I want to say that the twenty minutes that it took us to find the graveyard were the most terrifying in my life, but after the past few weeks, I am not sure they would even be in the top ten. Top five of this week, maybe? First place would definitely be our capture by Kojiro. Oh wait… The Sun tried to kill us this week too. Nevermind then. But you can see why the competition for that top spot is fierce.

Damn. I am really mentally turning into Lilyth. Then again perhaps her brand of insanity is what we need to live through this.

The differences between the rich and the poor were clearly visible in the cemetery. Most of the graves had simple wooden markers on them, many of them faded; far fewer had stone ones. There were also two ivy-covered crypts. I could see a two-winged metal door built into the hillside, which implied to me that there could have been a mausoleum dug into the hill. The whole graveyard was surrounded by a polished two-metre tall stone fence, and there were occasional trees growing here and there and the centre of the cemetery was marked by an angel statue. It was kind of creepy to look at. The blank face and weirdly proportioned limbs… I shuddered.

The necropolis pretty much marked one of the ends of the small town, as I could see the blue and orange trees of the forest behind the wall on the other end of the graveyard.

‘So where do we start?’ Ren asked, uncertainty clear in her voice.

‘Umm…’ realising how much out of my depth I was, I tried to think up something on the go. ‘Let’s look around? Maybe something obvious will pop up at us?’

‘No offence, Caei,’ Ren sighed. ‘But I now realise we are probably the two worst members of our merry band to… do this.’

‘You don’t say. Unfortunately, the best person for this wouldn't be able to come with us, anyway. I guess Lilyth or Aki would maybe have some ideas? My jelly especially given her background.’

And so, with no better options, we walked around the cemetery and found nothing. I tried to remember if that crime-solving monk mentioned anything, but no, just some vague mentions of him finding tracks and things like that. Most of my memories of that book have been drowned by what happened next anyway.

‘The mausoleum, maybe?’ I suggested.

‘It’s the one place one we haven't searched,’ Ren said and started approaching the door.

‘Huh…’ she muttered upon examining it and drew her sword.

‘What’s up?’

‘It’s slightly ajar. I don’t remember it being open.’

Yeah. I passed by it a few times. It was fucking closed.

I made a move to cast [Create Sanguine Weapon], but Rennie stopped me.

‘No magic in the open with that fucker around,’ she chided me.

‘I really need to start carrying a backup again,’ I spat.

I left the glaive I took on our trip with Aldvil back in Mer-Cas.

‘Probably a good idea,’ Ren agreed. ‘The more I think about it, the more I realise that we need to keep our magical stuff and abilities under wraps.’

I remembered the Zalikh root and what happened to Lilyth.

‘Probably a good idea,’ I shuddered. ‘Anyway, I’ll pull them open and you get ready.’

The door opened almost silently, so someone must have oiled the hinges recently.

Pretty odd. You would expect a place like this not to be visited frequently. Unless… someone is living here and doesn't want to be seen.

Even weirder was the smell, in addition to the expected dusty tomb scent, there was a faint aroma of rotting meat in the air.

The fuck?

There was nothing on the other side of the door that I could see, which made me even more worried. I could see that Ren wanted to go in, but I stopped her.

‘Easy there, hon. Let me lead. I can see in the dark better than you.’

‘You are also unarmed,’ she pointed out.

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‘You know… I really am starting to understand Ere’s point about waiting till Lilyth was up.’

‘We would have missed the Inquisitor then.’

‘True,’ I shrugged and moved to enter the mausoleum, but I stopped.

Think like Lilyth, Caei. Would she just walk in? No. My jelly and the others would likely suspect a trap. At least Savri would. What did Lilyth do in the Labyrinth?

I motioned for Ren to back away and then carefully examined the entrance from every angle.

No tripwires. Nothing seemingly hanging from the top.

I looked further down the corridor. It was maybe thirty metres deep and had three entrances to individual tombs on each side. There was an altar to what looked suspiciously like Ereshkigal at the end.

Looks clear enough I thought and took a few careful steps inside while constantly observing the ceiling.

The memory of the heavy blade in the labyrinth was still too fresh in my mind.

I motioned for Ren to follow me. As we got further in, the scent of rot was getting stronger. Even Rennie, who apparently was oblivious to it so far, could smell it now.

‘By the gods, what is this horrible stench?’ she whispered in disgust.

‘I think we found the source of the disturbance.’

I cast [Create Sanguine Weapon] and readied myself.

‘It could be whoever is carving up the animals,’ Ren said. ‘Why go in armed?’

‘Do you honestly think someone alive would be able to stay in this stench for prolonged periods of time?’

I already felt like vomiting and it’s only been a minute.

Ren’s queasy expression told me everything I needed. We followed the stench, which was easier said than done, and discovered that it was coming from an open tomb. There were four large sarcophagi there and there were multiple recesses in the walls, most of which were already sealed. And there, right in the centre of the chamber, was the source of our olfactory torment - a small pile of offal.

‘Well…’ I began but the words died in my throat.

FUCK! I realised. It’s bait!

‘Get back!’ I shouted to Ren who was looking at me confused. ‘It’s a…’

‘...Trap?’ I suddenly heard a raspy female coming from the direction of the entrance. ‘Hardly. That being said if you are adventurers or something, I would consider a career change because you two are not going to last long.’

I turned and saw a woman wearing a tattered sleeveless shirt that I thought was white once and a dirty pair of torn parts leaning against one of the walls. She had curly black hair and wore glasses. There was something… off about her skin, though I couldn't quite tell what exactly, as thanks to my Darksight I saw everything in greyish-blue. The answer still came from my other sense, one that didn't really come in handy all that much. All the Sanguine have something called Bloodsmell, though the name doesn't quite describe it. Basically, if I focus on something I can tell whether they are good “food”. That was how I was able to tell Lilyth wasn’t an elf. This ability has pretty much atrophied in me like it did in all the Sanguine who don’t drink blood, but it was still there. So when I focused my Bloodsmell on the strange woman I was able to immediately say she wasn’t as human as she appeared. When one of us looks at Lilyth they don’t smell anything, because she doesn't have any blood. This woman did, but it was dead… rotten… I don’t know how else to describe it. This scent was one I was very familiar with. It was the smell of the undead.

I pointed my glaive at the woman and growled:

‘Explain yourself now, undead bitch!’

I heard Ren hiss.

‘Well… that ruins the surprise,’ the woman shrugged. ‘Can we talk this out outside then? My sense of smell may not be the best nowadays, but that meat pile is still strong enough to disgust me.’

What?

Neither I nor Ren moved.

Seeing our hesitation, the woman said:

‘If I meant you harm I would have just killed you when you were so focused on my bait and I wouldn't have offered to go outside where you have more freedom to manoeuvre or can just run away.’

‘Let’s just hear her out,’ Ren said.

‘Lead on then… whoever you are,’ I sighed in defeat.

‘Anika,’ she responded. ‘Anika Anderson.’

‘Caeileera,’ I said automatically. ‘And this is Ren.’

‘Pleased to meet you,’ Anika answered curtly and started walking towards the exit.

I dismissed my spell and followed her with Ren in tow.

Once outside, I saw Anika have a very familiar discomfort reaction I saw a certain special someone of mine have. Though she seemed a little worse for wear. I also managed to get a good look at her and found out that her skin was greyish with this waxy quality to it, and her pants were, in fact, those geens Sav wore.

Interesting.

‘Don’t like being outside?’

‘It’s mildly uncomfortable, at first. How can you tell?’

‘A friend of mine had similar reactions.’

‘Ah, okay.’

We were approaching one of the crypts when suddenly I felt Ren yank my arm.

‘We should go! Her too!’ she almost screamed with barely contained panic in her voice.

‘What’s…’ I began, but then I heard it.

I was so focused on Anika that I zoned out, but I could hear the sounds of heavy footsteps getting closer. Many of them.

‘The Inquisitor,’ I hissed.

He found us.