The dry grass crunched under my foot as I took another step. The loose rock clattered as they tumbled down the slope. My labored breath echoed through my own head. I would have been sweating, but the heat of the sun evaporated it instantly. This was miserable.

“Why is everything uphill!” I shouted.

“It's a mountain pass,” replied my father, “We will reach the other side soon. Then it will all be downhill. Once we reach the other side, we can go the rest of the way on horseback. Just put up with it, for now, this is the fastest way to the Free Cities.”

“Also, the only way that gets us across the border without drawing attention from the king's army. There has been some tension with the Free Cities lately, so they closed the normal crossings. No trade, no travelers,” my mother said, “Just keep climbing we will take a break when we reach the top.”

“Easy for you to say, I have to take two steps for every one of yours. These short little legs are terrible!”

“You said you did not want to be carried. Did you change your mind?” asked my father.

“No, I can do this myself… I can do this, one foot in front of the other.” I took a ragged breath. “When I regain my full power, the first thing I am doing is carve this mountain into dust.”

“Technically, a mountain is just a really big pile of dust.” Said Charly.

I took another heavy step up the rocky terrain. “The second thing I am going to do is bury Charly under the new mountain of dust.” Loose gravel crumbled under my feet as I slide three steps down the mountainside. Charly caught me, stopping me from tumbling further.

“I thought you were supposed to be the fearsome Undead Queen. Don’t tell me a little bit of physical work is too much for your noble sensibilities.” He replied with a teasing grin, suppressing his own heavy breathing. His sweating figure did not look any better than mine.

“Normally, I have time to refine a new body for a few months before I have to push it too far. I am not used to being this… weak.”

“If you do not get ahold of the book you were talking about, will you stay this weak forever?” Charly asked?

“No, in my experience, it takes about five years to regain my full power, if I have the help of rifts in the realm. I never tried doing it without a rift, but I would guess around twenty or twenty-five years of training would be enough,” I replied.

“You have started from scratch before? How many times have you died exactly?” Charly asked.

I stopped walking. I took a moment, counting on my fingers while mumbling to myself. “One, two… no that one was reset with that stupid time loop. Three, four… I probably shouldn’t count the times when I was stuck in that dreamscape… so seven.” I looked up at Charly. “I have died seven times in the past four hundred or so years.”

“You were so powerful, but you still died so many times. Seven times… which means… you have never spent much more than fifty years in each body. what will happen to Wren if you die again?”

“We are truly one person now. That will not change no matter how many times I die, so don’t worry about it. Honestly, all my deaths are not a bad thing. Some of them were even on purpose. After all, my potential increases after each of my revivals. It has allowed me to match beings with more than a thousand years of training in half the time.”

Charly grew quiet as we marched up the mountain. After a long time, I heard him whisper, “I won’t let you die again.”

I shook my head. It was never that simple.