The next night, they ended up camped in between fallen stone arches of an old building. The old stone had been worn down to a smooth surface by the wind and rain of hundreds of years; if it had been carved sharply, or with runes, they had all been worn away by now. The area was composed of various wild grasses and patches of bare dirt.

By the time they ate dinner, night was starting to fall. They all stayed up and talked around the fire. Above them, unnoticed and uncared for, strange creatures swam in the sea of stars.

“Considering where we are, it’s likely these ruins were from some kingdom of old, like Yom or Blais,” Tam commented. She had been looking at the arches with some interest ever since they stopped there.

Orion didn’t have anything else to do, so she asked, “What happened to them?” It was in times like this that she missed Wi-Fi the most.

“Blais was actually a small kingdom in the East,” Tam clarified. “It survived that time of conquering and eventually took over Pinscher and took on the region’s name. After another few centuries, Pinscher took over other countries, such as Reagle, Maskiff, Celtie, and Lembroke.” She was cleaning and oiling her blade as she spoke. “From what I’ve heard, Lembroke, Nu, and Shibe actually used to be part of the same country, but they separated a thousand years ago. That was where the real conflict between the Hrea Empire and Nu started. Bas knows more about Yom than me, however.”

Bas frowned. “Only because I had lessons on everything.” He tapped his fingers against the ground as he thought. “Yom was the kingdom that conquered pretty much all of the continent of Lux. There’s some rumors that they also conquered whatever lies to the North, and beyond. Traces of the kingdom can be found from Shibe in the North-West and to the Stock Islands in the South-East.”

“What happened after that?” Orion leaned back. She knew there was always a story of what happened after. Empires inevitably fell, no matter what was done. It was only a question of how terrible the fall was. She had always liked that part of learning about the British Empire and World War Two. They were probably the only government that had successfully fallen with some grace—although burdened with debt, there was no successful take over or governmental collapse.

Bas sighed. “No one is entirely sure, but it had to deal with the emperor. He pioneered the creation of necromancy as a proper ritualistic magic. Either he went crazy, died, or was betrayed somehow. He had built everything with his own hands but with him gone, everything fell apart. Relatives of his survived and returned to Malamut, and his line is continued to this day through the royal family—well, that’s what I and all the other royals are taught.”

“Very interesting. I’m impressed you two know so much about history,” Hazel complimented.

Bas huffed a bit, playfully elbowing his friend. “Tam is the bookworm. I was just forced.” He noticed that the fire was burning low and added another log.

Orion remembered how Tam had been allowed to hold Scorpion and cautiously asked if she could touch Hazel’s pet. She was still a bit scared, but there was a bit of curiosity still. The exoskeleton of Scorpion was hard and smooth, with the exception of the top of the animal’s head where there were many small bumps and spikes.

“There’s only one thing I’ve heard about Yom, an old children’s story,” Hazel commented. “It’s called the Tale of Two Eyes. There were two eyes, but they didn’t see the same things, but they had to decide which way to go. ‘Let’s go left,’ the right eye said. ‘‘No! Don’t go that way! There is danger. Are you blind?’ the left eye accused. The right eye replied, ‘I do not see danger. Do not be angry at me.’ The left eye apologized.

“Another day they once again had to decide which way to go. ‘Let us go right,’ the left eye suggested. ‘Do you see the danger on the right?’ The other eye asked. ‘Yes, but we will be fine,’ came the reply from the left eye. ‘No!’ The right eye protested, angry, ‘You are not blind, but you act like it.’ They went right and although the still angry right eye was fine, the left eye was blinded as a result.”

Tam was nodding along, likely having heard of this one. “What do you think it means?”

“You can only truly be mad once you know some else’s perspective?” Hazel suggested. He seemed a bit insistent on that interpretation, perhaps because that was his own.

“That makes sense, sort of. Or, maybe it’s something about realizing you can be wrong, or trusting other people.” Bas shrugged. He didn’t seem the type to put much thought into old children’s stories. “The other thing I remember is that we still keep finding the old cities, exposed by earthquakes or mining. It’s been so long that the only remnants that survived lie deep below the ground.”

“Is there any treasure?” Orion asked. Her focus on the conversation had come back at the idea of possible fortune.

Hazel nodded. He wiped at the outside of his goggles with his thumb, clearing away dirt. “There is. I had forgotten, but there’s many stories about what is found there.”

Bas laughed. “It’s the necklace one?”

“Yes, The Reverie of Faith,” Hazel responded, and then told them the rhyme,

In Malamut’s small town,
Mount of Dew,
A boy found a necklace
Oblong beads, red in hue
He was quite amazed
Showed it to his crew
His girl was the local barkeep
She made the best brew
He gave the necklace to her
Clean, sparkling and new
But she had a second lover
And no one knew
Except, there was one
And it was through
The boy came that morning
He gave her a bowl of stew
The necklace cried, ‘Cheater!’
And her plan was now askew

A baroness came by,
Walking, a fine sashay
She heard the story
Offered to pay
The baroness gave the necklace,
As a test to her fiancé
It did not go well,
Let us just say.
She did the same to the next
Her, this one did not mislay
On the next generation
Sadly, these stories had no sway

The baron of Mount of Dew,
By all accounts a real buffoon
Took his grandmother’s necklace
And with it he did festoon,
His royal lover’s neck,
And from it came a shrill tune
Voice neither young nor old
‘He cheated on you!’
She quickly turned the baron down,
Him labeled, a complete loon

Orion was laughing at the name of the town and no one else understood why.

“I think the king banned this one in his court,” Bas remarked. He was never above a snide comment about his father.

Tam moved the talk to other treasures found. The empire of Yom had much sea travel and trade. Some harpoons and lances for hunting large sea creatures had been recovered, and sat in historical museums or personal collections of royalty.

Bas pushed another log into the fire. “Do you have stories about the hunts? You’ve probably read some in the library.”

“I would be interested in hearing about seafaring adventures,” Hazel encouraged when Tam hesitated to speak.

“When it comes to hunting beasts and creatures of the sea, the most terrifying thing is the line. It’s not an animal to defeat or defend against. The line is a tool of the trade, coiled carefully in buckets to prevent any knots or kinks, and attached to the end of the harpoon. When a harpoon hits, the line runs from the buckets to let the prey run into the sea. If the line isn’t properly wet, a fire will be sparked. They splash water on it to prevent one of the strangest things: a fire in the middle of the ocean, above unknown depths of water.”

Orion scoffed. “Tam, isn’t that just rope?” She tilted her head. “Seriously, what’s scary about that?”

“One of the authors of a book on the subject wrote, ‘It gallops like a horse through the boat, trampling flesh under its heels. There is always a hatchet or axe in the small boat to cut the line, but there is never any time to do so if the line catches someone and pulls them under.’ The author had a list of people by name that died when she was working on the small boats. It wasn’t short.”

“I would take that back, Orion. That sounds kind of terrifying. Perhaps I’d rather do a face-to-face hunt like the pirates do and run the beasts on shore rather than an endurance wait with a harpoon? It makes the first sound more possible to pull off,” Bas said. He reminded, “I think it’s time for those not on duty to go to bed.”

“Tam, thank you for the story. I’ve never seen the sea, but I would think it’s amazing.” Hazel held his hands out, cupped together to make a flat space.

Tam was smiling. “You’re welcome.”

Orion handed Scorpion back to Hazel. The night was getting darker and her eyelids were getting heavy.

She wasn’t sure when she fell asleep, but she woke up several hours later to loud noises.

It was still night time. The ruins only looked worse in the dark.

Sirius was yowling; her tail lashing in agitation.

Bas was yelling. He was loosing arrows into the dark where he saw motion.

Orion scrambled to her feet, kicking off her blanket. Ice blades formed in her hands, barely having to think about it, she needed the familiar weight in her hands. Adrenaline was already pumping through her veins—everything felt far too loud. She could hear her heart starting to beat wildly in her chest.

Tam was chopping down something or someone in the dark. Her longsword did not have the glow of magic, but sliced through the things unnaturally fast.

Hazel cursed quietly. He threw two logs into the dying fire and stoked it. His actions helped illuminate more of their enemies.

There were undead, but none were recently undead. Only bones remained, no flesh. A few still held weapons, likely warriors that had been buried with them in hand.

Orion charged into the fray without a second thought. She thought of the earth launching her forwards, and then found herself mid-flight. Another blink found her surrounded by an array of icy spears that she threw down; unfortunately the ice did nothing but chip some bone. She landed in front of three undead with a roll, then immediately had to parry with the ice blade in her hand.

Sirius bounded forward, using her strong jaw and claws to decapitate the undead in front of her. The undead were naturally weak in front of her, but not in the same way that Tam’s longsword worked.

Hazel was looking around them. “I don’t see the necromancer!” He shouted.

“Keep looking!” Bas replied. He looked at the bow in his hands for a moment and threw it aside with a muttered, “Fuck it.” The prince tugged his three fingered gloves on and went to guard Tam’s back, punching any of the undead that tried to flank her.

Tam was still cutting through the undead like sheets of paper. She had not had time to tie up her hair and blew some strands out of her mouth as she fought.

Hazel had stayed nearby the fire, but was being attacked by two middle sized, four legged animals. He kicked with his boots, then picked up one of the logs from the fire and used that to hit them.

There was another of the creatures lunging for Orion’s side.

“Orion!” Tam called out and ran forward. She threw her right arm out and blocked the undead’s attack. She screamed as the bones in her forearm loudly cracked underneath the undead’s bite, but managed to use her other arm to stab at the foul beast.

Orion turned around just in time to see Tam take the blow for her. Her eyes widened as the knight staggered under the pain. “Shit.” She glanced around and only saw four more skeletons in front of them, so she called for Sirius to guard Tam and went to deal with the remaining enemies.

Bas was gritting his teeth but went to help Hazel deal with the two other animal undead.

Tam had frozen in place. She was breathing heavily and was crouched down, but her sword was still in her left hand.

Orion changed her ice blade to a heavy cleaver. She kept reforming it every time the blade broke against the bone, and got a few blows in by using that move to change her grip on the blade without moving her hand. She had been taking the fight seriously before, but now she was trying to finish as quickly as possible rather than keep some energy in reserve.

When all of the undead they could see were decapitated or smashed, and none more approaching from the forest, they gathered around the fire again.

Bas was making a splint for Tam from his arrows. His expression was terrible and he wasn’t saying anything, but neither was Tam.

Orion sat down on her blanket and leaned against Sirius. There were cuts on her hands from the ice breaking and she had narrowly missed being stabbed through the chest by a spear from one of the last four undead.

Hazel noticed and pointed out, “You’re hurt as well. We can get you some ointment and bandages if you don’t have any on you.” He didn’t seem unaffected by the situation, but he was handling it better than the younger three.

“You’re hurt?” Tam questioned. She shifted a bit and looked over to Orion. There was a sort of haunted look on her face that only faded when she saw that Orion was still breathing.

“I’m fine,” Orion said. Her tone immediately shifted as she spat, “Now, what the fuck was that about?”

Bas finally spoke up. “We didn’t find the necromancer who did it. Unless it wasn’t a necromancer, and these undead have just been living here in the ruins”

“That’s a possibility,” Hazel agreed. He was still watching the darkness.

“No.” Orion was tired, but she was also furious. “I’m talking about how Tam decided to sacrifice her arm.”

“It’s just broken. I’ll be fine,” Tam gently rebuffed.

Orion stared at Tam. “Fucking hero complex,” she muttered and shifted to hide her face in Sirius’ fur.

Bas glanced between the two of them, but went back to business. “Someone needs to be up. We can take shifts.”

“I’ll take the first one,” Hazel volunteered.

That was all Orion remembered before she fell asleep again.

She did not sleep well.

A/N

I completely forgot that I made a mountain dew joke. In other news, I cooked some rigatoni noodles today. Therefore, my dear readers, favorite and least favorite noodles and why?

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