Field Trip with the Popo

Cillian slapped the paper down on the counter, causing the lady sitting at the desk behind it to jump a little and glance up at him. He looked back down at her with his best, award winning smile. “Hi there! Uh…” The man tried momentarily to locate her name anywhere via a badge on her chest or an ID tag or anything. He pushed a placard on the counter an inch or so with the tip of his finger until it was facing him so he could read it. “Valorie!” The excitement was back on his face as though he’d never paused in the first place.

The Rune Knight appeared a bit perplexed but managed to keep a mostly cool expression as she attempted to process the rather odd man before her. He was quite tall, standing easily over six feet. His hair was short but in need of a trim, and silver in color. Nearly everything else about him was crimson, including his eyes. He sported a matching set of pants and a trench coat that were both deep red in color. The coat tails were long enough to reach almost to the ground and was secured around his hips with a belt. There was no shirt beneath the coat, leaving almost his entire front torso exposed. Though his frame was rather lean and wiry, there was no mistake that he was quite fit and musculature. A large scar ran down one of his cheeks and the length of his neck where it disappeared onto his shoulder beneath the coat.

“What can I do for you?” the woman asked him politely, smiling back.

“Listen, Val. I was hoping you could give me a hand. I found this job posting and I’m interested in taking it, but the instructions don’t tell me where to go. All it says is to meet here at the Rune Knight headquarters for additional info. So I made the trek up here to Era. Who do I gotta talk to to get in on this job?” Cillian waved the paper at her a bit until she took it from him and read it over.

Then, she frowned a little. “Sir, are you sure you wish to take on this assignment? Almost nothing is known about what’s going on over there, but whatever it is it’s quite dangerous…”

He flapped a dismissive hand at her. “Yeah, I know. I’ll be fine, don’t worry, sweetheart. Just tell me where to sign.” Truth be told, Cillian really didn’t have much of a vested interest in the actual job itself, or the missing people. What had caught his attention about this job was the location. Supposedly, it was in some area that was considered an ancient ruins of sorts. Where there were ruins, there were bodies -- potentially even some more fresh ones, if people had been getting killed over there recently. The Necrothurg had been looking to add more toys to his collection, and what better place than a ruin?

“As you wish,” Valorie told him with a nod. She pulled up a lacrima computer and began to type into it. “I just need some of your information. Name?”

“Cillian duCrosse.”

“Thank you, Mr. duCrosse. Do you happen to have an iLac that we can attempt to contact you at during the mission?”

“Yeah, sure.” He gave the woman his number, which was immediately logged away into the databanks she was storing the information in.

“What guild are you with?”

“Oh, uh… I’m actually not with any guilds.”

She peered at him suspiciously. “You’re a mage though?”

He smiled again, using the expression as a defense against her scrutinous gaze. “Yes, ma’am. I can summon creatures to assist me in fights and such. I’m just fairly new to the area, haven’t really gotten the chance to explore my options. Bit of a lone wolf in the meantime. I hope that’s not a problem?”

Valorie shook her head. “No, that should be fine.” She typed a bit more into the screen. “Alright, go ahead and have a seat and someone will be with you shortly. They want a Rune Knight to accompany this mission, due to the number of missing persons. You shouldn’t be waiting longer than a few minutes.”

Cillian blinked at her in surprise a couple times. “Oh. Yeah I suppose that makes sense, sure.” He made his way over into the waiting area and loitered around, kicking himself a bit. Digging up bodies sure was going to be a lot more difficult with a cop hovering around. This job just got a little more complicated...

 

It took much longer than Valerie had seemed to imply for his apparent partner to show up. At first Cillian didn’t even take notice of her since the blonde haired woman was dressed like a civilian, but with the secretary’s rather unabashed chastisement of the Knight it was difficult not to understand who the new woman was. He picked up that the girl’s name was Dela thanks to her verbal rant about being sent on a dangerous mission that she clearly didn’t want to be a part of. Dela almost started to walk off before Valerie stopped her long enough to point him out.

While others may have been offended or put off by being treated like a helpless child in need of being babysat, Cillian only flashed Dela an easy with a slightly sheepish shrug as if to say, Yeah, sorry, I need you to protect me. In fact, he didn’t seem to be bothered by any of the current interaction, even as Dela and Valerie began to basically yell at one another in front of everyone in the lobby. It was like he was totally oblivious to the squabble, or at least didn’t think it was a real argument.

Ultimately, it would appear that Valerie won. Dela trudged toward the exit like a puppy that didn’t want to leave the dog park, turning to him only briefly to call for him to follow her. “You got it, miss.” His lanky legs followed after her, easily catching up until they were walking side by side. She advised him that the ruins were located past Mountain Village near the sea and that they would have to catch a train to get there.

As she questioned why he even wanted to go, Cillian slipped his hands comfortably into the pockets of his coat and strode at a casual gate beside her. “A lot of people have gone missing there, including other Rune Knights,” he told her, glancing down at her with an attentive crimson gaze. “Does that not make you want to figure out what’s going on? To find out what happened to your allies and the people under your protection?”

By his tone, he did not appear to be chastising her. He was genuinely curious as to why she wouldn’t want to go, cause to him it seemed like a juicy story. Plus, wouldn’t she want to save her comrades or get vengeance for their deaths?

Whatever her answer he wouldn’t really care. The truth was, he was still trying to figure out how he was going to get away with what he actually wanted to do there. Cillian really wasn’t interested in whatever was actually killing people in those ruins, but he was interested in who had been killed. Unfortunately, not a lot of societies viewed his type of magic very favorably. He couldn’t imagine that using necromancy in front of a Knight was going to work out too swell for him, and the last thing that Cillian needed was to be back in another jail cell going bored out of his mind.

There were a few moments of silence as they descended the plateau in Era on which the Rune Knight headquarters were located, making their way to the train station. Scratching his chin a bit thoughtfully, he looked at her again with a sympathetic expression. “Sorry if this is a bit blunt, but… couldn’t help but notice you aren’t exactly thrilled to be doing this particular mission. I can’t say I blame you. It’s probably not going to be a pretty sight, whatever’s there. Frankly, I would hate to keep a respectable Knight such as yourself from her other duties.”

“Tell you what: You already informed me where it is. Truth be told, I actually don’t need any protection. I’m used to working alone, anyway. Not a lot of scrapes I can’t pull myself out of. I can just go there myself, figure out what happened, and afterwards we can meet back up somewhere so I can report everything to you in detail. You can go take care of some of the other pressing matters I’m sure you’re probably bogged down with, and just file the report like you were there. You can even take full credit for everything and get that Valorie lady off your back; I’ll be happy with just the jewel payment. What do you think?”

He gave her his best, most charmingly mischievous smile, which covered up the hope in his soul that she would be tempted enough by the offer to play hookey and get all the credit for the job to actually take his offer.

 

“That’s fair,” he conceded honestly when she told him that whatever what killing things in the ruins would be more interesting for her to witness from outside the thing’s reaches. “And probably smarter than what everyone else has tried so far. No offense to your dead comrades.” Obviously this woman was a Rune Knight more for the pay and keeping up a decent livelihood rather than actually wanting to be some kind of protector of the people. Cillian could respect that, actually. Hero types were so predictable in the most boring way possible, most of the time.

She peered at him a little when he made his offer and he put on his most innocent expression, but alas it wasn’t enough to fool her. She smoothly lamented that as much as she would rather go do something more relaxing, she would get in trouble with her boss if she let him run off to such a dangerous place by himself. Apparently, her boss was a bit of a hardass. Or at the very least intimidating. He shrugged apologetically. “Well, can’t say I didn’t try to do you a solid, I suppose. I definitely know how awful overbearing bosses can be at times.”

He passed the comment off easily like he wasn’t at all upset with her sticking around, but in his head he was kicking himself. Shouldn’t have turned on the charm that much, Cillian thought. Now he was going to have to be extra mindful of his actions and words. He wouldn’t get too much time to chastise himself, however, as she suddenly became a bit more social. His crimson eyes observed her carefully as she explained that she likely wouldn’t be too much help for him, or even really protect him at all. She even went so far as to say that if she winds up dying he shouldn’t concern himself with her fate.

Cillian couldn’t help the slight smirk that tugged on his lips as he looked down at her with a knowing expression. Was she trying to manipulate him back? Oh, this just turned into a fun outing indeed. He’d always been under the impression that the Rune Knights were a pack of stiff lipped goodie two shoes, and perhaps the vast majority of them were but clearly this woman was something different entirely. “Oh, I’m sure a smart cookie such as yourself will do just fine. It’s the intelligent ones that survive all the horror lacrima films, after all -- not the dumb ones like me that go sticking their noses in the wrong hidey holes.”

He followed Dela silently as she flashed her badge and got free access to the train. Talk about first class treatment! Once they were on board and heading to their seats he finally answered her question. “Cillian, by the way. And if I do die, I promise I won’t hold it against you. Just promise me one thing? Don’t tell anyone what actually happened. Knowing me, I’ll probably go off in some embarrassing fashion. Just make something up that doesn’t make me sound like a complete loser.” He gave her a cheeky grin and sat in the seat across from her, his lanky body slouched in the seat and turned to the side so his long legs wouldn’t bang against hers in the tight space.

 

He took note of her little journal, which she started writing in after he gave her his name. Cillian didn’t attempt to hide his curiosity toward the object, but he managed to at least resist the urge to try and peer over the top of it. Self control wasn’t really in strong suit, so it was a pretty big deal for him to exhibit that much discipline. Not that she’d know that, of course. Besides, he was ultimately more interested in the small smile he received regarding his death wish. It was the first such expression she’d had since they met, and since Cillian was as much of a people pleaser as he was a people teaser he was quite happy with himself to make this sullen and sardonic woman crack even a small expression of mirth.

She promised to weave a great tale of his heroics should he die, and the tall man grinned at her. “Thanks, you’re the best.” Of course, Dela did express her desire for him not to die on this little quest of theirs, if only because she didn’t want the negative marks to her reputation at work. The look he gave her was clearly that of a man trying to size up whether or not she was fucking with him, but either way his gay attitude remained in tact. “I’ll do my best to survive. You have my word,” Cillian told her, mimicking her own words of promise. Survival was pretty easy for him. He’d been doing it for almost four hundred years, now, despite his best efforts.

The two of them didn’t really say much more through the rest of the train ride. Cillian liked to talk, but he didn’t have to and was more than comfortable with the silence. He watched lazily out the windows, or flipped through pamphlets. After a while, he pulled out his iLac and used it to keep himself entertained, as evidenced by the occasional giggle from whatever he was reading. By the time they arrived at their stop, they still had a ways to go and the weather was looking a bit bleak. Cillian stretched his limbs high up over his head as they got off, grateful to not be cramped up anymore.

Dela suggested a cart and was able to find a willing driver, but the man would only take them so far. The ruins were not a place he was willing to get close to, his devotion to his family and his life more important to him than helping a rune knight on her mission. Cillian couldn’t really blame the guy. For a moment Dela looked like she might press the issue, but ultimately she shook her head and let the man go, leaving the two of them alone to finish the rest of the trek on foot. He wasn’t as exhausted by the idea as his companion seemed to be, remaining ever upbeat. “Eh, a walk will do me some good anyway. My legs have been cramped up the last couple hours, and I could stand to lose a little weight.”

It was difficult to determine if he was joking or not about that last part. He said it with such evenness that one might think he truly believed he needed to shave off a few pounds, despite the fact that he had impressively defined muscles peeking through the V gap of his coat. He even rubbed his stomach a bit absentmindedly, like he was concerned about a beer gut that he clearly didn’t have.

They started walking. “I’m probably not prepared, no, but I’m not too worried. Besides, I like a good mystery. And these people have families that deserve to know what happened to them.” The last statement was added on almost as an afterthought, with just the barest of pauses before it to hint that it possibly wasn’t his main concern with the mission. He didn’t make any kind of suspicious glance or move his body in any awkward way to confirm this, but given that Dela was already keeping an eye on him it was probably something she’d pick up on.

The remainder of their journey would take an hour or so by foot, but there was still plenty of daylight left by the time they were close. Cillian knew they were getting in range when he started sensing the spirits of the deceased in the area. He wasn’t seeing any ghosts yet, but he could hear the faint whisperings of them ahead. Give the strength of what he was sensing, there had definitely been a massacre. Only a heavy population of spirits could make his skin prickle this much. For a moment, he considered warning Dela. Most people had a hard time dealing with corpses, especially if the corpses were people they knew in life. Ultimately, he decided not to. As a rune knight, she’d probably already seen plenty of dead bodies and blood, and Cillian really didn’t want to take the time to explain his magic to her if he didn’t have to.

It wasn’t much longer before they turned a corner and were met with a gruesome sight, though arguably not as gruesome as he’d been expecting. There was blood everywhere. A number of fights had taken place here. Weapons and tools covered in days old gore were strewn about the area in front of the mine entrance, and there was evidence of magic use in the form of scorched spots on the ground. What was weird was that there were no bodies at all.

Cillian frowned and looked around, scratching his head through his silver hair. Well, this was disappointing, he thought to himself. How was he supposed to get more zombies if there weren’t any corpses? He could still hear the spirits, but couldn’t see any of them yet, either. Not being much of a sleuth, there was little he could learn by examining the field too in depth. However, one thing did catch his eye.

“Hey, Dela.” He nodded toward the mine entrance. It had been forcibly shut recently, a cave in blocking the entrance into the underground shafts. Whatever had happened here, it clearly had something to do with the mines itself and someone had tried to trap the problem inside. “What do you want to do?” Cillian asked, deferring to her authority on this mission. “I can get us inside pretty easily, but there’s no telling what we’ll run into in there.” He didn’t sound nervous about that, so much as like he was just stating facts. They came for answers, or at least she had, and at this point the only place that was going to have them was beyond the cave in...

 

Oh.

Cillian hadn’t really been looking at Dela. He’d been too preoccupied with the lack of bodies to really pay her too much mind, assuming that as a knight she would be in her element here. But once he’d called her attention and actually turned to see her, he took notice of just how pale she was. There was a light film of sweat on her face and she looked like she was trying to convince herself not to be sick. To his credit, he didn’t really make any kind of facial reaction. There was no surprise in his expression as he observed her, his features remaining blank despite the fact that he was actually now scrutinizing her quite closely.

Of course, when she spoke up about some bizarre Cthulu type monster that was potentially hiding in the ruins his brows raised with interest. “You don’t say?” he asked, instinctively turning to look back at the blocked entrance with an inquisitive grin. Clearly, he was a lot more excited about that prospect than she was, and hadn’t really picked up that it was just an outrageous theory of hers. Cillian was just toying in his head with the idea of being able to have an alien zombie as one of his summons.

Dela pulled him from his imagination by stating that they didn’t really have much of a choice. They needed to know what had happened to the bodies, and whether or not she wanted to do so it seemed she would force herself to see this job through. He nodded his understanding and pulled a golden key from one of his pockets.

Before he could do anything with it, however, he shot Dela a genuine look of concern. “Hey seriously though… are you okay? Do you need a minute? Not that I imagine you’ll agree to it, but if you don’t want to go down there you can hang out here. I promise I’ll be fine.” Unlike his earlier attempt to dissuade her from joining him, Cillian actually seemed pretty sincere. Not that he hadn’t been sincere about the first time, but this time the offer was definitely coming from a place of consideration more so than self interest.

Presumably her answer would be to keep going rather, but either way he’d respond with, “Alrighty.” Raising the gold key out before him, he beckoned to the spirit that was bound to it. “Open, gate of the Zodiac: Virgo!” He didn’t speak the incantation with much flair or pomp, but it worked all the same. There was a slight shift in the air and a young maiden appeared before their eyes. She had shoulder length pink hair and bright blue eyes. The clothing that adorned her was the black and white outfit of a typical maid, but there were broken shackles around her wrists. These didn’t seem to bother her. In fact, she looked quite pleased to have been summoned.

“What can I do for you, master?” she asked in a bright voice, giving him a slight bow of respect.

“Hey, could you get us past this cave in?”

Virgo turned and looked where he indicated, sizing the blockage up with her eyes. “Absolutely! Please stand back.”

Cillian did as the celestial asked and made sure there was a bit of distance between himself and Dela, and the entrance. Virgo braced herself and then twisted her body so fast that she was practically spinning in place like a top. Little more than a blur, she dove toward the boulders and shredded through them easily, leaving a hole that was wide enough for two people to walk through -- though Cillian would probably have to duck to fit inside. In the process of doing so, a lot of smaller pebbles and dust had been kicked up.

As the Necrothurg coughed and waved his hand to clear the debris out of his face, Virgo returned looking as fresh and clean as she had before performing her task. There wasn’t even a single wrinkle on her uniform. “Will that do, master?”

“That’s perfect, Virgo. Thanks a million!”

She gave him a hopeful look, clasping her hands in front of her chest. “Does this mean I earned punishment?” Virgo asked, wiggling her butt eagerly back and forth.

Cillian groaned quietly, dramatically wiping his face with one of his large hands. “For the last time, I’m not going to punish you for helping me when I ask.” This particular celestial was nearly perfect in every single way, but her obsession with being tortured was going to get him in trouble some day. “You really need to stop asking me that in front of company, by the way. You’re going to give me a reputation.”

Despite the chastisement, he seemed amused. Virgo, on the other hand, looked quite disappointed. She practically deflated in front of them, toeing at a small rock as she pouted. “But I like being punished…”

“Yeah, that’s what concerns me.” There was a brief pause as she continued to look at him with big doe eyes, her lip quivering in sadness. “Alright, alright, fine. I’ll think of something, just not right now. We have to figure out this mystery first.”

Well, that was all it took. Virgo lit up like a firework, thanking him profusely and promising that she would come up with a list of sufficient techniques to present him with later. And just like that she was gone, leaving Cillian shaking his head. Once he was able to focus again, he pulled a small but powerful flashlight out of another pocket and crouched into the tunnel that Virgo had made. Since Dela didn’t seem all too thrilled about moving forward, and considering that he was the whole reason she’d even been dragged here in the first place, he figured the least he could do was go in first and take the lead toward the unknown. It was time to get some answers.

And hopefully for him, some new zombies.  

Well, they had their way in. Virgo played her role and was gone, but the celestial maid had put quite the impression on Dela. The Rune Knight was able to keep a straight face for all of about one word before the facade split. With great amusement she labeled him a kinklord. Cillian shook his head in exasperation, but even he was smirking a little, able to see the humor in the moment despite it being at his expense. “Hey, you try dealing with her for any prolonged period of time. We’ll see how you handle it,” he teased back.

Curiously, the woman withdrew a scepter of sorts that had a crystal tip upon it. The rock emitted a glow enough to see by. It even shone with all the brilliance of a rainbow, the many vibrant hues painting the cavern walls like a school girl’s locker. “Festive,” he commented with a slight grin.

While she was feeling that the hallways beyond were not quite up to snuff with the horror she’d imagined, Cillian was busy reaching out with his mind to see if he could find any spirits. Their whispering was certainly a lot stronger now that the two of them were inside the tunnels and moving further down. In fact, he actually sensed the zombie before it was coming but he was so busy trying to study it that he sort of forgot to forewarn Dela. Not that he would have anyway, because that would have just opened up a lot of questions.

A certifiable zombie shuffled into the light, causing Dela to freeze in place and scream through a closed mouth. Cillian, however, didn’t look even remotely bothered by the thing. “Oh hey, look at this guy.” Probably looking like the craziest person in the world to his companion, he walked right up to the thing. It snarled at him like a feral dog, trying to take a swipe at him, but like many zombies it was exceptionally slow. Cillian merely swatted the hand away like a parent smacking a child’s hand as they tried to steal a cookie out of a jar. “Now, now, none of that,” he told it.

Was there another necromancer around, he wondered? There had to be. Zombies didn’t just occur naturally, but whoever they were they weren’t very good at the craft. This shambling corpse was so weak and deranged he couldn’t even speak with it telepathically. Though it did seem to understand him, as it oddly did not try to claw at him again. “Boy, someone really put you through the ringer, didn’t they buddy?” he asked the zombie while taking stock of the progress of its rotting flesh.

There were a number of cuts and bruises along the creature’s body, wounds that had been inflicted before death. Not that he was a mortician, but he was fairly certain the numerous lacerations were what had killed the person in the first place. But how long had they been dead for? People hadn’t been reported missing much more than a week ago, and that was not even close to enough time for a body to be showing this much decay. So either this body had been killed long before people started going missing, or the other necromancer’s magic was causing the body to deteriorate quicker than normal. Amateur.

“Hey, are there more of you guys? Can you take us to the person who did this to you? Or at least to where all the other people who were killed are?” The zombie stood in place for a moment, swaying unsteadily on its feet with a blank expression on its face as it tried desperately to rub two brain cells together. Then, with a guttural moan it turned and started walking back the way it came. Cillian smiled. “Alright! Let’s follow it.”

As Dela shrieked at him for treating the zombie so casually, Cillian looked up at her with an expression that was very much akin to a child being caught playing with something he wasn’t supposed to. And in a way, that’s basically what had just happened. At the very least it had shocked her out of her paralysis, but she did not seem too fond of his idea to follow it. Dela went on a small tirade that left him utterly speechless, and also highly entertained. It took serious, conscious effort not to bust up laughing at her comparing the zombie to Lassie, and for Dela’s sake he actually did manage to keep himself under control. Clearly, she was not at all comfortable being here and this was not her usual schtick when it came to police work.

Once her freak out session was done she made an attempt at collecting herself. Cillian waited mostly patiently. The zombie stopped when it realized they weren’t following and looked back at Cillian, who gave it a small shrug as if to say ‘What can you do?’ Together, they gave Dela the time she needed to calm herself. Or at least, get herself to a place where she could function in spite of her rather obvious fear and ire over the situation. He had a slight internal panic attack when she referred to him as a necromancer, but it seemed she was just speaking from bitterness at the situation rather than making an actual accusation. Still, he realized he probably was going to have to explain his behavior a bit, if only to keep his current partner calm and thinking clearly. The last thing he wanted was for this delightful spitfire of a woman to die because of him.

As they walked, more zombies teetered out to join them. Dela made an offhand remark about him adopting them like children, and he finally let his trademark, goofy grin to spread across his face. “Hey, the undead are people too, you know.” It was a bad joke, and he knew it was a bad joke, but his hope was that it was so blatantly bad that she would laugh at it despite herself.

“I can communicate with the dead,” he finally told her in an honest tone. It wasn’t the whole truth, of course, but it also wasn’t a deceit. There were a lot of people out there that had similar abilities, even if they weren’t necromancers, so the confession wouldn’t be too far fetched. Or at the very least, he didn’t think that much truth would set off any potential alarms. “Zombies, spirits, skeletons; I can hear their voices.” He tapped his temple to signify that he, of course, heard them telepathically. “Or at least, when they are powerful enough to have voices. These guys can understand me and they sense that I have a connection to them of sorts, but they can’t speak. They won’t hurt you either, though. They have just enough of their humanity left to not be mindless, violent husks.”

Cillian shoved his hands in his pockets, slouching a bit as he walked due to his height and the slight shortness of the ceiling. “Unfortunately, it also means they can’t tell us what happened out there. In their current state, they probably don’t even remember. Judging by the amount of blood top side, that’s probably a blessing.” The people that were murdered clearly had been killed in horrific ways. Cillian knew that kind of pain all too well, and how memories of such a death could haunt you, though after so many years he’d frankly become pretty numb to it. He’d become numb to death in general for the most part, not often stopping to care about the souls that bodies once belonged to, but occasionally he was reminded when around others such as Dela that weren’t as desensitized to such things as he was.

Or maybe he just didn’t stop to think about his exposure to such things for fear that lingering on it would drive him mad.  

“Yep, basically,” he told her with a grin when she compared the zombies to puppies. “Don’t get me wrong. I’ve run into plenty of violent undead before as well, but that’s not usually their fault. Zombies don’t usually happen by accident, and usually they’re made by less than reputable people for less than reputable reasons.” Cillian shrugged a little, his only wordless opinion on that point. “But typically, they’re violent because they’re minds have been scrambled and they become like feral animals. When someone like me can talk to them, that can calm most of them down.”

They walked for some time with their entourage of undead, both of them lost in thought. Or at least, content to walk without feeling the need to fill the silence with chatter. As they got closer toward wherever their original companion was leading them, Cillian could sense the presence of other spirits growing stronger. A slight frown crossed his face that he wasn’t aware of. Something felt wrong, here. These spirits were… angry. Panicked. Trapped. Something was holding them back from crossing over to the other side, but nothing had been set in place to preserve or protect them, which meant they were eroding and becoming corrupted. Either the person that was working here was an amateur, or someone so twisted they had no regard for the purity of the souls they sought to bind.

Cillian was so preoccupied trying to get a grasp on what was going on that he hadn’t really been paying attention to his immediate surroundings. “Hm?” he asked, his lanky gait slowing to a stop as Dela practically seized up beside him. Sure enough, there was a snarl. He could feel a rather twisted soul just out of sight. Dela insisted he do something about it. Great, he tells her he can communicate with the dead and now she was going to make him deal with everything. Oh well. His own fault, really. Without changing his relaxed stance or even taking his hands out of his pockets, he called out to the creature. “Hey there! It’s alright, come on out. We aren’t gonna hurt ya.”

There was a pregnant pause as nothing happened. Then out walked a horrific looking beast that had once in its lifetime been some kind of dog or large predatory cat. It was difficult to tell since its body had clearly been mutated from its original form. Its skin was sunken to the point of being able to see each rib clearly, and frankly there were so many teeth in its open maw that he was too distracted to bother seeing if it even still had eyes.

In an instant, Cillian’s mind went absolutely blank. He could communicate with the dead, yes, but like with any ability it had limitations. In his case, he was still restricted by the original nature of the spirit in question as to whether or not he could speak with it. A soul that was once humanoid and capable of speaking in its life he could speak with after death, no matter the language barrier. But something like an animal… he couldn’t talk to an animal, whether alive or undead. A domesticated dog would have been one thing, but this creature was clearly feral. He hadn’t explained any of this to Dela because, frankly, he’d been banking on all the undead here being humanoid. Thus, this turn of events was quite unexpected and he knew he wasn’t going to have enough time to do anything about it.

“Oh,” was the only calm, stupid comment he made before the beast leaped at him. Cillian didn’t have time to so much as blink before the creature’s body slammed into his own, snarling as powerful jaws ripped apart the man’s flesh and bone in horrific, gory fashion. His blood sprayed everywhere in violent bursts from torn arteries, limbs and digits pulled from the rest of his torso while the undead canine gorged itself. Within seconds, Cillian was dead…

...and it wouldn’t be much longer before the fearsome predator turned its gaze in search of new prey.  

“You know, when I told you last that I thought you were avoiding me that wasn’t an invitation to go out and get yourself killed more often.”

Even after four hundred years, dying was still a different experience every time. Before he knew it, Cillian was standing in an endless grassy field under a neutral, cloudless sky that somehow held plenty of daylight despite the fact that there was no sun. The only things breaking the view was a cowled figure sitting at a small table which bore a tea kettle, two cups, and an empty chair. Cillian whistled. “A whole piece of scenery and tea? I’m gonna be here a while. Guess that thing really fucked me up, eh?”

Death pulled back her hood which, rather than falling behind her head, shimmered and broke into the thousand strands that made up her long, pure black hair. She greeted him with an amused smile as she lifted a teacup to her lips. “Well, long enough for a conversation at least. You know how it works.”

“Yeah, yeah. Every second spent dead in the mortal world means a minute waiting somewhere in the afterworld for my body to regenerate.” He flapped a dismissive hand and ambled over to the empty chair, plopping himself into it and pouring himself a cup while Death drank from hers. “Boy, that cop’s gonna be really mad when I go back.”

“If she survives that long,” the reaper told him, almost a bit too innocently.

“Nah, she’ll be fine. She’s definitely a scaredy cat, but she’s still a cop. I’m sure she can take care of herself for a few seconds until I get there.” Cillian blew the steam off his tea and took a sip, humming as the hot liquid trickled down his throat. “You always make the best tea. You’ve got to let me take some of these herbs back to the mortal realm sometime…”

Death chuckled. “Your mortal body would not survive its consumption. You would perish before you finished half the glass.”

He grinned at her, his teeth baring in a bright, childish expression of excitement. “Challenge accepted.”

With a small, undignified snort into her glass, Death shook her head. “Cursing you was a mistake.”

“Aw, c’mon, Bones. You miss my company when I’m not around.”

“Yes, you’re very charming,” she muttered with dry humor. “Anyway, it seems your time is just about up. Do take care of that young woman when you go back. You might be surprised at how much of a kindred spirit she is.”

Cillian rolled his eyes, downing the rest of the tea before he couldn’t drink it anymore. “You know I don’t do ‘kindred spirits’, my lady reaper. It’s too much effort to form an attachment to people that are just going to die after just a fraction of my impending unlifetime. That’s exhausting just to think about.”

She shrugged, looking the very picture of a cheshire cat who knew something he did not. “Very well. Off you go, then.”

Before he could say anything, Cillian found himself laying back in the cavernous tunnels, blinking up at the rocky ceiling. Dela was shrieking, and the rainbow light from her wand continued to dance over the jagged surfaces of the walls around them. He sat up just in time to witness her enshroud the foul creature in gloriously pink satin ribbons. It struggled against its bindings, which would break sooner rather than later.

Cillian easily drew himself to his feet even as the beast wriggled and chewed through the ribbons, which quickly began to tear. Its snapping teeth were already free, and it was finding purchase on the ground with its paws. The tall man stepped out of the shadows and into the vibrant light, his hands clasped together above his head in a singular, tight fist. “Bad dog!” he scolded, swinging his arms down and smacking the beast in the cranium so hard that its head was crushed between Cillian’s hands and the floor. It had died almost on impact.

“There you go, problem solved!” He turned toward Dela with a proud grin that faltered instantly as soon as his eyes set on her. She was absolutely covered in blood. His blood, he suspected. Cillian scratched the back of his head with a sheepish expression.

“So, uh… this is awkward, eh?”  

Cillian could do little more than just stand there and take the verbal assault, which he did sort of have coming. He made no attempt to interrupt her or really even to defend himself. Actually, he was a bit impressed by how many swear words she knew and was able to string together in a single sentence. Despite the fact that he was at least a head taller than her, he did shrink back a bit as she bore down on him with the wide eyed, sheepish expression of someone who was legitimately a bit intimidated. He teetered a bit on his feet as she jabbed her finger into his chest and rubbed the spot with a soft “Ow.”

When she had finally finished and calmed down a bit, Dela asked the obvious: Why hadn’t he told her? “Honestly, I was hoping you wouldn’t even find out,” Cillian told her simply. “You think it’s easy to explain to people that I can’t stay dead? Usually that opens up a lot of unpleasant questions that people don’t really want the answers to. I learned a long time ago that it didn’t pay to talk about it.” He shrugged. Frankly, Dela was already taking this way better than most people. A normal person probably would stop to speculate on that but, being the dunce that he was, Cillian didn’t think much on it. “I did tell you I didn’t need protection.”

He had tried to tell her, if not in so many words. But it wasn’t exactly an easy subject to bring up, even for someone like him that was generally pretty laissez faire with just about everything in his life. The honest truth was that he and Dela were more alike than either of them had yet to realize: He loved knowing others secrets, but hated telling his own, and bringing up the fact that he couldn’t die often sparked conversations that he just didn’t want to be a part of. He deflected a lot when it came to himself. Unfortunately, it was difficult to deflect this particular subject when she had just witnessed him die and then come back to life.

Maybe it was the knowledge that he couldn’t die, or maybe it was just her anger at him for hiding the fact from her, but Dela seemed to have confidence about her that wasn’t there even five minutes ago. She stormed past him to lead the way further into the cave, all the while berating him about his blood and hygiene. He shot her a grin. “Don’t worry, what I have isn’t contagious,” he informed her playfully. “Well, except stupidity. That’s contagious, and I admit to having that in abunda--.”

He cut himself off mid word as she proceeded to throw up honest to god rainbows. By the time she straightened herself to look at him, she’d find that he’d had to actively latch both his hands onto his mouth to keep himself from laughing out loud. The gesture did nothing to hide the struggle of amusement in his eyes. She seemed inclined to act like that hadn’t just occured, and for once in his life Cillian found the wherewithal to play along. It was the least he could do after scaring her half to death.

Unfortunately, the sight had left him distracted enough that by the time Dela had stumbled onto some strange door and being approached by a new zombie, it was already too late. The thing bit her without warning. “Hey!” Cillian immediately stepped forward and wrapped his hands around the thing’s mouth without reservation, prying its jaw apart so he could pull the creature off of her without ripping all the flesh off her arm. Once he’d managed to get the thing loose, he yanked it back and shook his finger in its face. “NO. BAD ZOMBIE!”

The zombie cowered and shuffled back toward the other group that had been with them thus far, the group seeming to try to comfort the new one. Cillian ignored them, turning instead to check Dela. “Let me see that,” he told her, holding her arm up to check the bite, ignoring any arguments she might try to throw at him. He examined it with his magic, and a frown crossed his face. He could feel the taint entering her blood stream. “Well… I don’t know how to break this to you. I’m not contagious, but it looks like that guy was… I can heal the wound, but the infection is already starting to set in.”

If she wanted him to fix the wound he would do so, tapping into his magic once more to encourage her flesh to mend itself back together. Otherwise, if she didn’t want him messing with it, he would simply let go of the limb and not press the issue. “I think we need to keep moving forward. Our best chance at a cure is going to be in these caves, where these guys are being made.”

Knowing that time was now of the essence, he turned toward the door. It was odd for a door to be down here when all they’d passed so far had been caverns and rubble. If answered laid ahead, surely it was behind this oddly placed barrier. Raising a foot, he casually kicked the door in. Behind it was a strangely barren room. “Huh,” was all Cillian said as he strolled inside. It took only a few seconds for an image to appear before them. A hologram clicked on, its form that of a young girl.

“That’s new.”  

Well, this was beyond creepy.

The little girl in the hologram seemed to be more than well aware that Dela was infected, informing the pair that they only had a limited amount of time before the officer would complete the descent into zombiefication. Granted, Cillian had already put that much together himself. He could feel the corruption in her blood that was quickly bringing her in tune with him, could sense the undeath as it bubbled through her veins. It wasn’t looking good, but she seemed to be handling everything okay. It was likely just denial on her part, but either way there was little they could do to help her except press forward, and if there was one thing Cillian didn’t want, it was for her death to be on his hands.

Unfortunately, this holographic little girl wasn’t exactly forthcoming with the necessary information as to what they needed in order to help Dela. The only interesting details she passed along was how many workers were once in this facility and how they had all been killed by the virus that Dela now had. Then, the little girl disappeared. Dela herself didn’t seem to be sure what to say. She conjectured on the situation and the outbreak’s origins, wondering why scientists were always trying to do things that were a detriment to their own, and the rest of the world’s, health. “You’re probably pretty spot on with the morbid curiosity. My experience with scientists is that they don’t exactly hold a whole lot of regard for whether they should do something. They’re more preoccupied with whether they can.”

Cillian had already started searching around the room, trying to find some kind of path forward. He was rather keen on finding the rest of the labs so they could locate this cure, as he was much more adept at making zombies than at reverting them. In fact, he could do that last thing at all. Once she was a zombie the most he’d be able to do was form a contract with her. Which could be fun, he supposed. She was pretty feisty, and seemed more attentive than she let on. But, that would also mean being targeted by the Rune Knights for being the last known individual to go on a mission with her, and that would complicate his life more than he liked.

His search for routes into the facility were abruptly halted by the hologram returning, the little girl giggling before admitting that there was more to know than she’d originally left them with. “Well, that’s just rude,” Cillian commented, though he didn’t really seem all too upset. He did cross his arms over his chest a bit impatiently, though, wishing the thing would get on with it. The little girl announced that the facility had already been destroyed after the success of the virus, but apparently the experiments weren’t done yet. Next was to try and beat something she referred to as a Tyrant, which would give them access to the virus and, more importantly, the cure for it. The hitch was that they would have to choose whether to use it to save Dela, or to save those who might be infected with the curse later. “Wow, they really think the first person who finds this virus is gonna just… go out and spread it to the world, huh?” Even for a man who worked with zombies for a living, he could never do something like that. People were far too interesting to turn them all into undead.

A steel door shifted into existence before them, opening to reveal the so-called Tyrant. Lo and behold, the name was rather fitting. It stood about four feet taller than Cillian and was several hundred pounds heavier than he was. Despite the situation, the necromancer’s eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas and he almost instantly got giddy. “Well, look at you!” he proclaimed, opening his arms wide with a big grin on his face. This was by far the biggest zombie he’d ever seen, and Cillian was more than a little interested in seeing if it could be added to his collection. It came running right at him and Cillian didn’t even try to get out of the way, which was just as well since it took only a split second for both of them to see that outrunning the thing was just going to be impossible.

“OOF!” Cillian exclaimed, the wind being knocked out of him as the hulking creature steamrolled right into him, knocking him off his feet and tackling him hard to the ground. He was a little too preoccupied to hear Dela’s instructions for him to distract the thing while she, presumably, ran after the antidote, but frankly he assumed that’s what she was doing anyway. Using the momentum to his advantage, he latched onto the creature and rolled along the ground with it until they came to a stop. Despite the zombie’s superior size, it found itself in a headlock from the smaller, more wiry man. “Whoa..!” He nearly lost his grip when the creature threw itself to its feet, nearly causing Cillian to slide off of it. Instead, the necromancer wrapped his legs around the titan and gripped harder, giggling like a mad man as the Tyran thrashed and rampaged around the room, trying to shake him.

Eventually, it reached up with one of its claws and snatched onto him. “Uh oh,” was all Cillian had to say before he found himself being hurled across the room. He smacked against the wall with an audible thud that shook the immediate area, yet did nothing to quell his spirit. He laid there with his feet up above his head, his cranium resting awkwardly against the floor, commenting a half hearted, “Ow,” that seemed to be more of a reflective response than one that belied any actual pain most people would be in. With a rather dainty, high pitched yelp, the managed to throw himself out of the way as the zombie charged him again, the monster slamming face first into the wall as Cillian rolled to his feet.

With a triumphant yell, Cillian threw himself at the zombie and the two locked fists, each of them pressing against one another in a veritable stalemate as they each tried to overwhelm the other through brute force like wrestlers on a mat. Impressive, given that Cillian didn’t exactly look like the strongest of individuals. Or at least, in comparison to this thing. Yet he was holding his own against it all the same and looked like he was having fun. “Oh I have got to get me one of these…” he said to himself, not so loudly that Dela would hear him. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to want to work with him. He attempted several times to link with it, to calm it down enough to try his hand at taming it, but the gargantuan zombie was just a bit too feral after all this time down here.

Cillian shifted his weight suddenly, no longer fighting against the zombie’s pressure and causing it to lose its balance and footing. As it fell forward, the necromancer tucked and rolled beneath its legs, coming up behind it with his sansetsukon ready: a staff that would have been more suitably compared to a nunchuck except that it had three sections to it rather than two. He whipped the weapon around and aimed it expertly at the creature’s neck as it turned to look at him, beheading the zombie swiftly. It stood in lingering shock for a moment before collapsing to the ground, its head rolling a couple feet before coming to a stop. Cillian wrapped the sansetsukon lazily around his neck. “What a waste,” he lamented sadly to himself, though not really all that broken up about it.

As if remembering what was going on, he spun to glance toward where Dela had run off to, making his way in that direction. “How you holding up there, blondie? Find the antidote?”  

Crash.

Cillian skid to an abrupt halt as the vail slipped from Dela’s fingers and smashed into the ground, its contents spilling uselessly into the dirt. She had taken too much blood loss and it had made her shaky, unable to hold the needed medicine long enough to get it applied to herself. The necromancer’s jaw dropped, his crimson eyes staring in disbelief and shock. “Oh shit…”

There was a long tense moment filled with the thickest of silences before Dela looked down at the pool of blood beneath her, which she apparently had not noticed before. Before his eyes, she quickly started losing it, a nervous laughter quivering from her lips as she tried to walk forward and fell. Cillian quickly jumped to her side, cradling an arm beneath her head and doing his best not to panic -- and failing.

“Whoa hey, come on you’re going to be alright. A little zombification never killed anybody, ha…” His immediate go to defense mechanism had always been humor, hoping to make her feel better, but the truth was that they both knew there was no stopping what was to come by this point. His laugh didn’t really meet his eyes. “Boy this is awkward… C’mon blondie, don’t die on me down here…” The last thing he needed was having to explain to her superiors that he had dragged her on this mission and gotten yet another one of their knights killed. She was quickly deteriorating before his eyes, and he could only sit there dumbfounded, unable to do anything but be there until she finally looked up at him with a delirious glaze in her eyes and drew her last breath.

He sat there for a long moment contemplating his next move. Briefly he considered using his magic to summon her back as a zombie or spirit, but even for someone as dimwitted as he was that seemed like a bad idea. Plus, he had seen how terrified she was at the thought of becoming a zombie, so it seemed rude to force that change on her. Death seemed better, even if it meant that the Rune Knights were probably going to come looking for him eventually. Unfortunately, that thought didn’t really move him in any particular direction. Since he couldn’t die, the most the Rune Knights could do was lock him up and leave him bored for a really long time.

Welp, she wasn’t getting any deader.

“Virgo!”

The zodiac spirit appeared once more with a small flourish. “Yes, master? Oh no!” She clapped her hands to her cheeks at the sight of Dela’s body as Cillian slowly picked the blonde woman up and stood to his feet. “What happened?”

“She got bit by a zombie and then we lost the cure. She wound up bleeding out before the curse could take hold fully. Not sure if that’s a blessing or not. Do you mind digging up a spot for me real quick?”

With a nod, the pink haired maid spun in place like a top once more, forming a deep enough crater in the ground to fit a body. Cillian set Dela’s corpse inside and then, without much more thought or consideration, started scooping the dirt back into the hole with his bare hands to cover her up. Sure it was a little sad, but Cillian was a bit numb to this sort of thing. He’d watch hundreds of people die over the years and there wasn’t really any point in standing around mourning someone he didn’t know. So, he decided to just bury her and continue on, telling himself he’d honor her death by clearing the place out and making sure this didn’t happen to anyone else.  

Dela would not be disappointed in her revenge. As her hand shot out of the damp, clumpy dirt that he was currently using to bury her, the slender fingers wrapping around his wrist, Cillian let out a very loud, very unmanly, high pitched shriek. He tried to jump back on instinct, but between Dela’s death grip (pun not intended, but acknowledged) on his arm, and his uneven balance where he knelt over her intended grave, it was all he could do to keep himself upright on his knees as she dragged herself from the dirt and coughed the debris out of her nose and mouth. Even Virgo, who was still present beside him, leaped back and fell into a comically poor attempt at a martial arts defensive stance with her hands up in front of her face and a leg lifted before her.

His face seemed permanently etched in wide eyed shock as she looked at Cillian and greeted him in an even tone, remarking that she had infinite lives much the same as he did. There was a long beat as he seemed to be struggling to comprehend this sudden and unexpected turn in events, but before long his mouth would quiver slightly before a grin split across his face and he doubled over where he knelt with laughter.

“Amazing!” the necromancer exclaimed, his eyes as bright as a child at a magic show. “Shit, no one’s scared me like that in… hell, I don’t even know how long. Two hundred years or so?” Cillian started laughing all over again, thoroughly pleased with Dela’s revenge upon him. “I concede. Excellent play!”

Smiling from ear to ear, he stood to his feet and helped her up, and even started helping her brush dirt off. It wouldn’t be until much later that Death’s prior words about having more in common with Dela than he realized would actually dawn on him, and for now he was content with how everything had turned out. Once he was sure that she was fine, he would nod. “Alright, then let’s finish dealing with this cave and get you home so you can clean up.” He looked down at her briefly with a fleeting look of… something… in his gaze, some level of consideration or understanding that he’d never felt before. All his life, he’d never known another person that could cheat death like he could, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do now that he did. Shaking his head, he gave another soft chuckle, and then they were off to complete their job.