got
your hands on him."
"I doubt there are punishments worse than
anything a demon could whip up."
" Oh , I'm s-s-sure you'll
try."
"You know me so well, Jiki." Diana fastened
the hauberk shut. "And everything fits perfectly, as
usual."
"It helps that your s-size never
c-c-changes."
"So what'll it cost me?"
"Your life."
Diana took an immediate step back, grabbing a
wrench as her nearest weapon. Jiki snorted at the
response.
"As in: c-come back alive, Diana," she
clarified. If it were possible for a Doll to look sheepish, then
Diana did at that moment, rubbing her arm awkwardly. "Leo already
told me what kind of mess you're in. C-consider making a fool out
of K-Koronos payment enough."
"SAND WHALES! THERE ARE SAND WHALES,
MARVIN!"
Leo's unmistakable voice boomed throughout the
cavern. Diana and Jiki exchanged bewildered stares, rushing up the
perimeter of the room to see what all the fuss was about. The women
caught snippets of an absurd conversation about paraplegic donkeys
and a haunted mineshaft until Uhh's droning voice queued them in on
the real matter.
" Ssspirits arrre unique. Borrrn to siiiingular purrrpose. Eyes
arre, Eyes arrrrre... Not bound to sssource material. Can brrrring
life to any medium. "
Seconds of silence trickled by. On instinct,
all eyes centered on Marvin. He gaped into the glass of Razitar's
coffin.
"By the Gods."
"What is it, Marv?"
"Leo..." His next words came with the
reverence of a man who had stumbled upon a miracle. "I think the
Eyes can bring Undead back to life."
20: Brave
Failure
"What do you mean by that?"
Diana rushed across the platform, grabbing me
so hard by the shoulders that I felt her fingers denting the
pauldrons on either side.
"Marvin?" Red flecks danced in her irises like
flying embers. "What do you mean by they can bring Undead back to
life?"
I shook free of her grip, not by force, but by
the simple action of taking a step back. Diana snapped back to her
senses and released me from her lethal hold; all eyes were now on
me.
"Thinking that the Eyes were a power source
was too simplistic," I began explaining. I raised my palms to the
group, straining the unspoken point that this was all theory based
upon what few leads we had. "It's like a reservoir and a channel
all in one; the Eyes can animate -or amplify- anything they've been
inserted to. Theoretically, they should be able to resurrect
someone who already died."
"Resurrecting the dead is
one thing, Marvin," Leo cautioned. This was the beginning of an
often-held debate in Nethermount: the semantics of life, death, and
everything in between. "If you want to be technical about it,
necromancers resurrect the dead all the time, but it's a different
state of being, which is why we call
them undead and
not re-lifed or
some crap like that."
I recognized the circular argument; Leo took
his profession too seriously to let it drop, so I decided to end it
before Diana had to get involved.
"The bottom line is that the Eyes are an
extremely powerful artifact," I said. "They're the reservoir,
channel, and catalyst all in one. Razitar was born blind; the Eyes
changed his state of being so he could see."
Leo grumbled, but he couldn't refute that
statement. The Eyes could recreate the person in possession of
them.
"One problem." Diana folded her arms. "The
Eyes were torn straight out of his head. The magic in them
overwhelmed Razitar's system and killed him outright. He was a
powerful mage, the kind that could take out the vanguard of an army
if he wanted. Something managed to get close enough to pluck them
out with surgical precision in a matter of seconds."
I turned around and knocked my head against
the glass.
"Diana, don't we have enough enemies to worry
about?"
"Marv's right for once," Leo vouched of my
behalf. "We don't have enough time to think about everything in our
way. Once we get all our supplies we only have two days head start
before Koronos sics his homicidal
your hands on him."
"I doubt there are punishments worse than
anything a demon could whip up."
" Oh , I'm s-s-sure you'll
try."
"You know me so well, Jiki." Diana fastened
the hauberk shut. "And everything fits perfectly, as
usual."
"It helps that your s-size never
c-c-changes."
"So what'll it cost me?"
"Your life."
Diana took an immediate step back, grabbing a
wrench as her nearest weapon. Jiki snorted at the
response.
"As in: c-come back alive, Diana," she
clarified. If it were possible for a Doll to look sheepish, then
Diana did at that moment, rubbing her arm awkwardly. "Leo already
told me what kind of mess you're in. C-consider making a fool out
of K-Koronos payment enough."
"SAND WHALES! THERE ARE SAND WHALES,
MARVIN!"
Leo's unmistakable voice boomed throughout the
cavern. Diana and Jiki exchanged bewildered stares, rushing up the
perimeter of the room to see what all the fuss was about. The women
caught snippets of an absurd conversation about paraplegic donkeys
and a haunted mineshaft until Uhh's droning voice queued them in on
the real matter.
" Ssspirits arrre unique. Borrrn to siiiingular purrrpose. Eyes
arre, Eyes arrrrre... Not bound to sssource material. Can brrrring
life to any medium. "
Seconds of silence trickled by. On instinct,
all eyes centered on Marvin. He gaped into the glass of Razitar's
coffin.
"By the Gods."
"What is it, Marv?"
"Leo..." His next words came with the
reverence of a man who had stumbled upon a miracle. "I think the
Eyes can bring Undead back to life."
20: Brave
Failure
"What do you mean by that?"
Diana rushed across the platform, grabbing me
so hard by the shoulders that I felt her fingers denting the
pauldrons on either side.
"Marvin?" Red flecks danced in her irises like
flying embers. "What do you mean by they can bring Undead back to
life?"
I shook free of her grip, not by force, but by
the simple action of taking a step back. Diana snapped back to her
senses and released me from her lethal hold; all eyes were now on
me.
"Thinking that the Eyes were a power source
was too simplistic," I began explaining. I raised my palms to the
group, straining the unspoken point that this was all theory based
upon what few leads we had. "It's like a reservoir and a channel
all in one; the Eyes can animate -or amplify- anything they've been
inserted to. Theoretically, they should be able to resurrect
someone who already died."
"Resurrecting the dead is
one thing, Marvin," Leo cautioned. This was the beginning of an
often-held debate in Nethermount: the semantics of life, death, and
everything in between. "If you want to be technical about it,
necromancers resurrect the dead all the time, but it's a different
state of being, which is why we call
them undead and
not re-lifed or
some crap like that."
I recognized the circular argument; Leo took
his profession too seriously to let it drop, so I decided to end it
before Diana had to get involved.
"The bottom line is that the Eyes are an
extremely powerful artifact," I said. "They're the reservoir,
channel, and catalyst all in one. Razitar was born blind; the Eyes
changed his state of being so he could see."
Leo grumbled, but he couldn't refute that
statement. The Eyes could recreate the person in possession of
them.
"One problem." Diana folded her arms. "The
Eyes were torn straight out of his head. The magic in them
overwhelmed Razitar's system and killed him outright. He was a
powerful mage, the kind that could take out the vanguard of an army
if he wanted. Something managed to get close enough to pluck them
out with surgical precision in a matter of seconds."
I turned around and knocked my head against
the glass.
"Diana, don't we have enough enemies to worry
about?"
"Marv's right for once," Leo vouched of my
behalf. "We don't have enough time to think about everything in our
way. Once we get all our supplies we only have two days head start
before Koronos sics his homicidal
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