Dawn spoke for the voi her head, “They cim they don’t mean us any harm. Maybe they really don’t sihey did let people go after all?”

  Niphru’s tail thrashed in agitation as he switched one of his orbs of foxfire bato an illusion to speak, “I don’t trust them; they broke into our bond somehow!”

  As she shook her head, Dawn replied, “I don’t like it either, but they did somehow stop the beast, a go of everyone else they stopped, including you.”

  The lead skeleton raised its hands, and their bond shifted again, the voice reappearing, “Again, I am sorry for the misuanding, but I could not allow my people to be harmed, and no one else’s minds were open enough for speech, even if I could stop them from ag.”

  Niphru simply tio gre at the creature as Dawn asked, “Why did you e here, then? If you had stayed away, we wouldn’t have noticed you; your whole group is eerily silent. And who are you anyway?”

  The answer didn’t do much to relieve Niphru’s worry, however, and Dawn shared it for the group to hear, “Apparently, they’ve been wandering for many months pletely lost in the forest and were attracted by the magic we were using, sihey feel the ges in maer than most. And apparently the one speaking says he gave up his name and just goes by the title of lich.”

  A moment ter, she added, “They’ve been trying to reach Arrival after their vilge was pletely ed by the wilderness. But that is weird. I haven’t heard about anything like that happening, and you’d think we would have heard something at the spire.”

  She then looked fused and remained silent. After she didn’t speak up again, Niphru tinued for her, repeating what the lich had said while intruding on their bond, “It seems they were under a different city than Arrival. They stayed behind after a war betweeies, and apparently lived on their own after it occurred.”

  He then listened as the skeleton’s voice tinued onward before resuming speaking, “After more years than they could t, their vilge was surrounded by the forest despite efforts to prevent it, and over the years, eventually everyone became undead. Then, eveheir vilge itself was ed by the forest, and they decided to try to reach civilization again.”

  After a moment of thought, Niphru added, “Maybe they are the reason so mas have been leaving the forest?”

  The being paused for a moment before remarking, “That is possible. We have to e a great deal of mana to remain… funal, since we are not alive and do not produce our own. Perhaps the redu in mana drove them to move? I hadn’t even sidered that before. If that is the case, then I must apologize, though I would have brought my people this way even if I knew.”

  Niphru repeated his words to the group before asking a question he had for a while noere y to find people after so long being fine on your own?”

  Almost immediately, the lich gave a response, “We may no longer have many of the needs of the living, but we still have our minds, and isotion wears on you over the decades. Without any of the living around, our numbers dwindled over the years as acts occurred, or people chose to move on. We desire pany, people to i with that we haven’t known for decades already. We’ve spent so long together that we don’t have much we don’t know and uand about one another, so our existence is b.”

  Dawn seemed to have gottehoughts in order, as she was the oo rey this message to the group, as well as trying to calm Niphru. Eventually, he accepted that they had to allow this at least for a while, though he was still quite unhappy about it.

  At this point, Morris warily asked a question of his own, “What is it that you hope to do once you find other people?”

  Hearing this, the leader projected a ugh befiving his response, “We simply wish to join another vilge, or at least be allowed to visit. We don’t mind w hard; it is nothio us. We merely wish for human tabsp; Hunting, farming, stru, various types of crafting; we have quite a few skills between us that rovide. Hunting is perhaps the biggest be. Most creatures don’t care about a bunch of bones; we have nothing to eat, you see, which lets us dispatch creatures more easily since we don’t seem to be either prey or predator.”

  They took a moment before tinuing, “Now that I think about it, directly joining a vilge might not be the best idea; we do require a lot of ambient mana. But we could easily set up our own pce a short way ihe forest.”

  Dawn reyed their words, and Morris houghtfully. A short time ter, he replied, “Well, I ’t speak for the vilge nearby, but I at least take you to speak with them wheurn, though most of you will o remain outside to avoid arming them too mubsp; Would it be too much to ask you to aid us in clearing out some of the mutated beasts nearby here before we return?”

  With little dey, the liodded a his acceptao the link. “That would be much appreciated. We have waited for many years; we wait a little longer. I notice you seem more like two groups. Trainees?” it asked.

  As the message was reyed, Morris remarked, “Yes, I am their designated mentor at our spire, and Narath here is Lisryn’s guardian. She is from the Church of flict, and rather important to them. The others are here to help with the issue of the high number of beasts in the surroundings of the nearby vilge, and to get a little bit of practice at the same time. We are here to make sure they don’t get overwhelmed.”

  The being simply nodded before stating, “We don’t mind joining in as guards. As you saw, I am capable of disabling just about anything we are likely to enter, and the others take dowures that are disabled. If you want, we even salvage any useful parts t to the vilge as a gift.”

  Morris agreed with the idea, with the request that they travel in front, since he did not trust them. At this, the lich ughed and remarked, “That is quite silly, I have already proven that you are no mate if I desired to harm you or your trainees. But if it makes you feel better, we do that. Just point out which dire you wish to travel and we will go ahead.”

  Niphru wasn’t happy with this response, but he had to admit the being had a point, having frozen not only the beast, but also both Morris and Narath with apparent ease. It was also pin to see that her of them were pleased with the message as Dawn reyed it to them, but after grumbling a bit, Morris pointed into the distance deeper into the forest, and the skeletons silently advanced, spreading out as they walked.

  As they had stated, they didn’t interfere with the ing fights much, allowing Niphru’s group to deal with the beasts, though they did step ihree of the rger creatures attacked at once, disabling two of them before they could join the first. Over the rest of the day, Morris rexed a bit, though Narath appeared to remain on edge.

  The several days proceeded simirly before Narath stated he was beginning to feel tired, and the group turned back to return to the vilge. The abundance of beasts was made clear by the fact that they still entered several on the way back, despite having hunted so many orip into the forest.

  Eventually, they made it back to the edge of the woods, and, after a rather tense discussion, Narath agreed to remain with the majority of the skeletohe woods to ensure no oacked them, while Morris would lead his group and the lito the vilge. Narath didn’t want to leave Lisryn, but eventually accepted that it was unlikely anything would happen on the short walk bato the vilge before they joined back up with Brigid.

  Shard