**Kethryl**
“The moon is Beautiful tonight, wouldn’t you agree?”
My question echoed through the ruin, and after what felt like hours, I could see many shapes stir in the shadows, untouched by the bright moonlight leaking through the rotten roof.
Then it was silent again until I heard three sets of footsteps approach me from deep within the ruined castle.
“Ah, the local lord with his beautiful wife and daughter. It is such an honor to find myself in your exalted presence. Would you be so kind as to allow me to take shelter in your residence for the night, as it is much too cold and my belly is too empty.”
“Cut the crap, you treacherous bastard!”
It appears little Gram wasn’t in the mood for jokes, not that that would stop me, of course.
“Treacherous? What do you mean by Treacherous? You were the one who couldn’t keep his promise. And now I’m here in the middle of nowhere, willing to reach out to my unreliable friend in need, and you still won't even listen to what I have to say, how cold of you.”
I could see the unrestrained hatred in his eyes directed against me. Gram Turner had always been different. Even back then, he understood that I wasn’t his savior but maybe even his enemy. But he just couldn’t turn my offer down. After all, he missed his family way too much to let go. My offer was simply too enticing. And now he is openly showing me all the hatred he accumulated against me over time. Haaa, he really is my favorite toy.
“Friend? You just bailed on me the moment it went south!”
“And I was well within my right, wasn’t I? Our agreement only said that you had to destroy a weakly defended town in exchange, I would 'help' you revive your family. And you failed. I never promised to help you beyond this point or in any other way.”
“Then what about all the errands you made me do, huh? When you told my forces to retreat and to reattach that fool’s arm.”
Fool? No, the only real fool is you, Gram.
“You could have simply declined. After all, I was just asking.”
“You little shi… Arghhh!”
He charged at me with full force, so full of rage, so full of hatred, fully aware that the only chance he had to kill me was by touching me, but his hands never reached me. Because before they could reach me, they slammed against the almost invisible magic shield I had put up beforehand. Now he lay on the floor, his right hand bruised, and tears were shooting into his eyes, squirming like a little worm.
“Huhuhuhu, Hahahaha, you should really keep your eyes open, my friend, or else you might get hurt.”
He slowly stood up under the support of his “Wife” and “Daughter,” and soon a green light covered his hand, erasing the bruising.
“But enough, I can't play with you forever, for I have other, more important things to worry about. However, as a sign of goodwill, I have two gifts for you.”
Instead of asking what these supposed gifts are, Gram just hardened his gaze. His beautiful, murderous bloodlust crawled up my back, causing my smile to widen even more until he could count every one of my pearly white teeth.
“One is the Lantern.”
I took the Soul lantern out of my backpack and put it on the ground before taking a few steps back.
“Just like that, you are going to give me their souls just like that?”
“Isn’t that what friends do, my dear. But you are right, I also give them to you because I must admit I feel a little guilty.”
“I wasn’t even aware that a dirtbag like you could feel guilt.”
There is a lot you aren't aware of, my little plaything.
“Oh, of course, but not just for anyone or anything. In your case, it stems from the fact that… I couldn’t have brought your family back to life even if you had taken Aldmoor.”
…
For a second, there were no other sounds than the wind blowing through the ruined castle, fluttering through our clothes and hair as Gram stared at my brightly smiling face . And then the shadows around me exploded with noise. From one moment to the next, countless rotten corpses were throwing themselves against my shield. Their rotten bodies exploded like fruit, spraying pungent flesh and bones in all directions until all had broken and again there was only silence.
“So, now that you are done throwing your needless little temper tantrum, I will deliver you my second gift to you, am I not generous?”
“Speak!”
“Hehehe, my second gift is a piece of information that I think you would be rather interested in. On my way back to the Ibasan Empire, I came across the most novel sight. I saw a soul ascend to the gods. You might want to say that that is nothing special to me, and you would be right. Those poor mortals leave them out of your sight once, and they die like flies.”
During that last sentence, I deliberately looked at the two undead behind him that he hadn’t sent against my shield, and I could see blood beginning to drip from Gram's hand as his fingernails pierced his own flesh from sheer rage.
“However, this time another soul rose from the ground and pulled the other one back down with it. In short, the first soul was…”
“Revived!”
There was total shock written all over his face.
“Bingo! You got it, you are so smart…”
But before I could go on another ramble, he interrupted me.
“Where!”
“Sigh, no patience at all.”
I could see a vein forming on his forehead as well as a wonderful, crazed smile.
“WHERE!”
I smiled kindly and said,
“Fort Rosedorn.”