After Emmeth answered Peak's questions on what happened, though his answers, as always, were not extremely informative, Emmeth picked Peak up again and ventured back outside.

Summing up everything he had heard, Peak said, “So, in the end, we were too late.” 

“We arrived when we needed to.” 

“But, everyone’s dead.”

“Yes.”

“... Say what now?”

“They never stood a chance. Even if we were here, how would we have changed anything? They have killed me once, and I doubt it would take much effort for them to do so again.”

“... Then why the hell were we following them? And who is ‘them’?”

“Raiders, of some sort. Experienced professionals.”

“Okay, then why were we following them?” 

“Vengeance.”

“AND HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET THAT!?”

“With allies.”

“And how are we supposed to get allies here!? Everyone’s already dead.” 

“Yes, they are.”

“So how are a bunch of dead people supposed to…”Peak trailed off as he put the pieces together. “Oh. Oh, you son of a bitch. You let them all die here, didn’t you?”

“Tell me, Peak, do you think I would have been able to catch up to them? Do you think I would have been able to save anyone? Th--”

“NO, BUT YOU COULD HAVE TRIED!”

“And I would have failed. The only reason Thun survived was because he hid away and had enchantments in place to hide his secret storeroom. If we arrived in time, I would have died again and our passage here would have been meaningless.”

“You planned to take advantage of the fact that everyone here would be dead so you could raise an army!”

“If everyone here was going to die no matter what I do, then why can’t I take advantage of it?”

“It’s… ” Peak couldn’t come up with a good argument.

“It would have been foolish to die for nothing.”

“You--” Peak felt rage boiling inside itself. The stone wished it had hands so it could shake Emmeth’s neck and smack some sense into him. “Then why-- Then what’s the point of all this?”

“I told you the purpose of this when we first met.” Emmeth stated. “I have told you it multiple times since then. Vengeance. Everything else no longer matters.”

“I…” Peak was at a loss for words. “I can’t… What the fuck is wrong you?”

Emmeth seriously considered the question. “My son died, my wife was kidnapped, I was killed, and almost everyone I once considered a friend has died. It’s been a difficult day.”

Peak didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Are you finished with your meaningless platitudes?”

“My what? Peak said, not recognizing the word. “Nevermind. Doesn’t matter.”

Emmeth looked around and the ruined village.

“Unless you can offer me a better way to achieve my goal, don’t criticize me for my choice.”

And so, Emmeth got to work.

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

The work that Emmeth got to was pretty simple. He dragged the bodies to a central location in the village. Emmeth also attempted to herd the spirits into the village’s center, but that was more challenging. He had to rely on Peak screaming and shouting at the spirits until they drifted away from the rock. 

“Do you actually have a plan for this?” Peak asked Emmeth. “I doubt you’ve ever raised the dead before. Shouldn’t you just, I don’t know, focus on one or two to begin with in order to figure out what you’re doing? Then they could help you drag the others into the center of the village. Just seems like it would be a bit faster.”

“Peak, how do you get a skill?” Emmeth asked the rock.

Peak, figuring this was leading into some lesson about how skills work, responded in the most accurate way that it could. “... I do a thing, and then a thing happens, and if I do it right, I get a skill.”

“Vague, but correct, for the most part; however, how do you get a skill when you don’t know what you’re doing?”

“... You rely on the power of cliche and tropes to guide you.”

Emmeth was confused by this but refrained from showing that. “... You rely on your instinct.”

“Honestly, not far apart, those things.”

“My instincts are leading me to gathering everyone together.”

“Oh, so you’re going to combine them together into a gigantic corpse monstrosity that shall make a mockery of the dead and then you’ll lead it to smash the raiders?”

“No.”

“I am both simultaneously disappointed and relieved.”

Emmeth continued to drag a corpse to the village’s center.

“... So, what are you actually going to do?”

“I’m going to incite them.”

“... I don’t get it.”

“You will.”

“Okay, but why won’t you just fucking tell me what the fuck you’re going to do in more words?” 

“Because your annoyance is the only entertainment I have.”

“... Fuck you.”

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

Once the bodies and spirits had all been gathered into one centralized location, Emmeth felt like things were right.

“What are you all doing?” Emmeth called out to the spirits, an attempt to provoke a discussion. He had always been good at convincing people in the village by speaking directly and confidently. However, today, things were different. These were not the same acquaintances he had spoken to prior. Some of them turned to look at him, but they stopped paying attention after a moment.

“What are you doing, dumbass?” Peak said.

“Be quiet.”

Peak thought it over, and decided to wait and see.

Emmeth looked out the crowd of spirits. They barely did anything. Just stared into nothingness.

He considered the problem. You cannot persuade anything that doesn’t pay attention. The only thing they had paid attention to was the annoying rock’s screeching. Screeching probably wouldn’t work on the spirits if he was to get them to return to their bodies.

But, there was something there. Maybe it was about intention? Peak had just been attempting to be annoying, to get beings to go away. Maybe if Emmeth…?

“Focus.” Emmeth ordered the spirits.

Where before, the souls were indifferent, they all turned their attention to Emmeth.

“Find your minds.” Emmeth continued. “Seek yourself.”

“That’s some real deep bullshit if I’ve ever--”

“Peak, I will throw you away if you continue with this.”

“Right, sorry.”

While Peak was distracting Emmeth, the souls had seemed to regain some of their definition.

“Do you remember who you are? Return to yourself. Wake up.” It was difficult, Emmeth found, to influence them. He had to put intent into every word. Add into it that Emmeth did not like speaking from the heart and it became truly tiring.

Luckily, it appeared that he wouldn’t have to use the new technique for long. The spirits each sought out a corpse and then they sank into the body.

For a long time, everything was still.

Then the first body began twitching.

Then the next.

And the next.

An arm reached out. A leg kicked. Heads pulled themselves up. 

Finally, all at once, they seemed to rise up. They stood before Emmeth, swaying in place, as though it was all they could do to stay standing.

Emmeth could feel some of them attempting to communicate with him, but their attempts were crude. There wasn’t much of a mind left in any of them, not like Emmeth. Or Peak. Emmeth wondered about Peak sometimes.

Their lack of a mind would not deter Emmeth. In fact, he hoped it would make this easier. 

“My friends and acquaintances,” Emmeth began, “we failed to defend our homes. We failed to defend those who we hold dear.” 

Emmeth could sense the anger and hatred radiating off of them at his words.

“We are not the lucky ones. We are not the survivors. We are not the ones who moved on.”

The revenant took his sword from his belt.

“We are those left behind. For those like us, there is only one thing left.”

Emmeth raised his sword into the air. 

“Vengeance.” 

From the crowd, the feelings of hatred and anger rose. Dead eyes filled once more with emotion. Many stopped swaying, standing more firmly on the ground once more. 

“Vengeance.” Emmeth repeated. “For our farms. For our homes. For our village. For our friends. For our loved ones, alive and dead. They have taken it all away from us, not just for now, but forever. We will never get back what we have lost.”

“But we can bring them down with us.”

Emmeth paused for dramatic effect. The tension in the air was palpable.

“So, my friends. I ask you all to come with me. Join me, as we bring ruin to those that ruined us. For every loved one you lost, make them pay with blood.”

Now that Emmeth was done feeding their bloodlust, he turned around and started walking away.

“Follow.”

Follow they did. Some stumbling, some surefooted, they trailed after Emmeth.

Slowly. 

At their speed, it was less of a walk and more of a saunter.

Nothing was ever that easy, Emmeth thought to himself.

“Well, damn.” Peak said, now that it was sure that Emmeth’s “performance” was finished. “Nice speech and everything, but how are we going to use these guys? They don’t seem very strong or fast. Doubt any of them could wield a weapon with any kind of accuracy.”

“I had hoped they’d be more lively.” Emmeth confessed, missing the joke he accidentally made. He was more mobile than the rest of the dead. “My hope was misplaced. They can serve as meatshields.”

“... Of course they will.” Peak said, mildly disappointed. “So, we have a band of meatshields. Now what?”

“We need to train and grow stronger.”

“Great, great. I’m glad we had this talk… It’s like talking to a wall! How the fuck do we that?”

“...” Emmeth seriously considered the question. “I know what I need to do, but I think you need to discover how to be useful.”

“... Thanks for reminding me of how useless I am. I’m working on it.”

“Are you though?” Emmeth said. “Can you affect the world, or are you only able to look around and talk to me?”

“I said, I’m working on it.” Peak was lying. It had no idea what it was doing. It was pretty difficult to figure out how to do anything when you’re literally a rock. Alas, such was the fate of beings that had no fucking arms. 

“How are you working on it?” Emmeth asked.

“I’m, uh, just doing the things. The rocky things. Trying to, uh, make some rocks… do some moving. Yeah, that. Yep.”

Emmeth considered how likely it was that Peak was telling the truth. It was easy to discern that he was not. However…

“You should continue to work on that. It sounds like it might be useful.”

“Really? Okay, sure, I’ll continue doing that.”

Peak thought about it before mentally facepalming.

I’m a rock. Peak began to internally rant to itself. I can sort of feel things through the earth. Why the fuck didn’t I try moving it around? How fucking dumb do you have to be to miss something that fucking obvious? Guess an instinct of… What’s my instinct at, anyways?

Peak pulled up its status.

 

Ah. Peak thought to itself. I’ve improved so much. Wow. And yet…

I’m still a massive dumbass. Why the hell am I allowing myself to be dragged along on this psycho undead’s quest for vengeance?

Oh, yeah, right.

THERE ISN’T ANYONE ELSE AROUND HERE THAT WOULD CARRY ME.

Peak’s monologue quickly turned into nothing but swearing and screaming about how its luck was the worst. 

And so, the rock did not notice when the band had entered the forest.