Plagued Girl

The Plague: The Unusual Weed

Saiko liked forests. It lacked the crowds she hated, of course, but that was not why she liked it. No, she liked it because it was filled with death. The spirits of animals ran through the trees, while long dead birds flew overhead. People did not often think about death when it came to forests, but that was only because nature was so efficient at removing the evidence. To Saiko, it felt no different than walking through a city cemetery.

While looking at quests on a job board, she had discovered one requesting the disposal of some dangerous weeds. Thinking it sounded like the perfect job for her, she quickly grabbed it before anyone else could. Supposedly the weeds made those that touched it sick, but Saiko’s magic rendered her immune to illness. Hopefully that would be enough protection, though she did not intend to touch the weeds in the first place.

Doll in one arm and a woven basket in the other, she searched for the weeds in question. Herbalism was not one of her specialties, but she had grown up scrounging for wild herbs and other foods for her family. That helped her spot the unusual looking plant among the rest, a plant she had never seen before and matched the description in the job listing.

Setting down the basket and opening its lid, Saiko stepped back and held her arm out in front of her. The shadows stirred around her, slowly spiraling before suddenly sinking into the ground. Then there was nothing. At least that is how it would seem to an outside observer. To the wielder of the shadows, she could already feel something stirring.

It started with a small bump in the ground, followed by another, and then another. Then a small skeletal paw burst through from the first bump, and the rest followed suit. Soon she was surrounded by several undead woodland creatures ranging from squirrels to rabbits. Flicking her wrist toward the target plants, the undead quickly moved to carry out their lady’s order.

Each of the undead went to their own plant and began to dig up the ground around them. Once they finished, they carefully dragged the plants by their roots to the basket Saiko had prepared. While she stood watching, they slowly moved out from her location digging up and depositing any of the weeds they found. Soon enough the basket was full to the brim and her minions could not locate any more in the area. Satisfied she had completed the terms of the job, she gave a small wave of thanks to the undead before letting them return to the ground.

Carefully closing the lid so as not to come in contact with the plants, the mage made her way back out of the forest. As she did not have to look carefully at the plants around her the trip back to the village went much faster, and soon enough she was at the house indicated by the job listing.

“Oh my!” exclaimed the herbalist as she opened the basket. “This will be a great help for my research. Thank you, you have certainly earned the reward.”

Taking the proffered reward, Saiko gave a slight bow of farewell and turned to leave. Beanstalk Village reminded her too much of her own home, so she did not wish to linger longer than she had to.

566/500

The Plague: The Shrouded Stalker

An unexpected call had brought Saiko back to Beanstalk Village. Having successfully harvested the plants, she had thought her job complete and her time in the village over. The urgent note, however, spoke otherwise. The same urgency could not be seen in the girl’s steps though, as she took her time making her way back to the herbalist’s home.

“He’s still there,” came a whisper in Saiko’s ear. It seemed a black cloaked figure had started following her some time ago, but since he had not gotten closer she felt it best to have the nearby spirits watch him. This charade continued until the herbalist’s house, and he did not approach even as she was invited inside.

From there the herbalist explained the nature of the plant, which just bored the mage. The plants were bad, and the job entailed making sure the information made it to some wizard safely. Given the black figure was listening in on the conversation, he was probably an obstacle to the herbalist’s plans. So while holding her doll in her arms she muttered “rise” under her breath.

The stalker’s instincts were good, but not quite good enough to dodge the first attack as a ghostly knight appeared behind him and swung its sword. Rolling away, trailing blood from the slash on his back, he rose into a fencer’s stance. As the knight brough its sword up for another attack, a black rapier pierced through its armor… only to keep going harmlessly. Recovering his balance the black figure stabbed several more times in quick succession, his blade continuing to strike nothing but air.

Realizing his attacks were not working, he started to retreat but suddenly fell to one knee as nausea and dizziness overwhelmed him. From the herbalist’s door, Saiko watched with one hand held up toward the stalker. Still crouched, he desperately tried to block the knight’s next blow, but the sword passed through and gouged deep into the man’s shoulder eliciting a cry of pain.

After that the battle was a forgone conclusion. Despite the stalker’s best attempts to dodge and escape, he could not overcome the magical sickness slowing his movements. Five blows later the knight’s sword pieced the man’s chest, killing him. The body crumpled to the ground, soaking the dirt in blood.

Stepping over to the corpse, Saiko felt the knight fade back into nothingness. Deciding to search the body, she found a used match and a coin. While she did not understand the significance of either, it seemed wise to keep them until she discovered who the man had been working for. The likelihood of this being a coincidence was not high. Behind Saiko, the herbalist was understandably shaken by the unexpected violence. Still, she understood that the mage had likely protected her from whatever the man had intended.

“Thank you once again,” the herbalist said, handing her a bag. “Please, take this as payment for saving me.”

Saiko took the bag before giving a small bow of thanks just as she had done before. Originally she had not wanted to stay in the village, but it was proving quite profitable. Perhaps she would be back again, should the herbalist need more help.

534/500

The Plague: The Sickness

About a week had passed since the battle outside the herbalist’s house, and no other jobs had caught Saiko’s interests. If nothing else it had proven a good time to practice her magic, practice that would quickly become useful. As Saiko and her doll wandered a market looking for dinner, said herbalist ran up in a visible panic.

“Help!” she cried. “Something is happening to the village! Animals are attacking. I think they’ve been altered by those weeds somehow. I’ve seen you fight, we need you!”

Tilting her head, Saiko regarded the other woman. “Payment?” she asked.

“Huh? Oh, yes of course! Consider this an official job request.”

Nodding in satisfaction, the mage left the market and started making her way to the village, the herbalist trailing not far behind. Thankfully for Beanstalk Village it was not too far from the market she had been in, and soon the pair arrived. Immediately she spotted a pair of chickens pecking at the body of a sheep, their bodies covered in purple growths of some kind.

“...Gross.”

Wanting to get this job over with quickly, Saiko immediately cast Plague on the chickens. And then watched in surprise as the only effect the spell seemed to have was to draw their attention to her. When they started running at her she took a step back and called out “rise!” sending a spectral knight to cut them down in a single slash.

Unfortunately the noise had alerted the other plagued animals, and she soon found herself surrounded by chicken, pigs, and the largest bear she had ever seen. Thinking quickly, she cast Corpse Explosion on the two dead chickens, taking out the chickens and pigs but only wounding the bear. In the process, despite being outside the spell’s damage range Saiko still ended up covered in gore.

While her Old Guard spirit continued its fight with the bear, a howl caused her to spin around. A pack of wolves had appeared in the distance and were now running at her faster than she thought possible. Feeling panic for the first time, she held her hand out in front of her and shouted. “Rise! Rise! Rise!”

Summoning four spirits, as well as the other spells she had cast, was taking its toll on Saiko’s mana level. But she had no choice but to keep fighting as the wolves dodged around the knights and focused on the living smells that were the mage and herbalist. Relying on her last protection spell, the young girl summoned a sphere of darkness around them.

Suddenly deprived of their senses, the wolves stopped in place. They sniffed around aimlessly, but were defenseless against Saiko’s summons who now hacked and slashed at them with impunity. After several minutes of one sided combat the wolves lay dead and the sphere disappeared. Off to the side she could see that the bear too had finally been defeated. Silence filled the village as gobs of flesh and bone dripped from her face, which Saiko hoped meant the fighting was over.

Turning around, she looked up at the herbalist. “May I… borrow your bath?”

519/500

The Plague: Investigating the Growth

Wrapped in a towel, Saiko stepped from the herbalist’s bath. Blood and guts normally did not bother her too much, it kind of came with the territory when you practiced necromancy. That did not mean she enjoyed being covered in it. Honestly it felt super icky.

Expecting to have to redress into her filth covered robes, she was pleasantly surprised to find the herbalist had given them a quick wash. Now feeling clean and well dressed (if one could call a slightly tattered robe well dressed) the girl felt ready to take on the world. Or at least whatever weirdness had taken hold over this village. On the brightside, money! And money meant food, and not being hungry was always high on her list of priorities.

“Feeling better?” the herbalist asked as Saiko exited the bathroom, earning a quick nod that oozed satisfaction. “Good! Thank you again for your help today, though I am afraid this is not the end of it. My scientist friend had sent a letter just before the attack, and he believes this infection is spreading. He actually asked in his letter if I could send you his way.”

What, this scientist guy could not be bothered to come here himself? Guy sounded like a lazy prick. Seeing the herbalist’s expectant stare, Saiko realized she had no choice but to go. “...fiiiiine.”

Taking a paper with some hastily written down instructions from the older woman, she left the house and headed toward the scientist’s abode. Eventually she arrived, and the door opened at her knocking, assaulting her with the overwhelming smell of chemicals. “Oh, you must be the mage the herbalist wrote about. Come in, come in!”

Saiko’s nose scrunched up at the idea of entering such a foul smelling place, but a job was a job. Following after the sloppily dressed man and noticing he had the aura of someone that lived off two hours of sleep a night and absolutely not a minute more, they soon entered a magical laboratory. Having never been in one before, the girl could not help but look around at everything in slight amazement.

Unaware of her apparent fascination, the scientist began launching into a convoluted explanation on what he had found out about the infection. An explanation she quickly tuned out as the technical jargon flew over her head.”...and that is why I need you to take my equipment into the woods and scan for anomalies for me.” Yup, lazy prick confirmed.

Grabbing a bunch of equipment and shoving it into a bag, the lazy prick handed it to her along with a prewritten set of instructions on their use. “I’m charging more than the herbalist paid,” was her only response. She was not fond of doing other people’s work for them.

“Oh, um, yes. Yes of course,” he stammered, having been caught off guard by her statement. But as he did not have many other options and did not want to go into the dangerous woods himself, he had no choice but to give in. “You shall be paid appropriately.”

Nodding in satisfaction, the mage left the building and headed toward the infested forest. It did not take long after entering to find a pair of infected wolves, and after the fight in the village she was not taking any chances. Quickly summoning two Old Guards, she sent them in to hack away at the wolves who fought back in vain.

Once the wolves had been properly hacked into bits Saiko walked over and held her hand above them. The shadows around her shifted and spiraled until they covered the wolves. Then the shadows condensed, eating away at flesh until only black bones remained. Standing up the skeletal wolves broke though the shadows, revealing their clean white bones as they moved to her side. Thankfully free of their gross purple growths.

Most of Saiko’s combat spells lacked the ability to hit multiple targets at once, but she was a necromancer. What she lacked in power, she could make up for with numbers. Never again would she allow herself the panic she experienced back in the village.

Not far from where she had encountered the wolves the first sign of the spreading infection appeared. A number of unnatural looking purple weeds dotted the land, and anything growing near them showed visible signs of decay. As she drew closer, she realized it felt familiar. It felt like her own powers. This realization was not a welcome one, she knew all too well what kind of damage this could cause.

Even if she had a suspicion on the source of the infection, she could not prove it. Pulling out the magical instruments she had been given, she followed the instructions to start scanning the weeds. Once the instruments had finished, and having no idea what the results they showed meant, Saiko had the wolves dig up a few of the weeds to take back.

Weeds tended to spread quickest, so there was no choice but to go deeper into the forest if she wanted to see the worst of the infection. Pushing through the foliage, a small clearing opened before her. In it were four infected pigs, all of whom turned to charge her as she appeared.

Wanting to preserve her magic for now, she let the two wolves attack the pigs in her stead. They tried their best to charge and bite the wolves, but the skeletons were faster and more agile. Pairing up against the pigs one at a time they eventually brought all four down. Moving into the now safe clearing, a strange tree across the way caught her eye. It was covered in some kind of crust and the leaves had been replaced by a glowing moss.

Once again she set up the magical instruments and studied both the crust and the moss. Her attempt to harvest them was less successful, as while the crust broke off easily enough the moss crumbled to ash in her hand.

As she packed away her samples and tools, a distant howl caught her attention. Clearly it had been too much to hope the first pair of wolves had been the only ones left in the area. Moving to the center of the clearing, she and the skeletons took up positions to watch for their approach. And approach they did.

The moment they broke through to the clearing she sent out a pair of spectral knights and surrounded herself in a sphere of darkness. None of the wolves were close enough to be caught in it, but by doing so she became effectively invisible to them while still allowing her to hear the sounds of battle outside.

For what seemed like forever the battle raged, and she could feel her old guards wanting to slip back to nothingness. So it was with some relief when the sounds of battle ceased before then. Releasing the shadow, she saw the knights hovering over the bodies of seven wolves: two skeletal and five infected. Silently she thanked the wolves that had given their unlife for her service before repeating the ritual and raising the remaining wolves to her service.

Once this was complete, she continued on. Pushing through, the trees once again broke apart into an opening, but this time to reveal a pond surrounded by some kind of bramble. Near it was another of the large infected bears. Still feeling a bit drained from the earlier fight and raising the wolves, she sent her pack to attack the bear with only a single spectral knight for help..

Unlike before, this battle was relatively short. The bears were strong, sending her skeletal wolves flying every time its paws connected, but they were not as fast meaning they rarely landed their hits. First one bear was pulled to the ground and torn apart, then another, and not longer after the other two. By the time the battle ended she had lost three more wolves, but that was a small price to pay.

Wanting to finish up this job and get back to the scientist, she started scanning one section of the vines while her Old Guard spirit hacked away at another section to clear a path to the pond. For the first time her instruments gave different results, but they still meant nothing to her. An attempt to harvest some proved just as fruitless at the moss, as it turned to ash as her knight cut it away.

Path clear, she walked up to the pond and studied it. The purple algae growing in it was obviously not natural, and scanning it with the instruments yielded a similar result to the vines. Reaching into the water to collect some, she felt her mana drain from her body. Quickly scooping it up and putting it away, she wiped off any remnants. Once again this infection felt eerily close to The Returned.

Figuring she had enough data and first hand experience to prove her suspicions, Saiko quickly left the forest and returned to the scientist.

1512/1000

The Plague: Thy Enemy has a Face

While waiting for the scientist to look into the data she had collected Saiko had been staying with the herbalist from before. Initially she had been hesitant to stay with a person she did not really know, but it had been hard to turn down free room and board. It also saved her being summoned from a far off town and having to rush back. Mainly for the free food though.

As she was happily shoveling some chicken and herb porridge into her mouth, the scientist (very rudely) burst through the house’s front door. “We have a crisis on our hands!”

Taking a moment to look at the rude scientist, she returned to eating her food in silence. Apparently this was not the response he had been expecting, because he rushed over and slammed his hand down on the table. “I said we have a crisis!”

His second interruption earned him a glare from the young teen, which again did not seem like the response he expected.

“Is my bowl empty?” she asked.

“Uh, n-no?”

“Then shut up.”

Unsure of how to deal with the girl, he pulled out a chair and sat down. During the commotion the herbalist had come in from outside, and she too sat down at the table. She at least had learned not to interrupt the important business that was eating.

Once all the porridge was gone, Saiko stood and brought the bowl to the sink before returning back to her chair. “Okay,” was all she said.

A pregnant pause filled the air as the scientist tried to determine if it was safe to talk. After a few moments of her staring at him expectantly, he cleared his throat and began the speech he had attempted to give several minutes ago. “You are right about the magic,” he said (which earned him a nod that seemed to say “of course”). “The plants are draining the life and mana from the surrounding area. We need you to try and find the source before it spreads to the village.”

Letting out one of her usual sighs, Saiko jumped back off the chair and gave a second, “okay,” before picking up her doll and leaving the slightly confused scientist behind. It was not like he could have provided her with any useful information, so she figured she might as well get started so she would not miss dinner.

Again she entered the clearly cursed forest, though the atmosphere was noticeably different this time. It was far too quiet, and the number of animal spirits was far too high. As much as she liked the forests because of it being full of death, this was clearly unnatural.

Pushing through the plants, she finally heard the sound of something moving. However it was immediately apparent to her it was not something alive making those noises. She knew the sound undead made all too well, so it did not surprise her when a quartet of zombies jumped out from the brush. Unlike the last time she had visited, she was fully prepared.

The shadows surrounding Saiko wavered momentarily, then the hulking form of four skeletal bears crawled from them into the path of the zombies. They were the same bears she had killed previously, resurrected and stored using her Morgue spell knowing she needed more firepower. The Returned was not primarily a combat magic, so it relied on using her enemies’ strengths against them. Or in this case, their skeletons.

With an undead shriek the bears reared up and swatted the zombies, knocking them to the ground. A few moments later the zombies had been crushed into undead paste under the crushing force of the bears. There was no satisfaction in her victory though, they had been simple undead barely able to sense their surroundings. Still, now she knew the necromantic magic she had sensed had started to affect more than the living. That or whomever was behind this infection was raising soldiers for some unknown goal.

Using the bears to clear a path through the forest, she continued on looking for more undead. Shortly after her wish was granted as an entire horde of zombies came into view. Nine in total, with six of them clearly more advanced than the first set had been. Immediately she sent in her bears, and from the shadows behind the zombies her two remaining skeletal wolves jumped out to attack the weaker zombies.

At the same time she sent a pair of ghostly knights to aid the outnumbered bears, which the zombies could only swipe at ineffectually. The battle was a mess of swipes and bites and transparent sword swings, but eventually Saiko’s forces won out and had destroyed the last of the zombies.

“What are you doing!?” screeched a robed figure who suddenly emerged from the trees. He was wearing black and red robes with a skull, which was so stereotypically necromancer Saiko actually felt offended. “You do not belong here!”

Raising his hands toward her, three new zombies burst forth and charged at a surprising speed. One of her bears managed to jump in front of them, but then was quickly dogpiled by these new zombies and the bear struggled, trying to throw them off. Thankfully it had bought enough time for the other skeletons to join the fray while their summoner and the spirit knights focused on the mage.

“You need better fashion sense!” Saiko yelled back as she summoned a bone spear and sent it hurtling toward the man. He wisely dodged it, but the distraction left him open to a cut from one of the knights. Grunting in pain, he cast a spell at the knight causing it to disappear, and in the process healed the wound it had created.

Healing with death magic seemed a bit unfair, but as it was something she could not do she filed it away as something to look into in the future. In the meantime she burnt up most of her remaining mana summoning ghostly archers to send a rain of arrows toward the mage. Clearly not expecting the rain of spectral missiles, he summoned a new pair of zombies to act as meat shields. In the brief moment of distraction while he summoned the zombies, the man missed the tiny ball of magic that Saiko had sent his way until it splashed onto his face.

Immediately he began to scream in pain and fell to the floor clutching his face. This only made things worse as her Rot spell spread to his fingers causing the skin and muscles there to dissolve just as his face was. Busy having his face melted off, he failed to do anything to stop the next wave of arrows and soon took on the appearance of a pincushion. Glancing at her skeletons, she confirmed all the zombies there were destroyed as well. The bear that had been swarmed had unfortunately fallen as well, which was an unfortunate loss. Larger skeletons were always hard to come by.

Walking over to the corpse of the necromancer, she kicked him as she drew upon the last of her mana. “Get up asshole,” she spat. Moments later the necromancer stood up, fingers and face still mostly gone, and shambled into a shadow followed soon after by the remaining skeletons.

Satisfied she had taken care of at least part of the problem, she made her way back to the village where she found the herbalist and scientist sipping some tea. The lazy prick. Slightly annoyed, she brought the necromancer out of storage and shoved him at the scientist.

“Necromancer in the forest,” she said as she pushed. Ignoring the scientist as he flailed under the heavy body, Saiko sat down and poured herself a cup of tea.

1283/1000

Worshippers of Death: Finding the Link

The scientist, wearing a grossed out expression, left the herbalist’s house with the necromancer zombie shuffling after him. Sure Saiko could have searched the body herself, but why did she have to do all the work around here? Best leave the investigation part to someone better suited for it. It certainly was not because she was annoyed at her fighting while he had been enjoying some tea.

Apparently the search had turned up some interesting items, including another strange coin and some religious tome. None of it meant anything to her though, so she just continued to relax at the herbalist’s house while the other guy did all the leg work investigating things. A few days later he apparently had found out something as he came bursting through the door excitedly.

“I’ve found a clue!” he exclaimed.

Upon entering he saw that Saiko was seated at the table eating once again. Seeing this, he quietly closed the door behind him and sat at the table, quietly waiting for her to finish her meal. He had clearly learned his lesson from last time.

“Clue?” Saiko asked after she had eaten and cleaned up her plate.

“Ah, yes,” he said, seeming to wake back up. “Apparently the man you, uh, encountered was a well known hermit from the East Woods. You should be able to find his house there, and maybe something inside will tell us what he was up to. He has not exactly been the most talkative since you brought him back.”

“Did you bring him?”

“Yes, he is waiting outside.”

“Name?”

“Uh… Lawrence was what I was told. No surname.”

Nodding in satisfaction, it was time for Saiko to head to the East Woods and see what she could find. Sticking the zombie Lawrence into her Morgue so as not to draw attention as she traveled, the still living necromancer began her trek toward the dead man’s home. Learning the secrets of the dead was the specialty of The Returned so she did not worry about that. It was whether she actually understood what she found that was the question. If everything was written in the same ancient language the guy’s book had been in she was out of luck.

After some time she was again pushing her way through trees and brush until she finally came across the clearing containing her target. Dilapidated was probably the best word to describe the hut and its surroundings, but she could tell it was still in use even with the holey roof and overgrown stone. Apparently the scientist was not the only lazy person around here.

In case the hut was boobytrapped Saiko resummoned Lawrence and sent him stumbling through the door. If he got blown up by his own trap, it only served him right. That scenario did not play out though, as the mindless zombie entered the hut effortlessly. Still on guard, she followed after.

The inside was somehow even more depressing. Pails under the holes to catch rain, a desk with no chair, and weather damage everywhere. Saiko could not help but look at the zombie with an expression of “what were you doing man?” If he had spent as much time taking care of his house instead of infecting plants and creating zombies maybe it would not look like utter crap inside. It was because of people like him that necromancers like her got such a bad rap.

Looking around a fancy purple book with silver designs caught her eye, but once she determined she could not read it the book got tossed on the desk. Clearly it was time to try a different method. The teenager and her zombie stomped back outside where she carefully drew a circle in the dirt. She had not tried this spell before because it could be dangerous; this seemed like a good time to try it.

“Lawrence, answer me,” she called as she stretched out her hands. Shadowy magic flowed from her to the zombie, using its rotting flesh as an anchor for the dead man’s soul. It took only a moment before the transparent form of his spirit jumped into existence with a loud shriek.

“You killed me you little bitch!” he yelled at her, swiping ineffectually at the magicked circle protecting her.

“Rude,” she said, covering her ears to protect them from his yelling. Then with her elbow she pointed to the ghost’s zombie shuffling around off to the side. “I brought you back.”

If a ghost’s face could turn red, she was sure it would have done so now. He was clearly fuming at the indignation of seeing his own walking corpse, but Saiko was tired of dealing with him.


“Calm down,” she ordered. Immediately Lawrence's spirit did, but it was obvious he was not happy about it. Spirits summoned via Forced Visitation had to obey her, but that did not make them enjoy the process. “Behave. Reveal your secrets.”

With a growl of annoyance, he turned and pointed to his garden. “That is where I was growing the plants needed by the cult for memory erasure. There are more ingredients inside.”

“...cult?”

“Because my magic wasn’t very strong no one wanted me, but one day a cultist came and offered to give me purpose. Turns out I wasn’t useful to them either, so I volunteered for a mission I knew I wouldn’t come back from. And clearly I was right.”

“True, you did suck.”

“...”

“Next.”

Unhappily floating inside, he pointed to the desk. “There is a pink slip in that pile of documents. It is the source of all my grief! All my anguish! Those accurese-”

“Don’t care. Next.”

Somewhat deflated after having a chance to blow off some steam taken away from him, he sighed and pointed to the only part of the floor that was lacking the signs of weather. “There is a secret compartment there, it has a poem to open the secret entrance at the well. The latch is under the desk.”

Finally something interesting, a secret entrance. It would have been pretty disappointing if all she had found was a book and a useless pink slip. Maybe the book had some clues to whatever magic had been used near the village, but as she could not read them it did not exactly help. With something like hope Saiko found and tripped the latch under the desk, opening the secret compartment. Reaching inside she removed a key and a piece of paper. On the paper was the promised poem:


She did not get it. Was this a good poem? A bad one? All poetry sucked as far as she was concerned. It was obviously supposed to be Lawrence’s sad tale before going off to death, but really he had kind of brought it on himself so she did not feel sorry for him. On the back were some music notes, but she had no idea what they meant. Instead she turned her attention to the other object she had discovered.

“You didn’t mention a key,” she said looking at the ghost.

“...I forgot,” he replied.

“Anything else you’ve ‘forgotten?’”

“...no?”

“Mmm.”

That was one downside of her spell, even though she could order them to do anything they still retained their freewill. They could not lie to her, but lies of omission did not count as lies as far as the magic was able to control. This was a good lesson to keep in mind for the future should she need to use the spell again. Her wording was often vague, a problem enough with the living. Even more of a problem when trying to get useful information out of unwilling spirits.

Oh well, lesson learned. Time to move on.

“The well?” she asked.

“You read the poem in front of it and then press the lit stones in the order dictated by the music notes I wrote on the back. Ingenious, isn’t it?”

That just earned a grunt from Saiko. Not excited about the process, she never-the-less made her way out to the well and read the dead man’s poem at it. To say she felt a bit silly doing so would be a gross understatement. In the end the stones lit up like he had said though, so she could not really complain. Now for the music notes.

“Can’t read music,” she said flatley.

“Of for the love of… why do I even bother?” Clearly frustrated at the girl’s complete disregard for his carefully set up magical locks, he still had no choice but to tell her the correct order to press the stones. And then like magic (because it was) the water drained from the bottom of the well and revealed a secret entrance.

“Use the rope to get down,” he said with a harumph. “I swear if I still had my body…”

“It's still over there,” she offered helpfully, nodding her head toward the zombie.

“...I really despise you, you know.”

This earned him a shrug as she used the rope to enter the well. Most people’s opinions did not matter to her, and the opinions of a man she had killed herself mattered even less.

“Come,” she ordered instead, forcing the ghost to float down the well after her. She did not really know what was down the well, but it was clearly important. There were undoubtedly more locks or traps here given how carefully each step had been prepared thus far.

When the pair arrived at the bottom, she saw a door waiting for them. Deciding not to trust the understandably upset ghost on whether the door was safe, she used her Morgue skill to transport the man’s zombie from above ground to next to them. After that it was a simple matter to have the zombie open the door for her like she had done above.

“You’re making me test for traps now?” the ghost asked indignantly.

“Actually useful this way.”

Ignoring his complaints, she entered the door to find a dark room lit only by luminescent crystals. Some proper lights would be nice, but the guy did seem to like his pointlessly dark and dreary lifestyle. At least he was consistent. Besides the glowing crystals, the only things Saiko saw was a probably gross robe and a fancy locked chest.

Seriously, who puts two locks on a single chest? That just seemed excessive. Trying the obvious solution first, Saiko tried to open the locks with the key she had found earlier. It did not work in either of the locks, which made her wonder what the heck it was even for. Probably the bathroom or something equally stupid. She tried using her rot spell, the one that had melted Mr. Dead Guy’s face off, only to find it did not work.

That was weird. It would take some serious magic to stop her own spell from turning the locks and chest to dust, and he had not been anywhere near strong enough for that. Was there someone really strong in this cult just giving out fancy chests like this to their members? They must have a lot of extra money to throw away, she decided.

“How do I open this?” she asked once it became obvious she could not open the lock herself.

“With the keys,” was the smug response.

“...where?” She was starting to get tired of the ghost making things more difficult. He was lucky it was against her policy to torture spirits, given her position as a spirit medium and all that. But oh was she tempted. Just one little summoning spell for one of her spectral knights… no, bad Saiko. No torturing the dead.

“Ugh, fine,” he finally said after a long pause, apparently trying and failing to fight against the spell keeping him under her command. “One key is under that rock over there, and the other is behind the leftmost crystal light.”

Digging around under the rock he had indicated she found the first key, the second was in a small hole just behind the light. Without knowing it was there she doubted she would have found it with the way it blended into the wall. He had not lied though, as the keys fit in perfectly and turned smoothly in their locks. Pleased with this success she started to open the chest, only to discover she still could not.

“What did you ‘forget?’”

“Oh, yes, I suppose you do need more than the keys. There are buttons and such that you also need to operate to actually open the chest.”

“Show me.”

With the ghost telling her the correct combination to manipulate, she pressed buttons, spun tumblers and knobs, and with a click was finally able to open up the chest. Inside she found books and another key. So many keys. She still didn’t even know what the first one was for! Reaching inside she found it to be another of the books the man had been carrying when he died, so casually tossed it over her shoulder.

“Trash.”

“He-hey! That is a very important religious text. Aren’t you supposed to respect other people’s religions?”

“...no?”

The second book seemed at first glance that it might be more useful, but that hope was quickly dashed when she opened it. It was just his journal, and she had already heard about his pitiful life. Just as she was about to toss that book as well the ghost intervened with a loud “Wait wait wait!”

“What?”

“That is my life’s story, you should treasure it as a sign of my-wait stop!” he had to quickly interject again as she started to throw the book once more. “Look, there is a coded section saying how to get to the cult’s temple. That’s worth keeping my journal for, right?”

“What does it say?”

“Oh, it just says that the entrance is in a cave near the spooky woods. The cipher is really ingenious so I doubt you could break-”

“Okay, go away now,” with a wave of her hands she dismissed the ghost allowing him to cross to the other side. Then she promptly threw his journal off to the side. Another sigh escaped her as she picked up the robe and grabbed the first book from the ground. Infiltration was not her specialty by any means, but she was sure the scientist would just make her go all the way back if she came back without checking this temple out first.

Storing the dead man’s zombie away just in case she ended up needing it, Saiko used the rope mechanism to leave the well and the dead man’s journal behind. She was not looking forward to what would come next.

2513/2500 words

Worshippers of Death: Infiltrating the Temple

By the time Saiko discovered the entrance to the cult’s hideout within the Spooky Woods, she had already donned the robes she had found under the well. They smelled awful, by the way. What was it with cults and gross robes? Did they just not know how to shop for clothes? Sure, she was not exactly a fashion model herself, but she at least tried to look normal.

As she approached the entry in her Cult Chique and clutching the religious book that had been down with the robe (only slightly banged up from her tossing it), she was convinced her disguise was perfect. Sadly, this belief was quickly trounced as she ran into a cultist just inside the entrance.

“Aren’t you a little young to be here?” he asked with an arched eyebrow. Apparently not many teenage girls showed up in these parts. Fair enough.

“Aren’t you a little stupid to be here?” she returned with all the eloquence her fourteen years could muster. Oddly, he seemed a bit upset by this response. Quickly thinking of a way to keep her cover intact, she summoned one of her skeletal wolves from her Morgue. “Convinced?”

A zombie might have been more convincing, but she was not a fan of the smell. The necromancer’s zombie was still stored away, but given he was wearing one of the cults robes she suspected bringing him out might be a red flag for the guard. Or maybe that was normal for these crazies, Saiko had no idea, but it seemed a good idea not to chance it.

While he still looked a bit annoyed at her behavior, it was hard to deny her abilities. All he could do was hope that she got assigned to a different area so he would not have to deal with her. “I welcome you to our Temple. Joo Dee will show you around, I will let the High Cultists know you have arrived so they can begin the preparations for your initialization.”

During his welcome the guard gestured off to the side where there was suddenly a woman standing with a kind of creepy smile on her face. Her sudden appearance caused Saiko to flinch, but she quickly schooled her expression back into its usual neutral appearance.

“I am Joo Dee, I have been given the great honor of showing you around our Temple.”

Still feeling a bit creeped out, the young necromancer did not really have a choice except to follow her overly friendly guide. Somehow she doubted the older woman would show her whatever handy secrets they had, but the High Cultists the guard had mentioned certainly sounded like a good lead. If anyone in the cult knew how and why they were corrupting the woods, it would be them. Which meant for now she had to be on her best behavior so as not to scare them away.

“This is the living quarters, you will have a room here,” Joo Dee said when they arrived at a largish open room with five beds. “We will be roommates, isn’t that exciting?”

Suppressing a shudder, Saiko took a moment to look around the room. Besides the beds and a chest at the end of each, the room was basically empty. Even the necromancer’s crappy little hut from before had more character than this place, and the chances that she would find anything of value here seems abysmally low. Glancing further down the hall she saw four more doors, and guessed that there would be four identical rooms to this one.

Leaving the living quarters behind, Joo Dee led them to a different hallway. The first room inside was smaller than the living quarters, and smelled overwhelmingly of iron as they stepped inside. In the center was a bowl of red liquid that could only be blood. Which was super gross. Who just keeps bowls of blood sitting around? That stuff congeals and rots super quick, at least store it away properly. Amateurs.

“This is the Initiation Room,” Joo Dee explained. “Once the High Cultists have accepted you, this is where you will be anointed.”

“Speaking of,” she interjected, already bored of the tour, “When do we go?”

“One doesn’t just simply pop in on the High Cultists,” Joo Dee returned in her usual far too chipper tone.

Well it was worth a try. Giving Joo Dee the slip would be easy enough, but that would probably break her cover. It seemed the tour would have to continue, which was severely trying on the teen’s patience. Not that she had much to begin with.

“This is the Preaching Room. It is where the High Cultists preach.”

Wow, who would have guessed? There were only seven chairs in the room, she guessed the people in charge were too cheap to get actual pews for the worshipers. Logically the seven chairs in the back were for the High Cultists, old people did tend to need to sit a lot, but Saiko had no proof. It was best to leave that as a theory rather than confirmation that there were seven High Cultists.

“Across from the preaching room is the Room of Silence. You can go here if you ever need time for quiet contemplation, away from the hustle and bustle of life.”

Because clearly the temple was just hopping with parties people needed a room to get away from it all. There was no dust on the floor so the room was not completely unused, though she only had one theory of what it was being used for. “So the sex room?”

This caused Joo Lee to cough in surprise, the first real emotional response Saiko had gotten out of her. “I-I’m sure no one uses this sacred room for such base activities.”

“Mmm.” Keep telling yourself that lady.

Leaving the crowded halls behind, they entered a large room with four small red lit waterfalls. They can have waterfalls but not chairs? Their priorities are wrong. There was no accounting for taste, clearly. The center of the room had a circle with worshippers all praying in a language she did not understand, with a skull and various other death motifs radiating out from the very center.

The thing that bothered Saiko about death cults (not that she had much experience with them) was that if they were so in love with death, why did they not just off themselves and save people like her the trouble of cleaning up their messes? Though if the kind of people that joined these cults were intelligent, they would not have joined a cult in the first place. Guess she would just have to help them along.

“This is the Place of Worship, where everyone gives their prayers. Isn’t it lovely?”

“No guards,” Saiko commented as she looked around.

“Oh my no!” Joo Dee exclaimed. “You are in the Temple now, everyone is safe here.”

Not for long if the young necromancer had anything to say about it. She could not feel much magic from most of the people here, so she guessed there were few actual necromancers among their number. Hopefully this would mean it would be easier should she have to fight her way back out, though she was careful to not let her guard down.

It was only after passing through the waterfall filled room that they finally reached where the High Cultists were supposed to be. It was another large, circular room like the last, but this time without the waterfalls or skulls. Instead the ritual circle contained a single pedestal that gave off magic. Having done her job, Joo Dee gave a polite bow and then left Saiko, the door sealing behind her.

Across the room, seven figures waited for her, all wearing distinctive outfits unlike that rest of the cult. The promised High Cultists it would seem. The five in the center were the most distinct, each looking and acting wildly different as they watched her, while the remaining two seemed more like extras than actual members. It was like Saiko had to concentrate to even keep them in her memory.

“She looks too young to be useful to us,” said a boy in a cloak.

“You’re one to talk,” a woman said with a cool expression. “You’re, what, a year older than her?”

“...” The second girl of the group remained silent, watching instead of acting. Something told Saiko that this girl was more dangerous than she appeared.

“Give her a few years and I bet she will blossom into a beautiful rose,” said a pretty boy, holding his chin in a way that some women would probably find attractive.

“Gross,” Saiko gagged in response.

“Why you little-”

“Enough,” the man standing in the middle said with all the authority of a man used to being listened to. That he was the leader was apparent, even ignoring his prominent position in the pack. “You stand before the High Cultists, are you ready to pledge yourself to service? To give up your material life in order to serve a cause greater than yourself?”

“Sounds awful,” Saiko replied before sending a spectral knight flying toward the man in a surprise attack. These guys were good though, the cloaked boy immediately summoned a wrath that clearly outmatched her own spirit, blocking spiritual sword with spiritual sword.

“She’s an intruder!” the leader yelled at the top of his lungs. “Get rid of her immediately!”

Passing this order on to the boy that had defended him, the leader and five other remaining High Cultists turned and fled out the back. Having to chase them down was a bit annoying truth be told, but on the other hand it was probably safer than trying to fight them all at the same time. Still, she could not help but think of how cowardly the other cultists must be to run away and leave the boy on his own.

Not that Saiko had time to be worrying about him as his wrath cut threw her spectral soldier, destroying it, and soared toward her. Quickly she summoned another knight as well as an archer to provide covering fire, while at the same time forming and then sending a bone spear hurtling toward her opponent. Not willing to be a good boy and just die for her, he dodged out of the way.

“Jack, get her!” he yelled. Apparently the wrath had a name. Taking a moment to get a better look, she saw that the wrath looked about their age and was wearing some pretty emo style teenager clothes. Trench coat and everything. Even the cult’s ghosts seemed to revel in stereotypes.

That brief moment was all she got to contemplate, as Jack immediately blinked out of sight and reappeared next to her. Not even having time to think, she let her magic flow and just barely managed to block his twin swords with a newly summoned pair of Old Guard knights. It was painfully obvious that her magic was not the best suited for fighting against this wrath, despite being a necromancer she had no ways to defend against or control enemy dead.

Feeling a drop of sweat run down her neck, she quickly moved to the side as the original knight and archer joined the newest pair in attacking Jack. In the end she knew this would not make a difference though, if he could simply teleport next to her again any attacks she sent his way would be meaningless unless they finished him off.

Which did not mean she had no options. She just had to change the focus of her attacks. From the shadows near the boy, the hulking form of a skeletal bear jumped out and took a swing, sending the boy flying. Naturally Jack was quick to react, immediately appearing before the bear and using his swords to block the bear from a second attack. This was just the moment she was hoping for.

The bear’s attack had sent the boy flying in her direction, and it took her only moments to reach him. He was already starting to stand and cast magic, but she did not give him the chance. Instantly a sphere of pure darkness formed around them, robbing him of his senses.

“What?” he asked in shock and surprise, not even able to hear himself. “Where am I?”

Not bothering to answer since he would hear nothing, Saiko calmly reached into her Morgue and pulled out the rest of her skeletons. A pair of bears and another of wolves jumped out and tore into the boy, who knew he was being attacked but could do nothing to stop it. His screams were silent to the world as they tore him apart, but they were at least short lived.

“What have you done?!” screamed Jack, only now revealing he could speak. Apparently he had some kind of connection to the boy, but his summoning was not undone. That was curious, but also not great for Saiko who had really been hoping it would.

Hiding in her ball of relative safety, she sent her skeletons inside out to help the rest of her undead. It was obvious with his scream Jack had changed, he was not cutting through her spectral soldiers as quickly as she could summon them. As she felt the well of her mana starting to drain, she realized it was a very real possibility that she might run out of mana before she was able to destroy the raging ghost.

As another knight burned in magical fire from one of his attacks, she was delighted to see the swipe from a bear connect and cause Jack to fade for a moment. Seeing an opportunity Saiko formed another bone spear and sent it flying from inside the Sphere of Darkness. Coming from his blind spot, the spear drove through his spectral form and with a ghostly wail of pain he faded into nothingness.

Dispelling her magic, Saiko had to take a few minutes to catch her breath. It was quickly becoming apparent to her that she needed more ways to defend herself before she got herself killed in battle. It did not matter how many soldiers an army had if the general died.

Once she felt her mana recover to a stable level, she raised the boy into a zombie just in case. It might prove useful, in the same way having Lawrence’s body around had been helpful. Before storing him in her Morgue, she took a moment to search his cloak. Inside she found more papers with the cult’s weirdo language written on them. She had not managed to stop the cult, but at least she had a souvenir to bring back.

Breaking open the door to the Ritual Room, she found the rest of the Temple deserted. After the rest of the High Cultists had escaped, they must have ordered the rest of the temple to evacuate as well. Perhaps they decided if one person had found the Temple, more would be arriving soon. Glad she would not have to fight her way back out, she made her way back to the herbalist’s house and the waiting scientist.

2533/2500

Worshippers of Death: Thine Gods Do Answer

The usual scene repeated with the scientist entering the herbalist’s house to find Saiko. This time he was quiet, only speaking once he saw that the young mage was sitting at the table drinking tea and reading a book.

“I finished translating that letter,” he said as he walked closer.

Closing her book with a sigh, she turned to look at him. Much as she would have continued reading, her stay here was only because she was helping the village. That unfortunately required her to keep helping. Even if it had so far proven to be a huge pain in the butt so far.

“And?” she asked.

“It’s an invitation to something called the ‘Embrace Ritual.’ The letter does not detail what that is exactly, but it does give a location. A specific alley in Bosco”

Now Saiko was not exactly an expert in geography, but even she knew that was a bit of a journey. The cult clearly was far more spread out than she had originally expected. This was more annoying than anything, as if they had just stayed over by Bosco someone else could be cleaning up their mess. With a sigh, she held out her hand toward the scientist expectantly. “Train fair.”

Not expecting her to ask for money (though he really should have by now), he quickly dug into his pockets and pulled out what he had on him. It would probably be enough to cover the train fare there and back, plus a little extra. It was also basically all he currently had, which made handing it over to the young girl incredibly painful. With the hint of tears in his eyes, an outside observer might assume Saiko was extorting the older man for money. And they might have been right.

Pocketing the money, Saiko picked up the book with one hand and her doll Suki in the other. It seemed like a good idea to bring the book with her so she would not be bored. “I’m off.”

The walk to the nearest train station was not exactly close, but she honestly did not even mind. This would be the longest train ride she had gone on, so she was pretty excited. Getting on the train proved to be a slight bit more of a hassle than expected given her lack of a guild mark, but in the end a brief demonstration of her magic proved that she really was a mage and her job documentation was real.

Settling into her train seat, she took the time to enjoy the trip with Suki. They did not need to talk to enjoy their time together, quiet was plenty for them. So instead Saiko read her book and ate a nice little lunch from the diner car, and otherwise just enjoyed the scenery out the windows of the train. Why could jobs not just be riding around places on a train? She would be very good at that.

But all good things must come to an end, and the train finally came to rest at the Bosco train station. Gathering up her admittedly limited luggage, she made sure to find an inn to stay in before anything. The cult had been pretty dangerous in her last couple encounters, and it would suck if Suki got hurt. Best to leave her behind with the book. Just in case she got bored.

Once that was settled, she wandered the streets looking for the alley the scientist had written down for her. She ended up walking by it twice, until she confirmed it really was the alley she needed. She wasn’t sure, because there was a wall there that seemed to be blocking the way. Annoying. Calling over a nearby spirit, she used its sight to peek through the wall where she found a door. A bit more floating around and she saw some kind of mechanism in the wall. She did not really understand how it worked, but following it she found the switch on herside, opening the wall.

Expecting enemies as soon as she passed through the door, she opened it carefully. Inside was a huge, circular room like at the Temple, but with an even fancier magic circle and this pedestal had a black stone sitting atop it. She saw a man praying to the stone with about twenty more cultists chanting around the circle. This lasted only a moment though as once the door behind her shut the man in the center fell apart, and she watched as his spirit was sucked into the orb. That was probably bad.

Before she could decide what she should do about the whole soul in a stone thing, one of the cultists on the far side noticed her and alerted the others. Deciding in this case the best defense was an immediate offense, she summoned some of her undead from their home in the shadows. Three skeletal bears and two skeletal wolves jumped out and started tearing into weaker looking figures. The first five assaulted looked ready for them despite their sudden appearance, but that did not stop them from falling to the sharp teeth and claws assaulting them.

The rest of the cultists seemed to take exception to this, and immediately began either shooting out spells or summoning undead of their own. Still outnumbered, Saiko quickly started to summon spectral knights and archers to even the odds while sending a Plague spell into their midst. With the sudden appearance of first the skeletons, then the spirits, and finally the sickness that began to overwhelm them, none of the cultists had time to focus on her.  Their own undead summons would even the odds if Saiko did not do something quickly, so she readed a different spell.

Giving a silent command to the bears, they started chucking the bodies of the cultists they had killed at the still living cultists, and once those corpses got close Saiko used Corpse Explosion on them. The outcome was both incredibly messy and incredibly effective, scattering her enemy as they tried to escape the sudden destruction in their midst. She did not stop there, summoning bone spears and sending them flying toward any cultist that was caught in an explosion, before causing them to explode next.

This went on for several minutes as she sent explosion after explosion off inside the ritual chamber. Whenever one of the cultists or undead attempted to bring an attack to her, they suddenly found themselves swarmed by either her spirits or her skeletons. Only the necromancers among the group had truly been dangerous, but it was hard for them to summon more of their soul warriors into battle when explosions were burning off their skin or removing limbs.

Eventually the fight ended, and Saiko had to sit to catch her breath. Most of her spirit soldiers had been knocked out, but the skeletons were much hardier. The ritual chamber had already been filled with bits and pieces of humans, but now it was a sea of gore. Flesh and bone was everywhere, and there was not an inch of the room not covered in blood. This included Saiko unfortunately. It was seriously gross feeling. In the end eight bodies were left intact, the other twelve used as weapons.

As she was recovering her mana, the black orb began to glow. Crap, she had forgotten about that with all the fighting. Pushing herself to her feet she prepared for whatever was to come, which did not stop her from being surprised with the orb shattered. Shattered and then took the form of a skeleton, as black magic wrapped around it into robes.

A lich. Goodie.

“You will pay for your crimes against the cult!” the lich raged.

“Get that a lot,” Saiko replied with a shrug.

Not bothering to reply, the lich immediately summoned a pair of skeletons of his own. In response Saiko attempted to send her own undead to attack the lich, only to find her summons resisting the order. It seemed impossible, but the lich was exercising more control over them than she was. That was super extra incredibly bad. Turning her undead instead of the two skeletons which did not seem to have the same resistance, she contemplated her next move.

The first of the enemy skeletons fell under the force of her own skeletons’ attacks, but that caused something strange to happen. She could see magic flow from the destroyed skeleton back to the lich. It appeared to absorb the magic, which led her to believe it would be able to use that absorbed magic to heal itself were it injured. Not knowing if it only worked for his undead or any, she quickly switched gears. The moment the second skeleton fell, she dismissed all of her summons. Now what was she supposed to do?

Before she could decide, he swept his arms wide sending out magic that turned the room into a black field. As soon as the field touched her she felt herself overwhelmed with fear, and during that momentary break he cast another spell that started to burn first her clothes then the skin below. Released from her fear, she covered herself with her arms and gave the lich a vicious glare.

“Pervert,” she cried despite the overwhelming pain.

For just a moment the lich was taken aback, not expecting such a reaction. That moment was all she needed, and then she poured her magic into the remaining corpses causing them to explode around the lich. He let out a howl of pain so she knew the attack had worked, but as the gore settled she could tell he was still a long way from being defeated.That was it for her big attacks. She sent a few bone spears his way to keep him occupied, they did not do much damage though so she was left with her mind racing.

In the end only one thing came to mind, and it was a bit of a gamble. It required her to do something she normally abhorred: run.

A spectral knight popped into the lich’s face, still unwilling to attack but more than enough to block his sight for a few seconds. Jumping forward, she sprinted up to the lich doing her best to avoid his blind attacks. Finally the lich turned his spells on the knight, destroying it and healing slightly in the process. This had been accounted for by Saiko though, it was a small price to pay if it won her the battle.

Now that she was within range she used her arguably most powerful spell and surrounded the both of them in a sphere of darkness. Now that the lich could not see her, she moved off to the side to avoid his wild magic shots. The downside to her Sphere of Darkness had always been that it required being within close proximity, but once she used the spell she never lost. This time would be no different.

Relentlessly she began sending Rot spells toward her target, each one eating away at his form every so slightly. He could not see or hear her, that did not stop him from turning to fire off a spell from whatever direction he felt the sudden pain come from. Simply taking a few steps to the side was enough to avoid these, and so she kept moving around the lich sending Rot after Rot spell at him. In what seemed to take an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, the lich gave out one final howl before disappearing into a pile of dust. She had done it.

Once again she collapsed on the ground, completely drained from the most grueling fight of her life. She had won though, and felt a bit of pride in herself. When was the last time she had felt such accomplishment? Usually when she completed a job she felt nothing, as it was just that: a job.

“Well done,” came a sudden voice that broke Saiko out of her reverie. Jumping back up and preparing to defend herself, she looked to the person that had spoken. They appeared to be a girl about her own age, but something about her felt off. Her attitude and movements reminded her more of an adult, which only put the young necromancer more on edge.

“Who are you,” she asked.

“That is not important right now. Rather, I am offering you a rare opportunity. I am impressed you managed to survive against so many opponents, especially when the lich clearly had the advantage. I think you will be of great help to me.”

“Why should I help you?”

“Because if you want to stop what the cult is doing, you have no choice but to listen to what I say for now. Interested?”

Truthfully Saiko was not, but it seemed like she had no choice. There was no sign of the High Cultists here, and she doubted they would leave any obvious clues here. Secret cults were obnoxious like that.

“Fine,” was all she said in response, her disinterest in actually helping clear as day on her face.

“Excellent! Now, your next goal is to reach the Silent Graveyard. There you will find another of their hidden bases, as well as those that you are looking for. Please do keep entertaining me little one.”

“Not little…” Saiko grumbled to herself. Herself only because the other girl had already vanished. And people called her the creepy one.

Well, even though she did not expect to find anything significant here she knew she should probably search the place. With everyone dead she at least did not have to worry about interference, so wading through the puddles of blood and guts filling the room she began.

Like she had expected, what she found was nothing of particular use. Perhaps the scientist could use it so she put the papers in a dry pocket. Saiko did not think he would though. What she had found was a map of what she could only guess were leylines, one of which ran through her current location and through her home country of Fiore. It was possible the cult had more bases at all the other locations on the map, but it would take her forever to search them all. The Silent Graveyard still remained her best clue.

The other document had just described their ritual practices, and listed more gods and demons than she would ever remember. One thing was clear from it though, this cult really needed to make up their mind. You can’t just worship everyone at the same time. She was pretty sure if such things actually existed they would be rather annoyed at the shared attention.

That was their problem though, not hers. Hers was getting the blood cleaned off, which meant it was time to return to the inn. Blood was such a hassle to get out of clothes; she was not at all looking forward to the long night to come.

2506/2500

Worshippers of Death: Roots Stretch Further Still

The more she dealt with this cult, the more she could not wait to destroy them once and for all. Riding a train to Bosco had been one thing, a long trip sure but still kind of fun. The whole almost dying to a lich thing had not been great, but she had gained some valuable insight into greater forms of necromancy. Already she felt her magic growing in strength so she expected the next battle to go very differently.

All that said, they found the most annoying places to set up shop. The trains did not run to the Cursed Lands, let alone the Silent Cemetery. Of course this meant that Saiko had to walk most of the distance, and her thin legs were simply not made for that much traveling. By the time she arrived at the cemetery in question, she was sprawled over one of her skeletal bears letting it carry her the final distance thinking unkind thoughts toward the cultists the entire time.

When she finally arrived at the Silent Cemetery, it was empty of cultists and eerily quiet (hence the name). Not that Saiko minded the quiet; in fact she found it rather pleasant. Graveyards were like a second home to people like her, though this one was a bit like an old vacation home no one had cleaned in a few decades.

Frustratingly she could find no obvious signs of the cult as she explored. No recent footprints in the dirt or a convenient sign that said “new cultists this way.” That did not mean she was completely out of options though, because she was never truly alone. Her necromancy was a bit special, as it let her see even the spirits that were too weak for most people to see. The ones more on the other plane than the material plane. And these spirits loved to talk to anyone that would listen.

With their help she was able to locate the entrance, an ancient stone tomb that would move when the right spell was cast. Unfortunately the dead did not understand the magics of the living, leaving her with no way to actually open it. New plan: screw the cult and their stupid magic.

Reaching out to the shadows around her, she sent them seeking that which she needed. Slowly, piece by piece, bones began to assemble themselves together. A wolf bone here, a rabbit bone there, a human skull at the top, and soon a massive bone golem had formed before her. At her order it gripped the sides of the tomb and with a great heave pushed it out of the way. No longer obscuring the path, a large staircase led to a set of double doors down below the ground.

Not that the doors lasted very long, as the golem’s next action was to smash them open. Calmly walking down the stairs, she followed the path of destruction as she let the golem wreck havoc through the inside of the base. First it was only the wreckage of the doors, then the smashed bodies of cultists began to appear. Before getting too far, the hall resounded with a loud thump. Looking down the way, she saw that her golem had encountered another.

It was the kind of golem she would have expected from more common wizards, using lacrima and raw magic to hold itself together. As much as this cult seemed to love death and the undead, you would think they would have some kind of undead monstrosity guarding their depths. Perhaps they had just wanted to change things up, or one of them had it lying around and decided it was better to use it than just leave it collecting dust. Perhaps she would ask their ghosts after she killed everyone.

The two golems seemed fairly evenly matched, her golem had the advantage in brute strength while theirs kept shooting off magic and sending bits of bone flying off. Rather than leave this stalemate going, she summoned some spectral archers to attack as well. They easily passed through the bone golem and started to rain arrows into the magic stone of their opponent. This quickly turned the battle in Saiko’s favor, but the moment her bone golem broke into the core of the enemy golem, it quite violently exploded in a huge arcane blast.

Instinctively she raised her arm to shield her face from the blast, but all that managed to make it down the hallway to her was small bits of bone from her golem. Once she could see again, all that remained was the remnants of the two golems. Losing the spirits was no big loss, they were merely copies of the true souls made out of magic after all. The bone golem was more of a loss. Not all was lost though, and now that the hallway was clear she took some time to summon a new one. The corpses of the cultists killed on the way in joined with the remaining bone fragments to create a new golem.

With her golem restored, she let it burst through the next barrier into what appeared to be the main living areas of this facility. More golems were mowed down as she passed, none of them posing a threat. One of them might have had a similar appearance to Joo Dee, but Saiko pointedly ignored the body. Several rooms and many, many dead cultists later she arrived into what had to be the most important room. Inside was the girl from before along with three more of the High Cultists.

“You’ve done well to make it this far,” the annoyingly handsome cultist said. “Not only to defeat one of our own, but to find our hidden base is impressive for someone your age.”

“She told me,” Saiko replied, pointing to the other girl.

“That I did!” she said with a giggle. “I have been told to test how strong you are, to see if you will be useful. These three are your opponents. Good luck!”

Whether this annoyed the High Cultists or not, they did not let it show on their faces. Instead they immediately launched an assault on the young necromancer. Having expected it, she immediately sent her bone golem in and drew upon all the skeletons in storage. Then she began summoning spirit after spirit, until a small army led by a spectral general of old materialized.

Her Chosen would take care of maneuvering her undead for her, which was going to be critical in such a high level fight. Indeed, while the undead were currently holding their own against the beautiful man and woman, the dangerous assassin looking one had bypassed them completely, destroying one of the spectral knights as she went. Before the assassin could get close, Saiko sent her shadowy magic into the ground, which caused dozens of undead hands to burst from the ground and grasp at the woman.

Unable to escape the countless hands holding her legs, she was momentarily distracted. Watching her try to escape using different weapons revealed to Saiko that she was a requiper, though she knew she had to act quickly. It would not take her long to break free of the spell, so Saiko sent out a trio of rot spells at the immobilized woman. Seeing the attacks coming, she sent a sword flying from nowhere to block one, but the first two got through and started to cause first the woman’s clothes and then the skin beneath to rot and fall away.

Screaming out in pain, the assassin finally broke free of the hands holding her in place and sent another sword flying at Saiko as she tried to approach the younger girl. Dodging the attack, Saiko sent another rot spell in retaliation. This was blocked by another sword that quickly turned into rust as they collided in air, covering the assassin in red orange dust.

Before she was able to send out another spell, the woman was upon her dagger in hand. The woman found only air when she attacked, as the moment she had gotten close the necromancer had raised a Sphere of Darkness around them and dodged out of the way. Another rot attack tore away at the assassin’s flesh, and realizing she was doomed if she remained the woman immediately attempted to flee the sphere. This would never happen as more hands burst from the ground and rooted her in place.

Desperate, she began to send weapons flying out in random directions. This proved childsplay to dodge, even for Saiko. From there it was only a matter of reducing the assassin to nothing but bone one rot spell at a time as she sidestepped the blind attacks. Using the cover of her spell, the teen took a few moments to raise the skeleton of the assassin. It would not be able to use her requip magic, but it would still prove effective.

Bursting from the darkness, the freshly formed skeleton carried a sword in one hand and dagger in the other. It charged at the too pretty man, catching him off guard as he dodged a hail of spectral arrows sent his way.

The ghostly army she had summoned had been thinned a bit while she was occupied, but both her opponents were looking worn as well. The obnoxiously pretty man seemed the worst affected of the two, which led her to believe his magic did not defend well against her undead. When his whip hit a target though, the spirit struck would disappear in a flash. Thankfully the spirit general in charge was keeping casualties to a minimum, and the new skeleton

Deciding it was probably best to continue avoiding his magic, she instead focused on the second woman among the High Cultists. She was beautiful too, in that bewitching way a succubus did. Currently her skin had a dark appearance, and the bite and claw marks left by her skeletons seemed far too shallow.

Having not had a chance yet to see the other woman’s spells, Saiko was not sure exactly how her defense worked. To test the waters, she sent a bone spear hurtling toward the woman. It was blocked by a shadow covered arm, splintering when it did. Next a rot spell was sent flying, and this time the woman dodged. Interesting. It seemed she dodged magical attacks, but was willing to take physical ones head on. Saiko was about to start sending a flurry of magical attacks when the woman jumped away, her body transforming as it did.

The darkness disappeared from her skin, and instead her eyes glowed orange. It had to be takeover magic. Before the girl could do anything about it though, she found herself unable to move. Meeting her eyes had stopped her in her tracks, and now the woman unleashed a wave of fire in Saiko’s direction. Thankfully the general was one step ahead and the bone golem jumped in the way, taking the brunt of the attack. Even as the golem fell apart from damage, Saiko could hear the grunt of frustration as the woman prepared another attack.

A moment later the paralysis ended and Saiko summoned more spectral warriors. Forced to redirect her attention to the ghosts, the woman’s body began to change again. Now wings grew from her back and claws from her hands. As she took flight, her speed was astonishing. In the blink of an eye she had blazed past the ghosts attempting to catch her. Making a split second decision, Saiko cast Sickness on the woman. The gamble paid off, as before she could reach the girl the woman suddenly lost control and slammed into the ground.

While not dead, the impact had clearly left her unconscious. Defenseless, there was nothing to stop Saiko from driving a bone spear through her heart. Then a few minutes later the woman was standing once more, her expression now devoid of life. Handily she had died still transformed, so the necromancer sent her flying toward the stupidly pretty man still fighting off to the side.

When he saw a second of his former comrades now zooming toward him, the man let out a yelp of fear. Only now was he realizing just how much over their heads the trio had been. Still, considering how long he had been fighting against her spectral army it was surprising how little damage he had received. In fact, besides some new slash marks from the assassin turned skeleton, the only difference she saw was most of her ghosts having been wiped out.

Trying to figure out his magic, all she could determine was that magic attacks did not seem to harm him while his whip attacks did massive amounts of damage. When they missed one of the ghosts they left a crater in the ground. Making a note to herself to not get hit, she stayed well back from the melee and instead swapped her skeletons in for the remaining ghosts. The outcome had been decided by this point, but still he fought on. The only other choice was to surrender and die. Certainly Saiko would have appreciated that, but the will to live was strong.

In the end he could do nothing but send chips of bone flying before the transformed woman’s zombie tore out his throat. With the fighting over, she toyed with leaving the man’s corpse behind for a second. Ultimately she decided his remains might prove useful later so she raised his skeleton and added it to her collection. If need be she could always dispose of him later.

Now it was time for that other creepy little girl to face the music, or it would be if Saiko did not find herself alone in the grand room. She had no idea when, but the girl had apparently left, satisfied with whatever she had seen.

Letting out one of her usual sighs, all she could do was search the room for clues. A table had been upended during the fight, and some documents had been scattered. One of the documents proved to be a map with three highlighted points. Of them one was circled, a place labeled Rose Garden. Sounded a bit too nice for a cult of death. Still, none of the other documents held any clues which left this as all she had to work off of. Naturally she expected it to be a trap, it seemed far too convenient to leave a map behind when they had been so secretive before. That did not matter in the end unfortunately, it was a risk she would have to take.

So collecting up her skeletons she made her way out of the secret base. Once full of life, now all that remained was blood stains and bits of torn robes. Just like the graveyard above, this base was completely silent. Their spirits would linger here undoubtedly, but Saiko did not concern herself with that. The world was full of spirits, what was a few more?

2508/2500

The Apprentice: Thorns in the Garden

Find some cultists, kill them, then travel halfway across the country to find more. Once again this pattern was repeating with Rose Garden being her newest destination. At least for once it was someplace nice. Well, Bosco had been fine, she just had not gotten to explore it or anything. Rose Garden was still way nicer, and Saiko could not help gawking like the tourist she was as she wandered around the city. This was actually her second day here, as unlike previous locations the cult was not making their presence obvious at all. She had asked some spirits for help, but there were just too many people for the spirits to sort out who she was looking for.

So as she continued her search, she treated herself to the local fare. Which was absolutely amazing. It was so good that she was almost tempted to thank the cult for making her run from place to place after them. Almost. With no clear destination in mind she instead found herself in the shopping district with Suki, looking at fabric. Making a new dress for the doll seemed like a good way to pass the time while she searched.

Purple was always a good color, since it matched their eyes. Maybe a white shirt with a cute purple ribbon around the neck, like she had seen some school girls wearing. Having grown up in a small village she had never been to a school herself, but sometimes Saiko liked to imagine what it must be like. Truthfully, seeing the other kids her age out having fun together often made her feel lonely. Yes she had Suki with her, but Suki was not able to play and have fun. Not yet at least. In the end all she could do was push the feelings down while keeping her goals in mind. It was hard sometimes, Saiko would admit. She would persevere anyway, she was strong.

Realizing she had been lost in her thoughts, she returned to the present material shopping. The nice thing about making clothes for a doll is it was much cheaper than making her own clothes, and she carried the tools around with her just in case something needed mending. Once she pushed the required cloth and thread, Saiko made her way to a cute little cafe she had discovered. Taking up a booth near the middle of the cafe and sitting Suki down beside her, she ordered a tea and cake and they began to work on the clothes.

Her father had been a doll maker, selling his craft in the nearest town to support his family. Describing him as a master of the craft would probably be a bit much, but Saiko and Suki had both taken an interest in their father’s trade and he had been happy to teach them. Those lessons were all she had left of her father, which made the act of sewing almost meditative for her. Having become practiced enough to not need to commit her entire attention to her work, she used the rest of her attention to listen to the other patrons.

Searching the city on her own had proved fruitless, as had seeking the help of the spirits. Given this she had chosen to change tactics, and hoped to hear rumors of something strange happening. By the time she finished her cake and had cut out the fabric pieces she needed for the clothes, no interesting rumors had come up. Just when she was about to give up for the day, something interesting finally reached her ears.

“Petal street has become such a pain to walk down lately,” said one woman.

“I know, right?” replied another woman. “It’s the quickest way to get between home and work, but I’m not sure it's worth the hassle. There have been so many people moving cargo into the old Terrance Building that I sometimes can’t pass at all!”

“Yesterday some random woman came up to me asking me if I wanted to ‘become a part of something larger than myself.’ Clearly some kind of religious fanatic. I hope they’re not turning that building into some kind of weirdo church. We get enough tourists here already.”

“I certainly agree, I know it brings money into the city. I just wish it didn’t make things harder for the people that live here. Oh, I heard the store you like is having a sale…”

Once the conversation shifted to shopping, Saiko turned her attention away from the two women. She had heard enough. There was no proof that the people on Petal Street were who she was looking for, yet it also seemed highly unlikely that two groups of religious fanatics would start operating within this city at the same exact time. At the very least it was the best lead she had discovered since arriving.

Paying for her food, the young necromancer returned her half finished doll clothes and Suki to the inn she was staying in. Satisfied they would be safe, it was time to find Petal Street. This did not prove terribly difficult though, as a friendly stranger happily pointed the girl in the right direction. A short fifteen minute walk later and she understood the women's complaints. Shipping boxes filled parts of the street, leaving barely enough room for foot traffic and vehicles to pass through. It was a bit surprising that the local law enforcement had done nothing, though for all she knew they were on the cult’s payroll.

Sticking to the shadows, Saiko did her best to stay out of sight as she approached the building the women had mentioned. Perhaps due to it being later in the day, there was no one outside at the moment. Given how much was still outside the building, she found that a bit odd. Either the items in the boxes were not of enough value for them to worry about, or they had other means of protecting the items. There was always the option that they were just careless, she supposed. Better to assume competence and be pleasantly surprised by incompetence than the opposite, she decided.

Calling over a nearby spirit, she had it check the windows for her to make sure no one was watching. Once she got the all clear, she began stealthily approaching the building. This amounted to her awkwardly walking crouched over, as she had no idea how to actually be stealthy. It was the kind of skill one would think all necromancers naturally knew so they could properly skulk around crypts and the like. Turns out, this was not the case.

Stealth skills aside, Saiko seemingly made it to the front door without being noticed. Getting inside would prove a greater challenge if she wanted to remain quiet, she was a wizard not a thief. A spirit could pass through the door easily enough, but it could not unlock the door for her. If only she could do that herself, unfortunately becoming incorporeal was a technique she had not yet figured out. Interacting with spirits all her life and using them in battle had given her incredible insight into how their spectral bodies worked. Figuring out how to turn the material immaterial remained just out of her grasp.

So she had to find an alternative method to open the door. Actually, her thoughts went back to not being a thief. Saiko was not one, but she did have one available. Or at least she had an assassin, and she had to imagine there was some overlap. From the shadows of the building a skeleton emerged, wearing the clothes and tools she had during life. A scant few minutes later and the door swung silently open, the skeleton showing not just its combat skills had carried over into undeath.

Now the necromancer had to try and sneak her way through the halls, though with some annoyance she noticed her skeletal assassin was far better at it. Normally skeletons were quite noisy as they stomped around. If Saiko had not known it was there, she would have thought herself completely alone. Her annoyance quickly vanished as she heard noise not coming from her. It was the quiet murmurs, clinks, and clanks of people eating somewhere. It being dinner time would certainly explain the lack of guards of any kind. Still sloppy of course, not that she was complaining.

Turning a corner she saw light filtering out from what had to be the dining room. In a house this large, even given its age and slight disrepair, the dining room was bound to be fairly large. If so the teen could end up encountering a fair number of enemies. Because of this when she finally burst into the room, she was ready to immediately start casting spells.

What she found seemed to be just a normal gathering of friends. None of them wore the robes other cultists had, and there were no undead or other clues to whether they actually belonged to the cult or not. It would be a bit difficult to explain why she was here if she had in fact broken into the house of non-cult members. The look of complete surprise on their faces, at least, was genuine. Just as she started to feel the edge of panic, the diners noticed the skeleton standing behind her.

“Oh my,” one woman said. “We were not expecting someone of your standing to grace us tonight Lady…?”

Safe.

“Saiko,” she replied, feeling the relief wash over her.

“Lady Saiko,” the woman continued. “The house is not yet ready for full members like yourself to stay. The ritual chambers have only begun construction.”

“Not staying,” she replied in her usual abrupt way. “Supposed to meet High Cultists, was sent here.”

That was even almost the truth, if one was generous enough. Some of the cultists seemed confused by Saiko’s words, which was probably a fair response. Why would a cultist prominent enough to control undead be sent to the wrong place? Thankfully the woman who seemed to be in charge did not bat an eye at her statement. Perhaps she assumed the mistake was because of the necromancer’s age.

“Well that’s no good,” she said. “Master Hendrick is clear on the other side of the city. The city is really not safe for someone your age to be traveling at night. Why don’t you pull up a chair, and then we can prepare a bed for you. I’m sure it is not what you are used to, but you would be able to rest here until morning.”

“Not dangerous,” Saiko replied, nodding her head toward the skeleton. The things that went bump in the night tended to serve her, those that did not were easy enough to dispatch. As she was about to ask for the location of this “Master Hendrick” her stomach rather rudely chose that moment to growl. “Can eat still.”

“Wonderful! Please, help yourself.”

Taking up a chair next to the older woman, the younger girl wasted no time loading up a plate with the food spread out on the table. None of it would be considered fancy, that was not the cult’s style. All of it proved to be hearty and delicious. A perfect meal to prepare for what she expected to be another tough battle. The irony of the situation was not lost on Saiko, but she was not about to turn down a free meal. Even if it was her enemy providing it. She felt a bit guilty about what would happen to the surprisingly nice cultist woman, hopefully if she cut off the head of the snake these low level grunts would be forced to return to their normal lives and not face any punishment from the cult. While she had no problem killing or letting others die when necessary, that did not mean she reveled in it.

A half hour later Saiko was several pounds heavier, and now had the location of the High Cultist in the city. Or a recruiter that could show her the way at least. Low level recruits were not privy to all the details of the High Cultist’s movements, unfortunately. Nothing else interesting had come up during the meal, not terribly surprising given the participants. Mostly it had been discussions about their work with the occasional question about her necromancy. Her short, matter of fact responses had ended that line of inquiry quickly. Still, overall it had been a rather pleasant experience.

By now the sun had begun to set, and her shadow stretched far behind her as she walked, melding with the shadows of the city as night took over. This was fine with her, the night was quiet and calm. It was also the best time to catch evil organizations in the middle of whatever nefarious deeds they were engaging in. In theory at least. For all she knew this cult leader might like getting a tan while working.

Honestly the trip to the recruiter’s office was rather boring. No city was perfectly safe, yet they were also rarely as dangerous as people made them out to be. No one tried to mug her or kidnap her as she walked past the many dark alleys. Even as she reached the poorest parts of town everyone kept their distance. Maybe she just gave off an aura that told those with a self preservation instinct that she was not a target they could handle. Regardless, Saiko now stood in front of a tavern one of the senior recruiters supposedly frequented.

One step inside was all it took for her to know she did not belong. The patrons were mostly male, and all much older and much rougher looking. This did not particularly bother her, and even as many of the patrons turned to stare at the young girl who had wandered into the world of adults she simply kept walking without an ounce of worry on her face.

Sitting in the back corner was the man she was looking for. At first glance they did not seem any different from the other patrons, without having been told what to look for ahead of time she likely would never have noticed. As he nursed an ale while watching the other patrons, she saw the skill earring dangling from his left ear. That was apparently the symbol all the cults recruiters wore to help potential new members find them. Of course their main job was to convince the downtrodden to join, not handle on boarding. That did not mean recruits sent by other cultists would be turned away. Those recruits might have worries that needed assuaging.

On the walk over the young necromancer had practiced what she would say to this man. Having already gotten an in thanks to the workers at the house, it would be a waste to have to fight and force the information out of this guy. Ignoring the looks everyone else was giving her, and keeping eye contact with the recruiter once he noticed her, she sat down across from him.

“Supposed to meet Master Hendrick,” she said, forcing as much authority into her voice as she could. “Was told you could bring me to the safe house.”

Asking to be brought to the cult’s base in the city so suddenly certainly would raise his suspicion. On the other hand she knew the leader of the cult by name. Either she was genuine, or she was an enemy that already knew too much. As the bridge between the cult and new members, it was his job to protect their secrets from their enemies.

“If you are supposed to meet with the Master,” he asked with narrowed eyes. “Then why were you not sent there directly?”

“Secrecy,” she replied with an expression that screamed “is it not obvious?”

“And why would a new recruit be meeting with the Master directly in the first place?” he asked, clearly not convinced by her answer.

“Never said I was a recruit,” was her answer before she quietly called out a name. “Billy, if you would.”

In response to her call, a ghostly man missing half his face to a bar fight gone wrong, set his hand on the recruiter’s shoulder. The ghost could not really interact with the man, but the presence of a spirit was enough to send a chill down the man’s spine and turn his face pale. His response was equal parts fear of the dead that most non-fanatics shared mixed with worry that he had offended someone much higher on the totem pole than he was. The possibility that a necromancer was trying to destroy their death cult never even occurred to him, and he was too low ranked to have been told about her activities elsewhere. That compartmentalization of information would prove their undoing.

“I-I am sorry for making assumptions my lady,” he stammered. “I will lead you to the safe house immediately.”

A nod was her only response, as if she had always expected obedience. Quickly standing up from the table, the recruiter led Saiko out the back of the tavern. While he seemed too scared for this to be a trap, she remained on guard as she followed. Unlike the workers she had broken bread with, she did expect this man to get in trouble once he led her to the cult’s hiding place. As it was his job to trick the desperate into joining, she did not pity him. If he survived, perhaps he would find a more honest profession. The surviving part seemed unlikely, unfortunately for him.

From the back alley, the recruiter took her through a series of twists and turns she certainly would never remember on her own. Eventually they reached a decrepit old building, where the recruiter knocked on the front door. A small slit opened in the door, and the man whispered something to whomever was on the other side of the door. After a quick back and forth, the door opened.

“You may go in sister,” the recruiter said with a slight bow before heading back the direction they had come.

Stepping inside, it took only a single glance at the cultist to know he was on to her. Unlike the others she had met in the city, he was wearing the robes every other loyal cult member had worn in her past encounters. He was someone that did know about her attacks, and was smart enough to have figured out who she was. This could only mean his allowing her inside was to lead her to a trap. Knowing this Saiko only had two options: flee or spring the trap.

The first was safer; it would also lose her the only lead she had in the city. The loyalist leading her further into the building seemed strong, but not so strong as to be a threat. As long as there was not a small army of them in the building, springing the trap seemed the best option.

Her face as impassive as usual, she readied herself to cast magic at any moment. Walking past a surprisingly clean kitchen, the pair entered a less well cared for living room. Signs of the cult decorated the room, while three more robed figures waited for them. Unexpectedly, none of them tried to attack once she was within range. This left her a bit confused as to what to do, killing cultists when they attacked had kind of become her “thing.”

“Not attacking?” she finally asked when it became apparent they were waiting for her.

“We are law abiding citizens,” the cultist that had escorted her said. “Simply attacking someone you disagree with is not how civilized people act.”

“But… cultists?” her questioning continued, the confusion now clear on her face.

“Yes, but this country respects people of various faiths,” he returned. “We have broken now laws and thus have nothing to fear.”

Well, now she was just annoyed. The way they were talking made her sound like the bad guy here. Whether these guys had directly contributed or not, the cult had still caused all kinds of harm. That made them guilty by association, did it not? As easy as it would be to cut these cultists down, it felt like doing so would just prove them right. That would just feel icky. She also suspected they would not willingly give up any information, so she waved her hand in annoyance causing a sea of undead hands to emerge from the ground and grab the cultists’ legs.

“Stay,” she ordered, giving her best fierce expres​sion(which was not terribly fierce given her age and size), “or else.”

While the hands in various stages of decay had surprised them by their sudden appearance, none of the cultists had been harmed. Her warning had not really scared them, but her exploits were enough to convince them to behave for now. If she was not attacking them, they would happily wait in silence. There were no documents linked to the cult stored here, so while she was off searching they simply made small talk and tried to guess what kind of person each hand came from.

Outside the living room Saiko was searching for anything of use, which was not going very well. One would think a safe house would have more stuff, but besides their sparton living quarters all she could find was a bunch more boxes and bags like those outside the house across town. Now that she looked closer though, she noticed everyone had the exact same logo. Most just had the plain logo, a jewel being cut in half. Not very helpful unless she found someone who knew about it. Continuing to search, she eventually found one of the larger boxes had a name underneath the logo. “Master Hendrick’s Discount Emporium.”

…really?

Feeling like she had just spent half a day investigating what half the city probably already knew, the young necromancer stormed out of the building without dismissing the summoned hands. Unaware that she had already left, the cultists were in for a long night.

Having long forgotten about them, she wandered around until she made it back to a main road. From there it was a simple matter to ask for directions to the store that had better contain a head cultist or she would scream. A friendly old woman was happy to point Saiko in the right direction, filling the girl with dismay as she realized it was located a whole two streets over from the first building she had broken into. No wonder no one had worried about all the boxes being left outside, everyone in the area knew who they belonged to and not to mess with them.

In a thoroughly bad mood, she made her way back across town, by streetlight now as the sun had long since dropped below the surface. It would seem like some more mild burglary would be required, given that any normal store would have long since closed by now. The actual store was not at all difficult to find, even ignoring all of the boxes and bags surrounding it the giant “Master Hendrick’s Discount Emporium!” sign out front was painfully hard to miss. After as much walking as this guy had made her do tonight, she really wanted to kick him in the shin. Like, a good kick. The kind you still feel the next day.

Figuring trying to break in the front would be a good way to get arrested, Saiko snuck around to the back of the building. As she had hoped, next to the larger warehouse doors was a back entrance. Once again calling on her skeleton key, she and the skeleton were soon inside.

At first glance, it seemed like the typical back storeroom of a large store. On second glance…it still looked like a storeroom. If she had been hoping for a bunch of random cult related items to be strewn about, she was certainly disappointed. Though given the giant sign out front, her optimism made at least some sense. On the brightside, there was no one here. That left her free to search without being interrupted by a store clerk.

A quick check of the rest of the store showed the entire building empty, the moonlight filtering in from outside doing little to light the inside of the store. Upstairs she found what she guessed was the store owner’s housing area. It was lit, but no one was home. If the cultist’s base of operations was somewhere else, she would have no choice but to wait for him to return. Not the most ideal outcome. The other cultists could alert him by then, causing him to flee or return with back up. Her only real chance was now while she had the element of surprise.

She was about to give up after returning to the storehouse when the floor creaked slightly under her step. The rest of the building had not done that, in fact it was very unusual for the ground floor to creak even if it was old. Underneath her feet was a throw rug, which was actually incredibly cliche as she thought about it. Sure enough, when she pulled the rug back she found a trap door. It was too heavy for her noodly arms to lift on her own, thankfully the skeleton assassin was more than up to the task.

Underneath was a set of stairs, leading down into a dimly lit area underneath the building. Silently thankful for it being stairs and not a ladder, Saiko did her best imitation of the assassin (which obviously was not that good) and silently made her way down the stairs. Partway down she began to hear a voice, and when she reached the bottom, she saw the man she assumed was Master Hendrick praying to a death effigy. He was well dressed, as one would expect from such a well off merchant, and more heavy set than the other cultists. He did not seem to follow their tenant of living a frugal lifestyle, though perhaps that was a requirement for his cover. To the side of the room was an altar, a set of cages, and some suspicious stains. Nothing else was visible, which meant she had only one target.

Either by luck or her being better at sneaking than she thought, the man had not yet spotted her. This left her the chance to strike first. Not wasting any time, she sent a Rot spell sailing toward him. It struck him in the shoulder, causing him to fall forward in pain as it ate away at his flesh. A yell of pain escaped his mouth, but before he could turn she was already summoning an army of ghosts to fight for her. As her ghost general took command of the rest, she began to draw her skeletons from the shadows.

As she did, the cultist finally was able to turn and let off an attack of his own. A wave of force shot out from his body, sending the nearest skeletons scattering back but leaving the ghosts unaffected. Realizing physical attacks would not work on him, he sent a lightning bolt through the nearest knight, destroying it instantly. In the process, several arrows managed to find their target, piercing into his flesh. This gave enough time for some of the skeletons to get close again, and as he was distracted by the greater numbers, Saiko sent more rot attacks his way. Some missed, but enough landed to leave his fancy clothes and the body below in tatters.

Just as she was releasing another Rot, he unleashed a wave of lightning that destroyed all the ghosts nearby, froze the skeletons, and dispelled her attack. If he targeted her with one of those lightning strikes, she was not sure it would end well for her. Thinking quickly, she unleashed her Sickness spell on him. His outstretched hand had turned to face her, but suddenly he found his balance going haywire and his lungs on fire sending him into a coughing fit. Not wanting to let this chance escape, she sent all her remaining undead to swarm him at once when sending her Rot spells one after another. He tried his best to cast through the sickness, not that it was enough in the end.

A few brutal minutes later, the lead cultist in the city lay dead on the ground. Putting her undead away, she did a more thorough search of the area. Past the altar she found a door, and past the door was an office. Unlike the previous safe house, this one proved to be full of information. The ledgers listed the finances of the cult in the city, their income from various crimes and the large amount of supplies the dead merchant had been using his business to ship elsewhere. Including people, if she was ready between the lines well enough.

The actual destinations were all in code, proving entirely unhelpful in tracking down her next target. As she shuffled through the papers looking for some kind of clue, she stumbled upon some personal looking letters. No names were given so she could only guess at the senders, but Saiko got the impression they were from other High Cultists. It was in one of these letters that she found her first clue, mentioning Peace Town as their next destination. Without knowing how old the letter was, it was impossible to know if the High Cultist was still there. This was still her best lead, so she took the letter with her.

Sneaking back out of the store, leaving both the trap door and storehouse door open, she made a quick stop to the town guard. Telling them that she had heard yelling from the alley next to Master Hendrick’s store would hopefully get them to investigate and find the hidden rooms. Once they had evidence of the cult’s crimes in the city, she did not expect the cultists to be able to escape arrest. Her job done, she returned to the inn for a well deserved rest.

5018/5000 words

The Apprentice: The Not So Peaceful Village

Peace Village seemed like a name that was far too on the nose. It was like whoever named it was just asking for the place to be attacked or otherwise made into the Not-So-Peaceful Village. The presence of the cult hiding somewhere in the village only underscored the point. Well, the theoretical presence anyway. Despite the letters she had found underneath Master Hendrick’s Discount Emporium, not a single thing appeared out of place in the village. The villagers were a villaging, the animals were being animals, and everything really did seem to be living up to the village’s name.

Things were rarely as they first appeared, though. The spirits whispered about strange people in robes, of the occasional villager going out and never coming back. Of strange events that on their own seemed like random coincidences, yet added up into something more if one could listen to those telling their stories. As one of those people that could listen, Saiko was convinced the cult was indeed somewhere in the village. It was not a question of if the cult was in the village, but where and for what reason.

The inn was the most obvious place to start, it was where all the stories were written about. Perhaps too obvious, which was why she decided to start her search elsewhere. The cult had managed to stay hidden within such a small village for this long, their hiding place must be especially creative. Maybe like that one hidden path in the silent graveyard. Thinking back to that, she made the local cemetery her first stop. It unfortunately proved to be a bust, as none of the local spirits had seen anyone unusual in the area.

Well, she could not always succeed on the first try. Still, it was a nice, peaceful graveyard so she did not mind the slight detour. Her next stop was the woods outside the city. Using a horde of undead woodland creatures, she searched all over but did not find a single suspicious building or cave within a half day of travel from the village. Perhaps that had been a long shot, hoping for something like the necromancer’s shack or the cave temple. After a couple days of searching though, she was convinced this too was not the solution.

Looking back at her previous run-ins with this cult, that really only left one option. Returning to the town, she spent the rest of the day searching the various stores within the village. There were not many, which let her focus on sending spirits all through the buildings looking for any secret doors. Once again she came up with nothing. Wherever the cult had hidden themselves within this village, it clearly was a completely different location than what she had encountered previously. At this rate she would end up having to go door to door searching unless she ran across an obvious cultist out in the open. Giving up for the day, she returned back to the inn only to see a pair of men wearing familiar skull hooded robes already inside. They nodded to the innkeeper as they entered, before disappearing into the back.

Suppressing the urge to scream, Saiko casually got closer to the door they had walked through. It was hard to tell, but it appeared to go past the inn’s small kitchen  and lead to a part of the inn she had not seen before. Unfortunately, there was no way she could sneak back there without alerting the innkeeper. Given the likelihood he would alert the cult and lose Saiko her chance to find the high cultist, patience seemed to be the key for now. Doing her best to pretend she had seen nothing out of the ordinary, she retired to her room for a nap. The hunt would continue after dark, and she wanted to be rested for it.

A few hours later she awoke to find the village dark, with barely a half moon providing any light. While this made it difficult to navigate the inn, her eyes adapted well enough to make it possible. This late, even the heaviest drinkers had turned in for the night (whether by choice or force) leaving the path to the inn’s back unguarded. Once again relying on her assassin skeleton, it took only a few seconds to pop the lock and allow her entry. The hall was as dark as the rest of the inn, though it proved easier to navigate as it was completely free of furniture or decorations. In fact, the only thing she could see was a single door at the end of the hallway.

Realizing there was no real point in sneaking from here on, she stood up straight and made her way down the hall. Opening the door immediately flooded the hallway with light, and it took her a few moments for her eyes to adjust enough to see the stairs leading down below the inn. While she doubted it would get her far, she summoned the zombie of Lawrence, the first cultist she had encountered. He still wore the robes of the cult, and with it up that fact that he was dead and rotting was at least not immediately apparent.

Making her way down the stairs, they soon opened up into the large round style room the cult seemed to love so much. There was a bar and tables like a second inn below the real inn, but more interesting was the spring in the center. They did not have to worry about water down here at least. Not that being thirsty would be at the top of their concerns once Saiko was done clearing out the base. Perhaps it was worrisome that such a young girl had no issues killing so many people. Such considerations never even entered Saiko’s mind as the zombie stepped down onto the floor of the room.

Initially the disguise seemed to work. Many of the people sitting and chatting around the bar gave her zombie a glance before turning back to their drinks. Because of this they missed her entering shortly after, clearly an outsider to their cause. This would cost them dearly.

More undead crawled from the shadows of several of the cultists, and as the cultists realized something was wrong, the skeletons attacked. The cultists turned to fend off the skeletons that had appeared amongst them, reading their weapons to attack. Once again their attention was on the wrong thing, as in her position near the stairway Saiko began to summon an army of ghosts. The cultists continued to try to ward off the skeletons in their mist, only to finally spot the ghosts as they charged forward and entered the edges of their vision.

Standing safely aside, Saiko would have liked to take a more direct role in taking out the cultists, but their magic appeared to let them jump from place to place. This made targeting them with her attack spells more difficult, a fact that greatly frustrated her. Even with the spectral general summoned by her spell leading the throng of undead in battle, the channelers were putting up impressive resistance. The skeletal assassin would jump from nowhere, but the channelers would side step just in time. It was like they had eyes in the back of their head, which gave them enough time to use their magic to escape.

On the flip side, the channelers were having even less success attacking the undead. They all wielded daggers, but they were clearly non-magical in nature. One would teleport behind a ghost and strike it, only to find the daggers passing through the spectral figure unimpeded. They were more effective against the corporeal undead, so the young necromancer spent most of her focus on the battle dropping skeletons back into her Morgue spell and having them emerge elsewhere.

Eventually the statement began to turn as some of the cultists injured in the initial attack began to tire. First one was struck in the shoulder by an ghostly arrow, stunning him long enough for a skeletal wolf to pounce on him and begin to tear at his throat. Another found himself surrounded by spectral knights, all of whom swung at the same time and prevented him from escaping even as he tried to use his flash step to dodge the incoming attacks. A third was overpowered by a skeletal bear and pinned to the gound long enough for her assassin to emerge from a nearby shadow and drive a dagger through the cultist’s throat.

That was three down and several were also showing signs of injury. They were not proving themselves the easy prey she had expected though, clearly the cultists at this hide out were a step above those she had encountered elsewhere. Maybe that should not have come as a surprise, but after having already dispatched several of their leaders Saiko had not expected the low level front here to prove such a challenge. On the other hand, as most of the combat was being done by her undead, her mana remained in a good place. The ghosts had taken some, true, but she had made sure to keep plenty in reserve.

A fourth cultist fell under a flurry of attacks from the corporeal and incorporeal undead, tipping the balance in her favor even more. It seemed unlikely they would be able to survive much long, and the desperation was clear on their faces. At this point it was simply a matter of time before they were all cut down, and both sides knew it. Or at least that was how it appeared until Saiko heard shouting from the far end of the round room.

It seemed the noise had finally alerted the rest of the cultists hiding in the underground space. They appeared through the doorway, and these ones looked significantly stronger than the first batch. Realizing it would be much more difficult to fight the cultists once the two groups relinked, she decided to try and finish off the first batch as quickly as possible. Reaching out, she pushed her mana into the shadows below their feet, causing dozens of hands in various stats of decay to burst from the ground. It did not stop them from flash stepping, but every time they did, they were quickly grabbed once again by the grasping hands. This small delay in their movements was more than enough to the tireless undead, and soon all of the initial cultists had been killed.

Just in time for a sphere of necrotic magic to strike one of the ghost knights. Moving her focus entirely to the newcomers, she saw that several of them were preparing to raise the dead cultists from the dead. Annoying, but not surprising given the nature of the cult. They would find themselves deprived of the materials they needed though, as Saiko was closer to the bodies and prepared to make use of them herself. Sending her existing undead to push the necromancers back, she once more drew upon the shadows around her.

The shadows moved across the ground, enveloping the ten dead bodies. Then, the bodies disappearing into the darkness, the shadows flowed to a central point where they combined into a single large shadow. Looking on in frustration, the enemy necromancers gave up on bringing the bodies back to unlife, instead summoning spirits of their own to fight. Only for their frustration to color slightly with awe as from the large shadow a massive bone golem emerged. They did not appear afraid of it, not yet at least. Saiko would change that.

With a step that vibrated through the ground beneath their feet, the bone golem charged past her other undead. One of the weaker looking necromancers summoned a wraith, but the bone golem destroyed it with a backhanded swing of its arm. It then grabbed the caster by the neck and slammed him to the ground, punching him until he stopped moving. When the other cultists tried to intercede, her weaker undead jumped in to block them. This scuffle was much more dramatic than the previous one, as several of her ghost knights were destroyed by the necromancers' magic.

Not allowing them to gain an advantage, Saiko summoned more ghosts to replace them. Soon the air above the room was full of spirits fighting against each other, her more disciplined soldiers led by a ghostly general against a horde of barbarian ghosts. Below them her skeletons and the golem continued to strike at the necromancers, occasionally getting a hit in, occasionally being hit in return. One of the necromancers, realizing they needed to take Saiko out, pushed her way out of the group.

She only got a couple of steps before the enemy necromancer found her legs trapped by undead arms. Not interested in letting one of the enemies close to her, the teen summoned a pair of skeletal spears and sent them flying toward her opponent. Unable to escape, the enemy mage turned her body away to try and protect herself. One spear grazed her shoulder, leaving a large gash behind. The other slammed directly into her side eliciting a yell of pain. Before she could recover from the spear, Saiko sent a rot spell at her. Moments later the other woman was gone, leaving only a skeleton behind on the ground.

One more of the summoners dealt with, the aerial battle seemed to be turning in Saiko’s favor. Until now it had only been having someone controlling them for her that allowed them to fend off the more numerous enemy spirits. The ghost general was able to maneuver the ghosts to dodge attacks and coordinate strikes in a way that would be difficult for its summoner to do if she tried herself. Now that the number of enemy spirits was decreasing with each death, the general had even more freedom in his actions.

Below the swirling mass of fighting ghosts, the ground battle was no less fierce. One of her wolves and one of her bears had been sent back to her Morgue, and several more were showing signs of damage. The bone golem continued to swing its arms like wrecking balls, leaving the cultists scattering every time one of its massive arms came their way. However, as Saiko watched, one of the enemy necromancers was clipped and sent flying away from the others.

Seeing this as an opportunity, the young mage shifted to better be able to target the necromancer. They were slow to rise, clearly stunned by the hit. To make their recovery even more difficult, she sent out a Plague spell. THe cultist was overcome with the debilitating effects, their cough suddenly so terrible they could not even stand. And as a bonus, the spell spread to the other cultists, making their fight even more difficult. Walking up close to the struggling cultist, Saiko sent her Rot spell into him, leaving one more dead cultist on the ground.

While the remaining necromancers were still in battle, there were now several new corpses around the room. Using Lawrence as a shield in case one of the cultists noticed what she was up to, she began to channel her magic once more. The shadows drew in the freshly dead, drawing them to one point where a second bone golem rose. Seeing it, the remaining dark mages yelled in a mix of fear and frustration. Under other circumstances they might have surrendered, but Saiko was not interested in taking prisoners. Prisoners could escape and attack again. Dead, they would only serve as more weapons against her enemies.

The remaining necromancers tried their best, as futile as it was, to fend for their lives. It mattered little in the end as the last five were smashed and cut to pieces by Saiko’s undead, leaving only their battered corpses on the ground. This battle was complete, though for now she kept her undead summoned. The note had said there should be a high cultist here, and while the necromancers she had just fought were by no means pushovers, they also clearly were not who she was looking for. Taking a moment, she used the new bodies to create another bone golem, then began to investigate the room.

Behind the bar she found various drinks that she did not recognize, except a bottle of cold water. Taking a moment, she served herself a glass of the water and let her mana recharge a bit. Fighting so many enemies back to back was a drain on her reserves, even if her skeletons and Rot spell did not drain mana. Summoning so many ghosts and creating three separate bone golems was simply too heavy a burden to bear and then try and fight this place’s boss. A fully stocked bar to relax and recharge at was certainly a welcome change from her previous run-ins with the cult.

Once she was feeling back up to full strength, and a bit surprised that no one else had come into the room while she rested, Saiko made her way to the back of the room. The hallway where the necromancers had come from was the only door that she could see so it seemed the obvious place to go next. She had not discounted the possibility of a secret door somewhere in the main room, but there did not seem much point in searching for one until she searched the actual visible doors.

Stepping through the hallway door, she found a set of living quarters very much like what she had come to expect from the cult. Barebones, with absolutely no decoration and little in the way of personal belongings. To this day she did not understand how anyone could subject themselves to such an undesirable life. She was not the kind that coveted wealth or needed to have lots of possessions, that did not mean she wanted to own no possessions. Even her doll making stuff seemed like it would be against the rules of the cult.

Regardless, the living chambers contained no additional doorways. This left the single door at the end of the hallways as her only option to proceed. Expecting the possibility of an attack as soon as she entered the doorway, Saiko ordered one of her bone golems to force itself through the doorway. It seemed the safest option, as it would hopefully surprise anyone on the other side of the door and possibly injure them if they were too close to the doorway.

As the necromancer girl stepped through after her golem, she was disappointed to find out her surprise attack had ultimately failed. On the other hand, her expectation that the place’s boss would be here proved correct as a cloaked figure sat on a chair in the middle of the room watching her as she entered.

“You sure took your sweet time getting here,” he said to her, not sounding nearly as annoyed as one would expect from his words.

“Was sitting out there,” Saiko replied, pointing out toward the round room. He could hardly complain about her taking too long when he could have come out to greet her. Not that she was complaining, it had given her the time to rest and recover she needed to face him at full strength. Honestly he was kind of an idiot for waiting here rather than attacking her when she was tired. She doubted it would have made a difference, but it would have been the smart thing to do regardless. Now he was trapped in this smaller room with a fully prepared Saiko, her undead already filling the room.

“That is not what I meant,” he said with a frown, the girl having apparently misunderstood what he was saying. The frown was not just for her response, as he seemed confused, his eyes moving between Saiko and the doll in her arms. “I meant this base. After all the work I went through leaving clues for you to find me in Rose Garden I expected you here days ago. Not that it matters, this entire exercise was just to delay you so that you would interfere with our plans. Even as we speak, our noble goal is approaching fruition and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”

“You’re still gonna die,” Saiko said with a shrug. Her flippant reply seemed to get under the cult leader’s skin, as his face turned a lovely shade of red as he leapt to his feet.

“You think too much of your abilities, child!” he yelled. Whatever the high cultist had been attempting to do with the conversation, he had failed at and decided to attack instead. So it would seem their conversation was over. That was fine with her, these cultists tended to ramble on, which really was a waste of time. Actually, he really should have kept talking instead of being goaded into attacking. He might have gotten a few minutes more to live. Whether that would make a difference in her stopping their plans she did not know, but it certainly would not have hurt.

Instead he summoned a weapon made of shadows from, well, the shadows and lunged forward. Not that he got very far before a bone golem got in his way. The shadowed blade sunk into the bone golem’s torso, but as it did not feel pain, it simply retaliated by swinging its passive arm at the high cultist. The strike connected, sending the cultist sliding back several feet. He did not seem particularly harmed by the attack, however. It seemed his magic made him fairly resilient to physical strikes, which significantly reduced the effectiveness of her corporeal undead.

An inconvenience, but not much else. She still had an overwhelming advantage in numbers, not to mention any physical defenses meant little against her army of spirits. Switching gears away from her existing undead (and letting her ghostly general command them as usual), Saiko remained as far as she could from the high cultist and began pumping out more ghosts to fight for her. Those that already existed fought alongside the skeletons and golems in a pack so thick she could barely see her enemy through them. The ghosts being translucent helped a bit in that regard.

Undoubtedly to keep himself from being overwhelmed, the high cultist let out a shout and then was engulfed in a black sphere. It actually looked very similar to her Sphere of Darkness spell. If it did more than block off vision, she did not know as she was too far away to be affected. The undead inside were largely not impeded as they continued their attack, they were too simple minded for that. Their simple mindedness had its drawbacks though, as she suddenly felt them stop attacking as their query disappeared.

The sudden presence of magic behind her was her only warning, and she jumped out of the way just as the cultist jumped out of her shadow and sliced her arm with his shadow blade. It was not a deep wound, but clearly his attacks were cursed as she could feel her mana very slowly dripping away. Very slowly. The fact that his curse affected her at all was a sign that he was fairly powerful, as her magic made her immune to the curses of mages weaker than her. Instinctively she sent a Sickness spell at him to give her some time to retreat, only to see he was unaffected. It seemed he had a similar resistance to her own.

“Annoying,” she said with a huff.

“Ah, so you finally see me as a threat then?” he returned, looking quite pleased with himself. Obviously the egotistical type, he stopped his attacks to gloat at her. “I may not be able to read your real memories, but that won’t stop me from killing you.”

“No, hate copycats,” was her dismissive reply. The reading of memories thing had caught her attention, though she quickly dismissed it since he said he had failed. No point in dwelling on things that would not change the outcome of their fight.

“Copycat!?” he exclaimed in anger. “I have been using magic longer than you have been alive, you child!”

“Not that young.” Now pouting a bit at being called a child, which was objectively the truth regardless of her body count, Saiko began the attack once more. A quick rot spell hit the high cultist in the shoulder, burning through his cloak and melting away some of his flesh. His magical resistance was too high to kill in a single shot, but from his howl of pain it had definitely hurt. He might be strong, that did not make him immortal.

The real trouble was his ability to move between shadows, which he now used to move away from her and send a black blast toward her. She was able to block the attack by sacrificing a spectral knight, and countered with another Rot spell. It landed, again doing only minor damage to the high cultist. That was okay though, this was clearly going to be a battle of attrition, and she suspected she had the upper hand there. Even if his curse was causing her mana to drain a bit faster than it would otherwise.

Teleporting behind her and cutting her down still seemed his best solution to taking her out, though as she was aware of his trick now it was easy enough to guard her own shadow with a pair of shadowless ghosts. This seemed to frustrate him, as he started to move from shadow to shadow, sending shadow bursts her way. Their exchange went on for a while, doing little other than draining both mages’ mana as they cast ineffective spell after ineffective spell.

Until Saiko finally saw her chance. Finally he used one of her bone golem’s shadows for teleportation, the general having started to spread the undead to lure the high cultist into this trap. The moment he appeared, the young necromancer reached out and used her Dark Puppet spell to lock him in place by taking control of his very skeleton. Against such a strong mage, holding him in place for a moment was the best she could do. A moment was all she needed.

The bone golem smashed its massive fist onto the high cultist's head, an attack that should have sent him to the ground even if the damage was mitigated. Because of her control of his bones, he instead took the full force of the attack and remained standing. Stunned, the bone golem was able to smash him atop the head again, this time sending him down as Saiko’s spell broke. Now her undead pile on him as he screamed; smashing with fists, slashing with claws and ghostly blades, and piercing with spectral arrows. It did not take long before the former high cultist lay a tattered corpse.

Finally the battle was over, she knew the moment he died because his curse left her body once again allowing her mana to start recovering. Taking stock of her injury, she saw it had mostly stopped bleeding. This was a good thing of course, but that did not change the fact that her dress was now torn and covered in blood. Feeling more than a little annoyed, she walked over and kicked the body of the high cultist. It did not fix her dress, though it at least made her feel a bit better.

“I’m disappointed,” came a voice from behind her. Turning around, Saiko spotted the strange girl she had seen in other cultist lairs. “I had hoped you would join us by now. Just think of the power you could have achieved with our help, our teachings. A veritable army at your call.”

“Have already,” she replied flippantly. Perhaps this cult had its appeal to weaker mages, her one sided war against them clearly showed she did not need their help. She was more than strong enough to take them all out on her own.

“I suppose I cannot argue with that,” the girl said with a sigh. “Well, I thank you for removing another weakling from our ranks, regardless. He served his purpose, useless as he might have been otherwise. Even now my master as begun the ritual that we have been preparing for this entire time. If you wish to join us, or attempt to stop us in vain, come to the Sky Tower. But do hurry, I wouldn’t want you missing out on all the fun!”

With her parting words, the girl vanished into thin air. Saiko suspected the girl had not really been there at all, but it was always hard to tell when magic was involved. Regardless, her job here was complete and she had her next target. HOpefully this “master” was the one in charge of the cult, and killing him would finally put an end to this nonsense. There was only one way to find out.

That could wait for the morning, though. Stifling a yawn, the teenage necromancer began to release her undead minions. The skeletons and zombies returned to her Morgue, the ghosts dissipated, and the bone golems collapsed into bone dust. Undoubtedly the carnage below the inn would be discovered soon enough, but that was not her problem. If the innkeeper was inconvenienced by it, well that was kind of his own fault for allowing the cult to set up a base below his inn.

Making her way back up to the inn, she found that everyone was still asleep. Saiko was not surprised by this, the lair had been pretty far down so it was unlikely any sound had leaked above. Grateful she did not have to deal with the innkeeper or his tenants, she went back to her room, changed out of her ruined dress, and went to sleep. Once she awoke, she had a long trip to the Sky Tower ahead of her, and some cult bigwigs to unalive. After she figured out where this Sky Tower was located, at least…

5018/5000

So. It turns out that the Sky Tower is basically impossible to miss. Finding someone to give her directions had been pretty easy honestly, the people of Peace Village were quite friendly about stuff like that. From there it was just a matter of returning to the other side of Fiore where she had already been several times as part of this long mission to stop the cult. Once she was beyond the mountain at the center of the country, all she had to do was look up.

“...How did I miss…?” she asked, seeing the massive tower off in the distance. Besides the mountains, it was clearly the tallest thing in all of Fiore. It had to have been visible all those times she had been in this area of the country. Heck, she basically had to walk by it to get to Rose Garden.

“Always… looking… down,” came the reply from her arms. Suki also did know Saiko’s greatest flaws, one of which was being very unaware of the world around her if it was not immediately relevant to what she was doing.

“Hush,” Saiko replied with a huff. She did not like it when her twin pointed out her mistakes, even if it was just her sister trying to make her a better person.

Well, she might have spotted the tower. That did not make the trip any shorter. If only she could teleport like that last high cultist, think of how much faster she could travel moving from shadow to shadow. Not to mention she would not have to worry about the occasional bandit or wild animal attack hoping to take advantage of such small prey. Neither was any particular threat to her, they just made her trips take longer. Quite annoying, if she were to be honest.

Eventually, arrive she did. Only to find that the place was closed. Apparently it was only open to tourists one day a week, though given the cult was apparently using it as their main base, she wondered if it was ever actually being opened. In fact, now that she looked a bit closer the guards standing outside the entrance did not look like the type usually hired to guard tourist traps. It was the skull tattoos on their faces. These tattoos just did not scream “mall cop” to Saiko.

Now she had two options: find a way to sneak in, or go through the front. Attacking or otherwise alerting the guards risked the rest of the cult being alerted. On the other hand, the girl had implied time was of the essence and sneaking in could take longer. Ultimately she decided she was not the subtle type so there was really only one option to begin with.

Her skeletal assassin emerged from the shadows of one of the guards, slitting his throat before he even noticed it. As the first guard fell to the ground with a gurgle, the second guard turned just in time to see a dagger flying toward its face. The dagger sank deep into the guard’s eye cavity, causing him to collapse to the ground in silence. With the guards safely disposed of, Saiko left the bushes she had been hiding in and entered the tower ready for the cult to attack.

Inside she was greeted by a powerful magic aura coming from the top of the tower. Presumably this was coming from the master the girl had mentioned, and if so he definitely outclassed all the high cultists she had encountered previously. The question, then, was how the heck she got up to him. Obviously the tower was massive, and even just the entrance felt like a maze to the young girl. When it was open to tourists there were probably tour guides to help navigate the tower, unfortunately the only two possible guides she had met so far were currently lying in pools of their own blood behind her.

If she knew their names then she could have called their spirits to act as a guide, but they had just been nameless mooks so that was impossible. That did not mean she was without spirits to call on. Such a large tower with so much history was positively swarming with spirits, some of which had died during its construction. Such old, tired souls could take some work to get motivated, but she doubted anyone alive knew the tower better than them.

“Wake up,” she said, poking one of said spirits. It grumbled a bit at being disturbed, which was understandable. When you have been floating around unseen for who knows how long, unlife tends to get rather boring. Better, then, to just let your consciousness drift in eternal sleep.

Eventually she managed to rouse it though, and it even agreed to show her the way to the top of the tower with a tired, “fine, whatever.”

Passing through countless hallways, the spirit led her to the back of the tower where a magic circle waited. There were no guards near the magic circle, almost as if inviting her to go to the top of the tower. Considering the last words of the strange girl from before, that might be in fact what they wanted. Well, she was not about to join their side, but she was also not just about to ignore such help from her enemies. It was like the cult did not think it was possible to lose, despite so many of their leaders having been snuffed out by a teenage girl. Honestly, they should be ashamed of themselves.

Before using the magic circle, she helped the spirit pass on to the next world. It left this world grateful that it would no longer have to suffer an eternity of tedium. Once the spirit had passed on, she stepped into the magic circle and channeled mana into it. Instantaneously she found herself at the top of the tower, the sudden change in elevation throwing her body off for a moment. After giving her body a few moments to get used to it, she looked around.

It seemed she was in a large room with windows on all sides, and from them she could see basically all of Fiore. From this vantage point, she could see five areas like near Beanstalk Village where corruption spread across the land. The five areas created a five pointed star around the Tower, making it obvious this was the center of their plan. Really, if she had been able to fly then she might have saved herself a lot of grief by finding this place sooner. Or, if she had looked up maybe. But there was no changing the past, so it was best to just forget all of that and continue on with killing cultists!

“Look up… more,” her doll said, knowing exactly what her sister was thinking. That was another annoying thing about being twins, Suki seemed to have the ability to read Saiko’s mind. Yet the connection did not go both ways. It sucked.

Fine, she would try to be more observant in the future. Though that was as likely to come true as her desire to grow up into a tall beauty. Life was just unfair like that sometimes. Some people got the looks, others got the ability to raise armies of undead and massacre their enemies. Things were just balanced like that, she guessed.

“About time you got here,” came the strange girl’s voice from behind her.

Saiko turned slowly to face her, not worried about being attacked given the girl had already missed the chance for a surprise attack. She had also shown little interest in, or possibly ability to attack the young necromancer so far in their meetings. Most likely she was either going to try one last time to recruit Saiko, or was just trying to delay her further. If the latter, that meant there was still time to stop whatever was happening. Since she had no idea where to go from here, she decided to play along. “Long walk.”

“I suppose it is!” the girl said with a giggle. “So have you come to join us?”

When Saiko shook her head no, the girl just sighed in resignation. “It’s too bad. The things we could have done with someone with your power on our side. But you see you are already far too late to stop us. You can see the corruption within the land, drawing power to this place. The foolish Magic Council has sent countless mages to their death trying to stop it, and their mana and life force only adds to the ritual. The further the growths spread, the more lives and mana they consumed, the closer our plan came to completion. And that time is now.”

“Can’t kill me,” Saiko replied confidently. As long as she was alive, she could stop whatever they were doing. Probably.

“Oh I’m sure you think that, but you are hardly immortal. These fools in the cult think that the ritual will bring them immortality, but they are just more fuel for my master. Once the ritual is complete, he will become an immortal god of death, and he will make me one as well!”

“That’s dumb,” she said bluntly. Obviously she was a bit surprised that the girl really was not working with the cult, that did not make her remarks any less silly in her mind. The whole point of a death cult was death, immortality kind of was the exact opposite of that. Not that the girl had any idea the silent Saiko was thinking any of this.

“Dumb?” the girl asked angrily. “Was it dumb for me to not want to be abused by my father? Was it dumb for me to want to eat every day, and not just when he remembered to throw me some scraps? Was it dumb when I stabbed him to death and escaped? Is it dumb that I want my due after all that I have suffered!?”

“...still dumb,” the necromancer said with a shrug. Not that she could not understand the girl hating her past. There did not seem to be any point to the rest of her plan though, as the villain of the story was already dead by her hands. Anything more than that was just a child lashing out at everyone around her, and so it was Saiko’s job to correct her behavior. Stretching out her hand, she tried to grasp the girl with her Dark Puppet spell, only to feel nothing there. As she had suspected, the girl was not really here somehow.

“First you call my desires dumb, and then you try to cast a spell on me?” the girl asked, anger still clear in her voice. “I guess our conversation is over then. You can try and stop us, even if you won’t succeed. Go. At the bottom of the tower you will find a hidden path, where the final high cultist is hiding. If you want to meet with my master, you will have to finish him off. Be happy, with his death you will have finally finished off the cult. Goodbye, little girl.”

Okay, that was kind of rude for a little girl to call Saiko a little girl. Not that she had a chance to say so, as the moment she finished speaking the girl once more disappeared. While the idea of helping the girl and her master with their plan did not sit right, she did not really see an alternative. The final high cultist had to die either way, and it also just happened to be the only clue she had to get to the real mastermind behind all of this. Probably what annoyed her the most though was that this hidden path was on the ground floor. Why had she gone through all the trouble of making it to the top of the tower again?

Grumbling to herself, Saiko walked back to the magic circle and took it back down to the tower’s base. Finding a guide this time proved much simpler, as many spirits within the tower had seen the creation of the secret passage. Truthfully she wondered how anyone kept anything secret with the existence of magic, it was a big reason why she did not try very hard to hide stuff like her necromancy. Anyone else who could see spirits would see them gathering near her, or a seer could spy on her during a job, or any number of other methods of learning about her magic.

Some things, like Suki’s existence, she did keep close to her chest. Literally, in this case, as holding the doll made it more difficult to tell where the magic was coming from. For her part, Suki did not seem to mind playing the role of the inert doll. As she was only partially bound to the doll, movement and speech took a lot of energy. That made it much less taxing to stay half asleep most of the time. Awake enough to know what was going on, but not enough to participate in the world around her.

One unexpected advantage of this was the previous high cultist’s difficulty reading Saiko’s memories. It was not that he was failing. Instead he was getting two sets that was similar, yet still distinct. One of those sets had been blurred from a half awake mind, making it impossible for him to determine what was really going on in their overlapping memories. It likely would not have mattered in the end, but it was impossible to say now.

That high cultist was dead and rotting, and there was a new one that needed the same treatment. Of course first she needed to make her way back out of the maze of the bottom floor of the tower. Her previous guide was gone, and Saiko did not exactly have the best memory. Still, she managed to get there in the end. Stepping over the bodies of the two guards, she left the tower and began to circle it to find the secret entrance.

It only took some walking to reach where the spirits said the entrance was, but reaching it was unfortunately the easy part. Not versed in the ways of magic and such, they could not tell her how the mechanisms to open the door worked. It would be nice if it was something simple like moving a large heavy object. That had worked well for her before, sadly it would not work here. Not that it was surprising their main hideout was better secreted than the others. Just look at how long it had taken her to even figure out the tower was the center of their plans.

With some finagling, she did finally figure out where the secret controls to the door were located. Translating the spirits’ vague descriptions and gestures sorely tested the teen’s patience, though it was worth it in the end as the previously hidden door slid open.

Passing through the door, she found a spiral staircase. Not terribly surprising, if the base had been above ground it would have been visible to anyone visiting the inside of the tower. This did not change the fact that Saiko was genuinely tired of stairs by this point. It would be nice if more secret organizations made their bases on the ground level of places. Was that too much to ask? She did not think so. At least she had not had to climb stairs to get to the top of the tower, she would probably still be climbing if that had been the case.

Soon enough Saiko reached the bottom of the stairwell, where an incredibly bored looking high cultist waited for her inside the room. He certainly gave off the aura of a leader of crazies, though the way he was waiting for her seemed oddly reminiscent of the previous high cultist. Like he had been ordered to wait for the young necromancer’s arrival. That was odd coming from the supposed leader of the cult, though in hindsight that was not really the case, was it?

“So,” his voice a mixture of arrogance and tedium, “you have killed the rest of my associates and now have come for my head. I genuinely have no idea who you are, but I must say I am impressed that one your age has wrought so much death and destruction. Are you sure you are on the right side? I am quite certain you have killed more than any other individual member of my cult.”

“Don’t care,” Saiko replied with a shrug. Who she worked for was less important than being paid. The job had been official, so she had taken it. Sure, she also recognized that the cult’s aims were far from good. They had already done tons of damage in the short time since she first encountered them. On the other hand, none of their actions directly affected her or her goals, so if she had not been hired to end them it was unlikely she would have volunteered to do so. It’s not like she enjoyed killing. She was just very good at it.

“Fair enough,” he said with his own shrug. “Well, I suppose there is no choice but for us to fight. I would say I felt bad about hurting someone so young, but, well, I am the leader of a death cult. You understand how these things are.”

While Saiko did not mind having to fight the man, it had been her original plan anyway, she wondered if he might be more useful if he knew he had been betrayed and instead attacked the girl and her master. Knowing it probably would not matter, she started to tell him about it, “A weird girl-”

Only to be cut off by the cult leader. “Has betrayed me? Yes, yes. I am quite aware of her and her ‘master’s’ plans, and that they do not include me. There is a lesson here of treating with forces beyond your understanding and all that, not that it really matters. They need the death of one more powerful mage, so they send you to fight me. Whether you win or I win, they are the ultimate winners. However, I quite like living. Ironic, I know. So I would much prefer that you were their final sacrifice. Even if all I get out of it is to walk away from this mess, at least I’d be alive. And hey, perhaps when they’ve ascended they will remember to give me a place in their new world order. Now, shall we begin?”

Man, this guy liked to hear the sound of his own voice. At least he seemed done now, as he stood up, brushed off his robes, and adopted a more aggressive stance. In response, Saiko raised her hand and reached out to the shadows. Soon the room was filled with undead, and ghosts began to fill the air above them. The fight started in an instant. Literally, as the high cultist disappeared from where he was and appeared directly in front of her, a knife he had not been holding before sticking out the chest of the zombie she was using as a meat shield.

A single stab wound would not send the undead back to her Morgue, what was more concerning was that it stopped moving. Even the slight swaying that all undead showed when standing idle was not present, like it was stuck in time. Between the man’s instantaneous movement and this new ability, Saiko realized that this battle would be difficult for her. Her fighting style relied on keeping a safe distance and overwhelming her enemy with numbers. Distance did not seem to matter to him, nor did her undead move fast enough to overwhelm him if he kept jumping around.

Before he could strike again, she sent the undead nearest to her to attack. Once again, she discovered his magic working against her in strange ways. Her ghost soldiers were able to fly in and strike normally, managing to get a few light hits in before he jumped away, but her skeletons all moved as if in slow motion. It seemed not only could he stop something’s movement when he struck, everything nearby him was slowed as well. The ghosts, which did not interact with the air around them, were unaffected.

This called for a change of strategy, so before he could jump at her again Saiko ordered her skeletons to form a wall around her. It reduced her visibility, but the ghost general she summoned would be able to see everything and adapt accordingly. As her ghosts were the only ones that could move normally, using them as her primary attack method while she kept her safe seemed the best plan for the moment. As if to show that her plan was the correct one, a volley of spectral arrows was sent toward the high cultists. He raised a hand as if to block them, saw the arrows still coming at him, and quickly had to dodge out of the way. One still managed to strike, leaving him with a look of surprise mixed with pain.

His next attack was another jump, his blade trying to pass through the wall of bones to reach her. Their overlapping stance was able to prevent this, and whatever spell locked them in place afterward only made her defenses stronger. It was during this that the first zombie struck began to move again, giving her a sense of how long the spell lasted. Enough to be able to finish the young necromancer off if she was hit, but not enough to render her entire army immobile at the same time.

In an attempt to stop his movements, she used her Grasping Hands spell to summon a swarm of undead arms to lock him in place. Their movements, too, were slowed by his magic. They only managed to catch him for a moment due to their sheet numbers, and even then her ghosts were only able to get a few strikes in before his appearance suddenly became hazy and he simply passed through the outstretched hands.

Realizing this meant trapping him in place was impossible, she tried a more direct spell. The moment after he flash jumped away from her to escape her ghosts, she cast Sickness on him. Nasua would have overwhelmed him, not that she counted on that being enough to stop him. When she tried to strike again, that was when the spell showed its true colors as he found his balance completely out of whack. With a loud boom, she turned to see he had run into it at full speed, falling to the ground stunned.

Trying to capitalize on that, her general ordered the ghost army to attack. They did not make it in time unfortunately, and as soon as he saw them coming he let out a cry. With that cry, the entire room began to shift. The walls, floor, and ceiling all began to move in unpredictable ways, causing the ghosts’ attacks to miss as he was pulled away. Saiko found herself moving as well, and realized if the movement caused her undead to fall away, she would be defenseless. Quickly giving her undead guardians orders, she had the ones next to her dig their bony fingers into the ground. The next line grabbed onto them, locking all of them into place. As one final precaution, she summoned her Grasping Hands again, this time to grab onto her undead.

Not a moment later, the floor under her was pulled up the side of the wall and she was sent flying into the skeletons nearest to her. It was not a long fall, so it did not really hurt. It did make getting a handle on the battle around her much harder. If not for the general outside leading the ghosts to continue attacking when possible, she did not know how she would be able to keep fighting. Unable to move without her skeleton shield falling away, she reached out to a nearby spirit to use their eyes as her own. Her point of view shifted, letting her see the entire room from a different angle. From this vantage point, she could see the high cultist had a new weapon. Somewhere he had gotten a crossbow, and was aiming it at the mass of bones moving along the wall.

Feeling a touch of panic, Saiko summoned a Sphere of Darkness around her and scrambled along the bones. She was not immune to being attacked inside the sphere, it only made it impossible for him to aim directly. Seeing this, he cursed under his breath and lowered the crossbow slightly. By now her ghosts were not getting any good strikes in, as he jumped from place to place every time they tried. It seemed like a stalemate with neither side being able to attack the other, and no obvious way to change that. None of his spells were able to break through her defenses, while her own were unable to keep up with him.

This went on for another few minutes, by which time she found herself hanging from the ceiling. This left her in what had previously been the top of her shield, and she was not strong enough to hold herself up high enough in the boney cage to avoid arrows show straight into the bones. On the other hand, she saw that as an opportunity as well. He was now waiting, crossbow ready, for her to pass above him. Just as Saiko was about to be moved directly above him, she stuck a thin arm through her skeletons and once her hand lined up, let off a Rot spell.

Having not expected such a spell, and not being able to redirect it with his magic, the high cultist was struck in the face. Immediately his skin began to putrify and fall away, leaving him clutching his face as he screamed in pain. Taking that as their queue to attack, her ghosts charged in and struck him from all directions leaving him looking like a pincushion for ghostly weapons. The screams stopped, and she knew she had won.

Getting down from the ceiling was an interesting process that included using her skeletons as a giant, misshapen ladder. While doing so, she discovered that while she did not fear heights, climbing down a bunch of smooth and oddly placed bones was not a terribly fun experience. This process took several minutes to accomplish, and by the time she had reached the ground she found the strange girl holding the body of the high cultist, a creepy smile on her face.

“Thank you for being so helpful, as always,” the girl said. “I hope you don’t mind that I will be taking this body, I know you like keeping souvenirs.”

“Whatever,” Saiko replied with a shrug. Despite what the strange girl seemed to think, the necromancer was not in the habit of just taking bodies of those she killed willy-nilly. No, she only kept the ones that would prove helpful in combat. As this man, like the previous high cultist, relied on magic for his fighting, he would be useless. Her magic could only copy their natural skills and abilities. Without the magic that made him so strong, he would be no more useful than the skeleton of a normal person.

“If you say so,” the girl said, not really understanding that Saiko genuinely was not interested. Everyone just kind of assumed necromancers were corpse loving fiends, not that she cared in this case. Her enemies misunderstanding her did not seem like a bad thing.

“Well,” the girl continued, “I will make sure that my master knows what a great help you have been during this process. Without your help, we never would have been able to finish the ritual so quickly. Honestly, we may never have been able to finish it at all with as incompetent as those cultists were. So thanks again for that!”

Having conveyed her gratitude, the girl waved a hand over the body of the cultist causing him to vanish into thin air like she so often did. This was the first time the girl had taken one of the cultists’ corpses with her, which implied some kind of significance either to the ritual or to her personally. At this point, it was impossible for Saiko to tell. It was times like this that she wished she could place a spell on a body that would cause them to turn into undead at a later time, it seemed like it would be incredibly useful for situations like this. On the other hand, how often was a situation like this actually going to happen?

“Your master?” Saiko asked, reminding the girl of their conversation upstairs.

“Oh, right”, she said, smacking her hand into her palm in realization. “I suppose I did promise, didn't I?”

Then she walked over to one of the walls in the room, and punched clean through it (which actually managed to startle Saiko a bit). As the rocks fell away and the dust cleared, they revealed an archway leading to a new tunnel that went even further into the ground beneath the tower. Whoever, or whatever, awaited Saiko must be down that path.

“Thanks again,” the girl said with a smile and a wave. “We shall see each other again very soon, and this time we might get to play together!”

With those parting words, the girl again poofed into nothingness, leaving Saiko alone with her undead in the warped room. Well, she had hoped the trip to the tower would be the end of her war against the cult. That part had come true, she had just not expected the cult to be tools for some greater foe lying beneath the tower. Still, she had come this far. She was not about to leave the job unfinished. So, determined to continue, Saiko stepped through the archway and started making her way down the tunnel.

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