Darkness and Hellfire

"I almost went to help you." Lenna began as soon as she saw Isaac and the battered Guild Master. The solid stone tunnel walls carried her voice to them with ease. "It was over before I would have gotten there, but it looks like you could have used another sword."

"Maybe, maybe not." Isaac replied and then launched into his account of what had happened. Isaac's stories tended to be accurate enough that no one who was there would bother giving very many, if any, corrections. Edward was content to let Isaac recount it with the sole exception being how he had kept the Death Knight from cutting him in half and leeching his life away.

"It is not a common occurrence but it does still happen." Alexander fell into his teacher role as soon as Isaac had finished his retelling of the most recent battle. His lecture was more targeted towards Shamesh but benefited Isaac as well. "If a body is left unattended after a battle, the spirit of the departed retains enough concentrated emotion, and enough people have died nearby, then an undead is far more likely to naturally form." He explained. "There was a time, recently, when a few adventurers were slain to the man by either Jala L'Vore's chimeras or a drow patrol. In that strange instance, all of the adventurers had come back as wraiths. That is far from typical though it can happen if each of the souls of the recently departed are extremely connected to each other, like siblings or lovers and the like. Come to think of it, I believe you two were the adventurers who went to lay the dead to rest." He directed the final part towards Isaac and Lenna.

Isaac nodded in confirmation that Alexander did remember who had done it properly. "Is there a risk of others coming back like Farlen did?" He questioned the Court Mage.

"Usually, I would say it would be very unlikely as they would have, probably, all come back at the same time or within minutes of each other. However, I suspect that the amount of your death flames that were used during that battle had something to do with Farlen V'Nova reanimating on his own." Alexander replied thoughtfully. "I would be careful about entirely discounting the possibility of some of your foes coming back for a second attempt. This is one of the reasons why it is customary to bury the dead with a platinum coin or cremate them. Cremating at least prevents death knights, revenants, zombies, animated skeletons, wights, and animated mummies, even if it does not prevent ghosts, specters, geists, will-o-wisps, wraiths, or phantoms, though phantoms are just unmoored ghosts or specters, though many people still separate them as they are free to roam under specific circumstances."

"You seem to know a lot about the subject." Lenna commented. A lot of it was information she had passively acquired over the centuries, but she had never specifically looked into, or been taught about, naturally forming undead so things like Alexander's last fact had been unknown to her.

Alexander cleared his throat as he looked a bit bashful. "When I was a child, I had an extreme fear of all of the scary stories the adults would tell to keep us in line. So, when I got older, I made sure to learn everything I could about them without getting put on a list of potential necromancers."

Isaac chuckled and Edward just shook his head with a smile. "That is as good of a reason to learn as any." Lenna said with a nod. "The information has been enlightening." She then turned to Isaac. "We should make sure to leave a platinum coin in every one of your ash piles and cremate all of my slain kin from now on. Usually I would let the wildlife have their fill of any and all corpses, but considering what Alexander has just told us…"

"If we do that too much we might just start creating random pockets of undead that will need to be dealt with at a later date." Isaac finished her sentence for her when she let her voice trail off. The thought hadn't needed to be finished aloud but Isaac saw no harm in doing so.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Alexander, can you take us back?" Edward questioned the Court Mage after it was clear that the previous discussion was finished.

"Not yet." Alexander informed him with an apologetic smile. Lenna had done what little she could for Edward's shattered bones but she had quickly run out of mana again. It hadn't even been enough to give him a fever. "Another hour and I should be able to make it the whole way back if it is just the two of us." He then turned towards Shamesh. "Will you be accompanying them back?"

Shamesh nodded. "I see no reason not to." He confirmed.

"You can help us question all of the caravan crew and guards." Isaac said with a frown of annoyance and seriousness in equal measure.

"You think that there is a traitor among them?" Edward asked with obvious confusion. "Most of them aren't even from Safeharbor but were a part of the caravan since at least Sapphirestone. A few of them are from as far as Bressex."

"Contantis specifically has been tracking us with far more accuracy than I can understand without someone actively leaking our location." Isaac replied. "I messed with our travel time and even switched to the backup route at the last second. Even so, they followed us perfectly and set up an ambush, and then there is that rune in the middle of the road up ahead." Isaac shook his head. "Something or someone isn't what they seem."

"Speaking of the rune, Shamesh and I were going to go check it out before you got back, should we do so now, before I am ready to take the Guild Master home?" Alexander questioned. Their conversation hadn't been private in the slightest so commotion had started rolling down the caravan as word of Isaac's impending interrogation spread like wildfire.

"Go. Lenna and I will start the interrogations. I'll start at the back, Lenna start at the front, and Edward," Isaac went on and then looked directly at the Guild Master.

"Yes?" Edward asked. He was not in any shape to fight anyone if they tried to ru-

"If anyone manages to slip past Lenna while she is questioning someone, we'll need you to intercept them. She is fresh out of mana again after she helped realign your calcium jigsaw puzzle." Isaac colorfully stated.

Edward sighed and then raised his voice. "I'm not running after anyone so if someone tries to get past me, they'll have to crawl on their hands the rest of the way!" He then pulled a small wooden folding stool out of his Bottomless Bag and took a seat. "There." He told Isaac and then turned to Lenna as Isaac vanished to appear at the other end of the caravan. "I really don't want to undo what you've done."

"I'll be careful." Lenna promised him and then turned to regard one of the pair of guards standing at the head of the caravan, a mere dozen feet from them. "Teddy, you first, front and center."

While Shamesh and Alexander went to check out and hopefully dispel the rune set in the middle of the road, Lenna began interrogating those at the front half of the caravan, and Edward sat in order to conserve his strength, Isaac began manhandling the back half of the caravan.

Isaac appeared a comfortable distance in front of the rear quartet of guards. "You, you," Isaac said and pointed at one on his left and one on his right. "Stand against the walls closest to you. The other two, go get every one from here to wagon three. Line them up behind these two." He commanded in a tone that would take no less than absolute obedience.

The guards did as they were told with only slight hesitation, that was until word of what had been said reached the back of the caravan. As soon as they heard someone say: "Darkness in interrogating everyone for spies." One of them got the bright idea to make a run for it. Isaac could tell that another one had hesitated only because Isaac was standing right in front of them.

Isaac let the guard run past him as if he had been taken by surprise at the sudden runner. Once the guard was behind him, Isaac sighed and turned around. "Stop." He ordered the darkness around the guard like a ruler commanding a parade of his royal guards. "Return." Power entirely stopped flowing into him as his full regeneration rate was put towards his command. The guard was halted in place and then drug back to where he had been a dozen seconds prior. Isaac did not rescind his order so the shadows continued to move backwards through the spaces that they had occupied, dragging the helpless guard along for the ride. "Anyone else?" He asked and glanced around at the other guards before his eyes settled directly on the one that nearly joined his fellow in making a run for it. "Stop." He cancelled his order to 'Return' and just held the runner in place. He did so without breaking eye contact with the second traitor.

"The three of us are going to have a very long, and most likely very unpleasant talk." Isaac informed the traitors. "Though, if you are entirely cooperative, I'll let Izen figure out what to do with you. If you so much as hesitate to answer a single one of my questions truthfully, you won't make it back to Safeharbor, at least not with any skin or muscles left on your bones." The non-runner shivered under Isaac's cold and commanding gaze. It didn't help that his companion was stuck in the air as if he had just jumped out of the back of a wagon that wasn't even there anymore.