Chapter 4Priests Don’t Say “Lame”!

  "Can't... Walk... Uphill..."

  Marrow had fallen to his knees halfway up the hill as he and Deney traveled to the Church of Seras. He looked like death – more so than normal.

  "Huh? Seriously?!"

  Deney turned around, a few paces ahead of Marrow, giving him an urged expression.

  "Come on, you're a Phantom, right? We're wasting precious time. Can't you do some sort of spooky spirit shenanigans instead of colpsing on the ground like a ragdoll??"

  Marrow responded with an annoyed grimace.

  "Phantoms were merely theorized amongst Necromancers. I'm not like a ghost. I have organs and bones and meat I've gotta carry around, just like you. Sure, I can phase parts of my body in and out, but that doesn't mean I can float!"

  Floating… That was an interesting thought…

  For a moment, Deney merely blinked at him.

  "...Are...you sure that you can't?"

  Marrow opened his mouth to protest, only to freeze in thought for a second.

  "...I mean, I've never tried to. I can't even imagine how one would go about trying to float... Do I just think about floating? Is that all it takes– OH MY GOD DELANEY–!"

  The half-dead necromancer was slowly rising above the ground, his grimace now an expression of amazement. At least, as much amazement as a partial corpse could have.

  Meanwhile, his companion couldn't help but ugh at Marrow for a moment, hands on her hips proudly.

  "Bravo, dark genius! Problem solved!"

  Quieting herself with a final giggle, Deney began to continue her ascent up the hill.

  "Now, come on. That church isn't going to investigate itself! I mean, if it did we'd probably have a lot less abusive priests..."

  "Ha."

  Marrow tried to realign himself in the air, pointing his body towards the top of the hill before...

  "Mmm... Wait!"

  Marrow spoke with a hint of desperation as he saw Deney scale the road.

  "I need you to push me."

  "...What?"

  Deney turned back around with exasperation, and for a moment the two merely locked eyes in a proverbial standoff. However, eventually Deney sighed and trudged back down to Marrow, rounding behind him. She raised her hands and positioned them at the Phantom's back, giving it a good heaving push.

  Only for her hands to sink unopposed into his frame as if it were mist.

  "Uh–"

  A chill ran up Deney's arms as she blinked at the bizarre union of their two bodies, her hands capable of moving freely within his incorporeal form.

  "... Huh... Well that's not going to work..."

  "Hey! Get your hands away from there!"

  Marrow tried to maneuver his hovering body away from Deney's hands. Just because she wasn't actually touching anything didn't make the whole experience any less weird.

  "I guess that expins why I’m floating... I wonder if I can..."

  Having successfully spun himself around as Deney took a step back, Marrow concentrated. After a moment, his right hand became corporeal, which he then used to grab Deney's own.

  "Alright, pull me up."

  After a brief moment, Deney sighed and shook her head, promptly tugging him up the hill.

  "I swear, you're like a toddler..."

  This little hand-holding adventure would soon lead the two near the top of the rge hill, where the previously mentioned obtrusive smell started to invade Deney and Marrow's senses.

  It was a very strange scent, and off-putting in a hard-to-pce way. The sort of faint thing that makes one almost more curious than they are disgusted.

  "Ugh, what is that? I feel like I've smelled it before..."

  Deney's nostrils fred in response, making her stop abruptly on the pteau where Noctithnain's Church of Seras sat.

  It was a truly grand building, as ornate and beautiful as it was intimidating. Every detail of the architecture was pristine, however something about it seemed odd.

  "Hey, Marrow... if the building was being remodeled, wouldn't there be construction all around it? Carpenters and tools and things..."

  "Well, it could be only an indoor renovation. Though that doesn't expin the ck of bodies,"

  Marrow corrected, his ghostly floating body slowly corporealizing as his feet touched the cobblestone path. He looked upon the church with faint disgust. It was a jeer at the design, but not because it looked bad.

  “Er… You mean… people, right? Like, living people?”

  Deney questioned awkwardly.

  "Anyway, you don't recognize that stench?”

  Marrow, however, completely ignored her concerns.

  “I figured it'd be as recognizable to a Necromancer as bread to a baker."

  "Hm? What do you mean?"

  Her curiosity piqued, Deney took in a deep sniff before Marrow could even answer her. Immediately, the scent rushed through her nose with much more crity, revealing something distinctly...putrid.

  And striking revetion in her mind.

  "No way... Corpses!?"

  "Long dead, too," nodded Marrow, dusting the tip of his nose with his thumb as he approached the building.

  "It looks like the church is keeping a bunch of dead bodies inside. Expins why they don't want anyone near it."

  As soon as she heard that, Deney rushed over to a window.

  "Keeping them inside? But why–"

  The ginger gasped sharply as soon as she could clearly peer through the gss. Inside the church, zily meandering about the pews in the main worship hall, were a couple dozen ghouls.

  Each wandering undead was dusted with dirt, as if freshly dug from the ground, packed so full into the room that they could merely jostle each other around aimlessly. Deney couldn't help but think that the moans and groans emitting from the creatures sounded a bit restless, or maybe even confused.

  "Do they… even understand that they're undead..?"

  It was then that she suddenly locked eyes with one of the ghouls. It sent a chill up her spine, freezing her to the spot. Although all of the unfortunate corpses within the church existed in varying states of decay, this one was particurly fresh. Their pale grey skin was mostly intact, although their eyes were dark and lifeless beneath a mop of bck hair.

  As Deney stared back at the ghoul their mouth opened and began to move...

  "Man... I wonder if you can resign from being a priest. I can't imagine it'd be easy, but it'd still have to be easier than cleaning up after these ghouls."

  Marrow was looking through another window, trying to make sense of the scene.

  "Your spell has gone much farther than we thought, and it doesn't seem to be waning in power. I wouldn't be surprised if you brought back every corpse in Eydís."

  "Every corpse... in the whole realm..."

  Deney shook her head, her messy ginger locks flying about as she snapped out of her trance. She then turned her attention to Marrow with arm.

  "You can't be serious... How is that possible?! No, what's more important is figuring out how to fix it. Even the Church of Seras seems to be struggling to contain them... What do you think they're pnning to do?"

  "Mass Exorcism? Hell, they might even resort to burning the whole church down and building a new one..."

  Marrow rapped on the wood of the building and watched as a golden glimmer rippled across the surface from the impact.

  "But for now... It looks like they've set up a warding barrier around the pce. Guess even holy men put things off."

  "Hey!"

  A voice called out from just near the top of the hill. Marrow and Deney both turned to see two men wearing stoles of gold and sage green, and golden pendants with emeralds, hurrying their way towards them.

  "Speaking of holy men..." Marrow uttered under his breath, fixing his hair and tattered clothes to look as not-undead as possible.

  "What are you guys doing here? Father Almenon said that the church is off-limits," said one of the men, wearing a stern expression behind bck spectacles. The other, blonde and fresh-faced, quietly leered at the two necromancers.

  "Oh, it–it is? Sorry! We had no idea!"

  Deney tried her best to look sincere, even offering a bright yet gullible smile. However there was still a bit of nervous wavering in her voice.

  "Come to think of it, I've actually never heard of one of the Churches being off-limits to worshippers before. Is...something wrong..?"

  "Yes, actually!"

  The second of the priests answered, stepping forward with a hopeful smile. His eyes shared the same forest green color as his companion’s, yet in contrast he appeared much more hopeful and much less experienced, clearly struggling to expin.

  "The church is currently under Maternal Construction, so nobody is allowed near it!

  “Internal Construction, Silfr…” corrected the other priest, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “Really? I thought the story we were supposed to tell involved reconstructing that dy statue inside.”

  “Story… you… Seras save me…”

  A serious grimace fell upon the priest’s face, drawing attention to a fresh scar on his cheek, and the shortness of his brown hair. He pointed to the window behind Deney.

  "Don't try to py dumb with us. We know you’ve already seen what's inside."

  He then gripped his pendant, shifting his pointed finger to target Deney.

  "For the safety of Noctithnain, we must detain you for forbidden knowledge."

  "All the things I've done to corpses, yet I'm getting detained for merely looking at them..."

  Marrow said this, mostly to himself, looking beside him at Deney in hopes that she had a pn in mind...

  "Hell, normally the Church is more coy about their corruption. Is this your first day or something?"

  Deney did not, in fact, have a pn.

  "She's got a point, Gullin. That was totally me,"

  The blonde, apparently named Silfr, regarded the other priest with a disappointed expression. The other priest, clearly Gullin, then returned the expression with his own somewhat agitated gaze.

  "Silfr, enough! Just who's side are you on?!"

  He snapped back.

  "And priests don't say things like 'me'!"

  "Word policing? Now that's me."

  Marrow smirked, though he subtly grabbed Deney's hand, tugging her gently with the intention to scoot away while the priests were distracted.

  "But... but we use 'me’ to describe people with limps that Father Almenon heals!"

  Silfr pointed his finger in Gullin's face as if he had just triumphed over great evil.

  Witnessing this strange debate, Deney was beginning to get the impression that these men may have been brothers.

  "That means that Priests do say 'me'!”

  The ginger stifled a ugh when Marrow's grasp suddenly caught her attention. Quietly, she attempted to inch away with her teacher and flee the scene.

  However, Gullin had begun to retort Silfr's remark when he noticed the movement of the two necromancers. Immediately he whipped his attention back to them, gsses fshing in the early noon sun.

  "Hey, stop! Just where do you think you're going!?"

  "Crap! Marrow, run!”

  Abandoning all hope of stealth, Deney attempted to sprint away and drag the Phantom along with her.

  "Ah! Oh, no you don't!"

  Silfr clutched his pendant in one hand and cast out his other, causing a bright, golden light to surround Deney and Marrow, halting them as they'd run into an invisible wall.

  "Fuckin–"

  Marrow cursed, dazed from the impact of being stopped so suddenly. He stuck a hand out, only to find that the golden glimmer which had encased the church now surrounded them.

  Deney, unfortunately, hit the barrier face first, stopping the ginger in her tracks with a surprisingly solid smack.

  "UGH–! C'mon, what the hell is this now..?"

  She pouted, rubbing the stinging spot upon her forehead.

  "Hey, I'm pretty sure kidnapping is illegal! Some holy men you are,"

  She whipped back around, bearing proverbial fangs at the two priests.

  Gullin seemed particurly bothered by this turn of events. In contrast to his brother's look of half-proud disbelief, he bore the face of a conflicted man attempting to stand his ground against a monster. Surprisingly, it only took Gullin a moment to steele himself into a more determined state.

  "Hold them there, Silfr. I... I'll go fetch Father Almenon. He'll deal with these pests!"

  As Gullin ran off back down the hill Silfr looked at his captives with a smug grin.

  "What? Never seen a Blessing of Seras before? Or maybe you've never seen one as cool as mine!"

  "A Blessing?" said Marrow, one eyebrow raised as he looked Silfr up and down.

  "Seras only knows why she'd bless someone like you."

  "What's that supposed to mean!?"

  Silfr stared down the teacher and student, trying to refrain from dispelling his barrier in order to throw hands with the catty skeleton man.

  "Wait,"

  Deney, who had been trying to stomp out their golden prison, suddenly stopped her efforts only to fix the priest with a skeptical look.

  "I thought Blessings were all about life and rebirth. What does a big, glittery cage have to do with that?! Don't scam us, Choir Boy, I'm not as dumb as I look! Wait– actually, I don't look dumb at all!"

  It seemed her rationality when angered left a bit to be desired...

  "Something's off,"

  Marrow added after his hair was blown rather dramatically by a gust of wind gracing the hilltop.

  "We're trapped in a barrier, yet the wind passes freely through it..."

  Silfr ughed at his realization, fixing Marrow with the look of a smug teacher's assistant. I'd say teacher, but Silfr had dropped out of school to join the Church of Seras.

  "Ha! Took you long enough! As you can see, my Blessing allows me to create a barrier that prevents anything with a soul from passing through it!"

  Awash with sudden revetion, as if sharing two halves of the same mind, the necromancers looked behind them at the Church of Ghouls.

  "Wait... anything with... Souls?"

  Deney questioned breathlessly.

  "A barrier?"

  Marrow voiced his own curiosity, raising an eyebrow. However, before either of them could eborate upon their statements – before Silfr could finish the arrogant statement he'd just opened his mouth to give – something banged against the church window loudly.

  No... Some things…

  It was the hands and fists of a horde of Ghouls. They were riled up, as if they knew that their imprisonment had been lightened. Or, somehow... as if they were children crying out for their mother.

  "You dispelled the church’s barrier to capture us?" asked Marrow, not liking the idea of being trapped amongst an army of undead.

  "I-I had to! You two are suspicious and shouldn't have been so close to the church!"

  Silfr argued with apparent arm.

  "And you think that's worse?!"

  Deney interrogated the terrified priest.

  "I've seen a ghoul rip a dude's ears off and munch on them like potato chips. Doesn't that sound a hell of a lot more concerning?!"

  "Aha!" cried Silfr. "You know about the undead! I knew you were suspicious!"

  Marrow would bang his head on the barrier in frustration.

  "Good job! You got us! Now let us go or the ghouls will get you!”

  Silfr looked to Deney and Marrow, then to the horde of undead cmoring at the window to get out.

  "I mean... the Church is pretty sturdy..."

  Crash!

  One of the windows suddenly broke and withering hands reached out, touching the fresh air for the first time in a while. The moans and groans of the ghouls are haunting, but not so much to Deney, whose ear was tuned to a specific voice amongst the swarm...

  "Mm.... Mm-r..."

  It was a distinct voice, softer and more direct than the chorus of the masses. Something eerily familiar... Deney was fixated on this voice, mesmerized.

  "Yeah, real sturdy. That's why a corpse can punch through the window. Just what do you think will happen if they..."

  Marrow's urgent voice was slowly tuned out, as was whatever he and Silfr were debating, as Deney's ears calibrated themselves to the chilling voice.

  "Mm... hr... M..."

  Those sounds... Was it possibly....forming words!? It was hard to completely comprehend the small voice among the other agitated undead, but the utterances it made definitely sounded more articute than moans and groans. But, then... Could Ghouls even speak?

  Questions chased each other in the ginger's mind. Marrow and Silfr's voices, rising in panic, began to encroach upon the cypher; yet Deney was still too enraptured to register their argument. She simply had to know... Just what was that word...

  "Mah... Hr... Mo–!"

  Deney suddenly gasped. It was as if someone had poured ice water directly down her spine. It was only then that she'd noticed a cold hand grabbing her wrist as she was yanked away from the church – from the words – and rushed down the hill.