Ruthless: Path of Conquest

“Haunted?” Mina repeated. “I don’t really know. I think it’s something like that. People seeing the dead. James told me about seeing—” She cut herself off.

“My dead husband,” Zora finished for her.

“Yes,” Mina said.

“You don’t have to be so delicate about it,” Zora said, smiling softly. “It’s been twenty years now. I still miss him, but I can talk about it without feeling sad. We had good times together. Now they’re just fond memories.”

But you never remarried, Mina thought. I don’t think I would ever marry again if James died, but I also don’t know if I would be all right, even twenty years later. I still think about my mom like it was yesterday.

“I didn’t know quite what to say,” Mina said. “I wasn’t expecting to talk about this with you. Honestly I didn’t even expect to see you here anytime soon. I’m glad you made it.” She was relieved to find that she actually meant what she was saying.

“If the forest is haunted, I really might be able to help you,” Zora said thoughtfully. “Do you know anything beyond the apparitions?”

“I do,” Mina said. “It’s all secondhand from James, but…” She proceeded to explain everything she knew about the forest.

As Mina was talking, Zora took her Small Bag of Deceptive Dimensions from a pocket of her robe and pulled out a heavy, leatherbound book. The characters on the cover looked to be in some ancient language using a non-Phoenician alphabet that Mina did not immediately recognize, but the text translated itself in her mind, “Book of the Dead.”

“I have a patron god,” Zora said. “As I understand James has.”

Mina wanted to interject, Me too! but this seemed an inappropriate moment.

“This was a gift from him when he gave me his blessing,” Zora continued.

“A death god?” Mina couldn’t help but ask.

“No,” Zora said. “A god of magic. But I was about to go through Class Evolution at the time, and I told him which options most interested me.” She smiled mischievously at Mina. “I bet you can’t guess what I picked!”

“A witch of some sort?” Mina asked. Is this going to be like showing up to a party and finding out we’re wearing the same dress?

“No. That sounds like a good option, but no. I decided to become a Necromancer.”

“Oh.” Should I be worried about you? I mean, more than I usually am?

“I know it sounds creepy and unnatural when you first think about it,” Zora said. “That’s why I didn’t walk in here with an army of skeletons or something.”

Which implies that you could have done that… You don’t have an army of skeletons waiting somewhere outside of the Fisher Kingdom, right?

“But this whole System thing feels pretty unnatural to me,” Zora continued. “One day, I was counting down the months to retirement. The next, I found myself sucked into another world, fighting mummies in the desert.” She laughed, almost a cackle, and then her face became serious again. “I thought very carefully about how to survive in this new world—not the Orientation world, but Earth. And one thing kept coming back to me: death comes for us all, the loved and the hated alike. It’s even more irresistible than taxes. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to somehow harness that force. In a magical world, anything is possible. I was going to gather as much power as I could, to help you guys.” Zora smiled sweetly, and Mina forced herself to exhale.

“So you decided to become a Necromancer,” Mina said. “I guess dead allies don’t ever get tired.” She tried to make it sound funny, but her voice rang slightly hollow as she spoke.

“No, they don’t,” Zora agreed. “They have their weaknesses, but fatigue isn’t one of them. We all eventually succumb to death. It’s a tireless force of nature, as enduring as life itself. And the dead will always outnumber the living. More importantly, I think my specialization has given me the knowledge I need to help you with your haunted forest.”

“Oh, of course,” Mina said. “I’m so happy to hear it!” She was also happy to change the subject from Zora’s new Class. Mina had received Necromancer as an option in her own Class Evolution, but she’d quickly dismissed it as too creepy and distasteful.

“I’ve been studying this book,” Zora said, beginning to flip through the Book of the Dead, “and I believe what you’re dealing with is one of these.”

She finally stopped flipping, tapped a page with one bony finger, and turned the book around so that Mina could see. There was an illustration that looked quite a bit like the illusion James had conjured to illustrate the appearance of Sister Strange. The label at the top of the page read, “Dream Wraith.”

Mina read the page. It described what James and the others who spoke up at the meeting had experienced. It explained where the Dream Wraith came from and described some of its behaviors. A Dream Wraith was apparently a congealed embodiment of energy from unpleasant nightmares and forlorn dreams. It wasn’t a particularly fast-moving invader, but it was persistent. The book seemed credible. It described invasions of people’s dreams, apparitions of the dead—and the apparent reason why Sister Strange was doing all this.

“She feeds on suffering,” Mina said slowly. She failed to suppress a shudder at the thought.

“Can’t coexist with something like that,” Zora agreed. “Very icky.”

Mina snorted a little at the word “icky.”

“I’m glad some of these things still gross you out,” she said.

“I am still human,” Zora said, chuckling quietly. “For now. And I’m definitely more comfortable in the company of living people than rattling bones. I’m much more interested in the future of this child—” She held baby James up—“than I am in building some kind of undead empire. I just have a certain affinity for death. I’ve spent—hm. Well, I’ve spent a lot of time living with it. Thinking about it. How best to die. When will I die? That sort of thing. I never told you guys, but I actually had a cancer scare a couple of years back.”

Mina’s eyes widened. “A scare? Does that mean you’re okay now?”

“There was just a lump. It turned out to be benign, but it really got me thinking.” She sighed. “It’s not very dignified to admit this, but even at my age, I’m still afraid of dying. I really want to live.”

“Well, I don’t think that ever goes away,” Mina said. She waited for Zora to elaborate more on what the cancer scare had gotten her thinking about, but the silence held for nearly a full minute instead.

“Anyway, I can give you my meditations on death some other time,” Zora said. “For now, I think I have an idea about how we can destroy this monster that your kingdom is facing.”

“The page doesn’t say anything about destroying it,” Mina said. “Is there more?” She flipped to the next page, but it had a different header: “Vengeance Wraith.”

“There is more,” Zora said. “Not specific to this subtype, but the bit on Dream Wraiths is part of a whole section on Wraiths of various kinds. Useful stuff. I have sort of a half-baked plan already. You mentioned that James is going to distract the monster this evening, right?”

Mina nodded. “Did you happen to overhear that whole conversation?” she asked.

“No, just the parts about the plan to deal with the monster. I didn’t hear anything about the Moloch worshipers or Hilda’s blessing from the God of Light. I was mostly just paying attention to the baby during that part.”

Mina laughed. “Got it.”

“He’s very talkative,” Zora said. “Told me all sorts of things about what you’ve been up to.”

“Sure he did,” Mina said.

Both women laughed.

[Citizens of the Fisher Kingdom, the group of flying monsters that entered our airspace earlier was successfully defeated, and the territory they entered from has now surrendered. My thanks go out to all the brave fighters who accompanied me into enemy territory and fought honorably until we subdued the kingdom of the bats! As discussed in our public meeting earlier, we are also seeking some volunteers to enter another territory this evening. This territory is the source of the nightmare-inducing presence that some citizens have experienced in their dreams. Tonight, we will either gather more information about that enemy or perhaps destroy it outright. Please see Dave Matsumoto if you wish to volunteer. Glory to the Fisher Kingdom!]

“Glory to the Fisher Kingdom,” Mina repeated.

“Glorious indeed,” Zora said. She looked energized.

Then they heard the downstairs door opening, and firm footsteps treading the stairs.

Mina didn’t even need to look to know that it was James. When she did, she saw that he wore a stylish cape made from some dark, semi-translucent material. It reminded her of Count Dracula’s opera cape from the old Dracula movies.

“Good evening, ladies,” he said quietly. “I guess our little one is resting?” He gestured to the baby in Zora’s arms.

“He is,” Zora said, smiling. “You were a good sleeper when you were his age too. Such a quiet boy. Such a shame you had to grow up.”

“I’m hoping he’ll be a lot like James,” Mina said, looking at her husband with loving eyes.

He smiled softly. “I’m so glad we can all be here together,” he said. “How about I get us some dinner, and then we can rest before our evening’s activities?”

“That sounds good to me,” Zora said. “We took a long route getting here, and I’m famished.”

Alice poked her head out of the nursery. “Please make sure you prepare a plate for me, too!” she said. “And Ben! If we’re eating, I’ll call him over.”

“Only if the two of you tell me how you’ve been doing since, um, everything’s been happening,” James called back.

“That’s too long of a story to tell over a meal,” Alice replied. “We can have a sleepover, and maybe then I can tell you everything, but you need a pull-out sofa or something. I don’t know where we would stay.”

“You’re going to be living here from now on, I assume,” James said. “I asked the Building Commission to throw up a house for the two of you, and a cottage for Ben, as quickly as they can.”

“How thoughtful of you,” Zora said.

Alice pursed her lips and said nothing.

She wants to move in with the boyfriend, Mina thought, and James just made Zora her roommate. Mina wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh or console Alice.

“We won’t have too much time to swap stories tonight,” Mina said. “Your Mom has a plan to defeat Sister Strange, and she was just about to get into it before you came in. Since you’re going to tangle with Strange again tonight, I think this is a lot more urgent.”

“It’s really more of an idea than a fully fleshed out plan,” Zora said, “but I’m happy to share it. And I agree that sooner is much better than later.”

James smiled. “Sounds like all my problems are solved,” he said. “I dealt with the small incursion across our border, so the only issue left to wrap up for now is Sister Strange.”

They spent the next half hour preparing a simple meal together. Alice, Mina, and Zora had all started out as Mages. Alice was still a Mage. So everyone had a command of Fire Mana at least sufficient to cook with it.

They were still a long way from having ovens in the new apartments, since the gas and electric infrastructure had been destroyed during the System’s transformation of Earth. But magic solved many problems.

This time, they ate in two separate groups. Yulia brought food to the children in the nursery, while James and the magic users discussed the threats likely to face them in Sister Strange’s forest and formulated their plans over dinner.

“I think this could work,” James said as the conversation concluded. “Even if we don’t succeed in ending the threat tonight, at least the three of you will gather valuable information.”

He opened his Small Bag of Deceptive Dimensions and gave each woman a cloak. Mina examined hers and found that it was called the Royal Aeromaster Cloak.

“With these, we’ll be able to fly, then,” Alice said.

“Well, Mina will be able to fly,” James said. “You guys will at least be able to float. I’m not sure how coordinated the other sets of wings are when they’re not connected to a bat’s body.”

“They’ll work well enough, I’m sure,” Zora said. “They’ll have to.”

“I have faith you’ll at least escape the forest alive,” James said. “Bear in mind that if you’re somehow still in there when I wake up, I will go in after you, by myself, and I won’t come out until I find you.”

“I get it, skapi,” Mina said softly. “That’s the risk we take by volunteering to go into enemy territory. If we die in there, the family loses you too.”

“But you won’t die,” James said, obviously looking for reassurance.

Mina couldn’t find the words to tell James that she would be all right, that she was sure she would survive. She had never lied to him about anything important before. And wouldn’t she be lying if she said she was certain she would come out okay?

In the end, it was Zora who spoke first.

“No, she won’t die,” Zora said, taking both Mina’s and James’s hands from across the table. “Mina will get back to you and your baby no matter what. I’ll take care of her. I promise.”