“Why are these cretins digging around in the ruins of our ancestors?” The old elvish woman speaks quietly but with a voice impossible to ignore, her hands seeking to lean on a cane that she can’t find.

It’s hanging from her belt, or half of it is.

She arrived here only a day ago, chased by monsters that never got close enough for us to see. I wish that they’d been a little faster in chasing her because ever since she’s gotten here she’s been putting her nose in everything trying to start a fight.

“We are only seeking lost knowledge and history,” Georgio tries to explain. “If you could tell us-”

“Don’t bother,” Nadia quickly stands between the enraged elvish elder and the researcher. “They never say anything, they talk in circles if you can get them talking at all.”

“The humans I can understand, but for one of our own kind…” The elder shakes her head at us, I bare my teeth at her, holding Namor protectively.

“Why shouldn’t I want to know our history?” Nadia whispers, staring at the older woman with an expression that even I can understand. Simmering rage, it’s enough to put me on edge.

“How many more people have to die because of that history, that we’re not allowed to know? This entire disaster… The people behind it are digging around in ruins just like this,” Nadia says, leaning over the older woman. “They’re killing so many people, and we deserve to know what they’re after.”

“How is that and this connected?” The elder asks, crossing her arms.

“Weren’t you listening?” Nadia cracks her neck, sneering up at the morning sky as the sun is struggling to rise. “The same people behind this, the people insane and powerful enough to ruin a city, are trying to find something from the ruins of our ancestors.”

Behind us, the last of the researchers and guards are still climbing up out of the ruins and fitting into formation. Everyone has a pair, even though we’re keeping in a tight group. The people we rescued have mostly decided to stay down in the ruins, but they’ll probably change their minds when they run out of food.

There were a few that were looking at the mushrooms rather hungrily.

“Who?” The elder snaps. “Who would dare touch the relics of our past? Who, besides those standing behind you?”

“The king,” Nadia growls. “And his undead minions that slaughtered a whole district, and are now sending waves of twisted monsters out after us, slaughtering everyone you knew and loved, if you actually care about that part.”

The elder looks at her seriously before staring down at the ground.

“I will contact the council of elders and we’ll put an end to it then, but that is no excuse for you to be doing the same,” the elder’s voice is loud even though it is low. “These secrets are kept for good reason.”

“Are they?” Nadia hisses. “Good enough reason to watch elvish children die, while doing nothing? Entire villages are left to burn and we do nothing!”

Namor hides behind me as Nadia yells, we’re working with each other scouting at the front of the group, and we’re just about to leave.

“Silence, you know nothing, yet you act so brazenly. So much like the humans.”

“I…” Nadia stops, looking at the woman one more time though I don’t see anything different. After a few lasting moments where they glare at each other waiting for the other to back down, Theo’s cry breaks them up.

“Syr, Nadia, scout out ahead and try to get into contact with the other group from our company, they shouldn’t be too far ahead of us,” Theo is busy managing the guards and researchers.

Nadia shouts back a reply breaking away from the older woman, and leading me through the gates of the facility.

“What was that about?” I ask, holding Namor’s hand and keeping her close by as we march outside. I feel safer here surrounded by monsters than back there with so many strangers.

“By the sounds of it, the old bat is going to gather up some elders to stop us from digging around in the ruins,” Nadia spits to the side as we find a new path out to the highway.

“Can we stop her?”

“No, probably not,” Nadia admits, grumbling quietly. “With all this going on and…”

We have to follow a different path out of this place, the path we took out of here would leave us up against the wall of the city. The unfamiliar track is littered with sticks and fallen leaves, which crackle underfoot letting the ambush predators know where we are.

“Why yell?” Namor asks looking towards Nadia, hesitantly whispering it to me while hanging by my side.

“I… our village elders lied to us for a very long time,” I say, trying to figure out a way to explain this to her. “Now, the bad people that hurt you and your Papa are trying to find the things the elders buried.”

“Oh,” Namor bears her teeth uncomfortably. “They’re bad people.”

“Maybe, sort of,” I shrug. “They’re definitely being stupid.”

A few quiet whines bring my attention to the side of the path where a young man is huddled by a tree. When he looks at us, he bares his teeth viciously, even if he is so skinny that he shouldn’t be able to hurt anyone.

He picks himself up a moment later and slams his head against the trunk of the tree once, then twice, drawing blood. There’s a bite wound on his arm, and fur spreading out from it.

“A bite!” Nadia calls out for me. “Syr, remember, just heal him enough to keep him going. We can’t get slowed down here.”

I nod quickly, waving Namor back. I’d like to keep her in the middle of the group, but I don’t trust her, and I don’t trust the others with her.

Nadia tries to soothe the boy, but he’s barely even thinking anymore, the rage sickness has taken his mind away from him and he’s fighting hard just to keep from throwing himself at us.

She hits him hard with her staff, sending him toppling to the side before holding him down in place. She doesn’t even need to put much force into her attacks.

“I’m healing him,” I say, pressing my magic deep into him. While I do what I can, Nadia takes a dagger to his fur.

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We’re a good team, and we get it all finished in less than a minute. The boy we leave behind isn’t sick anymore, even if he is skinny enough that he could topple over and die any second. If a large rat came upon him, it’d probably see him as a small snack, not even a meal.

“We don’t have the food,” I mumble to myself as we leave him behind. He knows that he’s going to die anyway, his hollow eyes shining as he watches us walk on, leaving him for dead.

We aren’t part of the same family; we aren’t the same tribe. I can’t afford to waste my strength saving everyone and everything. If I tried to protect every critter in the forest, it’d get me killed.

We only pass by a few others like the boy on our way to the highway, and most of those who see us flee before we can do anything to help them. Those that turn will spread the sickness further, and it will soon seem that the madness and the moon-blessed nature are one and the same.

The smell hits me before I even see the highway, and from Namor’s expression, she’s been smelling it all along. Corpses line the edges of the road, blood sprayed every which way, limbs twisted and turned, and bones piercing through flesh. Some aren’t yet dead, but no one is stopping to help them.

I swallow hard on the bile rising in my throat.

What’s happening? Is the city that bad that people can see this and not turn back?

A shriek rises from the highway nearest to the city, and a thin pale figure stumbles out onto the road. It’s like an elf or human, but skinnier and with longer limbs, all pale white as old-weathered bone. The two dark pits it has in place of eyes don’t even look hungry, just cold.

Leaning over one of the corpses, the frail figure screams again before biting another chunk of flesh from the body and throwing back its head to swallow.

Is she a monster? Or is it the same as what happened with the moon-blessed? A peaceful creature twisted by the vampire’s cruelty?

We’re heading in the opposite direction, so I don’t get to find out, but she doesn’t seem to be attacking anyone while she’s still eating. A few brave, desperate people even run around her to get further from the city. They run as if there’s something much worse behind them.

I focus ahead. I can’t save everyone. I can’t do much about all of this.

I’ve never seen so many corpses before. Out in the wild, they’d have been claimed by the scavengers before they could pile up like this, but… there aren’t enough scavengers.

Namor huddles closer to me after seeing that monster feasting on corpses, clinging to my side as we continue on our way. No one says anything to address all of the dead, what is there to say?

“Watch the bodies,” Nadia says, “We don’t know they’re dead for sure.”

I nod quickly. There are more corpses here than I could ever hope to use in one fight. I even notice a few bodies that are less than familiar mixed into the bunch; more monsters, but those I can’t put a name to.

“We need to meet up with the main group,” Nadia says, sweating as she grips her weapons tighter. She knows as well as I do that we can’t keep this many people safe through the night, not if there are more monsters attacking.

Especially if there are unfamiliar monsters about.

I nod quickly, sending Crow flying a little ahead while keeping Grey comfortably close so that he can help when we find trouble. I can only range so far, but it’s further than ever before.

The few monsters we come across scatter at the sight of us so I can’t get a closer look at any of them. All we can do is watch them from afar while trying to catch up with the rest of our mercenary company before we have to turn back and get Theo.

A large group of people ahead of us stick close together, watching the forest for any signs of attack. They move slowly as if afraid to take a step away from the rest of the group, and they look at us with as much suspicion as they do everything else.

Passing them by, their fearful gazes glued to us, I nearly stumble over my own feet as my stomach pushes up into my mouth.

I’m a necromancer. A monster.

Blinking away the world as I usually see it, I realize that this is what they think of when they think of necromancers. They think of monsters and violent massacres. This is what they’re scared of.

They’ll look at Namor the same way if the stories spread, which they will.

Clutching her tighter, I bite my lip and stand taller.

The only way to prove them wrong is to keep surviving.

“An armed group on the road ahead of us,” I say. “Maybe a hundred people?”

“Ours?” Nadia asks, but I can only shrug.

It could be bandits for all I know, but if they are bandits, then they’re using shiny swords and armour and I wouldn’t want to pick a fight with them.

“Let’s catch up and get a closer look then,” Nadia says.

I nod, letting Grey scout out to the left of the highway while Crow flies overhead, struggling to glide on his still-damaged wings. Seeing no threats around me, I happily jog at a speed to match Nadia. Namor sticks to my side the whole time, panting through the thick clothes. She’s fit, but not used to running about wearing so much.

A few warriors at the back of the group have noticed us, so I give them a wave. As they come to a stop, armed and armoured warriors spread out on every side, watching for any attack. I keep Grey at a distance just in case someone spots him.

“Nadia and Syr from the Falchion guild,” Nadia announces us as we approach. “The rest of our group is coming up behind us.”

“I’ll notify the march commander,” One warrior says, rushing off into the group. The others here continue to point their weapons at us as we stand back.

“Who’s that with you? She looks suspicious,” the other guard says, pointing at Namor.

“She’s with me,” I say, shifting my sword and stretching my legs into place to assure them that I’m ready for a fight. “She’s not going to cause trouble.”

“Why is she covered like that?”

I shrug, not giving him an answer.

“If she’s bitten…” He continues.

“I’m a healer,” I say, shaking my head and lifting my sword higher with only one hand. My other I use to position the girl behind me.

“Syr!” Anna shouts, her little stone Titan walking alongside her as she holds up a shield with her other arm, shoving past the suspicious warriors. “Are you okay? Did you get attacked?”

“I’m fine,” I say, shrugging. “When we set up camp, you can check on little Namor, here. Don’t let anyone see her, I’ll explain it later.”

She nods hesitantly before looking behind us biting her lip with worry.

“They’re still coming.”

“Did they find anything at the ruins?” She asks. “The researchers you were searching for?”

“Something about ‘the deep well’”, I say, and Anna stiffens her face paling as her eyes see out into nowhere. Her mouth works to find words as Olive comes rushing in after her.

“‘The deep well’, I think I’ve heard of it,” Anna whispers shaking her head. “The green flames, the creature, the god in the æther said something about it. Cursing our ancestors, he… I think he was crying.

“What… what would make a god cry? I… what was I talking about again?” Anna shakes her head. “That’s right, did the researchers find anything interesting?”

“I don’t know,” I say the words slowly, thinking them through. “You should talk to the researchers, maybe?”

What sort of strange things is she seeing?

All I want to do is find a home, why is everyone around me looking for dragons, gods, kings, and all these other weird things?

I may be a necromancer, but it’s everyone else trying to make that strange.

Nadia is looking at us, frowning, deep in thought. She doesn’t seem to pay much attention to the march commander as he comes to talk with us, but I report everything while she nods along.

“While we wait for Theo to get here, why don’t we exchange information on monsters?” The commander suggests, standing with us. “We didn’t cross any vampires so far, but we have come across hollows, lyarls, and a false serpent.”

“Ah, we came across people called moon-blessed,” I say, he gives me an odd look but doesn’t interrupt me. “They look a bit like wolves crossed with humans, and they’re normal people like us but… the vampire that sent these monsters out here gave them a sickness that turns them insane.

“When they bit someone, the person grows fur and becomes one of them, and because of the vampire, they also turn insane. They’re fast, strong, and don’t feel pain when they’re crazed like that.”

He nods slowly, glancing towards Namor and raising a brow, I awkwardly shrug and hold her behind me.

“I’ll have someone introduce you to the monsters we’ve crossed once the rest of your team has arrived…”

It doesn’t take too long for them to catch up to us, and when they do Nadia quickly pushes around to find the elvish elder that’s still tailing the group.

“You don’t actually know anything, do you?” Nadia towers over her, finally done gathering her thoughts.

The elder doesn’t even flinch at the sudden barrage, she just stands there defiantly.

“Does anyone know? Are there any of our elders left that still remember?”

The elder remains silent.

“There are good reasons-”

“It’s pride, isn’t it?” Nadia cuts in. “The reason we don’t eat meat. The reason you’ll take in all our orphans, even if you despise them. The reason we dress like this, why my ‘human’ behaviours offend you, the secrets… it’s all pride, isn’t it?”

“Child, you-”

“It doesn’t even matter,” Nadia shakes, gripping her weapons tight. “It’s all an act. The secrets that you don’t even know, are supposed to justify everything that we do?

“No, I’m done with all you elders.”