It was evening when the two arrived at the village. The sun was setting in the distance.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Peak asked.

While they had been traveling together, Peak had been able to improve its soul sense greatly. The difference between a bug soul and a human soul was like night and day. Emmeth’s soul was massive in Peak’s view. The important part of improving the sense was increased range and precision. Peak could faintly sense the outline of Emmeth’s body and how it interacted with his soul. It wasn’t hard to notice something amiss when he suddenly stopped walking forwards,

Even if Peak hadn’t improved its soul sense, it would have been able to sense through vibrations Emmeth’s sudden stop.

“We’re here.” Emmeth said.

“We’re--” Peak began before being consumed by panic. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE’RE HERE!?”

“We have arrived at our first stop.” Emmeth stated.

“WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN!? PLEASE DON’T THROW ME AT… Actually, who killed you again?”

“...” Emmeth did not respond. 

“Well, that isn’t fucking ominous at all.” Peak said blandy. “I better get to writing my will, then. Dear Mom an--”

“Stop. You’re distracting me.” Emmeth 

“THEN EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE--”

Emmeth tightened his grip on Peak. “When I tell you to be silent, Peak, be silent.”

Peak wisely said nothing.

Now that Peak was no longer distracting him, Emmeth was free to observe the village without anyone interrupting his thoughts. The community was tight knit and had by working together had managed to make sure everyone in town was doing well. Most folks were willing to make small donations to each other here and there. Most of them had known each other for their entire lives.

The village had changed since the last time Emmeth had seen it when he came into town just last week. A few of the houses had been lit on fire and had long since burned down. Others had broken doors and windows, and a few had collapsed entirely. 

It had been a slaughter. Men and women both lied dead in the street. Blood that once wet the ground had long since dried. A dog that Emmeth remembered being very aptly named Biter (Winfred loved to tell the story of how he named the dog after it bit him minutes after it was born. After a few drinks, he would forget he had already told the story before.) was gnawing on the remains of Eadda, who had been one of the neighbors of Winfred.

Emmeth saw all this and more. He could see the souls of the dead, floating about. Their flames were dimming.

He recognized one. 

“Eadda?” He called out to it.

“...” The soul seemed to focus on Emmeth for a moment before continuing to drift aimlessly.

“... So is the no talking rule still in effect, or what?” Peak asked. 

“Do you not see them?” Emmeth asked Peak.

“... See what?” Peak questioned in response.

Emmeth didn’t say anything and began walking into the dead village.

“... Are you just gonna wa-- Oh… OH…” Peak said, finally able to notice the souls of the dead once they were within range of its own senses. They seemed… ethereal compared to the other souls the stone had seen. Peak supposed that probably came with being dead and not having a body.

Most of the souls ignored both Peak and Emmeth. Some would stare for a moment, but whatever made them do so didn’t compel them to do so for long. 

“Are we looking at dead people?” Peak asked. It was unable to see the bodies on the ground, but the stone could sense that they were… fading, Peak supposed. 

“Yes.” 

As the two wandered the dead village, Peak spotted something. It was light and it was true beauty. Where before Emmeth was the brightest Peak had ever seen, Peak could now see just what true life was. How could one compare a lantern to the sun? 

“Emmeth…” Peak began. “I think someone here is still alive.”

Emmeth stopped in place. “Where?” He asked.

“To your right, in a basement or cellar.” While Peak was unable to see most of the buildings as they were made of wood, he was fully capable of sensing the depressions in the earth where the foundation had been made as well as any underground structures. 

“Do you see the entrance?” Emmeth asked.

“No. I think it’s inside the house.”

“It’s not a house.” Emmeth said as he stepped through the broken doorway.

“Then what is it?”

“A general store.”

“Ah. I suppose that would explain the size of the cellar.” Peak said.

Emmeth took a glance at the front room. The store had been ransacked. Everything had either been taken or tossed to the floor. 

Walking into the backroom, Emmeth could see that it met a similar fate. Despite how much he searched the room, he was unable to find the way down to the basement.

“Are you certain that there’s a cellar beneath us?” 

“Oh ye of little faith, yeah, there’s a basement. Can’t find the entrance?”

“No.” 

“Alright. Let me see if there’s some kind of secret entrance I can sense using mystical powers or some shit.”

“... What?”

“Just shut up for a minute and let me figure shit out.”

Peak’s earth sense was able to detect the ground around them, but he couldn’t find an entrance on the outer edges of the cellar. Because of that, the rock assumed that the cellar entrance had to be inside the house. So, Peak began searching indents in the cellar floor that might hold stairs or a ladder.

The stone couldn’t find anything.

So, it decided to try magical mystical bullshit again. It seemed to work sometimes, and it had nothing to lose, other than time. Hell, if it managed to do things right, it could probably gain a new skill.

First, earth sense wasn’t helping. Soul sense was just showing Peak where the living person was. Vibration perception only worked on itself, same for mana perception.

Well, why couldn’t it get itself a mana sense? How about a vibration sense? Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

… Except the rock had no clue how it would go about doing that. It already did deep meditation shit which got it soul sense. The earth sense came from trying to form some deep and meaningful connections with the earth. There wasn’t really a pattern to follow there.

So, instead of trying to invent a new sense for itself, why couldn’t it gain mana perception through its earth sense? Not a bad idea. That would certainly make looking at rocks cooler. 

So, how to go about doing that? Simple. Peak was a rock. It had the ability to sense mana when it went through itself by feeling. It knew the feel of mana in rocks. Therefore, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out mana in any random bit of earth, right?

And, much to its happiness, it was right.

So, after looking through the rock in the ground, the stone was able to find…

Nothing.

Honestly, it wasn’t sure what it had been expecting. A secret entrance hidden on the outside of the store that would be triggered by some obscure codeword that would be noticeable with the power of magic sensing?

Yeah, tough luck.

But that didn’t mean Peak was out of options.

“I’ve got an idea.”

“Would you please elaborate?”

“Bring a pouch of dirt inside.”

Emmeth didn’t question Peak. He set the stone down, searched the store until he found an empty flask, walked outside, filled it with dirt, and came back in.

“What now?”

“Toss it everywhere on the floor in the backroom.”

“And what would that do?” Emmeth finally asked.

“I can sense earth. If some of it falls through cracks in a cellar door, I’ll be able to tell. 

Emmeth decided the idea seemed reasonable enough. He went about sprinkling the floor with dirt.

Sure enough, barely half a minute later, Peak sensed some dirt falling through a crack.

“There.” It called out to Emmeth.

Emmeth paused his actions and examined the floor. There didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary, but…

He grabbed a floorboard and ripped it off.

“...” Peak silently watched as Emmeth ripped apart the floor, opening the way to a staircase.

“If you could have just ripped up the floorboards, why did we even search for the entrance?”

“I would have preferred to enter more quietly and I wanted to see if your idea would work.”

“But couldn’t whoever is in the cellar hear you mucking about up here?”

“... I had not considered that.”

“Well, come on, let’s go in.”

Emmeth started walking down the stairs.

“... Hey, aren’t you forgetting something?” Peak said, left behind on the floor.

“I would prefer to keep this private.” Emmeth responded, continuing down.

“PRIVATE MY ASS!” Peak shouted after him.

Peak could see Emmeth’s soul as he wandered up to a slouched body and initiated a conversation.

“... Please don’t leave me here.”

[ ) ( ] [ ) ( ] [ ) ( ]

The cellar was meant for storage. 

“Hello… Thun.” Emmeth rasped. He wasn’t able to speak well. The holes poked in his chest had left holes in his lungs. Though the blood had hardened so no air would leak out, there was a lot of dried blood still there.

The slumped over man started. He raised his head to stare at Emmeth.

He let his head fall back down. 

“Come to haunt me to, eh?” Thun said, greatly slurring his words. “You’re not even my fault. I didn’t have… I couldn’t have saved you.”

Thun reached over to his side where he picked up a bottle. He tried to take a swig from it, but it was empty. He tossed it aside. “Need a drink. You need a drink?”

Emmeth stared silently at the drunken mess of a man.

“Ha! No drink here. Drank it all. Sat down here while everyone else…”

Thun didn’t finish the sentence, instead trying but failing to stand. 

Emmeth considered what he had said for a moment. Thun seemed to believe that he was a ghost, a dream, or some kind of hallucination. 

He decided to not fix that error. 

“Do you know…  anything… of Kyla?” 

“Ha. That’s just like you. Never liked to… Never liked small talk. All you buy are books. You’re never fun.”

“Thun… My wife…” 

“I didn’t… I don’t know. I didn’t see her.” Thun gave up on trying to stand and started crawling over to a shelf. “She’s probably dead too.”

“Do you know… who the… raiders are?”

“No. Why do you care?” Thun reached the shelf, where he pulled down a bottle. “You’re dead. Aren’t you-Just… Shut up.”

Emmeth looked around the cellar. It was filled with a number of more expensive goods. Thun had helped himself to the wine that he had hidden down here.

He walked over to Thun, who started giggling to himself. 

“It was so… So fast. Out of nowhere, like… Like a storm. People started screaming. I’m not a fighter, though. I had this hideaway. Enchanted door disguised as floorboards. Tried to get Mel to… She didn’t want to leave her husband behind.”

Thun tried to drink from the bottle but Emmeth crouched down to stop him. 

“I couldn’t… I couldn’t fight with… I just, I couldn’t! And they all died anyways, so it’s not like it mattered! It wouldn’t have mattered if I…”

Thun was sobbing.

Emmeth closed his eyes.

“I… I’m sorry.”

“I’m sure… you are.” Emmeth rasped. “But that… does not… matter.”

Thun didn’t respond. He had fallen unconscious. 

Emmeth abruptly stood up from his crouch. 

[ ) ( ] [ ) ( ] [ ) ( ]

Peak thought about what it had heard. Oh, and it had heard what they said. Towards the end, that is. Gaining vibration perception through earth wasn’t too hard. The walls of the cellar were The difficult part came when trying to detect sound and then translate it into words. The stone walls of the cellar served the purpose of detecting the vibrations and Peak was able to sort of sense when they were talking and their volume.

So yes, Peak heard them.

It just had no idea what the two were saying.

Emmeth climbed up the stairs.

“So, who’s the guy in the basement?” Peak asked.

“A coward.” Emmeth answered. “He hid away while everyone else died.”

“... I mean, everyone else is dead. It’s not so much cowardice as it is being smart.”

“No. Hiding away because you understand that fighting is futile is different from hiding away because you are terrified of dying.”

“What difference does it make here?”

“In one instance, the reason you won’t fight is because whether you do so or not would change nothing. In the other, you won’t truly consider fighting, no matter whether you stand a chance of winning. Thun hid here out of cowardice.”

“... So the guy’s name is Thun?”

Emmeth almost sighed, as Peak willfully ignored what he was saying. “Yes.”