“Why are these undead appearing near your settlement?” Hisako asked Richter pointedly. “First the barrow beasts and now these accursed things appear in the forest. What is happening?”
Richter looked back and forth at the two of them. He had meant to go over this earlier, but there hadn’t seemed to have been time. He now saw that waiting had been a mistake. “The barrow beasts were not the first undead I have encountered in my lands.” Richter proceeded to tell them about how he had found a hidden dungeon while exploring. He quickly spoke of the decaemur knight that had guarded it, and how, after vanquishing the undead guardian, he had relived a memory Alma had stolen from the monster.
Hisako face went from concerned to furious as he spoke of how the decaemur knight had been damned. Richter described the bloody sacrifice of the knight’s people, and how the undead had let his own daughter be ripped apart by unnatural monsters. Then the chaos seed started speaking of the eldritch lord that had been the true architect of the villagers’ suffering. Hisako’s gaze grew alarmed as he spoke of how the undead caster somehow became aware of Richter’s presence and had almost touched his mind before Richter had ended the memory.
“Are you sure that you escaped detection?” Hisako asked urgently. “Are you positive that it did not glean any information from you?”
“I felt his magic reaching towards me,” Richter said. “I would stake my life that he did not touch my mind, but there is no doubt that he knew someone was watching. If he had gotten any information, though, why would these undead attacks only be starting now? The sacrifices were long ago, so if he had seen me, he would have known about me for centuries.”
Hisako waved her hand, “You were not actually there when the events happened the first time, so this lich lord could not have seen you then. I am not sure how you were detected, but I am not a master of Mental magic. Perhaps the evil you saw slumbered until you killed the protector of the Dark portal. I do not know, and we do not have time for a discussion on temporal arcanae. Now please tell me, is there anything else that I need to know?”
Richter nodded and told her of his quest, Proper Rest II. It involved the spirits of the knight’s daughter and all of the other sacrificial victims. They had risen from their remains and attacked the village, driven mad by centuries of hate. Luckily, Sumiko had been there, and the Life master had been able to vanquish the ghosts. Surprisingly, Krista, the spirit of the knight’s daughter, had returned after the battle. The spirit had been greatly changed. She had no longer glowed with the neon-green of eldritch magic. She also no longer wore had the festering wounds that had marked her ethereal body when she previously attacked. The greatest change was that her rage had also been replaced by, not peace exactly, but instead a calm resolve.
Krista had promised that the spirits of all the sacrificial victims would hold off on moving to their long-awaited rest. To prove her words, she had given Richter a coin, saying that he could call on them if he needed their help to fight the lich lord. He took it from his Bag of Holding and showed it to the sprite leader.
Hisako took the glowing coin and held it in her hand. As she closed her eyes, a look of peace came over her face, “This is not a coin. It is a piece of her spiritual energy. Not too different from how you can now make your mana tangible. You are right; her spirit has been cleansed. I can feel the purity of her spiritual energy. There is no innocence, but also none of the rage that Sumiko described to me. An object like this cannot last forever, however. How long do you have to use it?”
“She said one month,” Richter replied.
“One month?” Hisako asked, her voice rising in incredulity. “How long ago did you receive this?”
“A couple weeks ago,” Richter responded, “I know that time is running out, but so much-”
“Bah!” she said waving her hands to shut him up. “Be specific! What day did you receive this coin?”
Richter thought for a moment, and then said, “It was twenty-nine days ago.”
Hisako and Yoshi looked at each other. “It would have been the second of Kuborn,” the adept said. “That means there are only ten days until the second of Juren.”
She nodded and then turned to Richter, “You have no idea how lucky you are. Kuborn is one of the longest months of the year. If this had occurred only one month before, in Kerult, your time would have elapsed. Even still, Yoshi is correct. Only ten days remain for you to complete this quest with her aid. I have a feeling we will need it.”
“I know that this undead lord, whoever he is, needs to be confronted,” Richter said, “but there is so much more that needs to be done. He has stayed quiet for centuries. I’m just saying that maybe we can deal with the enemies we have before looking for more. Surely he can keep until we deal with the bugbears.”
“No!” Hisako said fiercely. Even Yoshi seemed surprised at her vehemence. “I understand your reasoning, Lord Richter, but you are wrong. There will never be a perfect time to confront evil. There will always be more enemies to battle. The mere fact that you are gaining power will attract those who wish to destroy you. We must face the threat of the undead now!
“This is not some rogue necromancer we are dealing with. You are describing a lich lord who seems to have mastered eldritch magic. Undead are attacking during the day, and now high level living undead are attacking in the forest with impunity. It has only been three weeks. We cannot afford to let this threat grow for months. After we deal with these goblins, we must prepare to destroy this den of undead. Yoshi and I will help as much as we can, but we must move quickly. I feel in my heart that Krista’s help will be invaluable. No matter what, however, this threat must be eliminated.” Her voice became somewhat more formal, “As the ally of the Hearth Tree, I expect the Mist Village to help destroy this menace.”
Richter’s eyes widened slightly as he realized that Hisako was no longer speaking as a friend and mentor, but instead as one ruler to another. That realization was further cemented as a prompt filled his vision.