Chapter Sixty-EightOne arm around Adric’s waist while riding double on Bowe’s back wasn’t the most comfortable way Harmony had ever traveled. [Shadowed Graves] cast a long shadow over their journey and allowed Hyacinth to travel with them swimming forward with his skills. To keep it going the shadow toad was extra vigint in killing prey animals along the way. Plenty of scavengers around to feed on as he left his trail of disemboweled and broken corpses.

  Rose, Len, Max, and Thorne road on good old-fashioned horses from the guild stables. Farthington flew.

  Not to be outdone by Adric, Lord Tyler chose his own unique beast and upon seeing Harmony double up, Jessica insisted on doing the same, pressing herself against Tyler’s back. Their giant nd snail was actually the fastest among them, needing to slow down to allow the horses to keep pace at their gallop. Apparently, there was a menagerie Harmony had never seen because it was kept in Naewauld that he drew this beast from. “Woah, Sparky,” Tyler called, urging his steed to slow down again.

  The goal was to make it to the outpost at the edge of the deadwoods before dusk, which is why there was no train of servants or bodyguards. The outpost couldn’t comfortably hold more, and wouldn’t allow more because too many people attracted unpleasantness.

  Harmony grunted in pain, blinking kicked up sand out of her eyes unable to use [Dust]. To maintain [Shadowed Graves] not only did it need to feed on Hyacinth’s kills but she needed to drop everything, no feeding [Style and Grace] and [Poise and Bearing] a trickle to help with her movement, allowing her to more smoothly adjust to riding on Bowe. No having her [Analyze] and [Keen Investigative Awareness] be on the lookout for trouble. No letting [Beautician] keep her hair in pce, [Cold Touch] to prevent sweating, or [Renew Spirit] to keep some fatigue at bay. It was shocking the amount of dedicated energy she had put toward keeping herself in order. And without it, she felt awkward, naked, and blind. As long as [Mana Rotation] chugged along with its tight spirals, fed by the core of herself it hadn’t been noticeable. But what it did mean was that the greater drain of [Shadowed Graves] wasn’t as quick, but even then she could feel it overcome and unwind the spirals slowly. It should be enough for her to maintain it the whole ride.

  “You feeling okay, Harm? You’re looking a little green.” Max yelled from his horse.

  “Motion sickness. I can manage.” This will be just like practicing being silenced, except through abstinence. Too bad expert Fei had left before she could hear back from him on that.

  At the pace they were going it was hard to hold conversations among the group. Adric ughed out of the sheer joy of riding Bowe. They’d been so cooped up at the Dragonfly Inn with its densely wooded area cking the freedom of space the coatl preferred. Jessica ughed a few times, at some joke Tyler must have made.

  “There is something undead on our path!” Harmony yelled. The moment it crossed under her shadow, her necromantic senses alerted her that something was up in a way it never had before.

  Thorne led the group to circle a bush. The corpse was doing a poor job hiding in it. “Looks like we’ve got our first body-bound spirit. Too weak for you all to consider bonding. Not feral or rampaging. We’ll see more of those kinds and pcid ones like this one.”

  Giving up hiding, the zombie stepped out of the bushes with a few more sticks sticking into her body and hair. Ragged clothing and dead gray skin, her movements were stiff, not like the quick and angry shamblers. “I’mmmm Jussssst trying ta be Saffffe.” She slurred out.

  Rose pulled her horse back a little. “It speaks.”

  Thorne shrugged. “Some of them do. It’s not the person who died. They might pick up some memories or skills though. Because these types of spirits run the risk of having their body degrading and becoming feral many adventures destroy them on sight.”

  “May I?” Harmony asked.

  “Go ahead.”

  For a necromancer, Harmony hadn’t a wide variety of experience with undead and spirits like this. The dungeon-crafted monsters didn’t count; they pretty much were the dungeon, with no separation from the energy and purpose of Old Bones. There were the brief interactions with the overwhelming Ha’zel Ri, then her connection to whatever Prince Adric now was, the opposite of dead as Maekus called him.

  With her senses, she probed this being. If she hadn’t done so much personal soul searching and working on sight for the skill-crippling soul strike she’d have less understanding of what was going on here. The body and skill framework was like a vessel that had been emptied and now this new spiritual energy occupied it taking over and connecting to many of the old functions. Skills were damaged, and the body and frame were slowly leaking spiritual energy even as it gained some through existing, leaving it at not quite an equilibrium.

  [Animate Dead] probably did something simir to this instead of a free floating spirit taking it the caster probably helped fill empty vessels to control or direct. Like a thicker use of [Renew Spirit] with other aspected tied in? This was more like a hermit crab taking over a shell after the person who had the body died.

  [Manipute Dead] whipped into action. Destroying it would be the easy course and would conserve energy. Pity, and with the sun reaching a low enough angle Hyacinth could find his own route forward, Harmony chose otherwise. [Beautician] and [Mend] synergized into it. The first task was to fix the container that the spirit was making a home in. [Renew Spirit] and a touch of [Final Silence] let her work on the spiritual side as well as the physical container. Just repairing the body wouldn’t be enough, the framework the spirit existed in needed that as well.

  The least broken skill in the system could be a perfect experiment. It was neatly cleaved nearly in half. [Mend] to fix it like a maid would a broken pte, if that pte existed in a quasi-spiritual space on the edge past the physical. A full burst of [Renew Spirit] to re-ignite the repaired skill and temporarily strengthen this spirit.

  On the outside. Sticks and twigs were ejected from the body, a limp arm’s joints snapped back into pce and the leg mended up. No reason to make her ugly [Poise and Bearing] and [Beautician] worked to make her symmetrical, and banced. Not the first time that she’d worked on a full corpse with all that practice on the first floor of Old Bones. The jaw doesn’t need to be so loose.

  So many insights! Why did she have to leave her training journals and books at home?

  “Gah! What did you do?” The body-bound spirit spoke while touching their face and arms.

  “I thought you were going to destroy it,” Thorne said dryly.

  “It almost looks alive,” Rose said with a little awe.

  Harmony held back a sniff at the almost. This walking corpse should look alive enough to pass in most pces now.

  “My name is Bea. Don’t call me an ‘It.’” The body-bound spirit compined. Her hand fshed with a sputtering skill that glowed.

  This caused most of the group except for Harmony to scoot back.

  Guess the repair hadn’t been good enough. To be fair it had been distracting to work on that and the whole body at the same time. Maybe a little less show-offy, and a little more practical next time. The mana in her was now sluggish. [Shadowed Graves] dropped from use. Hyacinth already knew this was coming through their [Familiar Bond], but he did whine a little through.

  “Do you always have to complicate things, Lady White?” Thorne asked.

  “Don’t bme me for wanting to see what I could do. I’m not here to bond a spirit. Bea here can find her own way to the Deadwoods. The book talked about communities of these creatures. While I don’t want masses of these creatures asking to be freshened up. It is good to see what I can offer reting to these things.”

  “I’m not a creature or a thing!” Bea insisted.

  Harmony ignored her. She knew better than it did what it was after that. “The fort probably isn’t too far away. Let’s get going.”

  Hyacinth slipped into the long shadow caused by Sparky’s shell to move ahead, now that he needed to work for the trip there was no scking.

  Harmony let her physical skills click into pce and when it was ready casted [Renew Spirit] on herself. Without the need to maintain the shadows, the least she could do was make the rest of this trip more comfortable for herself. Thorne’s continued perplexed look was enough to make it worth it as the group surged forward leaving the wandering undead Bea in their dusty wake.

  Bea stood there more confused yet stable than she had been when she dashed into the bushes to hide. With the creeping itchy vitality radiating from Nae’s Garden at its back the creature pushed forward along the same path as the odd adventurers.