===

  Maplebrook’s Population: 1,000

  Maplebrook’s Population: 999

  ===

  The sun’s heat was strangely pleasant, and the screams of peasants stopped bringing me joy. It was somewhat bewildering, looking over a small-ish person—a teenager, I believe—hunched over a homeless looking old man. Her father, perhaps? I hadn’t meant to kill him, you see.

  I had seen a sign at a crossroads, Maplebrook, but the wood was so chipped I couldn’t tell which way to go. A little lost, I was quite chuffed to find a human pair working on a wooden cart. I guess they hadn’t noticed me approaching, because when I said, “Good day, mortals,” the old man just about tumbled over. “Careful now, don’t want to break anything valuable!” I jested, putting on the best smile I could manage.

  The old man wasn’t much for talk. He grabbed a shovel, said something to the effect of, “You won’t take her, foul spawn!” and thrust the thing at my chest.

  Well, it happened all so fast, I didn’t have time to warn the poor fellow that I was wearing a protection charm, as I usually did. The man was dead within a split-second of striking me. I didn’t feel a thing, but his body shriveled up like a prune and fell to the summer grass as stiff as a smoking log.

  “Whoops,” I muttered. I mean, what else was I to say? Normally when someone died, it was intentional, but this was the first time for me that it’d been a genuine accident.

  Anyway, there I stood; the sun hugging me with its warmth, and this lady teen crying over her father, or grandpa, or whatever. Really, all I could think was whoops.

  Crying and screaming was normally something that brought me elation, the same as how a chef appreciates a good burp every once in a while to confirm how effective the meal was. But this was the first time I felt genuine worry. I tried to place it. Was it because it had been an accident? Maybe there was something different about the kind of crying. Then I started to worry someone would hear. Oh, that’s what it was! I didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot, after all, I half expected the town wouldn’t be too pleased to see one of their senior folk turned into charcoal. Well, there was a quick way to fix anyone finding this.

  “Allow me,” I said.

  The girl stopped crying, and stared up at me with a wide-eyed glare.

  I cleared my throat and waved my hands, uttering words from one of my tried and true reanimation spells. Dust flew out of my satchel, the crushed remains of components being turned into magic. Mint green mist poured from my hands, and the space around us turned a tad bit darker, while the blackened-bacon of a man creaked.

  The girl backed away, which was good, I had forgotten to tell her to do so. Reanimated corpses often attacked the first living thing they could get their hands on out of some instinctive habit. Well, the body twitched, the arms snapped this way and that, and the legs bent to and fro. The spell was about done—when the girl screamed.

  “No!”

  That broke my concentration. The body ceased all movement, and the green mist dissipated. I looked at her with such a quizzical sense behind my eye sockets.

  The girl threw her body over the man’s corpse, and threw up a hand. “You can’t have him!” She declared.

  I hadn’t really acknowledged what she’d said; I was still stuck on what had just happened. How the ever-living-fresh-corpse had my spell been broken by this girl? A spell I’d cast probably a half-million times in my life. Was this. . . guilt? I shuddered to think about it. Why was I guilty? The guy was dead, all I was doing was moving him out of the way.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Still, I had a tinge of something in me that adhered to the girl’s objection. I suppose this had been an accident, and as far as accidents went, it was usually the guilty party’s responsibility to accommodate the afflicted. It was with this resolution that I bent down, which brought me to be a shoulder above the girl.

  “Very well, lady teen. Would you point me in the direction of Maplebrook? I seem to be lost.”

  She just scowled at me. A defiant gesture that I’d received countless times in my life and undeath, but none had stung as this one did. Hmm, something to ponder at a later time.

  Seeing as I wouldn’t be getting much from her, I stood and decided to take the left path that they had seemed to be heading. I was a few steps down the road, admiring a fine lace of spider webs in the oaks to my right, when I heard her scream again.

  “I’ll drekin’ kill you!”

  I twisted slowly.

  The girl had the shovel in her hands, and had assumed a hunched stance like she was going to charge, which would have been an incredibly stupid thing to do - considering how that’d just worked out for her adult companion.

  Seeing as I didn’t want another accidental death on my hands before I’d had a chance to greet the town, I flicked an arm in the air and summoned a snare spell. Ethereal chains broke from the earth and wrapped around her legs and arms. She fell to the dirt and thrashed about, perhaps thinking she might break free. She wouldn’t. Not even Gotrex the Vanquisher was able to break that spell, and he had wrestled a red dragon!

  It was somewhat perplexing, if not amusing, to see this little creature fight so hard to break free of what was clearly too powerful for her. I don’t know why, but I felt something else stir in me. Pity? Admiration? Couldn’t really say, but I had certainly had quite the roller coaster of emotions in a span of an hour. It was what she said next that really earned my curiosity.

  “Please, please. His soul. Please give it back,” she said, crying. “Take mine instead!”

  I took an involuntary step toward her. “You’d trade your soul for an old man?” I asked.

  “Yes! Yes! Please!” She begged.

  I sighed. I hadn’t taken the man’s soul, you see. However, her resolve was intriguing to me, if not a little cliche. Well, I had killed her papa or whatever, so it was only fair I obliged her request.

  “Look,” I said, having come up with a clever plan. “You take me to Maplebrook, and I promise I will make sure your . . . what is he?”

  “My uncle,” she said through a scratchy voice, her body splayed out in the dirt by the chains.

  “Ah, very well. Take me to Maplebrook, and I will make sure your uncle’s soul is free, and you can go on keeping your fragile little soul as well. How’s that sound?” Again, I didn’t have his soul, but the art of bargaining was withholding information, wasn’t it?

  She swallowed. The tears had stopped. “And the town? What are you going to do to it?”

  I shrugged. I hadn’t given it much thought, but a town like Maplebrook sounded like a quaint place if there ever was one. “I’ve been traveling for a long time. I’m just looking for a quiet place to rest for a little while.”

  After a moment, in which I somewhat feared she’d start sobbing again, she closed her eyes and said, “Ok, if you promise not to kill anyone and to let my uncle’s soul go.”

  Easy deal, I thought. I bowed my head. “You have my word.”

  “Ok, I’ll do it,” she said.

  “Splendid.” I snapped my fingers, and the chains faded away.

  She sat on her knees and rubbed her wrists. She looked at the dead body, I gathered because she wanted to bury it as that was a common practice of mortals. Great storage for us necromancers, but a royal pain to find when it was done in an unmarked grave.

  I came up with another great idea however. There was a wooden cart there, which seemed perfect for a horse to drive. Odd enough there wasn’t one, but I didn’t broach the subject. I instead clapped my hands, some sprite dust evaporated from my satchel, and the cart jolted forward.

  “Please carry us wherever this girl says,” I told the cart. It rolled in a lazy circle and faced the girl, who had backed away.

  “Don’t worry,” I said to her. “It won’t hurt you. Just a minor animation spell.”

  She stood, and lifted her uncle’s body—which was somewhat pathetic to watch. After an earnest try, I snapped my fingers, and the two of them floated into the cart. With that, I dusted off my robes and joined them.

  “Which way?” I smiled.

  She gulped, avoiding eye to eye-socket contact with me. “Uh, that way.” She pointed to the opposite path I had taken.

  “Splendid!” I said, quite thankful I’d found a way to get her to give me directions. And from there, the cart whisked us away. It was turning out to be quite the wonderful afternoon. Certainly no more accidental murder to be had . . .

  ===

  Jevrick’s Quest: Find Maplebrook

  Side Quest: Revive Random Uncle

  ===