [Domain]? They all are safe from becoming undead pawns.”

“Living forever is not a gift, Thesa,” Merijest said. Her spade-tipped tail began to flick back and forth and her calm tone quickly rose into a frustrated rant. “Life is not a privilege but a responsibility and a calling. Insisting on the continued consciousness of the soul is an act of torture. Souls are meant to dissipate over time, leaving traces behind which might be felt as a lingering presence. Beautuk’s disruption of that natural process is only in his own interest. He only wants to fuel his own power with countless living souls. In this realm, Beautuk only receives power from those who choose to follow him. In his own [Domain], that intention is unnecessary. Like wingless angels, they wander a world of searing light for eternity, being siphoned for an insatiable god.”

Thesa could not find words to say. Surely that wasn’t true, right?

As if reading her mind, Merijest added, “I really did see your mother. And I’m sorry but she really is in terrible pain. I’ll leave you to think about what I’ve said.”

Even when Merijest returned later with a plate of scrambled Phoenix eggs and various vegetables from throughout the [Dungeon], Thesa could find nothing to say. She didn’t even notice that it was sort of weird for a [High Devil] to have plates and a method for preparing meals.

Merijest stepped out again and Thesa ate in silence, continuously reviewing her whole life and everything she knew.