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21. To The Door
🕑 Added 2024-09-26 16:00:08 +0000 UTCAt the door, Isa yanked a heavy cloak off a hook. She went to throw it over her head, then noticed all the dust on it. Grimacing, she gave it a few smacks. A dust cloud rose in the hallway.
Levi coughed, waving his hand. “Watch it. Some of us have to breathe.”
“More like, one of us,” Isa muttered. She threw on the cloak. A deep hood shaded her face. She drew gloves out of the cloak’s pockets and pulled them on as well.
“Alright, alright. Let’s not get too technical here. Breathing is good, okay?” Levi said, looking from left to right.
Colin shrugged. “I’m getting by fine without it. It’s kind of annoying to have to remember to breathe so I can speak, but that’s it.”
“You’ll eventually get back into the habit of breathing all the time, and mentally shut it off from time to time. Breathing is simply too useful,” Isa informed him.
“I’m already there, honestly,” Colin confessed.
“Good. Stay in the habit.”
They walked back toward the town. As they walked, Levi clapped. “So, Isa. I was getting vibes earlier, but uh. Are you… or rather, were you isekaied?”
“Pardon?” Isa cocked a brow.
“Did you come here from Earth?” Levi clarified.
Isa hesitated, then lowered her chin just an inch. “Yes.”
“How’d you go? Get trucked? Fall off a building?”
She frowned. “I don’t know what ‘getting trucked’ is. I died in a fire sometime around the turn of the century, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“In the aughts?” Levi asked.
“It was 1894, to be precise,” she said, ignoring him.
Levi raised his brows. “Ohhhh. No, right. Vampire. I forgot about that.”
She snorted. “Even if I wasn’t, there are ways to live centuries in this world. Don’t assume people will remember a world like yours, even if they were… isekaied.”
“Roger. You know, I ran into someone who told me the Apocalypse had been booting up for fifty years, and I assumed there were just some real old men running around, but I didn’t think about vampires and fantasy races.”
“Even putting aside fantasy races, the Rosado Empire’s Blatt has been a menace for over half a century,” Isa said, shaking her head.
Levi raised his brows. “That guy’s over fifty? Holy shit. He didn’t look a day over twenty-five. What’s his skincare routine?”
Isa gave him a look.
He broke into a grin and waved his hand. “I get it. I’m not stupid. Believe it or not, I had some people like that in the world I came from. Weird assholes who got hopped up on their powers and could live for decades without outwardly aging. I was not a fan.”
“I take it you weren’t one of them?” Isa asked.
“No, I was. After a fashion. But I was relatively weak, so I got shat on a lot.”
Isa looked at Colin.
Colin put his hands up. “I was from a very normal world, with cars, and electricity, and law and order. This is all new to me.”
“My world had cars and electricity and… okay, not law and order, but…” Levi shrugged. He pointed. “Look! We’re almost back.”
The town was still in shambles, but with the zombies’ help, the foundations had been cleared, and people were felling logs to form the frames of the houses. The zombies numbly helped to erect the frames and hold them in place while the villagers worked to fix them permanently into the foundations.
Isa’s eyes hardened. Her jaw clenched, and her fist curled. “Valere has more to answer for than I thought.”
At their approach, Ren hurried over. He looked from Levi and Colin to the Count, then gasped. He started to fall to a knee.
Isa caught him. “No. I’ve failed you. Don’t show me respect.”
Ren hesitated, half dropped. He looked to the others.
“What? I don’t know medieval courtesy rules,” Levi said, shrugging.
With some uncertainty, Ren rose back to his feet. He clasped his hands to the Count. “It’s an honor, ma’am. How may I help you?”
“Who did this to you? Point me in their direction,” she said. Her voice was calm, but her eyes simmered with rage.
Ren stepped back in fear. Nonetheless, he lifted a shivering finger. “That way. There’s been a bunch of Ician deserters camped over there for a while. They raid us every now and again.”
“Deserters, are they? They betray their country, then betray their consciences. Once a betrayer, always a betrayer. The lowest of the low,” Isa murmured.
Levi nodded. “Fuckin’ deserters, am I right? Who’d do something like that? A bunch of losers, if you ask me.”
Colin glanced at Levi. He snorted quietly, but said nothing.
She swept her cloak. “Follow me.”
Levi mimicked her cloak sweep with his own ragged cloak. “I vant to suck your—”
Isa turned. She gave him a dead look.
“…eheheh. Let’s kill some deserters! Woohoo!” He hurried past her, toward the direction Ren had pointed.
“Can you try not to annoy our new friend to death?” Colin asked.
“I’m trying, but my sparkling personality keeps getting in the way,” Levi complained.
Isa chuckled.
Levi whipped around. He raised his brows and pointed at her.
She hit him with the same dead stare.
“Fine, fine.” He mimed zipping his lips.
Isa led the way. With confidence, she led them toward a slender path in the woods. It wound into the forest, little more than a deer track. Dappled sunlight played over them as they walked. Birds sang in the distance. A cool breeze blew, dissipating the heat of late summer.
“This is nice. You know, I thought the birds would be quiet with undead around, but they’re just kind of doing their own thing,” Levi remarked.
“Why would the birds care about us?” Isa asked.
“I don’t know. That’s how it works in all the horror movies and shows and shit. Except for ravens. Ravens caw like crazy when the living dead are on the march,” Levi explained.
“Movies?”
Levi opened his mouth. He closed it. “You know what? You’re better not knowing.”
Isa snorted. She nodded. “I feel that way about much of what you have to say.”
Colin laughed. Putting his hands over his mouth, he quickly stifled it.
As the path worked along, it approached the base of a set of sheer cliffs. They jagged in and out, forming deep blind gorges.
Isa pointed. “There.”
Smoke rose from one of the gorges ahead. The faint sounds of conversation echoed through the forest.
“You seem familiar with the route,” Levi remarked.
“These aren’t the first bandits to set up shop in these mountains. Before I came around, they were a veritable plague. You couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a bandit. With me around, they grew a little sheepish. Weren’t so eager to attack my people. But I see that in my absence, they’ve forgotten whose territory this is.”
Levi grinned. He rested a hand on his sword. “Let’s go remind them who’s boss.”
She looked him up and down. “If you’re the Goddess of Death’s Champion, then you’re a Necromancer, right?”
“Correct!”
“Can you heal undead?”
Levi grimaced. He waggled his hand. “Contact only, and it costs a lot of mana. I’m kind of all tied up powering those zombies back in the village. I can heal… probably one serious injury, without overdrawing my mana.”
She frowned, then nodded. “You have to touch me to heal?”
“Yeah. Colin can do it at range, but he’s doing normal healing, not undead healing,” Levi said, thumbing at Colin.
Colin waved. He grinned, embarrassed.
Isa stared at him. After a second, she pointed at Colin. “He’s a healer?”
“Yeah. Did you miss that? I thought I mentioned that,” Levi said.
“He’s undead, but he’s a healer? A Life Cleric?”
“Yep, that’s Colin,” Levi said, nodding.
Isa shook her head. She stared at him. Her jaw worked. At last, she managed, “How?”
“Skills, baby.” Levi pointed finger guns her way.
Colin cleared his throat. “Do you have gloves? I’m running low.”
“I… certainly.” She reached into her cloak and handed him a pair of wooly mittens.
Levi held back a snort.
Colin glared, but put the mittens on. He smiled at Isa. “Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure,” she murmured, looking him up and down.
Colin blushed.
“Jeez, stop flirting with my undead. He’s mine, okay? You can’t have him.” Levi stepped in between Colin and Isa.
Isa clicked her tongue. Her eyes rested on Colin’s neck, and she licked her lips. “If only he were alive. I would eat him up.”
“Your weird sexual predilections aside, can we go kill the bandits now?” he asked.
“Let’s. I’ll take the far side. You handle this one.” Isa strode ahead. As she approached the opening of the gorge, her body blurred. She flitted between the shadows of the trees. Every few moments, she became fully visible, only to blend into the shadows once more and dash on.
“I can…kind of do that,” Levi muttered. He paused. “Hey, Colin. Any chance you can heal blood loss? I’m a little woozy. I can handle it, but…”
“I just got a new skill that says it can heal ‘ailments’ instead of ‘injuries. Let’s see if it works.” Colin held his staff out. A paler gold light streamed into Levi.
Levi’s lightheadedness melted away. He took a deep breath and shook his head. “That feels great. Thanks, Colin.”
“No problem.” Colin gave him a thumbs up.
Returning the thumbs up, Levi drew up to the nearer edge of the gorge and peered inside. His eyes darted from left to right, taking stock of the bandits.
About a dozen men wandered around the gorge. They wore the ragged, bloodied remains of Ician’s military uniform, or had abandoned it entirely to wear peasant clothes or furs. Several wore helmets or chainmail, and a few kept shields nearby. All carried swords or some form of blade. Two campfires burned, one with a chicken on a spit, and the other with a soup pot boiling. Two or three military-issue tents leaned haphazardly together at the edge of the gorge.
He licked his lips. Three of them had their backs to him, but the second he attacked, all the others would snap to him. Better to let Isa initiate the attack, as a nigh-unkillable undead, then blindside them.
Levi waited. And waited. And waited.
She’s not going to initiate, is she.
Dammit. He took a deep breath. Hopping in place, he shook his arms out. “Here goes nothing.”
Stepping forward, he lifted his hood and rounded the edge of the gorge.
