The necromantress cowered in the corner of her father's study, her father and his skeletal minions bearing down on her. The stranger lay dead on the floor behind the necromancer, her only hope extinguished like a weak flame.

"Don't worry. You'll be joining your precious mother soon." The necromancer said maliciously. Her life flashing before her eyes, the necromantress began to cry. Her father scoffed and laughed at her fear. He and his skeletons came within grabbing distance and looked down on her. The necromancer outstretched his arm and slowly descended upon his daughter. But then something stopped him. There was another arm grabbing his wrist, and not one he recognized.

The stranger jerked the necromancer's arm fully out, pulling him off balance. The stranger shoved his armored elbow into the necromancer's, bending it the wrong direction and breaking it. The necromancer howled in pain and leaned back. The stranger wrapped his armored arm around the necromancer's head, putting him in a steel laden headlock. The stranger grabbed one of the skeleton's arms and kicked the body, causing it to rip away. He smashed the bone of the ground, causing it to shatter into a sharp point, almost like a knife. He reached high and plunged the makeshift dagger into the necromancer's lower gut, the ripped it upward diagonally across his torso.

Blood poured profusely out of the necromancer's chest as he began to choke and struggle with the pain. The stranger dropped him on the floor and kicked him aside. He grabbed a large femur for the floor and lunged at the remaining skeleton. The stranger swung the femur in full force at the skeleton and shattered it's ribcage, dropping it's arms and skull on the floor. The stranger stomped the skull, shattering it and then smashing the other remaining skull with the leg bone.

The necromantress felt around the floor for a sharp bone. Once she found one, she uncovered her face, this time with a vengeful look in her eyes. She slowly rose to her feet, tears still falling like a waterfall. The stranger tossed his primitive weapon aside and looked at the standing corpse of the necromantress' mother. She simply idled there, unmoving and unflinching. He looked her over and found nothing outstanding. From the corner of his eye he saw the necromantress rising from her corner, seething hatred. She slowly stumbled over to her father's dying body. She looked down on him and he slowly started to reach towards her with his unbroken arm, almost as if he was asking for mercy. She slapped his hand out of the way and kneeled down. She got in his face.

"You are despicable. You are the lowest of the low. I hate you! You deserve worse than this!" she shouted. She raised her arm and slammed the bone shard down, shoving it through her father's eye and into his brain. He went limp at the first strike. The stranger watched the necromantress' mother fall the floor lifelessly. Then he looked back at the girl. She kept stabbing her father's cadaver and screaming and sobbing. The stranger thought about stopping her, but figured it was best to let her let it out. He picked his sword up from the floor and sheathed it on his back and went back to inspecting the girl's mother. The stranger looked back at the necromantress after a minute or two. Her father's face was no longer a face, and she could not lift her arm anymore. She was sobbing between deep breaths.

"Ahem." The stranger coughed, getting her attention. The necromantress looked over at him and her mother on the ground. "I think now might be the time for you to say goodbye to your mother, properly this time." He said. The necromantress scrambled to her feet and hobbled over to her mother's body and collapsed next to it. She began crying again and hugged the body tightly, sobbing into her neck.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I wasn't strong enough. I was weak when you needed me." She said.

The stranger turned away and left her to her mourning. He explored some of the other rooms in the shack. There were test subjects everywhere of various races and species. Some familiar to the stranger, some alien. He found a table with a dissected goblin. He looked the lobotomite over and found nothing that would make them increasingly tough. After some more time, the stranger heard footsteps. He looked to the doorway of his current room and found the necromantress standing there.

"I'm ready to leave." She said.

"What of your mother?" the stranger asked.

"We're going to burn her. And we're going to burn this place to the ground." She said. There came some hodgepodge skeletons walking out of the room behind her, carrying her mother's body, wrapped in some kind of shroud. They exited the building. The stranger went from room to room and knocked all the candles over, setting the immediate area on fire. He left out the shack after the necromantress. He stepped outside to find the skeletons digging a grave for the mother. They lowered her into the hole and then stepped back and fell apart into several incoherent piles. The stranger went and stood by the necromantress, as the shack started to be engulfed by multicolored flame. He reached into his bag and produced a small vial of a mysterious oil. He pulled the cork and poured the contents on the mother.

"What is that?" the necromantress asked.

"Annointing' oil. It burns very hot. Reduces most living tissue to ash in mere minutes. Got it from a place with a very strange metamorphosing outbreak. A lot of body burning involved." The stranger said. He approached the burning shack and pulled a piece of smoldering debris from it and brought it to the hole. He dropped it in and the mother ferociously ignited instantly. The two said nothing as the burning body died down and eventually there was nothing left of the mother but her cinders. The necromantress pulled what looked like a miniature vial from her necklace and kneeled down. She took a small scoop from the ashes and screwed the top back on. She held the vial in her palms and whispered,

"I'm never leaving you again."

There came the crash of thunder, and the pair looked to the sky. There came dark clouds overhead, followed by the rain.

"Well that's convenient. Won't even have to put out the big fire myself." The stranger said. The two said nothing as the rain began to pour. After a moment of silence, the stranger piped in,

"We should get moving." The necromantress nodded, and guided them out of the deadwoods. The rain hadn't let up by the time they'd reached the warrior girl's home. They approached the door and the stranger knocked. No one came at first, and the necromantress turned to the stranger.

"T-Thank you." She said, "For everything."

"I would say it was…. No… You're welcome." The stranger said. The door opened and there was the warrior girl and her mother, who brought both hands over her mouth.

"Oh my goodness! We've been worried sick about you!" she exclaimed. The stranger cast down a look of suspicion upon the necromantress.

"You snuck out?" he asked.

"I heard what you were planning. They never would have let me go willingly." She said. The warrior girl's mother fetched a blanket and came out to the porch and draped it over the necromantress' shoulders.

"Oh come in, come in! You must be freezing." The mother said as she ushered the girl inside. She looked back at the stranger. "Ah, you must be my daughter's partner." She said.

"That's right." He replied.

"Well you're welcome to come inside. You must be tired as well."

"I appreciate the offer but I do have some business to tend to."

"Oh, well, that's alright. You take care now."

"Always."

The mother smiled and re-entered her home, closing the door behind her and leaving the warrior girl alone with the stranger.

S- "You're looking better."

WG- "I feel a bit better now. How did it go?"

S- "Her father is dead, so she's at least got one less demon on her back."

WG- "That's a relief. Were you going to report completion?"

S- "Yes."

WG- "So tell me, how did you take him down?"

S- "She was actually the one to do him in. I was a bit more of a… distraction. There was lots of stabbing involved."

The girl cringed and held her hand up.

"Ooookay, that's probably all I needed to know." She said. "So is there nothing I can do to convince you to come inside?"

"Sadly no. I need to report this completion soon. I'm already soaked anyway, so it's not like the rain bothers me now." The stranger said.

"Oh well. Can't say I didn't try. Take care." The girl said as she waved the stranger off. He reciprocated the action as he stepped out from under the awning and into the rain.

Darkness was beginning to fall by the time the stranger reached the Adventurers' Guild, and the rain hadn't let up. The stranger entered the guild, and there were many faces cast upon him, as he was soaking wet. He looked around. Many of the adventurers appeared to be waiting out the rain. The guild seemed a bit more glum than usual. The partying volume one would be accustomed to was reduced to a dull roar, almost as if the rain put a damper on everyone's mood as well. The stranger shook his head to get the excess water off and went to the desk to speak with the guild girl. He approached her and said,

"I see not everyone is enjoying the weather like I am." The girl looked up from her paperwork at the stranger. She giggled at the sight of him still dripping wet.

"It certainly does not appear that way." She said. "Did you need something?"

"The necromancer is no more," The stranger said. "The actual necromancer this time."

"Great! I'll get this quest filed away and get you your reward." The girl picked up a sheet from the side of her and took it with her into the back room. The stranger turned and looked around the room. There were plenty of adventurers plastered to the windows, as though it would somehow make the rain stop. Others were sitting about twiddling their thumbs, some of them literally. There were two youngster adventurers eyeing the stranger from a distance. They were a boy and a girl, roughly 15 each. They looked like they wanted to ask the stranger something but were too nervous to do so, almost as though they were scared of him. There were footsteps behind him. He turned to see the guild girl walking back out with a bag of gold in her hands. She placed it on the counter in front of the stranger.

"And here you are." She said. The stranger reached out to grab it.

"Ah, thank you." He said, fitting the sack into his bag. The guild girl stood there awkwardly for a moment, drumming her fingers on the counter.

"Sooo, how did it go with the actual target?" she asked

"Irrelevant details aside, he was about exactly what you would expect." The stranger said.

"And what of his daughter?"

"Staying with the warrior girl still."

"Well, all's well and ends well I guess."

"I suppose so." The stranger said. He was about the turn away and leave, but then the guild girl leaned in and whispered,

"I have another case for you." The stranger stopped, and looked at her.

"What did you have in mind?" He asked.

"It's regarding the adventurers with the rather shiny armor. I'm sure you must have seen them around. They're both Ruby ranked, and they claim to be able to carry the newbies through easier quests, but it seems like more often than not, their employers don't make it back." The guild girl said.

"I think I see where this is going." The stranger said. "I'll be sure to start looking into it soon." The stranger started to leave again, but stopped himself. He looked at the guild girl and asked,

"Is there any particular way you want me to handle it?" She furrowed her brow and said,

"The guild would prefer if there wasn't any blood." The stranger nodded.

"Alright. That's all I needed to know." He turned and successfully managed to escape the desk. He made for the door, but the indecisive teenagers caught the corner of his eye. He stopped before the door and looked over at them. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow as they froze. He approached the teenagers and they looked up at him.

"You look like you've been trying to ask me something." He said. The pair looked at each other, then the boy swallowed.

"We- we heard that you took down that chimera. By yourself right?" he asked.

"That's right. What of it?" the stranger replied. The girl piped in.

"That was a four-person quest. How did you do it alone?" she asked.

"As unoriginal as it is, knowledge is indeed half the battle… or more. The rest is simply training and applying it." The stranger said in confidence. "I've been around and seen more than enough for several lifetimes. It all becomes second nature after a while." The teenagers were looking less nervous and more eager at this point, like they suddenly had an avalanche of questions to let loose. Before they could, the stranger managed to end the conversation and get going before he was trapped until morning. The stranger exited the guild and off into the still-pouring night.

Morning came the next day with the stranger having slept in for once. He rolled out of bed and started to get dressed. He looked around for his shirt while donning his pants, then remembered he never retrieved it from the seamstress. He put on just his coat and boots and exited his cabin with a new goal in his mind. On the path back to town, the stranger spotted the warrior girl and the necromantress going the other way, as though they were coming back from the same. The warrior girl waved the stranger down and he crossed the road to meet them.

"I see you're out and about now." He said.

"Yeah. It's weird though. As soon as I got better, my mother started to feel sick. We ran into town to get some medicine for her." The girl said.

"Odd. Was there anything strange about her sickness? Contracted from you maybe?" the stranger asked.

"I thought about it. I did cough quite a bit, but for the most part I was pretty isolated from her."

"Hm. Well I hope she gets better soon." The stranger said. He looked to the necromantress. She seemed cleaner and more rested than the day before, but still just as downtrodden. It was almost as though she felt guilty about something. "Is something wrong?" She shook her head.

"So many… people. So many eyes boring into me. It's like they… want something." The necromantress said while avoiding eye contact. The stranger pondered over it for a moment, then shrugged.

"Well, I have some errands to run in town. I'd say you're welcome to come, but… well, you know. Your mother…" He said.

"Yeah. Maybe I'll see you around though." The warrior girl said.

"Maybe. Take care." The stranger said. The three parted and went on their ways. A minute after breaking, the necromantress came jogging back to the stranger. He turned to her.

"Back so soon?" he said.

"I… I want to come with you." She said.

"Any particular reason why?"

"You…. You make me feel safe." She said, lightly blushing. The stranger raised an eyebrow, not sure of what to make of her statement.

"Very well." He said, and he nodded her in his same direction towards town. The two made idle chatter for some time. Then the stranger asked,

"So, have you thought of joining the Adventurer's Guild?" the necromantress remained silent for a moment.

"I don't want to be an Adventurer." She said.

"Why's that?" the stranger asked, intrigued.

"There's just so much death. Not only the monsters, but people too. That and… I don't want to lose more people I care about." She said. The stranger shrugged.

"I suppose that's fair enough. I won't twist your arm over it." He said.

"I don't want to fight. I want…" the necromantress started, "I want to help people."

"Have you considered joining the church to become a healer?"

"I don't want to join the church. Religion never made much sense to me." The stranger looked away.

"I'm not going to touch on religion. Bad things seem to happen to me whenever it's involved." The two continued their banter until they strolled into town. The first place they stopped at was the seamstress. The two happened upon the elderly woman, knitting away in her rocking chair. She looked up when she saw the pair approach.

"Ah, heavens dear, you had me worried." She said.

"My apologies. I meant to come back yesterday, my last quest turned out to be somewhat more complicated than I was expecting." The stranger replied.

"Careful now, any longer and I might have sold your shirt." The seamstress said. She smiled and winked at the stranger as she stood up from her chair. She entered her store and retrieved the stranger's henna-colored shirt from behind the counter. She brought it out into the sun and held it up to him.

"Here we are, good as new." She said.

"Excellent." The stranger said with elation. He took his shirt from the seamstress and folded it up. He placed it into his bag, and then retrieved an adequate amount of gold from its pouch. He gave it to the seamstress, who graciously accepted.

"Thank you dear. Do be sure to come by if there's anything else you need." She said. Then she looked from the stranger to the necromantress. "And who might you be?" The necromantress went to open her mouth to speak, but no words formed. She became flustered and turned away in a mixture of fear and embarrassment. "Is something wrong, dear?" she asked.

"She's my new travelling companion. I happened across her during my last quest… She's not much of a talker." The stranger replied. The seamstress sat back down in her chair.

"Oh well. Not everyone is skilled at socializing." She said.

"So it is. Take care now." The stranger said. They waved at each other and the pair left the scene. The two made for the market. On the way, the stranger said,

"You froze up."

"I didn't know what to say." She replied. The stranger thought on it for a moment.

"Thinking on it deeper, I don't blame you." He said. "Don't worry. We'll get you by" They stepped into the mouth of the marketplace and looked around. "Now, while we're here, is there anything you want to do or get?" The necromantress looked up and down their side of the market with an indecisive expression.

"Tell you what. Let me know if something catches your eye." The stranger said. The two of them started perusing the booths and every so often the stranger would stop to buy supplies, as well as cooking ingredients and produce. Surprisingly, the necromantress was more curious than cowardly. She didn't speak with anyone, but she did stray from the stranger's side. Some time passed, and the stranger had finished his shopping. He looked around, but didn't see the necromantress anywhere. There was a chord strike in his mind like a parent who had lost their child. He started looking up and down the market aisles. Mercifully, it didn't take the stranger long to find his companion. He found her ogling at an ice cream stand near the end of the market plaza. He approached her and said,

"Find something you like?" She pointed at the cart and said,

"What… is that?" The stranger looked at the cart, then back at the girl.

"I don't know. You should go ask." he said. The necromantress looked up at him with a worried expression. He reached into his pocket and fished out two copper coins. He offered them to her and she hesitated to take them. She closed her eyes and took a breath, then took the coins. The necromantress began to approach the cart. The man who owned the cart noticed her.

"Well hello there." He said, jovially. The necromantress froze up for a moment, then she kept proceeding to the cart. She stopped in front of it, then nervously looked at the man; his round, smiley, mustache-laden face unphased.

"Wh-What is… this?" The necromantress asked shyly, stumbling over her words.

"Oh, this?" the man started. He scooped out a lob of the frozen treat and plopped it on a small platter. "They call it 'iced cream.' I don't know who thought it up, but everyone seems to love it." The necromantress half pointed at it and said,

"M-May I… have… one?"

"Well certainly!" the man said. He produced a small wooden spoon from the cart and dug it into the ice cream and offered it to the necromantress. She took it and then deposited the copper coins into his hand. "Thank you, and you have a wonderful day!" the man said, and then turned to greet someone else. The necromantress rushed back to the stranger, holding her frozen treat as if it was going to grant her the answer to the mystery of the universe.

"See? That wasn't so bad." The stranger said, jokingly. The necromantress slowly lifted the spoon to her mouth and wrapped her lips around the bowl. As soon as she tasted it, her eyes lit up like someone who'd found a new purpose in life. She looked up at the stranger with an ecstatic smile. The stranger chuckled.

"It's amazing!" the necromantress said as she put another spoonful into her mouth. She started eating it quicker, and then the stranger said,

"You might want to slow down with that…" the necromantress froze in place, indicating the stranger's warning was a bit late. The necromantress grunted, and then held her head.

"Ugghh. My head… What's happening… to me?" she said as she struggled with her words. She trembled in the pain. She started to breathe heavily. But after a few seconds, the pain began to subside. She stood up and continued to rub her head. "What was that?" she asked.

"That is what happens when you eat or drink cold things too quickly." The stranger said with a smirk. The necromantress looked up at him with an expression of betrayal. The stranger patted her on top of her head and said, "You'll be fine. Now tell me, is there anything else you would like to do today?" The necromantress pondered in thought for a moment. Then she said,

"I want to see the Adventurer's Guild."