Stalking Darkness.

Almost ready to leave that forgotten graveyard, Zho mentioned there was another thing to do before returning, not explaining his reasons. All he said was that he needed an ancient relic, hiding inside the oldest tomb: a dusty mausoleum where the first governor of Inanna was buried, at the center of the cemetery.

No more details were given; all he ordered was for Arthur to remain at the entrance of the burial chamber while he went inside.

Miris and William would go east, looking for a secret lever in a skull-shaped tombstone that would open the secret room where his relic was located.

"Is he always like this? Does he ever explain anything he makes you do?" William followed Miris. Both advanced through the darkness, bypassing broken tombstones and dead bushes.

"Master Zho doesn't always tell us what's going on but doesn't lie to us either. I think it's better that way. This is better off handled by him, someone with more experience. As he says, we must focus on our training and on things that are at our level."

William raised one eyebrow. "How can you think like that? You're fine with blindly following orders? If he told you to jump off a bridge, would you?"

"I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that… we have our places, William. Whatever Master Ming and Mr. Khugazid have in their hands must be important if they are handling it themselves. Else, they'd make us deal with the problem as some training. You were a soldier, right? You had superiors above you choosing tactics and making strategies. I'm sure they had their jobs and you had yours."

"Not even they were as secretive. Not like I liked them in any way," sighed William. "Whatever. I guess I won't agree with you."

"I'm sure you'll understand. Unlike your previous superiors, I'm sure Mr. Zho or Mr. Khugazid wouldn't send us on any suicide missions. If Zho told you to jump off a bridge, it's because there's a bed of moth silk down below."

"You are too trustful of people, you know?"

"And you're too cynical, William Amber. I guess I can't change that," she chuckled. "I'm gonna tell you something Artur once told me: Zho or Oraesh wouldn't put us in critical danger, and not because they value us like friends or family or anything like that. They need us. Both are old, and we are the only liches in existence. We die, and good luck for them getting viable candidates for future liches."

"Yeah, you spoke just like him," responded William. "I barely know you and it already feels weird hearing you call them by their first names."

She chuckled with a sigh. "Look, let's leave it like this. I'm just gonna tell you something. Mr. Khugazid and Mr. Ming know something we don't and are worried about it. It might be related to the clouds covering the sky, that's what Artur believes. Thing is that, before him, they hadn't even tried recruiting any liches. Then, the sky suddenly gets covered by clouds, and they start trying to expand their lines. First Artur four years ago, me one year ago, and now you. Oh, look, there's the tomb with some lever that Zho mentioned. Let's give it a look."

Now William wanted to know more. She had only been a lich for a year? And Artur four? Then their ages couldn't be much different from his. And just like his gut feeling told him, maybe Zho and Oraesh Khugazid were indeed hiding something.

"Hey, are you gonna stand there all night?" said Miris, a pair of meters ahead next to a tombstone with a skull-shaped head, similar to a jolly roger. Something was written in the Yikkh script on it.

He shook his head, returning to his senses. By the time he reached the tombstone, stones creaked as Miris pulled something behind the tomb.

"What did you do?"

"I think this was the lever Zho talked about. He said finding it wouldn't be easy, as it only shows up on very specific conditions," she moved to his side.

"And did it work?"

"Eh, we'll have to go back and see."

Both looked behind. Artur's torch was a tiny orange light illuminating more than 100 meters ahead next to the eroded mausoleum Zho had entered.

"Let's go back, then. This place creeps me out. Hell if I know what could hide in this dark. Among all things I've seen here in Reniram, I wouldn't be surprised if some bloodthirsty ghost was ready to attack us," joked William, turning around and sauntering away with his torch in hand.

"Don't worry. The worst could be—" Miris suddenly halted her words.

"...the worst could be what?" William sauntered, receiving no response. The bushes and electrified trees behind creaked. "Miris?"

He turned around, seeing her remaining still, facing the dark behind. "William," she lowly whispered. "t-there's something here…"

"What's going on?" he walked back to her. "Did I scare you?"

The trees rattled, dry leaves on the floor crunching. But it was too dark to discern anything, and their torches barely had any reach. William didn't put his eyes apart from the darkness, Miris doing the same.

Now that he thought about it, it was strange how narrow the light in their torches was. They got shorter as minutes passed. Compared to when they arrived, they now had almost half of their power. Something was interfering with them.

"Must be just the wind. Let's go back."

"I'm sure I saw something," she exhaled vapor. "Wait on."

Bushes cracked behind them, heavy steps marching on the tombstones. They turned around, and a repulsive image got printed in their minds, their phylactery hearts buzzing like bumblebees.

Covered by a steaming aura of dead green light, a lanky, scrawny woman wearing mauled rags, and the putrid skin of a three-week-old dead body flinched on herself. Long, dried, and messy white hairs partially covered her skeletal face of popped out eyeballs, which stared voidlessly at them.

Her teeth were long and crushed, rectangular pieces looking like worn-out, dislocated piano keys.

Her long, stiff arms had twisted nails as long as knives, yellow, sawed, and wide enough to cut a human in half with a single swipe.

She roared a raspy scream, straightening at them and showing off a towering height of nearly two meters and a half…